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xVi 


Grafting (7 illustrations) . . 406, 407 
Waterside Vegetation. . . . . . 413 
Bird, Bramble, and Butterfly . . . 413 
English Palace and Gardens. . . . 413 
Suspended Window Basket. . . . 416 


Convolvulus . . . 417 
Lackey Moth, Transformations of. | 418 
Tris germanica . . : . 419 
Big-Barked 'l'ree, the’ wa.” oan eo Sere 
Tree Guard . . - « 422 
Vincennes, Plan of the Park of . . 426 
Vincennes, Lake View in the Park of 427 
Pagoda Fig, the .. . - » 485 
Gardening, a German School of - . 439 
Solanum robustum. . . . 442 
Geneva, Lake of, and surrounding 
Mountains. . . . « 448 
Flower Basket for Vestibule wee 4G 
Walnut Grafting . . . re 446 
Tropics, a Garden inthe . .. . AAT 
Flower Beds, Succulent. . . . . 455 
Water Dock, the Great . . . 457 
Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina “hepa. 
tica). . oP PGO8: 
Himalayan Mountain Scener 1 te) 
Seaforthia elegans. . . . . . . 461 
Alpine Mower! eee Grd. 463 
Mrollis, a novel, .° Y Wl 0.8. Y 466 
Kemp’s Grape Rail . . 467 
Grafting to increase the size of the 
Pearand Peach. ... . . 467 
Pots under Dinner-Tables . . . . 470 
Orchid Houses, section of . . . . 475 
Peach Tree, Young Pyramidal. . . 475 
fron Roof Support . . 475 


Glass and Iron Coping to Fruit Wall 476 
Coping converted into a Fruit House 476 


Expanding Fruit House. . . . . 477 
Water Lily,the .. . . 478 
Hardy Palm (Chamzerops excelea) . 479 
Sidney Seed Sower, the. . . . . 481 
Garden Trowel. . eet Ghee) 
Mroolsioude *s 2 5 2 & eS 4g 
Gomuti Palm, the. . » . 483 
Occidental Plane, Leaf of the’ . . 486 
Old Chestnut on Mount Etma . . . 487 
Alpine Plants on Level Ground . . 497 


Rockwork against a House at York . 497 
Properly formed Rockwork. . . . 497 
Fernlacommunis . . .. . . . 500 
Lontar Palm, the... . = © OOL 
Crateegus cordaia, Leaves ae . . 504 
Tree Grafting—a Sketch from Nature 505 
Strichnos Tree, with Orchids on it . 509 


SomMERLEYTON GARDENS :— 


The Hall . . - » 489 
Entrance to Winter Garden . . 490 
Corridor in Winter Garden . 510 
Statue at end of Corridor . 511 
Palm Stove Entrance . 512 
Cypripedium candidum . 517 


Stakes (2 illustrations of) for Car. 


nations and Picotees . . 


Pinang, or Betel-nut Palm . 521 
CENTRAL Park, New York :— 
Terrace, with fountain 524 
Drinking Fountain . 525 
Bridge over Lake 525 
Native Oaks . , 54 
Vinery, the * O44 
Summer-house, the . By 
Rustic Bridge 545 
English Sparrow house 545 
View of portion of Lake . 639 
Armlet of Lake . . 639 
View in Ramble . . 640 
Outeropping Rocks . - 640 
Kew, Palm House and Temperate 
Houseat . . Rae a! Saree De 
Apple Maggot at work ? . 528 
Apple Grub (in its several stages) . 529 
Wilhelma, Chateau and Grounds of 530 
Castor-oil plant. 541 
Kew, view and sections of the great 
Palm House at . elves 2 B49 
Oriental Plane, Leaf of the . 530 
Mount Epecumpr :—- 
View from the Sea . 552 
The Mansion 553 
View in the Gardens 554 
Vase Decorated with Grasses . 556 
Aralia canescens . . 561 
Lattice-leaf Plant, the 565 
Philadelphia Cemeter y 569 
Caucasian Plane, Leaf and Twig of 
the 572 
Grafting with a Based Br anch 575 
Plant Bracket . Ale . 581 
Gourds . : . 584 
Camellia, Out of door 584, 
Caladium esculentum . 585 
Maple-Leaved Plane, Leaf of the. 588 
Spanish Plane, Leaf ofthe . . 588 
Pincian Hill Gardens, Rome 589 
Apple Worm Trap. . . 592 
Possingworth, Terrace Garden. at. 593 
Grafting (3 Illustrations of) 595 


Ovrange-Milk Mushroom °. : 
Rock. gardens, right and w bao 3 
Bocco>‘« cordata 

Bambusa aurea . 


Ivy, Railings densely Cov rered w with 


Ivy in Suspended Basket 

Ivy Sereen for Drawing-room . 
Water Lily, the Yellow . 
Diospyros . Kaki ‘ 

Fruit Tree Trained to W: all. 
Highclere Castle 


mp 


0 


Fontainebleau, Geometrical Flower 


Gardens at. 


Wedge-Leaved Plane, Leaf of the. 


Oak of Lebanon Acorns . 

St. George’s Mushroom . 
Chinese Rice-paper Plant 
Galleries, Bark-boring Insect . 
Scolytus destructor 


6 
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61 
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. 61 


‘61 


Dinner-Table Centre-piece for Flowers 631 
Magnolia Holly, Life-sized Leaf of . 
Various Leaved Plane, Twig of the . 
. . 6384 
G42, 635 
. G1 
. 652 
River-bank Scenery in Madagascar . 655 
Kew, the Great Temperate House at 659 
Garden Plough and General Culti- 


Borghesi Gardens, Rome. 
Grafting (4 illustrations of) 
Asplenium Nidus-avis. 
Buphthalmum speciosum 


vator . 
Pruning-Chisel . 


633 
634 


. 661 
661 


Picea amabilis in the Yosemite Valley 663 


Grafting Rhododendrons 
Crown Grafting. 

Veneering with Strips 
Artificial Lake . is 

Aloe, Variegated American . 
Trentham, Gardens at 
Goniophlebium subauriculatum 


Brooklyn, Plan of bie Park . 


Morina longif olia 
Canna, a Flowering 


Fern Dell in Mr. Smee’s Garden “y 
Rustic Bridge in Mr. Smee’s Garden 


Orchids in Mr. Smee’s Garden 
“* Poor Man’s House ” 

Aston Lower Grounds 
Cyclamen persicum 

Spatlam (Lewisia rediviy: a). 


Lavender, the Broad-leaved Sea . 


Warwick Castle and the Flower 


. 675 


690 


. GOL 
- 691 
. 695 
. 692 
. TOL 
. 702 


Garden . 4 . 705, 707 
Maranta as a Vase Plant * £0) peghOD 
Crown-grafting by Inlaying . . 713 

~ 


»ekwork in London Public Garden. 3 
ockwork in Villa at Hammersmith. 3 
Rock-garden on Margin of ea 3 
Pansy on Dry Brick-wall 3 
Dipsacus laciniatus 6 
Bog Garden . STARR. dae ly core are 
Yellow Pine (Pinus ponderosa) . 11 
Anthurium Scherzeriannm. . . . 14 
Berberis nepalensis . . . . . . 14 
Drynaria . . aaNet ood Bes were a Villy 
Cordyline indivisa pp ener a) oo) ale) 
Islands above Falls of Niagara elo 
True Mushroom, section ci IG 
Margin of Loch Achray. . . . . 25 
Flower-pots for Berane Plants . . 27 
Pelargonium. . og Be 
(Pampas Grass . . ..... . 28 
Buckland, Planof. . . cB) 
Herbaceous Vegetation in Siberia - 33 
Lypneon Saeel 5 5 6 6 oo as oo BS 
Boletusedulis . . . og BO 
Chestnut Tree on Mount Etna. . 37 
Floral Arch for Dinner-table . . . 40 
True Shallot. . . oot h achil 
Common Shallot . ... .. ~. 4 
Roof Conservatory. . .... . 43 
Terrace Garden. . .... . =. 46 
Thames Embankment .... . 47 
Melianthus major . ooo oe oe HO) 
“ Agave telegraphica ” c a6. on Sl 
Rustic Bridge without Nateneen 52 
Grizzly Giant in the Mariposa Grove 55 
FernsonTreestump. ... . . 58 
Sarracenia flava... .. . . 59 
SimplenDrellist sues aes) ee GO 
Double Trellis . . > oo lb 
Trumpet-shaped Glass Vase erate lO 
Vase with Vallotaand Ferns . . . 62 
Vase with Orchid Flowers and Ferns 62 
Vases, Bad Forms of. . a « (84 
Bambusa (Arundinaria) falcata . . 69 
Musa Ensete. . 1 78 
; Sequoia (Wellingtonia) gigantea . 3 HY 
Berry Hill, Kitchen Gardenat. . . 81 
Movable Fountain 1G) 6) 5 4 6 4 SY 
Statue in Leicester Square . . . 84 
Margin of a London Square . . . 84 
Centre of a London Square . . . 85 
Plan of Small Square. . . . . . 85 
Christmas Vase. . . . ... . 93 
_Ailantus and Cannas. . . 93 
Dell, with Tree-Ferns and “Stove 
Plants SMpuate o o OB 
Mole Cricket (8 illustrations) : 97 


Cypresses Planted by Michael-Angelo 101 _ 


Garden Sculpture Screen - 104 
Beurré Luizet . . on oo 6 IOs 
Golden Square, Bedin . . . . . 108 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields . . . . . . 108 
' roperly Arranged Square. . . 108 
addle Boiler, New Mode of Setting . 110 
Dhagroneniinng mandschuricus. . 117 
Wigandia macrophylla . ZO) 
Cedrus Deodara_ . oo) ao ape al 
Gardens at Oak Lodge . 125 


Pine-Apple (variegated) ee. <199 
Statue-Fountain at Colmar. . . . 1382 


Fountain in Place Louyois.. . . 132 
Prize Garden at Rochester Castle. . 141 
Lake and Plantation at ne ae Hill . 144 
Blechnum braziliense. . . . 145 
Pear Treesin Y Form ... . . 148 
Upright PearTree. . 5 on. 9 Je 
Peach Tree in Double U form en Ls 
Yucca filamentosa. . . oo an 1 
Yucca filamentosa variegata 152 
Californian Quail . . Sg oe eos dlfats) 
Labels (6 illustrations) . Aiton omnes Lol) 
Sécateur . . 15 

Montague House (plan of gardens fat) 163 
Cockchafer (5 illustrations). . . . 165 
Pitcher Plant. so AGH 
Conservatory, Mr. Bessemer’'s. . . 170 
Doum Palm of Egypt. . . so Ve) 
Gardeners’ Lodge at Wimbledon. . 175 
Scaly Mushroom So alg 
Conservatory in Natural ‘style. oo Ife 
Conservatory, Ground Plan of . . 184 
Palm Avenue at Rio Janeiro . 187 


‘Brazilian Orestes eee OL: 


Weeping Sophora. . . . 194 
Broome’s (Samuel) Monument . 198 
Room with Plants . . 198 


Reo 5 4 s 2 ec a 199 


Pruning Saw. . . 200 
French Pruning- Knife (serpette) . . 200 
English Praning- Knife A a 5 ZOO 
English Budding-knife 3 A a PADI 
French Budding-knife (orefoir) . . 201 
Grafting Knife. . . . 201 
Grafting Chisel and Mallet . bo te OL 
Grafting Gouge. . . .. . . . 201 
Combined Grafter. . ... . . 201 
Metro-Greffe. . . 5 6 AOE 
Beurré de P Assomption (pear) . 205 
Clapp’s Favourite (pear) . . . 205 


Fruit Trees along a Belgian Railway 206 
Railway Embankments and Fruit 


Trees > - 206 
Mushrooms evowing ina Tub . . 207 
Fontainebleau, Cropped Trees at. . 210 


Buckingham Palace from St. James’s 


Pankie Bi ey, ML elect Bits SAT HL 
(Reed Maer i-1s ye kr-ah ie) eee, ee ES 
Bur Reed. . oe fo lg} 


Trunk of Yellow Pine packed with 
Acorns by Woodpecker. . 214 
Versailles . . . ao 9 0 CAS 
Wine Palm of India . 218 
Tank for Liquid Manure . - ., 220 
Back Gardens astheyare . . . . 223 
Back Gardens as they ought to be . 223 
Unearthed Rocks in a Sussex Garden 225 
Fruit Tree, Re-grafted pyramidal . 277 
Botanic Gardens, Beer sPark . . 235 


Yucca pendula. . 8 3 9 0 2b 
White Lily nes . 239 
Baobab Tree. . ..... . « 241 
Ont-Cropping Rocks . . . . . 246 
Judiciously-Covered, Rockwork . 24/7 


Cavern (Rockwork) .... . . 247 


Passage in Rock-garden . . 247 
Warm Frame for Gardens . . 255 
Simply heated Plant Case . . 255 


Elephant’s Foot Plant . 258 
Vanilla in large Plant Stove . 259 
Mixed border of Hardy Mowers. . 262 
Tree Cacti in New Mexico . . 263 
Haffield House, Ledbury . . . 267 
Peach Tree under Wooden Coping . 267 
Fountain (ornamental) . . 270 
Giant Puff Ball . 2738 
Propagating House . 275 
Tobacco plant (Nicotiana virginica) . 277 
Nepal Rhubarb (Rheum wie . 280 
Guiana, River-scene in : . 281 
Chameedorea elegans . 0 . 283 
Versailles, Basin of Neptune : . 284 
Versailles, the Colonnade Fe . 285 
Pine-boring Beetle and Grub . . . 287 
Conservatory, Cool, in Natural Style 289 
Permanent and Temporary coping . 297 
Protected Peach wall. . . . 297 
Coping for young Peach Trees . 297 
Fruit Garden in North Germany. . 298 
Copings for walls oO) 1b . 298 
Tree Ferns in Hast Indies . 299 
Acanthus latifolius . 303 
Picea pinsapo . . 806 
Yosemite Valley . . . 807 
Versailles : Barone of the Little 
Trianon. 2 . 310 
Dwart Fan Palm : . dll 
Draczenas in Window-box . 313 
Room, with Growing Plants. . dl4 
Veneer-Grafting by Approach. . 316 
Approach-Grafting by Inlaying . 316 


English Method of Approach-Grafting 


316 


Approach- Grafting by Tnanohing'¢ . 817 
Inarching with a Branch ; . 317 
Dyehouse Cherry . . 321 
Colocasia odorata . . 323 
Creeping Myrtle . 324 
Cow Parsnip. . . 326 
Victoria Park, Plan of . 328 
Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macro- 

carpa) ; ~ @) enool: 
Fairy-Ring Champignon . > =. « ooh 
Grafting (2 illustrations of) . . . 335 
Traveller’s Tree in Madagascar . 338 
Farmhouse Garden at Henley . . 345 
Pruning and Training —Good and Bad 

(11 illustrations of) 347, 348 
Shrobland, Views of . 350, 351 
Indian Forest,an. .... . . 355 
Plant Cases . . : 359, 360 
Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica) - 371 
Rhus glabra laciniata . 5g) oct 
Kew Gardens, Plan of . 378 
Rockwork at Kew . . 379 
Fairy-Ring Champignon. . > 8} 
Grafting (4 illustrations pe 386, 387 
Arundo Donax o o Sei 
New Ornamental Peach . . 393 
Monstera deliciosa . . 394 
Theophrasta. . . ° . 895 
Mammillaria elephantidens . . 396 
Dragon Tree (Draczena eee . 399 
Courcelles, Planof . . 401 
Winter Garden at Edinburgh . . 403 
Abnormal Potato... . . , 404 


XIV 


INDEX. 


Watercress, 612, 688; caution to eaters 
of, 430 

Water lily, the, 478 ; American sweet, 5 

Watering, roads, 109; streets, new mode 
of, 329 

Weasel, the gardener’s friend, 670 

Weather, buds, and birds, 445 

Weeds, how to fight the, 207; in Louisi- 
ana, 156; on walks, 650; how to 
destroy, 88, 598 

Weeper, Maréchal Niel rose as, 442 

Weeping trees, 194 

Weeping willow, 371 

Welbeck, truffle culture at, 405 

Wellingtonia, see Sequoia, 75 

Wet, working in the, 63 

White lilacs, 325 

White lily, 239, 276 

“Why,” the, in vegetable cookery, 
485 


Wigandia disease, 457 

Wigandia caracasana, see W. macrophylla, 
120 

Wild flowers, an offering of to THE 
Garven, 376; for gardens, 279 ; green, 
653 

Wild fruit garden, 384. 

Wild garden, the, 6, 48, 96, 377, 653 


Wilhelma, architecture and foliage at, 
530 

Willow, the, as a timber tree, 52; weep- 
ing, 370 

Willows, bitter, as a game covert, 136 

Window gardening, 710 

Window plant, a charming, 523 

Window plants, Draczenas as, 313 

Window roses, 581 

Windows, culture of plants in, 83; in- 
structions for the growth of bulbs in, 
83 

Winter, alpine plants green in, 305; 
bramble leaves in, 582 

Winter-blooming Begonias, 462 

Wiater flowers, 699 ; heliotropes as, 305 

Winter garden, a Russian, 50; for London, 
249, 309; in Rome, 109 

Winter radishes, white, 197 

Wire fencing, choice apples on, 414 

Wire trellises, finest pears for, 147 

Wiring fruit walls, 149 

Wireworms, 98, 244. 

Woodpecker, provident, 214 

Woods alive, 221 

Working in the heat, 693; in the wet, 63 

Worm, apple, trap for, 592 

Worms, 526; on lawns, 255, 442 


Wreaths, natural, for ladies hair, 222 


y. 


YELLOW PINE, the, 10, 99 

Yellow wallflowers, 701 

Yellow water lily, 608 

Yew berries not poisonous, 488 

Yew tree, an old, 618; in Bavaria, 333; 
remarkable, 436, 573, 611, 633 

Yew tree clippings, poisoning by, 407 

Yews, golden, 531; old, 129 

Yorkshire moorlands, planting in, 436 

Yosemite Valley, the—a noble national 
park, 306 

Yucca aloifolia, 121; angustifolia, 152; 
eanaliculata, 152; filamentosa, 152 ; 
flaccida, 161; glaucescens, 161 ; 
gloriosa, 161; pendula, 288 ; rupicola, 
161; Treculeana, 42, 161; recurya as 
a town plant, 442 

Yuceas, 95, 121, 152, 161 


Z. 


ZONAL PELARGONIUMS, 74 


INDEX. 


Xil 


Suckers, fruit tree, 439 . | 

Sumach, fern, 375 | 

Sun spots and the vine crop, 571 | 

Sunflower, the giant, 151, 702 

Sulphur, soluble, 244; ditto, and Gis- | 
hurst Compound, 225 | 

Sweet chestnut, 36 | 

Sweet peas, 239, 303; prolific, 162;trans- | 
planting, 204 

Swimming baths for London, 186 | 

Sydney Botanic Gardens, Norfolk Island | 
pine in, 710 

Syrups, sham fruit, 469 

Tabernsemontana coronaria fl. pl. 59 

Table decoration, grasses for, 556; palms 
for, 396 ; teachings in, 582 | 

Tacsonia Van Volxemi, 462 

Tan, 437 

‘Tea culture in the United States, 564: 

Teaching, January’s—tfruit trees, 521; in 
table decoration, 582 

Temple Garden planting, the, 341 

Temple Garden elm, 271 

Tenancy, moying vines at expiration of, 
342 : 

Terrace garden, the, 46 

Terraces, trees in tubs for, 49 

Testudinaria elephantipes, 258 | 

Texas, bearded trees of, 571 

Thames Embankment, 47, 177, 492 ; 
damaging trees on, 271, 380; lamp 
standards on, 341 

Theophrastas, 394 

Thinning fruits, 476, 586, 682 

Thinning the shoots of potatoes, 591 

Thomery wire-strainer, 638 

Thorn, Paul’s scarlet, for forcing, 462 

Thorns, blighted, 466 

Thyme, lemon, golden edged, 95 

Tillandsia usneoides, 571 

Timber forests of the Andaman Islands, 
354 

Timbers, durability of framed, 713 

Times, a sign of the, 651 

Tinnzea zethiopica, 42 

Tinned fruits and vegetables, 79 

_ Titmouse, long-tailed, 136 

Tobacco in the flower garden, 277 

Tobacco smoke, 657 

Tomato, the, 16; currant, 383; culture 
of, 591; in Southern California, 208; 
pot culture of, 111; preserving, 60; 
salad, 485 

Tomatoes, 591; early, 208 

Tool-house, the, 482 

Tools, how to keep in proper order, 469 

Tooting, new park at, 342 

Torenia asiatica, 166 

Town flowers’ petition, 442 

Town gardens, how to keep cats out of, 
114 

Town plant, Yucca recurva as, 442 

Town trees, 114; poplars as, 195 

Towns, plant life in, 113; seaside, trees 
for, 170; smoke in our great, 708; 
trees for, 154 

Tulipa oculis-solis (var. persica), 703 

Tulip tree, 531, 588, 633 

Turnip fly, a good precaution against, 58 

Two Paths, the, 3 

Tyerman, Mr., presentation to, 430 

Tradescantia discolor, 60 

Training of hothouse climbers, 637 

Transmitting seeds and cuttings, 161 

Traveller’s Tree of Madagascar, the, 337 

Travelling, two ways of, 302 

Trees, gigantic, 155; cherry, Dyehonse, 
321; dragon, 399; extraordinary root 
of, 170; moving, with nests, 333; 
silver bell, or snowdrop, 392; the big 
barked, 421; the cow, 306; tulip, 
fine, 588; wall, protection, 176, 268 


Trees, yew, remarkable, 40, 195, 436, 
573; at Combe Abbey, 559; Australian, 
acclimatization of, 20; bad dentists, 
430; bearded, of Texas, 571; “ car- 
peting ’’? ground beneath, 72 ; cedar, 
a tale about, 195; coniferous in 
Connemara, 571; cropped, and archi- 
tectural lines, 210; damage done by, 
666 ; deciduous evergreen, 99 ; disabled 
peach and nectarine, 683; exceptionally 
fertile, 638 ; famous, 465; fine, out of 
place, 638 ; forest, culture of, 53 ; forest, 
replanting, 221; girdling, to produce 
fruitfulness, 611 ; hardy, in subtropical 
garden, 93; large, transplanting in 
Paris, 2; lopping, 357; make them 
branch low, 149; newly planted, 
prunings of, 437; Nile, bye notes on, 
172; orange, 585; planting, 10, 54; 
removal of, at end of tenancy, 374; 
Sermons in, 170; shrubs and flowers 
which will thrive under the drip of, 
394; surburban, and their destroyers, 
114; weeping, 194; for churchyards, 
504; for cities and towns, 114, 154, 170, 
193 ; poplars, as town, 195; for the sea 
coast, 39,169,195; in tubs for terraces, 
49; in Victoria, 88; on Thames Em- 
bankment, 380; on the quince stock, 
freeing of starved, 469; fruit, January’s 
teaching concerning, 321; moss on, 
415; and plants for planting on chalk, 
373; and shrubs, hardy, 100, 332 

Tree grouping, effective, 458; nature’s, 
505 

Tree guard, cheap, 422 

Tree guides in American deserts, 22 

Tree management, 168 

Tree, shrub, and plant labels, 156, 190 

Tree stumps, killing, 195, 357 

Tree wives, 304 

Tree and other ponies, 325 

Tree carnations, 64, 119, 683 

Tree ferns, 299; old stumps of, 58 

“Trees of Liberty” in Paris, 333 

Trellis, novel, 466; improved fruit, 60 

Trenching, foolish, 274: 

Trentham Hall gardens, 681 

Triteleia uniflora as a pot plant, 484, 582 

Tropical dell in the garden, 96 

Tropical garden, 447 ; Jamaica as a, 514 

Trowel, garden, best kind of, 481, 661 

Truffle culture at Welbeck, 405 

Truffles, modes of cooking, 334 

Trumpet-shaped flower vases, 62 


U. 


UMBRELLA PINE, 665 ; hardiness of, 633 
Under-gardeners’ lodgings, 175 

Under the violets, 155 

United States, tea culture in, 564 
Upright cypress, 130 

Utricularia montana, 656 


v. 


VaL DE TRAVERS ASPHALTE Pavina Com. 
PANY, 402 

Valley, the Yosemite, a noble national 
park, 306 

Vanilla culture, 259 

Variegated pine-apple as an indoor orna- 
ment, 128 

Variegated pelargoniums, 118; how to 
rapidly increase, 161 

Various-leaved plane, 634 

Vase, Christmas, 93 

Vases, flower, harmonies and contrasts 
in, 578 


Vases, flowers for certain forms of, 578; 
on choosing flowers for decorating, 
470, 523 ; tall, upon dinner-tables, 82 ; 
variety in the leaf decoration of, 89 

Vegetable beefsteak, 458 

Vegetable cookery, the “‘ why ” in, 480 

Vegetable crops in the orchard, 469 

Vegetable imports, value of some, 208 

Vegetables, big, 385; new, of 1871, 271; 
in London dining-rooms, 116 

Vegetation, 248; on houses, 180 

Veitch memorial, the, 364 

Venetian Sumach, 632 

Ventilation, during winter and spring, 
323 ; of ice houses, 175 

Verbena disease, loam a cure for, 441 

Verbena, in America, 8; for bedding pur- 
Bore 253; how to raise from seed, 
2 

Veronica, Chamzedrya, 653 

Versailles, 284; the gardens, &e., 214; 
the gardens of the Little Trianon, 310 

Vertical cordon pears, 106 

Vestibules, flower basket for, 446 

Victoria Park, 46, 86; enlargement of, 
379 ; extension of, 430; its preser- 
vation and extension, 327 

Victoria, trees in, 88 

Vienna, Christmas horticulture in, 150 

Vine, the, as a hardy ornamental plant, 
389 ; in the open air, 587 

Vine borders, 587; heating, 611 

Vine crop, sun-spots and the, 571 

Vine pest, new, 358 

Vineries, distance of boiler from, 175; 
ground, 638; in April, 450; in May, 
533; in June, 620 

Vines, camses of bunches dropping off, 
661 ; in pots, notes concerning, 189; in- 
fluence of violet light on, 269; moyine 
at expiration of tenancy, 342; shedding 
their fruit, 415 

Viola cornuta, 653 ; lutea, 702 

Violets, 346; early, 420; in moss, 410, 
556; new yellow, 561; Neapolitan, at 
Christmas, 74; culture of, 369 

Virginian raspberry, sweet scented, 465 

aes of labourers in yarious countries 

19 fh 

Walks, how to destroy moss and obhes 
weeds on, 21, 88, 598; formation of, 612 

Wall, north, roses and evergreen climbers 
for, 151 

Wall fruit, aspects suitable to the various 
kinds of, 20; how to preserve, 268, 297, 
476 

Wall fruit trees, treatment of, 176, 204; 
protectors v. span-roofed houses for, 
537; neglect of, 610; and the garden 
engine, 638 

Wall plants, 3, 117, 563, 653 

Seen e: London market, 375 ; yellow, 

01 

Walnut, 130; grafting, 446 

Walnuts (English) in California, 683 

Walls, an enemy to, 269; cotoneaster for, 
442; fruit trees on, 587; silvery saxi- 
frages on, 586; upright system of train. 
ing fruit trees on, 148 ; and orchard 
houses, 638; stone, vegetation on, in 
England, 44; v. wire fences, 223 

Want of plan in London, 109 

War with insects, 548 

Warrington, new park for, 185 

Warwick Castle, gardens at, 211; the 
flower garden at, 705 

Wash for old fruit walls, 439 

Water, 104; Paramelle’s researches in 
reference to subterranean, 662 ; in rock- 
gardens, 562 

Water-margins, 25, 677 

Water sparingly, 14 


xii 


INDEX. 


River scene in Guiana, 281 

River-bank scenery in Madagascar, 654 

Roadways, asphalte, 341 

Robinia macrophylla, 373 

Rochester Castle, new gardens at, 140 

Rock-gardens, 458 ; a plea for, 70 ; essen- 
tials in the construction of : position con- 
struction, and materials for, 542 ; path- 
ways, water, and snails in, 562; soil for, 
151, 563 

Rockwork: good and bad, 246; at Chats- 
worth, 50; in Hyde Park, 344 

Rome, the Borghesi Gardens at, 634; the 
Gardens of the Pincio at, 589; winter 
garden in, 109 

Roof gardens, 110 

Rookery, effects of on vegetation, 25-4 

Rooms, culture of plants in, 4, 83, 90, 127 
198, 314, 359, 445, 523 

Root-grafting apples, 507 

Root of tree, extraordinary, 170 

Roots, storing of, 63 

Rose Acacia, large-flowered, 373 

Rose and white flowered Lapagerias, 315 

Rose-buds in America, 222 

Rose garden for December, 26; for 
March, 319; for April, 449; for May, 
533 ; for June, 626 

Rose manure, 377 

Rose Secret, the, 162, 253, 276, 319, 363, 
390, 457, 479, 498, 515; lines on the, 
563 

Rose show at the Crystal Palace, 624 

Rose showing, 543 

Rose tree of Hildesheim, 253 

Roses, a simple plan for forcing, 462; 
culture of, 203; hardy Gloire de 
Dijon, 541; mildewed, 502, 653; 
“notes”? made in the time of, 5, 23; on 
orange trees, 396; pegged down, 277; 
perpetual red, or pink, climbing, 253 ; 
tea-scented Noisettes for the camellia 
house, 166 ; window, 581 ; Devoniensis, 
376; history of, 433; climbing Deyo- 
niensis, 252, 278; Maréchiel Niel, as 
a greenhouse climber, 615 ; as a weeper, 
442 ; culture of, 521; of Puteaux, the, 
698 ; Souvenir de la Malmaison, 278 

Roses and rose culture, 159, 203, 238, 
251, 302 

Royal Botanic Society, second spring 
show, 472 

Royal Gardens, Kew, 217, 658; the palm 
house at, 548; the succulents ai, 429 

Royal Horticultural Society’s exhibitions, 
200, 451, 493, 646; show at Birming- 
ham, 222, 715; meeting of, 409; rules 
and regulations for the show of dinner- 
table decorations, 472 ; fruit committee, 
508 ; exhibition, May Ist, 536 

Rubus odoratus, 465 

Rumex Hydrolapathum, 457 

Russian way of dressing cucumbers, 116. 

Russian winter garden, 50 

Rustic bridge without nails, 52 

Rustic work, 386 

Rust on grapes, 637, 682 


s. 


SADDLE BOILER, new mode of setting, 110 

Saharians, what the date tree is to the, 
322 

Salad bowl, the, a fortune from, 65 

Salad culture, 515 4 

Salads and salad-making, 65, 116, 197, 
382, 428 

Salix babylonica Salamonii, 618 

Salt Lake City, streets and gardens of, 85 

Salt tree, the Siberian, 332 

Salvia patens, 290 ; splendens, 485 


Sand an unsuspected plant killer, 311, 
369 

Sandwort, the many-stemmed, 703 

Sanitary work, subsoil drainage as, 688 

Santolina incana, 253 ~ 

Sap, movement of the, 531 

Sarmienta repens, 502 

Sarracenia culture, 59, 521 

Sarracenias, 420; propagation of, 201 

Sauerkraut, 383 

Savin Juniper, lawns of, 653 

Saxifrages, silvery, on walls, 581 ; silvery- 
leaved, 687 

Scabious, dwarf, with large double 
flowers, 499 

Scale on currant trees, 350 

Scene in a Brazilian forest, 190 

Scenery (river bank) in Madagascar, 655 

Science, theory, and practice, 579, 704 

Scolytus destructor, 547, 628 

Scorpion Senna, 693 

Scottish peat, 657 

Sea baths for London, 2 

Sea coast, trees and shrubs for, 39, 169, 
170, 195, 373, 420, 694 

Sea hollies, 50, 72 

Seakale, new kind of , 405; seedling, for 
forcing, 271; in market gardens, 437 

Seal, Solomon’s, 325 

Season, the, 430 

Sedums and saxifrages, 24 

Seeds, carnations and picotees from, 420 ; 
dear, 158; flavouring with, 535 ; pack- 
ing for long voyages, 64, 161; of hardy 
and tender plants, raising, 255 

Seed-coyering in the American’s garden, 
270 : 

Seeding, thin, 274 

Seedling fruits, 440 

Seed-time, a carol of, 385 

Seeds and cuttings, mode of transmitting, 
161 

Sensitive plants, influence of green light 
on, 282 

Sequoia (Wellingtonia), 75; extinct 
forests of, in England, 195; in the 
Calaveras Grove, table of measure- 
ments of height and circumference, 
130; in the Mariposa Grove, table of 
measurements in height and circum- 
ference, 103 

Sermons in trees, 170 

Sewage, house, 115, 246 

Sewage works, Richmond, 87; Milanese 
system, 21 

Shade, plants that succeed in, 466 

Shallot, the true and the common, 41 

Shallots, cultivation of, 20 

Shawdon hollies, 266 

Shears in old Irish gardens, 658 

Shepherdia argentea, 573 

Shiraz apricot, 147 

Shrubberies in December, 25 

Shrubby calceolaria, 260 

Shrubland, 350 

Shrubs, dwarf, for edgings, 357 ; for the 
sea coast, 169 ; and flowers which thrive 
under the drip of trees, 394 

Siberia, herbaceous, vegetation in, 32 

Siberian salt tree, the, 332 

Sidney garden seed sower, 481 

Sign of the times, 651 

Silene pendula Bonnettii, 466 

Silphium laciniatum, 17 

Silver Bell, or snowdrop tree, 392 

Saxifrages, silvery, on walls, 586 

Site for a house, 200 

Sitting-room, orchids for the, 62 

Six of Spades, the (by Rey. S. Reynolds 
Hole), 224, 229, 281, 295, 336, 352, 
381, 411, 453, 490, 511, 553, 563, G01, 
649, 671 


Slugs, 629 

Small gardens, 67 

Smoke effects in and about Warrington, 
notes on, 99; in our great towns, 708 

Smoke poison, the, 1 

Snails in rock-gardens, 562 

Snake’s head, 541 

Soils for potting, 114; for rock-gardens, 
151, 563 ; hard, in gardens, 157 ; boggy, 
conifers in, 573; books and articles on, 
21 

Solanum robustum, 442 

Solomon’s seal, 325; for forcing, 232 

Somerleyton Gardens, Suffolk, 489, 510 

Soolya Qua cucumber, 648 

Soup, green pea, in winter and spring, 
535 

Sowing the desert, 598 

Sparrows, English, in New York squares, 
212 

Spatlum, 701 

Spawning mushroom beds, 246 

Spent hops, 21 

Spinach, summer, 612 

Spirewa bella, 354; tomentosa, 69 t 

Spirit, a questionable, 688 

Spring, annuals for, 686 

Spring bedding, 563; and summer bed- 
ding combined, 687 

Spring flower gardening, 498 

Spring flowers, 604; a garland of, 278; 
earliest, 117, 320 

“ Spring,” Gerald Massey on, 504 

* Spring greens,” marsh marigold as, 354 

“ Spring has come,” 304 

Spring mixtures, 498 

Spring, treatment of bedding plants, 
389 

Squares of London, 84, 108 

St. Paul’s Churchyard, 341 

Stake for carnations, picotees, &c., good, 
518 

Stakes, preserving, 631 

Statice latifolia, 702 

Stem pruning, 264 

Stephanotis for cutting, 555 

Stepney, the new garden at, 341 

Stock, French paradise, 638 

Stocks, intermediate, 391 

Stone picking, 372 

Stone walls, vegetation on in England, 44 

Storing of roots, 63 

Stoves in December, 31; in January, 
145 ; in February, 231; in March, 325 ; 
in April, 448; in May, 532; in June, 
619 

Stove alpines, 346 

Stove for small greenhouses, 403 

Strasburg, professorship of botany at, 
434 


Strawberry, the Inépnisable, 229 

Strawberry culture, 60, 468, 571 

Strawberry trade, the American, 704 

Strawberries, forcing, 349 ; forwarding, 
638; in autumn, 106; planting out 
forced, 475; profits from, 350; Vicom- 
tesse Hericart de Thury, 587 

Streets, new mode of waterlng, 309; and 
gardens of Salt Lake City, 85 

Strike of London market-garden labourers, 
694 

Striking cuttings of bedding plants, 662 

Stringing the beans, 405 

Striped and variegated fruits, 123 

Structures, iron v. wood, 51 

Subsoil drainage as sanitary work, 688 

Subtropical gardens, hardy trees in, 93 

Subtropical plants without glass, 95 

Suburban trees and their destroyers, 114 

Succulents, 460, 494; at Kew, 429; 
bedding, 455; for cool greenhouses, 
168 


INDEX. 


Xi 


Parsnip, the cow, 326 

Passiflora macrocarpa, 616 

Passion-flowers, for the drawing-room, 631 
edible, 638 

Pathways in rock-gardens, 562 

Pavement, improved wooden, 186 

Pavia, long spiked, 420 ; macrostachya, 420 

Peas, sweet, 162, 204, 239, 303; the 
Chiswick trial of, 628; Dampiev’s 
glory, 368, 377; green, soup, in winter, 
530 

Pea-growing, 405 

Peach, new ornamental, 393; orchard, 
large, 469; trade in America, 106; dis- 
abled, 683 ; and nectarine, 296 

Peach culture: in America, 206; on the 
anti-mutilation system, 609 ; improved, 
647 

Peach house in January, 149; in Feb- 
ruary, 228; in March, 322; in April, 
450; in May, 534; in June, 620 

Peach trees, war with insects on, 445; 
crippled, 483, 704; and chalk, 570; 
double-flowered, 694 

Peaches and nectarines under glass, 537 

Peacock anemone, 626 

Pear blight, 571 

Pears, vertical cordon, 106; four new, 
122; finest for wire trellises, 147; new, 
notes on, 205; select, 270, 416; re- 
grafting, 507; best dessert, 205, 661 

Pears and apples, under elass, 298 ; grafted 
on apple stocks, 13; on the quince, 
duration of, 611; in Channel Islands, 
384, 415, 535 

Peat, 66 

Pelargonium Rose Rendatler, 232; “ Mrs. 
P. J. Perry,” 626; geranium v., 547 

Pelargoniums, zonal, 74; variegated, 
118; variegated, propagating, 446; 
variegated, new and rare, how to 
rapidly increase, 161 ; ivy-leaved, 196 ; 
zonal, indoors, 369; hybridizing, 397 

Permanent shade for glass houses, 657 

Perpetual carnations, 260 

Persica Davidiana, 393 

Phaleenopsis Lowii, 74 

Philadelphia, new cemetery at, 568 

Photinia serrulata, 374) 

Phylloxera vastatrix, 358 

Picea amabilis, 662; destroyed by larve, 
58 

Picea pruning, 265 

Piceas, 463 

Pincio Gardens, Rome, 589 

Pine, the, 220; yellow, 10; forest, 99; 
forest in the Jura, 332; sea, plantations 
in France, 484; umbrella, coning of, 
436; Norfolk Island, in the Sydney 
Botanic Gardens, 710 

Pine-apple, variegated, as an indoor orna- 
ment, 128 

Pine-apples in the Bahamas, 704 

Pinery in February, 228; in March, 322 ; 
in April, 450; in May, 534; in June, 
621, 620 

Pines, improved foreign, 610 

Pinks, carnations, and picotees, 95 

Pinus ponderosa, 10, 39 

Pitcher plants, 567; culture of, 167 

Pits and frames in December, 26; in 
January, 251; in February, 240; in 
March, 320; in April, 449 ; in May, 533; 
in June, 620 

Plane, the occidental, or great western, 
486 ; Caucasian, 572; maple-leaved 
Spanish, 588; spreading branched, 588; 
wedge-leaved, 618 

Planes, the, 486 

Plant, a deadly, 369; window, a charming, 
523 ; the lattice-leaf, 565 ; insect pests, 
remedies for, 583 


Plant case, a good and simple, 200 

Plant cases, 361; construction of, position 
of, warming, and advantages of, 361; 
management of, arrangements for 
planting, 362 

Plant houses at Combe Abbey, 559 

Plant killer, sand an unsuspected, 311 

Plant life in towns, 113 

Plant material for paper, 115 

Plantains and bananas, 396 

Planting, the Temple Garden, 341; orna- 
mental, 393; anew idea in, 430; sea- 
side, 420; in the Yorkshire moorlands, 
436; trees, 54 

Planting asters, 703; conifers, 54 

Planting himself to grow, 462 

Planting out forced strawberries, 475 

Plants, basket, 460; bracket for, 581; 
changes of habit in, 453; dinner-table, 
form of, 127; food of, 134, 138; her- 
baceous, for exhibition, 117, 187; how 
fertilized, 432 ; insect killing, 58; new, 
of 1871, 209; bedding, notes on, 252; 
obsolete names of, 2; on pure hybridi- 
zation, or crossing distinct species of, 
521,480, 506,574; ornamental, rhubarbs 
as, 280; rabbit-proof, 9, 88, 136, 165; 
soft-wooded, in sand and water, 595°; 
spring flowering, culture ef, 543; tall 
border, 95; wall, 3, 563. 

Plants, hard-wooded, in February, 232 ; 
in April, 448; in May, 532; in June, 
619 

Plants, hardy, im flower round London, 
539, 561, 578, 598, 603, 626, 648, 672, 
713; notes on, 24, 120; hardy aquatic, 
478; hardy variegated, 548; plants 
and trees, hardy, 160; for a north 
house, 323; for a greenhouse with a 
north aspect, 233; for railway hedges, 
648 

Plants, in rooms, culture of, 4, 83, 90, 
127, 198, 359, 445, 528, 616, 630, 679; 
on staircases, 232; suitable for a 
suburban public-house, 305; that suc- 
ceed in the shade, 466; to be natu- 
ralized, 441 

Platanus acerifolia, 588; cuneata, 618; 
digitata, 572; heterophylla, 634; his- 
panica, 588; occidentalis, 486; orien- 
talis, 550; umbellata, 588 

Pleasure ground, Arundo Donax in, 391 

Plumy Dicentra, 608 

Poet’s narcissus, 563 

Poinsettia pulcherrima, 74 

Poisoned by rhubarb, 197 

Poisoning cats, 196 

Polish mode of preserving cucumbers and 
pickling mushrooms, 428 

Poplar, 130; Lombardy, 130 

Poplars as town trees, 195 

Populus fastigiata, 130 

Pot culture of the tomato, 111 

Pot vines, notes concerning, 189 

Potato, singular freak of a, 404 

Potato disease, lime a cure for, 591 

Potatoes, 404; boiled or steamed, 383, 
596; planting early, 405; raising from 
seed, 64; thinning the shoots of, 591; 
when to peel, 116 

Pots, Aubrietias in, 567; under dining- 
tables, concealing, 470; Lily-of-the- 
valley in, 168 

Potting Agaves, 369 

Potting, soil for, 114 

“ Pour les Dames,”’ 272 

Practice v. Science, 630 

Prairie planting, 504 

Preservation and extension of Victoria 
Park, 327 5 

Preserved Orange Peel, 596 

Preserving cabbages, 208 


Primrose, Chinese, 261, 325; Chinese, in 
winter, 91; hardy double, 703; new 
Japan, 567; single, mauve, 458 

Primula altaica, 304; japonica, 567, 651, 
662 

Prince gardener, the, 43 

Privet, Japan, 466 

Progressive gardening, 597 

Propagating aucubas, 446; soft-wooded 
bedding-plants in sand and water, 481 ; 
sarracenias, 201; the ipecacuanhaplant, 
481 

Protection of wall trees, 297 

Protest and a suggestion, 497 

Pruning, and nailing in the cold, 19; and 
training in apple orchards, 347; coni- 
fers, 264, 393; newly-planted trees, 
437; root, a new view of, 587 

Pruning-chisel, 661 

Prunus myrobalana, 107 

Public gardens, influence of, 183; the 
essentials of, 185; the managem2nt of 
our parks and, 305; and war, 280; 
Maidstone, 594 

Public gardens and parks in America, 
45 

Public parks, 309 

Puff ball, giant, 273 

Pumpkin passion-flower, 616 

Punch on park management, 380 

Puteaux, the roses of, 698 

Pyrethrums, 26 

Pyrus Malus floribundus, 665; Simoni, 
570; spectabilis, 465; vestita, 354. 


Q. 


Quatt, Californian, 153 

Quercus Libani, 618 

Questionable spirit, a, 688 

Quince stock, freeing starved trees on, 
469 - 


R. 


RAwBBIr-PROOF PLANTS, 88, 98, 136, 165 

Radish, Californian, 68; white winter, 
197 

Rafters and walls, climbers for, 283 

Railway embankments, culture on, 612 ; 
fruit on, 206, 270 

Railways, landscape treatment of, 104 

Railways and public parks, 364 

Ranunculuses ¥. grubs, 568 

Raspberry, Virginian sweet-scented, 460 

Recollections of John Claudius Loudon, 
697 

‘Red peppers—try them,” 485 

sce a of alpine forest land, the, 

10 

Regent’s Park Botanic Garden, 234 

Regrafting worthless fruit trees, 227 

Reports, international weather and crop, 
44, 

Repotting Agayves, 462, 494 

Revision of the genus Draczena, 546, 567, 
636, 656 : 

Rhapis humilis, 582 

Rhizophora Mangel, 342 

Rhodanthes, 113; Manelesi as a green- 
house ornament, 73 

Rhododendrons, for cutting, 650; and 
azaleas, late Howering, 305 

Rhubarb, poisoned by, 197 

Rhubarbs as ornamental plants, 280 

Rhus Cotinus, 632; glabra laciniata, 375 

Rice-paper plant, the Chinese, 627 

Rice-paper, how it is made, 560 

Ricinus communis, 541 

Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, palm 
avenue in, 187 


x 


INDEX. 


Matthiola incana, 702 

May : indoor garden and conservatory in, 
531; stove, fern house, orchids, hard- 
wooded plants, and flower garden in,5382 ; 
outdoor fruits, orchard house, vineries, 
rose garden, and fruit garden in, 533 ; 
peach houses, kitchen garden, and the 
pinery in, 5384; garden beauty in, 557 

Medieval forests of England, the, 654 

Melanerpes formicivoris, 214 

Melianthus major, 50, 95 

Melolontha vulgaris, 164 

Melons and cucumbers, fertilizing, 591 

Memorial to our Garden-loving Poet, 223 

Men likened to pears, 61 

Metropolitan improvements, 2 

ao bread frnit, or Chayota plant, 


Mexican cacti, 262 

Mice as garden destroyers, 629; in the 
rock-garden, 687 

Mildewed roses, 653 

Milanese sewerage system, 21 

Miniature apple gardens, 189 

Mistletoe, absence of, in Devonshire, 436 ; 
on fruit trees, 704 

Mistletoe-bearing oaks, 357, 393, 531 

Mistletoe of the ancients, 372 

Modern flower gardens, 71 

Mole-cricket, 97 

Mole hunting in gardens, 249, 358 

Mole tree, 95 

Money tree, the, 9 

Monkey’s bread, 240 

Monstera deliciosa, 394, 661 

Montague House, garden at, 162 

Monterey cypress, 220, 330, 333; as a 
hedge plant, 372 

Morina longifolia, 686 

oa among evergreens in America, 

64 

Moscow exhibition, 22 

Moss, on lawns, 95; on fruit trees, 296, 
415; violets in, 556; on walks how to 
destroy, 598, 612 

Moths, lackey, 417; and butterflies, early 
appearance of, 568 

Mount Edgeumbe, 552 

Mount Etna, the great chestnuts of, 37, 
486 

Mountain flowers, 330 

Mountains, beauty of, 258 

Movable garden fountains, 82 

Mural gardening, 304 

Musa ensete for the conseryatory and 
winter garden, 73 

Muscari armeniacum, 687 

Mushroom, the true, 16; beds, miniature, 
207, 246; culture, 208; early, 433; 
=a milk, 596; true St. George’s, 

Mushrooms in pots, 437; Polish mode of 
pickling, 428 

““My Garden,” 689 

Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, 324 

Myrtle, the creeping, 324, 410 

Myosotis dissitiflora, 325, 391, 458 


N. 


Narcissus, Chinese, Grand Emperor, 543 

Narcissus, poet’s, 563 

National park, a noble—the Yosemite 
Valley, 306 

Natural style, conservatories in the, 311 

Natural wreaths for ladies hair, 222 

Nature’s gardens (Niagara), 15, 26; 
flower garden, 517 

Neapolitan violets at Christmas, 74 

Near relations, 166 


Nectarines and peaches, 296; disabled, 
683 

Nemophilas for cutting, 680 

Nepal Spirwa, 354; white beam tree, 354 

Nerine pudica, 42 

Nest, moving a tree with, 333 

Nettles for food, 197 

New entrances into old thoroughfares, 
197 

New Forest, the, 54 

New fruits of 1871, 177; Poire des 
Peintres, 570; Pyrus Simonii, 570; 
Diospyros Kaki, 609 

New patents, 467 

New pears, 176; Beurré Luizet, 105; 
Beurré Baltet Pére, 123 ; Clapp’s 
Favourite, 123; Fondante Thiriot, 123 ; 
Poire de l’ Assomption, 123 

New plants: Nerine pudica, Yucca 
Treculeana, Tinnzazthiopica, Euryeles 
Cunninghami, 42; Erianthus Mons- 
tierii, 252; of 1871, 209; rare, or neg- 
lected plants: amboynensis, Gilia lini- 
flora, Matricaria eximia grandiflora, 
Godetia Nivertiana, 423; Silene pen- 
dula Bonnettii, Lilium Bloomerianum, 
466 

New vegetables of 1871, 271 

New winter garden, 403 

New York Central Park, 524, 544 

New York squares, English sparrows in, 
212 

Niagara, 15 

Nightingales in gardens, 49 4 

Nile trees, bye-notes on, 172 

Noble ornament, 390 

Norfolk carices, large, 391 

Norfolk Island pine in the Sydney Botanic 
Garden, 710 

North and South, 244 ; or, the best aspects 
for fruit walls, 570 

North house, plants for a, 323 

“ Not all at once,” 222 

Notes: on Hardy flowers, 119, 120; on 
Bedding plants, 252; on new pears, 
205 

Novelties, worthless, 299 

Nymphea odorata, 5 


0. 


Oak FENCE, fruit trees for growing against, 
106 
Oak Lodge, 124 
Oak of Lebanon, 618 
Oaks, mistletoe-bearing, 357, 393, 531 
Oaks of Europe, 169 
Oprruary :— 
Hoyle, G. W., 624 
Ingram, Thomas, 387 
Lightbody, George, 714 
Osborn, Thomas, 250 
Osborn, William, 387 
Saltmarsh, Joseph, 714 
Seemann, Dr. Berthold, 112 
Vaillant, Marshal, 714 
Wight, Dr., 624 
Obsolete names of plants, 2 
Odours of Orchids, 44 
@nothera bistorta Veitchii, 703 ; margi- 
nata, 303 
Offering of wild flowers to THE GARDEN, 
376 
Old friends, 160 
Olive, silver variegated wild, 711 
Ononis rotundifolia, 687 
Open air, fuchsias in the, 652 
Opuntia Rafinesquiana, 15 
Orange culture, 105 
Orange groves, the Parramatta, 473 
Orange-milk mushroom, 596 


Orange-peel preserved, 596 

Orange trees, 585; roses on, 396; in 
vineries, 661 

Oranges, fertility of, 476 

Orchard, large peach, 469; vegetable 
crops in, 469 

Orchard culture, improvement in, 19 

Orchard-house, the, in December, 35; in 
January, 149; in March, 322; in April, 
440, 449; in May, 535 

Orchard houses, 105, 188, 475, 535; apples 
and pears in, 229 

Orcharding, 611 

Orchards, neglected, 415; of seedling 
trees, 661 

Orchid house in December, 32 ; in January, 
145 ; in February, 232; in March, 325 ; 
in April, 448; in May, 532; in June,619 

Orchids, hardy, planting of 6; the odours 
of, 13, 44; for the sitting-room, 62 ; 
cool, for conservatories, 325 ; British, a 
ramble amongst, 456; neglected, 415 

Oriental plane, 550 

Ornamental planting, 393 

Osmunda regalis and fern collectors, 390 

Ought I to compete ? 404 

“ Our square” and its history, 397 

Outdoor fruit in January, 149 ; in Decem- 
ber, 34; in February, 227; in March, 
321; in April, 449; in May 553; in 
June, 620 : 

Over-cropping fruit trees, 638 

Overdoing, 30 

Owls, the gardener and the, 600 

Oxalis rosea, 637 

Ozone, 648 


i 


PackincroN Hart, near Coventry, 647; 
improved peach culture at, 647; the 
Soolya Qua cucumber at, 648 

Ponies, tree and other, 325, the best 
701 

Pagoda fig of India, 435 

Palm avenue in Rio de Janeiro Botanic 
Garden, 187 

Palm grass at Combe Abbey, 560 

Palms, 370; hardy, 377, 442; for table 
decoration, 396; in Guernsey, 548; 
half-hardy, 521; sweet scented 521; 
Betel nut, 521; for the garden, 31, 
72, 938, 133, 218, 283, 313, 368, 395, 
461, 547 

Pampas grass, 159 

Pansy, 653; Cliveden purple, 703 

Paper: Plant material for, 115; Rice 
how it is made, 560 

Paramelle’s researches in reference to 
subterranean water, 662 

Parasol agaric, 178 

Pare de Courcelles, 400 

Paris, transplanting large trees in, 2; 
gardens and parks of, 30; “ Trees of 
Liberty ” in, 333; revival of horti- 
culture in public gardens of, 380 

Park, baths in the, 158; new, for War- 
rington, 185, 309; public, for Ashton- 
under-Lyne, 272; new London, 318; 
Victoria; its preservation and extension, 
327; Hyde, mutilation of trees in, 
341; new, at Tooting, 342; manage- 
ment, 305, Punch on, 380; another vast 
national, 452; the new, Brooklyn, 684 

Parks, city, situation of, 177; driving 
in the, 379; meetings in the, 309; in 
Paris, 694; new American, 2, 45, 107, 
524, 544 

Parks and public building ground, 343 

Paramatta orange groves, the, 473 

Parrots as frnit eaters, 430 

Parsley, how to grow fine, 405 


INDEX. 


fd = 
ig 


Hybridization, on pure, or crossing dis- 
tinct species of plants, 481, 506 521, 
574 

Hyde Park, mutilation of trees in, 341; 
vockwork in, 344 

Hydrangea japonica, 326 

Hydrangeas, blue flowered, 248, 279 

Hylurgus piniperda, 287 


Icy HOUSES, ventilation of, 175 

Ice stack, how to make an, 199 

Ice well on fire, 186 

Tlex latifolia, 504, 633 

Illumination of dining-rooms, 89 

Imports, vegetable, value of some, 208 

Improved fruit trellises, 60 

Improvements, metropolitan, 2 

Incendiarism in a market-garden, 694: 

India, convict gardening in, 86; forests 
of, 179; pagoda fig of, 435 z 

Indian azalea, 583 

Indian daphne, 90 

Indigofera floribunda, 160 

Indoor British fernery, my, 566 

Indoor decoration, lilacs for, 416 

Indoor fruits in December, 35 

Indoor garden for December, 31 ; for 
January, 145; for February, 231; for 
March, 324; for April, 448; for May, 
531; for June, 619 

Insect destroyer, 98 

Insect pests, plant remedies for, 583 

Insect powders, 186 

Tnsect-killing plants, 58 

Insects, hurtful, 9,57; in winter, 244; 
on peach trees, war with, 445; useful 
and hurtful, exhibition of, 536; bark- 
boring, 547, 567, 628 ; war with, 548 

International weather and crop reports, 
44. 

Ipecacuanha plant, 430; propagation of 
the, 481 

Tris, the , 418; persica, 72; Keempferi, 
458 ; nudicaulis, 586; best varieties of, 
687 

Ivy: borders, 6; as a house plant, 22; 
edgings, 226; my window, 600; does it 
injure trees? 633; and its uses, 607 ; 
in the house, 680 

Tvies, 444. 

Ivy-leaved pelorgoniums, 196 


JAM, HIP, 65 

Jamaica as a tropical garden, ol 

January: stove, indoor garden, conserva- 
tory, and orchids in, 145; fruit garden, 
outdoor fruit, orchard-house fruit, and 
early vines in, 149; flower garden and 
pits and frames, 151; kitchen garden 
in, 157; aquatic flowering outdoor in, 
204: 

January’s teachings—frnit trees, 321 

Japan creeper, Lol 

Japan privet, 466 

Japanese new ornamental grass, 120 

Jeffrey’s British Columbian Conifers, 464, 
502 

Juglans regia, 130 

June: flower garden and fruit garden for, 
620; pinery, arboretum and kitchen 


garden for, 621; rose garden for, 626; 


garden beanty in, 672 
Jura, pine forest in the, 332 
Jute trade, 208 


K. 


Kemp’s grape rail, 467 

Kensington Gardens: the Albert memo- 
rial in, 341; destruction of trees in, 693 

Kew Gardens, 217, 329, 348, 377, 380, 
658; and our public parks, 402; the 
succulents at, 429; and the proposed 
military station at Richmond, 522; 
the palms and palm house at, 525, 548 

Killing tree stumps, 195 

Killing weeds on walks, 680 

Kitchen garden, water for, 20; at Berry 
hill, 80; rotation, 273 

Kitchen garden for December, 41; for 
January, 157; for February, 245; for 
March, 340; for April, 450; for May, 
o34; for June, 621 


L. 


LABELS, 156, 180, 190, 270, 616 
Labourers, wages of in various countries, 
519 
Lachenalias, 74. = 
Lackey moth, 417 
Lactarius deliciosus, 596 
Lady’s Slipper, white, 517 
Land in Texas, 670 
Landowners and footpaths, law as to, 197 
Landscape and water at Combe Abbey, 
559 
Landscape treatment of railways, 104; of 
farms, 124 
Landscapes, home, 18, 28 
Lapagerias, rose and white Howered, 64, 
315 
Larch for poor lands, 155 
Late flowering rhododendrons and azaleas, 
305 
Lattice-leaf plant, 365 
Laurel, common, a usurper, 129 
Lavender, the broad-leayed sea, 702 
Law: Carter & Co. v. Sutton & Sons, 
366; Hemsworth v. Mann, 434; Fenne- 
more and others v. Spice, 472, 494; in 
reference to fruiterer’s baskets,196 ; as 
to landowners and footpaths, 197; is a 
greenhouse a chattel ora fixture ? 317 ; 
poisoning by means of yew-tree clip- 
pings, 407; notes, 714 
Lawns, of Sayin Juniper, 653 ; worms on, 
255, 442 
Laying out of grounds, 162 
Leaders, contending, 711 
Leaves, autumn, 470; flayouring with, 
535 
Leicester Square, 644; proposed new 
market near, 309 
Leicestershire, camellias and myrtles in, 
543 
Lemon thyme, golden edged, 95 
Lesson of the leaf, 351 
Levens Hall garden, 614 
Lewisia rediviva, 701 
LIBRARY :— 
Botany for Beginners, 545 
Chandos Classics, 374 
Culture of the Pear, 398 
Darwin’s Origin of Species, 519 
Domestic Botany, 706 
Fairfield Orchids, the, 545 
Flowers and Gardens, 398 
Forest Life in Acadie, 374 
Garden Flowers, 398 
Hornby Mills, 640 
How Plants Behave, 706 
Mountain, the, 443, 459 
My Garden, 689 
Nature; or the Poetry of Harth and 
Sea, 413 


Lichens and mosses, 279 

Light, artificial, flowers under, 138; 
green, influence of, on the sensitive 
plant, 282 

Lilacs, forcing of, 166; white, 325; for 
indoor decoration, 416 

Lilium auratum, 394; Bloomerianum, 
466; giganteum, 325 

Lily, white, 239, 376; water, 478 

Lily of the valley, 168, 233, 258 

Lima bean, the, 20 

Lime acure for the potato disease, 591 

Linaria genistzefolia, 499 

Lines on the “‘ Rose Secret,” 563 

Linnea borealis in London, 377 

Lithospermum fruticosum, 661 

Little Trianon, the gardens of the, Ver- 
sailles, 310 

Liverpool Botanic Gardens, presentation 
to the late curator of, 430 

Livistona subglobosa, 501 

Loam a cure for the yerbena disease, 
441 

Lombardy poplar, 130 

London, dining-rooms, vegetables in, 116; 
swimming baths for, 186; a winter 
garden for, 249, 309; hardy plants in 
flower round, 539, 561, 578, 598, 626, 
672 

London market wallflowers, 375 

Long-tailed titmouse, 136 

Lontar palm, the, 501 

Looshai highland flora, the, 399 

Loranthus europzeus, 665 

Loudon, recollections of the late John 
Claudius, 697; and the Duke of Wel- 
lington, 298 

Lower Grounds, Aston, 694 

Luculia gratissima, culture of, 656 

Liychnis Lagasce, 652 

Lycoperdon giganteum, 273 

Lymexylon nayale, 255 


M. 


MapAcascar, the Trayeller’s Tree of, 
337; river-bank scenery in, 655; or- 
chids, 509 

Madresfield Court grape, 228 

Maggot, apple, 528 

Magnolia cordata, 420 

Magnolia holly, the, 504, 633 

Mahogany, Australian, 430 

Maidstone, public gardenat, 594 

Maize, green, as food, 712 

Mammillaria elephantidens, 396 

Manchester Botanic Society, 493 

Manchineel of South America, 158 

Mangrove, the 342 

Manure, liquid, supply for the garden, 
219; uses of gas lime as, 437 

Marantas, 709 

Marasmius oreades, 333 

March: rose garden for, 319; flower gar- 
den for, 320; fruit garden for, 321; 
pinery for, 322; indoor garden for, 
324; arboretum for, 333; kitchen gar- 
den for, 340; garden beanty in, 473 

Maréchal Niel rose, culture of, 521 

Margins, water, 677 

Market-garden, the plough in the, 274; 
incendiarism in the, 694 

Market-garden labourers, strike of the 
London, 694 

Market gardening, 622, 632 ; in Cornyyall, 
21; sixty years ago, 86 

Market gardens, fruit picking in, 703; 
seakale in, 437 

Marsh marigold as ‘‘ spring greens,” 384 

Mastic, cold, for grafting purposes, 415 

Matricaria eximia grandiflora, 423 


yu 


INDEX. 


G. 


GAMe coverts and ornamental planting, 
392 

Garden, on the roof, 42; small, best fruit 
for, 106; at Montague House, 162; 
liquid-manure supply for, 219; food 
for, 219; allotment agreements, 274 ; 
market, plough in the, 274; the rose, 
for March, 319; the fruit, for March, 
321 ; the cottager’s, 333 ; the Temple, 
planting, 341; the new, at Stepney, 
341; farmhouse, 344; wild fruit, 384; 
new winter, 403 ; my daffodil, 419, 455 ; 
a tropical, 447 

Garden beauty in March, 473; in April, 
495 ; in May, 557; in June, 672 

Garden design: laying out grounds, 162 ; 
cropped trees and architectural lines, 
210; garden rockwork, good and bad, 
246; gardens at Haffield, Ledbury, 
266 ; water, 400 

Garden palms, 31, 72, 93, 133, 283, 313, 
368, 395, 461, 547 

Garden destroyers : aphides, their friends 
and their foes, 211, 242, 253; in 
February, 244 

Garden fountains, movable, 82 

Garden plans, 434. 

Garden rockwork, good and bad, 246 

Garden sculpture, 104 

Garden structures: Mr. Bessemer’s con. 
‘servatory, 170 

Gardenia Fortunei, 657 

Gardenias for cutting, 582 

Garden walks, cleaning of, 21 

Gardener and the owls, 600 

Gardener’s Royal Benevolent Institution, 
general meeting of, 221; anniversary 
dinner (1872), 673 

Gardeners’ (under) lodgings, 175 

Gardening, market, in Cornwall, 21; a 
gossip abont, 236; mural, 304; a 
German school of, 488; progressive, 
597 ; window, 710 

Gardening of the Huguenots, 353 

Gardening in Berlin, 676; in elementary 
schools, 431 

Gardening sixty years ago, 86 

Gardens, national, the pathway to noble, 
1; large, hints to owners of, 61 ; small, 
67; earth closets for, 115; new, at 
Rochester Castle, 140 ; hard soil in, 157; 
mole hunting in, 249, 358 ; wild flowers 
for, 279; public, and war, 280 ; Royal 
Botanic, Kew, 329, 343; Kensington, 
Albert memorial in, 341; birds in, 444, 
829 

Gardens and parks of Paris, 30; public, 
revival of horticulture in, 380 

Gardens at Haffield Ledbury, 266 

Gardens at Warwick Castle, 211 

Gardens in Deyon and Cornwall, 626 

Gardens of Hngland: Shrubland, 350; 
Possingworth, 592; Ryton House, 592 

Gardens of the Pincio, Rome, 589 

Gas, warming greenhouses with, 342; 
heating by, 403 

Gas lime, uses of, as a manure, 437 

Gates, 80 

Gaultheria Shallon for pheasant coverts, 
156 

Geometrical: flower gardens—Fontaine- 
bleau, 617 

Gentiana acaulis as an edging, 586 

Gerald Massey on “ Spring,” 504 

Geranium v. Pelargonium, 547 

German school of gardening, 438 

Germander Speedwell, 653, 714 

Gesneras, 546 

Giant fennels, or Ferulas, 499 

Giant sunflower, 151 


Gilia liniflora, 423 

Giles’s patent hand garden plough and 
general cultivator, 661 

Glasgow Botanic Garden, erection of the 
Kibble Conservatory in, 434 

Glasnevin, the Botanic Garden at, 309 

Glass, pears and apples under, 298; 
strawberry culture under, 571 

Glass and iron coping for fruit walls, 508 

Glass of various colours, experiments 
with, 175 

Glass houses, permanent shade for, 657 

Gleichenia flabellata, 89 

Gloxinias for winter blooming, 346 

Godetia Nivertiana, 423 

Golden-rayed lily, the, 499 

Gomuti palm, the 483 

Goniophlebium appendiculatum, 315 

Gooseberry, a New Englander on, 384 

Gooseberry caterpillar, 677 

Gourds for ornament, 584 

Goutier, Monsieur, death of, 434 

Grafting, anomalous, 317; changing the 
variety, renewing the stem, restoration 
of branches, furnishing bare branches, 
386 ; grafting (approach) in figure train- 
ing, 406; cold mastic for, 415; use 
of approach grafting for increasing 
the size of fruit, 467; make-believe 
grafting, 481; with a single branch 
579; witha based branch, 575; treatment 
after side grafting, 595; side grafting in 
the alburnum, 595; witha vertical cut, 
595; with an oblique’ cut, 595; treat. 
ment after side grafting in the albur- 
num, 596 ; veneer, 675; veneer crown, 
675 ; ordinary veneer, 675, 712; by 
inlaying, 712; (crown) by inlaying, 
713; (side) by inlaying, 713; treat- 
ment after inlaying, 713 

Grafting azaleas, 64 

Grafting de precision, 675 

Grafting, the art of, 64, 111, 122, 157, 
200, 212, 233, 257, 275, 315, 334, 386, 
406, 467, 508, 575, 595, 642, 675, 712 

Grafting the walnut, 446 

Grafting variegated pelargoniums, 446 

Grape, Madresfield Court, 228 

Grape-growing, amateur, 61 

Grape hyacinth, the Armenian, 687 

Grape rail, Kemp’s, 467 

Grape-room at Aswarby Park, 348 

Grape vine, the, in the open air, 587 

Grapes in bottles filled with water, 189 ; 
why not cut when ripe, and bottle them ? 
229; in bottles, 270, 350, 298; rust on, 
682 

Grass, 398; ornamental, new Japanese, 
120 ; a deadly, 282. 

Grasses for table decoration, 556 

Grasshoppers, destroying, 9 

Gravel, substitute for, 21 

Graveyard desecration, 46 

Graves, flowers for, 261 

Great gardens of Europe : Versailles, 214, 
284; Kew, 310, 377, 429 

Greatness, the source of, 482 

Greenhouse, cool, succulents for, 168 ; 
mode of heatinga small, 200; with a 
north aspect, plants for, 233; with a 
north aspect, 283 ; 

Greenhouses : in December, 32; warming 
with gas, 342; small, stove for, 403 

Grevillea Manglesii, 484 

Griffinia Blumenhavia, 12 

Grizzly Giant, 54 

Ground yineries, 638 

Grubs v. ranunculuses, 568 

Gryllotalpa vulgaris, 97 

Guano, 208 

Guano company, native, 385 

Guernsey, palms in, 458 


Guiana, river scene in, 281 
Gynerium argenteum, 159 


H. 


TIA¥FIELD, gardens at, 266 

Halesia tetraptera, 392 

Half-hardy palms, 521 

Halimcdendron argenteum, 332 

Hampstead Heath, 67, 85, 109, 131, 185, 
700 

Hanging baskets as household ornaments, 
416 

Hardening asphalte covering, 309 

Hardy aquatic plants, 478, GOS 

Hardy bamboos, 69 

Hardy Cacti, 2 

Hardy ferneries, 377 

Hardy flowers, notes on, 119 

Hardy palms, 377, 442 

Hardy plants, notes on, 21; new, notes 
on, 120; and trees, 160 

Hardy plants in flower round London, 
561, 578, 598, 603, 626, 648, 649, 672, 
713 

Hardy trees and shrubs, 100, 332, 504, 
632, 664, 693 

Hardy trees in the subtropical garden, 
93 ; for moist places, 633 

Hardy variegated plants, 543 

Hawthorn, the heart-leaved, 504 

Heartsease as bouquet flowers, 493 

Heat, working in the, 693 

Heaths, abnormal, 377; a plea for our, 
519; native, 543 

Heating by gas, 403 

Heating material, another new, 684 

Hebeclinium ianthinum, 484 

Hedges, walls, and groups, 164 

Heirs, not for our, 341 

Heliotrope, winter, 305 

Hemlock spruce, 195 

Hemp v. caterpillars, 445 

Heracleum, 326 

Herbs, harvesting, 20 

Herbaceous andalpine plants in December, 
25 

Herbaceous vegetation in Siberia, 32 

Herbaceous plants for exhibition, 117,187 

Herefordshire cottage garden, 252 

Hidden wealth, 225 

Highclere Castle—the park and grounds, 
613 

Hildesheim, rose tree of, 253 

Hip jam, 65 

Hollies, Shawdon, 266 

Hollyhock, 606 

Home landscapes, 18, 28, 261, 473 

Honolulu, 226 

Hornby Mills, 640 

Horseradish, 112, 340, 385, 576 

Horticultural hints, 22 

Horticultural toasts in America, 412 

Hot-water, apparatus, remarks on, 110 

House, site for, 200; plants for a uorth, 
323 

House sewerage, 115 

Honsehold ornaments, hanging baskets as, 
416 

Houses, span-roofed v. wall protectors, 
537 

How plants are fertilized, 432 

How to fight the weeds, 207 

How to grow fine parsley, 405 

How to make the most of coffee, 596 

Huguenots, gardening of the, 353 

Huntsman’s cup, simple mode of growing, 
521 

Hurtful insects, 57 

ybridizing pansies, 285 

Hybridizing pelargoniums, 397 


Dining-rooms, illumination of, 89 

Dining-tables, concealing pots 
470 j 

Dinner-table 
flowers for, 
flowers, 631 

Dinner-tables, arches upon, 40; tall vases 
on, 82 

Dionzea muscipula, 153 

Diospyros Kaki, 609 

Dipsacus laciniatus, 6 

Disabled peach and nectarine trees, 683 

Dock, great water, 457 

Dorsetshire, earliness of the season in, 
405 

Double flowers, 152 

Douglas fir, 99; pruning, 265. 

Draczenas, 446 ; as window plants, 313 

Draczena, a revision of the genus, 546, 
566, 636, 656 

Draczena Draco, 399 

Draczenas and Caladiums, 397 

Dragon tree, 399 

Drainage, 362; outlets, inclinations or 
slopes of drains, sizes of pipes for cer- 
tain areas, direction of drains, 422 ; 
root choking, cost, duration of pipe, 
423 ; for fruit trees, 476 

Drawing-room: a new floral ornament 
for the, 315; passion-flowers for the, 
631 

Dried fruit, our trade in, 189 

Driving in the parks, 379 

Drynarias, the, 15 

Duke of Wellington and Loudon, 298 

Dutch cottage-gardens, 48 

Dwarf fan palm, an old plant of, 311 

Dychouse cherry tree, the, 321 


under, 


form of, 127; 
centre-pieces for 


plants, 
137; 


E. 


HARLY vines in January, 149; tomatoes, 
208 ; vinery in February, 227; flowers, 
232, 304, 441; spring flowers, 320; 
hardy flowers, 375 

Earth closets for the garden, 110 

Hecremocarpus scaber, 543 

Kchinopsis Duyallii, 616 

Edging, Gentiana acaulis as an, 586 

Edgings, dwarf shrubs for, 357 ; of English 
ivy, 703 

Edible fungi, 35; passion-flower, 638 

Edinburgh, new cemetery at, 217 

Effect of gas on trees, 700 

Egg plant, 116 

Hlephant’s-foot plant, 258 

Elm, an old Temple Garden, 271 

Elms, New England, 169 

Hlongated Cytisus, 664 

England, medizeval forests of, 654 9 

English footpaths, 374 

Epiphyllum truncatum, 73 

Epping Forest, 186 

Hrianthus Monstierii, 252 

Erinus alpinus as a wall plant, 626 

Eryngiums, 50, 72 

Espaliers, upright system of training 
fruit trees on, 148 

Hucharis grandiflora, 258, 556 ; amazonica, 
506 

Euonymus americanus, 332 ; japonicus as 
a seaside shrub, 573, 665 

Euphorbia jacquinifiora, a grand climber, 
166 

Europe, oaks of, 169 

Eurycles Cunninghami, 42 ; amboynensis, 
423 

Kvergreen cypress, 100 


Evergreens, the slaughter of, 82; in . 


America, great mortality among, 664 
Everlasting flowers, 113 


INDEX. 


vil 


Exhibition: Moscow, 22; Royal Horti- 
cultural Society (December 6, 1871), 
66; of useful and hurtful insects, 536 ; 
great Birmingham, 670 (See Societies) 

Wxhibitions, floral decorations at, 4 

Extinct Sequoia (Wellingtonia) forest in 
England, 195 

Extreme cold, 322 


Fr. 


Farry-rivé Champignon, the, 333, 383 

Fan palm, dwarf, an old plant of, 311 

Farmhouse garden, 344 : 

Farms, landscape treatment of, 124 

February: out-door fruits, early vinery, 
and fruit garden in, 227; pinery and 
early peach house in, 228; indoor garden, 
conservatory, and stoves in, 231; fern- 
house, orchid-house, and hardwooded 
plants in, 232; flower garden in, 240; 
arboretum in, 242; kitchen garden in, 
245 

Fennel, 112 : 

Fern collecting in Devonshire, 376 

Fern house in February, 232; in April, 
448 ; in May, 538 

Fern Sumach, 375 

Fernery, cool, climbers for, 333; my in- 
door British, 566; hardy, 377 

Ferns: tree, old stumps of, 58; on the 
eastern Scottish Border, 457; native, 
and fern culture in Ireland, 477; filmy, 
climbing, 520; Allosorus crispus and 
other British, 652; from spores, 662 ; 
for baskets, 683 

Fertility of oranges, 476 

Fertilization of cereals, 136 

Fertilizing melons and cucumbers, 591 

Ferulas, or giant fennels, 499 

Ficus religiosa, 435 

Figs in midwinter, 204 

Finsbury and Southwark Parks, 46 

Fistulina hepatica, 458 

Flavouring with leaves, 535 

Flavyouring with seeds. 535 

Flora in town, 658 

Florida, picturesque springs of, 398 

Florists’ flowers, 26, 158 

Flower basket for vestibules, 446 

Flower beds, effective, 586 

Flower factories in Belgium, 691 

Flower garden for December, 20; for 
January, 151; for February, 240; for 
March, 320; for April, 448; for May, 
532; for June, 620 

Flower garden: decoration, 562 ; fashions 
for 1872, 517; nature’s, 517; tobacco 
in, 277; young conifers in, 121 

Flower-pot, a new and excellent, 27 

Flower shows, early Irish, 680 (see 
Societies) 

Flower vases, harmonies and contrasts in, 
578; trumpet-shaped, 62 

Flower-verses, 665 

Flower gardens, modern, 71 

Flower gardening, modern, 8, 479; of the 
present day, 440 

Flowers, and fountains, 131; for the 
dinner-table, 137 ; under artificial light, 
138; double, 152; for graves, 261; 
spring, a:garland of, 278; wild, for 
gardens, 279; early, 304, 441; early 
spring, 320 ; artificial, and their makers, 
326; mountain, 330; early hardy, 375 ; 
flying, 367 ; of fashion, 430; and 
perfumery, 446; for decorating vases, 
on choosing, 470 ; for vases, on choosing, 
523; for certain forms of vases, 578; 
dinner-table centre-pieces for, 631; 
winter, 699 

Flying flowers, 367 


Flying flowers and running water, 462 

Fontainebleau—geometrical flower gar- 
dens, 617 

Fontenelle and his asparagus, 62 

Food for the garden, 219 

Food of plants, 134, 138; of small birds, 
568 

Footpaths, Hnglish, 374: 

Forcing : lilacs, 166 ; roses, a simple plan 
for, 462; Paul’s scarlet thorn for, 462 ; 
may, 502 

Forest, pine, in the Jura, 332 

Forest trees, culture of, 53; replanting, 
220 

Forests, of India, 179; effects of on 
climate, 572; of England, a sketch of 
the laws, courts and officials of the 
medieval, 654 

Forget-me-not, 120 

Fork, good digging, 22 

Formal margin, 121 

Foster’s apricot shed, 30 

Fountains, 270; garden, movable, 82 

Foxglove, the, 150 

Fragrant flowers, 94 

Frame, warm, 255 

France, sea pine plantations in, 434: 

French: paradise stock, 688; peasant 
fund, 225 

Frijoles, 116 

Fritillaria meleagris, 541 

Frost, effect of on conifers, 169 

Fruit, best kinds of, for a small garden, 
106; aneglected, 188 ; dried, ourtrade in, 
189; on railway embankments, 270; 
bees destructive to, 358; improvement 
in Canada, 536; at Combe Abbey, 560 

Fruit-buds, preservation of, 106 

Fruit-crops, injury to, 476 

Fruit culture, profitable, 61 ; railway side, 
206 

Fruit eaters, parrots as, 430 

Fruit farm, a Worcestershire, 61 

Fruit garden: for January, 149; for 
February, 227; for March, 321; for 
April, 449 ; for May, 533; for June, 620 

Fruit label, new, 270 

Fruit picking in market gardens, 703 

Fruit preserving jar, American, 36 

Fruit syrups, sham, 469 

Fruit thinning, 586 

Fruit trees, the Author of ‘‘ Waverley ” on 
planting, 13; for ornament, 34; for 
crowing against an oak fence, 106; a 
new way to make, 123; seedling, how 
to induce to bear early, 124; on walls 
and espaliers, upright system of train- 
ing, 148; re-crafting worthless, 227; a 
new way to make, 228; for cottagers, 
229; moss on, 296; January’s teach- 
‘ng, 321; suckers, 439; arairage for, 
476; orchard house, in May, 533; on 
walls, 587; summer pruning of, 611; 
overcropping, 638; on high and low 
land, 704 

Fruit trellises, improved, 60 

Fruit, wall, aspects suitable to the various 
kinds of, 20 

Fruit walls, north aspect of, 61; wiring, 
149; old, wash for, 439; glass and iron 
coping for, 508 

Fruiterer’s baskets, law in reference to, 
196 

Fruits, food value of, 65; striped and 
yariegated, 123; new, of 1871, 177 
seedling, 440 ; indoors in December, 39 ; 
outdoor in April, 449; outdoor in May, 
533; best hardy, 660; thinning hardy, 
682 

Fruits and vegetables, tinned, 79 

Fuchsias in the open air, 652 

Fungi, edible,35 = - 


v1 


INDEX. 


Boughs, overhanging, 342 

Boulevard, new American, 46 

Bouquet flowers, heartsease as, 493 

Bouquets for the hand, 493 

Bouvardia Davidsoni, 146 

Box, odour of, 143 

Brackets for plants, 581 

Bramble leaves in winter, 582 

Bridge, rustic, without nails, 52 

British Columbian conifers, 464, 502, 551 

Broad-leaved sea lavender, the, 702 

Broccoli, 246, 301; protection of, 111; 
hard ground for, 274 

Brooklyn, the new park at, 84 

Broome’s (Samuel) memorial, 198 

Brownea grandiceps, 547 

Brussel sprouts, modes of cooking, 197 

Buckinghamshire orchids, 499 

Buckland, 28 

Buffalo berry, the, 573 

oe woly or American, destruction of, 


Bulbs, instructions for the growth of, in 
windows, 83 

Bulletins of a floral celebrity, 555 

Bullfinches, 357, 444 

Buphthalmum speciosum, 652 

Barning bush, the American, 332 

Butchers’ broom, with berries, 19 

Buttercups and geese, 499 


C. 


CABBAGE, miniature Savoy, 116 
Cabbages, preserving, 208 
Cacti, hardy Mexican, 262; cultivation 
of, 483 
Caladium esculentum, 585 
Caladiums for room decoration, 631 
California, the vintage of, 20; among 
the big trees in, 53; the tomato in, 208 
Californian radish, 68; quail, 153; dye 
- pe 186; columbine, 608; wines, 
Calceolaria, 391; shrubby, 260, 456 
Camellia, ontdoor cultivation of, 584 
Camellia-house, tea-scented Noisette roses 
for, 166 
Camellias, why they drop their buds, 635 ; 
and myrtles in Leicestershire, 543 
Canada, snow apple of, 384; fruit im- 
provement in, 536 
Cannas, 686 
Canterbury bell, rosy, 608 
Carbolic acid plant, 146 
Carbolic acid v. moulds, 402 
Carices, large Norfolk, 391 
Carnations, tree, 64,119, 260, 683 
Carnations and picotees from seed, 420; 
stake for, 518 
Carol of seed-time, 385 
Carrot pudding, 197 
Case for sending growing plants to distant 
countries, 64 
Castor-oil plant, 541 
Caterpillar, gooseberry, 677 
Caterpillars, hairy, 254; hemp versus, 
445 ; and cauliflowers, 254 
Cat’s-foot, the mountain, 687 
Cats, how to keep out of town gardens, 
114 
Caucasian plane, 572 
Cedar trees, a tale about, 195 
Cedar of Lebanon killed by frost, 618 ; 
noble, 665 
Celery, keeping, 712; prize, 8300; Simp- 
son’s collars for, 434 
Cemetery, new, at Edinburgh; 217; 
Coventry, 594; at Philadelphia, 568 
Cemeteries, 146 
Central Park, New York, 24, 544, 639 


Cerasus serrulata, 573 / 

Cereals, fertilization of, 136 

Chalk, trees and plants for planting on, 
373 

Chameerops excelsa, 479 

Champignon, fairy-ring, 333, 383 

Channel Islands, pears in, 384, 415, 535 

Charcoal dust, use for, 469 

Chatsworth, rockwork at, 50 / 

Cheiranthus Marshallii, 653 

Chemical fumes, damaging a crop by, 196 

Cherry, double-flowering Chinese, 573 ; 
grafted on the laurel, 683 

Cherry laurel v. aucuba, 466 

Cherry plum, 107 

Cherry tree, the Dyehonse, 321 

Cherries, 13 

Chestnut, great, of Mount Etna, 486 

Chickens v. insects, 244 

Chinese primroses, 261, 325; in winter, | 
91 


Chinese showy-flowered crab, 465 

Chinese narcissus, 543 

Chinese double-flowering cherry, 573 

Chinese rice-paper plant, 627 

Chiswick trial of peas, 628 

Christmas : vase, 93 ; horticulture in 
Vienna at, 150; roses at, 305 

Churchyards, our country, 713 

City graveyards, desecration of, 109 ; 
parks, situations of, 177 ; mortality, 
168 ; violets, 500 

Cities, trees and plants in, 2 

Clematis montana, 653 

Clematises, hardy, 375 

Clerodendrons, culture of, 615 

Clianthus Dampieri, 368, 563 

Climate, effects of forests on, 572 | 

Climbers for a cool fernery, 233; for 
rafters and walls, 283 

Climbing species of asparagus, 367; 
filmy ferns, 520 

Clivia nobilis, 637 

Cockchafer, 164; tenacity of life in, 358 

Cocoa-nut groves, 250 

Coffee, how to make the most of, 596 

Cold, extreme, 322 

Cole slaw, 197 

Colocasia odorata, 323 

Colorado produce, 116 

Colosseum in Regent’s Park, 178 

Combe Abbey, 559; landscape and water 
at, 559; trees at, 559; plant-houses at, 
559; palm-grass at, 560; fruit at, 560 

Common laurel a usurper, 129 

Compass plant, the, 17 

Conifers: planting, 54; young, in the 
flower garden, 121; effects of frosts on, 
169 ; pruning of, 264, 393 ; hybrid, 357 ; 
Jeffrey’s British Columbian, 464, 502 ; 
in boggy soil, 573 

Coniferous trees in Connemara, 571 

Condurango root, 209 

Connemara, coniferous trees in, 571 

Conservatory, a small, how to heat, 110; 
in January, 145; in February, 231; in 
April, 448; in May, 531; Mr. Besse- 
mer’s, 170; Kibble, erection of in 
Glasgow Botanic Garden, 434 

Conservatory, outside shading for, 502 

Conservatories in the natural style, 181, 
219, 260, 311; for cool orchids, 325 

Convict gardening in India, 86 

Cookery, the ‘‘ why”’ in vegetable, 653 

Cooking Brussels sprouts, modes of, 197 

Cooking the orange-milk mushroom, 596 

Cool orchids for Conservatories, 325 

Corn marigold, the, 502 / 

Cornish strawberries and bush-fruit, 20 

Cornwall, Market gardening in, 21 

Cordyline indivisa, 15 


Coronilla Emerus, 693 


Cotoneaster for walls, 442 

Cottage-gardens, Dutch, 48 

Cottager’s garden, the, 333 

Country churchyards, our, 713 

Coventry cemetery, 594 

Covering, hardening asphalte, 309 

Cow Parsnip, the, 326 

Cow Tree, the, 306 

Crab, showy-flowered Chinese, 465 

Cranberries, 440 

Cratzgus cordata, 504 

Creeping Myrtle, the, 324, 410 

Crinum capense, 687 

Crocuses, lost, 391 

Cropped trees and architectural lines, 210 

Crystal Palace Company, 112 

Crystal Palace, rose show at, 624 

Cucumber in the open ground, 627 

Cucumber: smooth vars. of, soils for, 
manures for, 424; principles of culti- 
vation, 436; air and moisture for, upon 
dung beds, preparing the dung for, 
469 ; dung and leaves for, forming the 
bed, 575; bed improved, 576 ; another 
kind of hot bed, 590; in brick pits, 
French system of making hotbeds, 590 ; 
planting of, 611, 665; ‘Marquis of 
Lorne,” 612; on walls, 665 ; cultivation 
of, 627; propagation of, 666 ; Russian 
way of dressing, 116; in moss, 424; 
Polish mode of preserving, 428; for 
seed, 665 

Cucumber tree,‘ heart-leaved, 420 

Cupressus sempervirens, 100; macro- 
carpa, 220, 330, 333 

Currant tomato, 383 

Currant trees, scale on, 350 

Cuttings, mode of transmitting, 161 ; rose, 
162 

Cyclamen, culture of the, 501 

Cyclamens, spotty, 462; the culture of, 
699 


Cydonia japonica, 573 

Cypress: upright, 130; the Montery, 
330, 333); as a hedge plant, 372 

Cypripedium Calceolus, 305; candidum, 
517 

Cytisus nigricans, 504; black, 504; elon- 
gatus, 664 


D. 


DAFFODIL GARDEN, 455 

Daffodil garden, my, 419 

Daffodils, 391, 430, 458 

Dampier’s glory pea, 368, 377 

Daphne indica, 90 

Darlingtonia californica, 396 

Date tree, what it is to the Saharians, 
322 

Dear seed, 158 

December : indoor garden in, 31 ; kitchen 
garden in, 41; flower garden in; 
shrubberies in, herbaceous and alpine 
plants in, 25; pits and frames in, rose 
garden in, 26; stove plants in, 31; 
greenhouses in, 32; orchid house in, 32; 
fruit garden in, out-door fruits in, 34; 
in-door fruits in, 35; arboretum in, 79 

Deodar pruning, 264 

Desert, sowing the, 598 

Deserted favourites, 239 

Destruction of trees in Kensington Gar- 
dens, 693 

Devoniensis rose, 376 ; history of, 433 

Devonshire, fern collecting in, 876; 
absence of mistletoe in, 436 

Dianthus brachyanthus, 687 

Dicentra eximia, 608 

Dielytra spectabilis, 233 

Digging-fork, good, 22 f 

Dimorphanthus mandschuricus, 117 


INDEX TO VOLUME 


A. 


ABELIAS, the, 46 

Abies, 464; Menziesii, 155; canadensis, 
195 

Acacia humifusa, 73; Riceana, 116 

Acanthuses, 303 

Acer Negundo variegatum, 333 

Achillea aurea, 586 

Adanson, last years of, 186 

Adansonia digitata, 240 

Adiantum rubellum, 637 

Adonis pyrenaica, 608 

Adulteration, 344 

AMthionema grandiflorum, 158 

Agaricus procerus, 178; gambosus, 623 

Agave ‘‘ telegraphica,” 51 

Agaves, potting, 369, 462, 494 

Ajuga alpina, 608 

Albert memorial, Kensington Gardens, 341 

Alligator pear, 104 

Allosorus crispus and other British ferns, 
562 

Almond, dwarf, 503 

Alocasia metallica, 146, 370 

Aloe, American variegated, 679 

Alpine forest Jand, the regeneration of, 
710 

Alpine garden, 497, 542, 562, 605; con- 
ditions of success in, 463 

Alpine plants green in winter, 305 

Alpine strawberry, 188 

Alpines, 204; stove, 346 

Alton Towers, 649 

Alyssum olympicum, 608 

Amarantus salicifolins, 71, 420 

_ Amateur grape-growing, 61 

~ Amateurs, advice to, 72 

America, new parks in, 2; parks and pub- 
lic gardens in, 45, 107; great mortality 
among evergreens in, 664; horticultural 
toasts in, 412; peach trade in, 106; 
peach culture in, 206 

American, burning bush, the, 332; black- 
berry, the, 349; sloe spirit, the, 402; 
sweet water-lily, the, 5; deserts, tree 
guides in, 22; and his gardener, 22; 
fruit-preserying jar, 36; new boule- 
yard, 46 ; variegated aloe, the, 679 

Amberstia nobilis, 17 

Ampelopsis tricuspidata, 8, 151 

Amyegdalus nana, 503 

Andaman Islands, timber forests of, 35-4 

Anzctochilus culture, 92 

Androsace lanuginosa, 51 

Angels’ Hyes (poem), 714: 

Annuals, 703; for spring, 686 

Anomalous Grafting, 317 

Anthurium magnificum, 146 ; Scherzeria- 
num, 14 

Ants, 98, 568 

Ants and aphides, 351. 

Aphelandra culture, 312 

Aphides, 568 ; their friends and foes, 211, 
242, 253 5 and ants, 308 

Aphis, bean, 212 


Apple, derivation of the word, 704; 
maggot, remedy for, 9, 99, 528; gar- 
dens, miniature, 189; orchards, prun- 
ing, 347; Canadian snow, 384; worm 
trap, 592 

Apples, choice on wire fencing, 414 ; root- 
erafting, 507; best dessert, 638 

Apples and pears in orchard houses, 229 

Apricot, shed, 35; disease, 106; prolific 
tree, 106; Sista, 147 

April : conservatory, fern house, stove, 
orchids, hard-wooded plants, and indoor 
garden in, 448; fruit garden, outdoor 
fruits, flower garden, pits and frames, 
and rose garden in, 449 ; orchard house, 
peach house, vineries, pinery, and kit- 
chen garden in, 450; garden beauty in, 
495 

Aquatic flower blooming 
204; plants hardy, 478° 

Aquilegi ia formosa, 151 

Arabis blepharophylla, 543 

Aralia canescens, 561; japonica, 653; 
papyrifera, 17 

Avaucarias, the largest in the British 
Isles, 504 

Arboretum for December, 79 ; for Febru- 
ary, 242; for March, 333; for June, 
621 

Arches upon dinner-tables, 40 

Architecture and foliage at Wilhelma, 
5380 

Architecture and nature, 400 

Areca Catechu, 621 

Arenga saccharifera, 483 

Art of grafting, 64, 111, 122, 157, 200, 
212, 233, 257, 275, 315, 334, 386, 
406, 467, 508, 515, 595, 642, 675, 
712 

Artificial flowers and their makers, 326 

Arundo conspicua, 377; A. Donax in the 
pleasure-ground, 391 

Ashton-under-Lyne, public park for, 272 

Asparagus, culture of, 339; climbing 
species of, 367; culture ‘of by the 
ancients, 385, 404 ; long, 405; for 
cutting, 631 ; plantations of, 712 

Asphalte, covering, hardening 309 

Asplenium septentrionale, 562 

Aster longifolius var. formosus, 8. 

Asters, planting, 653, 703 

Astilbe japonica, 616 

Aston, Lower Grounds, 602, 694: 

Aswarby Park, grape-room at, 348 

Aubrietias in pots, 567 

Aucuba v. cherry laurel, 466 

Aucubas, propagating, 446; miniature 
berry-bearing, 507. 

Auriculas from seed, 234 

Australian trees, acclimatisation of, 19 
mahogany, 430 

Autumn leaves, 470 

Axe essential, 103; a magician, 124: 

Azaleas, grafting, 64; Indian, soil for, 
potting, training, and treatment after 
flowering, 583 


in January, 


B. 


BAMBUSA FALCATA, japonica, mitis, nigra, 
Quilioi, Simonii, violascens, viridi-glau- 
cescens, 69; edulis, 353; aurea, 606 

Bananas and plantains, 396 

Banksian roses, 608, 653 

Baobab tree, 240 

Bark-boring insects, 547, 567, 628 

Basket plants, 460 

Baskets, ferns for, 683 

Baths, park, 158; sea, for London, 2 

Bavaria, an old yew tree in, 333 

Bean, Lima, 20; aphis, 212 

Bearded trees of Texas, 571 

Bedding: succulents, 455; spring, 563; 
out, 644; combined spring and summer, 
687 

Bedding plants, notes on, 252; spring 
treatment of, 389 

Beech trees and lightning, 194 

Beeches, large copper, 504 

Bees, and brambles, 136; destructive to 
fruit, 358 

Begonias, 91; winter blooming, 462 

Belgium, flower factories in, 691 

Benthall Hall: saxifrages, stonecrops, 
and houseleeks; pot culture of alpine 
plants; Ramonda pyrenaica as a pot 
plant; arrangement, &c., at, 620; new 
plants at, 626 

Berberises, large-leaved, for the conser. 
vatory, 14; Darwinii, 633 

Berlin, gardening in, 676 

Berry Hill, kitchen garden at, 80; plant- 
ing and lake margins at, 143 

Bessemer’s (Mr.) conservatory, 170 

Betel-nut palm, the, 521 

Big tree, the, 75, 421 

Birds, in gardens, 444; 529; small food 
of, 568 

Bird’s-nest fern, the, 651 

Birmingham Botanic Garden, the, 602; 
exhibition, 670, 715 

“Birmingham Saturday Half-Holiday 
Guide,” 691 

Bitter willows as game coverts, 136 

Blackberry, American, 3849; common, 
610 

Black eytisus, the, 504 

Blackheath, 341 

Blechnum brasiliense, 145 

Blighted thorns, 466 

Bocconia cordata, ¢ 606 ; japonica, 703 

Bog-garden, the, 7, 28 

Boilers, 199 

Bois de Vincennes, the, 425 

Boletus edulis, 35 

Border-plants, tall, 95 

Borghesi Gardens, “Rome, 634 

Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, the, 305 : 
at Birmingham, 602 

Botanic Gardens in the Regent’s Park, 
234, 268, 494 

Botanical ponies, 430 

Bottling grapes, 189, 229, 270, 298, 350 


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MEMORY OF JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON, 


AUTHOR OF THE 
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“ARBORETUM BRITANNICUM,” 


AND MANY OTHER WORKS WHICH HAVE TENDED TO ENNOBLE THE ART OF GARDENING, 


THE FIRST VOLUME OF “THE GARDEN,” IS DEDICATED BY ITS FOUNDER. 


JUNE 15, 1872. 


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THIS If AN ART 
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THE ART ITSELF IS NATURE.—Shakespeare. 


© Wis dD) Ala) GaN eb iU) Cerri 


WILLIAM ROBINSON, 


AUTHOR OF “ALPINE FLOWERS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS,” “THE WILD GARDEN,” EDC. 


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new terror to the lower regions. If anybody doubts the true cause 
of the terrible climate of our large cities, let him walk forth at 
three or four o’clock in the morning into the heart of one of them, 
—say, Endell-street, St. Giles’s, in November and December, when the 
fogs are at their worst. If he has any memories of the fog of the 
previous evening he will be surprised to see the street quite free of 
fog, the buildings not only visible, but perfectly clear in outline; and, 
strange fact for St. Giles’s—the air pure! Let him sally forth again 
at from half-past seven to half-past eight, and he will find a change ; 
the street is filling with a bluish foulness, the buildings losing shape. 
An hour later and the smoke, which we fancy would vanish, after 
passing up the chimney, has fallen down into the street, dimming the 
sight, and stinging us as we breathe it. In the more open spaces the 
effect is the same. When the chimneys have ceased to vomit for afew 
hours, the noble lines of the Thames Embankment stand out clear and 
bold; but a little before breakfast a new climate usually sets in. For 
a short time the sun is seen like ared lamp in the sky; but soon all is 
oyer, and very soon highly-civilized persons are steering themselves, 
as best they may, through a choking atmosphere, feeling about as 
appy as trout, in mud, and blaming our dear climate for it all! 

It is not the climate, which has bred a noble race for ages, that we 
should blame, but our own complacent stupidity in resting content 
under an evil, which, as half the population of these islands is now 
gathered in towns, has a hurtful effect on the whole nation. 

We find in the Times a letter from somebody who is actually bold 
enough to hope that the removal of this smoke curse of ours may be 
a “possible reform of the distant future,’ and who complains of 
having to “leave a suburban residence a few miles from the Bank in 
clear autumn sunshine, and to pass through gradually-deepening 
gloom into the lurid, orange fog of the City, there to struggle through 
his work by gaslight in a state of semi-asphyxia.”’ 

Poor fellow! Will none of our statesmen consider the millions who 
spend their nights as well as their days in such an atmosphere, and 
evenin much worse? For it should be understood that there are many 
parts of London much worse than the City, where, in consequence of 
the comparative absence of domestic fire-places, the air is usually 
much clearer than in such a neighbourhood as Lisson-grove. 

It may be a difficult problem to solve, but surely there is no 
difficulty or no expense to which we could be put in the defeat of this 
smoke monster, for which we should not be abundantly repaid by its 
destruction. Lengthened days, or at least some of heayen’s light in 
those we have, and undefiled air, are surely blessings, to secure which 
we might well submit to any inconvenience. It seems to us that if 
questions were brought forward in the degree of their importance, 
the smoke plague of our cities would be one of the first before 
Parliament. 


Trees and Plants in Cities.—I don’t know anything sweeter 
than this leaking in of Nature through all the cracks in the walls and 
floors of cities. You heap up a million tons of hewn rocks on a 
square mile or two of earth which was green once. The trees look 
down from the hill-sides and ask each other, as they stand on tiptoe, 
“What are these people about ?” And the small herbs at their feet 
look up and whisper back, “ We will go and see.’”’ So the small herbs 
pack themselves up in the least possible bundles, and wait until the 
wind steals to them at night and whispers, ‘‘ Come with me.” Then 
they go softly with it into the great city—one to a cleft in the paye- 
ment, one to a spout on the roof, one to a seam in the marbles over a 
rich gentleman’s bones, and one to the grave without a stone where 
nothing but a man is buried—and there they grow, looking down on 
the generations of men from mouldy roofs, looking up from between 
the less-trodden pavements, looking out through iron cemetery-rail- 
ings. Listen to them, when there is only a light breath stirring, and 
you will hear them say to each other, ‘‘ Wait a while!”” The words 
run along the telegraph of those narrow green lines that border the 
roads leading from the city, until they reach the slope of the hills, 
and the trees repeat in low murmurs to each other, ‘‘ Wait a while!” 
By-and-by the flow of life in the streets ebbs, and the old leafy in- 
habitants—the smaller tribes always in front—saunter in, one by 
one, very careless seemingly, but very tenacious, until they swarm 
so that the great stones gape from each other with the crowding of 
their roots, and the feldspar begins to be picked out of the granite to 
find them food. At last the trees take up their solemn line of march, 
and never rest until they have encamped in the market-place. Wait 
long enough and yon will find an old doting oak hugging a huge worn 
block in its yellow underground arms; that was the corner-stone of 
the state-house. Oh, so patient she is, this imperturbable Nature! 
—OLIveR WENDELL Hormes. 


New Parks in America.—The following parks are now being 
or about to be formed in the United States:—Brooklyn, 500 
acres ; New Britain, 100 acres, Ba™3,,@p 490 acres ; Chicago (two), 500 
acres, neither of which. is yet commv.. wne,.and Philadelphia, 114 


_ WHE GARDEN. 


[Noy. 25, 1871. 


acres, not yet commenced. The plans for Fairmount Park, Phila- 
delphia, have scarcely been completed yet, so that I cannot say when 
operations may be started there. Tomkins and Washington squares, 
in New York, have just been remaking. Union and Madison 
squares are also in course of re-construction in the same way, and 
Iam told that the squares in Washington are to be done in a similar 
way soon. 

New York, Sept. 28, 1871. R. M. 

Transplanting Large Trees in Paris.—Parisian horticult urists 
are now engaged on a transplanting experiment, ona large scale, with 
a view to replace the fine trees of the Champs Elysée, which war and 
revolution have recently destroyed. It will be the boldest attempt 
ever made in France in the removal of full-grown trees; and it is 
thought that the precautions adopted, which have necessitated a large 
outlay, will ensure complete success to this bold attempt to restore 
the pleasant groves of the Champs Elysée to their original beauty. 
If the result should be as expected, it will be very gratifying to see 
the extensive gaps among the trees of that favourite pro- 
menade satisfactorily filled up by others, in every respect equal to 
those destroyed. 

Metropolitan Improvements.—The Metropolitan Board of Works intend to 
apply to Parliament tor powers to effect improvements in the following localities, 
-either by widening the existing rincipal thoroughfares or constructing new 
streets :—High-street and Lower East Smithfield, Wapping ; High-street, Shore- 
ditch ; Old-street, towards New Oxford-street ; Harrow-road, and Newington- 
butts. It is also proposed to widen Serle-street and effect improvements near 
that street and Cook’s-court. Parliament will be asked in the ensuing session to 
authorize the construction of a sub-way under the Thames, commencimg at the 
south-west corner of the ornamental ground adjoining the Victoria Embank- 
ment, and immediately to the eastward of the Temple station of the Metropolitan 
District Railway, and terminating on the opposite side of the river near the 
junction of Princes-street with the Commercia -road, 

Sea Baths for London —A project for supplying London with sea water has 
been started. It is proposed by a company about to be incorporated, to pane 
the water from the neighbourhood of Brighton by means of nme reservoirs anc 
ten conduits and pumping stations? The company propose, further, to construct 
public and other baths, and to supply sea water to any parish or place within 
the limits of the metropolitan district. 


HARDY CACTI. 


For several years past, the hardiness of Opuntia Rafinesquit in 
the climate of London and Paris has been a subject of remark, and 
various persons in England and in northern France have testified to 
its hardiness. The fact, however, that it stands and grows well in a 
London back-garden, and deprived to a great extent of the sun, is as 
much proof as we need in that respect. This hardy species resists 
much greater cold than we eyer have in Britain, and it is probable 
we shall find that half a dozen or more species of cactus are quite as 
hardy as it. Along the line of the Pacific Railway you see cacti 
abundant in some places—in districts frosty and silvered with snow 
when I passed over them last November, and on the flanks of the 
Wassatch Mountains, near Salt Lake City, deeply covered with snow 
during the winter. It is desirable, in gathering the small mountain 
plants, and in sitting down on the ground, to look well for a small, 
poignantly prickly cactus, with round stems, which abounds there, 
and which communicates a peculiarly acrid sting to all soft, fleshy 
parts that touch it. I gathered this in company with astraguluses 
and other plants we usually term alpine. In the eastern and western 
States of America, very cold in winter, as everybody knows, there 
are three hardy opuntias—O. vulgaris (the common prickly pear), 
which goes as far north as New England; 0. Rayinesquit, in Wis- 
consin and Kentucky; and Q. missouriensis, in Wisconsin and 
towards the great plains. And from what one sees along the Pacific 
route, it is very likely a greater number of cacti go north along the 
Rocky Mountains’ dry plains and sierras than we find on the eastern 
side of the continent. It is very likely we shall some day have quite 
a group of dwarf hardy cacti keeping company with the houseleeks 
on our rock-gardens, and rivalling them in hardiness. They should 
be planted on the drier parts of the rock-garden, on dry sunny 
banks, on the edges of old walls, old bridges, ruins, &c. They will 
also thrive on borders, but are most appropriately placed in the 
positions above named. W. R. 


- - 

Obsolete Names of Plants.—Some botanists seem to consider 
it a meritorious act to rescue a forgotten name from oblivion, and 
look upon such discovery as being of almost as much benefit to 
science as the detection of some overlooked specific character. _ Such 
authors appear entirely to forget that names are merely arbitrary 
terms to represent the plants to which they belong. The rule that, 
when a species is already known by two or more nanies, the earliest 
given of these is to be adopted, is agreed to solely as a means of 
attaining unanimity in nomenclature ; but the revival of an obsolete 
appellation by which no one knows the plant is only producing, instead, 
of avoiding, confusion, and should be discouraged to the utmost.— 
B. B. Symp, in English Botany. 


Bap Heo Se a bila RS ARIK 


Nov. 25, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


““This is an art, 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather: but 
THe Arr 1s Nature.’’—Shakespeare. 


All communications for the Editorial Departinent should be addressed 
to Winn1Am Ropinson, THE “ GARDEN ” Orrice, 37 Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PUBLISHER. 

The Name and Address of the writer are required with every comunica- 
tion, though not for publication, unless desired by the writer. 
Letters or inquiries from anonymous correspondents will not be 
inserted. 

All questions on Horticultural matters sent to ‘‘ THE GARDEN ” will 
be answered by the best authorities in every department. Cor- 
respondents, in sending queries, are requested to write on one side 
of the paper only. 

Readers who may find it dificult to procure the munbers regularly 
through the newsagents, may have them sent direct from the 
office, at 19s. 6d. per annun, or 9s. 9d. for sin months, payable in 
advance. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE PATHWAY TO NOBLE NATIONAL GARDENS. 


Ty large cities ike London, New York, or Paris, where 
thousands of acres are already rescued from our mighty deserts 
of slate and brick, the question cf how to treat them so that they 
may be of fullest value to the public, not only as fields of health, 
but as schools of delightful instruction, is one of great import- 
ance. The public parks near no large city that we have seen, re- 
mee seut a tithe of the beauty and interest of the yegetable king- 

om of which they are capable, under the system to be presently 
indicated. We take into consideration, first, their vast extent ; 
second, their variety of soil and surface; third, the large sums 
spent annually for their keeping. Everywhere in them we see 
vast surfaces almost totally neglected, or only garnished with a 
few common-place trees; everywhere the fullest evidence that no 
thought is given to the production of noble, permanent, and 
distinctive features. Sometimes, indeed, a favourite spot in 
one is embellished at great expense during the summer months 
with tender plants, while the remainder of its surface is usually 
wholly uncared for. This is something like embellishing a 
man fluttering in rags with a costly button-hole bouquet. But 
the radical fault, everywhere strikingly apparent, is monotony 
in regard to materials used. A number of trees become popular, 
“and they are planted everywhere in about the same proportion. 
Thus, we everywhere find about the same type of vegetation ; 
and the capabilities of our parks as grand national gardens are 
quite undeveloped. 

The system we propose, and the one certain to give us the 
noblest series of public gardens the world has ever seen, is to 
treat all the public parks and gardens of a great city as a whole, 
and to establish in each a distinct type of vegetation. For 
example, we might devote one city park chiefly to noble de- 
ciduous trees; another, suburban one, as Richmond, to evergreen 
forest trees; another, to the almost countless flowering de- 

@ ciduous trees and shrubs that are the glory of the grove and 
copse in all northern and temperate countries. Or we might 
treat the subject geographically, and haye a small square or 
park with British trees, and shrubs, and plants; another of 
Huropean, another of American, another of Siberian, and so on. 
This plan does not imvolve the remoyal of other types of 
vegetation. On the contrary, their presence would often be 
necessary to contrast with those to which a park or garden 
“night be chiefly devoted. In all our parks, therefore, the 
improvements suggested might be carried out without dis- 
turbing any important subjects. And, even if it were deter- 
mined to devote a park wholly to the vegetation of one 
country, no one need doubt that the highest effects could be 
produced ‘by it alone who remembers what scenes we witness 
in our lanes and woodlands, from eyen four or five kinds of 
ative shrubs and trees. We could by the system we advocate 
define for each superintendent in what direction his efforts 
hould chiefly tend; give each an entirely distinct aim, and 


THE GARDEN. 1 


thereby free him from paltry rivalry with his fellows m 
the matter of “bedding plants,” '&c. He could then take up 
a Family, Order, or Flora, and develop its beauty and variety 
to the completest extent of our knowledge! In the vast ex- 
panse of our public gardens, there is not one interesting and 
important branch of arboriculture or horticulture which we 
could not deyelop in a way hitherto unexampled. On our’ 
botanic gardens already in existence (most of them not large 
enough for the proper grouping and arrangement of one single 
family of trees, with sufficient interspaces to permit of these 
being seen to advantage) the system would haye the best 
results. It would relieve our botanic gardens of the necessity 
of cramming every available plant or tree into a small space, 
and permit of their curators devoting sole attention to the 
many tribes of plants which require special and continual care 
ar renewal. : 

Generally our present botanic gardens give no more idea of 
the variety, beauty, and majesty of vegetation, than the fountam 
basin does of the wild tossing of a wind-tortured sea. No 
botanic garden in existence gives any worthy expression of the 
vegetation of even the cold and temperate clime vegetation of 
Europe alone! What do we see of the beauty and character of 
any one large family of trees by planting them all at regular 
intervals over a plot, or in the various ways we see them 
arranged in botanic gardens? The common way with botanic 
gardens is well, if we have no higher object than to procure 
specimens to illustrate the grammar of the nomenclature 
men have given plants. But if our aim be to show the in- 
exhaustible beauty and dignity of the vegetable kingdom, we 
must disentangle ourselves from such small notions. And, 
clearly, the way to do this is to treat our vast series of 
gardens (both botanic gardens and parks) as a whole; stamp 
on each some distinguishing feature—trom the smallest square 
with a complete collection of Tvyies or Hawthorns, to the noblest 
park adorned with the trees of a hundred hills. 

Finally, though the subject suggests other points of interest, 
let us consider what a noble school of instruction the parks of 
London, or those of any other great city, might in this way 
become for every planter and every garden-lovyer. ‘The whole 
might be made a colossal experimental ground, in which every 
question in connection with arboriculture might be thoroughly 
tested. In every direction distinct types of vegetation would be 
met with, instead of the “universal mixture” now everywhere 
seen, and which so soon and so thoroughly trains the eye to 
take no- more notice of trees or plants than of any individual 
railing-spike round one of our squares. The contents of no 
botanic garden now in existence would be worthy of mention 
compared with the noble results we could attain in this way. 
It is not, like many of the changes we long for in towns, 
impossible to carry out from want of means. The adoption 
of it would at once tend to make the expenditure of every 
shilling spent in our public gardens go toward a valuable result, 
and by it we should soon have national gardens in a far nobler 
sense than any hitherto m existence. ; 


1 


THE SMOKE POISON. 


Witt nobody deliver us from the perils of smoke ? Eyery year 
our cities grow vaster, and the great pall of “ blacks” is ever widen: 
ing! To hope to arouse public attention to the magnitude of the 
evil, by pointing to the thousands of plants that are always perishing 
from it, would be hopeless, considering that its pernicious effects ol — 
our own lives do not seem to be taken the least notice of. London 
and all our large cities are always under its ban ; but its most detests 
able aspects are most apparent on those still, frosty, autumnal and 
winter days, which in the country are so clear and sunny. On these, 
there being no breeze to brush away the outpourings of the innumer- 
able chimneys, the whole settles down in the streets like death on 
livingmen. On those days the glorious sun is darting its beams into 
the wide and horrid cloud, powerless to shoot a ray through its depth. 

Not the least curious thing about this great but avoidable plague. 
is that both foreigners and natives put it down to the climate. 

M. Taine speaks of the woefully-depressing influences of the climate. 
Doubtless there are many better ; but certainly the climate of London 
is quite as agreeable as that of Paris or northern France. The clouds 
of smoke make the difference. In consequence of being contented to 
live ina sea of the refuse of our fires, we possess the privilege of 
having our fairest, stillest. ~ __<suy winter days turned into foulest 
nights, in which one ‘s sufied with vapours that would add a 


Nov. 25, 1871.] 


= Lee TWO} PATE Ss: 


Amone the many original rockworks I have seen, those shown 
__ by the accompanying cuts deserve being handed down to future ages. 
They show some of the foolishness which ‘ rock-works” display. 
The hideous wall-like arch in the Hammersmith gem was, no doubt, 
_ originally planted with rock-plants, &c., by somebody who imagined 
_ they would grow thereon. The horizontal strata beneath the bolder 
crks cliffs in the public garden example are well worthy of study. These 
Bs ' } 


pat by Rockwork” in London public garden.? 
_ detestable examples will serve to show what childish and stupid 


notions of rock-gardens have up to the present time existed in 
_ gardens. If the purblind love of the picturesque is gratified by 


BY Such abominations as these, how much pleasure may we not hope to 


Rockwork in Villa at Hammersmith. 


__ give when the true and simple way of making a rock-garden is 

_ generally adopted! The labour and the “ genius” expended by the 
_ unfortunate persons in whose poetical brains such scenes as the pre- 
- ceding are conceived, and whose hands build them, would be precious 
if rightly directed. Are these “rockworks” suggestive of anything 
_ lovely in this world? Of all foolish things done in gardening that 
_ betray the trail of the serpent, this is the most foolish. A weary 
_ spinning away of the soul and emptying of the purse to produce 
_ something offensive to nature and man! With one cartload of stones 
_ abetter effect could be produced in ten minutes than by all the 


ee Single half-buried Stone surrounded by Alpine Plants. 


~ rockworks of the above type yet created! Nay, with one stone as 
_ Shown in the accompanying cut. Such a stone may be very appro- 
_ priately seen peeping above the turf, near the lower flanks of the 
_ rock-garden, or where the ground is about to break into bolder rocks 
orstrata. With a dozen stones, we succeed with our tiny rock-garden 
_ on the margin of a shrubbery. 
____ The following illustration well explains ourmeaning: an irregularly- 
_ sloping border, with a few mossy bits of rock peeping from a 
_ Swarming carpet of Sandworts, Mountain-pinks, Rock-cresses, 
- Sedums and Saxifrages, Arabisés and Aubrietias, with a little com- 
ay of fern-fronds sheltered in the low fringe of shrub behind the 
_ mossy stones. This is a rock-garden which anybody could carry 
out, and which would offend nobody. As the first illustration is 
_ sketched in a botanic garden, it may be well to point out the ex- 
_ ceeding impropriety of tolerating such scenes in a public garden 
= even of the meanest sort! "Granting that means were warting for 
_ anything better, their presence is inexcusable. Absurdities of this 
___ kind should be removed! It were surely better to do nothing at all 


THE GARDEN. 3 


than thus to sow the seeds of vicious taste in the minds of visitors to 
our publie gardens. In some of our public and private gardens want 


ns 
4 


Rock-garden on margin of shrubbery. 
of means is given as an excuse for the presence of the hideous pock- 
marked-potato-pit-like masses of rockwork that disfigure them. The 
plan now recommended is as much less expensive than these, as it is 
less offensive ! 


WALL PLANTS. 


Some plants, like the wall Linaria, the Wallflower, and Snap- 
dragon, are so fond of old walls that we see them everywhere 
thereon, but there is generally no adequate notion of the great 
number of plants that will thrive on walls. I have no doubt 
whatever that at least 400 species of cultivated rock and alpine 
plants would thrive well on old walls 
and ruins if sown thereon. Nor must 
it be supposed that a moist district is 
necessary, for the Pansy shown in the 
accompanying cut grew on a very dry 
brick wall at Kew—the brick wall be- 
hind the narrow border for herbaceous 
plants. It sprung forth at a foot or so 
below a coping, which prevented it from 
getting much or any rain, and one 
would scarcely have expected a Pansy 
to have existed in such a position. It 
not only did so, but flowered well and 
continuously. No doubt the seed fell 
in the chink by chance. ‘Those who 
possess old brick or other kinds of old walls would do well 
to sow on them the seeds of various rock and alpine plants, 
and also where there are mossy ‘chinks, with a slight aapcat 
of mould, to insert small plants in autumn. ‘The silvery Saxi- 
frages would do well planted thus, while they might also be 
sown with almost the certainty of success. Leaving out the few 
common wall plants mentioned at the beginning of this note, 
the following are among the most likely to succeed of plants 
easy to obtain :—Corydalis lutea, Arabis arenosa, and A. petraa, 
Draba in great variety, Ionopsidium acaule, Reseda odorata, 
Gypsophila in variety, Tunica Sawifraga, Dianthus cesius, and 
D. petreus, Lychnis alpina, Arenaria balearica (moist sides of 
walls), Sedum in great variety, Sempervivum in great variety, 
Sawifraga in great variety, particularly the silvery or Aizoon 
section, Belliwn in variety, Campanula small kinds in variety, 
Erinus alpinus. All the above may be sown in August or 
September, or in spring. This short list is confined to small 
plants. Among larger ones the common Centranthus ruber 
(Red Valerian) and its varieties do quite as well on old walls or 
ruins as the Wallflower, the Stock, or the Snapdragon; but 
these are not well fitted for association with the dwarf alpine 
plants, however attractive on high walls, old bridges, ruins, &e. 


Pansy on dry brick wall. 


THH GARDEN. 


[Noy. 25, 1871. 


EXHIBITIONS. 


FLORAL DECORATIONS. 


AtrHoucH the present generation is not so wasteful of time as 
were the Athenians of eighteen centuries ago, yet the desire for 
novelty seems not to have decreased in the interval. The fashion 
of our times exhibits an insatiable longing for the opportunity of 
seeing “some new thing,” rather than of talking or hearing about it. 
The Greeks were gossips and chatterboxes, while we are sightseers. 
Now, if flower shows are to continue to be attractive, the necessity 
for novelty must be a more grave consideration with their managers 
than it has been of late. People will not go to see the same thing 
over and over again. 

Horticultural exhibitions, in their widest meaning, are displays of 
garden products of all kinds. Now garden products may be divided 
into two distinct classes, viz., the useful and the ornamental, the 
necessary and the luxurious, the eatable and the uneatable. Of these 
two divisions, that which concerns the mouth is unquestionably of 
more vital importance than that which pleases the eyes only. Yet, 
as visitors go to these exhibitions to see and not to taste, it follows 
that, in order to render them attractive and self-supporting, those 
branches of horticulture which affect the inner man must not have 
so much prominence given to them as those branches which interest 
the organs of sight and smell. Hence it is that partiality for par- 
ticular branches of horticulture induces people to prefer calling such 
exhibitions ‘flower shows.” And here I would like to refer to the 
ridiculous plan which some societies haye of calling themselves 
“horticultural and floricultural,” as if floriculture were not included 
in horticulture. 

But to return to the attractive portions of a flower show. There 
appears to me to be many novelties which might advantageously be 
introduced, and particularly as regards the application. of plants and 
“flowers to decorative purposes. Up to the present time the metro- 
politan societies have not gone beyond offering prizes for groupings 
of plants, as if in conservatories, and of flowers, &c., for dining-tables, 
boudoir-tables, and bouquets; and in all the schedules that I have 
seen, the explanations of what the prizes were offered for, and of 
what restrictions were placed on the exhibitors, have been far from 
satisfactory; and hence, to a great extent, the dissatisfaction in 
many cases with the award of the judges, as well as the diversities 
in the opinions of the different judges; for it is not an uncommon 
thing for the same exhibitors to compete at different shows with the 
same display, and for one to be successful at one show and at the 
other to be ‘‘nowhere,”’ while at the following show this decision is 
reversed. 

Take, for example, prizes offered for 'the decoration of a dinner- 
table. In order that competitors may be placed upon equal terms, 
detailed information respecting the following questions should appear 
in the schedule :—The size of the table should be fixed; the number 
of diners should be stated; the question of its being a dimner by day- 
light or after dark should be settled; if after dark, whether the table 
is to be lighted from the walls or ceiling, or whether by lights placed 
on the table, and thus constituting, and being considered as, a part 
of the decorations; whether fruit is necessary, optional, or pro- 
hibited; whether growimg plants (which it would be better to 
designate as ‘plants with roots,” as distinguished from what is 
commonly understood by the expression, ‘‘cut flowers’’) are neces- 
sary, optional, or prohibited; whether any dishes are to go on the 
table, or the dinner is to be served @ la Russe ; whether the exhibitor 
is, or is not, required to leave space (fifteen inches) round the margin 
of the table for the plates and glasses; whether a supply of plates, 
knives, forks, spoons, decanters, curaffes, ice-dishes, and wine-glasses, 
is required or prohibited ; whether the exhibitor is expected to pro- 
vide a table-cloth, and if so, of what size; what time will be allowed 
for arranging ; whether the exhibitor will be allowed or forbidden to 
use any vases or other objects for ornament, which are not required 
for the flowers or fruit ; and last, not least, let it be made perfectly 
clear that the prizes are not offered for the best arranged dinner- 
table, but for the best arrangement of garden-products suitable for the 
decoration of a dinner-table. The occasion upon which such a display 
is permitted is one specially set apart for the advancement of garden- 
ing in all its branches; it is not a fine art exhibition, but a horti- 
cultural one. Hence the arrangement and grouping of the flowers, 
foliage, and fruit ought always to have primary consideration; and 
on no account should any deficiencies in this matter be considered to 
have been made up for by the beauty of Eliington’s stands and Cope- 
land’s dessert-plates, or Phillips’s glass arches and plateaux. 

This may appear to be an unnecessarily long list of doubts to be 
cleared up before competitors can start on equal terms; but it will 
only be thought so by those who have not paid much attention to 
the subject. All gardeners know €uvx constantly the wording of 
schedules is misunderstocd and differently interpreted, even in the 


matter of exhibiting half-a-dozen plants; the gardening periodicals 
afford frequent evidence of complaints under this heading. If the 
managers of flower shows, and framers of schedules, are liable to 
cloudiness and fogginess in such simple matters, it is the less to be 
wondered at that their ‘specifications,’ in the more recently- 
introduced branch of floral decorations, are not so intelligible and 
explicit as they ought to be. Many a man with an eye “for form 
can without difficulty pick out the best-shaped horse at a fair, when 
he would be at a loss to know how to explain to a friend all the 
reasons which had operated in leading him to the conclusion at 
which he had arrived; and he would probably look considerably 
aghast if some enthusiastic appreciator of his correct judgment 
were to suggest to him that he should “write a book about it.” And 
I must confess that those parts of schedules affecting “table 
decorations,’ which have come under my notice, haye too often 
impressed me with the belief either that the framers conld not 
clearly express themselves, or else that they did not understand 
what they were writing about. 

And now a word or two about certain novelties, which I think 
might well be introduced at flower shows. Floral decorations may, 
conveniently for my present purpose, be divided under the three 
headings of ‘‘ personal,’’ ‘‘ domestic,” and ‘“ ecclesiastical.” 

Commencing with personal decorations, and giving, as in duty 
bound, place awe dames,let me mention wreaths and sprays for the 
hair amongst the first objects for which competition might be inyited. 
Sprays are also sometimes worn upon dresses at evening parties. The 
demand for head-dresses in Covent Garden is very large. So also is 
the demand for coat-flowers, also called button-holes. “Of these astand 
containing a dozen, if nicely arranged, would well merit a prize, and 
much competition might be expected for stands of these. 

Turning next to domestic decorations, the following subjects 
suggest themselves:—Sideboards in a dining-room, buffets or 
standing supper-tables, doorways, grates and mantelpieces, the 
end of a room for an orchestra; each of these might be suitable 
subjects for prizes. So also might be a portion of oné of the series 
of long tables used at public dinners, arranged (as they so rarely 
are now) so that every one may see the “gentleman who is 
speaking.” 

_Upon decorations ecclesiastical I must touch but very briefly, 
merely mentioning that competitions for fonts, doorways, arches, 
screens, scrolls, crosses, &e., if decorated with natural flowers, could 


not take place in a more suitable and appropriate place than at a 


flower show. Ween: 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, ~ 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS, DOUBLE WINDOWS, &c. 


In country or in town there is no more interesting amusement than 


the culture of plants indoors! And if so now, how much more will 
it be when we haye in dwelling-houses the large number of plants 
that may be well grown therein! We have as yet but a very 
imperfect knowledge of the number of species that will thriye in the 
dry air of rooms; there are probably thousands of the natives of 
hot and arid countries which will do so. Comparatively few have as 
yet been tried. The present is the first of a series of excellent 
articles from the German of Dr. Regel, of St. Petersburg, where the 
indoor culture of plants is carried to a degree and with a success of 


which we have no adequate notion in this country. This culture is 


as yet in its infancy in this country and on the Continent, though it 
is far better understood in some parts of the Continent than with us. 
Before we proceed to more special instructions concerning the 
culture of plants in rooms, we shall first make some general obser- 
yations on those places or parts of dwelling-houses which can either 


be used for the cultivation of plants or which may be adorned by 


them in a tasteful and durable manner. Hyeryone who wishes to 


occupy himself with this mode of culture, whether the means at his” 


' disposal be great or small, should be careful not to select windows 


which face the nor th, as in such a case it is absolutely vain to expect 
that the attempt will be attended with any permanent or satisfactory 
results. The best aspect is a south one, where the sun has free 
access during the entire day, as rooms are the better adapted for 
this mode of culture in proportion to the length of time they remain 
under the influence of the solar rays. 
seldom to be obtained; but where a choice can be made, one should 
be selected which faces the south, east, or west, so that at least for 


some part of the day the sun, even when he is nearest the horizon in” 


winter, may shine freely upon it. The longer he ean do so the better 
adapted the house will be for room culture. An excess of solar light 
can be regulated by means of shading, &c., while a deficiency of it 
cannot be supplied by any means whatever. Whoever desires to 
convert a room into a sort of winter-garden, by means of suitable 
ornamental plants, should choose for this purpose a corner room 


In towns suitable houses are © 


A, 


2 a 


Noy. 25, 1871.} 


THE GARDEN. 5 


ees TT S——__“—_——oqo—o_0qnl)lN4,},._————. 


which has windows on both sides, and is more or less exposed on 
both sides to the sun. The larger and higher the windows, and the 
lighter the room, the more favourable will it be for the culture of 
plants. Light-coloured paper, or light colouring on the walls, is also 
advantageous in this respect. Dwelling-rooms, which are generally 
warmer and more dusty, are less suitable for this kind of cylture, 
and for decoration with evergreen stoye-plants, than reception-rooms, 
the temperature of which in winter averages from 55 deg. to 60 deg. 
Fahr. However, some kind of vegetation will be found to thrive in 
almost every kind of apartment, and in those that are kept dry we 
may have numbers of Mesembryanthemums and other succulents, if 
_nonght else. Corridors and frost-proof chambers, which are more 
useful for wintering greenhouse plants, should be light and sunny, 
and should moreover be furnished with thermometers, so that their 
temperature may be known. During continuous cold weather they 
should be heated just to the degree which will exclude frost. Care 
should also be taken to guard against the admission of cold draughts 
when opening the doors in frosty weather. In very severe climates 
double doors will be necessary. By not attending to these last two 
particulars, entire collections of in-door plants are often lost in a 
short time. 
’ (To be continued.) 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


NOTES MADE IN “THE TIME OF ROSES.” 
By 8. Reyyoups Hote. 

Eyeryzopy knows that, no long time ago, a public notice 
_ was set up by one of the stewards upon an Irish course, 
warning the world, that if the horses were. not punctually at 
- the post, the races would proceed without them; but only 
some of us know that, in the season by courtesy called 
- summer of 1871, we rosarians, who race for the Queen’s 

Plates, that is, for the silyer cups of Her Majesty the Queen 

of Flowers, have been rose-showing without our roses. We 
have been racing on our hacks, and just as the spectators 
were thronging from the ground, our beautiful thorough-breds 
came upon the scene. 

I mean that, with some few exceptions in our southern and 
western shires, the best flowers have bloomed on our trees 
after the wars of the roses were lost and won. <A severe 
winter, followed by an ungenial spring, so crippled the weak 
and kept back the strong, that in our midland and northern 
districts hardly a rose appeared in its integrity before the 

_ second week in July; and in the flowers brought to our ex- 
_ hibitions from a milder climate, there was seen only here and 
_ there in its full development the grace and glory of the rose. 
Once checked in its growth, once chilled by vernal frost, no 
bud ever reaches perfect rosehood. It may produce an 
attractive flower; but in size, or symmetry, or colour, or 
foliage, there will be defect. The bloom which Celebs cuts 
_ for his betrothed, and Benedict for his bride, the rose which is 
four inches in diameter, and has not a petal sullied or out of 
_ place, has known no sickness nor stay. And soit has happened 
_ that we have gone abroad to the shows with our first roses more 
_ or less discoloured and deformed, and have surveyed at home 
_ anabundance of perfect flowers. The hay which we have taken 
to market was in quantity small and in quality coarse, but the 

“ edish’ ‘has been magnificent. 

Rose-growers of England, who live at home at ease, you 
have not, I can assure you, an adequate appreciation of the 
* anxieties of those who go forth with their blooms in boxes. 
a For two or three days before a rose-show, the exhibitor is 
_ “roving for ever from flower to flower” (gay pastime for bees, 
and butterflies, and lithe young lovers of the rose, but trying 
to parties who are rising fifty, and weighing sixteen stone), 
_ wondering which will be ready, and which will not; now 
mt to retard, now blowing to educe, a bloom; collecting 
oe 


* 


and culling his moss; arranging his boxes; writing names 

oo ae and, on the eve of the exhibition, cutting his 
_ Yoses. See him! with a flower in his right hand, and a flower 
_ in his left hand, and a flower held between his teeth, and with 
__ his two eyes vainly essaying to gloat on twenty others at once 
Pe —see him, with the last night’s ink upon his fingers, and last 
_ night's beard upon his chin, for he has risen at three in the 
_ morning, and ah out much as he rose—see him, tearing 
_ backwards and forwards, to and fro, as though he had backed 


. 


- 


himself to fill a thousand boxes in a thousand hours—see him, 
now standing in cold despair before that Charles Lefebvre, 
which yesterday was a miracle, but now returns his dejected 
stare with an “eye” about the size of a sixpence,and now flushed 
with a smile, roseate, as he sees for the first time a glorious 
Pierre Notting, pendent in purple beauty beneath its liberal 
leaves. 

And then the journey: the horrible apprehension which 
always postpones itself until you are three miles from home, 
that you have left something, you know not what, behind; 
the agonising possibility of being too late for the train; the 
stone deafness of guards and porters to your shrieks of “ keep 
level,” and their constant appearance at either end of your 
boxes, in the position of persons playing see-saw; the cabinan, 
who does not seem quite sure as to his route, and the horse 
who does not seem quite sure as to his footing; the unpacking, 
the jostling, the staging; the well-meant but maddening queries 
of the bystanders flocking around, “Is’nt that Marie Beauman 
too far gone?” and “ Haven’t you got a better Maréchal 
Niel?” Then, finally, “the waiting for the verdict ’—not 
always Solomon’s, not always just and wise. 

Wherefore, remembering these solicitudes, I was glad to rest 
in my bower, and surveying thence my roses thankfully, now 
invite you, my reader, to share my thoughts. 

First, in my annual astonishment and admiration at the 
supreme beauty of the rose—in my wonderment why this 
flower should hold such an excellence above all flowers as we 
find in no other genus or species of created things. There 
prevails, by unanimous assent, no such superiority among the 
nations, in the animate or inanimate world. We English are 
fully convinced that we are the cream of creation; but the 
verdict must be “ Not proven,” so long as the neighbours fail 
to see our close affinity to the cheese. Adsop and others have 
crowned the lion king. There is to my eyes more of majestic 
dignity in the horse, more of beauty in the antlered monarch 
of the waste, greater powers of administration in the subtle 
wisdom of the fox. Nor have I observed any recognition of 
royalty in the behaviour of the other animals before the so-called 
king of beasts; but have noted, on the contrary, in the me- 
nagerie of Wombwell a levity of conduct, more especially 
striking in the deportment of the monkeys, which no subjects 
could have exhibited around and before the throne. ‘The 
diamond, you say, outshines all other gems: there are some 
who love the emerald and the opal more. But we are all at 
one, florists or not, as to the Royal Supremacy of the Rose. I 
will make no comparisons. No true gardener compares one 
flower with another, loving all too well to disparage any; but 
while he finds in each, from a Myosotis to a Magnolia, enough 
and more than enough of beauty to exhaust his power of 
appreciation, he will tell you that their Queen is the Rose. 
We are loyal toa man. We may and do differ as to the Belle 
of the Court; whether Lelia or Dipladenia, Allamanda or 
Ivova, Stephanotis or Eucharis, Erica or Hedaroma, Lily or 
Viola, be tairest of the fair ladies-in-waiting, but we have no 
dissension in whose hand to place the sceptre. 


(To be continued.) 


The American Sweet Water-Lily (Nymphea odorata). 
—These pleasant hills are not of the monotonous if rich prairie. ‘These 
English-like hedgerows that border good winding-roads have little in 
common with those of Western Canada, where you can never go any- 
where but in a painfully straigh line. These pretty villages have not 
the primly meanair of the young American town, but a grateful, home- 
like look, and have little gardens and large trees. These quiet village- 
greens instantly remind one of the pleasantest parts of a small island 
on the other side of the Atlantic. Such were my thonghts last 
autumn as a manly-looking young fellow (as he sat by me and talked 
I could scarcely realise his belonging to a people with another name) 
drove me, by pleasant rolling woods and large, silvery, pine-fringed 
lakes, to Mr. Hunniwell’s charming place at Wellesley, Massachusetts. 
New England indeed, but very like Old England, with the exception 
perhaps of the golden rods and asters, that make such an effective 
mixture of blue and gold in the copses and by the roadsides. Sud- 
denly we came to a lake, that shone like steel under the clear Indian- 
summer sun, and ran far back to slopes and bays, guarded by hosts 
of funereal-looking pines. Here and there onits bosom, farand near, 
were dotted beautiful large water-lilies, white as snow, like fairy 
white-winged ships alone or in little fleets, each surrounded by a 


6 ! THE GARDEN. 


- (Nov. 25, 1871, 


flotilla of green boats. The English water-lily P No, but very like 
it. It is the sweet American water-lily, so like Nymphea alba that 
in the distance one thinks it our own queenly water-lily. Nymphea 
odorata differs from our own white water-lily in bemg sweet-scented, 
and in having narrower petals, but the flower is quite as fine, or finer, 
measuring as much as five inches and a half across, and the leaves 
large and handsome. JI know no plant more worth our attention, 
more worthy of a place beside our own water-lily, or of naturalisation 
in our ornamental waters.—Field. 


Dipsacus laciniatus.—The subject of our illustration is a bien- 
nial plant, a native of Europe and Siberia, as easily raised as the 
common fullers’ teasel, and a very effective plant, quite distinct 
in aspect, too, from the things usually seen in our flower-gardens. 
It is useful for grouping with the freer-growing plants like the castor 
oils, &e., or for filling up vacancies in groups of hardy perennials 


with fine foliage, or for placing a few feet within the margin of a 


shrubbery or mass of American plants. The treatment given to.a 
half hardy annual will suit this Dipsacus perfectly, and it may be 


— Ee 


Dipsacus laciniatus. 


placed out with the earliest bedding plants. It is hardy enough, 
but as it is only an:annual or biennial, its hardiness does not save 
us the trouble of raising it annually; so it may as well be raised 
with the half hardy bedding plants and the like. The foliage is 
usually fuller and larger halfway up the stem than is represented 
in our illustration. Itis one of the most valuable and easily raised 
of the hardy plants frequently, but not happily, termed sub-tropical. 
The plant figured was sketched in Hyde Park this year. 

The Wild-Garden.—When on a botanising excursion in the west 
of Ireland lately, I looked in at Rockingham, near Boyle, where some 
matters Yelating to the wild-sarden pleased me much. Adjoining 
the garden, there is a low fence wall, built with brick. It is a kind 
of sunk fence, one face of the wall only appearing, the other being 
covered with earth, in consequence of the ground inside being con- 
siderably higher, which causes the side seen to be always damp. 
From one end to the other, it was densely covered with Aspleniwm 
Trichomanes, which had fronds upwards of a foot in length in many 
instances. ‘The effect produced by such a mass of this elesant fern, 


growing with such luxuriance under the circumstances described, 
seemed to me almost magical. The tops and portions of the faces of 
the garden walls were covered with masses of Grammutis Ceterach in 
many places, which, the gardener stated, they had constantly to 
eradicate, in order to keep the trees clear of it. Another pretty 
and partly natural object attracted my attention in the domain of 
Rockingham, namely, a bridge built over an arm of the great lake 
there, with water-worn limestone, which abounds in that neigh- 
bourhood. The ends of the slabs of stones were only hammered 
square, so as to make them fit firmly together; both faces were left 
in their curious, undulating, natural state; besides, the parapets — 
and coping were of the same material. This bridge, covered winh 
a beautiful drapery of ferns, and with the natural projections of 
the stones appearing at intervals among them, had a very picturesque 
and pleasing effect, such as I believe could easily be imitated im the 
making of artificial bridges in wild-garden scenery; hence one of 
the reasons I made a note of it. When at Sligo, I yisited the 
domain of the late Right Hon. John Wynne, who was himself 
a good Irish botanist, as well as a lover of horticulture. I found 
he had been in the habit of introducing many American and other 
ornamental bog-loying plants through his extensive and naturally- 
beantiful domain. I have never before seen such plants as Gaultheria 
Shallon, G. procumbens, the Pernettyas, &e., growing in so natural 
a condition among the long heath and mosses as they do there. 
I expected to find Hpigewa repens had also been tried, but could see 
no trace of it, though I have no doubt that that lovely plant would 
do as well there as it does in the Canadian forests. ' 
Glasnevin. D. Moore. 


PLANTING HARDY ORCHIDS, CHOICE ALPINE 
PLANTS, &c. ‘ 

TERE is a mischievous or rather murderous way of planting 
almost every kind of small plant, which is particularly re- 
eretable in the case of hardy orchids, which have roots easily 
injured, and of all rare hardy plants. I refer to the making of 
a hole for the plant, and after a little soil has been shaken over 
the roots, pressing heavily with the fingers over the roots and 
near the neck of the unfortunate subject. What is meant will — 
be understood from fig. 2, if the reader assumes there is a little — 
soil between the fingers and the roots. Where the roots are not 
all broken off in this way, many of them are multilated; or 


; 2, E 

those near the collar of the plant are thrust deeper into the 
earth. Not unfrequently plants perish from this cause. The 
right way is, after preparing the ground, to make it firm and 
level, and then make a little cut or trench, as in fig1. The 
side of this trench should be firm and smooth, and the plant 
placed against it, the roots spread out, and the neck ot the 
plant just at the proper level, as in fig. 1. Then a good deal of 
the fine earth of the little trench is to be thrown against the 
roots, and as much lateral pressure applied as may be necessary 
to make the whole quite firm. Once the subject is carefully 
planted, as much suriace-pressure as you like may be given. 
In this way not a fibre of the most fragile plant will be injured. 
This, of course, only applies to subjects not planted with balls, 
and, without balls, is the best way to plant.—W. R. 4) Tea 


Ivy Borders.—Well aware of the many positions in which these may be used 
withthe best result, we had no idea till lately of the capital effect they produce 
when used as margins to beds on grass lawns. In this case one would haye 
thought the verdant carpet of turf sufficient, and so if is, if the subjects fill the 
bed properly and come flush to the margin; but, with the bare earth more con- — 
spicnous than the bedding-plants, as is so often the case early in the summer, 
the belt of fresh ivy, rising as it does several inches above the level of the earth, 
effects the greatest improvement. Near at hand this is not soevident, but when 
a little way off, the nakedness of the earth is hidden by the ivy, and the flowers — 
peep above it, the whole seeming well furnished. Ivy edgings deserve far more 
attention than they at present obtain, and they may be used in scores of positions 
where they are neyernowseen. The best kind is the Irish; but where many 
edgings are made, it would be very desirable to produce some variety by using 
other healthy green-leaved kinds; and the variegated ones, too, should 
be attractive, though no charm of theirs can ever equal the unmatched verdure of 
the Irish ivy in early summer. Beside it all other leaves of our hardy plants _ 
seem washed out or feeble stains.—W. : a 

Window Gardening for Young Ladies.—Don’t plant yourself at the ~ 
window in curl papers. By careful choice of situation and attention to aspect, 
young ladies may, by means of window gardening, successfully cultivate every 
variety of the sheepseye (Ovis oculus ardens), and conyert coxcombs from the single 
to the double variety, with great suceess,—Punch’s Almanac, : 


4 


Nov, 25, 1871] THE GARDEN. 7 


THE BOG-GARDEN. 


Tne bog-garden is a home for the numerous children of the 
wild that will not thrive on our harsh, bare, and dry garden- 
borders, but must be cushioned on moss, and associated with 
their own relatives in moist peat soil. many beautiful plants, 
like the Wind Gentian and Creeping Harebell, grow on our own 
bogs and marshes much as these are now encroached upon. 
But even those acquainted with the beauty of the plants of our 
own bogs have, as a rule, but a feeble notion of the multitude 
of charming plants, natives of northern and temperate 
countries, whose home is the open marsh or boggy wood. In 
our own country we have been so long encroaching upon the 
bogs and wastes that some of us come to regard them as 
exceptional tracts all over the world. But when one travels 
in new countries in northern climes, one soon learns what a 
yast extent of the world’s surface was at one time covered 
with bogs. In North America day after day, even by the 
margins of the railroads, one sees the vivid blooms of the 
Cardinal Flower spring erect from the wet peaty hollows. Far 
under the shady woods stretch the black bog-pools, the ground 
between so shaky that you move a few steps with difficulty. 
One wonders how the trees exist with their roots in such a bath. 
And where the 
forest vegeta- 
tion disappears, 
the American 
Pitcher plant 
(Sarracenia), 
Golden Club 
(Orontium), 
Water Arum 
(Calla palus- 
tris), and a host 
of other hand- 
some and inte- 
resting bog- 

_ plants,cover the 
round for hun- 
eds of acres 
with perhaps 
an occasional 
slender bush 
of Laurel Mag- 
nolia (Magnolia 
glauca) among 
them. In some 
parts of Canada, 
where the pain- 
fully-long and 
straight roads 


Cypripedium. Trillium. 
are often made pe on 


Sarracenia, Helonias, Pinguicula, 


bright sun, and dancing in the breeze? No one worthily, for 
no one knows. For many mountain-swamp regions are as yet 
as little known to us as those of the Himalaya, with their 
giant Primroses and many strange and lovely flowers. One 
thing, however, we may gather from our small experiences, 
that many plants commonly termed “ Alpine,” and found on 
high mountains, are true bog-plants. This must be clear to 
anyone who has seen our pretty bird's-eye Primrose in the 
wet mountain-side bogs of Westmoreland, or the Bavarian 
Gentian in the spongy soil by Alpine rivulets, or the Gentianella 
(Gentiana acaulis) in the snow ooze. We enjoy at our doors 
the plants of hottest tropical isles, but many wrongly think the 
rare bog-plants, like the minute Alpine plants, cannot be grown 
well in gardens. Like the rock-garden, the bog-garden is 
rarely or neyer seen properly made and embellished with its 
most suitable ornaments. Indeed, bog-gardens of any kind 
are very rare, and only attempted by an individual here and 
there, who usually confines them to the accommodation of a 
few plants found in the neighbouring bogs. I will now pro- 
ceed to point out how these may be made with a certainty of 
success. 

In some places naturally boggy spots may be found which 
may be readily converted into a home for some of the subjects to 
be named here- 
after. But in 
most places an 
artificial bog is 
the only possible 
one. It should 
only be made in 
a picturesque 
part of tive 
grounds. It 
may be asso- 
ciated with a 
rock-garden 
with goodeffect, 
or it may be in 
a moist hollow, 
or may touch 
upon the mar- 
gins of a pond 
or lake. By the 
margins of 
streamlets, too, 
little bogs may 
be made with 
excellent taste. 
A tiny streamlet 
may be diverted 
from the main 
one to flow over 


through woody Tur Boc-Ganrpey. the adjacent 


swamps, and 

where the few ‘scattered and poor habitations offer little to 
_ cheer the traveller, if a lover of plants, he will find conser- 

vatories of beauty in the ditches and pools of black water beside 

the road, fringed with the sweet-scented Button Bush, witha 

profusion of royal and other stately ferns, and often filled with 
_ Masses of pretty Sagittarias. 

Southwards and seawards the bog-flowers become tropical 
in size and brilliancy, as in the splendid kinds of herbaccous 
_ SHibiseus, while far north, and west, and south along the 
~ mountains, the beautiful Showy Mocassin flower (Cypripedium 
_ spectabile) grows the queen of the peat bog and queen of hardy 
_ orchids, Then in California, all along the Sierras, you see a 
number of most delicate little annual plants growing in small 
e mountain bogs long after the plains have become quite 

peed, and annual yegetation quite disappeared from them. 
_ But who shall record the beauty and interest of the flowers of 
_ the wide-spreading marsh-lands of this little globe of ours, 
from those of the vast wet woods of America, dark and brown, 
and hidden from the sunbeams, where the fair flowers only 
meet the eyes of water-snakes and frogs, to those of the breezy 
uplands of the high Alps, far above the woods, where the little 
bogs teem with Nature's most vivid jewellery, joyous in a 


gras s—irriga- 
tion onasmall scale. No better bog than this can be devised, and 
none so easily made. Another very good kind could be made at 
the outlet of asmall spring. It was in such little bogs I found the 
Californian Pitcher plant in dry parts of California, where there 
were no realbogs. Insome of these positions the ground will 
often be so moist that little trouble beyond digging outa hole to 
give a different soil to some favourite plant will be needed. 
Where the bog has to be made in ordinary ground, and with 
none of the above aids, a hollow must be dug to a depth of at 
least two feet, and filled in with any kind of peat or vegetable 
soil that may be obtainable. If no peat is at hand, turfy loam 
with plenty of leaf-mould, &c., must do for the general body of 
the soil; but as there are some plants for which peat is 
indispensable, a small portion of the bog-bed should be com- 
posed entirely of that soil. The bed should be slightly below 
the surface of the ground, so that no rain or moisture may be 
lost to it. There should be no puddling of the bottom, and 
there must be a constant supply of water. This can be sup- 
plied by means of a pipe in most places—a pipe allowed to 
flow forth over some firmly-tufted plant that would prevent 
the water from tearing up the soil. Conpvuctor. 

(To be continued.) 


8 THE GARDEN. 


[Nov. 25, 1871. 


RECENT FLOWER-GARDENING. 


TO THE EDITOR OF “THE GARDEN.” 


Srr,—Our old nursery song says :— 
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary! 

How does your garden srow?P _ 

With silver-bells, and cockle-shells, 

And houseleeks all of a row.” 
May not this warning rhyme of our infancy go down to 
posterity with “Miss Muttet who sat on a tuffet,” and was 
alarmed by a “ spider who sat down beside her’ (which shows 
the youthful mind how foolish it is to be afraid of harmless 
insects, and so “lose their curds and whey”); or, again, with 
“the Old Woman who lived in a shoe” (which in its moral 
is Malthusian) ? Can we not, sir, extract a moral and preach a 
short sermon on this piece of wisdom of our ancestorsP I 
think so. I think that a clever person might make a homily 
which would even reach Mr. Ayrton’s heart, and although his 
name is most certainly not “Mary,” he is decidedly “contrary ” 
im many ways. The line referring to “ houseleeks all of a 
row,’ obviously refers to a recent monstrosity in gardening to 
be seen to any extent in Hyde Park and elsewhere. ‘There, 
for the first time, have I seen houseleeks, which in their 
natural grouping are like a beautiful irregular constellation of 
suns, put “allin a row” on mud, round flower-beds, without 
an inch wrong between them. This is “ taming nature ” with 
a vengeance. We must remember, however, that the great 
verse quoted at the head of this letter was composed more, 
probably, than one hundred years ago, when there were gardens 
—there are none now,—and when houséleeks were not put in a 
row. Looking at it in that light we may say with the immortal 
Chiggle, as quoted by an American gentleman in “ Martin 
Chuzzlewit,” that “it was a pre-diction, cruel smart.” We 
have not come to cockle-shells yet in our public gardens, but 
we must wait and hope; we shall not be long without them if 
we go on steadily developing im our present direction. 

I most strenuously protest, sir, iz foto, against this new 
ribbon-gardening, as being utterly inartistic, utterly false to 
nature, and, three times out of four, utterly false in colour. 
Their arrangement is either empiric or traditional. As an 
example of the traditional method, look at the ordinary arrange- 
ment of scarlet geraniums and yellow calceolarias with an 
edging of blue lobelia. Is that beautiful? I, for my part, 
cannot undertake to say; but it is certainly fashionable. I 
should be disposed to ask if the present head-dress of the ladies 
is beautiful, and I should receive the stale, stupid, old answer 
that there is no disputing about tastes. I say that there is 
such a thing as good taste and bad taste, and that the further 
you depart from nature the nearer you get to bad taste. If a 
lady choose to wear her hair aw naturel, or to loop it up na 
natural and sensible way, she is in good taste, and will find 
that her head looks like that of the Venus de Medici; if she 
makes it the size of a bushel-basket with false hair, she is in 
bad taste, though she may be in fashion. So with flowers 
planted in rows: nature never plants in rows. It were better 
to get a strong man to cast a bushel of potatoes about, and to 
plant where each falls. However, sir, as I have cash enough 
potatoes about for this week, I will leave off before one of 
them comes back on me. I hope soon to begin my second 
parallel against the monstrous fortress of fashion; at present 
I have only broken ground. Henry Koyesrey. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FLOWER-GARDENING. 


Aster longifolius (var. formosus).—There is perhaps no 
genus that, while containing a number of valuable autumn flowering 
border-plants, contains more species of a weedy and useless character 
than the large group bearing the generic title of Aster. Next to A. 
bessarabicus—sometimes erroneously called ‘ sramdiflorus”—in fact, 
on a par with it as to beauty, stands the above-named species, 
or rather variety. I am scarcely prepared to say that its specific 
title of “‘long-leayed” is a yery appropriate one,—as this character 
is nob at all marked either in the radical or cauline leayes; and 
were it not that it has been referred to this species on the very 
best authority, I should have been disposed to question it. Under 
ony circumstances, it is a wonderfully beautiful variety, and one 
that no selection of herbaceous plants should be without. What the 


.open night and day, unless in very seyere weather, keeping the temperature 


original species is like I know not, beyond the fact of its being of 
a tolerably ancient date, and deseribed as haying white flowers 
and growing three feet high, whereas this has a densely arranged 
ray of florets of the most lovely warm rose-coloured tint imaginable; __ 
but beyond this it has another quality, and one that would eyen 
render it valuable for conservatory decoration, and that is, itmight be 
mace to fill an hiatus between the ordinary summer denizens and the 
Chrysanthemums, or still better, perhaps, in association with the latter. 
In order to grow it for this purpose, about the month of April the 
young shoots should be removed and placed in a slight bottom heat. 
They will strike freely and rapidly after they are established, and once 
pinched back they may be shaken out of the pot and separated—each 


plant being planted in a sunny situation, say twelve inches apart, re- 


ceiving, of course, a good watering immediately after. They will 
soon take to their new quarters, and by the month of September, or 
the beginning of October, each of them will form a pyramid about 
fifteen inches high and twelve inches through at the base, covered with 
bloom from top to bottom, and with the still further advantage that all 
the blooms expand together. If lifted carefully, and placed inmoderate- 
sized pots, they may then be remoyed to the conseryatory or ereen~ 
house, where their plebeian origin will be lost sight of in admiration 
of their intrinsic beauty. I received this same Aster last summer,” 
under the name of ‘“‘ Madame Soynuce,” which is, no doubt, of 
Continental origin. I have grown it for some four or five years, 
and haye given it the above name. In conclusion I might add that, 
when grown undisturbed for two or three years, it attains a height 
with us of nearly three feet, and gets bare below, thus detracting — 
from the beauty it presents when cultivated as I have above described. 


Botanic Gardens, Hull. J. C. Niven. 


Ampelopsis tricuspidata.—Of this remarkable and loyely 
plant it is wholly impossible to speak too highly. Withont doubt, 
it is one of the most desirable of all climbers for a rock, wall, tree, or 
wooden fence. It requires no fixing or nailing, but attaches itself 
perfectly close by means of short filaments (tendrils), which expand 
at their ends into a star-like group of suckers, scarcely remoyable — 
from the surface, to which they most tenaciously cling. The roundish 
leaves are densely imbricated, lapping over each other, often 3 inches’ 
to 3} inches in diameter. In spring and summer they are of a lively 
citrine colour, changing in autumn to the most luminous deep 
crimson, but the portions lapped over remain colourless. Its growth 
is most rapid, and it bears exposure to the fiercest rays of the sun, 
and brayes the winds and frosts of winter; it rarely requires pruning, 
as all portions cling close to the surface. The wonderful mass of 
rich and yivid colour which it produces all through October and part 
of November, is truly glorious. This species is far more desirable 
than Aimpelopsis hederacea, or Virginian creeper, the leaves of which, 
immediately they attain their crimson hue, and, often when still 
green, are scattered by winds or frosts; those of A. tricuspidata 
are retained longer than those of most climbers. It is deciduous, like 
all the family of vines, and the flowers are inconspicuous. One of — 
miy specimens coyers a considerable portion of the lofty stone wall of — 
the fern-house and brick buttress (which face south-west and west), 
and when seen from a distance associated with the scarlet-berries of 
the Pyracantha it has a truly marvellous effect. It is certainly one 
of the most4mportant acquisitions ever made to our series of hardy 
climbers, and does honour to the memory of the late Mx. John Gould 
Veitch, who introduced it from Japan. Cuttings of ib strike readily. 


Glen Andred. « E. W. Cooxz. 9 


The Verbena in America,—I see, by English papers, that cultivators on 
your side of the Atlantic lament the difficulty of obtaining a healthy young 
stock of this useful bedding plant. In America the Verbena is grown by 
hundreds of thousands, as every cottager plants a dozen or so of it each year; 
and the plants, under bad treatment, are just as[subject to disease here as with 
you. The proper way of managing them is to commence with, say three orfour 
small healthy plants ; one plant would yield all the cuttings required for stock, if 
they did not amount to more than afew thousands of one variety, but plant, say 
three or four, to make sure, in any openrich spot in the kitchen-garden orreserye- 
ground, Plantearlyin May. A moderate frost will not injurethemif hardened 
off properly before turning out. They will require no more attention beyond 
that of stirring the soil and keeping down weeds. About the middle of August 
they should he from two to four feet across, and rooted from all the first-made 
joints. Cut them close down to the ground, and throw over whatremains a, 
little fine rich soil, after loosening the ground with a fork, andifvery dry giving 
a good soaking of water. This last would, however, not be often necessaryin : 
England. Ina few weeks’ time the old plants will be covered withnice soft 
young shoots, which will be just right for cuttings, As rezards propagating _ 
Verbenas, they can be struck in pans, boxes, orin any other way preferred, the _ 
only thing to keep in mind being to have the house or frame in which theyare __ 
placed as cool as possible, and to afford shadeifrequired. Westrikeourcuttings 
in clean sand placed on propagating-benches, and our climate isusually toohot 
for such cuttings until about the end of September. In England, however, the 
nights are cool earlier in the season. This year our first batch of cuttings was 
potted off in five days from the time of putting in the enttings; but I would 
prefer allowing them eight days to root. We pot them in two-inch pots, place — 


them at once in a house slightly shaded for a few days, and then letthem be 


; 
5 


; 
; 


a 


rather below 40 deg. than above that point on cold mghts. If required; several 


Noy. 25, 1871.] THE GARDEN. 9 


cuttings may be taken from each plant by November, and others at a few weeks’ 
interval, until planting-out time, the latest batch being the best for stock plants. 
We strike the cuttings in winter and spring in a night-temperature of 50 deg., 
and place them as soon as potted in some cold house. Never let them get 
very dry; dust with sulphur if a spot of mildew appears, fumigating with 
tobacco once or twice a week. This latter is very essential. To it in a great 
measure, I owed my success in cucumber-growing ten years previously to my 
leaving England.—Jawers Tartry, South Amboy, New Jersey, United States. 


INSECTS, BIRDS, DESTRUCTIVE 
-- ANIMALS, ETC. 


HURTFUL INSECTS. 

No one will dispute that those whose business or pleasure it is to 
cultivate a garden would be the better of some knowledge of the in- 
sects that prey on its ornaments or products. The amount of 
ignorance that prevails on the subject of insects is surprising. 
Frequently we find all insects regarded as alike noxious. Were the 
whole class under trial before the majority of persons, the verdict 
would infallibly be that of the Scotch juryman, ‘‘ Hang them a’.” 
Not many weeks since, as we passed an individual digging, we saw 
him suddenly step out, and bring his foot down with crushing emphasis 
upon a poor beetle that caught his eye. ‘“ Why did you do that ?” 
said we. ‘It is a black beetle’ was the reply, as much as to say it 

2 is a condemned outlaw. We turned upon him and were about to say, 
“That beetle was one of your friends; its mission was to prey upon 
the grubs and slugs that destroy your produce. For one of them that 
you can kill, that beetle would have consumed hundreds.” But ere 
we had opened our lips, we saw from the expression of his countenance 

___ that to undeceive him, and extract from his mind the rooted prejudices 
which had prompted the action, would be no easy matter, so we saved 
ourselves the trouble. Butif we are hopeless of im, we expect much 
good from making known in a paper like THe GARDEN all the im. 
portant facts in connection with the insects destructive to vegetation, 
and the best modes of preventing their ravages so far as the 
present state of our knowledge will permit. It is our intention 
to figure every injurious species in its various stages, and thereby 

‘ lead to a much more general knowledge of the subjects themselves. 
_. Entomology in England does not form part of any course of study. 

_ On the Continent there are Professors of Entomology, and in America 
(where it cannot be said that the practical money value of any com- 
modity, whether goods or knowledge, is of no account) there are paid 
‘State Entomologists, whose office it is to devote themselves to the 
study of the hurtful insects of the State to which they belong, 
and to supply information regarding them to its inhabitants, by 
answering queries or otherwise. But although with us neglected, the 
study of our hurtful insects is a very important subject. The 
more ‘we learn the more we see that our property often lies at 
their mercy ; and, as has been well proved in America, it would be 
good economy in the long run to be at the expense of obtaining and 
diffusing knowledge of their habits, and of the best modes of prevent- 
ting their ravages. Although no effort is made here to supply this 
want, it onght, nevertheless, to be supplied ; and as men become wiser, 

_ we may reckon that it will be supplied. Meantime, we are determined 

to see what the press can do to remedy wants in this way. ‘To assist 
“us in the*work we thus undertake we solicit the co-operation’ of our 
a4 readers and subscribers, begging them, whenever they meet with any 

; noxious insects, to transmit them to us for study and elucidation. 

We shall not spare expense where nécessary for the exact portraiture 

of every species where required; and as we hold it useless to do 
work already thoroughly well done by others, we shall avail ourselves 
of their labours, and they shall, in all cases, be duly acknow- 
ledged. The Entomological Department of THE GARDEN will be under 
the care of Mr. Andrew Murray, F.L.S., whose most instructive and 
useful collections of insects illustrating economic entomology, at the 

South Kensington Museum, are a sufficient guarantee, if none other 

existed, of his peculiar fitness as a guide in this matter. 


, 


+ Remedy for the Apple Maggot.—The following American 
t _ xemedy for this terrible pest to fruit-growers is the most successful 
__- yet made known, and well deserves the attention of our fruit-growers. 
+ We find it fully and well described by W. Riley, in Moore’s Rural 
New Yorker. It is known as the bandage system :—‘ This is best 
accomplished by a bandage fastened around the trunk of the tree below 
_ the branches, so as to intercept the worms. The natural habit of 
ah. orm is to spin its cocoon under the loose bark of the tree upon 
_ which it was born, and the philosophy of the bandage-system is, 
eee ‘the worms in quitting the fruit, whether while it is on 
the tree or on the ground, in search for a cozy nook in which to spin 

up, find the shelter thus afforded just the thing. and in ninety-nine 
cases ont of a hundred they will accept of the lure, if no other more 
enticing be in their way. Hay bands have been used for this purpose, 
but cloth of one kind or another, tacked to the tree or fastened with 


string, has advantages over the hay bands, as, when taken from the 
tree, it can be passed through a wringer, or steeped in hot water, and 
the insects may thus be more expeditiously destroyed, and the cloths 
used again. They must surround the tree below the branches. 
Every man must, of course, decide for himself, according to the 
extent of his orchard, and the facility with which he can procure rags 
or cloth, whether they or the hay bands will be the cheapest and 
most expedient. A good bandage, ready made, is greatly needed in 
the country, and if some enterprising firm would manufacture canvas 
strips about six inches wide, lined on one side with four inches of tow, 
cotton wadding, or some other loose material, and would put it upon 
the market at a reasonable price per yard, there would be an unlimited 
demand for it. Such strips would last for years, and could be cut of 
any desired length, drawn around and tacked. As regards time, the 
best advice that can be given is to have the bandages on the trees 
about a week after the first Wilson’s Albany strawberries are ripe. 
It is of no use to put them on earlier with a view to entrap the moths, 
as I am convinced that they cannot be entrapped in sufficient numbers 
to make if pay. The bands should be removed, and the insects 
destroyed, at least once a fortnight from this time till the apples are 
all off the tree. Of course the bandage-system is a preventive measure, 
not a remedy, and the beneficial effects of this system will not be felt 
till the year following.” 


Rabbit-proof Plants.—The following list of plants reported to 
be avoided by rabbits is prepared from notes in the Field. Perhaps 
some of our readers may be able to add to them, and perhaps others 
will have found some of the present list anything but “rabbit. 
proof” :— 


Tritoma Scilla Elder 
Tris Woodruff Ligustrum vulgare 
Winter aconite Monkshood Symphoricarpus racemosus 
Narcissus Muscari ’ Yucca gloriosa 
Asphodelus albus Roses Berberis Darwinii 
Solomon’s seal Primrose in var Syringa persica and yul+ 
Lily-of-the-valley Arabis garis 
Ornithogalum Anemone coronaria Weigelia rosea 
Fuchsia. o japonica Deutzia scabra 
Columbine Aubrietia Ruscus aculeatius 
Poppy Violets ». Yracemosus 
Honesty (Lunaria) Pansies Lycium barbarun 
Phlox in var. Canterbury Bells Androsemum officinale 
Periwinkle (large and Hollies Hibiscus syriacus 

small) Mahonia aquifolium Artemisia Abrotanum 
Lilies (common orange Common and Irish yews Cineraria maritima 

and white kinds) Laburnum Stachys lanata 
Dog’s-tooth violet Lonicera in var Euonymus 


Destroying Grasshoppers.—An Adelaide newspaper recom- 
mends the following method of destroying the grasshoppers, which in 
some seasons commit great depredations in various parts of the 
colony :—*‘ The plan is to sow borders or rows of the common larkspur 
in gardens; in vineyards it might be sown between the vines. The 
larkspur has a very pretty flower, and the leaf is so green that it 
attracts the grasshoppers at once, and, when eaten, is sudden death 
tothem. I have seen them lying dead by thousands under the 
larkspur borders in the gardens in Adelaide.” |The writer adds that 
he has adopted this plan for years with much success. If this be so, 
what good news for the Mormons, who have been almost reduced to 
poverty by grasshoppers during the past few years. 


The Woodpecker, so absurdly accused of attacking healthy trees, 
is an indefatigable destroyer of hosts of insects injurious to vegeta- 
tion, 4nd especially of ants. ‘‘Last summer,” says M. Aime, “TI 
was walking in my park, when I noticed a woodpecker look around 
to see if he were observed, and then lie down as if dead and stretch 
out his tongue at full length. Now and ther he drew it in: near him 
was an ants’ nest. The ants, supposing him dead, swarmed over his 
tongue, intending to make a meal of it, whereas they fell a prey to 
the wile of the bird.” - 


The Money-Tree.—The speculation has sometimes crossed my 
mind, in that dreary interval of drought which intervenes between 
quarterly stipendiary showers, that Providence, by the creation of 
a money-tree, might have simplified wonderfully the sometimes 
perplexing problem of human life. We read of bread-trees, the butter 
for which lies ready churned in Irish bogs. Milk-trees we aro 
assured of in South America, and stout Sir John Hawkins testifies to 
water-trees in the Canaries. Boot-trees bear abundantly in Lynn 
and elsewhere ; and I have seen, in the entries of the wealthy, hat- 
trees with a fair show of fruit. A family-tree I once cultivated 
myself, and found therefrom but a scanty yield, and that quite taste- 
less and innutritious. Of trees bearing men we are not without 
examples; as those in the park of Louis XI. of France... . - Not 
to multiply examples, I will barely add to my list the birch-tree, in 
the smaller branches of which has been implanted so miraculous a 
virtue for communicating the Latin and Greek languages, and which 
may well, therefore, be classed among the trees producing the neces- 
saries of life—venerabile donum fatalis virge. That money-trees 


10 


existed in the golden age there want not prevalent reasons for 
believing. Wor does not the old proverb, when it asserts that money 
does not grow on every bush, imply a fortiori that there were certain 
bushes which did produce itP Again, there is another ancient 
saw to the effect that money is the root of all evil. From which two 
adages it may be safe to infer that the aforesaid species of tree first 
degenerated into a shrub, then absconded underground, and finally, 
in our iron age, vanished altogether.—J. R. LOwExx. 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE YELLOW PINE. 
Pinus PoNDEROSA (DovuGmas). 


Tuts is one of the noblest of the trees that make up the 
great fir forests of the West, and of which the merits and 
importance are very insufficiently known im this country. It 
not only thrives in the genial climate of the mountain slopes 
of California and Oregon, but also spreads far into the arid 
desert towards the east, and crests the mountain tops im the 
Utah region, spreading from the Colorado River far and wide 
throughout the Rocky Mountains, its northern limit beimg as 
yet undetermined, 

“Near or distant,’ says Dr. Newberry, in describing the 
journey of his party from the Pitt River to the Columbia, 
“trees of this kind were nearly always in sight; and in the 
arid and really desert regions of the interior basin, we made 
whole days’ marches in forests of yellow pine, of which the 
absolute monotony was unbroken either by other forms of 
vegetation, or the stillness by the flutter of a bird or the hum 
of an imsect. The volcanic soil, as light and dry as ashes, into 
which the feet of our horses sank to the fetlocks, produces 
almost nothing but an apparently unending succession of large 
trees of P. ponderosa.” Again, in the Pacific Survey, treating 
of the country between the Cascades and Sierra Nevada and 
the Rocky Mountains, we read: ‘The climate is everywhere 
characterised by the absence of moisture, which, with the ex- 
ception of the mountain summits that project aboye the general 
level, gives to the surface a character to which the name of 
desert has not been imappropriately applied. The general 
aspect of the botany of this region is made up of three distinct 
elements. Of these the first is represented by the grassy *plaims 
which border the streams flowing down from the mountains. 
On these surfaces grow a considerable variety of annual 
vegetation, in its general character not unlike that of the Sacra- 
mento Valley. The second of these botanical phases is that 
of the sage plains—surfaces upon which little or nothing else 
than clumps of Artenvisia will grow. The third is formed by 
forests of yellow pme (P. ponderosa), which apparently finds 
on these arid surfaces its most congenial habitat. It sometimes 
happened to us that, durmg the whole day’s ride, we were 
passing through a continuous forest of these yellow pine trees, 
im which scarcely a dozen distinct species of plants could be 
found. The yellow pine, as it grows in these sterile regions, is 
anobletree; and, though never rivalling the gigantic sugar pine 
in its dimensions, it claims among western pines the second place. 
At M’Cumber’s we saw many of this species six feet and even 
seyen feet in diameter three feet from the ground; and near 
the base of Mount Jefferson, in Oregon, I saw one which was 
twenty-five feet in circumference at the same height.” i 

Inhabiting such a vast region of country, and living under 
such striking varieties of conditions, now in alpine meadows, 
and now in hot, gravelly plains, as is the case im Mendocino 
County, California, there is great variety found im the form 
and size of the tree, and even in the quality of its timber. 
Professor Bolander informed me that there was a remarakable 
difference in the size of the cones; those in a dense forest 
beimg very small, while those of isolated trees standing in 
alpine meadows, or on open mountain sides, are from four to 
six times larger. Everywhere on the Californian mountains 
it. may be seen, and, im fact, usually it is the commonest tree 
in the mighty. forest region running through California and 
Oregon northward. On the Sierras, it usually grows at cleya- 
tions. of from 1,500 to 9,000 feet, and it attains a height of 
from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet. ; 

The port of P. ponderosa is somewhat more spreading than 
P. Lambertiana, though far less so than P. Sabiniana. Where 
the last two species grow together, the contrast in form is very 


THE GARDEN. 


[Nov. 25, 1871, 


striking, as is also the colour and character of the foliage. The 
wood of the yellow pine is generally highly resinous, and, 
though heayy, is brittle and less yaluable than that of the 
sugar pine. Like the “pitch pe” of the Hastern States, it 
is, however, sometimes of excellent quality, contaming little 
resin, soft and tough. The yellow pine exhibits a tendeney to 
twist, which is very noticeable in a forest of these trees, the 
grain of trunk and branches being often seen coiled into the 
closest possible spiral. The bark of the yellow pine affords 
one of its most noticeable and distinctive characters. It is 
light yellowish-brown (cork colour), and is divided into large 
plates, four, six, or eight inches in breadth, which are flat and 
smooth, and enable one to distinguish the trunk of this tree 
at a considerable distance. The plates of cork-like bark are 
made the repositories of acorns by the woodpeckers, and it 18 
a very common thing to see large numbers of these trees 
having the bark of the trunk cut into a honeycomb by thickly- 
set holes as large as thimbles, or as thickly studded with 
inserted acorns. The colour of the leayes is a dark yellow 
green, and readily distinguishable from the deep blue-green 
of P. Lambertiana, or the light blue-green, or glaucous hue, of 
P. Sabiniana, The successive appearance and decadence of 
clusters of leaves at the ends of the branches, give to the 
smaller ones a beaded character, which distinguishes it from 
all other western pines. The smaller branches, and especially 
the central shoot m young trees, are strongly marked with the 
scales of the fallen leaves, closely resembling in some cases 
the leaf scars of the lepidodendroid fossils of the coal period. 
The cones of P. ponderosa are from three to six inches in 
length, ovoid in form, the bosses of the scales bearing small 
acute recurved spines. The cones grow singly or in clusters 
of from two to four, generally at the extremities of the smaller 
branches, and are not pendent, as in the group of pines to 
which P. Lambertiana and P. strobus belong. ‘The seeds are 
somewhat larger than apple seeds, and form the principal 
subsistence of seyeral lands of birds. f 
In England the young trees’are of rapid and robust growth, 
quite hardy, and of noble aspect; the branches are few, in 
regular whorls, horizontally placed, robust and more or less 
flexed, with the lower ones inclined to assume a somewhat 
drooping habit as the tree becomes old. The lateral branchlets — 
are somewhat slender, more or less drooping, and growing im 
various directions; while the top or leading shoot is often more 
than an inch in diameter, and of very considerable length. 
The buds, bluntly domed, with a prominent point and full of 
resin; the leayes are thickly set on the branches in threes, ~ 
from eight to ten inches long, rather broad and straight, but 
twisted at the base, with persistent sheaths one inch Jong and 
smooth when young, but much shorter and shrivelled on the 
older ones. This kind of pine is very subject in England to 
be attacked by the small pine beetle (Hylurgus), which destroys 
the young shoots by boring in their centres. ~ ahi 
We shall be glad of information as to the progress this tree 


‘is making in various parts of the country. The following are 


the names of the places to which Douglas’s plants were sent:— 
Dropmore, Chatsworth, Hlyaston, Carclew, Woburn, Bay- — 
fordbury, Bicton, Croom, Trentham, Belsay, Wltwich, Bear 
Wood, Boyton, Redleaf, Chipstead, Beauport, Carlton Hall, 
Haddo House, and Hopetoun House. i ; 
Our engraving, by Mr. Whymper, is from a noble photo- 
graph brought from San Francisco by the Conductor, and taken 
in the Yosemite Valley by Mr. Watlans. Fe 
Grorer Gorpon, A.L.S. 


Planting Trees.—After all, the most encouraging things I find in the treatise 
De Senectute are the stories of men who haye found new occupations when 


| growing old, or kept up their common pursuits in the extreme period of life. 


Cato learned Greek when he was old, and speaks of wishing to learn the fiddle 
or some such instrument (fidibus), after the example of Socrates. Solon learned 
something new every day in his old age, as he gloried to proclaim. Cyrus 


pointed out with pride and pleasure the trees he had planted with his own ~ ie 


hands. Iremember a pillar on the Duke of Northumberland’s estate at Alnwick, 
with an inscription in similar words, if not the same. That, like other country 
pleasures, never wears out. Noneis too rich, none too poor, none too young, 
none too old, to enjoy it. There is a New England story I haye heard more to 
the point, however, than any of Cicero’s. A young farmer was urged to set 
out some apple-trees. ‘‘ No,’ said he, *‘ they are too long growing, and I don’t 
want to plant for other people.” The young farmer’s father was spoken to 
about it, but he, with better reason, alleged that apple-trees were slow and life 
was fleeting. At last some one mentioned it to the old grandfather of the young 
farmer. He had nothing else to do, so he stuck in some trees. He lived long 
enoues “ drink barrels of cider made from the apples that grew on those trees. 
—O, W, Hormes. 


Nov. 25, 1871.) THE GARDEN. . 18 


Nov. 25, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


13 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FRUIT-GARDENING,. 


Cherries.—It would be very interesting if we could settle the 
question whether lime in the soil is good or bad for cherries. I have 
come to the conclusion that it is injurious. Some years since, Mr. 
Rivers recommended chalk for stone fruit, and I procured a truck- 
load from Ipswich to experiment with. A small proportion of chalk 
was added to the soil, in which a number of cherries was potted, con- 
sisting of a large number of varieties, and almost every tree became 
unhealthy. Whilst the question as to the cause was occupying my 
mind, I happened to drive through a part of Derbyshire, near Dale 
Abbey, and remarked some of the finest cherry-trees I ever saw, 
loaded with very large crops ; indeed, the trees at a distance showed 
quite red with the enormous crop of ripe fruit.- The land is on the 
millstone grit, and the soil must be almost destitute of lime in every 
shape, because the foxglove and bracken (Pteris aquilina) are every- 
where common. What I want to discover is whether cherries are 
known to flourish on a soil containing much chalk or lime. It is not 
enough to know that lime is or is not present in the formation in 
which, or rather above which, cherries flourish and attain a great 

size, but whether the surface soil contains lime or not. I have known 
an oolite soil almost destitute of lime for several feet, and turnips 
unhealthy in consequence ; and it is well known some so-called chalk 
soils are benefitted by dressings of chalk.—J. R. Pearson (Chilwell). 


Pears grafted on Apple Stocks.—Is it true, as is asserted and reiterated 
every day, that pears cannot be grafted on apples with any chance of success ? 
Have any important experiments been made on a sufliciently large scale to 
allow of an opinion of any bis ged being formed on the subject? We think not. 
Experiments have been limited to the grafting of only a few kinds, and, from 
the results of these, absolute consequences have been inferred for oll cases. We 
do not question the truth of the failures; what we deplore is that from these 
failures too general and sweeping conclusions have been drawn. We have at 
the Museum two cases which support us in our condemnation of the exclusive 
character of the rule. One of these cases is a specimen of Beurre de Malines, 
which is at this moment covered with very fine fruit; the other is a Beurre 
se or Fondante des Bois, which, this year, is also loaded with splendid fruit. 

ese trees, which are handsome and vigorous, and the very clean bark of 
which shows a perfect condition of health, were grafted on the Doucin in 1856. 
This was not done by accident, but from our desire to prove the truth of the 
asserted incompatibility of the organism of the two trees, and we mention it 
here in order torurge the repetition of the experiment on a larger scale and in 
different localities, for we cannot two often ce nea that over-generalisation 
shonld be avoided, and also that we should only form our opinions from facts, 
especially in matters of horticulture, since experiments which fail in one ynee 
Sometimes succeed in another. The following is our notion of what should be 
done :—Take fifty varieties of pears, and graft two of each kind by shield- 
puting, and two more by cleft-grafting. We recommend the two methods to 
be tried, as there are cases in which these two operations are followed by 
entirely different results. This may appear singular, but so it is —M. Carnizrr, 
in Revue Horticole. 

The Author of “Waverley” on Planting Fruit-Trees.—Reading the 
other day for the first time Sir Walter Scott's ‘ Antiquary,’’ I was struck with 
a age at the commencement of the fourth chapter, in which Mr. Oldbuck points 
out to Lovel the method of planting frnit-trees adopted by the monks: of old, 
and which plainly shows that the idea therein manifested, so far from being 
modern, is almost as ‘‘old as the hills.’ Our two friends moved through a 
little orchard where the aged apple-trees, well loaded with fruit, showed, as is 
usual in the neighbourhood of monastic buildings, that the days of the monks had 
not always been spentin indolence, but often were devoted totheir gardens. Mr. 
Oldbuck failed not to make Lovel take notice that the planters of those days were 
possessed of the ‘modern’ secret of preventing the roots of fruit-trees from 
penetrating the subsoil, and compelling them to spread in a lateral direction, by 
placing paving-stones beneath when first planted, so as to interpose between 
their fibres and the subsoil. Sir Walter writes of this idea as being a ‘‘ modern” 
one in his day. We have had plenty of writers who have also claimed it as a 
modern one in our day.—A. D. 


THE INDOOR-GARDEN. 


THE ODOURS OF ORCHIDS. 


Some years since, M. Riviére, head-gardener at the Luxembourg 
in Paris, commenced some observations on the odours of the 
orchids under his care, with respect to which he communicated 
new and interesting, but unfortunately few, facts to the Horti- 
cultural Society of Paris. He was kind enough, sometime after- 
wards, to supplement this communication by a letter to myself 
in July, 1866, which contained many singular remarks. Amongst 
these he mentioned the circumstance that Cattleya bulbosa (or 
C. Walkeriana) emits an odour of vanilla in the daytime and 

the scent of an iris at night. He required further experiment, 
_ however, to verify this statement. Since that time I have received 
no communication from him on the subject ; but from my own 


- __ investigations I haye learnt that nothing is more common than to 


ss __ meet with similar phenomena in many exotic orchids. The follow- 


me notes are the first-frnits of the experiments which I am now 
making, the further results of which shall be published in due 
course. They refer exclusively to winter-flowering kinds, which I 
have studied from January to the beginning of March :— 

Aerides Fieldingii +, sweet odour of pansies in the evening, and the same in the 
morning, with a sharp after-flavour. ’ 

Angrecum eburneum: a sweet and faint odour, undefinable in the morning, but 
decidedly like that of seringa in the evening. 


Cattleya bogotensis : an odour of gilliflower in the morning, and of primroses in 
the evening. 

Cattleya Chocoensis (new species) : a sharpish odour of Reine Claude plums in 
the morning. 

Cattleya Eldorado: an odour of roses in the evening only. 

Cattleya elegans: a faint odour of tuberose in the morning, and a strong one of 
gardenia in the evening. 

Cattleya quadricolor : an odour of vanilla, in the morning. 

Cypripedium: all the kinds which I have observed, to the number of six, are 
scentless, with the exception of C. Sch/imi, which in the evening exhales 
an odour of violets, and in the morning the scent of primroses. 

Dendrobium densiflorum: a very faint, irregularly intermittent perfume, some- 
times scarcely perceptible. 

Dendrobium glumaceum: odour of lilac in the evening, and of heliotrope in the 
morning. 

Dendrobium nobile: odour of grass in the evening, of honey at noon, and a faint 
primrose scent in the morning. ; 

Epidendrum culnerum : an odour of carnations in the morning ; scentless in the 
evening. 

Lelia anceps: a sweet primrose scent, in the morning. 

Lycaste grandiflora: an odour of newly threshed corn, in the morning. 

Lycaste lanipes: slightly sweet in the morning. 

Mavillaria nigrescens : a2 very decided odour of melons, in the morning. 

Odontoglossum angustatum integrum ; a faint odour of lilac, in the morning only. 

Odontoglossum cristatum : a faint odour of spirma, in the evening. 

Odontoglossum Lindleyanum: a goatish smell, in the morning only. 

Odontoglossum nevadense : an odour of eau sucre mixed with orange-blossom in 
the morning, and a faint trace of of spirsa in the evening. 

Odontoglossum pulchellum : a sweet odour of vanilla, in the morning. 

Odontoglossum triumphans: varies rouch according to the varieties of the plants. 

some are quite scentless, especially in the evening; others haye an 
odour of pansies, but most frequently emit a more or less strong scent of 
cimicifuga. 

Oncidium cucullatum : & sweet odour of violets, in the morning. 

Oncidium leopardinum: a faint perfume in the morning, and a very sweet odour 
of vanilla in the evening. 

Oncidium odoratissimum : an odour of lilac in the morning, and of elder-flowers in 
the evening. 

Phalenopsis Schilleriana: a delicate perfume of roses in the evening, and a 
stronger one of lily-of-the-valley in the morning. 

Pilunna fragrans : an odour of vanilla in the morning, and of narcissus in the 
evening. It varies much in sweetness, and is sometimes scentless, 
according as the plant has been brought from Peru or from the Sierra 
Nevada of New Granada, 

Schomburgkia gloriosa: a faint odour of solanum, in the evening only. 

Vanda gigantea: an odour of iris in the evening, and of perfumed leather in the 
morning. 

Tanda suavis: a constant perfume of gilliflowers. 

Vanda tricolor ; odour of gilliflower, much stronger in the morning than in the 
evening. 


By the term ‘morning’? I mean from 6 to 8 o’clock A.M., and by 
“evening” from 6 to 7 o’clock p.m. My observations have been 
conducted during fine, bright, sunshiny winter weather, and in 
places where the temperature ranged from a minimum of 45 deg. to 
50 deg. to amaximum of 65 deg. to 75 deg. Fahr. I would recommend 
those who are desirous of making experiments in this direction to 
take into account the condition of the atmosphere and weather at 
the time of making their experiments, and to note the difference in 
the results of observations made in different localities. Amongst 
these singular facts, which it would be at present premature to 
attempt to classify or explain, I may mention that all the Cattleyas 
exhale very different odours, and that these plants (the species of 
which are few, but the varieties innumerable) present almost as 
great a diversity in the perfumes as they do in the colours of their 
flowers. Vanda gigantéa also exhibits a striking coincidence in its 
thick leathery flowers and the smell of leather which they emit. 
Lastly, the intermittent odours, the exhalation of which cannot be 
explained as the result’ of the application of greater heat, or of any 
other apparent cause, inasmuch as the times at which they manifest 
themselves are very variable and uncertain, afford ample matter for 
reflection and interesting investigation. Ep. ANDRE. 


Griffinia Blumenhavia.—tThis is the best of the stove bulbous 
plants from tropical America yet introduced; producing a graceful 
head of rose-striped, pendent flowers of surpassing beauty. The 
leaves, which are of a drooping character, are about a foot in height, 
and of a dark glossy green. Being a winter flowering-plant it is of 
great value at that season in a decorative point of view. The best 
soil for it is turfy loam, intermixed with a little sand. Experience 
has proved to me that none of these bulbs like manure ; and when the 
drainage is good they are best kept growing all the year round, as they 
are apt if allowed rest to start afresh badly. The best situation for 
them is as near the light as possible, with a moist atmosphere. Six 
bulbs in a six-inch pot make a good clump. If permitted to go to rest 
they should be started in bottom heat, which is required more to 
maintain a regular amount of moisture than for the sake of the heat. 
This particular species was introduced to our gardens some four years 
ago, and well deserves to have a place in every stove.—J.C.) 

In the culture of flowers there cannot, by their very nature, be anything solitary 
or exclusive. The wind that blows over the cottage porch, sweeps over the 
grounds of the nobleman ; and as the rain descends over the just and the unjust, 
so it communicates to all gardeners, both rich and poor, an interchange of 
pleasure and enj ent; and the gardener and the rich man, in developing or 
exhancing a fruitful flavour or a delightful scent is in some sort the gardener of 
everbody else.—CHartEs DICKENS. 


14 


THE GARDEN. 


[Noy, 25, 1871, 


“Water Sparingly.’—How often is this advice given as 
autumn approaches, and how often, too, is it severely practised 
by many! I say, never water sparingly; when you water, 
water thoroughly. Do not be persuaded that by withholding 
water from the roots of a plant you thereby hasten its maturity, 
you may force it to shed its leaves; but, on examination, you 
will find its buds green, its bark shrivelled, and its roots far 
from being in a healthy condition. We may be told we must 
hasten the ripening process, in order to give time for rest, I 
would rather give shorter time for this so-called rest; it is of 
very little consequence compared with the proper ripening of the 
buds and roots. The best helps for ripening with which I am 
acquainted are heat, light, and air, with a comparatively, but 
not too, dry atmosphere. A great deal can be done by the 
remoyal of superfluous immature shoots, so as to admit light 
to every leaf that is left, and by withholding stimulants early, 
but never by withholding water from the roots. How much 
fuel is wasted in winter, and how many disappomtments are 
caused through trying to force into growth apparently ripened 
fruit-trees; how puny the shoots are when they do appear, 
after weeks of hard firing; the flowers, too, are weak and im- 
perfect; they are then said to set badly, the fact bemg that 
there has been but little to set, simply because when the tree 
had its most important function to perform, viz., perfecting 
its flower-buds, it was checked by having its supply of water 
limited. 


Longleat. Wx. Taytor. 


ANTHURIUM SCHERZERIANUM. 


THs is one of the most brilliant and yaluable stove-plants ever 
introduced. The singular form and intense although not gaudy 
colour of its flowers, accompanied by gracefully-curyed foliage, and 
lasting, as they do, in good condition for eight or ten weeks, render 
it a most valuable plant. It is found in Guatemala and Costa Rica, 
probably in the hill district, as I find it does much better with cooler 
treatment than it is often subjected. With me the plant is never 
quite at rest; it is kept in a house, the night temperature of which, 
from the beginning of Noyember to the end of February, runs from 
50 dee. to 55 deg., with arise of 6 deg. or 8-deg. by day, during 
which season it receives less water than in the more active period of 


erowth, when the night temperature averages from 60 deg to 65 deg., 


and 70 dee. to 75 deg. by day, with a copious supply of water over- 
head and at the roots. This latter at once points to the necessity of 
a porous material to grow it in, as well as ample drainage. I use 
two parts best fibrous peat, sueh as orchids delight in, broken about 
the size of pigeons’ eges, wit all earthy particles sifted out, to one 
part clean sphagnum, with :{liberal admixture of broken croecks and 


silyer sand ; potting quite 14dsely, the whole material in a condition — 


Ot arm 
PEN 


\ Specimen of Anthurium Scherzerianum (4 feet in diameter). 


to let the water run through it like a sieve. Its roots cling to the 
side of the pot like an orchid, hence the necessity of using material 
that wall not often require renewing ; as, however carefully the opera- 
tion of potting is performed, the roots get a good deal mutilated. 
Tn re-potting, I break the pot with a hammer all round and get the 
pieces as carefully off as I can; then I take a bucket of tepid water, in 
which I gently move the ball until all soil is washed out ; many of 
the crocks being held as firmly by the roots as if it were an orchid. 


Those are not disturbed. I then take a pot four or six inches larger 
than the one previously used, half filled with drainage, in which I 
place the plant well up in the centre of the pot, and gradually work 
the new soil amongst. the roots without pressing it so as to injure 
them, and then give alittle water. But for about a month afterwards 
Iam careful not to give too much, until any roots that haye been 
injured haye had time to heal. Its*principal enemies are brown scale 
and thrips ; the former seems thoroughly at home upon it, and thrives 
amazingly. The thrips get in the spathes as soon as they begin to 
open, and disfigure the flowers, if not dislodged. I use the sponge 
diligently for the scale, and the syringe for the thrips, as soon as the 


flowers begin to open, which, from their strong leathery texture and — 


the natural liking the plant has for water, does not injure them in 
the least. Always keep the plant slightly shaded in bright weather. 


There are seyeral forms of this plant, more or less attractive. There- 


fore it behoyes those who purchase plants to make sure they obtain 
the right one, which is much larger in its leayes and flowers, and 
more intense in colour than the others. The inferior forms and small 
plants often seen convey a very imperfect idea of what the plant 
really is, as compared with a large well-grown specimen of the best 
variety, although the larger variety does not yield near so many 
flowers at any one time as the smaller one. ‘A plant we have here, of 
the best variety, is now four feet through, and when exhibited in 
May last at the Crystal Palace it had on it twenty-four perfect flowers, 
the foot stalks of which were two feet long, and some of the 
spathes measured 54 inches long by 34 inches broad. 

Southgate. T. Bares. 

’ 


THE LARGE-LEAVED BERBERISES FOR THE - 
CONSERVATORY. 


Tue chief improyement required in all our large conservatories is 
the planting out of various plants of noble port which will furnish 
the structure with refreshing yerdure and stately forms at all seasons. 
Thus arranged, immeasurably better effect may be produced than at 
present when the conservatory so often depends entirely on the plant- 
houses. A few dozen handsome flowering-plants here and there in 
such a house would furnish a loyelier effect than could be obtained by 
any means on the older and too common principle. But everything 
depends on the judicious selection of the plants to be thus permanently 
planted. If subjects are used which, like some of the acacias, will 
quickly run up to the roof, then good bye to all good effect. Hardy 


v7 
= A rate HS is SFY) 
or = x “a 
or SEN Se ae 9 Ake 


Berberis nepalensis (grown in cool conservatory). 


palms, hardy tree and other ferns, and Dracwnas, &e., are the sort of 
plants we should seek. The New Zealand flax, too, and its varieties 
and allied forms, always low yet always stately, I have also noticed 
producing a capital effect on the Continent in conseryatories. But 
no plants are more suitable for planting out im the borders of the 
conservatory or winter-garden than the noble large-leayed berberises, 


Nov. 25, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 15 


of which the accompanying figure represents B. nepalensis. These 
remarkable plants, so often seen in a starved and dwindled condition 
about London and in various parts of the country, find in a cool house 
of any kind the very conditions they delight in, and whosoever will 
plant them therein will soon be rewarded with as noble foliage, as 
rich crests of bloom, and as stately a port, as we can find combined 
in any plant. In districts where these fine plants do well in the open 
air, it would not be so wise to use them in the conservatory, but in 
the numerous: places where the berberises, going by the name of 
B. Bealii, nepalensis, japonica, &e., are sickly dwarf shrubs, they 
may, with the greatest advantage, be employed in the conseravtory. 


The Drynarias.—The excellent plan of planting out exotic ferns 
on picturesque banks, &e., to the hothouse is becoming more 
popular every day; when well done, its effect is of the most satis. 
factory kind. The arrangements should not as a rule be confined to 
ferns. Noble Arums, such as may be seen in the Arum house at 
Kew, and the single Monstera, add greatly to the charms of the 


ferns. But where ferns alone are used, much improvement may be 
effected by selecting distinct and noble types to contrast with the 
large and small ferns in cultivation. Among the nobler kinds of 
stemless ferns we know nothing more worthy of attention than the 
Drynarias, forming as they do such huge leaves and noble nest-like 
erests. For rocky or elevated points the species figured (D. 
morbillosa) and D..coronans are superb. 

Cordyline indivisa.—This is perhaps the noblest of all the 


greenhouse Dracena tribe, especially when well grown, its long and 
golden-striped leaves having a peculiarly rich and unusual appearance. 


Tt is a native of New Zealand, and consequently requires cool or 
greenhonse treatment; but many cultivators, in their haste to get 


large plants, subject it to stove treatment, and then, no matter how 
fast it may grow, it will die off much faster—and that without any 
apparent cause; no sooner is it subjected to cool treatment, and gets 
an extra supply of cold water, than it perishes. The best treatment 
is the following: Procure a nice healthy plant in a four-inch pot 
early in spring, and, if the roots are fresh and healthy, remove it at 
once into an eight-inch pot; but if they are not strong, then a six- 
inch pot will be sufficient for the first shift. The most suitable 
compost is fibrous peat and loam in equal proportions, broken so as 
to pass through the meshes of a half-inch sieve, but with the fine 
portions sifted out. To the rough pieces add an eighth of potshreds 
and charcoal, broken to the size of peas, and sufficient sand to make 
the whole perfectly porous. Let the pots be perfectly clean, and 
drain them thoroughly. In potting, take care to keep the base or 
collar of the plant well rounded up, and press the soil as firmly as if 
you were potting a heath or epacris. Place thé plant in a warm and 
shaded part of the greenhouse, and water cautiously until such time 
as the plant starts into free growth, and then a copious supply may 
be given. If the plant gets into free growth, a second and perhaps 
third shift may be given during the season; but it will not be ad- 
visable to shift later than the end of July, as it is important that 
the pot should be full of roots before the winter commences. As the 
light decreases, gradually diminish the supply of water, so that the 
plant may be kept comparatively dry during the winter. The best 
situation for the plant through the winter will be a dry shelf, where 
there is a free circulation of air, but no cold draughts. In such a 
situation, with judicious attention, the Cordyline will grow on for 
years.—A, 


NATURE’S GARDENS. 
NIAGARA. 

Tue earth is indeed one vast garden with great drought- 
parched patches and snow-robed regions here and there, but 
there are some scenes in which the various elements are so 
boldly or pleasingly combined that it seems as if Nature herself 
had planted her a garden. ‘he noblest of Nature’s gardens I 
have yet seen is that of the surroundings and the neighbour- 
hood of the falls of Niagara; before seeing it, I did not think 


Bird’-eye view of Islands above the Falls of Niagara 


of Niagara as anything buta huge waterfall. Grand as are the 
colossal falls, the rapids and the course of the river for a con- 
siderable distance above and below possess more interest and 
beauty. Accounts of the noise of the falls are much exagge- 
rated; their sublime beauty no pen can describe. 

As the river courses far below the falls, confined between 
vast walls of rock, the clear water of a peculiar light-greenish 
hue, and white here and there with circlets of yet unsoothed 
foam, the effect is startlingly beautiful quite apart from the 
falls. The high cliffs are crested with woods; the ruins of the 
great rock-walls, forming wide irregular banks between them 
and the water, are also beautifully clothed with wood to the 
river’s edge, often so far below that you sometimes look from 
the upper brink down on the top of tall pines that seem 
aenintatied in size. The wild vines scramble among the trees, 
many shrubs and flowers seam the high rocks; in moist spots 
here and there a sharp eye may detect many-flowered tufts of 
the beautiful fringed gentian, strange to European eyes, and 
beyond all, and at the upper end of the wood-embowered deep 
river-bed, a portion of the crowning glory of the scene—the 


16 


falls—a vast cliff of ilumimated foam, with a zone towards its 
upper edge as of green molten glass. Above the falls the 
scene is quite different, a wide and peaceful river carrying the 
‘surplus waters of an inland sea, till it gradually finds itself in 
the coils of the rapids, and is ‘soon lashed into such a turmoil 
as we might expect if a dozen unpolluted Shannons or Seines 
were running a race together. A river no more, but a sea un- 
remed. By walking about a mile above the falls on the Cana- 
dian shore this effect is finely seen, the breadth of the river 
helping a poor Britisher (whose rivers are “creeks,” if he only 
kmew it) to carry out the illusion. As the great waste of waters 
descends from its dark grey and smooth bed and falls whitening 
into foam, it seems as if tide after tide were gale-heaped one on 
another on a sea strand. The islands just above the falls enable 
one to stand in the midst of these rapids where they rush by 
lashed into passionate haste; now boilmg over some hidden 
swellings in the rocky bed, ov, dashing over greater but yet 
hidden obstructions with such force that the crest of the up- 
lifted mass is dashed aboutas freely as a white charger’s mane ; 
now darky falling into a cavity seyeral yards below the level of 
the surrounding water, and, when unobstructed, surging by in 
countless eddies to the mist-crested falls below so rapidly that 
the drift wood dashes on swift as swallow on the wimg. Un- 
disturbed in thei peaceful shadiness, garlanded with wild vine 
and wild flowers, the islands stand in the midst of all this fierce 
commotion of waters—below, the vast ever-mining falls; above, 
a complication of torrents that seem fitted to wear away iron 
shores, there they stand, safe as if the spirit of beauty had in 
mercy exempted them from decay. Several islets are so small 
that it is really remarkable how they support vegetation, and 
one bold-looking thing, no bigger than a washing tub, not only 
holds its own in the yery thick of the currents just above the 
falls, but actually bears a small forest, including one stricken 
and half cast-down pine. It looksa home for Gulliver in Brob- 
dingnagian scenery. Most fortunate is it that these beantifully 
verdant islands and islets occur just above the falls, adding 
immeasurably to the effect of the scene. Magnificent it would 
have been without them, but their presence makes Nature seem 
as fair as terrible in her strength. 
To be continued. 


Tf VE,. se OLUrsS Es ROR Dy: 


we 

THE TRU MUSHROOM. 

THE question is. frequently asked, are there any infallible 
rules for-~distmeuishing the true mushroom from all other 
fungi? and, if so, what are the crucial points of distinction? 
First, and foremost, the true mushroom (Agaricus campestris) 
is invariably found amongst grass im rich open pastures, and 
never on or about stumps, orin woods. Many cases of poisoning 
have occurred owing to the supposed mushrooms beimg gathered 


Was 
x Mn, 


Section of the trne Mushroom. 


from stumps or in woods; it is true there is a certain variety 
found in woods and woody places (A. silvicola) ; but, as far as 
amateurs are concerned, it is best left alone. A second very 
good point is the peculiar, tense purple-brown colour of the 
spores (which-are analogous to seeds); the ripe, and fully- 


THE GARDEN. 


will they thrive in all countries with a warm summer, 


(Noy. 25, 1871.” 


mature mushroom, derives the intense purple-brown colour 
(almost black) of its gills,from the presence of these innumerable 
coloured spores. To see these spores, and so become acquainted 
with the peculiar colour, remove the stem from a mushroom, 
and lay the upper portion, with the gills lowermost, on a sheet 
of writing-paper; m a few hours the spores will be deposited 
inathick, dark, impalpable powder. Several dangerous species, 
at times mistaken for this mushroom, haye these spores umber- 
brown, or pale umber-brown, in colour, and belong to Pholiota 
or Hebeloma. In the accompanying figure is shown a vertical 
section of the true mushroom, which differs (when the colour 
of the spores is taken into consideration) from almost all other 
agarics, and certainly from all poisonous ones. One of the 
principal points to be observed is the distinct and perfect collar 
at C, quite encircling the stem, and the edge of cap at B, 
overlapping the gills; im some poisonous allies, as 4. wrugino- 
sus (generally found on and about stumps), this rmg is reduced 
to a mere fringe, and the overlapping margin is absent, or 
reduced to a few mere white flecks or scales. Lastly, the gills 
never reach or touch the stem a, for, on inverting a mushroom, 
a blank space will be seen all round the top of the stem where 
the gills are free from the stalk. There are innumerable 
varieties of the true mushroom (and of the horse-mushroom), 
but all are equally good for the table; sometimes the top is 
white and soft, like kid-leather; at other times it is dark-brown 
and scaly. Sometimes, on being cut or broken, the mushroom 
changes colour to yellow, or even blood-red; at other times no 
change whateyer takes place. But, observe, the mushroom 
always grows in pastures; always has dark purple-brown 
spores; always has a perfect encircling clothy collar; and — 
always gills which do not touch the stem, and a top with an 
overlapping edge. W. G. 8. 


THE TOMATO. f ‘ 


In Europe the tomato is occasionally used; in America it is as ~ 
indispensable as bread. From the hot States round the Gulf, and from 
sunny and genial California, where it grows as freely as groundsel 
does in England, to the Canadas and the Northern States, where it 
must first be raised in heat, as with us, the tomato is a blessing to 
the country. No other product is so popular with all classes, high 
and low, and probably none so wholesome among the many things there 
used. For months, in summer and autumn, it may be gathered fresh. 
It shares the fate of peaches, pears, and oysters, and is preserved in 
tins for winter use, so that practically it is obtainable all the year” 
round. Stewed, baked, as sauce, or in soup, eaten raw as a salad, or 
with sugar, in all these ways itis good. It would be worth while 
crossing the Atlantic for the sake of a tomato-salad, if one could not 
enjoy that luxury in England. In eyery country enjoying a higher 
temperature than that of England, the tomato should be grown 
abundantly as a common garden or field crop ; and eyen where, as in 
northern England, you cannot even ripen tomatoes against walls, they 
may be easily grown in empty frames, &c., unused in summer; and, 
once plentiful, every child would learn to relish a food so wholesome 
and so excellent. It is scarcely necessary to point out the vast extent 
of territory in the colonies of England in which the tomato may be 
grown as well, and found as useful and important an article of food, as 
in the most fayoured parts of America. There can be little doubt 
that Americans haye much for which to thank the tomato. Such 
quantities of unwholesome and indigestible matter, in the’shape of 
sweet cakes and sweets of all kinds, condiments, &c., are eaten there, 
that one might suppose it indispensable to resort to simple, healthful 
food by way of corrective; and the tomato saves society from the 
effects of a miserably unjwise system of gastronomy. Ae 

Philanthropic travellers would do well to scatter a few tomato-seeds 
on their way through hot and temperate desert countries, for, in the 
absence of kitchen and cook, few things would be more acceptable to’ 
the hungry wanderer. Away from towns in Canada or the States—in 
places, it may be, many miles from a town, where fresh meat is rarely 
seen, and cookery, of the few things to be had, an abomination—a 
wholesome meal may be made from a plate of tomatoes, gathered in 
the garden, and a piece of bread. : 

Little need be said on the culture of the tomato. In the States 
and Canada West tomatoes bear till they are literally borne down with 
weight of fruit, each plant producing about twice as much as it would 
against a wall in the south of England. In all parts of the West they 
are even finer: in California they do splendidly also, both on plain 
and hill; and also in arid-looking Utah. I remember noticing one 
plant in Brigham Young’s garden, at Salt Lake City, which spread 
oyer the ground almost as far asa gourd plant would withus. So 
No plant 


Noy. 25, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


17 


returns a more abundant yield with so little trouble. It is a curious 
fact that to relish some undeniably good things not a few people re- 
quire nearly as much education as suffices to change a Conservative 
into an active Reformer. Some persons affect a dislike to tomatoes, 
but such have never given them a fair trial. They will not impart all 
their virtues at once, especially to doubtful and sneering novices. In 
araw state they may at first fail to charm, but never if properly 

cooked ; and cooking them is such a very simple affair! Yet, in a 

country like England, where they are not by any means common, 

persons will be slow to recognise their merit. : 

The above is Mr. Robinson’s account of the tomato in America. 

. The following recipes may serve to make the uses‘of this invaluable 
plant better known among ourselves :— 

Tomators av Pxrar.—Butter a warmed metal or earthenware plate that will 
stand the fire, and add pepper and salt, and cut, in the flat direction, as many 
tomatoes as will cover it when placed with the cut sides downward. Cook 
before the fire, placing a tin reflector behind. When slightly browned they are 
ready. Three or four eggs yt be broken into a cup, and placed in the tomatoes 
three or four minutes before they are removed from the fire. This simple dish, 
Pp without trouble is a breakfast fit for an emperor. 

: omATO-Sauce anp Fisu.—The celebrated dishes known as soles and other 
fish a-la-Orly, consist merely of fillets of the fish fried, either plainly, or after 
soaked in lemon-juice, &c., and dipped in batter, and then served with 
some hot tomato-sauce in a sauce-boat. Oysters blanched, dipped in batter, 
lightly fried and served with the same sauce, are strongly to be recommended. 
_- Tomato Cavtrwrr.—Take 4b, tomatoes, 2 Ibs. onions, 1 Ib. apples, 1 oz. salt, 
cdpsicams, or cayenne to taste, and one pint of vinegar. Boil two hours, and 
J beat the whole through a colander. When cold put into small bottles, and cork 
Lent f tightly. The corks are best sealed over to exclude air, and placed away ina 
cool chest. It is fit for use directly it is made. = 
Tomators Av Gratiy.—Take 8 tomatoes, two inches in diameter, pare off the skin 
round the stalk, and make an opening one inch in diameter in the tomatoes, to 
P allow of taking out the seeds with the handle of a teaspoon ; season with 2 pinches 
of salt, and 2 small pinches of pepper. — some fine herb stuffing as follows :— 
_. Putin a quart stewpan 1 oz. of butter and 4} oz. of flour. Stir over the fire for 
. two minutes ; then add 1 pint of broth; stir, till reduced to half the quantity; 
___ and put in 3 tablespoonfuls of chopped and ree pee y, 1 tablespoonful of 
chop; and washed shalot, 2 pinches of salt, 1 small pinch of pepper; reduce 
on a brisk fire for eight minutes. 
_ Tomato-Saucr.—This is made either with fresh or preserved tomatoes. Choose 
a dozen bright-red tomatoes (say 2 lbs.) ; cut away the stalks ; cut each tomato 
in two; press out the seeds and water; and put them in a two-quart stewpan, 
with 1 of sweet-herbs, 2 gills of water, 2 pinches of salt, 1 small pmch 
of pepper. Put the stewpan on the fire, well covered; boil for forty 
minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon every five minutes, to prevent 
the tomatoes catching; press throngh a wire sieve. Make a rowr, in a 
quart stewpan, with 1 oz. of butter and 4 oz. of flour; stir over the fire for three 
minutes ; remove the stewpan from the fire, and mix the purée of tomatoes by 
Small quantities, stirring well all the time; add 2 gills of broth, and_ boil again 
for twenty minutes. If the sauce be too thick, mix one or part of a gill of broth. 
When preserved: tomatoes are used, proceed in the same way, adding the pre- 
served tomatoes from the bottle instead of the purée of fresh tomatoes ; mix with 
the roux and broth ; taste, and serve as before. / 

Tomators av Naturer.—During the heat of summer in no way is the tomato 
more agreeable to those who know its merits that when eaten “‘ from the bush.’” 
The issimple. Select a good ripe fruit, place the lips against its glossy 
sides, bite a piece clean off withont fear, and then suck with all your might. At 
first certain succulent leathery coats may offer some resistance, but soon the red 
heart’s juice, ae in the hottest days by the outer coats, will begin to flow, 
and victory will be yours. W. B. TeGerMerer, 


THE COMPASS PLANT. 
(SILPHIUM LACINIATUM.) _ 


_ Few amongst hardy plants, are better adapted for association 
_ with those tropical forms now so largely cultivated for the purposes 
of flower-garden decoration than the above-named plant. Those 
“who have the management of even our first-class flower-gardens will 
: be well aware of the value of really hardy, and, at the same time, 
ornamental-foliaged plants. So treacherous and precarious are our 
__ Seasons, and so liable is the whole beauty of the more tender plants 
to be swept away. by early frost, that I need make no apology for 
introducing, as well deserving of notice, a plant that now (the first 
week in November) looks as fresh and green as at any time during 
the season. 
z I will endeavour to describe the plant to which I allude, as briefly 
as possible. The radical leaves form a claster about four feet in 
.: diameter; they are pinnati-partite, or as the name very appropriately 
__ implies, laciniate, with the primary lobes slightly notched, having 


___the appearance, at first sight, of being compound; but as each 
narrow segment is carried down the mid-rib, thus forming a winged 
appendage, uniting the whole, they must be considered as simple 
3 leaves ; their length is from 2} inches to 3 feet, and in their arrange- 
2 ment they are more usually vertical than horizontal. This irregularity 
is rather of advantage than otherwise, and, when coupled with the 
_ peculiar texture, hard and rigid to the feel, thongh by no means so in 
outline, and showing a sort of mosaic of minute divisions between 
_ the veinlets, they have somewhat the appearance of large broadly- 
_ divided fern fronds. From the centre of this group rises a stout 
stem to the height of about fourteen feet, with leaves of a similar 
. character, gradually diminishing from the base to the summit, and 
producing from the axils of those that occur along the upper half. 
flowers of moderate-size, with long florets of the ray, of a pretty 
Jemon-yellow ; these indicate at once its proximity to the Helianthus, 

or sun-flower tribe, to which genus it is pretty closely related. 


Tt will scarcely be necessary, after the foregoing description, to say 
that it is a plant of vigorous habit, forming enormous roots, which, 
with us, are deep in the very rankest clay soil. To this fact, possibly, 
its enormous development, as regards height, is to be attributed ; as 
grown in sandy soil, even though well manured, it rarely reaches 
beyond five or six feet. 

There is a further interest connected with this plant, in the fact 
that it is known to the North American Indians as the “ Compass 
plant ;” and by some peculiarity in the arrangement of the leaves 
when growing en masse, as it does on the wide prairie-lands of the 
far West, the Indian, with that instinctive power with which semi- 
civilization- is generally endowed, is able, under a clouded sun, to 
shape his course for his far-off settlement, in a country where 
landmarks are few and far between. 

There are abont a dozen other species of Silphiwms in cultivation, 
but rarely met with, except in botanical collections; nor have any 
of them either the peculiar beauty or interest which this species 
possesses. 

It may be said,—Why is it so rarely met with? One reason, 
perhaps, is because it is not new, having been originally introduced 
in the latter part of last century ; and another is, that, being a late 
autumnal bloomer, it never matures its seed, and appears shy at 
giving out offsets from the massive rootstock. I think, however, it 
is more than possible that it may be increased from cuttings of some 
of the fleshy secondary roots—at least I purpose trying that mode ; 
and I am led to that inference from the fact that having had 
occasion to remove a plant of Silphiwn terebinthinaceum last season, 
I found several shoots sent up from the roots that remained buried 
deep in the ground where it originally stood. 

To those who possess it, I would say, be chary of removing it, as 
it does not very readily recover that ordeal. It is, in the fullest sense 
of the word, a permanent perennial plant. 

May I close my remarks by making the inquiry if any of your 
readers have had any experience of a closely allied genus from 
California, namely, Wyethia ? We have three species in cultivation, 
but they appear very slow growers, which, anomalous as it may 
appear to some, is to my mind a recommendation. 


Botanic. Gardens, Hull. G. C. Niven. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


Ambherstia nobilis.—This is a plant which, though grown and 
flowered at Ealing Park and elsewhere long since, we nowadays 
rarely meet with, althongh its blossoms are so beautiful as even to 
elicit the praises of poets themselves. Can the difficulty attending 
its propagation account for its scarcity ? If so it may be overcome 
by cutting the branch half way through, getting a small pot, and, 
breaking it in half, putting it round the branch, and wiring it ; then 
fill the pot with sandy loam, and in about three months the branch 
may be cut off and plunged in bottom heat of from 85 deg. to 90 deg., 
covering with a bell-glass. In India the branch is run through a 
piece of bamboo filled with soil. The Amherstia does not like peat ; 
but it is fond of water. It is useless to import its seeds, as they do 
not retain their vitality, however well packed.—J. C. 

Aralia papyrifera.—this beautiful foliaged plant having become 
extensively employed in the flower-garden of late, a few hints as to its 
propagation may be of use. Its stem being nearly all pith does not 
strike readily; therefore astock of it cannot be got quickly in that way, 
but if the roots near the stem are examined they will be found to be 
fleshy. When the plant is taken up, let each of these be cut into pieces 
about aninch long; insert them in light soil, letting the whole be covered, 
and place them on a shelf near the glass, in a temperature of 80 deg. 
Thus circumstanced they will, in due time, throw out shoots, 
which should be left until they are three inches in length, when 
they may be potted, leaving them in heat, say, of 70 deg. until 
established. They should then be removed to a colder tempera- 
ture, and thence to a frame to harden off. In the south of England 
this plant is almost hardy, and may be wintered in a cold frame, but 
it should be kept rather dry.—J. C. 


The “Red, White, and Blue.”—Few processes are more dispirit- 
ing than to go through garden after garden with the same eternal com- 
binations, the same monotonous lines of colour. Instead of giving 
“three cheers for the red, white, and blue,” I always feel a much 
stronger inclination to emit three dismal howls, heartily wishing these 
ribbon manufacturers at Coventry—their proper home. What do you 
think of that, sir?” said a gardener to me ina triumphant tone, as 
we entered an immense kitchen-garden, ribboned all round with the 
old familiar pattern. “‘ Well,’ I made answer, “as nearly as I can 
calculate, I’ve seen about sixty miles of it this summer; and, if you 
don’t mind, I will cool my eyes on the parsley.” —S. R. Horr. 


18 


THE GARDEN. 


[Noy. 25, 1871. 


GARDEN DESIGN, 


HOME LANDSCAPES. 


\ By Norn Humpnreyrs. 


OME LANDSCAPES are very 
far from beimg so common or so 
beautiful as they are one day 
likely to be, in consequence of 
the base taste for the formal and 
geometricalin gardens lingering 
so long. Formal gardening was 
first practised in England about 
the time of Henry VIII. It was 
intensified in the formalism of 
its character during the reigns 
of Elizabeth and James, and still 
more so pending the influence of 
the French taste imported by 
Charles II.; and under the 
Dutch influence brought over by 
William IIT. it still continued 
to flourish as vigorously, though 
in a somewhat modified style. 
But in the reign of Anne, symptoms of a more natural taste 
began to show themselves, as exemplified m the park-like 
distribution of the land and trees at Blenheim, the noble estate 


presented to Marlborough as a token of the national apprecia- . 


tion of his great military successes. The laying-out of the 
ornamental grounds at Blenheim may be considered one of the 
earliest and most successful attempts at creating scenery of amore 
natural character round the country residences of our landed 
aristocracy. 'Uhe long-avenue feature, and other characteristics 
of a similar kind, being, as a rule, avoided. The more natural 
taste thus essayed by “ Capability” Brown in park-scenery, 
can scarcely be said to have been extended to the more 
confined area of pleasure-gardens near the house, where rect- 
angular walks, cornered by vases or statues, and skirted by 


trees cropped to simulate ereen walls or grotesque objects, still | 


lingered as favourite and fundamental features in the formation 
of our pleasure-gardens; a vicious style, which endured even 
to the time of Horace Walpole, who, with all his refined taste, 
did not succeed in understanding those artistic theories which 
must ever form the true principles of garden art, though he 
evidently felt a tendency towards better things. But even his 
galleries of artistic monuments never advanced beyond a 
superior kind of toy-shops, nor his gardens beyond convenient 
promenading-grounds for powdered beanx and belles among 
his marble vases, and Venuses, Cupids and Apollos, and his 
pretty little squirting fountains. 

Nevertheless, the true English love of nature gradually 
emancipated itself more or less from these trammels, till at 
last the gardeners of the day thought they had discovered the 
true system of the picturesque in “serpentine walks” and 
“undulating turf,” with, if possible, the crowning touch of a 
* little piece of winding water, crossed (where it might have been 
easily jumped) by a “rustic bridge.” These features, though 
but crude in themselves, the more especially when crudely 
treated, as they most certainly were, nevertheless achieved an 
easy and rapid victory over straight lines when once put to 
the test. The new system became extremely popular, not only 
in England but also on the Continent, where it was imitated 
under the name of jardins Anglais. The jardin Anglais of the 
Petit Trianon at Versailles, and several which were laid out in 
Russia, under the directions of the all-powerful Potemkin (who 
for a time forgot the delights of diplomacy and the glories of 
successful war to indulge his mania for creating English 
gardens in Russia), may serve as examples. 

The simple devices of winding-walks, and curved canals, and 
rustic bridges, which had fascinated Marie Antoinette and made 
the great Potemkin forget the cares of State, were, with all 
their defectiveness, a positive advance, though of a very humble 


kind, towards the formation of real garden landscapes upon 
true principles; and a larger and bolder style very soon began 
to develop itself, in which far greater breadth of treatment 
was forced upon the- designers of gardens by the growth and 
beauty of the great Cedars of Lebanon, which Sir Hans Sloane 
had introduced some years before, and by other new trees — 
which began to display their majestic dimensions and many 
novel features in their new English home. The utilization of 
these new features of garden-ornament, necessitated a larger 
and bolder style of garden art, in so much that the winding- 
walks and shrub-bounded lawns were extended in scale and 
improved in character ; but, unfortunately, the effective treat- 
ment of flowering-plants did not keep pace with that of trees ° 
and shrubs. Their value as landscape features was not 
understood, and the touches of colour produced by them were 
consequently small and insignificant. 

It was attempted, in days still very recent, to remedy this 
defect by what has been termed the “bedding system,” which 
consists, In principle, m the aggregation of large masses of 
plants of the same kind in various geometric figures, say, an 
octagonal mass of two hundred dozen Tom Thumb geraniums 
as a central object, flanked by two vast diamonds of one 
hundred dozen each of dwarf blue lobelia, or yellow calceolaria. 
To these, in conyenient situations, were added lengthened 
borderings of a similar class, called ribbon-borders, formed by 
continuous lines, four or five deep, say, of purple verbena, 
faced by a narrow line or edging, two deep, of a white variety 
of the same plant, and in the extreme front another edging, 
say, of yellow dwarf Tropzolum. In order to make room for 
this system to have its full fling, picturesquely-shrubbed mounds 
were levelled down, hollow sweeps filled up, and the shrubs 
carted away, in order to obtain the clear, open, and leyel space 
necessary for the display of the new theory of decorative 
gardening. And so it was that slopes, clothed with their 
tufted foliage of various kinds, their Laburnums, Guelder 
roses, lilacs, and the bright evergreen leaves of laurels and 
Laurustinus, gaye place to the low, round pudding of scarlet 
geraniums, edged round its circumference with two or three 
strings of plants of strongly contrasting colours; these 
pudding-strings, as they may be termed, are sometimes 
composed of plants with richly-coloured leayes, and these 
effects of coloured foliage are sometimes separated from 
the central mass of richly-coloured flowers, by an inter- 
mediate pudding-string of the white-leaved mouse-ear, or 
silver moss. Glaring masses of colour of this kind, which 
in the sun often produce a most dazzling effect of richness, 
at once took amateur gardeners by storm, and the green- 
houses in small establishments were recklessly cleared of 
the “antiquated” collection of pretty half-hardy plants and 
shrubs, with their thousand forms of foliage and endless 
varieties of graceful flowers, to make room for the raising of 
one thousand dozen sorted bedding plants, to utilize which, 
after the fashionable manner, the old flowers had to be cleared 
out of their dear old-fashioned borders, the ancestral tufts of 
hepatica, that had bloomed there for the delight of successive 
generations, and grand clumps of towering white liles, too, 
had to vacate the spot, where, year after year, they had come 
up in their glory to be admired. And the noble crown 
imperials, and the wide patches of double-white Narcissus, and 
the great clumps of the heavy-flowering double daftodils,— 


“That take the winds of March with beauty,” 


and the grand old peonies, that lolled over the box edeings and 
seemed so perfectly at home; all these old friends, which year 
after year had come forth in their beauty, at the accustomed — 
time, on the accustomed spot, to greet their old friends, all had 
to be routed out.. The place, said the cruel, but fashionable, 
gardener, was wanted for a ribbon-border; and so lilies and 
hepaticas, and polyanthuses and globe flowers, and monkshoods, 
and all the old-fashioned pets were swept ruthlessly away— 
eveunt omnes. The old characters of the garden drama were — 
no longer wanted. Spectacle had set in, and gorgeously-attired 
supernumeraries in astounding numbers crowded the stage in 
serried masses, each marshalled in form and array upon 
geometric principles; and thus were numbers substituted for 
the legitimate characters belonging to the horticultural drama, 
and the home, so to speak, of poetry was usurped by geometry. 


- (To be continued.) 


Nay. 24, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


19 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Butcher’s Broom with Berries. — Many persons well acquainted with this 
lant are surprised when told that the female plant bears beautiful scarlet 

Tries, as handsome as any we have. These are rare in gardens in consequence 
of the prevalence of the male and infertile female plants in our shrubberies and 
gardens. Dr. Syme says, in reply to a query on this subject :—'‘I know of but 
one-way to get berries on butcher's broom; get a berry-bearing female plant, 
and "a a male plant alongside. I got my berry-bearer from a garden in 
Southend, and it has had berries every year since. There is a male plant 
ooaeee of it from Darnt Wood. Here there are six or seven large pseudo- 
fi eé plants in the garden, but not one of them ever has a berry on it, though 
some of them are quite near the fertile female and the male plants. Neither 
did I ever get a berry on the plant I had in London from the Regent's Park 
Botanic Gardens. I Nerd sowed five or six seeds of the Southend plant, to see 
if any females of its descendants are also fertile.” 

Acclimatisation of Australian Trees.—Considerable advance has been 
made of recent —s in France in introducing hardy foreign trees and shrubs 
suitable to the climate; and with a fair amount of success, many natives of 
warmer Climates being found to stand the winters in the southern departments. 
The Eucalyptus globulus has given the best results in the department of the Var, 
where it has resisted the malign influences of the mistral or north-west wind. 
It is described as growing with ten times the rapidity-of the oak, and being 
remarkably well-adapted for the re-clothing of denuded mountains. The im- 
provement that may be thus effected in many dry, warm,and barren parts of 
America, as along some of the more arid and treeless parts of the Pacific slope, 
it is impossible to exaggerate. And it is pleasant to reflect that the lovely 


- acacias of New Holland, and the gum-trees, unrivalled for their grace of habit, 


when starting up into the sky at the rate of sixteen feet or so a year, are one 
day destined to embellish many a region besides their own. We should be glad 
to learn how the Eucclypti are doing in the south of England. With us, however, 
their employment must be very limited. 


hRESFRUITSGAR DEN. 


IMPROVEMENT IN ORCHARD CULTURE, 


TERE is one way by which great improvement in fruit culture 
may be effected at once and to everybody's satisfaction. I 
mean by the judicious thinning of the branchlets of standard 
orchard and garden trees. The natural tendency of trees of 
the apple order, to which most of our fruits belong, from the 
hawthorn of our hedges to the showy-flowered Chinese pear, is 
to produce a dense profusion of bloom, and consequently of 
fruit. Sheets of white or pink blossoms in spring, and showers 
of ey. fruit in. autumn, usually adorn them. And the 
tendency is as apparent in the newest and largest apple and 
pear as in one of those-American thorns laden with crowds of 
bright scarlet haws. For ages and ages man has bred our 
hardy fruits, until they so vary in flayour and size and beauty 
of colour that they puzzle system, and until some of the 
varieties haye no more likeness to the aboriginal native than a 
Life Guardsman has toa chimpanzee. Yet in one point they 
still inherit their marked native trait—profuseness in bud and 
Fruit. It is true that by selection the fruits have become so 
large that the improvement to be had by judicious thinning is 
not likely to present itself to many cultivators ; but one trial of 
the system will conyert the most obtuse. Nature’s tendency is 


to the production of myriads of individuals, whereas in the 


case of our fruits we require size and perfection of the indi- 
vidual rather than mere quantity. Let it be duly considered 
that the total weight of finely developed fruits may equal, or 
nearly equal, an unthinned and half starved crop, and perhaps 
be worth three or four times more in money value. 

Generally the practice is to leave the crop as much to nature 


_ as regards thinning of the branchlets as we do that of the ash 


or blackberry. One year the tree bears a great crop of fruit, 
and the whole of its vigour is so drawn up by the many hungry 
feeders that little remains to form fruit spurs for the following 
year, and such as are formed may lack vigour to set. Then 
comes a year of effort in the production of wood and spurs, 
and perhaps by the end of autumn there will be a score, or even 
two score, fruit buds on one fruit spur, where one, two, or at 
most three, would be sufficient. Now, if all be allowed to set, 
the result will be a dense crop of poor fruit, which, if submitted 
in the market test, will prove of little value. But if these 


Spurs be thinned so as to force the energies of the tree to be 


concentrated in fine and succulent fruit, there will also rest 
sufficient strength in it to form at the same time a medium 
ae of fruit-buds likely to afford a crop the following year, 
and to induce a more regularly fertile habit in the tree. By 
following this thinning system we may, in fact, get good and 
valuable prope every year; and by the other the alternate and 
useless profusion before alluded to. The pear requires this 
attention as much as the apple when grown as a standard or 
freely developed tree; but, in consequence of being much more 
grown in a dwarf and contracted form, on espaliers, walls, &c., 


and much pruned, the want of thinning is not so often seen as in 
the case of the apple. 

No method of pruning or training these trees in the open air 
is better than the freely developed standard tree, if the thinning 
process be well carried out. And how shall we best do it ?. 
Clearly the right way is to thin the branchlets, and the best 
time in early winter, when it may be done with some comfort 
and facility, though, of course, at any time through the winter 
will do. ‘the tree should be opened up in the usual way as regards 
its main branches, but the chief attention should be given to 
the regular and bold thinning of the fruit-bearing branchlets, 
and even to the thinning of the spurs, where there is plenty of 
time to do so. It may more fully show the importance of this 
subject when we say that we know of one large orchard planta- 
tion of pears to the west of London the fruit of which has 
brought more than double the amount of money during the 
last few years, and since falling into the hands of a market 
gardener who carefully prunes and thins out his trees, than it 
did when left to nature. The thinning of the branchlets here 
advised should not be performed till they haye begun to bear 
fruit-buds in too great abundance. 


PRUNING AND NAILING IN THE COLD. 

THERE are many inhumanities practised in gardening, chiefly, I 
believe, for want of thought and for lack of sympathy. Masters 
give orders irrespective of the weather and without regard to the 
feelings of those who have to execute them. St. Clare remarked 
concerning his negroes, ‘‘ How can I punish them for doing exactly 
what I should have done myself, in their circumstances?” The 
carrying out of the whole spirit of this remark would prevent much 
suffering and loss in many gardens. Before ordering others to do 
certain work, let the question be put,—Should we like to do it 
ourselves? or, could we do it well under the conditions of heat or 
cold, wind, rain, frost, &c., then prevailing ? Here is a case in point, 
seasonable and, unfortunately, only too prevalent—that of winter 
pruning and nailing. There are gardens not a few in which these 
operations go on, without intermission, in all weathers, unless 
interrupted by blinding snow or very heavy rain indeed. We have 
stood on walls—hands and muscles blue—helplessly trying to nail, with 
fifteen or twenty degrees of frost; or the east wind making a clean 
sweep through our scanty clothing ; or the thick fog, or drizzling rain, 
as near the freezing-point as rain could fall, slowly, like a terrible fate, 
drenching us through. No one can estimate the mischief and misery 
caused by such cruelty. The seeds of diseases unknown—con- 
sumption, rheumatism—are sown broadcast among men and boys 
under such circumstances; and the terrible results are reaped after 
many days in early graves, and lives of misery and helpless suffering. 
How many gardeners are the victims of rheumatic and other chronic 
diseases! We believe that most of them were contracted by an 
exposure, as inclement and cruel as it was wasteful—for it cannot be 
too often repeated that no work could be purchased so dear as that 
of nailing trees in cold weather. No man can do an honest days’ 
work under such conditions. His numbed fingers and his depressed 
spirits alike forbid it. On the contrary, the man who knows that 
his comfort has been studied in the matter, will do more training in 
an hour in genial weather at noon than he could have done in the 
eight or nine hoursof a cold wintry day. Thus, self-interest counsels the 
aid of humane management: and, indeed, where there is a will in 
this matter there is no difficulty in finding a way. True, much 
training must needs be done between November and February, but, 
by picking opportunities, time will be found for it all. No mild 
weather should be lost. Eyery genial day as much as possible should 
be given up to such occupations; and hours should be picked out as 
well as days. Work should rise, as it were, in couples in its winter 
season. A man’s job for the morning or evening should be coupled 
to a cool one, such as training, for the middle of the day. Again, on 
days when training is practicable, though somewhat cold, it is easy 
to have a piece of digging or trenching at hand for the men to warm 
themselves at when they get chilly. More nailing or tying will then 
be got through than had the processes proceeded without intermission, 
and the comfort and health of the operatives, as well as the ground 
tilled, will be so much to the credit of humane management. 

It is ever thus that kindness, like virtue, is its own reward. © Con- 
sideration for the comfort of men is an employer’s most profitable 
investment. Doubtless it will occasionally be abused; but such will 
not be its fate generally. Like begets like: thoughtfulness for 
workers, for the interests of masters; and no master was ever any 
worse, but better, served for embodying in his management the 
golden rule which succinctly sums up the whole matter of humane 
management: ‘“‘ Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, 
do ye even so unto them.” D. T. BF. 


20 


THE GARDEN. 


[Nov. 25, 1871. 


Aspects suitable to the various Kinds of Wall Fruit.— 
The following table, compiled by Mr. Powell, manager of the hardy 
fruit department im the Royal fruit and culinary gardens at Frogmore, 
is well worthy the attention of fruit growers :— 


ASPECT. ASPECT. 
Namus ov Fruits. alsldle Nanas or PRvrts. slsla |3 
a\8\5|2 4\3/5/8 
Ale lala Ale lA in 
Apricots : 7 = 
Large Harly . . be fool pel Cunnnrzs : a | 
Moorpark . 3 —|—|+|S Circassian. . . . . . |E\WI-S 
Breda < E/W\-|s Bigarreau Napoleon . |EI—INIS 
Shipley’s ae —Wi—|s Florence el . (E)=|N i — 
Hemskirk . 9. 2... |= eles S May Duke . (= i= 
iOS Goa hn —|—|-|S Downton nanke . (E)-— 
Musch Musch .. . —W\—|s Holman’s Duke . 5 t =| N]- 
PrAcuEs: ( ‘A oe B\Crown’ “Te hwin Ig 
Re Mignonne . - |W ee Blagkibaclees ova ee eee 
osanna ee ee. cippeters ole aa mela bail bor Rall bod 
Buekingham Mignonne . |i /W\|—|S Pina BAL gir ey ela e Re Nee 
Bellogarde . woe ew FRIIS NEONAUGUR ay ke i pes a ed 
Chancellor. .. . . .j/—j—iI-IS8 Wertler" Tippee eee i Ca ase 
Noblesse . 2... . ./EI/Wi—S ne Griatt “y 458 el Et es Eas 
Barrington s. . . . - |-/WEIS oemane tay a re 
Walburton Admirable EIWi—s Bivan SU BIWINS 
Late Admirable . S18 Gavnoroeraga Kea ele 
Royal Georgo . . . . |-|Wi—'S SANK Ci é 
Violet Hative . + (Es 
Boa en oane ‘ || |8 |} Punts : 
Barly Albert . —=—— Ss to ee on ha ae 
Wa rly Victoria — ——|s ene or Sat bie Aas tae 
Frogmore Golden . 1;Wi—Ss Fotheringham Batter as 
N&ECTARINES : Reine Claude Violette . |E 
Murray. . . -|—|W—s Coe’s Golden Drop. . /E 
Hhuge . . . .iH Ss Reine Claude de Bayay . |E 
Violet Hative . . jw —s Kirk’s Hative ... .(|E 
Downton BA otal ets} Greengage. . . Sere er 
Vermash al bee toad wea) Impératrice . |E 
New White Vee Wilmot’s Orleans E 
Pitmaston Orange . JIniwes / Tsabella . woe (EIR 
Roman . . {E}Wi-s White Magnum... : |E/W—'— 
Pine Apple = Standard of England ee —— 
Prince of Wales . —w — 5 Angelina Burdett . . Bw — 
Victoria. . . . lat rit Frogmore Orleans . i rae 


Cornish Strawberries and Bush Fruit.—About Penzance, 
and a little way in from the sea, around the adjacent villages there is 
splendid land and facilities for strawberry and raspberry culture. 
On flat, moist spots the raspberry‘and black currant can be grown 
beautifully to any extent, and the banks and slopes of undulated 
ground affords splendid opportunities of producing bounteous crops 
of early strawberries. I say early, and for this purpose early 
varieties alone should be cultivated, and that on the right aspect, 
viz., south and west. Intermediate sorts would prove almost a total 
loss, and the very latest varieties would not pay for their culture in 
Cornwall. By growing them, however, in northern counties,and in 
northern aspects. our English strawberry season might be greatly 
lengthened to the advantage of everybody.—JamEs Banrnnus. 


The Vintage of California.—One of the leading wine-makers of California, 
who has extensive dealings with grape-growers, estimates that the crop of this 
year will produce from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 gallons of ‘‘ must” or raw wine. 
Alluding to this estimate, the San Franciso Bulletin of October the 25th says :— 
“This ‘must’ is worth about thirty cents a gallon, making anagegregate value of 
2,100,000 dols. The grapes for wine-making sell in bulk at about one cent a pound. 
There is, in addition, a large amount of table grapes, raised for home consump- 
tion and for shipment. ‘The choice varieties ell in the home markets at much 
lower rates than formerly. It will not be far from the mark to estimate the cash 
value of the grapes grown for other than wine purposes at 400,000 dols. The 
aggregate value of the vintage for this year, in California, may be set down at 
2,500,000 dols. The estimate may be a low one; but there are data to support it. 
Moreover, there is a large number of vines which are just coming into bearing, 
but will not produce a full crop until next year, From all quarters we hear that 
the quality of grapes was never better than this year. The dry weather has 
nowhere shortened the crop. In some vineyards noticed by us in Napa Valley, 
the yield of the better sorts of grapes was enormous. The proprietor of one 
vineyard, containing about twenty acres of choice varieties, estimated that the 
net returns would be not less than ten cents a pound, the entire crop haying 
been engaged for the home market.” 


After the War.—The horrors of modern war do not yanish with the advent 
of peace, as the French have often found out of late. Apart from the. 
indescribable destruction of dwelling-houses and property of all kinds, great 
danger often waits the people, when, having put their dwellings in something 
like order, they repair to their gardens and fields. In many nurseries and 
gaxdens in March of the present year there were unexploded shells, sometimes 
gathered and placed in fountain-basins as a precaution against their bursting. 
About l’Hay and Bourg-la-Reine, and in scores of other places about Paris and 
throughout France, the ground was literally sown with shells, a good many of 
them buried but not exploded, making it exceedingly dangerous to put the 
grounds in their former order. A gardener at Auteuil was recently employed 
cutting down some trees that, like numbers of others around Paris, had been 
injured by shot and shell. Suddenly he struck with his hatchet a shell embedded 
in the trunk, and unhappily so as to ignite the shell, which immediately burst 
with frightful noise, rending the trunk into fragments. By a singular stroke of 
good luck neither the gardener nor other persons near at hand were touched, 
There have been many frightful accidents from shells since the war ended, A 
terrible accident occured lately on the plateau of Champigny, where the 


combats of the Ist and 2nd December, 1870, were fought. The share of a plough 
came in contact with a bombshell, which had sunk into the earth, and caused 
an explosion, The body of the man driving was scattered about the field in 
morsels ; the horses were killed, and the plough blown to pieces. The trees 
suffered as much as the combatants; millions were cut down to the ground, and 
fine plantations left standing, here and there in the suburbs, were mutilated by 
shot and shell, Large boughs and trunks fell from the passage of a shell as the 
young grass falls before the scythe in summer. We have a piece of shell, part of 
one that passed throngh a large specimen of an Ailantus tree, at five feet from the 
ground, leaving a hole about two feet in diameter torn right through the tree. 
The shell seemed to have passed through the tree as easily as if there had been 
no wood within the bark. The tree was supported by about a foot of wood on 
each side, and did not seem to suffer. The shell entered the ground ten feet 
beyond the tree, and there burst. The gardener filled up with clay the great 
jagged hole in the tree, which now remains erect where many of its fellows have 
fallen, ‘ 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
WATER. 


THE most pressing need in most gardens is that of water. Soil, 
manure, site, shelter, aspect—all, as a rule, have been more or less 
planned or provided for, but water has been expected to drop down 
from the clouds. And if it does not, how many gardeners haye to 
go without it, or nearly so! Go without it! What does that mean? 
It means hard sticky vegetables, stunted leathery fruits, and small 
withered flowers; for water is the life, the very substance, of most 
garden crops. As well try to make bricks without clay, as to grow 
succulent vegetables, luscious fruits, and fresh-scented flowers 
without water. And yet water is not only exceedingly scarce, but 
most recklessly wasted in nearly all English gardens: it is treated 
more as an enemy to be got rid of than a friend to help in eyery 
good, work. It is carried off buildings into sewers, swept off the 
surface into the nearest ditch, and the earth tapped in all directions 
under the garden, that we may be rid of it. The whole or greater 
portion of that water ought to be sayed up for future use. The rain- 
fall throughout the greater part of the country is not sufficient for 
the majority of our garden crops. Sometimes for months during the_ 
most trying weather we have no rain. By storing our water we 
could regulate, and to-a great extent equalise, the distribution. 
Common sense would tell us to open the lower cisterns when those 
in Cloud-land were closed or exhausted. But to do this we must store 
water in a more wholesale manner. I say store rather than raise 
water; for spring water, unless first exposed for some days to 
the ameliorating influences of the atmosphere, is too harsh and hard 
for the nourishment of plants.- The only water taken care of now 
is the little that falls upon our roofs. All that flows from deep 
drains is wasted, when it ought to be collectedin huge tanks.— Field. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON KITCHEN-GARDENING. 


‘The Lima Bean.—This is a delicacy unknown to untravelled 
Englishmen, and quite worth a trial in some of your large English 
gardens. I consider it to be the best of the bean family, both 


‘when cooked alone and in the form of the well-known Indian dish 


2 


called ‘* Succotash,” which is sweet corn in the green state cooked 
with Lima beans. The climate of England would not be hot enough — 
for these beans, but after May there are generally empty frames, from 
early potatoes, &c., which might be used for them. The Lima bean 

is a climber, but by pinching-in its tops, as is frequently done with ~ 
scarlet runners, it may be kept ina dwarf state. I is shelled and 
cooked like peas, and it is also excellent dried and cooked in winter 
like haricots, but is much superior to them,—J. Taptiy, South 
Amboy, New Jersey, United States. 


Harvesting Herbs.—A good many herbs are used dry as wellas green. The 
best state in which to gather them is when they first come into flower. At that 
stage their peculiar flavours haye culminated. The general mode of drying 
herbs ‘and treating them afterwards has been slovenly and filthy in the 
extreme. They have been cut and either tied ae at once, or left in a back shed 
till they are withered a little, and then bunched up in some dusty spot until — 
called for in the kitchen, where they have often made their appearance much 
more heavily coated with dust than distinguished by flavour. St. Clare, in “Uncle 
Tom’s Cabin,” implores all gentlemen who would enjoy their dinner to keep 
out of the kitchen. It is more necessary to caution those who relish the flavour 
of herbs not to ask to see their dry stores. All herbs should be dried quickly on 
open trays in a hot kitchen or room; and, as soon as they are crisp, rub or e 
them down to powder, and store them away in bottles closely corked. 
thus, clean and air-tight, the strength and purity of the flavour is preserved for 
years. With the bottles closely corked and sealed, or bladdered like other 
preserves, a dinner liberally flayoured with herbs will be within reach any 
season, Summer or winter. In conclusion, J may add that the flayour of dried 
parsley is perfect.—Quxrrcvs. 


Cultivation of Shallots.—I do not think it is generally known-that shallots 
will grow much finer from seed than from the parent root. TI send you samples, 
two of which measure over 7} inches. ‘The seed shorild be sown about the ad 
week in February, in ground prepared as for onions, namely: trench the 
ground two spits deep with a quantity of manure, and then tread the surface as 
hard as you can. Sow the seed in drills. The roots sent were grown by an 
amateur, and I doubt whether you can get any seed from a nurseryman.—C, A. 

The specimens sent by our correspondent were very large and fine. They are — 

e common, not the true, shallot. The common shallot is very nearly allied to 

the onion, and seeds freely. The true one does not]. 5 


ept 


. 


4 


$ 


~ 
4 
m 
e 
Be 
. 


AP 


fe 
- 
4 
2 


2 


Noy. 25, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 21 


THE MARKET-GARDEN, 
. MARKET GARDENING IN CORNWALL. 


Tus is carried on chiefly about Penzance, which is the most 
westerly town in the county, and has a popuation of from 9,000 to 
10,000. It is about ten miles from the Land’s End, and 326 from 
London. It is defended from Atlantic storms by surrounding hills, and 
the atmosphere generally is soft and gently humid, particularly when 

_ the wind blows from south to west. Such a climate suits vegetation 
admirably; and the locality is renowned for its market-garden 
produce. 

The land in the vicinity of Penzance has a substratum of horn- 
~ blende, rock, and slate, and is not surpassed in fertility by any in the 
kingdom. Its natural capabilities indeed are evinced by the luxuriance 
of the vegetation produced even under the hedges, fences, and odd 
corners. I never observed anywhere else such rank natural growth. 
A track of land adjoining the town, consisting of about a thousand 
acres, produces a rental of more than £10,000 a year. An immense 
breadth of early potatoes is grown here, which are very remunerative, 
being ready to take up and send to may) et in May and June. They 
are conveyed in immense quantities to London, Bristol, Birmingham, 
Manchester, and to the markets of other large inland towns. On my 
first visit to Penzance many years ago, in May, I was surprised to have 
new out-door potatoes for dinner, and to find that they were plenti- 
ful everywhere thereabouts. After the first crop is taken up, some 
of the land is planted again to produce a second crop, which comes in 
ready for the next year's seed. The early crop is, of course, planted 
in the winter and early months of the year. 

The crop which succeeds early potatoes, and which is equal to 

them in‘importance, is white broccoli. This is sown in February and 
March, and is strong enough to put out at once when the potatoes are 
cleared off. This crop is grown to a very large extent, and is sent 
in crates by hundreds of tons during the early spring months to 
almost every market in the kingdom. This broccoli is generally 
close-headed, early and white, if attention is paid to breaking down 
the foliage over it, or to giving it some other slight protection, so as 
to prevent light in some measure and slight frosts reaching the heads. 
It is planted from two feet six inches to three feet apart. 
f Early cabbages, too, are pretty extensively grown about Penzance ; 
its inhabitants and shipping population consuming annually many tons 
of them. Early rhubarb, as long asit is good, is sent inland to market ; 
and asparagus is also cultivated to some considerable extent. Iam sur- 
prised, however, that it is not more extensively grown than it is on such 
beautiful land as exists here, and under such a genial climate; more 
especially as it can be so easily packed—large quantities occupying but 
little room, compared withrhubarborbroccoli. Asparagus, too, isalways 
amost saleable vegetable, and can be produced at least a month earlier 
than it can be about London or one hundred miles inland. Besides, in 
some of the Cornish caves and mines, it could be produced very early, 
and well bleached for those who like it white. Moreover, just a few 
-~miles from Penzance, is what is termed Asparagus Island, where aspa- 
ragus grows in a wildstate- There isalso abundance of Wild cabbage, 
seakale, and celery growing round the coast. Seakale is another 
saleable, wholesome vegetable, well worth a trial in this locality, 
where salt and sea-weed abound. It is astonishing what an acre of 
strong seakale roots would produce. If taken up and placed in the 
caves or mines, it would come on early, and a later portion could be 
left in a natural way to be covered with sand or light earth. If it 
only averaged, say sixpence per pound, an acre would produce a 
profitable result. $ 

Globe mangolds are also grown to some extent after early potatoes. 
They are sown in a corner of the potatoe-field, and transplanted as 


the potatoes are cleared, and heavy crops are thus produced. Turnips, 


also, are sown ; and, what very much astonished me the first time I 
went to Penzance, was to see the splendid healthy pieces of spring- 
sown turnips, in full-sized pulling order in April and May, a season 
__ when eyery turnip in the London markets of spring-sown growth is 

_ Worth as much as an orange, inasmuch as first crops of them have to 
be produced on slight hot-beds, and those for succession on warm, 
_ sheltered borders, while, as a rule, they only last good a very short 


_ time, afterwards becoming strong, hot, and sticky. At Penzance the 
_ @limate just suits these and other vegetables ; and if I were inclined 


to grow and seakale for the million, that is the locality I 
_ should select on which to make a commencement. 

Pe ce, too, possesses the very climate and soil for early let- 
tuces, which seem to have but little attention paid to them anywhere. 
Instead of a few common kinds of cabbage-lettuce, which are the 
sorts mostly cultivated here, I should begin with, at least, on a small 
scale, : those fine Paris and London Cos Lettuces, which are 
sown tober, and planted out at the end of January and through 
February, in succession—why, they would grow splendidly in sheltered 
places, such as slopes behind large, high banks—and in March.and 


- \ 


. Sufficient scale. 


April they would be worth from sixpence to a shilling each, and 
often more. At the same time I should recommend enough only to 
be grown after the above date for home consumption. It is in the 
early spring only I should attempt their production, for markets at 
a distance, and thé land would be early cleared, and not much robbed, 
for another crop. 

Early carrots could also be produced at Penzance. If sown in July 
and August they would be fit to pull early in spring: thus competing 
with those from France, which sell then at a high price in the 
Lendon markets. 

As to manure, of course when two, and sometimes three, crops are 
annually taken off any land, however good, some must be applied ; 
and I observed that about Penzance this for the most part consisted, 
in addition to sea-weed, of substances well suited for vegetable 
growth. It is applied pretty freely; but as respects horse-hoeing, 
surface-stirring, trenching, and general pulverisation of the soil I 
must confess that I have seen these and other operations of that 
kind done better in other districts. JamES BARNES. 


The Milanese Sewerage System.—This is recommended by Mr. Child, of 
Oxford, in the Zimes, as being suitable for small towns and country villages. Its 
essential feature is the drainage of the houses into water-tight cesspools, which 
are emptied frequently, efficiently, and quite inoffensively by means of a barrel- 
cart, previously exhausted of air, and a hose. The barrel-cart then conveys the 
sewage to a depot at a convenient distance, where all that is saleable is sold to 
farmers, and the rest is manufactured into a kind of dry artificial guano. Many 
of our little towns and villages lie on dead flats or at the bottom of deep valleys, 
where ordinary sewerage works could not be established without an expensive 
pean for raising the sewage in order to render it available for irrigation. 

n such places the Milanese system might be carried out with ease and at com- 
paratively small outlay. A certain number of cesspools must be rendered water- 
tight—a process not very expensive. One cesspool would serve for several cot- 
tages, and frequent emptying would be better than large size. Two Milanese 
barrel-carts must be procured, and these, with a small steam-engine at the depot 
to work the air-pump, would,together with about three men and two horses, form 
the whole of the apparatus required for testing the system upon a small but 
On the day on which Mr. Child visited the depot near Milan, 
farmers’ carts were waiting there literally in scores to obtain their supply of it, 
and he feels sure that if landed proprietors or farmers were to give the system 
a trial in this country they eat find it well worth adoption.—[This system is, 
no doubt, a main cause of the esl verdure and luxuriance of the market- 
gardens outside the city of Milan.—W.R.] 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON SOILS, MANURES, ETC. 


Spent Hops.—Refuse or spent hops from the brewery are very easy to obtain 
in many localities, and, like cocoanut fibre and one or two other refuse materials, 
may be advantageously utilised in the garden. London nurserymen sometimes 
use them for plunging small pots in, getting them very much cheaper than any 
other loose and suitable material, and they are also occasionally used as a means 
of furnishing bottom heat. The heat generated is not by any means so strong 
as that afforded by other heating materials; but it is a mild, genial heat, suiting 
many things better than a strong one, and nothing can be more congenial to 
lot of newly-struck cuttings of soft stuff in spring than to be plunged or seated 
on a layer of this. When rotted into mould, it makes a useful vegetable manure, 
and when thoroughly rotted, it is as good as leaf mould for mixing with common 
potting stuff, or in the soil for such things as cinerarias, fuchsias, and “ soft- 
wooded” and bedding-plants generally. It is also highly useful as a mulching, 
and on light soils, liable to get too dry and to starve and dwindle some of their 
crops, © layer of it spread two or three inches thick over the soil of the crops 
most liable to be injured produces a great improyement. Of course it may 
afterwards be dng in with advantage to the ground. It is one of those things 
that cannot. be generally used or recommended, because not to be had every- 
where; but there are many neighbourhoods in which it may be had at a nominal 
price, and in such places it will be found useful in the garden,—M. 


Substitute for Gravel.—Having the misfortune to live in a part of the 
country where gravel is not very plentiful, most of my garden walks are paved 
with pitching stones, and I find it impossible to keep them clean ; for no sooner 
does the ‘ weeding boy”? get to the end of a path than he has to begin over 
again, so fast do the weeds grow. Can any of your readers inform me of any 
remedy for this nuisance? I have already tried salt, and found it of no use.— 
G.R. ‘(Wherever gravel is scarce, clay is generally abundant, and it (clay) may 
be dug and burned into ballast for 2s. or 2s. 6d. per cubic yard. It should be 
hard burned, the lumps broken up, and passed through a half-inch sieve. 
Spread a layer, dry, three inches in thickness, over the surface of the paths, 
well roll it, then lay three inches of concrete over that, formed of five parts 
ballast and one part blue lias ground lime, spread it evenly, and beat down 
with the back of a spade. This should be done in May, after the frosts are gone. 
Or a more durable but more expensive concrete may be formed by using 
Portland cement in the proportion of six to one. Gas tar, costing about 3d. 
per gallon at gasworks, run over the walks will prevent vegetation, and, to 
obviate the unsightly appearance, might be covered over half an inch or so 
with fine gravel or ballast. ] 

Books and Articles on Soils.—Can you recommend the best work on 
the varieties and ——— of soil?—A Student. [Much useful information 
will be found in Morton’s work, ‘On Soils.’’ The following prize essays 
and articles in the Journals of the Royal Agricultural Society should also he 
read, viz.: ‘‘ Soils, their Origin and Composition,”’ by Fownes, vol. iv. 
p. 499. ‘Indications of Fertility or Barreness,” by Jno. Arkell, vol. v. 
p. 429; by Jno. Bravender, vol. v. Bs 559; and by Schubler, vol. i. p. 177. 
** Power of Absorption,” by H. S. Thompson, vol. xi. p. 68; by J. T. Way, 
vol. xi. p. 323; by ditto, vol. xiii. p. 123. ‘‘ On Agricultural Geology of 
England and Wales,” by J. Trimmer, vol. xii. p. 445. “‘ Causes of Barrenness 
or Fertility,” by J. Coleman, vol. xvi. p. 169. ‘‘ Chemical Properties of,” by 
Voelcker, vol. xxi. p. 105. And there is a good deal of information on the 
subject in Mr, London’s and in various other works. | 

The Cleanin; i of Garden Walks.—Last summer I tried for the first time the 
efficacy of sulphuric acid for this purpose, and found it far superior to salt in 
many points. Procure the darkest, cheapest acid (about 1d. per Ib.), and mix in 
a glazed pan with about twenty times its own amount of water, then have a 
copper can, pierced at the bottom, or better.a copper water-can with arose, with 
which apply it till the ground is just wetted all over, and no more; don’t go 


22 


THE GARDEN. 


[Nov. 25, 1871. 


within six inches of the edgings, nor make any spray fly, as it kills wherever it 
touches. It kills every seed inthe walk, and there are often hundreds dormant 
in every square foot. In all flint and clay gravels there is soda, and the acid un- 
ites with this, forming sulphate of soda, which is an efflorescent salt, that is a 
salt promotive of dryness, just as common salt is promotive of wetness; so 
that if applied in a little patch on a damp green walk it will soon become dry 
and clean. And the salt will be seen as a white mark encircling all the pebbles 
in the walk. The acid, if applied in the spring, will last all the summer well. 
This deserves to become the universal method of cleaning a walk, for it is soon 
done and done with, it makes the walk so dry and pure, andit is as cheap as 
common salt, or even cheaper. It will be well to note that if the gravel is too 
full of lime the effect will be less—A. D. 


TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC. 


. A GOOD DIGGING-FORK. 


THE great importance of agriculture as compared with horticulture 
in America explains the fact that our inventive cousins have not made 
as great progress in improvements of horticultural as of agricultural 
implements, &c. Nevertheless, they are not quite at a standstill in 
this respect. Before leaving New York last autumn, I made a small 
collection of American garden tools, some for the sake of comparing 
the quality of their tools, &c., with that of our own; others, for their 
novelty and merit; and among these the digging-fork here figured is 


an implement of proyed excellence. 
shown in the engraving. The merits of this fork consist in its 
strength and lightness. It is strong enough for any ground or for 
any work, and withal without a trace of the clumsiness of the old 
digging-fork. The mode of fixing in the tines is worthy of attention. 
They are in two pairs, and passed through a large eye in the very 
strong iron apex of the handle, and then fixed in firmly by iron 
wedges, as shown in the cut. The section of the tine is also shown, 
but, though the fork cannot be better explained byian engraving than 
it is by ours, that fails to give the good idea of the article which 
seeing and handling it does. Jt ought to be in every garden. Jam 
not aware that it can be purchased in this country, but if not, no 
seedsman or tool-merchant should have any difficulty in getting it 
from a New York house. I would strongly adyise our nursery and 
seedsmen to keep it in stock, and some of our manufacturers to 
arrange for its production in this country.—W. R. 


My specimen is accurately 


Moscow Exhibition, 1872.—<Arboriculture and horticulture 
are to occupy a prominent position at this great International 
Polytechnic Exhibition. It cannot be expected, perhaps, looking to 
the distance of the place of exhibition, that very much in either of 
these branches will be contributed from this country; but it is 
obvious that, from nearer sources, it must be well supplied with 
abundance of materials that must be most interesting to arbori- 
eulturists and horticulturists, and which will well repay a journey 
to Moscow to see them. The Arboricultural division has been, we 
observe, sub-divided into the Geography of Forests ; Topography of 
Forests; Results of regular cultivation and artificial Arboriculture ; 
Importance of Arboriculture in its relations to other branches of State 
Econony ; Applied sciences: animals useful or injurious to forests ; 
herbaria, dendrological collections, samples of the soil with analysis ; 
Applied arts: drawings, models, photographs; Literature: books, 
maps, plans, and pamphlets. The Botanical and Horticultural Section 
contains: 1. The exclusively scientific botanical part, comprising a 
botanical garden, with a systematic arrangement of the plants, and 
a botanic museum, with collections of various parts of plants, their 
raw and manufactured products, and with scientific data of general 
interest on the structure and growth of plants. 2. The applied part, 
including within it, fruitculture, floriculture, kitchen-gardening, and 
other branches of plant culture. 

. The American and his Gardener—Lackland has great faith, like almost 
all the men I ever met, in his study of physiognomy. About a man’s temper or 
his honesty, he can hardly be mistaken, he thinks, if he can once set eyes upon 
him. He is therefore strongly disposed in favour of a stout, jolly-faced Trish- 
man, who assures him he can grow as good ‘‘yigitables as enny man in 
Ameriky.”—‘‘ And flowers, Patrick (Patrick O’Donohue is his name) ; you could 
take care of the flowers? ”—‘‘Oh, flowers, and begorra, yis, Sir—roses, pinks, 
vi lets—roses, whativer you wish, Sir.’’—‘‘ And the poultry, Patrick; you could 
look after the poultry, conldn’t you? ’’—‘‘ And indade, Sir, that’s what I can; 
there’s niver a man in the counthry can make hens lay as I can make ’em lay.’’ 
Im short, Lackland bargains with Patrick, and reports him at the home-quarters 
“a perfect jewel of aman.’ Lackland provides frames and glass for the early 
salads he covets so much; and Patrick, with the fresh sweepings of the stables, 
has presently a bed all a-steam. At the mere sight of it the Lacklands regale 
themselves with thoughts of crisp radishes and the mammoth purple fruit of 
the egg-plants. The seeds are all put in—early cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, 


radishes—under the same frame, by the judicious O’Donohue. The cabbages 
and the radishes come forward with a jump. Their expedition forms a pleasant 
theme for the physiological meditation of Lackland. Heis delighted with the 
stable manure, with the cabbage seed, and with the O’Donohue. He is inclined 
to speak disrespectfully of the seed of peppers and of egg-plants in the com- 

arision. But the bland O’Donohue says, ‘‘We must give ’em a little more 

ate.” And after some three or four days, Lackland is stupefied, on one of his © 
visits to his hotbed, to find all his fine radishes and cabbages fairly wilted away ; 
there is nothing left of them but a few sun-blackened stumps ; the peppers and 
egg-plants show no signs of germination. ‘* What does all this mean?” says 
Lackland; “the cabbages are dead, Patrick.’’—‘‘ Yis, Sir—it’s the hate, Sn. 
The sun is very strong here, Sir; we must give ‘em a little more air, Sir.” And 
they get the air—get the air (by a little forgetfulness on the part of Patrick) 
night as wellas day. ‘The peppers and egg-plants, after a fortnight more of 
expectation, do not appear. ‘‘ How’s this, Patrick, no start yet? ”’—‘* And are 
ye sure the seed’s good, Sir? ’’—‘‘ It’s all Thorburn’s seed.”’—‘' Then, of course, 
it ought to be good, Sir; but, ye see, there’s a dale o’ chatery nowadays, Sir.” 
And Patrick grubs away with a great deal of misdirected energy—slicing off, 
in the heat of his endeavour, two or three of Mrs. Lackland’s choicest rocket 
larkspurs ; whereupon that lady comes down upon him with some zeal. “‘ Lark- 
spur! and that’s a larkspur, is it, M’am? (scratching his head reflectingly) and, 
begorra, I niver once thought ’twas a larkspur. Pity, pity; and so it was, 
indade, a larkspur? Well, well, but it’s lucky it wa’nt a rosebush, M’am,.”— 
J. D. MiterEt. 


OUR CALENDARS. 


Ir is our intention to furnish monthly a General Calendar of 
Garden Operations in each important branch of gardening. The 
different departments will be written by cultivators who have 
proved themselves to be unusually successful in the particular depart- 
ment placed in their hands. Im addition to this, we shall always 
supply, weekly, except on the days on which the Monthly Calendars 
appear, a concise remembrancer as a guide to amateurs Mr. James 
Barnes, late of Bicton, will write the monthly calendar for the 
Kitchen-Garden, Pinetum, and Arboretum; Mr. Tillery, of Welbeck, 
the Fruit-Garden, both in the open air and under glass; Mr. Baines, 
of Southgate, the Stove, Greenhouse, and Conservatory departments ; 
Mr. Westland, of Witley Court, will take charge of the Flower- 
Garden; Mr. R. Dean, Florists’ Flowers; while, Herbaceous, Alpine, 
Aquatic, and Bog Plants will also receive their share of attention. 
As arule, the writers of these diyisional sections will be changed 
annually or biennially, so as to obyiate monotony, and to secure the 
best adyice in such matters from widely different districts of the 
kinedom. These Calendars will commence in our next number, and 
will generally be published at the beginuing of each month, so that 
our readers may avail themselves in due time of the directions given. 


The Ivy as a House Plant.—Our very old friend the Ivy 
Green is a first-class indoor plant. We have known him so long as 
an inhabitant of silent and gloomy places that few perhaps would 
think of introducing such a child of the woods to civilised house-life. 
However, judiciously placed, no plant will furnish a better result or 
live more contentedly indoors. As a screen plant it is admirable, 
and much used in various places for that purpose in the drawing-room. 
It is planted in long narrow troughs and trained to an erect trellis, 
placing the trough in another ornamental trough of some kind of 
earthenware, so that the moisture necessary may not descend to the 
carpets. It is in the first instance pretty well grown on the trellises 
before being placed in the house. But it is not only in places where 
numerous gardeners are employed to attend to such screens that it 
may be enjoyed. If in any hall or place where fire-heat is rarely 
used, all that we have to do to form a screen of the richest ivy is to 
plant it in a box of rich earth and train it as may be desired. The 
best of all kinds for this purpose is the common Irish ivy. It may 
indeed be grown in almost any part of a house if supplied with soil 
and water and trained a little at first. I haye seen a beautiful effect 
produced by its means in an entrance hall—the deep box in which it 
grew being placed in a niche and the shoots allowed to fall down so 
as to form a curtain of rich leayes. 

Tree Guides in the American Deserts.—Dr. Newberry says: “‘For a time 
we were often deceived by the poplars and willows, regarding them as 
indications of the presence of water, but we soon learned that they were — 
only a sign that water is to be found in their vicinity at some time during the 
year. Alders we found much better guides to water, as they will only follow — 
the courses of the streams just as far as they are permanent, and no further; 
and we never failed, even near the close of the dry season, to find the roots of 
the alders washed by living water.” The American aspen (Populus tremuloides) 
is abundant in the region east of the Cascade Mountains and Sierra Nevada, 
forming a marked feature of the vegetation of the slopes of these mountains, 
where the forests of the higher lands border the Sage plains of the central 
desert. Here it is seen in long lines of trees of small size, marking the courses 
of the many mountain streams which are in summer absorbed by the arid 
surfaces of the plains soon after leaving the mountain sides. 


Horticultural Hints for Everybody and Always.—Cultivate acquaintances, 
if desirable; if not, cut them. Never sow the seeds of dissension. Weed your 
library. Invest in stocks. Get as much heartsease as youcan. Fern-growers, 
don’t be too fierce in your rivalry ; remember the wars of the Frond (e). Attend 
to wallflowers and trim coxcombs. Emulate the cucumber—be cool. Beware of 
auricula (r) confession. Don’t peach. Avoid flowers of speech. Pot—a lot of 
money on racecourses. “Bedding out’? is good for plants, but not for friends. 
Take the advice of the sage, or you may rue the consequences. Ladies! success 
to the great rose show—on your cheeks—and may you always be eye-bright! 
N.B.—Neyer pay your bets in fox-gloyes.—Punch’s Almanac. : 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


23 


THE GARDEN. 


THE GARDEN. 


“This is an art ' 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather; but 
Tue Art 1s Naturs.’’——Shakespeare. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WittiAM Rosinson, “THE GARDEN ” Orrice, 37 Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tur PUBLISHER. 

_ The Name and Address of the writer are required with every comunica- 
tion, though not for publication, unless desired by the writer. 
Letters or inquiries from anonymous correspondents will not be 
inserted. : 

All questions on Horticultural matters sent to “ Tue GarvEN ” will 
be answered by the best authorities in every department. Cor- 
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(0 tS a 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


NOTES MADE IN THE “TIME OF ROSES.”* 
ee - BY S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 

‘ We may congratulate each other, we who love the rose, that 
never was her excellence in this floral world so conspicuous, so 
_ supreme, as now. Some of us may be sceptical as to the 
~ advances made and the conquests won by “the march of intel- 
lect,” and some of us may even dare to doubt (without deny- 
_ ing that in the matter of velocity there are advantages attached 
toa telegraph which we find not ina Pickford’s van) whether 
_ the yaunted “progress of civilisation” itself is not mainly a 
_ procession of trumpets; but we must all believe in the 
_ development of beauty, which our eyes have seen, among the 
_-flowers generally, and specially in their queen, the rose. 
Recollect, ye who can, the pelargonium, the cineraria, calceo- 
laria, fuchsia, twenty years ago, and see what amplification 
and symmetry of form, what variety and intensity of colour, 
been granted to their descendants! But to none of these 
has come such an accession of tint and of form as to the rose. 
To her of all “the daughters of the year,” of all flowers in 
hothouse, greenhouse, or garden, we may reverently apply the 
_ words of the wisest and greatest of all gardeners, “ Many 

~ daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” 
Thave “alist of roses grown at Caunton Manor,” made at 
a time when J may be said to have taken my degree, after four 
years’ study, as a rosarian, namely, in the year 1849, and at the 
end of it there is a summary consisting of 362 varieties. Of 
_ these, how many, think you, are now available for the censor’s 
eye at a rose-show ? wo only—Adam and Devoniensis. And 
: 305 have long ago disappeared from the scene, leaving, with 
the two fore-named, Blairii No. 2, still one of the loveliest, but 
expanding too soon for exhibition; Coupe d’Hebe, charming as 
_ atree, but small in its individual flowers; Comte de Paris, a 
bright, fresh, tea-scented rose; Géant des Batailles, retained as 


_ pensioner for brilliant service on the tented field; and Safranot, 
E utiful for the button-hole when Madame Faleot is away. 
_ All gone but these; and yet there was a time when they 


realised our ideal, and satisfied our desire; when we believed 
- that Grandissima deserved her title, and took off our hat to 
Reine des Beautés, and should have called a man out had 
_ he hinted a suspicion as to that rose’s modesty who said of 


a 
herself, “Reine ne me surpasse.” We were never tired of 
= admiring our Aurora, our Aimée Vibert, our Beauty of Billiard 


- (not raised by “Jonathan,” or Roberts pire, but red as the 
ball which they love to see in proximity to the middle pocket), 
~ our Celina and Ceres, our Daphne and Emerance, our Melanie 
Cornu and New Village Maid, our Orphirie and Pulcherie, our 
Reine des Vierges, and our Sophie Duval. ~ 
And then, because we appreciated that which was given to 
us so heartily (and found, as always, in such an appreciation 
the main secret of earthly happiness), because loveliness is not 
the cause only, but the result, of deep and innocent love, new 
ry * See p. 5, ante, 


A 


gifts were granted, and new graces shone. Because we served 
so loyally, so faithfully, we were commended as true knights 
for higher enterprise, admitted to amore noble company, and 
rewarded by the smiles of yet more radiant beauty. 

First there came to us a great champion, a mighty con- 
queror flushed with victory, whom we called our Giant of 
Battles. We made him by acclamation our commander-in- 
chief, and as he -glowed in brilliant uniform at the head of 
his troops, with a superior form and brightness, we thought 
that we had found perfection; and when a report reached 
us that an officer, yet more handsome and more vigorous, 
was to be promoted over him, there was doubt, and dismay, 
and disorganization in Queen Rosa’s Army. But when 
General Jacqueminot came upon the scene, incredulity and 
indignation disappeared from it, arm in arm, and every 
soldier accepted for his chief this General Jac—the Giant- 
killer. We were quite sure that now, at all events, our hero 
was invincible. ‘To every war of the roses, he came, and saw 
(no, not saw, for he had never an “eye”), and conquered. 
The hero of a hundred fights, he was entering upon a second 
century of triumph, when music, martial, jubilant, audacious, 
preluded the approach of a rival. “Wha would na’ die for 
Charlie?” was the air selected, and presently Royal Charlie 
himself (I can only explain the sobriquet of Lefebvre by sup- 
posing it to be a corruption of la fievre, the fever, which raged 
among rosarians on his arrival) drew near, with such an oyer- 
whelming power and majesty that the general at once tendered 
his sword, and himself led the king to his throne. 

A like development of beauty has been manifested in the 
other varieties of the rose. In white roses, our old favourites, 
the Princesses Clementine and Lamballe, Mesdames Hardy 
and Zoétmans, have been superseded at court by Mesdames 
Rivers and Vidot, by Mademoiselle Louise Magnan, the beau- 
tiful Baroness de Rothschild, and others. In pink roses, our 
well-loved Duchess of Sutherland and Baronne Prevost are 
supplanted by such flowers as Madame Furtado, Thérése Levet, 
and Marquise de Castellane. In yellow roses, our “ Jaune de 
Smith,” our Harrisonii, Persian Yellow, and Solfaterre have 
succumbed before Maréchal Niel; and in the darker varieties, 
our Boula de Nanteuil, D’Aguesseau, and Ohl, “pale their 
ineffectual fire” in the presence of Pierre Notting, Prince 
Camille de Rohan, and Xavier Olibo. = 

And évery summer brings some accession (I once heard a 
gardener describe a new chrysanthemum as “a beat on Bob”) 
in colour or in form—some novelties, of which more anon. 

Meanwhile, to whom shall we give our thanks and our 
‘praise, when we have proffered them reverently to the Giver 
of all good—to whom, as being His agents? Not to botanists. 
Not to men of science, falsely so called, who never “raised” a 
flower in their lives. Not to the anatomist, who glories in his 
museum of malformations, and describes, but prescribes not 
for, disease, who would rather dissect the dead than revive the 
dying, and has more pleasure in his herbarium, with skeletons 
dry and sere, than in gardens of life and beauty. Not to him, 
but to the gardener, whose love and skill and industry have, 
humanly speaking, gained these treasures for us; who tends 
with a complete devotion, blends with all the wisdom of 
experience and thought, and waits with an untiring hope. To 
him, our thanks; to him, and to such as him, to all gardeners 
who deserve the name, be they owners, occupiers, or servants, 
whether they “walk in silk attire,” or wear purple baize, we 
dedicate and inscribe Tue GarpeEn. 


THE BOG-GARDEN« 


As to the planting of the select artificial bog, all that is 
needed is to put as many of the undermentioned subjects in it 
as can be obtained, and to avoid planting init any rapid-running 
sedge or other plant. When this is done, all satisfaction with 
the bog is at an end. Numbers of carexes and like plants grow 
so rapidly and densely that they soon exterminate all the 
beautiful bog-plants. if any roots of sedges, &c., are brought 
in with the peat, every blade they send up should be cut off 
with the knife just below the surface; that is, if the weed 
cannot be pulled up from being too near some precious subject 
one does not like to disturb. All who wish to grow the tall 

* See p. 7, ante, 


24° 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 2, 1871. 


sedges and other coarse bog-plants should do so by the pond- 
side or in one or more moist or watery places set apart for 
the purpose. Given the necessary conditions as to soil and 
water, I can testify that the success of the bog-garden will 
depend on the continuous care bestowed in preventing rapidly- 
growing or coarse plants from exterminating others, or from 
taking such a hold in the soil that it becomes impossible to 
grow any delicate or minute plant in it. Couch and all weeds 
should be exterminated when very young and small. ‘The 
following are the bog and marsh plants at present most worthy 
of culture; but there are numbers not yet in cultivation, 
equally lovely. 
A SELECTION or CHoIce BoG-PLANts. 

Anagailis tenella; Butomus umbellatus; Calla palustris; Caltha in 
yar.; Campanula hederacea; Chrysobactron Hookeri; Coptis trifoliata ; 
Cornus canadensis ; Crinum capense; Cypripedium spectabile; Drosera 
inyar.; Epipactis palustris; Galax aphylla; Gentiana Pneumonanthe; 
Helonias bullatus; Hydrocotyle bonariensis; Iris graminea, Monniervi, 
ochroleuea, sibirica; Leucojum ‘wstivum, Hernandezii; Linnea bo- 
realis; Lobelia syphilitica; Lycopodium in yar.; Menyanthes tri- 
foliata; Myosotis dissitiflora, palustris; Nierembergia rivularis; Orchis 
latifolia and vyars., laxiflora, maculata; Orontium aquaticum; Pin- 
euicula in var.; Primula Munroi, sikkimensis; Rhexia virginica ; 
Sagittariain var.; Sarracenia purpurea; Saxifraga Hirculus; Spigelia 
mavilandica; Swertia perennis; Tofieldia in yar.; Tradescantia vir- 
ginica; Trillium. 

The above are most suitable for the select bog-bed kept for 
the most beautiful, rare, and delicate plants; and among these, 
as has been stated, should be planted nothing which cannot be 
readily kept within bounds. ‘l'o them lovers of British plants 
might like to add such native plants as Malaxis paludosa; but 
it is better, as a rule, to select the finest, no matter whence 
they come. Some may doubt if the American pitcher plant, 
Sarracenia purpurea, would prove hardy in the open air in 
this country. It certainly is so, as one might expect from its 
high northern range in America. It will thrive in the wettest 
part of the bog-garden. In America I usually observed the 
pitchers half buried in the water and sphagnum, the roots 
being in water. In British gardens it usually perishes from 
want of water. 

The following is a selection of vigorous marsh and water-sice 
plants which may be planted in any sufficiently moist positions, 
and left to struggle with each other for existence :— 

A SELECTION or Vicorous MARSH AND WATER-SIDE PrANts. 

Acorus Calamus, gramineus; Alisma in yar.; Aster Tripolium, 
and coarse varieties; Butomus umbellatus; Calla athiopica, palustris; 
Caltha palustris; Carex paniculata, pendula, Pseudo-cyperus; Cyperus 
longus: Epilobium hirsutum; Equisetum in var.; Eriophorum in var. ; 
Eupatorium in yar.; Glyceria aquatica; Gunnerascabra; Hibiscus in 
yar. (North American herbaceous kinds); Hippuris vulgaris; Hout- 
tuynia cordata; Iris Pseudacorus; Leucanthemum lacustre; Lysi- 
machia thyrsiflora; Lythrum Salicaria, and its var. rosea; Myosotis 
palustris ; G@nanthe fistulosa; Osmunda in yar.; Phormium tenax; 
Pontederia cordata; Pyrethrum serotinum; Ranunculus aquaticus, 
Lingua; Rumex Hydrolapathum ; Sagittaria in var.; Scirpus lacustris ; 
Sparganium in var. ; Typha, all the kinds. 

A group of the boldest of this last selection is strikingly 
effective in the picturesque garden. ConDUcTOR. 


SEDUMS AND SAXIFRAGES. 

Wr are beginning to appreciate the advantages in an artistic 
point of view of middle and neutral tints, as well as bright 
colours in the pictures we paint in our gardens with living 
plants and flowers, and we have, fortunately, at command, and 
amenable to cultural skill, a tribe of plants that enables us to 
shade off our floral sketches by soft gradations of brown, and 
grey, and green. The hardy Sedums and Saxifrages not only 
enable us to do this im summer, but they help us to relieve and 
brighten our winter gardens; and, associated with early bulbs 
and those spring flowers which are deficient in foliage, they 
give the balance of ¢reen’ that is required and carpet the dull, 
dried ground with their soft and spring-like verdure ; and their 
value in the winter and spring garden is not only im the 
pleasing effect they produce. The bulbs and roots of plants 
with which they are associated are effectually screened from 
the effects of frost, or trying changes of temperature. No 
ordinary frost would penetrate a healthy tuft of Saxifraga 
hypnoides. TI have two beds filled with Scilla bitolia and Scilla 


sibirica, the surface of which is brightened with a selection of 
Sedums, Saxifrages,and Sempervivums. Fragile as the flower 
stalks of the Scillas seem, they force their way through the 
green carpet of Stonecrop and Saxifrage, and seem to enjoy 
the association. : 5 

It is only by planting in masses that we are able to realise 
the effect these simple plants are capable of giving; and to 
obtain vigorous examples presenting the distinctive character- 
istics of the tribe, it is best to divide and replant either — 
annually or biennially, according to tke growth of the variety. — 
Although many of the Saxifrages will live almost anywhere, 
starvation no more agrees with them than with other plants. 
This may bereadily seen, if the dwarfed, stinted, pot-bound speci- 
mens sometimes found in a botanic or nursery collection are 
compared with plants placed in circumstances favourable to 
their full development. The hint that is conveyed to us by 
plants that spread out and extend over the ground annually, 
should be understood to mean that one year’s growth and 
occupancy of the ground exhausts its fertility, and new’ soil is 
required tor further growth. 

Ihave mentioned the utility of some of the -Sedums asso- 
ciated with bulbs. Theirapplication in the spring ganlen may 
be extended to many combinations. Masses of Hrica herbacea 
are brightened, and thrown up, and rendered more effective by 
a base of Sedum acre aureum. The same Sedum, planted 
with Lamium maculatum, helps to bring out the rather dull 
variegation of that spring plant. Combined without adyan- 
titious aid, a mass of varied Sedum and Saxifrage is sure to 
invite attention and admiration. Thus, a bed composed of a 
central mass of Saxitraga geranioides, followed by a broad 
green band of Saxifraga hypnoides, succeeded by Sedum 
glaucum and Sedum acre aureum, and frmged by Sedum 
rupestre, is not the least attractive bed in the spring garden. 
Next year I hope to employ that gem amongst Saxifrages 
8. longifolia. That bright star is, with me, somewhat 
nebulous as yet. I may, perhaps, be allowed to indicate 
for your amateur readers a few of the most effective and 
manageable Sedums and Saxifrages for winter and spring 
gardening. Foremost on the list is certainly Sedum acre 
aureum. The Sedum known as 8. glaucum in London gardens 
is of equal value with the foregoing, and affords a.very useful 
middle tint of light grey. SS. rupestre assumes a crimson 
tinge in the spring. 

Amongst Saxifrages, §S. longifolia stands conspicuous. 
Its beauty is due to the accuracy of its star-like form. 
S. oppositifolia pyrenaica is distinguished by the profusion of 
rosy blossoms it produces early in the ‘year. Saxifraga 
hypnoides and its varieties are essential in a collection of these, — 
S. jJuniperina. spathulata and pulchella are useful species, 
affording tufts of the brightest green; Saxifraga czespitosa, 
S. ceratophylla, and S. geranioides, are also hardy and easily 


managed kinds, which may be usefully worked to any artistic 


arrangement that may be desired. 


Belvoir. Wx. INGRAM. 


Notes on Hardy Plants.—I now adopt the plan of mulching ~ 
my mixed border and neyer digging them, and in some cases I go 
further. On my peat-bed and fernery I do not remove the fallen 
leaves that may accumulate there, but I cover them oyer with a 
slight mulching of cocoa-nut refuse. In this way I imitate nature, 
who, by a thick covering of leaves, provides against the ill effects Of = 
plants throwing themselyes out of the ground. The majovity of 
plants die every year; but nature meets that by a mulching of leaves, 


which become soil. If I could dare to brave the imputation of 


untidiness I would not cut anything down till the spring. You may 
be sure the flower-stems and decaying root-leavyes are an immense 
protection in winter. I have mixed borders right up to the drawing- 
room windows. Of course I am rather particular what plants I put — 
there. As an instance, I will just describe to you one small bed 
near the drawing-room. It is perhaps ten feet long and eight feet 
wide. The back is filled with Arundo Ragomowskii and A. falcata, one 
corner with Pistacia terebinthus, the wall with Bignonia capreolata ; 
another is filled with a large clump of Zauschneria californica, and a — 
fourth with Acanthus latifolius; at other stations are shrubs of © 
Berberis Wallichiana and Hydrangea quercifolia. ‘The centre is filled 
with anything, and near the edge are Narcisst, Lathyrus tuberosus, 
&e. There is no formality, and there is plenty of interest. Lilies 
neyer did well here, so I put on my considering-cap about two years 


a 


+ ag 


Dec. 2, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


25 


ago, and made them a special bed for themselves. I chose the lowest 
part of the garden. There I dug out my bed two feet deep; I filled 
‘six inches of this with brick and other rubble, and the remaining 
eighteen inches with coarse river sand and garden soil in equal quan- 
tities. In this I planted my lilies, putting no manure ; but, when they 
had been in a year, I mulched the surface with rotten manure, and 
shall do this again. Hitherto the resulf has quite satisfied me. The 
spaces between the lilies I intended to fill with Oxalises, but last 


_ winter destroyed many of them. Those that survived evidently like 


the soil much, and in the front, now, I have Croci, and other small 
bulbs I have a large bed of Yuccas, and another bed edged with 
Erica, but the soils are totally different—one is a stiffish clay, the 
other sand. Have you ever known Arundo Donax versicolor really 
hardy? Ihayenot. Polygonum cuspidatum, grown in the lawn, is a 
grand plant with me, measuring ten or eleven feet high. I should 
add, that no one should ever condemn a plant for its first year’s 
show. Many plants do not show their full beauty till well established. 
As regards Adenophora, the best is A. verticillata, but it is scarce. 
I once had it fine, but lost it by dividing for a friend. With respect 
to Alstremerias, nobody need trouble about ptanting them deep; 
they will soon get deep enough. I have been trying to destroy them 
in one place, and cannot, because I cannot reach them. Aponogeton 
distachyon is quite hardy in water that does not freeze (running 
water). It is so grown at Edinburgh. The very finest Aquilegia is 
formosa—bright red. Arum crinitum has the peculiarity of not 
putting in an appearance at all the year after flowering—at least, 
that is its habit here. Asarum virginicum is well worth growing for 
its mottled leaves ; but where can it be got? Asarum is one of the 
very best plants to grow in dense shade, or in dry places under trees. 
Bitton. W. H. ELracomne. 


WATER-MARGINS 


Mavxy people like a little water in their garden, and make a little 
pond, or perhaps a big one if they can afford it. Yet how few of 
these ponds, lakes, or whatever they may be called, ever give the 
satisfaction desired, and why? Obviously, because we make our 
little bits of water too bald, too puny, and altogether different from 
what we find in nature. The chief difference between the two lies 
for the most part in the setting or margin, about the treatment of 
which there is much misconception. Let us, therefore, give to 
water-margins some little attention, in order that we may discover 
what it is they require to set the water off to advantage. I was, 
a little while ago, inspecting a piece of water, the margin of 
which I could not help admiring. At one part a sweet flat meadow 
stretched a long narrow lip completely into the water, which a little 


Margin of Loch Achray. 


farther on was overhung with ‘trees and bushes; then came a patch 


a < 
at > 


- 


of reeds, half concealing the pebbly bed of the mouth of a little 
brook; bushes again, and in one part little trees, through which 
ont Me — as te always does under such circumstances, 
ses ly pleasing. ater splashing and dashing in some places, 
_ and sweetly flowing in a long suggestive line in others, has often 
eng: the pen of the poet, and is not unfrequently found on the 
canvas of the painter, but we seldom meet with it in gardens. We 
haye a dreadful way of making the banks turn down and dip stiffly 
into the water, and of making the margin quite formal. It is a 
mistake to call neatly-rounded margins an imitation of nature ; and 
yet they are fondly believed to be so. We must not depend on the 


mere presence of water for striking effect; it should be tastefully 
relieved and made presentable in a framework or margin skilfully 
conceived ; just as a nosegay is relieved and softened by the leaves of 
ferns and other greenery with which it is surrounded. The accom. 
panying illustration, showing the beautiful margin of Loch Achray, 
which I sketched last autumn, will indicate how immeasurably superior 
nature’s margins are to those with which we are satisfied in our 
gardens. A. D 


THE FLOWER-GARDEN, &c., FOR DECEMBER, 
BY G. WESTLAND, WITLEY COURT. 


Flower-Garden.—Here the summer occupants of beds have been 
cleared off, and they are now, for the most part, replanted with 
spring-flowering plants. If bulbs for early blooming are not yet 
planted, make it a rule to plant nothing without a green groundwork 
of some kind to cover the soil. Arabis, Aubrietia, Violets, Sedums, 
Saxifragep. Daisies, Primroses, Forget-me-Nots, and similar plants are 
admirably adapted for the purpose. Decorating the spring garden 
so as to yield a constant succession of flowers constitutes one of the 
most interesting phases of modern flower-gardening. I plant bulbs 
by the thousand; but I cover the raw earth about them with an 
evergreen or variegated carpet. How this is done will be stated in 
due time. In the summer arrangements much may be done in the 
way of substituting for common-place effects refined and artistic 
combinations. With the great variety of hardy ornamental plants 
of all forms and colours which we possess, we have material 
enongh of the most varied and effective description for making 
noble and striking groups, thus lessening to a great extent 
the use of tender bedding-plants, which would be a decided gain. 
Whilst thus advocating, however, greater variety in the way of 
planting our beds, let it not be inferred that I do so to the 
exclusion of tender exotics and sub-tropical plants. On the contrary, 
I believe them to be indispensable, in the highest sense of the word, 
to effect, when used in moderation. For a few well-arranged beds 
may give the greatest amount of satisfaction. Our requirements for 
tender plants haye become so great as to make it a matter of scrious 
importance as to how they are to be managed, as adequate accommo- 
dation and labour have not by any means kept pace with the mania 
for high colouring. If not already done, protect all choice plants 
likely to suffer from frost, and endeavour to render such protection 
as little objectionable as possible, by finishing off with a garniture of 
evergreen sprays. Magnolias and standard Bays should have some 
slight covering of spruce or light evergreen branches, and the stems 
should be bandaged with hay. The Pampas Grass often succumbs to the 
severity of our winters. In its native habitats this grass is parched 
up whilst at rest; therefore we ought to preserve the roots in as dry 
a state as possible in winter. See also that Canna roots left in the 
ground have sufficient protection. Prune and nail hardy creepers 
upon walls and pillars, and tie in such as are on lattice-work. Holly- 
hocks, allowed to remain ont all winter, secure against wet and 
slugs by placing cinder-ashes round them. See that plants requiring 
support are secured against high winds. Take advantage of frosty 
weather to turn compost heaps, and lose no opportunity of collecting 
refuse to rot down for manure. ~ 


Herbaceous and Alpine Plants, &c.—<Annual and biennial 
plants raised in summer and early autumn may now be transplanted 
into the positions in which they are to bloom, giving them ‘in all cases 
light and well-drained open soils. Lilies of all kinds may now be 
transplanted, having the positions fully prepared previously, so that 
they may not be kept out of the ground. Lilies often suffer much, 
or perish, from being exposed tothe air. All other bulbs may be trans- 
planted now. Alpine plants will require little or no attention, beyond 
scattering a little fine earth or leaf-mould or cocoa-fibre among such 
as have grown or pushed up a little out of the earth, and which are in 
consequence likely to perish from cold drying winds. Herbaceous 
plants may be transplanted with safety in almost any weather, though 
it is not desirable to move them when the ground is frozen deep. 


Shrubberies.—As soon as the leaves have fallen, rake them to- 
gether, and coyer them with soil, so that when they have rotted they 
may be returned as manure to the ground from which they have 
been collected. Avoid the usual practice of digging shrubberies ; for 
there is no greater mistake in reference to garden management than 
periodically root-pruning plants, the majority of which have not a 
root to spare. Shrubberries should not show any margin of raw 
soil, for the covering of which we have thousands of dwarf ever- 
green plants that might be made to look very effective in such 
situations. Bulbous plants, too, pushing their way through the 
low green boughs are by no means unwelcome. — I have seen a 
terrace-slope planted entirely with Juniperus sabiniana, through 


26 THE GARDEN. 


(Duc. 2, 1871. 


which, in the-spring time, thousands of bulbs threw up their flowers ; 
and nothing could be more charming. Shrubberies en masse should 
consist of a well-chosen combination of the finest evergreen and 
flowering shrubs, so arranged as to furnish the greatest amount of 
variety aud striking effect. 

Rose-Garden.—Transplanting may now be done with advantage ; 
and if new kinds have to be procured, the sooner they are got and 
planted now the better. Before planting, however, take care that the 
stations for them are properly prepared by removing part, if not the 
whole, of the old soil to the depth of eighteen inches, and replacing 
it with fresh compost of the proper kind. Hveryone knows that the 
rose delights ina strong soil, and that it will take any reasonable 
quantity of rich manure. Hence each variety, after it is planted, 
should be mulched with rotten dung ; and the beds will also be all.the 
better for a similar supply. When planting, make the plants secure 
by means of stakes. But do not prune, beyond cutting off the points 
of straggling branches, until frost has left us. Some of the more 
tender kinds of Tea and Bourbon roses may require protection; 
dwarfs may be pegged down and covered with dry fern. And a 
handful of dry fern fronds drawn into the head of a standard rose, 
and well secured, is not a bad protection, that is if the snow is not 
allowed to lay or melt and run into it. Dryness is the point to be 
attained. In some localities it may be requisite to lift Tea-roses and 
place them under protection for the winter. 

Pits and Frames.—aAs a general rule everything in these should 
be kept as quiet as possible, andno encouragement given to induce a 
weakly growth. Give an abundance of air on eyery favourable 
opportunity ; using fire-heat only in case of frost, or to expel damp in 
wet, foggy weather. Remoye decaying leaves and water sparingly. 
Alternantheras and similar plants, which are so useful in‘ pattern-bed- 
ding, should not be overlooked, but afforded heat of from fifty-five to 
sixty degrees. Violets should be uncovered on fine days; giving them 
occasionally weak manure-water. They are impatient of much nursing. 


FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 

AvRICcULAS in cold frames will now beat rest. Any decaying leaves 
on them should be removed as they appear, and when the weather is 
mild, plenty of air should be giventhem. The foilage, and especially 
the hearts of the plants should be kept perfectly dry ; water must be 
given sparingly, and chiefly to those plants which appear to flac. 
During frost the frames should be kept closely shut.—Carnations and 
Picotees in pots, which will also be in cold frames, should be kept as 
near the glass as possible. Plenty of air should be given them. 
Water should be given only in the morning, and withheld altogether 
in frosty weather. Decaying leaves should be removed, the surface 
of the soil kept clean, and the plants must not be crowded too much 
together.—Cinerarias should be kept near the glass, but secure from 
frost. Air should be given them, but they should be kept free from 
cold draughts, which curl their leaves. Keep the plants growing by 
shifting them into larger pots as required, and kill green-fly by means 
of fumigation.—Dahlia roots should be kept dry and free from frost, 
and they should be looked over occasionally in order to remove decay- 
ing tubers.—Hollyhocks may be wintered in a dry, cold frame, where 
air can be admitted. Old roots in the ground should be lifted, put in 
pots, and placed in a cold frame to get cuttings from in February. 
All decaying leayes should be removed as fast as they appear.— 
Pansies in beds should be secured against wind, by means of pieces 
of sticks or pegs, and in hard weather protected by placing a few 
small branches of spruce firs among them. The beds should be fully 
six inches aboyethe paths in the centre, and rounded, in order to 
throw off rain. In cold, damp localities, it is best to lift the plants 
and to plant them in a cold frame, or the smaller ones can be put in 
small pots—Pinks should also have their branches similarly secured, 
and after heavy rains it is well to stir the surface soil of the beds, as 
they get beaten down by heavy autumn rains. Should the plants be 
lifted by the action of frost, they should be gently pressed into the 
beds when a thaw sets in—When the Ranunculus is planted in some- 
what heayy soil, it will be well to lay afew boards, orsome other 
covering, oyer the beds to throw off the rain. Excessive moisture at 
this season is injurious.—Verbenas, whether as old plants for stock or 
as cuttings in store pots, should be placed in a warm, dry position 
near the glass in a greenhouse, and kept only moist enough to keep 
them alive. The plants should also be kept as clean as possible. 

R, Dray. 


Asphalte Roads.—These haye been subjected to a severe test in London, and 
have been found to answer well. What a happiness for those who have ears! 
A waggon conyeying a large granite block, the weight of which, including the 
yehicle, was twenty-three tons, passed oyer the asphalte in Cheapside the other 
day without making any abrasion, or causing it the slightest injury. The police 
fre under the impression that fewer horses fall, and are certain that no more 
fall on it than upon granite. It has, therefore, been decided to pave many 
other streets with Val-de-Travers compressed asphalte. 


PYRETHRUMS. 


A yrw words on the culture and propagation of these now some- 
what fashionable plants may not be unacceptable to many who have’ 
a garden, and, perhaps, very little glass. ‘They are, I need scarcely 
say, perfectly hardy, and I know of no family of plants that has made 
such advances during these last ten years as the Pyrethrums. They 
have now become as beautiful as many of our China Asters, and they 
have the advantage of flowering at a different season, which makes them 
more acceptable, yiz., from May onward through the summer months. 

If required for the ornamentation of herbaceous beds or borders, 
where the ground is in “good heart” that is what they want, and 
if tied to. some slight supports while in flower, they will afterwards 
take care of themselves. As the old flower-stems die down they 
should be remoyed, as that will give the plants fresh vigour to 
throw up flower-stems again. ; 

If intended for pots for exhibition purposes or otherwise, they 
should be taken up from the ground in spring, as soon as they show 
any appearance of growth, picking out carefully the old soil, and 
potting in good fibrous loam and rotten dung or yegetable mould, 
using a moderate amount of drainage, and plunging them in leaf ~ 
mould, or something of that kind, to keep them from drying at the 
roots. As they advance in growth they require a good supply of 
water; and, when coming into flower, a little liquid manure will 
prove beneficial to them. 

As regards propagation, the proper time for that is early in spring. - 
Take the plants up, shake all soil from them, and pull them to 
pieces, putting them in small pots, and placing them in a cold frame 
for a few weeks, until they become established. Care should he 
taken not to keep them too close, as they are apt to damp. When 
established they may be planted out in their proper quarters. 

The following are all first-rate double kinds, varying in colours from 
white, blush, yellow, and red, to dark crimson, being, infact, a selection 
from about fifty varieties, viz. :-— , 


Boule de Neige. Gloire de Stalle. Mrs. Dix. 
Carneum. Gustave Hertz. Rey. J. Dix. 
Candidum. . Hermann Stenger. Nancy. 
Delicatissimum, Imbricatum. ~ Nemesis. 

Dr. Livingstone. Iveryanum. Niveum. 
Elegantissinum. Luteum. Panl Journa. 
Eximium. Lady Blanche. Roseum., 
Floribundum. Madame Billiard. > album. 
Fulgens plenissimun. »  Munier. s» perfection. 
Galathee. M. Barral. Rubrum. 


Huotic Nursery, Tooting. T. Brown. 


NATURE’S GARDENS. 


‘ NWIAGARA.* 

A cum reason for speaking of this oft-described spot is a 
desire to plead for the preservation intact of such amagnificent 
scene. ‘The whole is so vast and so far out of man’s control 
that probably nothing man or machinery will do can ever cause 
it to be other than a place of the highest interest; butit may be 
injured and deteriorated in various ways—nay, it certainly will 
be so if precautionary measures be not taken. One of the 
islands is already the home of a common-place paper-mill; 
persons are here and there allowed to levy black-mail on spots 
that ought to be quite free to the public; the “leprosy of 
White Hotels” has broken out in one or two spots, and a 
“museum” (stuffed with double-headed calves, a fine specimen 
of a “mummy,” with a full red beard, &c.), the proprietor of 
which assured me that his collection was far finer than that in ~ 
Great ussell-street, is allowed to plant itself by the margin 
of thenobleriver. Looking at the magnificent Horse-shoe Pall 
from the central island, the eye is caught by a wretched block 
of a “tower,” erected no doubt to afford a view, which is not 
so good as may be obtained near at hand from the island. 
Suppose this kind of “improvement” goes on, the charms of 
the scene must perish to a great extent. In a great country 
like America, where land has in many cases a merely nominal 
value, all such glorious scenes as this should be preserved for 
the public for ever. That could be easily done in this case by 
reserving a strip of land along the margin, so that the towns — 
and factories would not protrude themselves so as to be reflected 
in the water. There is plenty of room for towns and hotels’ 
without allowing them to destroy the woods and copses that 
frame this glorious picture! The Government has reserved 


* See p. 16, ante. 
\ 


Dec. 2, 1871.} 


THE GARDEN. 27 


the famous Yosemite Valley for the public for ever—and a most 
wise proceeding it is. Nothing tends to vulgarise and enfeeble 
_ascene like Niagara more than planting on its very margin a 
great hotel. Let such structures be near enough for con- 
venience, or even for a good view; but not so near as to stamp 
out all traces of the once beautiful foreground. Besides, the 
hotels themselves lose considerably by being thrust, as the 
Clifton House is, on the margin of the river, without a tree to 
soften its hard outlines. ll such structures would gain 
considerably by being cut off from the river by at least a 
lawn and slasctndionts and this need not deprive them of a good 
view of the scene. If we deface such rare and magnificent 
scenes, posterity will regard us as sordid barbarians. I never 
yet saw a spot which, if preserved, would in time to come form, 
without any but the simplest aids, so paradisaical and vast a 
garden, taking the river for a mile or two above and below the 
falls into consideration. For miles below the falls the woods 
_are charming, and some of the scenes—as the whirlpool, where 
the river makes a sudden bend in its deep rocky bed—quite 
unique. The greatest portion of this space is as wild as ever, 
so that it is not yet too late to guard it from the hands of the 
spoliator. Nothing could be in worse taste than allowing 
persons to extract half-dollars from the public for the mere 
permission to see such places as the whirlpool. But as 
multitudes visit the place, the temptation to occupy every 
inch of land and prostitute it to some dollar-extracting use 
will be irresistible if the States do not step in and save it. 
All that needs to be done by the American and Canadian 
Governments is to prevent persons clearing or occupying the 
eee within a few hundred yards or even feet of the margin. 
is done—and means taken to secure the destruction of the 
wretched buildings that now perch themselves on the margin 
of the river—and, without any further attention from man, the 
place would ever be unrivalled in its majestic beauty—a garden 
worthy of America, and which, in the interest of the whole 
world, ought to be preserved from pollution. W. R. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


HOW TO RAISE VERBENAS FROM SEED. 


‘Tuar the Verbena has been greatly improved of late years, nobody 
can deny; but, after all, it is doubtful if so much has been done with 
it in the way of cross-breeding, or fertilization, as by careful selection 
of certain flowers from which to take seed. Still, something has 
been done, evidence of which exists in the pretty striped flowers 
raised by Mr. Perry, of Castle Bromwich, during the past four years. 
These possess as many fine qualities of form, size, and substance, as 
the best of the self-varieties so called. Seedling Verbenas, as a 
rule, are not prolific of striped flowers, and fertilization appears 

, to some extent, to produce them. Mr. Pérry’s aim was to 
obtain white flowers, having stripes of vivid scarlet or crimson, and 
in two fine varieties, named respectively, Carnation and Singularity, 
these combinations were strikingly present. 

Supposing a cultivator of Verbenas has a flower possessing unusual 
q brilliancy of colour, or some hue strikingly novel, but having the 
i 


pips deficient in that circularity of form to which considerable im- 

_ portance is attached in these days; in order to combine the particular 

colouring with a higher degree of form, he would select a finely- 

‘7 rounded stout flower like Eckford’s Peter William, or Perry’s Per- 

fection, and, using a very fine camel’s hair, he would gently insert it 

into the tube of the flower, and transfer the pollen from it to the 

__ one from which he desires to obtain seed. In case of some flowers 

that are subject to the process of fertilization, it is the custom to 

remove, as far as possible, the pollen deposited on the anthers, 

replacing it with that brought from another flower, for the purpose 

___ of promoting fecundation. In the case of the Verbena, this would 

_ be a somewhat tedious, and, possibly, an injurious, process, and, 

therefore, it is the custom with raisers simply to transfer the pollen 

_ from one flower to the other, without any anterior removal of the 
_ pollen from the proposed seed-bearing flower. 

___ A careful selection of seed from a few fine varieties will assuredly 

produce flowers of remarkable quality. For seed purposes, plant out, 

, 38 early in the season as possible, on an open airy spot favourable to 

ba chad ripening of the seed. 

_ The seed thus obtained should be kept through the winter, and 
sown about the middle or end of March, in any conveniently-sized 
pots, using a good, free, rich loam, and covering the seeds to the 

depth of a pots can then be placed in a 


aa 


+e 


‘a quarter of aninch. The 
temperature of some 65 deg. or 70 deg. and the soil kept constantly 


moist. The seed germinates quickly, and in about three weeks or a 
month the young plants will be large enough to prick off two or 
three inches apart into pans, pots, or shallow boxes, and as soon as the 
roots lay hold in the fresh soil, begin to harden off gradually, and, as 
soon as it can be safely done, get the plants into a cold frame. 
Spider is very apt to lay hold of the young plants at this stage, and 
proves a bad enemy if it once gets the upper hand. Amateur 
raisers should guard against harm from the attacks of this pest. 

Meanwhile, a bed should be prepared in the open air, for the 
reception of the seedlings. A rich, free soil suits the Verbena 
admirably. Plant out, by the beginning of May, if the plants are 
sufficiently large and inured to exposure. They soon make rapid 
growth; and all that is required is to keep the bed free from weeds, 
till the plants begin to flower. Then it is the raiser selects the best 
of his seedlings. A short stick is usually placed against any flowe 
worthy of attention; the inferior varieties around it are removed, so 
as to secure ample room for development. It is from such flowers 
the seed for another season’s sowing should be taken. 

Let it be remembered, the Verbena likes, and, consequently, 
flourishes best in a rich soil. The liberal use of well-decomposed 
manure is employed by all successful cultivators, and the bed should 
be in an open situation. There is nothing like the open ground on 
which to test Verbenas. There is nothing more likely to interfere 
with their well being than coddling them in pits or houses. One of 
the foremost Verbena raisers of the day, Mr. H. Eckford, of Coleshill, 
grows all his seedling Verbenas in the open ground ; and there is this 
great advantage about it, that it is a most favourable, and, at the 
same time, fitting mode of testing the habits of growth of the seed- 
lings. A Verbena without a good free stocky habit of growth is, 
after all, of but little value. R. D. 


A NEW AND EXCELLENT FLOWER-POT. 

WE are all apt to run short of flower-pots of one sort or other at 
the busy spring season of potting, and it happens sonfetimes that a 
fresh supply cannot readily be obtained; the little history, therefore 
of asuccessful makeshift which I propose to give may be as useful to 
some of your readers as it has proved tome. Examining some pear- 
grafts in the antumn of last year I found that the old fashioned 
mixture of clay and cow-dung which had been used in the operation 
had become so hard that it was necessary to employ a knife to remove 
it. I held this little matter in mind, and in the spring I had a good 
heap of clay, cow-dung, and sand will mixed together, and set some 
men, one wet day to the task of moulding sixty-sized small pots in a 
metal mould I had provided. These pots were put on dry 
shelves and stoke-holes, and were allowed to dry thoroughly. They 
were then employed for potting-off geraniums, verbenas, lobelias, 
iresines, and other bedding plants- I had the satisfaction of seeing 
that the plants did well in their clay covering, and the pots bore the 
watering well. In sy 
May they were 
plunged into the 
summer beds with 
the plants, and I 
calculated that the 
clay and cow-dung 
would gradually fall ‘ . 
to pieces, would help e-faeen PF 
to support the plant, : 
and would first in- 
duce it to form a 
ball of roots, so that 
in the autumn its : 
removal would be - 
ee Plug of wood, Iron mould for 
loss of roots. The 2} inches. ‘ clay pots. 
result has been more 
satisfactory than I anticipated; the clay pots, in most instances, 
have remained entire, but the roots have pushed through the bottoms, 
and above the rims, and the plants come up with a compact ball, 
very different from others turned completely out of the pots, which 
haye sent down long roots, half of which they lose on removal. I 
have had some of these pots preserved with the plants in them as 
they were taken up, and I am persuaded the contrivance will be of 
immense use, not only to me, but to others. I, therefore, send you a 
sketch of a plant taken up from the bed afew days ago, the lifting of 
which will only cause the slightest possible check to it ; also a sketch 
of the somewhat rudeiron mould, with a wooden plug to fashion the 
lump of clay, cow-dung, sand, &c., into shape. We tried first 
moulding in an ordinary flower-pot, but broke so many that we gave 
up terra-cotta in favour of iron, 

Belvoir Castle. 


Pelargonium, 
Flower of Spring. 


W. Inckam, | 


28 


THE GARDEN, 


[Dzc. 2, 1871. 


GARDEN DESIGN, 
HOME LANDSCAPES.:* 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 

Is the epidemic of geometric flower-gardening abatmg in 
intensity ? it may be asked. No, far from it. It is still 
spreading far and wide, and the fair face of nearly every 
garden in the three kingdoms is either pimpled or pitted with 
the mighty and glaring patches of this garden disease. No 
doubt very striking effects of colour are thus achieyed at 
very little cost of intellectual culture or judgment, and with 
an excessively limited knowledge of the endless variety of 
exquisite flowering-plants, acquaintance with which it would be 
necessary to study in order to carry out successfully the 
creation of “home landscapes,’ instead of geometrically-shaped 
and formally-placed patches of large numbers of plants of the 
same kind. 

Geometrical gardening, upon the bedding system, has, 
however, not been entirely without its utility. Jt has stimu- 


lated the culture of very beautiful plants, though of few sorts, 
with unwonted activity and great success, causing old kinds 
oe eared and many new and yaluable varieties to be 
raised. 

_ But it is high time that a general reaction should be 
mnitiated im the direction of a nobler, simpler, and more 


- natural mode of treating our pleasure-sardens; and it is— 


pleasant to observe that already many of our most advanced 
gardeners and amateurs are beginning to perceive, as Mr. 
Robimson points ont in his mstructive introduction to “The 
Sub-tropical Garden,” “how far we have diverged from 
Nature’s ways of displaying the beauty of vegetation; our 
love for mere rude colour having Jed us to ignore the exquisite 
and inexhaustible way in which plants are naturally arranged 
* See p. 18, ante 


in a wild state; brilliant blossoms being almost invariably 
relieved by a setting of abundant green.” 

By directing attention to this principle in the creation of a 
pleasure-garden, and in the more artistic distribution of flowers, 


shrubs, and trees in combination with the characters of the ~ 


green elevations and depressions of our lawns, either natural or 
artificial, delightful home landscapes may he created, as lovely, 
or eyen more lovely than any real Alpine scenery; for. 
undoubtedly, true art may be made to aid and improye — 
nature. 

Let us imagine such a nook as that represented within 
the framework of the capital H. in the first number of THE 
Garprn. How charming would such a flowery hollow be, 
within eyeshot of a drawing-room window! It is made to 
appear as a glimpse of some yery highly-favoured bit of — 
flower-land towards the end of summer, or rather the com- 
mencement of autumn. In front is a profuse tuft of the 
rose-tinted Japan Anemone, a handsome free-growing plant 
that at once gives the keynote of natural growth, free from 
the trammels of any kind of trimming or training. Immedi- 
ately behind it is a mass of Tritoma Uvaria, with its noble 
heads of brilliant scarlet blossoms, shading into orange and 
yellow, which define themselves effectively against a mass of 
dark-green foliage. To the right, is a showy plant of one of 
the rank-growing but picturesque Rudbeckias, in front of a 
great towering tuft of Hollyhocks; beyond which is a bush of 
one of our finest flowering-shrubs, the Althzea frutex ; and other 
attractive plants just shadow forth their forms beyond, to be 
fully appreciated only by a nearer approach than the glance 
from the drawing-room window. 

Turn now to another scene, represented in this article—a 
more open, and somewhat wilder piece of home landscape. How 
grandly the giant mass of Pampas Grass occupies the principal 
place in the living picture, shooting up its noble plumes to the 
height of some eight feet or so, near a bank on which Crinums 
are growing and blooming as though in their own native 
wilderness! How different is the aspect of the gigantic grass in 
such a position, from that which it is often compelled to assume 
in the precise centre of a circular flower-bed, surrounded by a 
regular double ring of Geraniums or other “ bedding plants”! 
Call in an artist—a true student of nature—and ask him which - 
he prefers. In front is a group of Yucca pendula in flower, 
the scale of which, though often reaching three feet in height, 
is dwarfed by the lofty height of the Pampas plumes. ‘To the_ 
right, are scattered tufts of Cyclamen, just as they are found on 
the knolls and slopes of an Italian campagna. The low-growing 
plant in front is the Cinothera macrocarpa; and beyond, in 
the distance, are great detached clumps of nobler hardy her- 
baceous plants. Of these, the Ferulas and various others of 
great beauty have not as yet been introduced to gardens 
generally. : 

We shall have so much to say on home landscapes, and on 
good and simple methods of producing them with the greatest 
effect; and shall have to add so much on the score of the 
endless variety of flowers and trees, by which the aspects of 


_ garden landscapes may be varied ad infinitum, that we cannot 


afford space to say more in this general introduction to the 
subject. : > 


BUCKLAND, THE SEAT OF F. H. BEAUMONT, ESQ. 


THE almost total absence throughout the country of evidence of 
taste in garden design, and this nowhere more apparent than in our 
most famous private and public gardens, has made us determine to 
endeavour to remedy the evil by the publication of plans of gardens, 
not remarkable merely for their lavish wealth of plants, or vast extent, 
but for the true taste evinced in their disposition. With this aim in 
view, we Shall often have to select comparatively small gardens for 
illustration, for, so far as we have observed, it is among such that 
the best examples of good taste are now to be found. Plans of 
gardens, it is well to bear in mind, however, are often very deceptive ; 
frequently those places displaying very bad taste look well on paper. 
Eyery person interested in this matter should, therefore, understand 
that it is by abolishing the gyrations that often look so attractive on 
plans, that we get the space and breadth that characterize the true 
garden, and that we do not look down upon a garden as we do upon 
the squares of a chess-board. 

With reference to the annexed plan, it may be mentioned that it 
represents a place of no small extent, charmingly situated near the 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


G 


THE GA 


? 346 
3 Wat) 
: CS 


comers 5 


BUCKLAND, DESIGNED BY MR 


€: in 
LTT 
Hi 
= TTS 


RDEN. 


=| 


“4 


. ROBERT MARNOCK, 


. effect. 


30 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 2, 1871. 


foot of that portion of the Surrey hills known as the North Downs, 
and commanding fine views both of upland country and broad sweeps 
of open park land. Originally an old brick wall extended along the 
eastern side of the present line of carriage drive, running very nearly as 
farasthemansion. This has beenremoved, with the exception of some 
portions that are thickly with covered with ivy, which have beenallowed 
toremain, and which have been utilized (as all such objects should be) 
by being worked into the general arrangements of the place. Onthe 
opposite, or western side, of the carriage road, an old hedge, very 
much of the ordinary type, existed, and this also has been cleared 
away with the exception of a few picturesque thorns, which haye been 
here and there allowed to stand alone. Towards the south-eastern 
parts of the ground, and where the best views of the open park lands 
are to be found, an old farm-road occurs, and in order that the traftic 
along it should not be yisible from the pleasure-ground, the centre of 
the road has been lowered where it crosses the line of sight, and the 
sides slightly, but almost imperceptibly, raised, but in such a manner 
as to fall into, and blend with, the natural surrounding ground, so 
that, looking from the locality of the house, the ground appears to 
retain its original natural aspect. 


Several large old trees exist also, both on the east side of the” 


carriage road, to the south-east of the mansion, and in other parts of 
the ground. These trees have been carefully preserved, and have 
been either worked into the new plantations, or, where they stand on 
grass, the surrounding ground has been so managed as to make them 
fall into and blend with the general scheme of improvement to which 
the place has been subjected. 

With regard to the arrangement of planting: passing along the 
carriage drive, we have, on the left, the large trees already referred 
to, and an undergrowth added of ordinary evergreen and deciduous 
shrubs. With respect to the detached clumps and groups, it is only 
necessary to remark that they are formed in the usual way, but that 
each has one or more distinct and striking trees introduced into 
it, for the sake of variety and contrast, and at the same time for 
conferring on each separate group a certain individuality of its own. 
In the following references, therefore, these special subjects only are 
referred to, the remainder being ordinary plants :— 

Clump No. 1.—Weeping Willow. No. 2.—Magnolia grandiflora; Thujopsis 
borealis ; Salisburia adiantifolia ; Thuja Lobbi; Rhus Cotinus. No. 3.—Lombardy 
poplar; Abies canadensis. No.4 Wellingtonia gigantea; Cupressus Layysoniana ; 
Pinus Cembra. No. 5.—Lombardy Poplar; Taxodium sempervirens; Taxus 
baccata ; Thujopsis borealis; Cryptomeria Lobbi; Red Cedar; Thuja Lobhi; 
Cedrus atlantica; Picea Nordmanniana. No. 8.—Thuja Lobbi. No. 9—Pinus 
Cembra. No. 10.—Rhus Cotinug. No. 11.—Yucca gloriosa. No. 12.—Pampas 
Grass. No. 13.—Picea nobilis. “No. 14.—Aralia japonica. No. 15.—Juniperus 
fragrans. No.16.—CephalotaxusFortuni. No.17.—Scarlet Thom. No.18.—VThuja 
aurea. No. 19.—Cephalotaxus. No. 20.—Cedrus atlantica. Nos. 21 and 
of Rhododendrons. No. 23.—Mixed Shrubs. No. 24—Roses. No. 2 
shrubs. No. 26.—Mixed Shrubs and Roses. 

The Kitchen Garden has, it will be observed, been effectually shut 
out from the carriage-road, and also from the pleasure-erounds, by a 
sereen of planting, combining existing large trees with other suitable 
ones of intermediate growth, filling in with various kinds of shrubs. 

Where no special plants are named for a group, the planting would 
consist of such things as different kinds of Box, Holly; Laurustinus, 
Aucuba, Portugal Laurel, Thujas, Thujopsis borealis, Cupressus 
Lawsoniana, Cotoneaster, Lilacs, Spirzea, Weigela, &c. 

In addition to these, there is a sprinkling of such deciduous trees 
as Acacia, Mountain Ash, Laburnum, Gleditschia, Thorns of various 
kinds, and similar things which, being of only medium size, and 
haying small and, in most cases, pinnate foliage, do not too much 
oyershade the plants underneath, afford sufficient protection from 
extremes of weather, and tend to break up the various masses, giving 
them more or less a light and varied outline, thus obviating the 
appearance of too much sombreness of tone arising from masses of 
evergreens, as well as the lumpish effect which groups of mixed 
shrubs are likely to present where not broken up in this way. The 
full and easy breadth all round the house is worthy of note. 


Overdoing.—It should be a cardinal rule in landscape art (as in 
all other art, I think) not to multiply means for producing a given 
Where one stroke of the brush is enough, two evidence weak- 
ness, three incompetency. If you can secure a graceful sweep to 
_ your approach-road by one curve, two are an impertinence. If a 
clump of half-a-dozen trees will effect the needful diversion of the 
eye, and produce the desired shade, any additions are worse than 
needless. If some old lichened rock upon your lawn is grateful to 
the view, do not weaken the effect by multiplying rocks. Simple 
effects are the purest and best effects, as well in landscape art as in 
moral teaching. A single outlying boulder will often illustrate by 
contrast the smoothness of a lawn better than a ponderous roller. 
One or two clumps of alders along the side of a brooklet will designate 
its course more effectively and pleasantly than if you were to plant 
either bank with willows. A single spiral tree in a coppice will be 
enough to bring ont all the beauty of a hundred round-topped ones. 


Because some simple rustic gate has a charming effect at one point of 
your grounds, do not for that reason repeat it in another. Because the 
Virginia creeper makes a beautiful autumn show, clambering into the 
tops of one of your tall cedars with its five-lobed crimson leayes, do 
not therefore plant it at the foot of all your cedars. Because at some 
special point the red rooflet of a gateway lights up charmingly the 
green of your lawn, and fastens the eye of visitors, do not for that 
reason make all your gateways with red rooflets. If some far-away 
spire of a country church comes through some forest vista to your 
eye, do not perplex yourself by cutting forest pathways to other 
spires.—D. G. MrrcHELt. 


: PUBLIC GARDENS. 


PARIS GARDENS AND PARKS. 


I HAve just returned from a tour around the various public-gardens 
here, and beg tosend youa few words of information as to their present 
condition. The Park Moncieux has not suffered much. In fact, little 
in it has been destroyed by the siege or by the Commune. The only ~ 
difference is shown in the ornamentation. Instead of beantiful- 
foliaged and flowered plants, which were so much admired formerly, 
and which were the delight of lovers of horticulture, I noticed but a 
few species of Pelargonium, Ageratum, Chrysanthemum, &c., not better 
than those to be seen ina London shop-keeper’s garden. The small 
squares, like la Tour, St. Jacques, la Temple, la Champs Elysées; haye ~ 
received no alteration in their forms, and they have preserved their old 
aspect, except the change in the quality of the floral decorations. At 
the Square des Invalides, the gardener, who has been recentlyappointed 
to replace M. Troupeau, principal gardener of the squares in the in- 
terior of Paris, has absurdly replaced the pretty ivy-borders by lines of 
dwarf box-tree. Since MM. Barillet and André resigned their 
situations of head-gardeners, a sort of interim had taken place up to — 
the last spring. The engineer-in-chief, M. Alphand, who had the 
general superintendence of this service, having been raised to a higher 
position, the promenades and plantations have been placed in the 
hands of an engineer, M. Darcel, des Ponts au Chausseés, who knows 
nothing about gardening. So the fair days of public gardening in 
Paris are past. : : 

However, an improyement has taken place lately. A M. Rafarin, 
who had charge of the propagating gardens and houses of La Muette, 
where all plants required for public gardening were cultivated, 
having carelessly left everthing to perish by the winter frost, has 
been removed, and replaced by M. Troupeau. We have just seen 
this last-named gentleman at La Muette, and we are happy to say 
that the collections will be soon restoredin his hands, perhaps not 
to their former state, but still to good order. 

Atthe Avenue del’ Impératrice, which had been entirely spoiled—with 
all the trees, conifers, evergreens, and rare shrubs, cut down and burnt 
—an army of gardeners is now at work. Unfortunately, the arboretum 
that had been planted there with so much care and skill will not be 
replaced. The Emperor was opposed to roadways through these 
gardens from place to place, so as to allow people to cross the avenue ; 
therefore they were obliged to walk a long way without’ an oppor- 
tunity of getting across. ‘To-day this inconvenient arrangement is 
done away with. All necessary thoroughfares haye been provided, and 
instead of the high iron-fences along the lawn edges, some elegant 
arched rustic-iron borders haye been placed as a frame to the garden. 
They haye improyed the mode of sloping the ground, and are 
making what they call vallonuements, by undulating the surface of the 
lawns and plannting clumps of trees ona larger and more harmonious — 
scale. Some evergreens will be planted there; and the new plan- 
tations of Poplars, Horse-chestnuts, Ash-trees, &c., already made, 
without showing much at once, will be effective in a few years. 

The Bois de Boulogne has not now the sad aspect it presented 
when we saw it last March. Almost all these dreadful-looking and ~ 
empty places that we noticed on our way at that time to the ruins of 
St. Cloud are now covered with fresh vegetation. The underwood, 
formed by new branches sprouting from the roots, will be stronger 
than ever ina few years; and, had we not to regret the destruction of 
the large forest trees, firs, pines, and rare ornamental shrubs and= 
trees, we should find that a nicer growth is the result of the thickets” 
having been cut down. A most curious effect is produced by the — 
scarlet tints of the American oaks (Quercus coccinea and Q. rubra), 
which, of course, haye been cut to the very root, like the common 
species. About la Mare d’Auteuil, where M. de Sahme, the 
ancien conservateur of the Bois de Boulogne, had planted seyeral 
thousands of these trees, sent direct to him from the United States 
by André Michaux, nothing is more striking than this field of fresh 
branches with their scarlet foliage. All the way round, the Bois is 
deprived of its beautiful plantations. You notice here and there 


_ each sort will be the points chiefly dwelt upon. 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


31 


some scattered and uninjured poor oaks or birches and common 
conifers. Along the formerly woody places of the Bois they have 
constructed a line of wooden fence, to prevent people from walking 
into the thickets and destroying the new vegetation. 

The Porte-Dauphin entrance of the Bois, by the Avenue de 
l'Impératrice, is to-day almost entirely repaired, replanted on each 
side as it was before; and, in the course of a few months, no trace of 
the gigantic barricades and fortifications, chevenx-de-frise, 
&e., will remain. 

The houses of La Muette, much more injured by the shells of the 
Commune than by the siege, have not much improved since the last 
time I saw the place. The new range of houses situated in 
the Clos Georges, between the railway and the Rue de la Tour, 
is still quite empty, the glass in pieces, and the pits inside the houses 
covered with weeds. The prospect of desolation has now ceased here. 
Some collections remain perfect, as the Camellias, Azaleas, and a 
few others; but I saw with much regret all those beautiful palms 
black and dead in their boxes. I shall soon have another oppor- 
tunity of completing these notes onthe present state of gardens and 
gardening in Paris and in France, which, I hope, will recover shortly 
from such tremendous disasters. 


Paris, Oct. 22, 1871. Bete ee 


THE !IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 


THE word “palm” suggests to many a majestic tree towering above 
all others, and, therefore, we at once conclude that palms are unfit for 
anything but a large house. Though this is true of such kinds as 
Sabal umbraculifera, Arenga saccharifera, and afew others; yet if 
-we take into account such miniatures of them as Areca monostachya, 
Chameerops humilis, Rhapis flabelliformis, and others, which show their 
beauty at the height of from three to six feet, we at once discover 
that not only are they suitable for small conservatories, but that they 
are also useful as ornaments for the window or table; having, more- 
over, the advantage of lasting the whole season, thereby making up 
for the difference of cost in the first instance as compared with that 
of other plants. On the Continent palms sell by the thousands for 
window decoration, at low prices, and I hope, now that they are 
becoming appreciated here, we shall soon see them selling at a price 
within the reach of all. Another advantage palms possess over other 
plants for decorative purposes is the hardness of their foliage, which, 
in some measure, saves them from injury from gas and changes of 
temperature, and renders them capable of being washed when dusty 
without fear of breakage; again, they are not liable to be hurt 
by over-watering, which kills so many plants of other kinds. As to 
diversity of foliage, we have fan-shaped leaves in the Latanias and 
Chamerops, pinnate in Areca, Thrinax, Cocos, and others; while with 
the beautiful Adiantum-like foliage of Caryotas and Arengas every- 
body is charmed; in fact, no® conservatory or stove can be said to be 
complete without palms. Let me, therefore, hope that, by giving 
some account of the habit, country, and nature of such sorts as are 
best adapted for general purposes, I may be instrumental in encourage- 
ing the cultivation of this beautiful class of plants. 

As regards soil: that’ which suits them best is loam, with slight 
drainage, as the roots, being strong, run to the bottom of the pots, and 
form drains, as it were, themselves. Though some palms are found 
in dry places, it is well known in districts where they grow naturally 
that wherever there is a palm, water is sure to be below it, from which 
the roots, running as they do deep, derive a good supply. So thirsty, 
indeed, are palms generally that they may be watered every day with 
advantage, and, if in a stove, they enjoy a pan to stand in during 
Summer-time. 

In potting, the roots should never be cut or pulled out; and if the 
plant can be placed lower in its new pot, all the better, as it 
enco’ es the production of fresh roots. Spring is the best time 
to shift the greenhouse kinds, but stove palms may be re-potted at 
any season, water being given freely immediately after the operation, 
both at the roots and in the form of a good syringing. 

In the following descriptions, habit and the decorative uses of 
L The flowers of many 
are not likely to be seen, excepting those of a few Chameedorias, and 
therefore it is useless to speak of them. I may remark, however, 
that, many palms being unisexnal, those who want to do anything 
in the way of hybridization must procure male and female plants 


_ of Chameedorias, in order to effect their object ; and that seed, when 


obtained, should be sown ina bottom heat of from 80 degs, to 90 degs. 
I shall briefly refer to each genus, taking the species alphabetically, 
so that my list may be consulted with facility, and enable those 
requiring one, twelve, or fifty kinds, to get the best for’ their 


respective purposes, limiting my observations to such sorts as are in 
cultivation, and giving their synonyms :— 

» Areca alba (Mauritius)—A fine palm, bearing from eight to ten 
fronds, eight feet long, of a greyish green; stemclear. A fine plant, 
when old, to stand aboye others, the fronds standing almost flat 
from the stem; in a young state they are more erect; this species 
may be distinguished hy a filament aunning from leaflet to leaflet 
when first developed; “ie leaflets in all Arecas are flat, and nearly 
opposite. A good stc oe palm in all stages of growth; suitable for 
table decoration.. 

A. Baueri (syn., Seaforthia robusta: Norfolk Island).—Plant denser 
in habit than the last; fronds more erect ; midrib clothed with black 
scales; leaflets, in young plants, four inches wide. A good green- 
house palm, or for out-door decoration in summer, and in a large state 


_one of the noblest of its class, its dark-green foliage contrasting well 


with Musas, Latanias, and Caladiums. 

A. crinita (syn., Calamus dealbata, Acanthophcenix crinita: 
Mauritius) —A very elegant palm, having the appearance of a 
Calamus; useful for standing over a tank, having, when six feet high, 
fronds four feet long, of a drooping habit; being dense, it is unfit for 
table decoration ; upper side of fronds green, underneath white; the 
petiole and stem densely clothed with light-brown spines; rather 
tender, and requiring plenty of water. 

A. Catechu (Hast Indies).—The palm that produces the betel-nut ; 
in a young state, good for table decoration; habit erect, running up 
with a slight stem; foliage bright green, quite smooth and glossy, 
contrasting well with that of other palms; a fast grower when 
placed in a smart heat, which it enjoys. 

A. concinna, (East Indies).—Allied to the former in habit, but 
dwarfer, and a slow grower. 

A. lutescens (syn., Hyophorbe indica: Mauritius).—One of the best 
of palms for table decoration and for stoves, being small and dwarf, 
and forming offsets as it gets old; fronds graceful, pale green ; petiole 
with a yellowish tinge, in the centre of which the whole plant par- 
takes a colour that varies in intensity in different individuals. Young 
plants of this species may be kept in small pots for from two to three 
years, if copiously watered. This is a palm which should be in every 
stove, as it is well adapted for mixing with large-foliaged plants, and, 
being erect, it stands well above them without intercepting light. 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN FOR DECEMBER. 
BY THOMAS BAINES, SOUTHGATE. 


A CaLenpDaAR, I need not say, acts as a sort of prompter, to assist 
the memory of the practical gardener, who, under the pressure of 
multitudinous duties, is apt to forget the performance of some 
operation at the proper time; and if it emanates from cultivators 
who have been careful observers—who have, in fact, made it their 
study to pick up these cultural crumbs, which lie thickly on the 
ground for those who have the perception and industry to gather 
them; and who have had, moreover, more than usual experience in 
the departments of which they take charge—then it will, perhaps, not 
be presumptuous to suppose that these instructions may be of use~to 
those even who already possess a practical knowledge of horticulture. 
Our limits only admit of a portion of the things which require atten- 
tion during every season of the year being touched upon, therefore 
we shall confine ourselyes to such as we have found to be of most 
general use. As regards my own particular department I may 
premise that I have no startling cultural revelations to make by 
which success can be attained under all or any circumstances, but 
only a number of small matters attention to which I have found 
essential to successful cultivation. 

Stove.—Now is the best time to eradicate insect-pests, as both 
foliage and wood ought to be in a condition to bear a stronger appli- 
cation of whichever of the numerous insecticides is used than when 
growth is active. Whatever is applied for this purpose, ought to 
be persevered with until no insects are to be found; this will 
necessitate repeated applications, for it is little better than labour 
lost to kill the greater portion and still have a breeding stock, that 
will cause no end of labour in spring, when it is required in so many 
other channels. Let all glass and woodwork, both inside and out, 
be well scrubbed and washed with clean water; if only for the sake 
of preservation, it is as good as a coat of paint; but it effects an 
object of still greater importance, viz., the admission of every 
possible ray of light, of which, in our sunless winters, we are so 
deficient. Place all plants as near the glass as possible, for although 
there is now comparatively little growth, still, light is essential to 
their general health. Clear out all old tan, and refill with new. I 
do not, however, advocate plunging in tan by any means; on the 
contrary, I never plunge a single plant, be the object the production 
of flowers for cutting, or of plants for the decoration of cooler 


32° 


THE GARDEN, 


[Dxc. 2, 1871, 


structures; in either case it renders them soft and liable to flag. 
But a good tan bed will maintain a temperature of 90 degs. for many 
weeks; a circumstance which materially helps to keep up the 
necessary warmth of the house without resorting to so much fire- 
heat. On this account alone the use of tan is wise economy, leaying 
out of the question the healthy atmosphere which it promotes. 

There is scarcely a garden, large or small, now to be met with in 
which the demand for cut flowers is not at least double what it used 
to be. Therefore we must grow such things as last longest in a cut 
state, and grow them, too, under such conditions as will assist that 
property. For instance, the beautiful Euphorbia Jacquinizeflora, as 
often grown, flags in a few hours after being cut; but if small plants 
of it are grown, say in six or eight-inch pots, so as to admit of their 
being placed within two or three inches from the glass, their blossoms 
will stand when cut for a week; and this holds good of almost every 
other plant, but especially of that most useful of winter subjects, the 
old white Azalea. This requires very little heat to induce it to bloom, 
provided that in its growth and the setting of its flowers there has 
been a little forethought as to the time at which they would be 
required. Place, in gentle heat, now, plants of Deutzia, Spirea 
japonica, and Lily of the Valley, alone with such Hyacinths, 
Narcissus, and other bulbs as are likely to be required. Get Alla- 
mandas, Bougainyilles, and Clerodendrons -sufficiently dry at the 
roots to induce them to shed their leaves and to get into a state of 
rest. Be careful not to place bulbs of Caladiums or Gloxinias in too 
low a temperature; 50 degs. for Gloxinias at rest, and 60 degs. for 
Caladiums, will keep them right. ‘To name any fixed temperature at 
which stoves should be kept, would be a mistake, inasmuch as each 
individual should be guided by his requirements, and, above all, by 
the condition which his plants may be in; always remembering that 
those that haye made and matured their growth under those 
essential conditions,—abundance of light, and sufficient air, with 
plenty of healthy roots, will stand a higher degree of temperature 
without excitement, or a lower one with impunity, than weak, half- 
ripened plants will, that are deficient in stamina. : 

Orehid House.—The growth of most of the Hast Indian 
orchids ought to be nearly completed, and therefore they will 
require a reduction as regards temperature and moisture, both at 
the roots and in the atmosphere. It is, however, a bad practice 
to dry them up indiscriminately to the extent often done, with a view 
to induce a greater profusion of bloom. Most of the Dendrobes 
require to be well dried, otherwise they do not flower freely ; but 
Vandas, Saccolabiums, and Aérides are frequently dried to an extent 
that causes them to lose their bottom leaves, thereby spoiling their 
appearance; and this is wholly unnecessary, for if their growth is 
made under sufficient light and air, with an absence of too much 
heat and moisture they will show bloom at every leaf they make. 
I feel confident that three-fourths of the ‘‘spot”’ that yearly destroys 
such numbers of these valuable plants is produced through too much 
heat and moisture, with too little air and light ; true, they frequently 
bear up against ill-treatment of this kind, eyen for years, for orchids 
will bear more bad treatment than most other plants, but ultimately 
they give way under it. Ccelogyne cristata, which is one of the 
most beautiful as well as useful of winter flowering plants, should 
never be allowed to become dry at the root, or be in too dry an 
atmosphere ; but at this time, when it is throwing up its flower- 
spikes, see that they do not get much wet in the operation of 
-watering, or they will damp. From 60°degs. to 65 degs. night tem- 
perature will be sufficient during the season of rest. 

Most of the plants in the Mexican house should now be at rest, and 
with the exception of Lycaste Skinneri, Odontoglossums, and plants 
of similar requirements, they should receive little water for the next 
two or three months, only just sufficient to keep -them from 
shrivelling too much. The beautiful Cattleya Skinneri-ought now to 
be put in the coolest end of the Hast-Indian house, as it will not 
stand so low a temperature as most of the other inmates of, the 
Mexican house, the night temperature of which may now range 
from 48 degs. to 55 degs. We frequently find a collection of orchids 
from both eastern and western hemispheres grown in the same house, 
and with better results than where the treatment is of that extreme 
character either as to heat or cold that some growers adopt. 

Greenhouses.—Be careful here in watering all hard-wooded 
subjects. Never water before a plant really wants it, and never defer 
the operation for an hour after it does require it. Get all specimen 
plants tied, using just sufficient and no more supports in the shape 
of sticks than the nature of the plant requires. Now is a good time 
to wash all Azaleas with moderately strong tobacco-water, laying 
the plants down over a shallow trough, so as not to waste the liquid; 
after which lay them on their sides until dry. By no means wash 
the liquid off, as is sometimes done; for although no living thrips 
may be seen, still their eggs may exist under the little black spots on 
the leaves, ready for hatching under the genial influences of a 
higher temperature; these the tobacco-water will kill. I have found 


this much better than smoking, which, when done strongly enough 
to kill the insects, generally causes some of the leaves to fall pre- 
maturely off; and all the smoke possible will not kill the eggs. 
Sulphur is the best antidote for mildew, should that pest make its 
appearance; but be careful that it does not get into the soil, for its 
effects there on the roots of plants are similar to those of lime. If 
Primulas have had the attention which they deserve, the first batch 
will now be strong plants coming fast into bloom, therefore assist 
them with occasional applications of clear liquid manure. Giye them 
all the light possible and a dry atmosphere, and if they can have a 
night temperature of 45 degs. they will not be liabletodamp. The first 
batch of Cinerarias will be throwing up their blooms fast; these will 
be equally benefitted by liberal applications of manure-water; but 
instead of being on dry shelves like the Primulas, they should be 
accommodated with a cool, moist bottom of ashes or sand. Calceolarias 
for spring blooming require similar treatment. Cyclamens will be 
benefitted by a little more heat than that usually given to ordinary 
greenhouse stock. Place them near the glass, or the blooms will 
come weak. Camellias required for flowering about Christmas will 
now be opening apace, if their treatment during the season of growth 
has been such as to induce a disposition to flower at this time; but it 
frequently happens that they have to submit to more heat at this 
time to get them into blossom than they like, and unless some 
judgment is exercised, they will cast their buds. This is often 
attributed to a bad state of the roots; but no matter how good their 
roots are, even with sufficient moisture in the soil, if the atmosphere 
is too dry, the buds will drop ; therefore it is necessary, where heat is 
Tequired to induce them to open, to keep sufficient moisture in the 
atmosphere to prevent this happening. The conservatory should 
now be kept at about 45 degs. night temperature, and eyery effort 
should be made, by means of tasteful arrangement, and in other 
ways, to render it as engaging as possible, more especially at this 
season, when the attractions of the out-door garden are at a mini- 
mum. Towards the end of the month put in cuttings of Chrysan- 


‘ themums where large blooms are required; for cutting, early struck 


plants will be found best. On wet days get a good stock of plant- 
stakes made and painted, also tallies; and let crocks be washed and 
broken; let, too, all spare pots be washed ready for use. See that 
the different soils required for potting are got under cover, so as to 
be sufficiently dry for use when wanted. If severe weather scts in 
during the month, be cautious not to use more fire-heat than is neces- 
sary, as any excitement to plants now is most injurious, 


' ASPECTS OF VEGETATION IN NORTHERN > 
AND TEMPERATE COUNTRIES, 


HERBACEOUS VEGETATION IN SIBERIA. 


Amone the many aspects of vegetation im northern and 
temperate countries, few are more singular than that of the 
great cow-parsnips and other plants of the Umbellate Order, 
with tall grasses, nettles, &c., which abound in Siberia. So 
rapid and vigorous is the growth of these in early summer that 
it would seem as if the giant herbaceous plants, fated to hide 
beneath the ground eyery year, had resolved to rival trees in 
stature during the short summer life of their stems. In spring 
huge earth-buds followed by noble young leaves; in summer a 
herbaceous forest; in autumn the tall stems, through which 


‘the sap coursed s6 vigorously in spring, dead and dry, the 


strongest of them yet rigid and erect, a miniature blighted 
forest, while the promise of another year lies im the great buds 
swelling just beneath the surface. There they rest till the 
relentless winter is gone. This is one of the many interesting 
types of northern vegetation that we may readily develop in 
our pleasure-grounds and woods. It would indeed be out of 
place in the garden proper, but in nearly all country-seats there 
are various spots on islands, on the banks of streams or ponds, 
or in rich and sunny hollows in woods or copses, or the rougher 
parts of pleasure-grounds, where the giant type of herbaceous 
plants might be grown without any trouble, and with a striking 
and picturesque effect. It need hardly be remarked that this 
type should not be included in what is called “ dressed ground,” 
as half the beauty of such an arrangement as that proposed 
would consist in its absolute wildness; and the stately dead 
stems should be left to the care of the snows and rains of 
winter. In collecting suitable subjects for planting, it would 
not be desirable to select plants.from Siberia alone, as we have 
but a few of its giant herbaceous plants in cultivation. All 


herbaceous plants of large and vigorous, habit and noble port 


“VINHAIS NI NOILVIGOTA SQOMNVEURH— SAITULNNOO TLVUAMINAL GNV NUPHLUON NI NOILVLGNAA JO SLOAdSV 


34: 


THE GARDEN. 


(Due, 2, 1871. 


should be selected. They would require no attention whatever 
after planting. All the following will thrive well im ordinary 
soils, and are obtainable in this country in nurseries where 
collections of herbaceous plants are grown. Of some, like the 
Verbascums and Onopordon, seed may be sown on the spot. 
Callisace dahurica; Arundo Donax; Crambe cordifolia ; different 
varieties of Ferula; Gynerium argenteum; various kinds of 
Helianthus and Heracleum; Polygonum cuspidatum ; different 
sorts of Onopordon and Rheum; Datisca cannabina; Phytolacca 
decandra; Silphium in var; Hupatorium purpureum; Vernonia 
noveboracensis; Aralia, various herbaceous kinds; Asparagus 
Broussoneti; Asclepias Cornuti; Centaurea babylonica; Buph- 
thalmum speciosum; Gunnera scabra; Lavatera unguiculata ; 
Althzas ; Papaver bracteatum; Cynara Scolymus; Verbascum 
im var. W. R. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


FRUIT-TREES FOR ORNAMENT. 


Tr is often thought that Nature is usually sparse of leaf-beanty 
where the flower is hiehly ornamental, and stingy with flowers where 
leaves assume large proportions and elegant outlines; and, to a 
smaller extent, that she is apt to exhaust herself in an analogous 
way upon fruit. Nothing can be further from the fact than this 
supposition. When we consider the flowering charms of the greater 
portion of our fruit-trees, we are struck with astonishment that they 
are not more planted for the sake of their beauty alone. Take the 
apple in its countless varieties, and just consider that, if it did not 
give such crops of fruit, beautiful to look upon, and more delicious 
in flavour than half the boasted fruits of the tropics, we should seek 
after it for the sake of its blushing cups, which tum the formal 
orchard into a scene of fairyland. 

But it happens to bear fruit of various colours, sizes, and flavours, 
and, of course, that is a reason why we have hitherto not employed 
such a beautiful hardy tree in the pleasure-garden. Then we have 
the pear, which comes in earlier, and furnishes snowy masses of bloom ; 
and with a more picturesque and handsome habit than the apple, but 
unhappily with the same fault of bearing delicious as well as 
ornamental fruit. 

From nearly every hardy fruit we may reap a like harvest of 
beanty—almonds, apricots, cherries, crabs, medlars, peaches, plums, 
and quinces, being all more or less ornamental. And some of them 
have not even the demerit of fruiting—the double cherries and 
double peaches, for example. Both of these trees should be planted 
ten times more abundantly than they are at present, for no trees are 
more attractive. There is a scarlet variety of the double peach, 
which imparts a vividness of colouring to the shrubbery in early 
spring that we have hitherto been quite devoid of; and there are 
others deeply coloured, as well as a pure white one, all of which 
deserve to be extensively employed. And as perhaps some curious 
persons here and there may not object to plant beautiful flowering 
fruit-trees because they also bear precious and handsome fruit, a few 
observations on the best way of enjoying them may not be ont of 
place here. We have nought to do but place these objects, usually 
hidden in the orchard, in any open spots, in pleasure-grounds, by 
wood walks, in the fences at intervals, instead of the worthless stuff 
that now too often occupies them—and, in a word, in the many posi- 
tions where many trees neither good for timber nor flowers now take 
up valuable ground. 

There is another phase of the question to which our readers are 
probably strangers, and that is the ornamental orchard. We haye 
neyer seen it attempted but once, and that was in the garden at 
Meudon, where it was very successful. Usually the orchard is, of all 
spots, the most formal; but there is no need that it shonld be so, as 
anyone with extensive pleasure-grounds can quickly prove. At 
Meudon the position was a sort of valley-like hollow, but in an 
elevated position—just the spot to make a concise pinetum or 
pleasure-ground. Instead of planting it with trees and shrubs of the 
ordinary type, it was resolved to embellish it with well-arranged 
groups of fruit-trees. On one side a large clump was devoted to 
handsome pyramidal pear-trees, on another one to apples, another to 
plums, and so on. The grass was not broken up, nor any of the 
ornamental features of the spot interfered with in the least. We 
need hardly point out how varied, as well as exceedingly useful, such 
an arrangement might be made. There might be mixed groups of 
new and untried kinds, as well as masses of thoroughly appreciated 
ones; there might be isolated specimens of various kinds on the 
erass, from an apple on the dwarf Paradise stock to a fully-grown 
and handsome pear of twenty-five or thirty feet high. Fruits little 


known or of doubtful utility like the Hugenia or the cherry plum, 
might be associated with the others with greater propriety than in 
the fruit-garden proper. Such things as the American blackberries 
—and very fine some of these are—would find a congenial home; so 
would the dewberry and the various cranberries, which some like so 
much. The relatives of our common fruit-trees might of course be 
planted in the near neighbourhood for comparison’s sake; standard 
peaches, fies, and apricots, might be tried with safety if the garden 
were in the south; andthe whole would proye one of the most 
interesting features in a country place. 


THE FRUIT-GARDEN FOR DECEMBER. 
BY WILLIAM TILLERY, WELBECK. 


Out-Door Fruits.—Hardy fruit-trees of all kinds should be 
planted as early in the month as possible. If not done in October 
and Noyember, the pruning of fruit-trees should likewise be carried 
on with vigour. In neglected orchards this is an operation of great 
importance ; for the trees get so crowded with wood and spurs, that 
good crops are few and far between. Were orchard-trees carefully 
pruned every year, and the fruit thinned where too thickly set, 
failing crops would seldom be seen, and the fruit would be of the 
largest and finest quality. This is now a good time to eradicate that 
pest to apple-trees, American blight. I had some cordons and 
dessert varieties of apples on an east wall very much infested by it 
last year, and stamped it out, in the winter-time, by scrubbing every 
branch where it appeared with a hard brush, then painting the places 
over with soft soap. The system of growing single and double 
cordons of apples and pears on the bottoms of walls and trellises will 
be found of great utility, and a source of enjoyment to the cultivator. 
They are not recommended to take the place of pyramids or bush 
frnit in the borders, but only to fill up bare places on the bottoms of 
walls where xfothing else is grown, and as edgings to the sides of 
walks, where they interfere with no other crop in the borders. This 
year, I have had very fine fruit off single cordons of Calyille Blane, 
Reinette du Canada, Reinette Grise, Herefordshire Pearmain, 
Menagere (a large French apple), Belle Dubois (another very large 
French apple, like Warner’s King), Calville Sanveur, and some other 
kinds of apples and pears. The apples are all on the French Paradise 
stock, and the fruit is thinned out, so as to leave only a dozen or two 
on each tree, according to the size of the sort.- These little trees, 
being grown on the bottom of south and west walls, do not suffer 
much when in blossom from spring frosts, being sheltered by the foliage 
above them. Single and double cordons, however, planted as edgings — 
in the border are more exposed; but they can be easily protected 
from spring frosts by means of a few fir branches or light straw 
hurdles. When these cordon trees are planted in December, a covering 
of litter over the roots will keep the winter’s frost out, and keep the 
roots moist in dry springs. . 

Figs on the walls will soon want protection from seyere frosts 
in winter, and when the branches are tied together, and straw 
wrapped round them, they will be quite safe. Where dried 
fern can be had, it likewise makes a safe covering, by thatching 
the trees with it. Gooseberries, currants, and raspberries, may 
be still planted; but, at this late period it is better to mulch 
the roots afterwards. A way to get rid of gooseberry caterpillar on 
established bushes infested by them is to scrape away all the earth 
from the base of the bushes, and dig it into the middle of the rows. 
The space denuded round the bushes, if filled up with old tan or fresh 
soil, will contain no larya or young caterpillars to crawl up the stems, 
and [commence their rayages in the summer. Strawherry-beds are 
often top-dressed in December with litter, to protect them from severe 
frosts; but experience makes me recommend this operation to be 
deferred till the spring. When the beds are top-dressed, then, with 
some rather strawy litter, just before the spring-growth commences, 
the foliage and fruit stalks grow through it, and the fruit is kept 
clean from heavy rains; besides, the litter keeps the roots of the 
plants moist in hot, dry summers. The nailing of wall-trees should 


now progress as fast as possible in open weather; for it is cold work 


in the dead of winter, and in spring many other operations oceur which 
cannot be deferred. The nails should only be driyen in sufficiently _ 
to hold, and neyer into the bricks to injure them; for it is foolish 
work spoiling good walls with nails, when wiring them would answer 
every purpose; and all new walls should be done so. The fruit 
stored in the fruit-room will now frequently want looking over, and 
all fruit picked ont that show the slightest symptoms of decay. 
The temperature should be kept rather low, and as equable as pos- 
sible; and all damp and frosts expelled by artificial heat. All 
vines artificially forced are liable to much injury by severe frosts in 
the winter, if left in the open air. They should, therefore, be pro- 
tected till they are taken into the forcing-houses. 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 35 


In-Door Fruits.—As early forcing generally commences in this 
dull and dreary month, vines, when breaking, will require a tempera- 
ture of from 55 degs. to 60 degs., with air given freely in favourable 
weather. Grapes in late vineries will require frequent looking over, 
in order to pick out any decaying berries, as they induce damp, 
which infects the others. Where such houses are wanted for any 
particular purpose, the grapes, if cut off and put into bottles of 
water, will keep good for three or four months in a well-ventilated 
fruit-room, or other room fitted up for the purpose. Early peaches 
started this month will require a temperature of from 40 degs. to 45degs. 
at night, and admit plenty of air when that is possible. When in 
blossom, the pollen should be gently distributed with a feather, in 
order to assist the fruit to set. The earliest batch of strawberries 
will now want introducing into a forcing-pit, or placing on the shelves 
of a peach-house at work. If a little bottom heat in a pit heated by 
oak, or any other kind of leaves, can be used, with the temperature 
of the pit kept low and well regulated, the fruit will set all the 
better. I find Keen’s seedling and President best for the earliest 
supply. Figs, in pots, may now be started where an early supply is 
desired, and any requiring shifting, or top-dressing, should now be 
looked to, using turfy soil of a loamy nature with a little leaf soil, 
and plenty of drainage. Orchard-house trees of all kinds should be 
pruned as soon as the leaves drop, and top-dressed, if not done in 
October or November; a solution of Gishurst compound, consisting 
of about five ounces to a gallon of boiling water will, if put on when 
cold, by syringing the trees, be an effectual cure for insects. Peach- 
trees trained on walls will likewise be much benefitted by the same 
application, if put on with a powerful syringe or engine. 


~ Pine-Apples, now swelling their fruit in various stages, should not 
haye too much heat while the days are dark and short, nor too much 
humidity. Those starting now into fruit should be placed in a com- 
partment by themselves, where they can be kept pretty dry while in 
bloom, or abortion, or some deficiency in shape of pips, or uneven 
swelling, will most likely be the result. Succession plants in all 
stages should be kept ina growing state, moderating the heat and 
humidity to suit the season. Give air freely when the weather is 
favourable, surrounding the pits with fermenting materials to their 

' summits, in order to heat the interior and dispel damp. J. B. 

/ 


FOSTER’S APRICOT SHED. 


‘Mr. Foster, of Beeston, has, I think, by chance hit on the 
best known plan of growing apricots. Requiring a shed to 
back carts under, arid to shelter ladders, planks of oak, &c., 
he thought, as it would be seen from his garden, that a glass 
roof would look much better than one covered with slate. He ac- 
cordingly built one about one hundred feet long and ten feet wide. 
Posts every nine feet carrygthe roof, which is all fixed, no venti- 

lation being required. The south-west side, next the garden, is 
hoardedand painted over with tar, wired, and planted with dwarf- 
fruit-trees, as inthe woodcut. Wires are also stretched under 
the glass, as if for vines; the distance from the glass being about 
one foot. On the north-east side of the wooden fence, standard 


_ apricots, plums, and nectarines are planted, whose heads are 
_ trained under the glass, their roots passing under the wooden 
_ side into the same border in which those shown growing on 
_ the outside are planted. Both ends of the shed are closed in 
_ with boards. Itis, in fact, a long narrow glass shed open to the 
north-east, just high enough to back a cart under, but looking 
from the garden like a double-roofed greenhouse. ‘The trees 
have been planted three years; they have never been syringed, 
and, in fact, except tying the shoots to the wires and thinning 
and gathering the fruit, have had hardly any attention. In 
some parts of the shed it has been necessary to climb over piles 
of ti from four to five feet high to get a good look at the 
fruit. The result has been extraordinary and, to me, most 
unexpected. 


The nectarines have not been large, but high coloured, and of 
good flavour; but it is evident that these would be better for 
more heat. Plums would have been all that could be wished 
if it had not been for the plum aphis, but as these have been 
allowed to have their own way, the trees have suffered from 
their attacks. Apricots seem to have found all they require, 
and look quite at home. The foliage, though untouched by 
rain or syringe, is healthy, large, and free from insects or 
mildew. ‘The first year they were planted they bore a good 
crop. ‘The last two years almost every blossom appears to have 
set. I counted, before they were thinned, seventeen apricots on a 
shoot seven inches long; and each season they have carried 
twice the number of fruit I would have allowed to remain fora 
crop. In spite of the large crop, the fruit was beautiful in 
colour and most delicious, and T have seldom seen so fine a 


Section of Apricot Shed, 


sample. I should say the trees have been only watered twice 
since they were planted, and that in the hot summer of 1870. 
Though I think few would have foreseen such a success through 
what may be considered an accidental discovery, it cannot be 
thought the less valuable on that account. How loudly it pro- 
claims the advantage of ventilation for apricots! Does it not 
equally proclaim, too, the advantage of a dry climate for this 
tree? What method of pruning apricots can compare with 
this, either for productiveness or cost of production? The trees 
are sheltered from frost and wet, and the roots take care of 
themselves. How different from either the open wall or the 
orchard-house! No watering, no syringing, no shading! Even 
good gardeners have been surprised at the result. 
Chilwell. J. R. Pearson. 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


SELECT EDIBLE FUNGI. 
Botetrus EpDvtis. 


BELIEVING it desirable that the more useful edible fungi that 
abound in our woods and pleasure-grounds should be much better 
known than they now are, we propose to publish, from time to time, 
descriptions of the more important species, with the most improved 
modes of cooking them; accompanied by drawings and engravings 
by Mr. W. G. Smith, who knows these subjects so well and draws 
them so faithfully and so gracefully. 

Boletus edulis is one of the safest and most delicious, and at the 
same time most abundant and long-continuing, of the British edible 
fungi. The first crop may be gathered soon after the rains of early 
summer, and the growth continues till the frosts of winter have 
fairly set in. There are about three dozen species of Boletus in this 
country, but B. edulis materially differs from all its allies; it is 
probable that most Boleti are either edible or harmless, but such 
species as B. edulis and B. estivalis certainly stand in the first 
rank. Our plant has maintained a good reputation from time 
immemorial, and has been consumed as a delicacy in all countries 
of Europe for ages; not, however, in this country; but, thanks to 
Dr. Badham, Dr. Bull, and others, it is at last rapidly becoming 
a recognised article of diet with us. 

To distinguish this plant from other Boleti, the following points 
must be carefully noted, and when the fungus is once known, no 
other species will ever be mistaken for it:—It grows in woods; the 
cap is smooth, and of a very pure and delicate shade of pale brown, 
often with an edge of a lighter shade, as shown in our illustration ; 
the under surface of the top, instead of being furnished with gills, like 
the mushroom, has a soft spongy substance, composed of innumerable 


SOM 


THE GARDEN. 


Poi 


(Duc. 2, 1871. 


pores or tubes (like the pipes of a miniature organ); this spongy 
substance is at first pure white, then sulphur-coloured, at length 
sulphury-ereen ; the stem is stout and fleshy, pale brown in colour, 
and furnished with an exquisite minute reticulation or network 
round the upper portion; the flesh, when broken, is snow-white, like 
crumbs of bread, and the taste agreeable and nutty. It should not 
be gathered for the table when too young, when the tubes are white; 
or when too old, when the tubes are green and the plant flabby; 
neither should specimens be used that are mildewed or soddened 
with rain. They are in the best condition when the tubes are sulphur- 
yellow. B. edulis grows to a great size, being often many inches 
across ; it is frequently very irregular and uncouth in shape, with a 
swollen stem; and at times varies considerably in the colour of its 
cushion-shaped top, which, at times, will vary from delicate fawn to 


— -——_ 
= 


~ 
gi, 


Boletus Edulis (Hdible Boletus) ; Woods; Summer and Autumn; delicate fawn 
colour; tubes yellowish; diameter 4 to 12 inches; spores enlarged, 700 
diameters. 


dark brown. One of its best points of distinction resides in the 
beautiful white network round the apex of the stem. 


The following is Panlet’s recipefor Boletus edulissoup, as made in Hungary :— 
Having dried the Boleti in an oyen, soak them in tepid water, thickening with 
toasted bread, till the whole be of the consistence of a pureé; then rub through 
a sieve ; throw in the Boleti, boil together, and serve with the usual condiments. 

Persoon recommends the preparation of this species for the table in the 
following terms :—It may be cooked in white sauce, with or withont chicken in 
fricasee ; broiled or baked, with butter, salad-oil, pepper, salt, chopped herbs, and 
bread crumbs; to which may be added some ham or a mince of anchovy. It 
makes excellent fritters. Some roast it with onions (basting with butter), but 
as the onions take longer to cook, they must be put down first, and when they 
have begun to soften, the Boleti may be added. 

Mr. Edwin Lees, the veteran botanist of Worcester, writes as follows of this 
species :—It should not. be disguised with any sauce, beyond lemon-juice and 
powdered lump-sugar ; in fact, as part of a fungus dinner, it should come last— 
with the puddings and sweets. As a fricasee or Sweet omelette it is excellent ; 


and when thus delicately cooked, it has a close resemblance to custard-pudding. . 


Dr. Bull, of Hereford, has published the following recipe for Boletus edulis 
a V Andalouse :—Remoye the stems and pores from the funguses, and divide the 
remainder into half-inch slices. Take six or eight ounces of lean uncooked ham, 
cut into small squares, and put them into a large stewpam, adding a large 
wineglass of the best salad-oil, and fry for a few minutes, until the ham takes 
a pale yellowish colour, then add the pieces of Boletus, and fry for another five 
minutes ; remove from the fire, and add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley ; add 
a large wineglassful of sherry. Then place it on the fire, with the lid of the 
stewpan closely shut down, and let it stew gently for three-quarters of an hour; 
stir in the juice of half a lemon, and serve it hot. N.B.—The pimento has a 
warm, aromatic flavour, but. it isnot hot to the taste. If it cannot be procured, 
a fresh gréen Chili may be substituted; or, the dish will be excellent if the 
judicious cook will slightly increase the quantities of the other condiments. A 
very good and simple plan of cooking, is merely to remove the tubes and stem, 
and cut the top into slices, and fry with butter, &c., like the common mush- 
room ; or lay the pieces in a dish, with butter, pepper, and salt; cover the dish 
close, and bake for halfan hour. ~ 


A few species of Boletiare either highly-coloured, acrid when raw, 
or change to bright blue when eut or broken. Such as these, and all 
haying the tube surface red, should be discarded. W.G.S. 


AMERICAN FRUIT-PRESERVING JAR. 


THERE is one practice in common use in America which for us is 
almost as important as if we could command a brighter climate for 
one division of our farms and gardens—we allude to the practice of 
“canning” fruit. This means the preservation, in a perfectly 
palatable and wholesome state, of fruits and vegetables for any 
needful length of time in tins, or more commonly in glass jars. The 


American housewife is no longer at the mercy of the season. The 
delicious summer pear, which decays soon after it is ripe, is not now 
merely enjoyed during the few weeks of its perfection; the house- 
wife collects her fine Bartletts (Williams’s Bon Chretien) in good time, 
peels them, and by a very simple process preserves them. And in 
mid-winter, when the snow is deep round the house, the pears are as 
good-as in September. But if one kind of pear will not keep, others 
will for a long time, so, perhaps, the utility of the system is not seen 
in this case so much as in that of perishable fruits. Then take the 
tomato, so indispensable in every American house. Jt is much 
cheaper than the potato during the summer and autumn months; but 
before the epoch of canned fruit there was a long and dreary interval 
dreaded. by the lover of tomatoes; now they are obtainable all the 
year round. And so of every other esteemed fruit or vegetable, from 
peaches to asparagus and green Indian-corn, with the exception of 
the apple, of which there are varieties that keep so long as to ensure 
a supply till the current year’s fruit is ripe, and thus remove any 
necessity for canning. This process is now so well known and 
practised there that most housewives can their own fruit. The table in - 
every house shows its value, and whole villages and towns are some- 
times deyoted to the preservation of one article for the market. 

The vessels in which fruits are preserved are tin, glass, and 
earthenware. Tin is used at the factories where large quantities 
are put up for commerce, but is seldom 
used in families, as more skill in 
soldering isrequired than most persons 
possess. Besides, the tins are not 
generally safe to use more than once. 
Glass is the preferable material, as it 
is readily cleaned, and allows the in- 
terior to be frequently inspected. Any 
kind of bottle or jar that has a mouth 
wide enough to admit the fruit, and 
that can be securely stoppered posi- 
tively air-tight—which is much closer 
than water-tight—will answer. Jars 
of yarious patterns and-patents are 
made for the purpose, and are sold at 
the crockery and grocery stores. 
These have wide mouths, and a glass 
or metallic cap which is made to fit 
very tightly by an india-rubber ring 
between the metal and the glass. 


Mason's. Fruit-jar. 

The devices for these caps are 

numerous, and much ingenuity is displayed in inventing them. _ 
Mason’s jars are very commonly in use in America, and nothing 

can exceed their simplicity and excellence—a wide-monthed glass 

jar, with a ring-band of india-rubber on its neck; on this the edge of 


the zine screw cap rests. This cap is yery simple, and can be readily 
screwed home. A little vertical bar on the outside of the cap gives 
a hold to a small wrench, formed so as partially to grasp the neck of 
the jar, enabling anybody to screw aiggtight or open the jarin an 
instant. When such excellent contrivances as this are popular, it is 


_needless to allude to the practicable but past method of using cement 


and corks. We shall give in detail the best American modes of pre- 
serving the various kinds of fruits, vegetables, &ec., as the system 
deserves to be popular everywhere fruits and vegetables are grown. 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE SWEET CHESTNUT. 


Mount Erna is celebrated for the great age and colossal dimen- 
sions of its chestnut trees ; for one of the largest and oldest trees of 
the kind in the world is that on Mount Hima, which is called Castagno 
di Cento Cavalli. It is said Jeanne of Arragon, on her road from 
Spain to Naples, visited Mount Etna, attended by her principal 
nobility, and being caught in a heavy shower, she and a hundred 
cayaliers took refuge under the branches of this tree, which completely 
sheltered them. 2! 

A century ago, according to Brydon, this tree measured 204 feet 
in circumference near the ground; but more recent travellers give 
only 180 feet asits girth. There are also two other celebrated chestnuts 
on Mount Eima, one called the Castagno di Santa Agata, which 
measures 70 feet in girth; and the other, Castagno della Nave, which 
measures 64 feet; their stems, however, attain no great height, but 
soon branch off above the ground. According to Dr. Philippi, the 
Castanea yvesca does not appear to be wild on any part of Mount 
Etna, but always to be cultivated. : : : 

In Britain, the sweet chestnut is by some considered to be indigenous ; 
but, notwithstanding the great age of some specimens, it appears 
more than probable that it was introduced into England by the 


Cr 


ARDEN. 


I 


¢ 


THE 


MOUNT ETNA (180 FEET IN CIRCUMFERENCE). 


STNUT-TREE ON 


~ 


OLD CHE 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


59 


“Romans. The largest tree in England of the sweet chestnut, is said 
to be one at Croft Castle, in Herefordshire, which, thirty years 
ago, measured 80 feet in height, with a stem 8 feet 6 inches in 
diameter, and the spread of its branches 112 feet. The great Tort- 
worth chestnut, on Lord Ducie’s estate in Gloucestershire, measures 
57 feet in circumference, and is mentioned by Sir Robert Atkins, in 
_ his history of that county, as a famous tree in King John’s time; 
and by Evelyn, in his “Sylva,” to have been so remarkable for its 
magnitude in the reign of King Stephen (1135), as then to be called 
the Great Chestnut of Tortworth; from which it may reasonably be 
presumed to have been standing before the Conquest (1066). 

The sweet chestnut is found in the east and west of Asia, and north 
of Africa, and in Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Caucasus. It is 
generally said to have been first brought to Europe by the Greeks, 
from Sardis, in Asia Minor, about 504 B.C. 

The chestnut is displayed to most advantage when standing singly 
or in scattered groups along with our oak. Gilpin considers the 
chestnut in maturity and perfection as a noble tree, which grows not 

_ unlike the oak; its ramifications, however, are more straggling, but 
free, and its foliage loose. As an ornamental tree the chestnut ought 
to be placed before the oak; its beautiful leaves, which are never 
attacked by insects, and hang on the trees till very late in the 

- autumn, mass better than those of the oak and give more shade. An 
old chestnut standing alone, and especially when in flower, is a noble 

_ object. In old trees the bark is remarkable for its deep, wide clefts, 

spirally directed, which give to the stem the appearance of being 
twisted. 

The chestnut, however, should never be planted near a residence, 
because the flowers emit a very powerful and disagreeable odour, 
which is offensive to most people. A group of chestnuts forms an 
excellent background to other trees; but a chestnut copse is 
insupportably monotonous. The sweet chustnut prefers a deep, 
sandy loam; it will not thrive in stiff, tenacious soil; and in a rich 
loam, its timber, and even its poles and hoops, are brittle, and good 
for nothing. 

In Britain the tree will not attain any height unless in sheltered 
situations, and where the soil is free and of some depth. While in 
poor, gravelly soil, where its roots will only run along the surface, it 
will attain a very considerable diameter of trunk and be of great 
longevity, though its head may never be larger than that of,a pollard ; 
of this the chestnut trees in Greenwich Park and Kensington 
Gardens, near the magazine, may be cited as examples ; but wherever 
the chestnut is planted in good and warm soil, and in a warm and 
sheltered situation, it will outgrow any other tree in the same length 
of time; perhaps, the larch, the willow, and some’poplars excepted. 

_ The chestnut, also, thrives well among rocks, where there is apparently 
yery little soil, insinuating its roots among the fissures and clefts. 

The wood of the chestnut has the remarkable property of being 
more durable when it is young than when it is old, the sap or outer 
wood very soon changing into heart-wood ; and hence the great value 
of this tree for posts, hop-poles, stakes, hoops, &c.- Inevery part of 

the country where hops are grown, the most durable poles are found 
to be those of the chestnut. GrorcEe Gorpoy, A.L.S. 


- PINUS PONDEROSA. : 


IT aw a great admirer of this tree. It forms one of a 
splendid group of ternate pines (three leaves in a sheath), 
_ having for its companions P. Benthamiana, P. Jeffreyii, and 
P. macrocarpa (alitijs Coulteri), All are from California, and 
have many points of resemblance. Unfortunately, they all 
agree also in being peculiarly liable to the attacks of that most 
destructive and tantalizing beetle, the Hylurgus piniperda, 
which (some years more than others) effects a lodgment into, 
and totally destroys, the leading shoots. Itis very aggravating 

_ to find a fine robust shoot, which yesterday was developing 
its leaves, suddenly drooping, and, on examining it, to see the 
medullary central pith eaten up by the larva of this trouble- 
some insect. You vindictively and indignantly destroy the 
_ wretched grub; but, alas! it is too late. ‘The work of destruc- 
_ tion is complete, and the growth of the year is arrested. All 
the splendid pines just named are perfectly hardy with me ; 
and the P. ponderosa bears the reputation of being a very rapid 
grower. Probably, when well-established and in luxuriant 
growth, it may bid defiance to the onslaught of the noxious 
pest alluded to; but its introduction (in 1826) has been too 
recent to afford us well-matured and full-grown specimens. 
From what I have seen of them I expect that the P. ponderosa 
will become a splendid tree, both in point of ornament and 
utility. It should, when fully grown, form a magnificent 


object; and its timber must indeed be solid, close-grained, and 
tough, if it be true (as is reported, and implied in its name) 
that it is so heavy as to sink i water.—A. MonGReEpiEn, 


The Pinus ponderosa here, measuring from the ground, is 
seventy feet in height; the circumference at one foot up is 
nine feet four inches, and at four feet from the ground it is 
eight feet; one third of the circumference being the nearest 
approximate diameter.—Joun Cox, Iedleaf. 


I have measured our largest specimen of Pinus ponderosa, 
and find it to be twenty-six feet six inches in height, and three 
feet ten inches in circumference one foot from the ground.— 
Wx. M. Barium, Beaufort Castle. 


P. ponderosa does not grow well in the north of Scotland. 
lts top gets heavy, and its roots do not spread very much on 
the surface, and it generally loses it upright position, and falls 
over. This has been the fate of all those that I have known to 
be put out singly, and at present I do not know of a P. ponderosa, 
forty feet, remaining in this quarter. It appears hardy enough, 
and planted in suitable soil closely, in clumps, it might be able 
to hold on and stand straight; but I know of no such clump in 
this district, and here the tree is not in demand, as it generally 
falls over before attaining the height of thirty feet when alone. 
—Joun Gricor, Forres. 


SEASIDE TREES AND SHRUBS. 

A rew facts respecting such trees, shrubs, and other things 
as will grow, thrive, and stand before all others the blast and 
violence of the great storms that repeatedly visit our coasts, 
may not, perhaps, be uninteresting. I mean such as do really 
thrive, and are always green, even under the violent storms - 
that in spring-time and antumn so suddenly take place, and 
drive a long way inland the thick spray of salt water, killing 
and scorching up foliage, young shoots, and branches of almost 
every kind of tree, shrub, and flower in its course. Many kinds 
of vegetables, and even our native weeds, pasture-grasses, &c., 
are forced to yield before such devastating storms from the 
south-east as occurred on the 10th, 26th, and 27th of September 
last. Having within these three years visited all the Channel 
Islands, Scilly Islands, Isle of Wight, &c., and having travelled 
all round the coast from thence to Land’s End, besides taking 
a look at other coasts, I am able to state precisely what really 
does stand out fresh and green, while other trees and shrubs 
similarly circumstanced are burnt and scorched up. 

Prominent among those which bear the sea blasts are the 
following:—Euonymus europzus and its variegated varieties, 
E. latifolius, americanus, and atropurpureus, Virginian-creeper, 
ivy—always cheerful and fresh-looking ; Laurustinus, Spartium 
junceum, common myrtle, and Myrtus mucronata. 

It is truly wonderful what storms and sea washings myrtle 
will stand, and afterwards look fresh. As to the Escallonia 
macrantha, it is the very best of all seaside plants; I mean 
that it will grow and thrive in any kind of soil, close to the 
sea, in every place and aspect. Even after great storms it 
exhibits a most lovely, shining, healthy green colour, when its 
neighbours are all scorched up; and it is always in bloom, if the 
strong shoots are stopped or pinched out. It is, moreover, one 
of our best evergreens for making a quick, thick, and beautiful 
hedge for garden shelter I have ever yet met with. Its beautiful 
green, glaucous foliage, and warm red flowers, make it a 
plant of great value. E. rubra and E. montevidensis are also 
lovely varieties, which stand the sea breeze well. The old 
Rosmarinus officinalis also grows to an immense size close to 
the sea, and will stand any amount of breeze and salt-water 
spray. This would likewise make very quickly eplendis hedges 
of any height or width, close to the sea, for breaking the force 
of those terrible storms that damage everything else subjected 
to them; besides, on account of its perfume, it has a value for 
distilling purposes. I really, therefore, wonder it is not more 
planted than it is. The Arbutus Unedo and its variety, rubra, 
are both glorious seaside plants, which are always green and 
beautiful every day in the year; and now, after the succes- 
sive great storms and drenchings of salt spray which they 
have had, they are covered with beautiful scarlet-coloured fruit, 


40 


‘THE GARDEN. 


oe Sees 


(Dec. 2, 1871. 


green fruit, and blossom. Indeed, Atbutus laurifolia, magni- 
fica, and some others, are all géod and flourishing seaside 
plants. The Phillyrea family again furnishes some of our 
most useful thrivmg evergreen shrubs for seaside planting, 
standing even unscathed great and sudden storms of wind and 
sea spray. I have noticed that Phillyrea media, angustifolia, 
rosmarinifolia, ligustrifolia, pendula, olecefolia, latifolia, loevis, 
obliqua virgata, and spinosa, all withstand great violence with- 
out a scorched shoot or leaf. That pretty, delicate sub-ever- 
green plant, the Tamarix gallica, is well known to all seaside 
visitors, growimg and thriving as it does everywhere, eyen 
on high-dry rocks, on the sea shore, in the salt sand, salt 
marshes, and low swampy places, maintaming a luxuriance 
that is surprising, without the least ill effects from any 
sea gale. With a little care in the way of management, 
this might be imduced to make fine hedges for shelter. The 
Baccharis halimifolia, which grows freely, will likewise ba 
found to make hedges of any width and height for seaside 
shelter; even when planted on any dry, rocky, sandy, salt, poor 
soil, it thrives most luxuriantly, and stands, even close to the 
sea, any amount of sea breeze and spray. The Barberry, Box 
Thorn, or Duke of Argyll’s Tea-tree, grow most luxuriantly, 
even when close to the sea—the last, particularly, will srow in 
nothing else but a bank of saline sand, where every high tide 
swamps it, and every breeze blows on it, “ suckering” and 
spreading immensely ; a rare plant to retain-and fix any extent 
ot blowing, loose sand, and for sheltering and nursing others 
for planting to reclaim waste and useless sand. Pinus pinaster 
and austriaca grow everywhere close to the seaside, and stand 
the breeze and spray well at all seasons. They make capital 
nurses for sheltering other plants. But amone the whole of 
the plants to be found thriving close to the sea, everywhere 
the Cupressus macrocarpa stands pre-eminent. This is truly 
the most valuable of all seaside conifers, growing so luxuri- 
antly that, planted to any required extent, it would very 
quickly afford excellent shelter for any seaside bleak place in 
a very few-years, breaking and softening the most severe 
gales into a soft breeze, and altering the harshness of the 
climate m a way most desirable in bleak localities. This truly 
handsome cypress, too, seems to thrive and grow with luxuri- 
ance on every kind of soil. 

I may add that every kind of pink, carnation, and picotee, 
thrives wonderfully well all round the sea-coast, on any kind 
of soil, eyen when subjected to the very splash of sea water. 

Jamus Barnus. 


TREES. 


Twayr you to understand, in the first place, that I have most intense, 
passionate fondness for trees in general, and haye had several 
romantic attachments to certain trees in particular. Now, if you 
expect me to hold forth in a “scientific”? way about my  tree- 
loves—to talk, for instance, of the Ulimus americana, and describe 
the ciliated edges of its samara, and all that—you are an anserine 
individual, and I must refer you to a dull friend who will discourse to 
you of such matters. What should you think of a lover who should 
describe the idol of his heart in the language of science, thus:—Class, 
Mammalia; Order, Primates; Genus, Homo; Species, Europeus; 
Variety, Brown ; Individual, Ann Eliza; Dental Formula, 


Pres D tamil calle heyy Ro 5 . 
a c p m , and so on? 
2 en nel Fe wil ND ES ES 


No, my friends, I shall speak of trees as we see them, love them, 
adore them in the fields, where they are alive, holding their green 
sun-shades over our heads, talking to us with their hundred thousand 
whispering tongues, looking down on us with that sweet meekness 
which belongs to huge but limited orezanisms—which one sees in the 
brown eyes of oxen, but most in the patient posture, the out-stretched 
arms, and the heavy drooping robes of these vast beings endowed with 
life, but not with soul,—which outerow us and outlive us, but stand 
helpless—poor things!—while Nature dresses and undresses them, 
like so many full-sized but under-witted children. . . . . 

Just think of applying the Linnean system to an elm! Who cares 
how many stamens or pistils that little brown flower, which comes 
out before the leaf, may have to classify it by? What we want is 
the meaning, the character, the expression of a tree, as a kind, and as 
an individual. OLiveR WENDELL HoLmes. 


‘ suitable for a party of twelve. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


ARCHES UPON DINNER-TABLES. 
Some will say that these obscure or interrupt the view across 


“the table, and interfere with conversation and sociability; but 


objections such asthese have no foundation in fact. Others again 
may complain that they cannot bearranged without making holes 
through the table. But in this they are mistaken; for if each 
end of the wire which forms the arch be twisted into a flat 
coil, and the flower-pots (containing the climbmg plants) be 
placed one upon each coiled end, the arch will be quite firm, if 
it be made of wire of proper strength. Arches may next be 
charged with being troublesome. I know full well that no 
really good effect in dinner-table decoration can be produced 
without trouble; but, speaking for myself and for some amateur 
friends who occasionally jom me in a reyel amongst floral 
decorations, we all consider that when suitable plants are to be 
procured, we get more “value” for our time in an arch than in 
any other kind of decoration. ‘ 


wt 


oat cea TW { 
yh M 


The accompanying engraving is from some sketches of a 
yery pretty arch, which was arranged in the following manner:— 
Upon the wire were fastened single blooms and pais of blooms 
of Lapageria rosea, which had been previously mounted upon 
wires, so that they might stand out firmly, and hang as if they — 
formed part of a growing plant. ‘Three or four long branches 
of that beautiful climber, Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, were 
then twined over the arch from one end to the other, its bright — 
apple-green leaves haying a very cheerful effect ; while they 
also concealed the ironmongery of thearch and the Lapagerias 
The finishing stroke was effected by very loosely mtertwining 
some long fronds of the commonest, but, at the same time, 
the most elegant of all the climbing ferns, Lygodium japonicum, 
a species generally sold under the wrong name of L. scandens. 
In this case, the plants of these climbers were in flower-pots 
concealed under the table, and so also were the pots of the two 
plants of Lomatia which are seen rising from the bases of the 
arch. If it had not been practicable to put any pots through 
the table, the pots containmg the two climbers could just as 
easily have been placed upon the table, and concealed with some 
common fern fronds; in which case, the Lomatias could not haye 
been. used, unless by cutting them down, and sticking them 
into the pots of the climbers—though an equally good effect 
might be obtained by sticking in one or two small fronds of 
Pteris tremula, or large fronds of one of the many varieties of 
Pteris serrulata. : 

The table upon which this arch was placed was oval-shaped, 
The plant sunk in the middle 
of the table was Yucca aloifolia variegata, amongst the lower 
leaves of which were inserted some fronds of Gleichenia 
spelunce. é SaWiesls 


i 


tilt 


- The People’s Garden Company.—The first annual soirée and ball in com- 
memoration of the incorporation of this company took place, the other night, at 
the Arundel Hall, under the presilen cy, of Sir H. Johnstone, M.P. The suite of 
rooms connected withthe hall was handsomely decorated with flowers and plants. 
The objectofthe promotersisto provide spaces where the people can have health- 
ful and rational recreation, combined with instruction, under the superintendence 
of the members themselves, apart from those objectionable features to be found 
in some of the existing public gardens. The garden near Willesden was opened — 
last season, and, though in an incomplete state from want of funds, it proved 
asuccess so far as the experiment had gone. 


Dec. 2, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


41 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN, 
THE TRUE AND THE COMMON SHALLOT. 


Few persons, I fear, will share my enthusiasm in investigating 
Allieceous matters ; in fact, I know that the whole onion tribe—in 
common with not a few other commendable things—is not by any 
means in good odonr with the many. But I shall, at all events, have 
one reader who will be interested in the subject—an Irish baronet, 
who has such a high respect for every form of the onion tribe that 
his standard of ability in a gardener is his power of producing as 
great a variety as possible of these delicious esculents every day in 
the year. The cook may be furious for other edibles, and the fair 
sex pine for flowers, but the gardeners always safe from the combined 
attacks of the household if he is good at the onion tribe. I now 
merely touch upon this subject—one which would require the pen 
and feeling of a Brillat-Savarin to do it justice—to point out that 
there are two distinct kinds of plants grown as shallots, and that 
the true shallot is becoming replaced by a plant distinct as a species, 
and distinct physiologically. Our most trustworthy gardening books 
speak of the shallots as varieties of one species. ‘Thompson says, 
“ Much dependence, however, cannot be placed in these varieties, for 
they are all extremely liable to degenerate in two or three years to 
the common sort.’ The fact is, however, that the now ‘“ common” 
shallot is entirely distinct from the true shallot. The true shallot 
(Allium ascalonicum), fig. 1, is, as the name indicates, a native of 
Palestine. It has round and hollow leaves in close tufts, and rather 
long conical bulbs growing close together, the outer tunic or skin 
being of a dull grey, and not shining. It flowers rarely, on a 
cylindrical naked stem; the flowers are reddish, with long segments, 
and closely set in a globular terminal umbel, somewhat like those of 
the chive. It is of a milder'and more delicate flavour than the false 
or common shallot. 


uv 


1, Tie True Shatlot, natural size. 2. The Common Shallot, natural size. 


The common shallot (A. cepiforme) cannot be traced to any known 
country as its native home. It grows in tufts somewhat like the true 
shallot, but has its leaves inflated at the base, and the bulbs are 
roundish, and usually little more than half the length of those of 
the other, of a light chestnut colour, and shining. The flowers of 
this are white, just like the common onion, but smaller, with longer 
stamens, and the alternate stamens usually without the lateral cusps 
that they possess in the common onion, but sometimes there are 
lateral cusps. Both plants are perfectly easy of cultivation in 
England ; but the common one is the hardiest of the two, and keeps 
alittlelonger. Thebulbs,as I write this (January 15th), of thecommon 
kind are as firm and plump as those of well-ripened tulips ; those of 
the true shallot are, in most eases, somewhat shrivelled and inclined 
to bud, indicating that it should be planted rather earlier than 
the other. Iam half inclined to think that the common shallot 
is but a small breed of the common onion, particularly as we 
know nothing of its early history and native place. It is de- 
sirable to give the true shallot a warmer soil and position than the 
common one requires. I lately tried to procure in Covent Garden 
some of the true shallot for Mr, Boswell Syme, author of the new 


, 


edition of “English Botany,” and had some difficulty in finding it. 
To me it seems most unfortunate that an important member of this 
most precious family—the very one on which we could most depend 
to confute the slanderous persons who continually revile everything 
in the shape of an Allium—is in danger of being exterminated in an 
age when such matters do not receive theattentionthey deserve. Oh, 
lovers of this interesting family—sew pisces, seu porrum et cope 
trucidas—I appeal to you to assist in rescuing from imminent 
extinction this precious treasure, which, having been in our midst 
doubtless since the days when Richard of the Lion Heart defeated 
the mighty Saladin before the walls of Ascalon, now seems in danger 
of being utterly lost to us for want of a little timely protection. 

P.S.—Those to whom this appeal is not made in vain will be glad 
to learn that efforts are being made to form an Allium Society. A 
part of the plan is the issue of a monthly journal devoted to the 
proceedings of the society, and to the use, abuse, defence, and 
history of this calumniated tribe—on the whole, perhaps one of the 
greatest blessings that Providence has bestowe:l on the cold and 
bleak fields and plains of northern climes.—* Field.” 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN FOR DECEMBER. 
BY JAMES BARNES, LATE OF BICTON, 


Asparacus.—Take well-prepared strong roots of this and place them 
ona slight bottom heat, with a few inches of soil underneath them. 
Cover them slightly the first week, but afterwards put three or four 
inches of healthy light soil, decayed tan, leaf-mould, or sea-sand 
over them, watering to settle all down amongst the roots. Where 
sea-weed and sea-sand are at command, dress asparagus beds with 
them; but where these cannot be had, cover with good manure 
incorporated with salt. 

Gtose ArricHoxes.—If these ave not already protected about 
their crowns with litter, fern, or dry leaves, see to the matter without 
further delay. Also mulch Jerusalem artichokes, for they are much 
better taken up as wante.l for use, than when taken all up at once 
and stored; and if mulched they can be procured daily without 
trouble. ~ : 

BsANs.—Plant these on warm banks or borders. I like best to put 
some seed into a box or inside a cold frame, intermediate house, or 
warm corner, and to transplant in open weather in January or 
February ; this plan not only ensures short-jointed prolifieness, but 
the beans ave also out of the reach of mice. 

Capnace or Coneworrs.—If intended for winter consumption, 
they should all be collected int» close-sheltered quarters, and 
laid in thickly, in order that they may be protected if necessary. 
Under such conditions they can also be easily found after a heavy 
snowfall. 

Cannoons.—Finish binding up these, and protect them with dry 
litter or fern. 

CreLery.—All that has made its full growth, earth up finally when 
the weather is dry, and have at hand some protecting materials, such 
as litter, fern, dry leaves, or evergreen boughs, in case of frost. 

Canrors.—Those sown in July and August on borders, intended to 
be drawn young for use through the winter, surround with a few 
short stakes and tree-prunings, or with any materials comeatable, to 
give shelter. Sow the early horn and Datch on a slight bottom heat, 
in rows a foot apart ; and sow a row of radishes between, consisting 
of short tops, early scarlet, or French breakfast. 

Caviirtowers.—If there are any stray late-autumn planted ones 
about, collect them together, and lay them in frames, pits, or home- 
made turf-pits, to be covered with thatched frames, evergreen boughs, 
&c.; but see that they are not devoured by mice or rats, which are 
apt to nibble bits out of the very best white-hearted ones. Give air 
to young plants placed in winter quarters, and keep them clean and 
dry during these short days. 

Cuicory.—Take this up, and blanch it in succession, as required. 

Cuekvit.—Shelter and protect a little bit for winter use. 2 

Curtep aNp American Cress.—Protect a small piece of each of 
these for daily use; and sow common cress and mustard in succes- 
sion, in a gentle heat. 

Exptve AND Lerrucr.—Such as are in store for winter use, blanch 
as required; keep growing crops clean and healthy, by means of 
frequent surface stirrings and dry dustings with wood ashes. Young 
late-sown lettuce, now of course small and close to the glass, as they 
should be, must be wellattended to in the way of giving air and dry 
dustings, or they will mildew and damp off. 

Musnroows.—For these keep up a moderate humid heat of from 
50 degs. to G0 degs. Beds covered with litter must be often looked 
over, and have the litter turned, or the spawn will soon run out and 
exhaust itself. Trap woodlice, and prepare materials for succession 
beds. 


eae 


- 


42 


_THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 2, 1871. 


SUAKALE.—Continue to place strong-crowned roots of this in 
frames, pits, cellars, mushroom-houses,tinder staircases, or in any 
quiet, warm, dark corner. They must be kept dark, however, or the 
new kale will be bitter and bad in colour. 

RavUBARB.—Take up strong roots of some early yariety of this, and 
place them in any kind of shed, stable, cow-house, cellar, or cave. 
Nothing will bear more hardship than rhubarb, or produce better or 
more grateful crops of wholesome stalks, even under difficulties; 
some should also be protected and covered out of doors with old tea- 
chests, pots, or boxes. 

Ontons.—Dust with dry wood-ashes those for winter use and spring 
planting, on dry days, in order to keep them sound between wind 
and water, and to prevent frost from heaying them out of the ground. 
Old onions should be kept dry and cold, and those in store should be 
looked over, and kept clean and free from runaways and decay, 

Panrstuy.—This should be kept clean, surface stirred, and dusted 
with common dry dust and chimney-soot round its crowns; it should 
also shave a temporary fence, about a foot high, placed round a 
portion of it, covering it at night with thatched frames made of light 
materials or light hurdles, or green boughs, in order to keep frost 
from injuring it, and to know where it can be readily got at in the 
event of a heavy snow fall. 

PAs.—Sow these in the middle of the month, if the ground will 
admit of it, on a warm border, ridged or banked, to face the south- 
west, so as to escape the glare of the morning sun and to receive 
the benefit of his last evenings rays. Amy fayourite, rather dwarf- 


growing early variety, such as Maclean’s Advancer, Sutton’s Ring-. 


leader, Sangster’s No. 1, Hssex Rival, &c., will answer. I do not 
approve of sowing peas in November, they are subject to so many 
casualties during winter after being up, such as depredations from 
birds, slugs, and mice. They are also liable to be knocked about by 
cutting winds, and to be injured by severe frosts. Sow just to get 
them peeping through the earth by New Year’s-day, and then protect 
them by dredging in the evenings, when dry, with dry dust. Sow also 
about Christmas, on strips of turf placed in a cold yinery, peach- 
house, pit, or frame, in order to haye even crops to plant out at the end 
of January: or beginning of February. These are sure to do well, 
and to pay for any little trouble in the way of dusting and shelter 
which may be bestowed on them. A few evergreen boughs placed 
behind them, will both shade and shelter them, 

Srriw Mars.—Have plenty of these in readiness; also thatched 
frames and hurdles, in case of emergencies. 

Porarons.—Some early sort should now be put in to sprout on 
some slight hot-bed, such as the front of asparagus forcing-pits, or 
frames, intermediate houses, &e., for transplanting next month on 
slight hot-beds. 

RavtsHEs.—Sow these now freely on a slight bottom heat; also on 
well-sheltered borders, to be coyered with litter. Sow a pinch of 
lettuce-seed with them, and if in drills, sow alternate rows of early 
carrots with them; the same protection will answer for both, and 
both crops agree in growth and time of removing. 

Woop Asurs.—Dry wood-ashes should always be kept in store, in 
old tubs, boxes, &e., for dredging young lettuce, cauliflower, or any 
. thing else subject to canker or mildew, which many things are, 
during the short, dark days of winter. Nothing that I know of is 
80 effective as dry wood-ashes for preventing such evils,—but they 
must be dry. They answer, too, as a fertilizer for mostly every kind 
of plant. ; 

TRENCHING.—Hvery bit of spare ground, and that which can at all 
he cleared from crops, should now betrenched; casting the soil up into 
rough ridges for frost to pulverise it. Take advantage of dry and 
frosty mornings for wheeling out manures, composts, and for turning 
the sume where necessary. Look to drains, and to the repairing and 
turning of walks, and, in short, anything in that way that can be 
done advantageously at this season of the year. 


NEW PLANTS. 


Netinn pupicA.—This beautiful addition to this useful and elegant 
class of winter-flowering Cape bulbs was introduced im 1868 from 
Grahamstown ; it flowered the following year, and a figure of it has 
been published in the Botanical Magazine this season. The flowers, 
which are more compact than those of the other species, are produced, 
five and six in number, in pendent heads; they are rose-striped on a 
white ground—quite a new feature in the genus; scape, a foot high; 
leaves, narrow and glaucous. The plant, which is a free grower, 
may be kept in a frame in summer; and in winter, after flowering, it 
should be ripened off as thoroughly as possible by means of free 
exposure to light. Itshould be re-potted before it starts, if necessary, 
otherwise the seldomer this class of bulbs is shifted the better. 


Yucca TRECULEANA.—A noble Mexican plant, with erect, channelled 
leaves; it is allied to Y. canaliculata (syn., concaya), but the leayes are 
narrower and more erect, giving the plant a nobler general appearance 
than that species; where a plant is required for a yase in a windy 
situation, Y. treculeana will be found invaluable. Though known on the 
Continent, it is new to us. There is, however, a fine specimen of it 
in the collection of W. B. Kellock, Hsq., Stamford Hill. It requires 
some slight protection in winter. 

TNNDA «aTHIoPIcA (African Violet).—Lovers of a perfume like 
that of violets will be glad of this plant for their stoves; it is a free 
grower, of a soft, shrubby character, resembling common Privet; its 
leayes are bright green; and the flowers, which are produced in their 
axils, are dark purple, and strongly violet-scented, especially im the 
evening. It will succeed in a greenhouse-temperature in summer, 
but it should be placed in the stoye in winter, when it will flower 
freely. Though not a particularly striking plant, yet its perfume — 
makes it desirable. It is a native of tropical Africa. 5 

EvurycLes CunNINGHAMU.—This winter-flowering bulb, from North 
Australia, though not really new, is, nevertheless, not often found in 
cultivation ; its leaves are of a glossy green colour, borne upon a lone 
stalk; the flowers, which are white, an inch in width and campanu- 
Jate, are produced on a scape similar to that which exists in Hucharis. 
While in a growing state it is fond of water, and it should never be. 
allowed at any time to get quite dried off, or it will start again into 
growth badly. Those who want plants to furnish flowers for button- 
holes should try this, as its blossoms are as pure white as those of 
Eucharis, and of a better size for such purposes. J.C. 


THE TOWN-GARDEN. 


THE GARDEN ON THE ROOF. : 

BErore entering into details as to the mode of enjoying this, the 
most charming and novel kind of town-garden, let us quote Mr. 
Charles Reade, in the Pall Mall Gazette, on that which must prevent 
thousands of our readers from forming gardens on modern roofs :— 

“The conical roof in a modern house is not merely silly, it is 
disgraceful to the human mind ; it was all very well before gutters and 
pipes were invented: it was well designed to shoot off the water by 
the overlapping eaves: but now we run our water off by our gutters 
and pipes, and the roof merely feeds them; the conical roof feeds them 
too fast, and is a main cause of overflows. But there are many other 
objections to conical roofs, especially in streets and rows :—Ist. The 
conical roof, by blocking up the air, necessitates high stacks of 
chimneys, which are expensive and dangerous. 2nd. The conical roof . 
presses laterally against the walls, which these precious builders make 
thinner the higher they raise them, and subjects the whole structure 
to danger. 3rd. It robs the family of a whole floor, and gives it to — 
cats and sparrows. I say that afive-storey house with a conical roof 
is a five-storey house, and with a flat roof is a six-storey house. 4th. 
It robs the poor Cockney ofhis country view. It is astonishing how 
much of the country can be seen from the roofs of most London 
streets. A poor fellow who works all day in a hole might smoke his 
eyening pipe and see a wide tract of verdure—but the builders haye 
denied him that; they build the roof for cats, and, the ‘curse of 
families,’ they do not build it for men whose bread they eat. 5th. 
It robs poor families of their drying-ground. 6th. This idiotic 
blunder, slightly aided by a subsidiary blunder or two, murders 
householders and their families wholesale, destroys them by the most 
terrible of all deaths—burning alive. Prejudice and habitual idiotey 
apart, can anything be clearer than this, that, as fire mounts and 
smoke stifles, all persons who are above a fire ought to be enabled to 
leave the house by way of the roof, as easily and rapidly as those 
below the fire can go out of the street door. Now what do the builders — 
do? ‘They side with fire; they accumulate combustible materials on 
the upper floors, and they construct a conical roof most difficult and- 
dangerous to get about on, but to the aged and infirm impossible. 
Arve then the aged and infirm incombustible? A thousand poor 
wretches have been murdered in my time by the builders with thei 
small trapdoors and their conical roofs. Thousands more haye been 
destroyed, as far as the builders were concerned; the firemen and 
fire-escape men saved them, in spite of the builders. The fire- 
escape can after all save but afew of the builders’ yictims. The 
only universal escape is—THE RATIONAL ROOF.” , 3 

Mr. Reade then goes on to enumerate the many and real advantages 
of the Rational Roof; but among them we do not find the greatest of 
all, an excellent site fora garden. The roof-garden may he easily 
made, and in various ways, as~the climate, taste, or means of the 
owner of a Rational Roof may desire. Nothing can be simpler, for 
example, than to turn the upper floor intoa conservatory. <A capital 
suggestion towards this end is that which has been made by 
Mr, 8. B. Parsons, of Long Island; in the American Agriculturist :—~ 


. 


“ 


Dec. 2, 1871.] ‘ 


THE GARDEN. 


43 


oe  — 


“Tt is,’ he says, “within the means of any man who builds a 
good house to have a garden on the roof, which, during the summer, 
can be filled with the most Iuscious grapes, peaches, plums, &c., and 
in the winter with plants, the beauty of the flowers of which will 
afford a charm far beyond the trifling cost of their maintenance. A 
gless roof costs very little more than g tin or slate one. Let the 
roof, therefore, be covered with glass, and let the upper floor be 
covered with concrete, sloping gently from the centre to the sides, 
around which a slight depression in the floor can carry the moisture 


Fig. 1. 


or drip into the leaders which pass from the roof of every house to 
the ground. With this slight expense, a perfect greenhouse may be 
had. A Mansard roof glazed in this manner is shown in figure 1. 
Now for heating. Everyone knows that the upper rooms of his 
house are so warm from the ascending heat of his furnace, that 
registers are scarcely needed. Let the doors be kept open, and the 
waste heat of the house will keep the top at the highest desirable 
temperature. Thus the greenhouse is heated without any extra 
trouble or expenditure. Its care would be a pleasant recreation for 
any of the family. The pleasure of cutting one’s own flowers, or 
sending to a friend one’s own roses, or camellias, or Black Hamburg 
grapes, is not tobe despised, In case the demands of the counting- 
house or the drawing-room are too engrossing to allow any attention 
to flowers, there are numerous florists in every city who would be 
glad to keep such a place in perfect order for a very moderate com- 
pensation. If a little extra strength is given to the beams which 
sustain the upper story, sufficient earth could be placed there to lay 
out the whole space of twenty-five by fifty feet as a garden, with 
winding-walks, carpets of moss and roses, camellias, &ec., planted 


Roof Conservatory. 


Fig. 2. Plan of Roof Conservatory. 


: : 

in the soil, as shown in the plan. By this mode the illusion will be 

- complete, and in the middle of winter one may have a tropical land- 
scape. But, for fruit as well as flower culture, the use of pots will 


_ be preferrable. Let us see what can be done with these. The super- 


ficial area of nearly every good city house is more than twelve 
hundred square feet. This would contain quite an orchard of fertile 
little fruit-trees. If one wishes no flowers, but fruit only, he can 
_ have forced peaches and nectarines at a season when he cannot buy 
them for less than a dollar each. But if it be desired to have the 
house filled with flowers through the winter, we cannot cultivate 
forced fruit. We can, however, have flowers, stone fruit, and Black 
Hamburg grapes in succession. If the house has been filled with 
flowering plants in the winter, and there is plenty of yard room, 
they can be taken out and arranged in groups in the yard as soon as 
all danger of frost is over. The house can then be filled with peaches, 
plums, and yectarines in pots, which’can be obtained of the nursery- 


j 
men ready for fruiting, or prepared the previous year by the florist 
having charge of the house, and kept in the cellar during the winter. 
These can remain in the house until the fruit bas attained sufficient 
size to be safe, when they also can be grouped in the yard, where 
they will grow, and ripen early and well. Their place in the house 
can then be supplied with grapes in pots which have been retarded 
by being kept in a cool, dark place in the cellar. These will then 
bear abundantly during the summer, and, before the flowering plants 
require to be taken in the ensuing autumn, will duly respond to the 
tiller in Black Hamburgs and Muscats. ‘Two pounds to each vine, or 
four hundred pounds of grapes, would be a moderate estimate for the 
space mentioned. 

“Both stone fruits and grapes are easily managed,‘and a man of 
ordinary intelligence could soon learn to grow them, even if his life 
has been passed in the midst of dry goods or hardware ; if, however, 
his own skill fails him, florists are always attainable. Here, then, 
are new luxuries—flowers, peaches, and grapes—within the reach of 
every man of moderate means. If the capabilities of this plan and 
its- economy were thoroughly understood by architects and pro- 
prietors, the time would soon come when a roof-garden would be 
considered just as essential an appendage to a house as a bath-room, 
The demand for care-takers would bring forward a host of candidates 
for this new branch of industry, and it might furnish an excellent 
and remunerative vocation for women.” 


THE PRINCE GARDENER. 
A TALE OF TRANSPLANTATION. 


Wren Catherine II. of Russia was about to visit her prime 
minister, Potemkin, on one of the vast estates she had conferred upon 
him, the imperial favourite perceived, for the first time, that the 
estate then in question, the most recent gift of the Empress, a few 
yersts from Smolensko, was very bare in aspect, not being varied by 
the form of a single tree bigger than a trailing cranberry-bush. The 
yast domain had been made over to him—the land and its inhabitants— 
all in one lot; the numerous serfs bringing up his general holdings of 
that kind of property to over thirty-six thousand. Serfs enough, 
and to spare—but, then, there were no trees ; for it was far easier in 
many parts of Russia to grow serfs than timber; and this stubborn 
fact both vexed and puzzled the almost omnipotent minister. 

It is very true that at several of his residences near St. Petersburg, 
and in other places, he had managed, by mere force of will and lavish 
expenditure, to create jardins Anglais—the mania of the day— 
with their slopes of turf and artificial streams and rustic bridges, 
despite the opposing forces of the glacial climate; but to create 
ancestral woods round about the castle-palace which he had hastily 
improvised at Smolensko was a far different matter. There was not 
a single forest, large or small, within a couple of hundred yersts or 


“so; a distance of not much account in the vastness of the Russian 


empire, but yet a rather stiffish one for the moving of big forest 
trees. 

And, moreover, there was but a fortnight to spare from the time 
he had first perceived the barrenness of his lands to the time appointed 
for the visit of the Empress. Yet Potemkin made up his mind that 
the estate must, somehow or other, be timbered with majestic trees 
within that narrow space of time. Prince Potemkin was a very 
great man, and also a very big man—stalwart as the mighty men of 
Bashan. In fact, his huge stature led the Prince de Ligne to remark 
that his person symbolised the vastness of the empire over which his 
genius presided; and the great, big man, simply determined that 
the great forest of Slavonka, though two hundred versts to the 
south-east, should furnish forth the big trees that he required ; 
and within a fortnight, by a lavish expenditure of the sinews of 
gardening, which are of precisely the same nature as the sinews of 
war, the thing desired was accomplished, with a day or two to spare. 
Noble groups of oaks, of gigantic size, and towering firs—those 
eypresses of the north—and a variety of other trees of noble growth 
and luxuriant foliage, being made to enrich the bare land round 
the castle-palace of the great minister. 

On the eventful morning of the Empross’s arrival, however, to his 
great mortification, his imperial mistress betrayed neither strrprise nor 
delight. Empresses haye spies as well as eyes, and often find the former 
of much more real service than the latter. In fact, she knew all about 
the improvised ancestral groves, and where they came from, and how 
they got there. 

The chronicler, after the manner of his class, does not tell us how 
it was done—those gentry are generally very reticent where one 
would wish them to be diffuse, and frequently somewhat diffuse 
where they might well be excused for a little reticence. 

One would have liked to be told how a thousand or so devoted 
serfs up-dug those lords of the forest, with great boles of earth about 
their roots; and how a couple of score of the sinewy little horses of the 


\ r 


Ad \ 


\ ir s 


Duc. 2, 1871.] 


Don were harnessed to each of t\strong-crows six-wheeled waggons, 
on to each of which a tree had beeruses, “py a powerful derrick ; and 
how each tree was supported in ayieaning position, and prevented 
from swaying by a strong and well contrived framework ; and how 
each team of the tough little horses had been lashed along at a 
gallop, through each relay, for the whole of the two hundred and odd 
yersts. But the chronicler does not tell us either of this, or any 
other modus operandi, contenting himself with inuendoing that the 
Empress herself knew all about it, and that she was by no means 
startled, “as her favourite minister had expected, at the sight of 
those noble groves where all had been a bare desert, only a fortnight 
before. c 

“hey look very well,’? she remarked, with phlesmatic coolness ; 
“but scarcely as well, and will scarcely prove as useful, as the forests 
of white mulberry which I planted in the Ukraine, to establish a 
silk-culture. Nevertheless, they look well—quite as well as they did 
at Slavonka, if not better; especially this big fir with the double 
stem. I happened to be hunting there a week or ten days ago, and 
admired it. Slavonka, prince, is an imperial domain. I think even 
my prime minister might have asked my permission before taking 
upon himself to remove so noble a stick of timber.” 

Potemkin’s face involuntarily elongated itself, and he was about, as 
the Empress perceived, to throw himself at the feet of his imperial 
mistress, and so, with a sudden movement full of that majestic grace 
which it is said none can assume who are not born in the purple, 
she said, in that soft, low, and yet stinging voice which makes dis- 
evaced favourites tremble :— 

“Stay, Prince Potemkin; stay!’’ said she approaching the table 
beneath the great forked fir, where a magnificent collation had been 
sumptuously prepared, a magnum of the priceless imperial Tokay 
being placed for each of the guests. “‘Stay, prince,” she repeated in 
the same emphatic whisper, as she seized one of the magnums; ‘stay, 
prince. If you persist in flinging your huge body at my feet 1 will 
fline this magnum of Tokay at your head.” 

He was, however, already crouching before her, his grand head 
prone to earth, like that of a slain giant. 

So, putting down the magnum with a grave dignity that made the 
ladies of her suite long to be empresses likewise, she took her riding- 
whip in her right hand, and drawing herself up to her full height, 
and looking every inch an empress, she whisked it swiftly above her 
head with a rapid wave of her tolerably muscular arm, suddenly 
bringing it down with a slashing flack across that part of the prince’s 
Hussar pantaloons just where they were strained to the yery tightest 
by his crouching position, saying, with that fascinating grace of 
manner that sovereigns alone have always at immediate command,— 

‘“Rise up, Prince Gregory Alexandroyitch Potemkin ; rise up a 
knight of the first class, of the Imperial Order of the Two-headed 
and Four-legged Eagle.” 

And then Potemkin rose, as a true knight should, appearing 
perfectly at his ease, bowing, and smiling too—at all eyents on the 
side of his mouth next the Hmpress—and saying, with his hand very 
properly on his heart, “‘ Your imperial majesty is ever too gracious 
tothe most devoted of her subjects.” 

And then the whole party sat down to the magnificent collation, 
but no one said much till the Tokay began to circulate; for the 
imperial suite, as the handsome young Soltikoff remarked, sotto voce, 
were all ‘‘rather flabbergasted.” 

The Empress herself was the first to reyive the conversation, 
saying, “ Potemkin, my dear giant prince, don’t be frightened ; the 
trees look ten times better than they did in my imperial forest ; 
especially this great forked fir. You are a most accomplished 
gardener, Potemkin, and evidently know exactly what ought to be 
done with noble trees, whether belonging to yourself or anybody 
else. Their distribution here, round about your splendid schloss 
is extremely well devised, especially that quincunx of great beeches 
on theslope, yonder. Nature, Potemkin, Nature unaided, is a mere 
ienoramus. She had stuck all those «rand trees so close together in 
the forest at Slavonka, that at every bit of a gale they knocked their 
heads together a tout rompre, like great green boobies as they were, 
for staying there so long. But, I presume, Potemkin, they could not 
break from their fetters till you, the great gardener-magician, waved 
your magic money-bag at the end of the eyer-persuasive knout, and 
released them from the thraldom of that wicked untaught fairy, old 
Dame Nature. Yes; you are a magician. All great gardeners are 

. magicians; it is only they who, by the cunning of their art, can 
make the desert smile.” 

“« And now I have another idea, prince,’ continued the Empress, 
who was always very voluble after a glass or two of Tokay, ‘ Yes, I 
have another idea; I feel bound to honour the talent you haye so 
strikingly displayed in the formation of these noble groves. The 
effect is at once grand and charming. It is a masterpiece of its 
kind; a metamorphosis—glorious metamorphosis! Special capa- 


_HE GARDEN. 


cities such as those here displayed, must be specially rewarded. 


There is an imperial domain in the extreme northern corner of ~ 


eastern Siberia which is extremely bare of ——” 

“Your majesty ! I supplicate——” 

“Do not interrupt me, Potemkin. I was about to state that the 
domain in question is extremely bare of lofty trees. I am, 
however, not going to meddle with it just at present. But 
the present gardener of my Casino at St. Petersburg is evidently 
a silly little fellow. I have no faith in little men. You are a 
great, big fellow, Potemkin; evidently strong; and I hereby 
appoint you head-gardener at the Casino by imperial patent. 
Time of work, ten hours a day ; pay, ten roubles a week. ‘Those are 
my terms; and, as a favour, the blue aprons, which will be—* and 
she looked at the colossal dimensions of her new head-gardener—‘‘the 
blue aprons, which will evidently be costly, shall not be deducted 
from your wages.”’ : 

«But, your majesty, I merely caused these lofty trees— 

«Say no more about the igh trees, Prince Potemkin, or I will 
make your crime high treason,” stormed the Empress, in a mock 
heroic strain, smiling, in her sleeve, at the vile pun she was perpetrat- 
ing. “ Say no more, Sir Prince, or I shall be under the necessity of 
appointing you, also, stage-manager of all the transformation scenes of 


” 


my grand opera, with ten hours night-work in addition to your day 


labours in the gardens of the Casino. 

The Prince wisely remained silent, and the imperial party resumed 
their seats, and took to their Tokay fiercely, and, as we of these 
degencrate times might think, dangerously. But the chronicler whose 
record I am transcribing states, with that extreme naiveté which 
distinguishes his order of scribes, ‘‘ they did not get drunk, because 
they were so used to it.” HN: He 


THE ODOURS OF ORCHIDS. 


Ty connection with this subject, to which allusion is made in your 
last number, it may be well to direct attention to the varying odour of 
the common Early Purple Orchis (O. mascula). During the day it is 
slightly fragrant; but towards cyening it exhales a smell so 
unpleasant that it is unbearable in axoom. This is the general rule, 
so far as my experience goes; but there are exceptions: for I have 
sometimes found specimens which even during the day were unplea- 
sant, and others which were scarcely odorous at night. The perfume 
of O. maculata, never very powerful, is perceptibly stronger towards 
evening ; while the rich aromatic odour cf Habenaria chlorantha and 
Gymnadenia conopsea becomes overpowering at night. The rare 
Lizard Orchis (O. hircina) is said to have a very disagreeable smell. 
Probably there is no one order of plants which presents as ereat a 
yariety in form, colour, and scent, as the Orchidacex. Mr. Bateman 
gives the following list of some of the principal odours which he has 
noticed among them, with the plants that produce them :— 

Cyenoches Loddigesii, honey : Burlingtonia candida, citron ; Gongora 
atropurpurea, allspice; Maxillaria aromatica, cinnamon; M. atropur- 
purea, violets; M. crassifolia, noyeau; Epidendrum umbellatum, 
angelica; H. anisatum, aniseed; Aerides odoratum, pomatum ; 
Acropera Loddigesii, wallflowers; Oncidium ornithophorum, fresh 


hay; Bulbophyllum coccineum, cocoa-nut milk; Stanhopea grandi- 


flora, a druggist’s shop; Dendrobium moschatum, musk. The 

last-named species, however, appears to me to resemble Turkey 

Rhubarb in scent, and Professor Reichenbach is of the same opinion. 
JaMES Burivren, F.L.8., British Musewmn. 


International Weather and Crop Reports,—Commodore Mamvay has just 
elaborated a plan for the universal extension of the weather-report service, and 
for the organization of an international system of agricultural estimates, reports, 
and statistics. he purpose to be effected by his scheme is to give the farmer 
as well as the merchant in America as full and accurate information as to the 
yield of the crops in every part of the United States, in England, the basin of 


the Black Sea, in Egypt, and the Danube, as they have in their own neigh- — 


bourhoods ; and to secure reliability, it is thought the duty of collecting the 
information should be undertaken by the Governments of the co-operating 
countries. “It is, therefore, suggested that at first a special crop reporter shoul 

be assigned to every district of 10,000 square miles in the United States, that 
twelve reporters should be employed in Great Britain, nineteen in France, one 


in Belgium, one in Holland, and so on—the machinery of electrical communica- — 


tion being already at hand. . 

Vegetation on Stone Walls in England.—If the roadside happens to have 
no hedge, the ugliest stone-fence (such as, in America, would keep itself hare 
and unsympathizing till the end of time) is sure to be coyered with the small 


_ handiwork of Nature ; that careful mother lets nothing go naked there, and, if 


she cannot provide clothing, gives at least embroidery. No sooner is the fence 
built than she adopts and adorns it asa part of her original plan, treating the 
hard, uncomely construction as if it had all along been a favourite idea of her 
own. A little sprig of ivy may he seen creeping up the side of the low wall and 
clinging fast with its many feet to the rough surface ; a tuft of grass roots itself 
between two of the stones, where a pinch or two of wayside dust has heen 
moistened into nutritions soil for it: a small bunch grows in another crevice; a 
deep, soft verdant moss spreads itself along the top and over all the available 
inequalities of the fence; and where nothing else will grow, lichens stick 
tenaciously to the bare stones and variegate the monotonous grey with hues of 
yellow and red, Hawrtnorne. 


Dec. 9, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


45 


THE GARDEN. 


“This is an art 
s Which does mend nature: changes it rather; but 
Te Art 1s NaturE.’’——Shakespeare. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
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Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
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All questions on Horticultural matters sent to ‘ THE GARDEN ” will 
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5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


PARKS AND PUBLIC GARDENS IN AMERICA. 


Wuey starting for the “ great country,”’ as Americans justly 
call theirs, I said to myself, here we break new ground in this 
as in many. other matters; here the necessities of defence from 
the enemy have not forced men into foul ruts, so narrow that 
the fresh breeze of heaven is powerless to drive away their 

ollutions; here, where land is yet so abundant, I shall doubt- 
ess find room left in the cities for a few trees or a little verdure 
here and there to make them more fitting abodes for intelligent 
beings than the human burrows of old countries; here, with 
® young and giant nation starting into unexampled growth, 
untrammelled by the traditions and many evil circumstances 
that prevail in “old countries,” we shall see, if not fine houses 
or buildings, room enough in the streets for the convenience 
of business and for the future development of the commerce 
of the cities. Not so by any means! No “rookery” of old 
countries is fouler than the tenement houses in New York; 
no large city I have ever seen in Europe is so devoid of squares 
or open spaces. Bad as London is, I have never seen such 
inconvenient interruption of traffic in its streets as I have wit- 
nessed in Broadway. Inall American cities, with one exception, 
the streets are long and straight and narrow, and that is all you 
can say for them. Once I found myself in the street I had 
been searching for, and, asking for No. So-and-so, was 
told, “Five miles further on, on-the right!’ They boast of 
streets eleven and even nineteén miles long. Is that not a 
great thing? As for squares, they are few and far between, 
and when you do find one, it is wretchedly managed, on the 
Sige old principle of planting a tree wherever there is.room 
orone. But there is, perhaps, excuse for some of these things. 
In many cases, when the cities were designed, it would have 
been rash to suppose they would ever have attained one-tenth 
of their present size; and if they had as big streets and foot- 
paths as in the old country, was not that enough? But there 
are signs that the great cities are beginning to be ashamed of 
this state of things, and here and there, in some of them, there 
wadications that the newer portions will be very differently 
spectator on ; 
= ae by a however, two distinct kinds of public gardens 
noble effect of Americans seem destined to surpass us im- 
will exist in Eyarks and cemeteries. It is amazing to witness 
the Neva should extent of their parks, and to hear of the vast 
of old riverside 1 upon them; while their cemeteries are as far 
lished to make rl have seen in Europeas the tomb of Napoleon 
remind those who before one of the little cells in Pére la Chaise. 
that we hhaye nowto see such noble parks in such a young 
and that, in the egur well for public gardening there when the 
the right directionz attained greater development. In most 
The system of p}large cemeteries are sometimes so disposed 


\ 


that they bear some resemblance to gardens, but in America 
they are so large and park-like and well planted that they are 
really public gardens of a high class, and there is none of that 
disgusting over-crowding of which there is so much in Parisian 
cemeteries, and also in those of London and many other places. 
Instead of the bodies being interred as thickly as matches are 
packed in a box, each family has a small plot of ground (lot) 
large enough to form a little garden, and in this the burials 
take place in an isolated manner. In Cincinnati they are even 
improving on this, by causing all the boundaries of the lots to 
be hidden beneath the turf, and by not allowing more than one 
slab or monument to each owner of a lot, on which the names 
of all the persons buried in it must be inscribed, if they are to 
be inscribed at all. In this way the unpleasant effect which 
results from coyering a large extent of ground with thousands 
of monuments will be, in a great extent, removed, and the 
designer will be able to get very happy park-like effects, and 
quiet green lawns here and there. 

New York, the chief city of the States, is, in some respects, 
the most disagreeable and filthy city I have ever seen. The 
famous Broadway is, in peeeen ene but in length, inferior to 
some of the second-rate Paris boulevards, and is, fora great 
city, a narrow street. There is very little good planting in the 
central parts of the city—those in which it is most wanted ; 
and what has been done has mostly been in very narrow 
streets, so that when the Ailantus and other trees grow up, 
they grow right against the windows, or half fill up the street. 
The squares are few, and very inferior compared with those of 
Paris, or even those of London. They are usually crossed by 
straight walks, or dotted over with common-place trees, so that 
no good effect is obtained. In the more fashionable parts of 
the town the streets are clean ; but in hundreds of the secondary 
streets the filth is woful. The people have a good old fashion 
of throwing all their refuse into the streets, and the munici- 
pality allow it to rot there for an indefinite length of time. 
Dirty streets one often meets with, and ill-paved streets, but to 
find great boulders of paving-stones rambling away from their 
places, and allowed to rollabout, to the danger or inconvenience 
of every passing vehicle, and to see whole streets unpaved, or, 
if paved, hidden from the eye by a thick-bed of mud, betrays a 
hopelessly-abandoned and unique degree of bad management! 
The New Yorkers certainly “beat all creation” as regards the 
bad condition of their streets. But in several things the city 
is very fortunate. Like all the great eastern cities of America, 
it is built on a noble harbour; and the island on which the city 
stands is flanked on one side by the wide Hudson River, and on 
the other by the East River, an estuary, and these form broad, 
breezy, water boulevards that effectually limit_the densely- 
packed buildings, and have the most beneficial effect on the air 
and health of their surroundings, Then, again, the Central 
Park of New York is magnificent, as many already know. 
There is not much fine gardening in it, rightly, as I think; 
but, in point of design, it certainly is much better than any 
park we have in London. There are, in many places, nice, 
quiet breadths of open grass, and I have never anywhere seen 
so many great breaks of picturesque, natural rock crop up; 
fortunately these have been preserved, and now offer the 
finest positions I know of for planting with rock-shrubs and 
alpine plants. One thing seemed a mistake—the making of 
many bridges over roads, with a view to separate equestrians 
from pedestrians; this is the most expensive and needless 
crotchet I have ever seen. In the Bois de Boulogne and in 
Hyde Park we have a far greater number of equestrians, and 
no such thing is or will ever be necessary. When will the 
persons who arrange plans for such parks as these learn that 
park or garden is spoiled in proportion to the number of 
needless architectural works which it contains? This is 
particularly the case in a city. There should be no building in 
a public garden not absolutely necessary, and those that are 
indispensable should be inexpensive, and, as a rule, concealed 
by judicious planting. 

The Greenwood Cemetery at Brooklyn is very large and 
beantiful (between 400 and 500 acres), varied in surface and 
well-planted. It is now, and, let us hope, will always continue, 
practically a public garden. Prospect Park, at Brooklyn, is 
also a very noble one, with a prairie-like sweep of open grass, 
and is generally very well designed. The approaches to and 


46 


THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 9, 1871. 


some of the roads near this new and large park are very broad 
and dignified; and the whole is truly worthy of the “great 
country.” If other American cities go on in this way, old 
Europe will soon be left far behind m the matter of public 
gardens. 

(Lo be continued.) 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PUBLIC GARDENS. 


Finsburv and Southwark Parks.—At a mecting which took place the other 
day at the Board of Works, amotion was brought forward to prevent theresellmg 
of any portion of the ground bought for these parks, for building purposes. The 
principle of obtaining lan(l on the ground of preserving open spaces for the re- 
creation of the people, and then selling it againtoan advantagetor building, was 
condemned by some and thought justifiable by others. The question was, there- 
fore, put to the yote, when there appeared for the motion, 22, and against it, 12. 
As the meeting was, however, for the purpose of rescinding a former resolution 
of the Board, it required to be carried by a majority of two-thirds of those 
who were present. There was not thatuumber, and themotion was consequently 
lost. 4 


Graveyard Desecration.—The most accursed act of vandalism eyer com~- 
mitted within my knowled¢e was the uprooting of the ancient gravestones in 
three at least of our city burial-crounds, and one at least just outside the city, and 
planting them in rows to suit the taste for symmetry of the perpetrators. Many 
years ago, when this disgraceful process was going on under my eyes, I 
addressed an indignant remonstrance to a leading journal. I suppose it was 
deficient in literary elegance, or too warm in its language ; for no notice was 
taken of it, and the hyena-horror was allowed to complete itself in the face of 
daylight. I have neyer got over it. The bones of my own ancestors, being 
entombed, lie beneath their own tablet; but the upright stones have been 
shuffled about like chessmen, and nothing short of the Day of Judgment will 
tell whose dust lies beneath any of those records, meant by affection to mark 
one small spot as sacred to some cherished memory. Shame! shame! shame! 
—that is all I can say. It was on public thoroughfares, under the eye of 
authority, that this infamy was enacted. The Red Indians would haye known 
better; the select men of an African kraal village would have had more respect 
for their ancestors. I should like to see the gravestones which have been 
disturbed, or removed, and the ground levelled, leaying the flat tombstones ; 
epitaphs were never famous for truth, but the old reproach of “Here lies’ never 
had such a wholesale illustration as in these outraged burial-places, where the 
stone does lie above} and the bones do not lie beneath.—Zhe Autocrat of the 
Breakfust Lable. 

Victoria Park.—In reference to the dissatisfaction which has arisen in the 
east of London respecting the covering of the immediate surroundings of this 
park with buildings, its preservation society's secretaries state, Ist. That the land 
which now constitutes Victoria Park was purchased by the Crown by virtue of an 
Act of Parliament passed in 1842, The Act empowered the Crown to purchase 
290 acres, and stipulated that one-fourth of the land so purchased should be re- 
served for building lots, and that the remaining three-fourths should be set aside 
to form the ‘ park.” The object contemplated in the reservation of one fourth 
of the entire quantity of land purchased under the Act was to provide areyeune 
to the Crown from the rents of the ground, leased for building purposes. About 
220 acres were retained for the park, and about seyenty acres, comprising the 
outer portion and constituting a “belt” of land surrounding it, were reserved, 
it being intended that the houses erected on the Crown land should encircle the 
park, 2nd. From 1842, when the Legislature framed the Act, to the present 
time, the clause authorising the reservation of the encircling belt of land has 
practically, to a great extent, remained inoperative. The public have 
used the enclosed space, no doubt considerimg it a part of the 
park, and the proposal to convert this enclosed area into a profitable source 
of revenue has proved a failure, the land not haying. Jet in the advan- 
tageous manner that was anticipated, and the greater portion of the 
original seventy acres still remaining an open space. 8rd. The thirty years which 
have elapsed Since Victoria Park was first laid out have produced a marked and 
Striking change in the east of London. ‘The fields amd open spaces which 
existed in 1842 no longer remain, but have given place to a dense mass of 
street, lane’, and alleys, teeming with a hard-working, industrious population. 
The space which sufliced for the wants of the people thirty years ago is too 
small for their present requirements. It is therefore fair to ask Parliament to 
abandon the right to build upon any portion of the open space surrounding 
Victoria Park, in order to give that space to the people for their hard-earned 
relaxation and enjoyment. 


. THE TWO PATHS. 
THE THRRACH GARDEN. 


Iv is commonly believed that we haye now arrived at a wonderful 
deeree of horticultural excellence as compared with other nations ; 
this is probably the case, but nevertheless we are just reaching a 
stage from which we can gct a clear conception of how yery little we 
do that is really creditable, and of how mamy absurd things are per- 
petrated in the teeth of the very simplest laws of true taste. : 

The terrace garden is a strong case in point. It is most 
unfortunate that in the present stage of our horticultural progress 
we are blessed with a number of landscape gardeners, who, haying 
had few opportunities of acquiring a Joye for nature except where 


she is trained into true geometrical proprieties, and having little or 


no knowledge of art, fix their minds upon the terrace garden as the 
acme of perfection in garden design. It is the one tangible thing, 
about the propriety of which there can be “ no mistake.” 
many violations of that repose and grace which should characterise 
the immediate surroundings of country residences and villa gardens. 
Terrace gardens are made in all sorts of positions. Considerable 
expense is incurred in the removal of masses of earth, where it would 


Hence the 


- 


have been in much better taste to have left the ground as it was; 
and an immense amount of trouble is taken to produce ponderous 
eyesores, which our descendants will be at considerable cost to 
remove, should they desire to peacefully inhabit the same abodes. 
Undoubtedly we may here and there ffnd associated with some 
princely mansion, and where the sweep of pleasure-srounds is so 
wide that terraces seem merely to form a resting-place for the 
mansion, a terrace garden not offensive to taste; and we know 


that in some cases the nature of the ground commits us to the style. 


But we also know that eyen in connection with the most princely 
mansions terrace gardens are often not only made where they are 
not required, but where they are positively destructive of the beauty 
of the scene. 
ornamental gardening is the making of an elaborate terrace garden 
in a place where, from the size of the grounds or the portion of them 


devoted to ornamental gardening, the terracing and geometry, and 


Asia 8) Ms 
SNM cone Vga SOLS 
aN Saal 

Na isis aN 


all their accompaniments, constitute the chief or only features. The 
house and garden in the accompanying illustration are situated near 
York, in a pretty undulating district. Jt is not a place from which 
the ground sweeps widely away from beneath the terraces, but nearly 
the whole is occupied by the three banks, &c., shown in our woodeut, 
It is not the owner who is to be blamed for thus disfiguring the fair 
face of nature. We understand that he acted on the advice of 
“a very good landscape gardener.” 
to have described this place as a relic of the past, but it is not so. 
It surprised me when I beheld it for the first time this summer, 
erowing like a big fungus on what last year was a pleasant meadow. 
If things ‘go on in this way the truth of the expression that ‘‘ God 
made the country and that man made the town’’ will not be so 
apparent as it hasbeen. We fill the valleys of once fair districts 
with foul smoke, and sit among the cinders; but this some do for 
money, and many for life’s sake; but that.rational beimgs should, 


for their pleasure or amusement, place under their eyes for life sach 


scenery as we have figured is indeed disheartening.—Field. 


The Abelias.—These form a small group of ornamental shrubs 
belonging to the honeysuckle family, and are chiefly natives of 
N. India, Japan, China, and Mexico, bearing opposite leayes and 
handsome tubular flowers. They are less known in gardens than 
many subjects which haye no claim to beauty, and, placed in suitable 
positions, are capable of producing most pleasing results. A. triflora, 
one of the seldomest seen, is a natiye of high mountains in N. and W. 
Kumaon in N. India, where it is called kumki. It bears a profusion 


of flowers, of a pale red or rosy colour, deliciously sweet, and arranged 


in threes, forming corymbs. In some of the warmer parts of the 
south this may succeed as a shrub. Near London it succeeds per- 
fectly on south walls in light, well-drained soil, and well traimed out 
and spread over garden walls forms a beautiful object. A. floribunda, 
from Mexico, bears rich purple-red flowers, in drooping leafy panicles. 


In some of the warmer parts near the coast it may be grown asa ~ 


shrub, but generally it will thrive best on a wall, and like the 
preceding, it forms a yery ornamental wall shrub, as- does the 
Chinese A. uniflora. In this species, however, the flowers ~- 
occur sinely, as the name would imply, but im threes, ar 

in a somewhat closely set panicle. A. rupestris is 9 

dwarf shrub, which we haye seen coyered with rose-« 

late in the autumn in Devonshire. There are variou/ 

but the preceding are the best of the introduced kiy 

at first considered stove and greenhouse plants, anc’ 

the country the temperature of the greenhouse ox | 

often be necessary for them; but if we possessed ©, 

A. rupestris, all open-air gardens in the south: 

islands might be highly embellished by these Sang 


- A New American Boulevard.—A forty-mile eee | 


is said, about to be built along the Hudson River. { 


The costliest and most pretentious delusion in all 


It would have been pleasanter — 


~ wee | 


KI 


Dec. 9, 1871.1 


THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


Tue most noble of the recent additions to the splendour of 
eur British Babylon is, undoubtedly, the Thames Embank- 
ment. Its river face is so grandly simple, that it utterly 
dwarfs all the works of the kind, even the long-vaunted quays 
of the Seine; while those of the Liffey, in Dublin, once held 

_up as a model to the imperial capital, smk into insignificance. 


Thames Embankment, 1860. 


Tt is, perhaps, well that the first designs of embanking the 
Thames, and the creation of noble riverside roadways, as_pro- 
osed by Colonel French and by the celebrated painter, John 
rtin, some forty years ago, were utterly scouted by the 
officials of the day, and by the good public also, as wild and 
Utopian schemes. That Hey were so scouted, is not, perhaps, 
regretable, as the carrying out of such projects at that time 
would scarcely have been done so thoroughly and on a scale 
so grand as now, though Waterloo Bridge had already been 


THE GARDEN. 


| have been one of them. 


the besé one, though any amount of authority might be adduced 
in justification of the course pursued. In the first place, we 
find that only one or two kinds of trees have been planted along 
the whole course of the great new roadway—a most unpardon- 
able overlooking of the great variety of noble trees well suited 
for the purpose and the situation, a judicious selection from 
among which would not only have secured greater diversity of 
effect, but have secured a vast increase of beauty at the same 
time. 

As examples of noble trees that should have been found along 
the line of the great water-wall, of which we are so justly proud, 
the following may be named out of a score or more, all of which 
are suitable for the purpose :—The noble Gleditschia should 
It is a much finer tree than the 
well-known Robinia, retains its foliage in perfectly green 
condition till very late in the autumn, and, if well planted, 
often attains the height of eighty feet. The great Norwegian 
Maple is also a tree that would do well, and form a fine contrast 
with commoner trees. ‘There is also the pyramidal variety of 


' the common London Plane; and then comes. the Ailantus 


glandulosa, which thrives well in towns. Also the flowering 
Ash (Ornus europea), and the Celtis occidentalis, and the Tulip 
tree, which last is quite at home in London; and there are 
many others equally desirable. Secondly, as regards planting 
trees along the line of the Embankment there is a principle 
of still greater importance than variety of foliage to be observed : 
it is the leaving of open spaces at certain distances ; so that, 
ever and anon, glimpses of the noble buildings which we hope 
to see ranging east and west from Somerset House, may be 
obtained by the spectator with striking effect. 

The accompanying woodcut shows how grandly the aspect of 
fine architecture meets the eye when the view is flanked by 
foliage. But with a continuously-planted avenue, such a view 

fi so that when the projected 


can only be obtained at each enc 


Thames Embankment, 1871. 


completed with such a breadth and grandeur of style as led 
critics to call it a work worthy of the Pharaohs. 

When the mean houses wie now show their backs to a 
spectator on the great roadway and gardens shall haye been 
replaced by a line of stately edifices worthy to continue the 
noble effect of Somerset House, nothing so grand of its kind 
will exist in Europe, unless the rumoured project of embanking 
the Neva should be made to surpass it. The annexed sketch 
of old riverside buildings, taken just before they were demo- 
lished to make room for the great Thames wall, may serve to 
remind those who have already forgotten them and their likes, 
that we haye now something very much better in their place ; 
and that, in the embellishments of London, we are moving in 
the right direction, though slowly. 

The system of planting adopted on the Embankment is not 


straight and uninterrupted row of high-growing trees is com- 
pleted, it will, as seen from the river, form a far-stretching 
green wall, entirely concealing from view the long range of 
grand public buildings which are, at no very remote period, 
destined to form the finest feature of the Embankment. 

The spoiling of our noble Thames Embankment near the 
Houses of Parliament—that is to say, at its most important 
point—by allowing it to be narrowed by several private 
gardens, shut out after our too common exclusive practice by 
an ugly dead wall, affords a good illustration of the ignoble 
selfishness that too often characterises us. Ngwhere except in 
Britain would a few wealthy individuals be allowed to spoil 
what is probably the noblest point of view to be found in any 
city. There is certainly nothing equal to it in Paris, or in any 
other city with which we are acquainted. One would, at first 


48 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 9, 1871. 


suppose that intelligent and wealthy individuals, who have 
country seats to retreat to when tired of the town, would use 


their best efforts to prevent such mean disfiguration of a noble. 


national work, instead of holding out for their “rights.” ‘The 
latter, however, seems to be their only aim. The case is thus 
alluded to in the Graphic :-— 

“The report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests throws 
some light upon the history of the ugly dead wall which has been 
permitted to disfigure the Thames Embankment for some five 
hundred yards eastward of Westminster Bridge. ‘This wall) as is well 
known, cuts off a considerable space of the land reclaimed from the 
shore of the Thames, which is now laid out as private gardens for the 
convenience of certain persons residing chiefly in Richmond-terrace 
and Whitehall. These fayoured individuals are lessees under the 
Crown at rents greatly below the present value of their holdings ; but 
to these advantages it has for some reason been thought proper to 
add that of enjoying ornamental pleasure-grounds in the heart of 
London at rents so low, that they can only be regarded as nominal. 
For example, the Marquis of Westminster has a considerable portion 
for a term of thirty-four years at a rent of £3. 2s. 6d. per annum ; 
Sir John Ramsden another portion for fifty-one years at £2 a year, 
and so forth. The entire space thus cut off from the public for one 
or two generations does not appear to produce £50 a year to the 
Crown; and it is absurd to suppose that there would have been any 
difficulty in inducing the metropolitan ratepayers or their representa- 
tives to pay a much larger annual sum for the sake of adding this 
valuable space to the ornamental pleasure-grounds of the metropolis. 
Tt is at least certain that these gardens have been let for a considera- 
tion infinitely below the real annual value of the land. The excuse, 
we believe, is that the Crown lessees, being cut off by the Hmbank- 
ment from access to the river, were entitled to some compensating 
advantages. The lessees, however, have not been deprived by the 
Embankment of one foot of ground included in their leases ; and the 
privilege of access “to the muddy shores of the Thames had long 
ceased to be a practical advantage. If they were to be compensated 
for the loss of this, there would certainly have been no injustice in 
limiting the compensation to a strict estimate of its money value, as 
is customary when land is taken by railway companies under com- 
pulsory powers of purchase. ‘Though it is probably now too late to 
get rid of the dead wall, it is to be hoped that the dealings of the 
Commissioners with the Crown lessees will even yet engage the 
attention of Parliament; but the fact is, that the whole system 
pursued by the Commissioners in dealing with the Crown rights 
urgently demands inquiry.” 

We trust it is not “too late to get rid of the dead wall,” and 
that this scandalous example of injury done toa magnificent 
public work for the gratification of a few may be one of the 
last of its kind. : 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


DUTCH COTTAGE-GARDENS. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


TuERE are many striking peculiarities about the dwellings of 
the working classes m, Holland which are well worthy of the 
attention of travellers, who generally, however, make very 
short work of their tour through that interesting little 
country; hurryimg from the picture galleries of Amsterdam 
to those of the Hague and Haarlem, to the great canals of 
commercial Rotterdam, and leaving themselves no time to 
spare for the study of the home life of the poorer orders, which 
presents many points of great imterest. 

It is, for instance, a sine qud non with the working Hollander 


that his dwelling, however small, shall be entirely distinct and 


separate from any other. It thus happens that where space is 
valuable the width of the entire house very often does not 
much exceed that of the front door, so that a bed of ordinary 
size nearly fills a room, only leaving a narrow passage toa 
back apartment of similar dimensions, and sometimes to a 
second and third, in like manner. Even in the so-called blocks 
of buildings which have been recently erected m and near the 
large towns, the separate principle is strictly observed; each 
little slice of a house being surrounded with a garden, without 
which a Dutch artisan, however humble, could not exist; for 
the love of flowers in Holland is not confined to the great 
bulb-growers, whose hyacinth and tulip fields are reckoned by 
the acre, hut it also peryades the general population, It is 


true that there no longer occur epidemic manias for mere™ 
varieties—such as black tulips or yellow hyacinths—but there 
exists a steady, general love of flowers, for their beauty rather 
than their mere yariety, which is a much mniore satisfactory 
state of things. 

The formation of the soil of the Dutch Netherlands is 
peculiarly favourably to bulbous plants; especially many of 
those from the Cape, which are so difficult of cultivation with 
us. The universal substratum of sand, in many places at less 
than a foot below the surface, affords the unusual combination 
of thorough drainage with continuous moisture in a way that 
is most beneficial to the class of plants referred to, which 
appear absolutely to require a deep bed of sand immediately 
Beneath the rich surface soil in which they are planted. Sand, 
indeed, seems the one great necessity of many kinds of bulbs. 
This was curiously exemplified in the well-known story of the 
Guernsey Lily, so called, it is said, on account of its Huropean 
début on the sandy shores of that island. A vessel haying a 
large number of those bulbs on board (the first importation) 
was wrecked on that dangerous coast, and the following spring 
the sands of that side of the island were studded far and wide 
with the rosy heads of flower of that elegant liliaceous plant, 
which will not flower with anything like such luxuriance under 
the most careful greenhouse treatment as it did that spring 
on the bare sea sands of Guernsey. ioe 

The garden soil of Holland, is an entirely artificial crea- 
tion, possessing the vital sand element, which, as we have 
said, is similarly favourable to many, if not most, classes of 
bulbous plants; and I have seen the Ixia, the Sparaxis, and 
many of the rarer Cape bulbs expanding their dazzling flowers _ 
in a Dutch cottage-garden, while they reject all the blandish- 
ments and caresses of an English gardener, refusing to display 
their beauties in anything more than such a shabby fashion as 
renders them hardly worthy of culture in our soil and climate. 
A thoughtful consideration of the natural advantages of these 
Dutch cottage-gardens may, however, lead us eventually in - 
the gardens of our English homes to the more successful 
culture of those dazzling Cape flowers, which (as Schiller finely 
said of flowers in general) may more especially than any others 
be called “the stars of earth.” 


THE WILD-GARDEN. 
COPSES, HEDGEROWS, LOW THICKETS, ETC. 


Our wild flowers take possession of the stiff, formal, and shorn 
hedges that seam the land, often draping them with such inimitable 
grace and beauty that half the conservatories in the country, with thei 
collections of small red pots and small'mean plants are horrors, 
compared with a few yards’ length of their blossomy verdure. ‘The 
Wild Roses, and the Purple Vetch, and the Honeysuckle, and the 
Virgin’s Bower, clamber above smaller, but not less pretty, wildlings, 
and throw a yeil of graceful life over the mutilated shrubs, re- 
minding us of the plant-life in the nest-like thickets of dwarf shrubs 
that one often meets on the high Alpine meadows, where you may 
gather flowers after they have been all browsed down on the turf— 
small islets of little trees in a sea of grass. Next to the most beanti- 
ful Alpine vegetation, there is, perhaps, in the world of plant-life, 
nothing more lovely than the delicate tracery of low-climbing things 
wedded to the bushes in all northern and temperate regions of the 
earth. Perishing like the grass, they are happy and safe in the 
earth’s warm bosom in winter; in spring they peep up to look at the 
sun as the buds swell in May, and soon after, finding the bushes 
once more enjoyable, rush oyer them as joyously as children from 
school to a meadow of cowslips. Over bush, over brake; on moun- 
tain or lowland copse, holding on with delicate but unyielding grasp, — 
they toss their blossoms in the breeze, and engrave themselves for 
eyer on the mind as the central type of graceful loveliness. “Then, in 
addition to climbing Pea-flowers, Convolvuluses, &c., of which the 
stems perish in winter, we have the great tribes of wild vines, noble 


in foliage and often in fruit, the Virginian-creeper, looking even 


happier when garlanding the homes of men than in its natiye woods, 
and blushing as deeply before its winter death on the British cottage 
or copse, as on the rocks of the Hudson or the clifft-walls of Niagara ; 
the numerous Honeysuckles, from coral red to pale jyellow, all beauti- 
ful; and the Clematide, rich, varied, and lovely beyond description, 
from those of which each petal reminds one of the wing of some huge - 
tropical butterfly, to those with small flowers borne in showers like 
drops from a fountain jet, and often sweet as Hawthorn blossoms, 
with a host of others too numerous by far to name. 


= 


Dec. 9, 1871.} 


THE GARDEN. 


49 


_ This type of vegetation may be trained and tortured into ten 
thousand forms in gardens, but never will its full beauty be seen 
until we entrust it to the garlanding of shrub, and copse, or hedgerow, 
fringe of dwarf plantation, knots of rough shrubs, &c. All to be 
done is to put ina few tufts of any desired kind, and leave them alone, 
adapting the kind tothe position. The large, flesh-coloured Bindweed, 
for example, would be best in rough places, out of the pale of the 
pleasure-ground or garden, so that its roots could not spread where 
they would be unwelcome; while a delicate Clematis might be placed 
beneath the choicest specimen Conifer, and allowed to paint its rich 
_ green with fair flowers. The common Everlasting Pea, trailing over 
a graceful young Deodar about ten feet high, was one of the most 
chaste combinations I have ever seen. In nature, we frequently see 
something of this kind, as for example, a Honeysuckle clambering up 
through an old Hawthorn tree, and then struggling with it as to 
which should produce the greatest profusion of blossoms—but in 
gardens not yet. Stupidity Will say that this cannot be done in 
gardens; but it can be done infinitely better in gardens than 
it has ever been done by nature ; because, for gardens we can select 
plants from a hundred climes, and effect contrasts, in which nature 
is poor in any one place in consequence of the comparatively few 
plants that naturally inhabit one spot of ground. “This is an art 
which does mend nature—changes it rather: but the art is nature,” 
is peculiarly applicable here in gardening matters. People seldom 
remember the art itself is nature ; and foolish old laws laid down by 
dim-seeing old landscape-gardeners are yet fertile in perpetuating 
the notion that a garden is a work of art, and therefore we must not 
attempt in it to ‘imitate wild nature.” 

Old stumps and old trees, &c., may of course be embellished in the 
most charming way with this type of vegetation. Sometimes, where 
there are large and bare slopes, a capital effect may be obtained by 
planting the stouter climbers, such as the Vines, Mountain Clematis, 
stronger Honeysuckles, &c., in groups or masses on the grass, away 
from shrubs or low trees ; while when the banks are precipitous, or 
the cliffs crop forth, superb effects may be gained by allowing a 
‘curtain of climbers to fall over them. og 

Endless charming combinations may be made in this way in many 

near most country houses. The following is a list of suitable 
plants for the purpose :— 


/ 
Ampelopsis Cynanchum acutum Lycium 
pinnata monspeliacum europeum 
cordata Dioscorea Batatas and Metlicago 
hederacea any other hardy falcata 
tricuspidata Species Menispermum 
pios Habhitzia canadense 
tuberosa tamnoides virginicum 
Aristolochia Hedera (all the finer _Passiflora 
Sipho varieties of Ivy, crulea 
tomentosa both greenandya- — Periploca 
eg riegated) greca 
Bronssoneti Jasminum Polygonum 
Bonssingaultia nudifloram complexum 
baselloides officinale Roses in great variety 
Calystegia revolutum Rubus 
dahurica Lathyms biflorus 
pubescens diflorus Smilax, hardy kinds 
Cissus latifolins Tamus 
orientalis rotundifolius communis 
matis tuberosus and Tropzolum 
Flammula others pentaphyllum 
montana Lonicera speciosum 
Viticella, and other Caprifolium Vinca 
varieties confusa Vitis, various 
Convolvyulus, in var, flava Wistaria 
Coronilla varia japonica frutescens 
Cneurbita perennis Periclymenum sinensis. 
; Conpvcror. 


TREES IN TUBS FOR TERRACES. 


WE are no admirers of trees in tubs on terraces. They are always 
somewhat expensive, and rarely ornamental objects. It is considered 
correct taste to use them in geometrically laid-out terrace gardens. 

_ We deny that it is good taste, and could point to many terraces 
_ where their absence is no blemish. A ‘row of trees in tubs is no 
_ more necessary to the effect of the best type of terrace or geometrical 
gardens than a row of balloons; but, as the taste for employing them 

_ exists, we here simply attempt to guide it in the right direction. 
The culture of orange, bay, and other trees in tubs is a Continental 
custom, and much more desirable in parts of Northern Europe, where 
few everg’ can be grown in the open air, than in Britain. It is, 
as a rule, very much better performed on the Continent than 
poise ed adop sats rae ae the conditions essential to 
23 Sul , a8 proy y the long practice of Continental 
cultivators. Although we now often a2 handsome specimens of 
greens grown in tubs in this country, tender subjects 
alone were kept thus when the system originated. It was found 
that the oleander and orange trees could be grown very well by 


storing.them in any sort of half-lighted, frost-proof structure in 
winter, and placing them in the open air in summer; and hence 
these plants became very popular for that purpose. The most 
important thing to bear in mind as regards their culture is that all 
the growth of the shoots should be made in the open air, and this is 
annually proved by the best Continental growers. If that point is 
well observed, the culture of such subjects is simple enough. Let us 
next select suitable kinds for British gardens. 

The first place must certainly be given to the Laurustinus, because, 
while furnishing a good effect as a mere evergreen, it also blossoms 
sweetly in winter, when flowers are scarce. By using this as a terrace 
plant, and honsing it during the winter, we add a valuable ornament 
to the conservatory or even the house, for it may well be kept 
in-doors for a short time while in the full flush of bloom in winter. 
In places where the plant is sometimes killed out of doors, or does 
but poorly, it would be all the better and more attractive grown in 
this way ; and as it flowers in our dull, wet winter, the bloom on the 
plants under glass opens full and well. Indeed, it is well worth 
growing as a winter-flowering conservatory plant in districts where 
it does not bloom well out of doors. This, like most subjects grown 
in tubs, is usually trained as a standard, with a compact, roundish 
head. The shrub is trained in this form to a great extent by the 
Belgians. In summer the plants should of course be allowed to 
stand out of doors, and receive thorough waterings as they require 
them, letting them remain in the open air till late in the autumn, 
when they may be taken in-doors to a cool house of some kind, be it 
orchard-house or conservatory, provided that they are placed in some 
position where their beauty may be seen when in full perfection. 
When out of flower they ought to be trimmed in, and then kept in a 
cool house till all danger of severe frost is gone, when they may be 
placed in the open air again. It is of importance that their spring 
growth does not start till they are placed in the open air; therefore 
we think an out-house of some kind would not, after all, be the 
worst place for them for a few weeks before they can be turned out. 
As to soil, slightly enriched turfy loam will do capitally. 

The bay-tree (Laurus nobilis) stands next in point of merit for 
this purpose. Although its flower is not attractive, its associations 
and fragrance, and the fact that it is in some districts killed to the 
ground by a severe frost, should make us prefer it. We know places 
where a bit of bay barely survives out of doors, and many others in 
which it has more than the freshness and vigour, if not the height, 
of the immense old specimens in Count Borromeo’s garden on Lake 
Maggiore ; and in the former it might be welcome grown as a terrace 
plant. There is certainly little to plead in favour of growing ever- 
greens in tubs in places where they grow well, and are not frequently 
killed, in the open air. - 

The Portugal laurel is frequently grown by us on terraces; and from 
its handsome foliage merits some attention, though we think not so 
much as the foregomg. This, too, occasionally gets cut down to the 
ground, even in mild districts ; and plants in tubs should not be left 
exposed in very severe weather. We have seen this and other trees 
trained as standards and planted on a terrace, a tub being placed 
round the base of each, so as to make us believe that the specimens 
were grown in them. As itis to the effect of the head, and not of 
the tub, we ought to look, this is merely waste of ingenuity. 

Wherever the climate permits of it, it is much wiser to grow trees 
in tubs that require a warmer climate than ours, rather than those 
that are common in our shrubberies. We believe that in many of 
the southern parts of this country the orange may be grown well in the 
openairinsummer. Those who doubt that can decide the question by 
seeing, on some summer or early autumn day, the condition of the 
orange trees at Holland House, Kensington, some of which are as 
healthy as the best usually seen on the Continent, although they 
haye to endure London smut, as well as atmospheric conditions by 
no means so favourable as occur in many parts of the south and west 
of England. 

As a flowering-tree for tubs there is nothing to equal the oleander, 
which is rarely or never seen’ in good condition in England. On the 
Continent it is frequently kept in cellars and dark places, and put 
out in summer to flower profusely. When the specimens are old and 
well-grown, like those in the gardens of the Luxembourg at Paris, 
they are very fine. The oleander has several real claims to be grown 
thus. It is an exotic of an uncommonand distinct type; unlike the 
orange, it flowers well in the open air, and it is of the most vigorous 
constitution. Both it and the orange should, when placed out of 
doors, have as sunny and well-sheltered a position as possible, and 
their culture would hardly be worth attempting further north than 
the midlands. 

Pittosporum Tobira, a deliciously sweet greenhouse evergreen 
shrub, lives in any dark or half lighted place during the winter, and 
flowers freely in summer. It is not of growth free enough to forma 
terrace tree, but it deserves to be abundantly grown, and, when 
large, will do on terraces, in pots or tubs, Among the various other 


50 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 9, 1871. 


plants that we have seen tried in this way, those that did best were 
Justicia Adhatoda, Jasminum azoricum, Olea angustifolia, and 
Edwardsia grandiflora. These were all fine, and the Madeira jasmine 
very sweet and graceful. These, like the preceding, may be kept 
perfectly well in winter, sheltered by any shedlike structure, secure 
from frost. Those, however, having means of advancing them to 


ae Specimen stage in greenhouses would do well to take advantage 
of it. 


MELIANTHUS MAJOR. 

Tus plant requires somewhat peculiar treatment to full 
show its singular and beautiful grace of foliage and habit. In 
a greenhouse or conservatory, where it grows freely, it usually 
grows too loosely, running up to the glass if planted out; and, 
whether planted out or not, being usually in an unclean state. 
The leaves, too, are flimsy when the plant is grown in-doors; 
in the open air they are quite firm, and withstand storms and 
rains well. The right course with the plant is to treat it as a 
hardy herbaceous one, planting it in a warm, sheltered, and 
sunny nook in the pleasure-ground or flower-garden, in deep, 
sandy, well-drained loam. It will be cut down by the winter 
frost, but im early summer will shoot up strongly again, and 


Melianthus major (after Vilmorin). ~ 


prove throughout the summer and autumn one of the most 
attractive objects in the garden. Afterwards no culture or 
care is required, except, perhaps, in cold places, half a foot 
of leaf mould or ashes over the roots in winter. We have, 
however, known it to withstand yery severe frosts about 
London without sufferme. The plant is not difficult to increase 
from seed, and well-established old tufts will bear careful divi- 
sion. In the open air we have not noticed it flower in this 
country; planted out in the conservatory it flowers freely 
enough. The bloom, however, ig not ornamental. It is when 
grown as a spreading bush, from 2% to 4 feet high, that its 
highest effect is shown. For the above charming and life-like 
portrait of a specimen well-grown in the open air we are 
indebted to MM. Vilmorin & Co., of Paris. 


THE SEA HOLLIES (ERYNGIUM). 


THE different species of this genus are by no means uninteresting 
in a botanical point of view; but that they bave a claim far beyond 
their botanical interest, every one who has seen any of them culti- 
yated must admit. They possess many points that are essential 
qualifications of useful border plants. They are of a good perennial 
character, and there is no tendency among them to ramble in the pro- 
miscuous manner that some of even our best border plants do. They 
are all but independent of stakes, having, with few exceptions, sturdy 
stems capable of carrying their own weight, unless in very exposed 
situations. Their duration extends over months; the rich, metallic 


glow which many species present lasting for many weeks; and, as a 


final qualification, I may add that their beauty does not cease with life, 
but after due maceration and all the nice little manipulations with 
which those who skeletonize foliage are well conversant, the leayes—but 
more especially the inyolucral bracts—form a most interesting item 


in those groups, to which the yery appropriate title is usually applied 
of, ‘“ beautiful in death.” ; 

To begin at home, where those sort of silicified billows, in the 
form of great sand mounds, abound on our coasts the true Sea Holly 
(Eryngium maritimum) is to be met with, deep rooting, so deep that 
I have never yet succeeded in lifting the entire root, it mattered 
not how deep I might delve; nor is this to be wondered at, when 
we remember that the sand waves are accumulative and accumu- 
lating, and that the plant has, year by year, to push upwards, in 
order to keep its head above the fluctuating level. Dwarf in habit, 
rarely rising aboye twelve or fifteen inches, its peculiarly bluish- 
white foliage and stems form a nice contrast to the more lively- 
coloured vegetation with which it is surrounded. Although a 
denizen of our sea coasts, it is quite amenable to cultivation im any 
ordinary garden soil. The first difficulty overcome, namely, that of 
remoyal with anything like a good root, it soon establishes itself; 
and I may here append aremark that is applicable to every species of 
Eryngium—that they all possess deep, strong roots, devoid of many 
fibres, and are, hence, very impatient of removal, even where this is done ~ 
with the greatest care. Such being the case, seeds or seedling plants 
should be secured, and, when fairly established in pots, planted in their 
proper positions where they are to remain in the herbaceous border. ~ 

Besides the true Sea Holly we have another species, Eryngium 
campestre, or field Eryngo, which may, perhaps, be still met with 
in one or two of its few native habitats. Similar to the former in height, 
it differs chiefly in its more divided leaves; and, although not to be 
despised as a border plant, it does not possess such well-marked 
distinctive characteristics as the former. y 

Having thus introduced to your notice our native species, I shall 
now offer a few descriptive remarks on those that are not indigenous, 
dividing the genus into three groups: the first containing species with 
undivided, heart-shaped, or slightly lobed leaves; the second, those 
with divided leaves; and the third, those with long ciliated folage. 

And first, in regard to merit in the whole family, unquestionably 
stands the Eryngium alpinum, a native of the European Alps, 
but not, as may be implied from its name, of a remarkably dwarf 
habit. Sometimes it raises its inflorescence to a height of even three 
feet. Its involucral leaves are of an intense blue colour, very much ~ 
divided, and also of a larger size than those in any other species ; 
herein consists its true specific character, as well as its intrinsic 
beauty. Another point by which it may be recognised, even in a~ 
young state, is by its long-stalked, heart-shaped leaves. I mention 
this fact, as there is often considerable difficulty in getting the 
true species. In this country it rarely matures perfect seed—hence it 
is not likely to become a common plant; old-established tufts, however, 
will. bear careful division. To get good specimens they must remain 
some years in the same place. There is not in the whole range of 
herbaceous plants a more beautiful object than a finely developed 
plant of Eryngium alpinum, when the stems and floral leaves, after 
the summer sun, get “ deeply, darkly, beautifully blue,” till they at 
last, in August, look as if they had been dipped in blue ink. 

Botanic Gardens, Hull. J. C. Niven. 

- (Lo be continued.) : 


Rockwork at Chatsworth.—The stupendous rockwork at Chatsworth. 
again, always appeared to me a most monstrous waste of good honest material 
and labour. It is very costly and expensive; but one of the least of nature’s 
cliffs would overshadow it utterly. Its artificiality cannot cheat one who knows 
what rocks are in the fissures of the hills; and he looks upon it, at best, with 
the same sort of foolish wonderment with which he looks upon the wooden 
puppets in the Dutch gardens at Broek.—D. G. MircHExt. 

A Russian Winter Garden and Palace of Ice.—Nowhere could the charms 
of a winter garden be more fully appreciated than in the midst of the snows 
which enwrap the landscapes of Russia during several months of the year, 
especially in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg. An attempt was made in 
the winter of 1740 to create, with a rough kind of imperial magnificence, a 
winter-garden on the banks of the frozen Neva. It was determined that the 
chief feature of the garden should be a palace of ice; and the plan was carried 
into effect, as such matters are in Russia, by sheer contempt for the word 
““impossible.’? The ice palace was built with huge blocks of ice sawn square, and 


trimmed just after the fashion of free-stone. Of these huge quadrates of ice — 5 


the walls of the palace were entirely constructed. The building contained 
several spacious corridors artificially warmed, which were filled with flowering 


‘plants, constantly renewed, and also many apartments richly furnished with 


chairs and tables, and even fire-places, the bedrooms being very Inxuriously 
fitted up; but whether for show or use is not recorded. Neither is it told 
whether the Empress Anne, in accordance with whose august whim the icy halls 
were constructed, ever honoured one of those sleeping-apartments by passing 
a night within it. It is stated, however, that she was much delighted withthe 
appearance of the structure, both externally and internally, as also with the 
appearance of the hardy northern pines and other frost-defying evergreens 
which for a time were made to afford the strong contrast of their rich dark 
green to the lawns of snow, out of which they seemed to grow. The promenade 
became, as a matter of course, the rage—especially by night, when the palace 


-was illuminated, which is said to have produced a most charming and fairy-like 


effect ; a report which may be well believed, as the semi-transparent walls 
themselves must have emitted from the lights within a soft moon-like brightmess, 
which, blending with the light of the external festoons, and lines and stars of 
coloured lamps, necessarily produced a softly dazzling effect, which, among the 
winter snows of Russia, must have gratified the devisers of the display,—H, N. H. 


Dec. 9, 1871.)} 


THE GARDEN. 51 


- AGAVE TELEGRAPHICA, 


TO THE EDITOR OF “THE GARDEN.” 

Caunton Manor, November 27, 1871. 
“Sir,—In the spring of this year my mind was perturbed by 
® proposition, emanating from the postal powers, to erect a 
series of telegraphic poles upon the road which passes at no 
great distance in front of my house; and while my anxiety 
was at its height I received from a benevolent friend, who, as 
a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, was engaged in super- 
vising the work, the appended attempt to alleviate my sorrow. 
My reply was that I thought this beautiful plant would 
succeed best in my soil if it were “pegged down and layered,” 
and I am thankful to say that it has been so treated.—Your 

obedient servant, S$. REYNOLDS HOLE. 


“Cambridge, April 3, 1871. 

“My Dear Str,—Knowing you to be pre-eminent as a_ horti- 
culturist, I beg to bring to your notice a magnificent species of the 
Aloe tribe (Agave telegraphica). 

“This highly-ornamental plant flourishes best by the side of roads 
and on railway embankments, and I can strongly recommend it to 
your notice, feeling that it would succeed admirably at the edge of 
the high-road at the foot of your lawn, where it would be seen to 
great advantage from your drawing-room windows. 


“ A philanthropic Government is actively employed in propagating 
this rare and deservedly-admired plant, and should you desire to 
have a few specimens, I am empowered to supply you with them at 
the expense of the country, and to plant them in suitable situations. 

“The Agave telegraphica is a native of Great Britain, but has 
been successfully acclimatized in all parts of the world. It succeeds 
equally in all soils, and remains in flower all the year round. : 

“We have hitherto been unsuccessful in our endeavours to raise it 
from seed, but a large stock is now at the Government nursery- 
‘gardens, and the plants sustain no injury from being moved at 
their full growth.—Believe me, yours truly, 

Ra ere “Hersert JEKYLL, L.R.E.” 


Androsace lanuginosa. — This beautiful and free-growing 
member of a yery diminutive and slow-growing family, grows as 
freely as the most vigorous verbena in the College Botanic Gardens 
at Dablin. Doubtless, this to some extent is due to the climate. It 
is a plant very easily managed ; all it wants is a sunny warm aspect 


in sandy soil. It grows freely from cuttings and seed, which ripen 
in the autumn; in a suitable situation it lasts many years in the open 
air. When once established, it is well to peg down the trailing shoots, 
which root freely and soon make a nice mass; indeed, without any 
care, I have had plenty of young plants from rooted pieces. Cuttings 
should be grown without artificial heat, just under a hand-glass, with 
air at the top, or slightly raised at the east side. I would strongly 
recommend this eharming plant to all those living in mild and moist 
districts and near the sea, as we have nothing in our gardens more 
beautiful for the margins of borders or for the rock-garden.—JoHN 
Baty, Dublin. 


GARDEN STRUCTURES. 
IRON versus WOOD. 


Tuar the days of the use of wood for hothouse purposes are 
numbered must be apparent to everybody, thongh there are in some 
parts of the country examples of old hothouses which appear almost 
indestructible, so good was the timber used, with the present style 
of building wooden-structures, and with the best management 
as to painting, &c., from twenty to thirty years appear to be 
the limit of their endurance without a thorough repairing. 
Houses in nurseries afford the best examples of the evil, and if any 
person whose memory will carry him back thirty years will call to 
mind houses built about that time he will find many of them 
irreparably decayed and all on the “road to ruin.” 

Six years ago an amateur friend put up a large orchard-house, 
contracting for the woodwork and finding the glass himself. The 
wood was yellow deal of sufficient scantling; but though the house 
has received six coats of paint in the interval, the feet of some of the 
rafters and of most of the sash-bars have rotted off, and the putty has 
crumbled away so that the roof “ rains in like a sieve.” To put this 
house into working order next spring will cost at least £20, as every 
square of glass must be taken out, not a difficult matter by the way, 
and both rafters and sash-bars will have to be spliced. Bad as 
much of the timber now used really is, the putty and paint, if possible, 
are worse. Upon old houses you may find putty as hard as cast-iron ; 
but that was the produce of manual labour, when whiting, red-lead, 
and linseed-oil were the ingredients used, well incorporated by a 
mallet and hand kneading. Now the refinement of invention has 
given us mills to grind putty in; and instead of the antiquated notion 
of wasting oil and red-lead, the whiting is ground principally in 
water, and with the most inferior oil, and consequently never becomes 
hard. 

A short time back we had occasion to cover up during severe frost 
some recently glazed cold pits, using wheat straw for the purpose, 
with tarpauling over it. The straw contained a little corn, that 
attracted a shoal of mice, but when it was exhausted they attacked 
the putty, so that it was stripped off for yards together. We com- 
plained to the builder, one of the most respectable in the trade, but 
he gravely informed us that “ putty ought not to get hard,” and, 
sure enough, it does not. We have unfortunately, in these adulter- 
ating days “shoddy ” in everything, and that which we have just 
described is the shoddy system of horticultural building. 
On the one hand, in our mind’s ‘eye, we look to houses not 
built ten years unmistakably decaying; on the other we can go back 
to houses built of iron and copper half a century ago, which are still 
good for another half century to come. Look at the iron houses at 
Sion House, two or three in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society at Chiswick, those at the Royal gardens at Frogmore, and 
though they have done good service, they will stand good for many 
years to come. But there is a good deal of what may be called 
“shoddy” even in some of the metallic houses; as those made 
of zinc are scarcely better than wood, while rolled or pressed sheet- 
iron is infinitely worse than either, and a combination of iron 
and wood inferior to both separately. But what matters that ? such 
structures will be preferred by many, because they are cheaper than 
really superior buildings, which though but little dearer in the first 
cost would stand for centuries. 

Now, what are the objections to iron for hothouse work? First, 
its expansible and contractive properties under varying atmospheric 
changes ; and, secondly, its superior conducting properties for either 
weal or woe. The expansion, so far as the fracture of horticultural 
buildings is concerned, is more imaginary than real; for though on 
a scorching hot day we have sometimes found sashes and doors diffi- 
cult to move—while they would be. equally loose on a cold, frosty 
night—we have never, in a fifty years’ experience, seen a fracture in 
the iron work, either from expansion or contraction. The action of 
these upon the glass is, however, a different matter. If the glass is. 
glazed at all tightly, and the putty used is good, on a frosty night 
the iron contracts, and the tight square is crushed into pieces ; while, 


52 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 9, 1871. 


on the contrary, on a hot day, if the putty is what it ought to be, 
the tight square is rent in twain by the expansion of the iron. To 
avoid these causes of breakage you glaze loosely, the iron expands, 
and the glass falls out; or, possibly, the putty cracks, the water 
follows, and ‘‘ drip ”’ is inevitable. We speak in these. cases from 
actual experience, which leayes us to regard putty and drip as inse- 
perable companions. The expansive putty, brought out a year or 
two back, and with which the grand station of the Midland Railway 
Company was glazed, is, we fear, little better than that in general 
use; for, on several occasions recently we haye seen upon the plat- 
form unmistakable evidence of drip, though it was not raining at 


the time, while the roof of the St. Pancras Station is a specimen of. 


rents and patches. 

Felt and india-rubber haye both been tried as a remedy for some 
years past, but drip, drip, drip, constitutes the complaints against 
them; while the non-conducting influence of the materials used is 
mil. Passing, then, to the conducting properties of iron, that cannot 
be denied; and the remedy for it eppears to be to use no more iron 
than is absolutely necessary, and to expose as little of that to the 
direct action of the atmosphere as possible. 

In the house which was’ exhibited by the Imperishable Hothouse 
Company at the Nottingham show of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, this end swas attained with, perhaps, greater success 
than that which attends most other systems of construction ; 
for the inventor in this case, not only limits the iron used to 
the necessary quantity without waste, but, as far as possible, 
covers that which he does use with glass, by which its expansive, 
as well as conducting properties, are, in some measure, nullified. 
In this new system of glazing, in short, the glass forms the outer coat 
of the house, like the slates of a roof; a plan haying many good points. 

Bromley, Kent. PEC 


A RUSTIC BRIDGE WITHOUT NAILS. i 


Av the International Horticultural Exhibition, St. Petersburg, in 
1869, I saw an ingenious method of making a rustic bridge. In 
addition to its rustic and truly picturesque appearance, it possesses 
the singularity of being put together without a single nail, bolt, or 
mortice, the whole structure being supported by the beams being 
[It is needless to ex- 


made to cross each other in a peculiar manner. 


plain this arrangement, as a glance at the accompaning illustration 
will be sufficient to show how it is effected. I strongly recommend 
country gentlemen to copy this simple mode of bridge-making, and 
I can testify to its fitness for garden scenery. 

H. Anpre, in “UIllustration Horticole.” 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE WILLOW AS A TIMBER TREE. 

Tus old adage, “give a dog a bad name and hang him,” 
never had a more apposite application than in the case of the 
willow. Gilpin (once looked upon ag an authority on forest 
trees) asserted that the willow did not harmonize well with 
British timber-trees; and succeeding writers have reiterated 
the statement without examining its accuracy. There is a 
saying that a willow-tree would buy a horse before an ash tree 
would buy a saddle, an assertion fully borne out in this case by 
experience. The common pollard willow, dotted along the 
mares of streams is such a well-known and ungraceful- 
looking tree that somewhat unconsciously we have got a bad 
opinion of willows as objects in a landscape—but mutilate our 
stately oaks, ashes, or beeches in the same way, and where would 
their beauty be? The willow has never received fair treatment 
as a forest tree, simply because it will bear more ill-usage than 
any other tree. Few people haye ever scena willow plantation 
in its prime, say after haying been forty years planted and 
properly cared for; those who have seen such a plantation will 
not readily forget its beauty, any more than the owner can 
forget its profit. The willow, when in perfection, is ‘‘a thing 
of beauty”; and those who have possessed well-grown specimens 


of it have seldom cared to haye them cut down until decay had 
set in, and the willow soon decays after reaching maturity. To 
speak in trading phraseology, it is a tree which brings a quick 
return for invested capital. ; j 

Lowe, in his survey of the county of Nottingham, states that 
so very valuable are willows as plantation trees that at eight 
years’ growth they yield in poles a net profit of £214 per acre, 
and in two years more he states that they would probably have 
yielded £300peracre. In page 1520 of Loudon’s “ Arboretum 
Britannicum” it is stated that a cutting planted by Mx. Brown, 
of Hetherset, Norfolk, became in ten years a tree of thirty-five 
feet in height and five feet in girth; and in the same work a 
tree is mentioned at Audley End, Essex, of twenty years’ growth, 
which was fifty-three feet high and seven feet six inches in 
girth. I, myself, saw six trees felled in 1869, near Southwell, 
Notts, which, after thirty-eight years’ srowth, unitedly yielded 
232 feet of measurable timber, which sold on the spot for 
1s. 2d. per foot; and the six trees did not occupy more than 
eighteen square yards of land. ? wins 

To grow willow trees in perfection they must be planted 
closely, say three feet apart each way, or 4,840 to the acre would 
not be too close for the first eight or nine years, when they 
might be thinned out to half that number. The thimnings 
would find a ready sale for general farm purposes. At the end 
of sixteen or twenty years they might be reduced to 1,210 trees, 
or six feet apart each way, which would generally afford ample 
space for their full development. The time to fell such a plan- 
tation must depend very much upon circumstances. No un- 
varying rule can be laid down, but itis better to cut too earl, 
than to allow them to stand too long; for, as before stated, 
when the willow has reached its best it speedily decays. Its 
duration may be said to range from thirty to fifty years;_ 
but whenever dead branches begin to show themselves there 
should be no delay in cutting down. In felling willows do not. 
think of leaving a few selected trees in the hope of obtaiming 
larger timber, for after haying been so crowded and then 
suddenly exposed they would almost invariably perish. If 
heayier timber is desired, plant more openly at the firsta 

IT will now endeavour to arrive at an approximate value of an 
acre of such timber at its prime, say after having been planted 
forty years. There is plenty of evidence to show that itis not an 
uncommon thing for a willow-tree at thirty years of age to yield 
forty-five feet of measurable timber, or at the rate of 15 cubic 
foot perannum ‘The experiments of the Duke of Bedford and 
others proved this to be the case. I will not, however, reckon 
upon such great results, and will further assume that 110 trees 
out of our 1,210 are worthless,.being amuch greater margin than 
would be probable, and that in forty years we only produce one-— 
third of the above, or half a foot imstead of a foot and a half 
per annum. We shall then haye 1,100 trees, containing an 
average of twenty cubicfeet each, or 22,000 feet, worth, at the 
lowest computation, 1s. per foot, or £1,100, the produce of an 
acre of such wood in forty years, leaving the two thinnings to 
coyer the cost of labour, which would be more than sufficient 
for that purpose. This is no fanciful calculation, but one fully 
borne out by the experiments of men whose words cannot be 
doubted. It cannot, however,.be too often repeated that the — 
willow will not arrive at perfection in swampy, undramed 
land. Willows grow freely on the slopes or tops of exposed 
hills; indeed, there are few situations in which they will not: 
grow, but in no place so badly as in water-logged land. Wor 
timber trees the Salix fragilis, or some of its kindred varieties, 
of which there are not fewer than twenty or thirty under culti- 
vation, should only be employed, some of the lately introduced 
varieties being not only vigorous growers but extremely 
beantiful. 
grow more vigorously from cuttings than from rooted plants ; 
and, therefore, rooted plants only should be, employed when 
immediate effect is desired. 

Tt may be asked to what use is willow-timber put when 
grown, and where would a market be found for it? There is 
no wood in greater demand than sound willow; it is light, 


“smooth, soft, tough, will take a good polish, and does mot 


easily burn. It will bear more pounding and hard knocks 
without splinter or jury than any known wood, and hence it 
is used for cricket-bats, and, whenever it can be obtained, for 
the floats of paddle steamers, “strouds” of water-wheels, break- 


Tt must also be borne in mind that all willows 


x Belvoir. 


Dec. 9, 1871.] ; 


THE GARDEN. 


53 


oor SS5>—0O$“<$S— ooo  —w—m—r— 


blocks for luggage and coal trucks, the sides and bottoms of 
carts and barrows, where wear and tear are greatest. ‘To the 
wood-turner it is almost invaluable, and were it grown as 
timber, and obtainable, it would be used for very many pur- 
poses to which foreign timber is now applied, and that, too, 
with considerable advantage both to producer and consumer, 
Wituy. 


CULTURE OF FOREST TREES. 


A FINE and well-developed forest tree, be it oak or elm, beech 
or chestnut, is a possession often thought beyond price by its 
fortunate owner; yet who thinks of creating such a specimen 
by means of culture commonly applied to things of more 
ephemeral interest? We devote our utmost skill to the 
management of fruit trees, but we plant our forest trees with- 
out bestowing other labour or expense than that involved in 
making a hole in which the young tree is thrust; andif the 
soil is free from stagnant water, and possesses the mineral 
constituents of fertility, the tree thrives, and in due season 
becomes an object which we may admire for the grandeur of 
its ia ortions, or utilise for many economical purposes ; but 
if the land be poor, or, as is often the case, already exhausted 
by the growth of timber upon it, the tree makes aot growth, 
and in its maturity only exhibits a half-developed, decrepid 
specimen, but little satisfactory to its owner and an object of 
small commercial value. Exceptionally fine timber is thus very 
much the result of a chosen combination of suitable materials, 
or elements, in the soil in which the trees have been placed; 
out the composition surely of such colossal oaks as we find, for 
example, in Lord Bagot’s park in Staffordshire, proves that it 
is seldom that the mineral constituents of a soil are so happily 


combined, and so far disintegrated and decomposed, as to be 


available for the support of trees for the centuries during 
which they build up their massive fabrics by a wonderful 
process of elaboration, largely sustained by the great inor- 
ganic storehouse beneath them. It will be readily seen that the 
practice I wish to inculcate has necessarily a limited applica- 
tion. Where planting is pursued extensively, however advan- 
tageous the employment ot any inorganic elements deficient in 
the land on which trees are to be planted might be, the 
expense attending the preparation of the land and their appli- 
cation would be incommensurate with the possible gain in 
timber ; but when fine trees are wanted to adorn a park or to 
embellish the lawn of a mansion, then I would certainly advise 
that adequate preparation should be made. As a general rule 
the employment of rich organic manures is undesirable, luxu- 


Yiance of growth is induced, a mere dressing of humus is 


soon exhausted, and ultimately trees suffer for a few years 
from the loss of that pabulum on which they first fed and 
depended. 'The noble specimens of coniferous trees at Dropmore 
are examples of the good results that proceed from a judicious 
preparation of compost for forest trees. The Panshanger Oak is 
another instance, although the preparation of the soil was 
rather accidental than designed. We find in different parts of 


the country grand trees that have attained an altitude above 


their compeers, a bulk in massive timber surpassing the 
dimensions of ordinary trees, whose branches, flung out far and 
wide, are themselves equal to the attenuated trees in a thick 
growing wood. The Beggar’s Oak in Lord Bagot’s park is a 
notable instance of majestic grandeur in a tree. The great 
beech at Buckhurst Park, Kent, though beyond its prime is 
still a noble tree. 

_ Such trees are not only objects in which their owners feel a 
Just pride, but they are regarded throughout a wide district 
as conferring a distinction on it, and are visited and admired by 
thousands of people great and small. 

W. Ineram. 


_ AMONG THE BIG TREES IN CALIFORNIA. 


Tae passage of the great) American desert which is crossed 
on the way from New York to San Francisco is, perhaps, the 
posal ahs one could have for the startling yerdure and 
giant tree-life of the Sierras. Dust, dreariness, alkali—the 
earth looking as if sprinkled with salt; here and there a few 
tufts of brown grass in favoured places; but generally nothing 
better than starved wormwood, that seems afraid to put forth 


more than a few small, grey leaves, represents the vegetable 
kingdom in the plains of the desert region, Where the arid 
hills—worn with horizontal lines by the waves of long-dried 
seas—are visible, a few thin tufts of alders and poplars mark 
their hollows; while willows fringe the streams of undrinkable 
water which course through the valleys. A better idea of the 
country can scarcely be had than by imagining an ash-pit 
several hundred miles across, in which a few light-grey weeds, 
scarcely distinguishable from the parched earth, had sprung up, 
regardless of drought. 

As the train ascends the Sierra, there are long covered sheds» 
which guard it from the snow in winter—dark-ribbed tunnels: 
Dawn broke upon us as we were passing through these; and, 
looking out, we saw such a change from the Salt Lake scenery 
as one experiences in passing from a hot dusty road to a cool, 
green, ferny dell. Dust and alkali, dreariness, harshness of 
arid rock and hopelessness of barren soil, are seen no more. 
Near at hand a giant pine rushes up like a huge mast, while in 
the distance they are grouped in_ stately armies of. tree 
grenadiers, filling the deep valleys and cresting all the wave-like 
hills till these are lost in the distant blue. 

On the very summit of the Sierra Nevada the vegetation is 
not luxuriant; there, as elsewhere on high mountain chains, 
is the frost that burns and the wind that shears. When you 
see a solitary pine that has been bold enough to plant itself 
among the boulders and rocks of the high summits, it is usually 
so contorted that it looks as if inhabited by demons; while here 
one has succumbed to the enemy, and you see a few blanched 
branches sticking from a great, dead, barkless base, lapped 
over the carthless granite. But go a little lower down, and 
most probably you willfind a noble group of Picea, startling, 
from the size and height of the trunk, though looking much 
tortured about the head by the winds that surge across these 
summits—the mast-heads of the continent. Snow falls early and 
falls deep on the Sierras, and the roots of the higher trees are 
often covered with it to a depth of from six to twenty-five feet. 
Near the rail, and near frequented places, thick stumps of pines, 
six to fifteen feet high, may be noticed; these are the trees cut 
down when the snow is high and thick and firm about the 
lower part of their stems. But if the nights are bitterly cold, 
the sun is strong in the blue sky far into the winter months, 
so that the snow is melted off the tree tops, and the leaves of 
the pines live, in golden light, long into the winter. All the 
pines that grow near the summit must resist the most piercing 
cold. 

The golden light of the sky and the blue of its depths, and 
the purity of the fresh mantle of snow, are not more lovely in 
their way than the robe of rich yellow lichen with which the 
stems and branches of the pines are clothed. Imagine a dense 
coat of golden fur, three inches deep, clothing the bole of a 
noble tree for a length of one hundred feet, and then running 
out over all the branches, even to the small dead twigs, and 
smothering them in deep fringes of gold, and some idea may 
be formed of the glorious effect of this lichen (Hvernia). 
Tt is the ornament of the mountain trees only; in the valleys 
and foot hills I did not notice it. 

To the flanks of the western slopes of the great chain of the 
Sierras one must go to see the noblest trees and the richest 
verdure. ‘There every one of thousands of mountain gorges, 
and the pleasant and varied passes of every vale that runs with 
its streams and rivers, and from top to bottom of every one of 
the innumerable hills, is densely populated, with noble pines 
and glossy evergreens—an ocean of huge land waves, over 
which the spirit of tree-life has passed, creating giants. The 
autumn days I spent among these trees were among the 
happiest man could desire. Every day a glorious sunshine, 
and the breeze as gentle as if it feared to hurt the long-dead 
trees standing here and there leafless and, perhaps, barkless, 
but still pointing as proudly to the zenith as their living 
brothers. Wander away from the little dusty roads, crossing, 
perhaps, a few long and straight banks of grass and loose 
earth—dead monarchs of the wood, now rendered back to 
the dust from which they once gathered so much beauty 
and strength—and fancy willingly reminds us of the mast- 
groves of the Brobdingnags, quite cut away from little worlds 
and little people. There is little animal life visible, with the 
exception of a variety of squirrel, ranging from the size of a 


54: 


‘ 


THE GARDEN. 


3 Fh Nae 


[Dzc. 9, 1871. 


mouse to that of a large ferret, the graceful Californian quail, 
and occasionally a hare ora skunk. Hyerywhere vegetation is 
supreme, and in some parts higher effects are seen than is the 
case in the most carefully-planted park or pleasure-ground in 
the most favoured climate. ‘This results not more from the 
stately pines (not often crowded together as m the eastern 
States, but with perfect room for deyelopment, and often near 
the crest of a knoll, standing so that each tall tree stands clear 
against the sky) than from the rich undergrowth of evergreens 
with larger leaves that form a smaller picturesque forest 
beneath the tall trees. Grandas aré the pines and cedars (Libo- 
cedrus), one is glad they do not monopolize the woods; the 
evergreen oaks are glossy, and form such handsome low trees. 
One with large shining leayes, yellowish beneath, and long 
acorns sitting in thick cups, covered with a dense and brilliant 
fringe of fur, was the most beautiful oak I ever saw; but most 
of the evergreen oaks of California, whether of the plains or 
hills, are very ornamental trees. One day, in a deep valley 
darkened by the shade of giant specimens of the Libocedrus, 
I was astonished to see an Arbutus, about sixty feet high, 
and quite a forest tree. This is Menzies’ Arbutus, commonly 
known by the old Mexican name of the “madrona”; and a 
very handsome tree it is, with a cimmamon-red stem and 
branches, Here and there, too, the Californian laurel (Oreo- 
daphne) forms laurel-like bushes, and tends to give a glossy, 
evergreen character to the vegetation, Shrubs abound, the 
manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca) and the Ceanothuses being 
usually predominent; while beneath these and all over the 
bare ground are the dried stems of the numerous handsome 
bulbs and brilliant annual flowers, that make the now dry earth 
a living carpet of stars and bells of joyous hues. 

Those who have not visited the high lands of California can 
have no idea of the size and majesty of the trees. It is a mis- 
take to suppose the Sequoia (Wellingtonia) is such a giant among 
them; several grow nearly or quite as high, and it is very likely 
that in such a climate all the pines known in gardens would 
attaim extraordinary dimensions. There was a small saw-mill 

“near where I stopped for some days, and several yokes of oxen 
were always occupied in dragging pine logs to it. The owner 
never thought of bringing anything smaller to this than alog 
three or four feet in diameter im its smallest part, and usually 
left one hundred feet or so of the portion of the tree above this 
on the ground where it fell, as useless. Ata future time we 
may have the pleasure of speaking of some of the big trees 
individually, and conclude now by asking what it is that causes 
the tree-growth to be so noble there. ‘There can be no doubt 
that the climate is almost the sole cause. Soil has very little to 
do with it. I have frequently noticed the trees luxuriating 
where there was not a particle of what we call soil, and, indeed, 
in places where twenty-five feet or so of the whole surface of 
the earth had been washed away by the gold-miners. A bright 
sun for nearly the whole year and a sufficiency of moisture from 
the Pacific explains the matter. This should draw our attention 
to the fact that, in ornamental planting, and especially im the 
planting of coniferous trees, we pay far too much attention to 
supplying them with rich and deep soil and far too little con- 
sideration to the capabilities of the climate in which we have to 
plant. Conpuctor. 


BASE OF THE GRIZZLY GIANT IN THE MARIPOSA 
GROVE. 

Iris impossible to contemplate this vast trunk, painted by 
the unerring pencil of the sun, without falling into a train of 
reflections on the yastness of its dimensions and the far-stretch- 
ing period of time during which it has stood in its solemn 
grandeur; while nations, and even their histories, have passed 
away. ‘This towering monument of the mightiest kind of yege- 
tation has towered aloft in its native valley on the Sierra 
Nevada some two thousand years or more; the age-rings of its 
younger congeners having been counted up to thirteen or four- 
teen hundred, The Grizzly Giant, therefore, may possibly have 
been a living entity even before the Great Roman Republic 
had reached its zenith, and while its rival, Carthage, was still a 
power to be dreaded; and the energetic Cato, im hope rather 
than conviction, was thundering in the Senate, “Delenda est 
Carthago.” It was still growmeg when the great Republic was 


drifting into the Empire, and when the great first Cesar fell at | 


above. 


the feet of Pompey’s statue; and still growing, “ohne hast, ohne 
rast,’ when Augustus donned the imperial purple, and Vireil 
and Horace poured forth their classic strains to adorn and 
immortalize his reign. The ‘‘big tree” went on increasing i 
strength and stature while all the lime of emperors who suc- 
ceeded the first came and went—mere short-lived pigmies im 
comparison to this tree-giait of the Californian woods—eyer 
towering upwards, and growing in magnificence, while Pliny 
was cataloguing and describing the noblest trees of the Old 
World, utterly ignorant that they were dwarfed beyond com- 
pare by a far-off forest lord, standing in unrivalled grandeur of 
growth, in an unheard-of ravine im an unheard-of land. : 
For long centuries afterwards, the Grizzly Giant of the 
Mariposa Grove still remained a. secret to the botanists of 
the then civilized world, and none were able to divulge the 
secret of its being, for the best of all reasons—that none knew 
it. Extraordinary as it may seem, too, it was not till 250 years 
after the discovery of the great western continent by Columbus, 
that the secret of its existence was discovered, and that one of 
the greatest wonders of the vegetable world suddenly became 
known to Huropean science. Indeed, without the accidental 
discovery of Californian gold, which filled the land with ex- 
plorers from all parts of the world, the wonders of her forests, 
valleys, and mountains, might have remained unreyealed for 
still another century. ona 
It is pleasant to note in concluding this brief notice of one 
of the biggest of the “ big ttees,” as they are popularly called 
in California, that Mr. Watkins, of San Francisco, the suc- 
cessful photographer of the Grizzly Giant and many other 
noble objects in the wonderland of the Sierra Nevada, has been 
substantially honoured and immortalized by the ‘bestowal ot 
his name on Mount Watkins, one of the lottiest of the grand 
masses that overtop the striking scenery of the Yosemite 
Valley. The circumference of the Grizzly Giant is 90 feet 7 
inches near the ground, and 64 feet 3 inches at eleven feet 
The figure in the engraving standing at the base, to de- 
fine the scale, is Galen Clark, a well-known Californian forester, 
a man some inches oyer six feet, and stout in proportion. 
The Grizzly Giant is one of the noblest of the Sequoias 
(Wellingtonias) im a grove of those enormous trees known 
as the Mariposa Grove, in the Sierra Nevada. H.N. H. 
(The illustration on the opposite page has been drawn by Mr. 
Noel Humphreys from a photograph by Watkins, of San 
Francisco, and engrayed by William Hooper. | ‘thy 


‘ 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


The New Forest.—Notice has been given by the Commissioners of Woods 
and Forests of an intended application to Parliament during the coming session ” 
for a Bill dealing with the disafforestation of this Forest. The notice is the — 
same in effect as was given about this time last year. i 


« abs 
Planting Conifers.—The chief fault in reference to this matter is, that in 
almost every place Conifers are planted much too close, and at equal distances 
apart. I would not plant any nearer each other than fifty feet, and they should 
be the spruce, and others of a pyramidal form, The more robust and spreading ~ 
kinds I would plant from eighty to three hundred feet apart, excepting in some 
few instances. My plan would be to group a few of the most handsome 
growers distinctly by themselves, and scatter a few of the same kinds at 
certain distances off. Pinetums, in general, as now planted, will in a few year's 
become mere groves, in which individual beauty will be entirely lost. If I 
could have planted all the trees here as I wished, there would have been no ~ 
crowding ; but I had little or no control in the matter until of late years, when’ 
the evil had become too apparent to be concealed; for where too thick, they 
soon began to spoil each other. There is another thing that particularly requires 
attention, and that is: whenever a tree begins to form two or more leaders, the 
contending ones should be removed as soon as perceived—the sooner the better. 
The magnificent Douglas fir here, now over one hundred feet high with one stem, 
would have been forked eight feet from the ground if I had not pruned it. 
When Conifers become forked, their beauty, I consider, is gone. This evil is” 
bad enough in a plantation, but wretched in the case of a single tree.—PHInIe 
Frost, Dropmore. © i f : Sate 
Planting Trees.—Many persons, when recommended to plant, reply: ‘Of 
what use is it to plant ab my age? I can never hope to see my plants become 
trees.” This sort of answer does not at first sight appear surprising, if we 
suppose it to come from a person of sixty or seventy years of age; but we often — 
hear it eyen from men of thirty or forty. In either case such an answer is the 
result of a vulgar error, founded on mistaken and prejudiced notions. We shall 
prove its incorrectness by matters of fact. In the year 1830 there were many 
sorts of trees in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges which had been planted 
exactly ten years, and each of which exceeded thirty feet in height. There are 
also at the present time (December 1834) many trees in the Society’s Garden at 
Chiswick which haye been only ten years planted, and which are between thirty 
and forty feet in height. Why, then, should any one, even of seyenty years of 
age, assign as a reason for declining planting that he cannot hope to live to see 
his plants become trees? A tree thirty feet high, practically speaking, will 
effect all the general purposes for which trees are planted ; it will afford shelter 
and shade, display individual beauty and character, and confer expression ou 
landscape scenery.—Loupon. E 7 


Dec. 9, 1871.) THE GARDEN. 


BASE OF THE GRIZZLY GIANT (33 FEET IN DIAMETER), IN THE MARIPOSA GROVE. 


Dec. 9, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


57 


INSECTS, BIRDS, DESTRUCTIVE 
ANIMALS, &c. 


“ HURTFUL INSECTS. 


WE wish it were in our power, bya single short definition, to 

ive our readers the means of distinguishing between hurtfuland 
innocuous insects. But it is not possible. In mammals, we 
can tell by the teeth whether any species is carnivorous or 
herbivorous; and at first sight it would appear that we should be 
able to do the same with insects by the parts of the mouth. If 
herbivorous, we should set them down as hurtful; while those 
that are carnivorous must be regarded as our friends, for they 
principally feed on vegetable-devouring insects. Many diffi- 
culties, however, stand in the way of our determining which 
belong to one class and which to the other. There is first, the 
different stages through which insects pass. Many of our foes, 
like moths or butterflies, may be very destructive in their grub 
or caterpillar state, and perfectly harmless in their perfect 
condition. ‘Then, many of our friends, like the ichneumons, 
only serve us in the dark. They are parasitic in their larval 
state, living in and consuming the inside of our grub foes; and 
in their perfect state having nothing in their structure to show 
that they can injure other insects. Other classes, such as 
beetles, locusts, &c., have the same habits and structure both 
in their larval and perfect states, and these are the only ones 
which furnish, by their structure, during either period, a guide 
totheirfunetions during both. Yet, again, supposing we were 
to restrict ourselves to insects of this kind, and to try to 
separate the carnivorous from the vegetable feeders, all we 
could do would be to separate those furnished with means of 
offence from those not provided with them, that is, the 
raptorial from the non-raptorial; but the latter are not all 
vegetable feeders. A large proportion of beetles in that 
category are carnivorous or omnivorous, only the flesh they 
eat is not living, but dead; they are, in fact, scavengers, and, 
as such, our excellent good friends. But it is not easy to 
separate even the raptorial from the non-raptorial. 

The chief characters which any one would select as indicative 
of a raptorial life, would be keen sight or scent, to enable the 
insect to detect its prey; speed, to pursue and overtake it; 
and powerful weapons of offence, to kill and rend it in pieces; 
in other words, large eyes or antennw, powerful wings or long 
legs, and strong mandibles. These are indeed possessed by 
most hunting insects; but, at first sight at least, not alone 

by them. The locust, for instance, which is not a hunting 
‘insect, has large wings and powerful leaping legs, and its eyes 
are not small, nor its mandibles weak. That isan instance of 
a vegetable feeder with a structure which appears to have all 
the characters of a predacious insect. We say appears to have 
them, for on careful study of the structure of each of its organs 
we shall find that their adaptation is only apparent and not 
real; in fact, they are not suited to a predacious life, but only 
to that which the locust follows. The eye, although actually 
large, will be found to be only very moderately so when 
compared with the size of the head, and the facets of which 
it is composed are extremely minute. Although the eye is 
perhaps not a fourth of the size of the eye of the rapacious 
dragon-fly, it has probably as many or even more facets, that 
is, eye-tubes (an infinite congeries of which go to make up, 
the eye). Now, it-is a fair and legitimate inference that the 
size of the facet regulates the power of vision. ‘The dragon- 
fly carries, what we may compare to a supply of Rosse’s 
telescopes, while the locust has only a battery of tiny opera- 
glasses. Sothe mandibles of the locust, although large, strong, 
and solid, are short, blunt, and buried in the mouth—admirably 
adapted for browsing but not for seizing; and the wings, 
although broad and large, are not long, and scarcely large in 
comparison with the size of its body. The wings of many 
taptorial beetles are twice the length of the body, while those 
of the locust are less than its own length. Eyeryone knows 
that it is length of wing and not breadth that gives speed, 
consequently the flight of the locust is slow, lumbering, and 
not sustained, the creature constantly dropping down and 
starting again. And, finally, the legs are like those of the 
kangaroo, the anterior being small.and weak, and the posterior 
only adapted for great leaps; a mode of progression better 


adapted for escape than attack. So will it, on examination, be 
found with all vegetable-feeding insects which appear to 
bear weapons of offence. ‘The stag-beetle has great 
mandibles, but they are not adapted for cutting. Many 
of the timber-borers haye the most wonderful cutting im- 
plements. We have seen a leaden-gas-pipe which had been 
actually cut through by the mandibles of a longicorn, in Rio 
Janiero; but the position of the powerful ,mandibles is not 
adapted for attack; they are either directed downwards and 
towards the breast, or in some other way better suited for the 
cutting of wood than seizing and tearing a prey. Sa 

But supposing us to be capable of intuitively seizing and 
rightly appreciating the value and purpose of each organ 
(which seems too much to expect from any un-practised mind 
or eye), and so classing every insect cither as endowed with a 
predacionus organism or not, we are not yet done with our 
difficulties. Paradoxical exceptions, which could only be likened 
to the occurrence of herbivorous-carnivora or carniyorous- 
herbivora, from time to time meet us; and although they are 
not very frequent, still one can never say @ priori whether or 
when they will oceur, and of course they throw a shade of 
uncertainty on all deductions. Thus one of the chief carni- 
vorous tribes of beetles (the Carabide), which possess every 


-true character of predacious insects, contains within it a species 


called Zabrus gibbus, which has been found in its larval state 
to be most destructive to young wheat, climbing up the stalks 
and eating the heads of the shoots. Then among the small 
Hymenoptera, some of the Chaleididee which are so useful as 
internal parasites in destroying grubs of moths and butter- 
flies, do not attack insects but plants. It is one of these (the 
Megastigmus pini) whieh has rendered abortive so many of the 
attempts made by collectors to send home good seed of the 
Picea nobilis from California. 

We could give other instances of these anomalies, but we 
imagine we have said enough to satisfy our readers that there 
is no royal road by which to learn to distinguish between 
insect friends and foes. Nothing but experience will do it 
satisfactorily. Still, something may be affirmed in a general 
way, subject to the qualifications, doubts, and exceptions we 
have just indicated. Thus, all moths and butterflies may be 
pitt ie as enemies. In the larval state they all feed upon 
vegetables or matter of use to man. Most of the four-winged 
flies (Hymendptera), deducting wasps, hornets, &c., are friends. 
Dragon-flies are friends. They are the eagles and hawks of 
the insect world. Locusts, grasshoppers, &c., are enemies. 
The two-winged flies are a family divided among themselves. 
Some being, like the ichneumons, parasitic on the grubs of 
other insects, but probably a still larger proportion, in some 
way or other, are hostile; some are annoying and injurious to 
our cattle, and others destructive to our vegetables and our 
food. Beetles area mixed host. All the weevils (Curculionidz), 
slow-moving beetles, with long snouts, are vegetable feeders. 
The click beetles and their allies, are wire-worms or are timber- 
feeders. Those with very long antenne (long horns as they 
are commonly called) are timber-borers. ‘Those with little 
clubs or knobs at the end of their antenna, are scavengers, 
and consequently, friends; but these must not be confounded 
with another tribe of clumsy, lumpy beetles, with a few small 
leaves placed at right angles to the end of theantennz. These 
are the cockchafers, which, it is unnecessary to say, are 
formidable e1iemies. 'The lady-birds are friends, feeding on 
the green-fly. A group of them, differing in having velvety 
instead of shining backs, are vegetable feeders, but they occur 
only in small numbers in this country. The group known as 
Devil’scoach-horses, long black ear-wig-looking things (Staphy- 
linide), are friends, either carnivorous or scavengers. And 
lastly, the black beetles (Carabide)—not the black beetles of 
our kitchens, which are cockroaches, and although scavengers, 
generally regarded more as foes than friends, but the hard, 
black, or metallic-looking beetles, which the gardener often 
finds under stones, or clods, or running about preying upon 
other insects—these are good friends, to be cherished and 
protected accordingly. b 

In our next we shall proceed to details, following no 
particular order, but presenting, as may be most convenient 
for us, the life-history of those species from the attacks of 
which cultivators chiefly suffer. A. Murray. 


58 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 9, 1871. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON INSECTS, BIRDS, ETC. 


A Good Precaution against the Turnip Fly.—Turnip culture in this district 
is conducted invariably upon the ridge system; and the only means I use to 
secure a crop, in spite of the fly, is to supply that pest abundantly with its 
favourite food—the white turnip. This I manage to do by having a third 
canister fitted on the centre of my turnip drill, and the seed intended for the 
fly—yery fresh white seed—is deposited. upon the ground between the crop- 
bearing ridges. It is coyered up by the fine earth, which is displaced by the 
coulters, and, being slightly covered, yegetates earlier than the crop. Even 
when the crop consists of white turnips, it has been only slightly damaged, the 
extra quantity of food supplied to the insect haying rendered its rayages 
comparatively harmless.—# de T. 


Picea nobilis destroyed by Larve.—Some time since a very fine specimen 
of Picea nobilis, which was then apparently healthy, suddenly died, and on 
examination I found the trunk from the ground to within six feetof the top, com- 
pletely honeycombed by the lary of the goat-moth. The tree has lately been 
cut down, and a portion of the trunk about six feetlong split up, and from the piece 
no less than thirty grubs were taken out, so that the whole tree probably contains 
two hundred at least. None of the other trees have been touched, but the 
ravages seem to he entirely confined to this one tree.—S., in Field ——[This is the 
first instance we have met with of the goat-moth attacking conifers. As neither 
it nor the Picea nobilis are easily mistaken, we must assume the fact to haye 
been as stated ; but it would have been more satisfactory had the writer afforded 
the means of verifying his knowledge and his accuracy. In default of that we 
should be glad to know whether any of our readers have ever met with a similar 
occurrence. | . 

Insect-Killing Plants.—An Adelaide paper has recommended the planting 
of Larkspur for attracting and destroying such grasshoppers as partook of it, a 
circumstance which has induced me to say that for these thirty years past [have 
zead both here and in America that planting Hemp where Cabbages were 
growing would prevent caterpillars from infesting the crop. I therefore planted 
a row of Hemp to every four or five rows of Cabbages this year, but owing to the 
lateness of the season few butterflies made their appearance. My Hempgrewseven 
feet high ; and, at last, butterflys did come, and caterpillars too, more than ever 
I knew before; but, even where a stalk of the Hemp had fallen right across a 
Cabbage plant, it in no wise prevented the ravages of the caterpillars, and the 
result was the destruction of the whole crop. So much for Hemp as an insect- 
destroyer : I hope the Larkspur may not prove equally ineffective. I have been 
told that when dried and powdered it acts as a household vermin destroyer.—JAs. 
Serary. [We are afraid that the Larkspur would be as harmless to insect life as 
the Hemp. We know of no well-authenticated instance where any insect has been 
injured by feeding on a poisonous plant. We have received specimens (pulled 
in life, and sent home im spirits) of the Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar, with the 
caterpillar of a moth feeding on it. At the same time it would be most un- 
philosophical to reject any recommendation without examination merely because 
if seems absurd in our eyes. So far the Larkspur recipe has this in its fayour, 
that one of its nearest allies, Hellebore, has really been found useful against the 
Gooseberry and Cabbage caterpillars; but then we cannot compare the effects of 
an extract or powder made from a plant with its effect when living. The Hellebore 
isin powder, The insect-killing powder is the dried pollen of a species of Pyreth- 
yum, and thus we are without any parallel to warrant us in believing in the 
virtues either of living Larkspur or living Hemp, Hellebore or Pyrethrum. ] 


THE IN-DOOR-GARDEN. 


OLD STUMPS OF TREE FERNS. 


TREE-FERN stems must be included among subjects that are as 
useful dead as alive. Great numbers of tree ferns are imported from 
the Antipodes, and a very large percentage of them perish on the 
way, while others do so before they can be established in this country. 
At first these old and dead stems were kept as objects of curiosity, or 
sometimes thrown on one side as useless; but, as the illustration 
shows, no objects are capable of being more gracefully used, either 
in the stoye, greenhouse, or hot orcold fernery. The rigid, enduring, 
yet open and moisture-retaining texture of the dead stem, renders it 
an admirable support for other ferns. By placing a stemless fern on 
the top of it we get the effect of a young tree fern, while tiny seed- 
ling ferns of various kinds and sizes often spring spontaneously from 
the moist surface of the old stem. In planting ferns on these stumps, 
the first thing to do is to obtain pieces of the required height and 
size. The tree ferns usually imported are very tall; and as it is im- 
possible to establish a new crest on an old and dead stem nearly equal 
in size to what its own had been, it is best to cut the stems into two 
or more parts, and to select portions from fifteen to twenty-four 
inches high. On stumps of that size we can establish crests in pro- 
portion to their height; and this is also about the size that can_be 
most agreeably examined when placed on the» bench of a fernery or 
stove, and also the most convenient for removal. Having chosen the 
stump, the next thing is to place it firmly ina pot. Its base should 

_be cut level, placed on the drainage, and padded round firmly with 
turfy peat, silver sand, chopped moss, &c., or whatever mixture may 
be thought most congenial to the plants it is desired to establish. 
Previously to being placed in position the top ought to be cut level, 
and then scooped down for two or three inches,-so as to permit of 
placing a little suitable soil in the hollow. If the stump be a thick 
one, and selected to support large-growing ferns like Lomaria gibba, 
the centre may be gouged more deeply; but numbers of ferns will 
thrive in a very shallow concavity. The stump should be in propor- 


tion to the size of the fern it has to bear, the most vigorous kinds — 


being placed on the largest stumps as a matter of course. The fern 
is planted on the apex in the ordinary way, a young, thriving plant 


being selected; if a creeping fern, one or more bits of the rooting 
stem might be pegged down on the apex, and they will soon begin to 
crawl oyer it and down the sides. 

This plan of growing ferns would be yery attractive if even we 
could only establish one kind on the crest of each stump; but we 
may have a variety of interesting and graceful, if smaller, seedling 
ferns cropping out from the stem beneath the crest, and a varied and 
vigorous crop springing from the surface of the pot in which the 
stump is placed. Thus there are three distinct ways of cultivating 
ferns in the case of each portion of a stump potted as advised, while ~ 


_ the pot itself may be hidden or partially hidden by creeping saxi- 


frage or Lycopodium denticulatum, placed round the edge and 
allowed to hang over the sides. If the most vigorous fronds spring 
from the pot and from the top of the stem, a most interesting sight 
is afforded by the minute seedlings that crop from the surface of the. 
stem itself. The stems being kept in a moist state, these seedlings 
come up self-sown ; but where even the smallest collection of ferns is 
erown it will be easy to shake afew spores of the most graceful 
kinds over the surface, and in due time the young plants will appear 
in groups, or crowds, or isolated specimens. It need hardly be said 
that the greater the variety of young plants on the stem, the more ~ 
pleasing the result will be. f 

As to the kinds of ferns to be planted on the crest, those with run- 
ning or creeping stems, like the hare’s-foot fern, thrive best, creeping 


all over the stem and pot, too, if permitted; but the effect in this 
case is scarcely so good as when some graceful kind, like the 
Nephrolepis, arches its fronds from the crest like a minature tree 
fern. Itis, however, best to haye some with creeping stems and 
some of the type figured in the illustration. Of bold and strong- 
growing ferns that may be grown in this way, Lomaria gibba is pro- 
probably’ the best. As tender and hardy ferns may be thus 
grown, the conservatory as well as the hothouse proper may be 
embellished with these exceedingly graceful and interesting objects. 
They need not be grown there, but they might be remoyed thither 
in summer or autumn. ‘The plants would not suffer in a shady 
position, provided the stems were kept moist, which they always 
ought to be. : : i 

In tastefully-arranged ferneries there is no occasion to place the 
stump in a yase or pot of any kind, but simply on a piece of rock- 
work or on a bank. In cases of this kind great-care should be ~ 
taken to select a satisfactory position for the stumps, as, of course, 
they could not be moved about at will like those in pots. By asatis- 
factory position we mean one in which they would not only thrive, 
but in which they could be well attended to and conveniently seen, 
if possible, from more than one side. If a number were arranged 
in such a position, one could afford to have them at various elevations 
above and below the cye; if but one or two specimens only, it is 


Ee ated : 


Dec. 9, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


59 


desirable to place them near or slightly above its level, so that their 
general effect may be seen to the best advantage, as well as the minute 
spray of verdure on the stems. There is no reason why they should 
not be used with like good effect in some shady moist nook of the 
out-door fernery or the rock-garden. In this case hardy kinds should, 
of course, be selected; and if we had nothing but the common Poly- 
podium, which is so often seen growing on boughs, we need not be 
short of a subject for the top of the stem; while moss and seedling 
ferns and minute trailing plants may be established on the stems in 
- the same way as in-doors. 

The only difficulty that can arise is the procuring of a sufficient 
number of stumps. Nurserymen who import tree ferns generally 
lose a great many more than they desire, and therefore are sometimes 
well supplied with defunct stems, but these are very seldom at hand 
in private gardens. We believe that when this mode of cultivating 
ferns becomes sufficiently known, there will be a demand for these 
objects that will make it worth the while of some sagacious colonist 
to send us home a shipload or two, and they may yet be sold by 
every nurseryman. Doubtless many of them lie dead and useless in 
various parts of the world. Field. 


SARRACENIA CULTURE. 


As Sarracenias are found wild in Florida and the adjacent 
regions of North America, it is at once obvious that they do 
not require, nor will they long exist in, that excessive heat, 
especially in winter, to which we often see them subjected. 
Through the months of September, October, November, De- 
cember, and January, I find a temperature, by night, of from 
45 deg. to 50 deg., and by day, from 50 deg. to 55 deg., to suit 
them best. By the middle of April, I give them 5 deg. more 
warmth, and through May, June, and July, I give them 65 deg. 
hy night, with a rise of 10 deg. by day; of course in very 
hot weather the temperature will run higher, but they get 
plenty of air day and night. They are kept near the glass, 
and a thin shade is used in sunny weather. 

The way in which I propagate them is by division of the 
crowns with a sharp knife. The compost I pot in is a good 


Sarracenia flava. 


fibrons peat, broken about the size of pigeons’ eggs, to which 
are added one-sixth of chopped sphagnum, and sufficient silver 
sand and crocks, broken to the size of horse-beans, to keep the 
soil open. On no account are the plants allowed to remain 
more than twelve months in the same soil, however fresh it 
may appear; for if left a second season, the soil will be certain 
to become sour, and then the roots rot as fast as they are made. 
When ae shake them clean out. I do not approve of 
pans placed under the pots; and never syringe overhead, as it 


has a tendency to induce a softer growth in the pitchers, which 
causes them to die off much sooner. During the growing 
season I water every day, and in winter twice a-week. 

All the varieties make growth at two seasons of the year; 
the different forms of flava, purpurea, variolaris, and rubra, 
make their principal growth in spring, and then a second 
growth in autumn, but this latter is much inferior to that 
which is made in spring. The two forms of Drummondi are 
just the reverse in this respect; they make their principal 
growth in the autumn, and only a much smaller growth in 
spring. For many years, I used to pot all the kinds indis- 
criminately at the end of February, but under this treatment 
the two varieties of Drummondi never succeeded near so well 
as the other kinds. It therefore occurred to me that perhaps 
it would be better to defer potting these sorts until just before 
they commenced their autumn growth, and I found that this 
had a marked effect upon them, by inducing a much finer 
growth. I also, at this season, give them aiey waterings 
every day, just as much as I give to the other kinds in spring. 
T always keep them standing on either level slate or wooden 
shelves kept continually damp; they will not succeed if the 
atmosphere around them is dry. 

I would strongly advise those who may be commencing their 
cultivation to procure thoroughly-established plants, as there 
is great uncertainty in imported ones. The sorts I cultivate 
are these:—S. rubra, which is extremely rare; the flowers 
scented equal to Russian violets; S. purpurea, and a variety 
much finer in its veinings; S. flava, three varieties, quite 
distinct from each other; S. variolaris; S. Drummondi rubra 
and Drummondi alba, the latter variety being very scarce. 

Southgate. T. Barygs. 

{Our illustration, sketched at Southgate House last summer, 
represents one of the many superb specimens of this remark- 
able genus that have been grown by Mr. Baines. } 


Tabernemontana coronaria fi. pl.—A quarter of a century 
ago this formed a leading exhibition plant. The flowers, though 
smaller, are not unlike those of the Gardenia, pure white in colour, and 
are produced in bunches of two to five, and are sweet and admirable 
for bouquets. The plant is a very free-growing one—when it gets 
suitable soil and plenty of heat—but still it is not an easy matter to 
produce a dwarf, compact, well-furnished specimen. It is readily 
propagated by cuttings of the half-ripe or mature wood, though the 
first is preferable ; and the best plan is not to trim the cuttings to a 
joint in the usual manner, but to cut them at two inches long, so that 
the growing buds may be brought as near the surface of the soil as 
possible. Put them in either singly in thumb pots, and, after 
plunging in brisk bottom heat, cover with a bell glass; or put them 
ten or twelve ina four-inch pot, and then cover them. A mixture of 
peat and loam with some sand, surrounding the cuttings with sand, 
will be the best medium in which to strike the cuttings. When pro- 
perly rooted, which will be in about six weeks, inure them gradually 
to fnll air, and then begin to grow them on. The best compost in 
which to grow them will be found to be rich, fibrous loam from which 
the fine soil has been removed two pecks, flaky leaf_soil half a peck, 
peat the same quantity, with a quart each of crushed charcoal and 
sand, all thoroughly incorporated together. If the newly-struck 
plants are vigorous and well rooted, they may be removed at once to 
well-drained four-inch pots, sinking them so as to bring the branches 
close to the soil. Pot firmly, and if afterwards the plants can haye 
the benefit of a bottom heat of 80 degs. to 90 degs., they will be 
all the better for it. This will start them into vigorous growth, and 
the side shoots will make rapid progress. The atmospheric tempera. 
ture necessary to the best results will be a mean of 70 degs., rising 
to 80 degs. or even 90 degs., with sun heat on bright days, and 
with plenty of atmospheric moisture. When the pot is full of roots, 
reduce the supply of water for a week or so, and place the plants 
close to the glass, so as to ripen them a little, then cut the shoots 
back to within two joints of the base, and, instead of two, you will 
soon have four, six, or more shoots. In this way you get what may 
be called a foundation for your specimen, and then the plants may be 
allowed to grow on for the remainder of the season. After they 
have been stopped and begin to grow again, the plants may be re- 
moved to an eight-inch pot, using the same compost, and continuing 
the treatment as to heat and moisture. If you want the young 
plants to bloom, that object must be effected by attending to the 
ripening process early in the autumn. The growth must be brought 
gradually to a stand, and then by free exposure to the full sun the 
wood must be thoroughly matured. This effected, the temperature 


G0 | THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 9, 1871. 


of the intermediate house, 50 degs. to 60 degs., will be sufficient 
through the winter, and the season of blooming may be governed by 
the time at which you introduce the plants to a brisk growing tem- 
perature. If, however, the object is to make a handsome specimen, 
blooming the second season must not be thought of. Instead of that, 
cut your plants boldly back in February, and so soon as the young 
shoots make their appearance take the plants out of the pots, remove 
such of the old, inert soil as you can without destroying the roots, 
and then pot them on into pots of suitable size. The same summer 
treatment as to bottom heat and a brisk growing temperature may be 
continued, but at the same time the plants must have all the light 
possible, so as to induce a short, stubby growth, and hence rampant 
shoots may be stopped with the object of making side spurs; but this 
stopping must not take place later than the end of July, or the 
growth will not be matured. If these directions are properly attended 
to, the end of the second season of growth should show a plant that 
will furnish handsomely a twelye-iach pot; and once formed, the plants 
will continue to grow steadily for many years. With established 
plants the only care necessary is to stop rampant growth and en- 
courage the formation of spurs; for, as the plants bloom from these 
small shoots, we cannot have too many of them. I haye omitted to 
mention that weak manure-water may be given when the pots are 
full of roots and the plants in free growth, and also at the time when 
the blossom buds are swelling. The plants are subject to the attacks 
of insects, which must be subdued in the usual manner.—A, 


Tradeseantia discolor.—When tastefully trained, this fine old 
plant has a beautiful effect either in the stove, warm conservatory, 
or greenhouse. A plant of it here, in the form of a pyramid about 
four feet in height, has been very much admired, and as its lower 
branches quite cover the pot, nothing could be more graceful than 
it in appearance, its variegated foliage being thus shown off to much 
advantage. For making up a collection of fine-foliaged plants for 
exhibition, this Tradescantia will be found-to be very useful when 
trained on wire or sticks, as a pyramid. Smaller plants of it will 
likewise be found to be suitable for table decoration; for some of 
the leaves acquire quite a reddish tinge with age, and the beautiful 
variegation exhibited by the younger foliage is seen to perfection 
under artificial light. The plant, if in well-drained pots, is very 
easily grown in any light, rich soil— Wu. TrtEry, Welbeck. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 


THREE main points to be observed in strawherry-growing 
consist in digging deeply, planting early, and manuring 
heayily. The site haying been chosen, the ground should he 
trenched at least two feet deep ; but, if the subsoil will admit of 
it, three feet would be better, and each spit or trench should 
be well covered with manure. I have used all kinds of ferti- 
lizers, and, for heavy land, I find horse manure the best; but, 
on light soils, cow or sheep dung is better. I layer the plants, 
if I can, in sixty-sized pots the first week in July, and plant 
them out the first week in August. By this system I have 
better fruit the first year than any I get afterwards; indeed, 
by generous treatment in the way just described, I have had 
Sir Charles Napier with 370 flowers on a plant the first 
season. The proper site for early strawberries is a south 
border; but for general crops open quarters are best. The 
finest strawberries I ever grew were planted on a piece of 
ground that had been under seakale for twenty-five years. But 
in such a case as this no dung must be applied, or'you will 
only have foliage instead of fine fruit. When the plants are 
in readiness and the ground trenched, I proceed first to set 
out the rows three feet apart. I then plant with a trowel the 
balls entire, treadmg the ground firmly and evenly, and 
finishing off by giving the plants a good soaking with water. 


Strawberries, planted in the manner just described, make. 


one’s heart rejoice every time one passes them. They are not 
the little miserable things one generally sees planted in 
October, which half perish during the winter. No; my plants 
are strong and vigorous, all of one size, and in July any 
individual plant is a model in its way of luxuriant growth. 
The sorts which [ cultivate are Keen’s Seedling, Sir Charles 
Napier, Black Bess, British Queen, and Dr. Hoge. Take 
advantage of a dry day in March, and with steel forks fork the 
ground lightly over, leaving it in a rough state, and, just 
when the flowers expand, mulch with long litter, to keep the 
fruit clean, When colouring, I place stakes round the bed 


four feet high, and on these I put nets in such a way as one 
can go underneath them without taking them off. : 
Selection, I should mention, is, in the case of strawberries, 
as necessary to success asin that of turnips. So particular, 
indeed, am I in regard to this point, that when the fruit is 
ripe, I mark all the best pots with small stakes, so that my 
stock is always improving. After fruiting is over, the plants 
are gradually hardened off, and the first week in May they are 
planted out, especially for runners. By this means I get 
plants a fortnight or three weeks earlier than I otherwise 
would, which is an advantage. In fine, open autumns, in 
addition to runners I have also a few dishes of fruit, the 
flavour of which, however, lacks that freshness which makes 
the strawberry such a general favourite. 
Burghley. — ~ R, GIuBert, 


IMPROVED FRUIT TRELLISES. 


Tus subject now appears to be receiving the attention it 
deserves. Properly done, these trellises are as much before 
the old wooden trellis in appearance as a graceful entter-yacht 
is before a canal boat. And not in appearance only are they 
superior. They are practically everlasting; they are not 
expensive ; they are better for the trees, and they do not waste 
labour in continual repairs. We fear the firms who put them 
up are not sufficiently alive to the importance of selecting the 
strongest and best form, and hence think it right to reproduce 
some illustrations from “The Parks and Gardens of Paris,” 


Trellis for Pear Trees: ten feet high. Uprights and stays of T-iron; hori- 
zontal lines, slender galvanized wire; vertical lines, pine-wood rods, half an inch 
square and painted green: to these the ascending branches are trained. 
showing what the improved trellises are. 
seen there is still too great a tendency to rest satisfied with the 
low six-foot or even five-foot trellis; this is much too low for 
the full development of a fruit tree. 
unwise repression and mutilation of the trees, which is too 
often relentlessly pursued. | Ree: acs ‘ 

The illustrationsand footnotes make further description need- 
less. There are various other modes of making good trellises, 
but decidedly none better than this, of which there are many 
hundred yards in the Government litchen-garden at Versailles. 
Nothing can be neater alongside garden walks than fruit- 
trees trained on these trellises. There is no shaking about 


of rough irons “or wooden beams, no falling down or loosen-— 


ing of the wires; the fruit is firmly attached and safe from 
gales, the wood is fully exposed, and the trellis, when well 
covered, forms an elegant dividing line in the garden. The 
best way to place them is at from three to six feet from the 
edge of the walk, and if in the space between the espalier and 
the walk a line of cordons could be established without 


difficulty, the effect. and result would prove very good indeed. 
In some cases where large quantities of fruit are required, it 


So far as we have 


It necessitates the 


Dec. 9, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


61 


ey be desirable to run them across the squares at a distance 
ot m or eighteen feet apart. The principle is quite simple, 
the proof of which is that the pelhiaes at Versailles were 
erected by the garden workmen. The mode of employing the 
uprights of pine wood painted green and reaching trom the 
top of the trellis to within six inches of the ground, is not a 
common one, though very desirable where the erect way of 
training the shoots is practised. The reader will readily per- 
ceive that this system combines the advantages of the cordon 
and the large tree. Of course many other forms, or any form, 
may be used with this system of trellising, with slight modifi- 
cations. to suit different kinds of trees or different forms. The 
double trellis shown is simply a modification of the single one, 
and is not only desirable where space is limited, but also for its 
economy, for one set of uprights supports the two sets of wires 
simply by using cross-bits of iron about eighteen inches long, 


— 


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k it ; ra 1 /fl 
Te Ne ue ae UF et 

\ r fi \ t 
Le thee EY ) i 
UE aca ae Oe 
| tf Me ap Ne Oe 
va f 4 
} He at SAA SE Nia) 
ih F AG A ab i 
EEE St AIA 
EAL Al : 

RS 

ist 


N 


—— 


A 
ig 


Double Trellis for Pear Trees: ten feet high. Uprights and stays of T-iron; 


horizontal lines, slender galvanized wire ; vertical lines, pine-wood rods, half an 
inch square and painted green : to these the ascending branches are trained. 
and at the desired distance apart. However, the engraving 
shows this at a glance. _ 

The distance between the upright rods of pine wood is of 
course calculated for the training of the branches of this par- 
ticular form of tree. But the same trellis will, with shght 
modifications, serve for various forms of trained trees. 


Amateur Grape-Growing.—This jhas become quite a profit- 
able pursuit in some parts of Cheshire. The first case to which I 
will allude is that of Mr. Cooper, a retired tradesman, who 

his vines with the assistance of a man-of-all-work. In an 


ordinary lean-to house, planted about seven years ago, he has Black 


Hamburghs trained to the roof, and Muscat Hamburghs on the back 
wall, with other kinds led up pillars. These vines had done, I was 
informed, remarkably well from the commencement. The erection 
of the house, heating, and border-making, were all.carried out under 


his own supervision, and the crop this season has been magnificent, 


each bunch averaging about two pounds’ weight, with berries large 
and fine. Mr. Cooper commenced grape-growing solely for the 
pleasure which he would derive from watching and attending to his 
vines with his own hands; but, being so successful, he has been 
induced to combine profit with pleasure, and his grapes at the present 
time command the highest price of any in the Manchester markets. 
A span-roofed vinery more recently erected by him is now carrying 
its third crop. This is planted with Foster’s Seedling, Mrs. Pince, 
Muscat ‘of Alexandria, Alicant, and Lady Downes; and here I also 
found first class grapes, fine both in bunch and berry, and beauti- 
fully coloured, some of the bunches weighing from four to five 


pounds. Mrs. Pince has not, however, for some reason or other, done 
so well as the other varieties. Encouraged by Mr. Cooper’s success, 
a span-roofed vinery has been put up by another amateur-grower, 
everything as nearly as possible having been carried out as in the 
first case, with the exception of the border, which consists entirely of 
an old, decomposed heap of conch grass that had accumulated in the 
corner of a field, and the crop as I saw it this season has been all 
that could be desired. Some of the bunches of Muscats could not 
weigh less than five or six pounds each. Had these growers only suc- 
ceeded in producing ordinary crops, their expectations would have 
been realised, but I was informed that out of this house, which is 
only 30 feet long by 15 feet wide, forty pounds’ worth of grapes had 
been sold each season, a statement which I can well believe, for even 
at our largest public exhibitions I have never seen finer fruit than 
that produced on this conch-made border.—E. Wetsu, Nantwich, 
Cheshire. * 

Men like Pears.—Men often remind me of pears in the way of 
coming to maturity. Some are ripe at twenty, like human Jargo- 
nelles, and must be made the most of, for their day is soon over. 
Some come into their perfect condition late, like the autumn kinds, 
and they last better than the summer fruit. And some that, like 
the Winter-Nelis, have been hard and uninviting until all the rest 
have had their season, get their glow and perfume long after the 
frost and snow have done their worst with the orchards. Beware of 
rash criticisms; the rough and stringent fruit you condemn may be 
an autumn or a winter pear, and that which you picked up beneath 
the same bough in August may have been only its worm-eaten wind- 
falls. Milton was a Saint Germain, with a graft of the roseate 
Early Catherine. Rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet-skinned old 
Chaucer was an Easter Beurré; the buds of a new summer were 
swelling when he ripened.— OLIVER WENDELL HoumMes. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FRUIT-GARDENING, 


A Worcester Fruit Farm.—Mr. Varden has worked out the idea of a fruit 
farm on a vast scale, near Pershore. His estate is 250 acres. Of this about 
140 acres are planted with fruit trees. These include 60,000 gooseberry bushes, 
100,000 currant trees, and about 6,000 plum trees, to say nothing of hundreds 
of pear, apple, and other trees. The extent of the farm may be imagined when 
we mention that for weeks during the fruit season Mr. Varden has sent off four 
or five tons of fruit a day. One lot of currants sent away on one day to one 
customer weighed seven tons. 

North Aspect of Fruit Walls—With me the Morello and Kentish cherries 
are always larger and finer on a north aspect than on any other, and I have 
likewise had the May Duke, Bigarreau, and Elton grown with good flavour under 
the same circumstances. The Florence and Late Duke varieties keep very late 
with me when netted up, as well as red and white currants and Warrington 
gooseberries. I find that the Winter Nelis pear, when ripened on a north 
aspect, is of good flavour and keeps late. By having this variety ripened on 
south, west, east, and north aspects, a succession can be had in season for two 
months. Some kinds of plums are likewise excellent with me on north aspects, 
especially the Golden Drop greengage and Ickworth Impératrice. The latter 
hangs till quite shrivelled, and is then delicious ; and, when gathered before the 
aa injures it, can be kept in the fruit-room for months.—Wm. TiuuEry, 

elbeck. 


A Hint to Owners of Large Gardens.—It would be an excellent plan in 
country places to cause the gardener to raise an annual batch of the very best 
kinds of pears, poms, bd a cherries, &c., for planting wherever it might be 
thought desirable, as well as for giving away to labonrers, cottagers, &c. A 
present of a few good kinds of fruit-trees to such people might in the end serve 
them infinitely more than double the amount spent in other matters. For the 
young trees would grow into goodly specimens within a few years, and then 
yield annually ay. times their original cost. Thus one would have the 
additional pleasure of knowing that, while the homes of poor people were made 
the more interesting and attractive, a very desirable addition to their material 
comforts would be made at the same time. All the sunny walls of labourers’ 
cottages, &c., should be covered with fruit-trees, and even the north walls might 
be covered with Morello cherries, or early summer pears, like Summer Doyenné ; 
aye, even the very roofs might be covered with valuable fruit in many instances. 
This, of course, applies as well to every species of out-office or other wall 
surface. Apart from the profit to be derived, nothing would add more to the 
appearance of all these structures. If, as suggested, the stocks were raised and 
erate by the gardener, the cost of the trees need not exceed a penny or two 
each. 

Profitable Fruit Culture.—Fruit culture can only give profitable results 
under the following conditions :—Firstly : A method of cultivation and training 
must be adopted that, with a given surface of land, will yield the maximum 
result in the shortest space of time. To this end we must renounce all the 
fancy systems of cultivation adopted by those who, looking on fruit culture 
only as a pleasing amusement, make difficulties forthe pleasure of overcoming 
them, and turn and twist trees in all kinds of fantastic shapes, thereby sacri- 
ficing profit to form. Secondly: We must only grow fruits of the finest 
quality in cases where they have to be sent a long distance to the places of 
consumption. In fact, this kind of produce, having a pretty high intrinsic 
value, can be sold at a sufficiently large profit, although it has to bear a heavy 
charge for packing and carriage before reaching the consumer. If, on the 
contrary, these latter charges—which are always the same, no matter what the 
value of the produce may be—are added to the prime cost of fruit of medium 
quality, there will be no longer the proper proportion between the cost of pro- 
duction and the expense of packing and transport that will yield a sufficient 

‘ofit to the grower. Thirdly: We must only cultivate in each locality those 
Rinds of fruit which are adapted to it, and to come to perfection without any 
very large amount of attention, in whieh case the net profits will of course 
be large: 


62 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 9, 1871. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


TRUMPET-SHAPED FLOWER-VASES. 


Tis simple form of flower-vase has always been a favourite 
with me. If I were compelled to restrict myself to any one 
form of yase, this would be the kind which I should choose before 
all others. At the same time, I 
should like to point out which par- 
ticular variety of trumpet-shaped 
form prefer. It is that in which 
the height is not less than three 
times, and not more than four 
times, the diameter of the foot; in 
which the diameter of the top does 
not exceed the diameter of the 
foot; in which the lowest part of 
the stem is about one-eighth of the 
diameter of the foot; and in which 
the size of the tube increases al- 
most imperceptibly through the 
lower half, and more decidedly up. 
to seyen-eights of the height, above 
~ which it should open out into a 
nearly flat mouth. Such vases 
as these are pleasing objects to the 
eye eyen without any flowers in 
them ; and this is mainly owing to 
their not haying any straight 
_lines. Contrast the gracefulness 

of outlme of the three vases 
dressed with flowers with the stiff, 
: ungainly forms of the two without 

: 4 4, flowers; and then I feel sure you 
Tape stanteiigg fom, sw. Will agree with me in thinking 

rounded by Water Lilies. that, as there are no straight 
lines in nature, so there should be no straight lines in flower- 
vases. 

One great advantage afforded by trumpet-shaped vases is 
that they require so few flowers and leaves; another is, that 
they are so quickly and easily dressed; last not least, they show 
off choice flowers most effectively. 


Vase with a few Orchid 
Mowers and Werns, 

In the accompanying illustrations the largest glass was 
three feet high. Its top was filled with clean moss, which 
surrounded the well-washed roots ofa strong plant of Lygodium 
japonicum, the fronds of which hung. down and trailed upon 
the table-cloth. Into the moss were placed three splendid 
flowers of the dark-red Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and a few fronds 
of Gleichenia dichotoma. At the base was a ring of the flowers 
and leaves of our common white water-lily (Nymphza alba). 
The glass contaiming the blooms of Vallota purpurea was ten 
inches high. At the back were two fronds of Lastrea decurrens; 
on one side, a frond of Dayallia elegans; and in front, a four- 
parted frond of Gleichenia flabellata. The glass with the three 
blooms of an Odontoglossum was nine inches high, and the 
fern-fronds im it were those of Hypolepis distans. This vase 
was made of ruby glass,a material which shows off some kinds 
of flowers to great advantage. 


Bad Forms of 
Vases, 


Vase with Vallota and 
Ferns. 


All these glasses can be procured from most of the London 
glass works, where they are kept in stock, together with a — 
smaller size of ruby colour about five inches high, This 
smaller size is of great use to me when the size of the table 
necessitates large dishes of flowers; for imstance, im the 
middle of a round table large enough for eighteen people to 
dine at, a raised bank of moss, studded with white camellias 
and cerise geraniums, looks exceedingly well, the more so if a 
tall, trumpet-shaped yase rises from the centre; but it looks 
better still if the circular bank is surrounded by a ring of 
these little ruby vases, each containmg two small pieces of 
Maidenhair fern and one spray of white Bouyardia, The 
points of the large fronds, used as a fringe to this mossy bank, 
should lie on the table-cloth between the ruby glasses. W. 7. 


Orchids for the Sitting-Room.—Orchids are not as yet very 
generally used for the decoration of apartments—a use for which 
many of these beautiful plants seem pre-eminently adapted. That 
they are used for the decoration of the dinner-table occasionally we 
know, but it is a rarity to see any orchid used in drawing-rooms ; 
and yet we have many species that will make a vigorous growth out 
of doors during the summer if placed in a sheltered position; and 
we know of instances in which some of the more “common species 
have been well grown in Ward’s close cases for many months 
together. Some orchids bloom after their growth is matured, and 
finish flowering before they again commence growing; and these are 
the best to employ for the sitting-room, as they can be again trans- 
ferred to the orchid-house before they commence their growth, and 
there is comparatively no danger of their being injured. To these last 
belong some of the cool Odontoglossums and Oncidinms, Ceelogyne 
cristata, Lycaste Skinneri, besides many of the glorious Cattleyas 
and Leelias. Ccelogyne cristata is one of the finest of all orchids for 
in-door decoration, and dure the past very severe winter we 
repeatedly used a fine plant, with thirty or forty spikes, for the 
especial decoration of the dining-room, and occasionally for the front 
hall. Under gaslight this is one of the loveliest objects imaginable, 
the white colour of the flowers being dazzling in its purity under 
artificial light. The temperature of the orchid-house in which this 
plant was placed last winter frequently descended to 38 degs., or 
only 6 degs. above freezing-point, and yet this plant is uninjured. 
Another Indian orchid, Aérides odoratum, we had last winter in an 
ordinary lean-to, the temperature of which descended frequently to 
40 degs., and probably lower. Crotons succumbed to this treatment, — 
but two small plants of this Aérides are as healthy as ever, and are 
now growing and flowering vigorously. It would be folly to recom- 
mend Indian epiphytés, as Phalenopsis, Vandas, &c., to be removed 
to the house in the winter season; but with many of the Odonto- ~ 
glossums, Lycastes, &c., this may be done with impunity if due pre- 
cautions are taken in frosty weather to preyent the plants being 
frozen in transit. Lycaste Skinneri and its many beautiful varieties 
will last for weeks together in an ordinary sitting-room, the tem- 
perature of which does not sink below 40 degs.; and the same may 
be said of Odontoglossum Alexandrze, Oncidium nubigenum, and 
many other species of orchids from the cool summits of the Pernvian 
Andes. During the summer months there is little danger to be 
feared if the plants are set in a sheltered position in the room, and — 
not subjected to cold, cutting draughts; but in the winter we would 
strongly recommend the use of close cases; while for small plants, such 
as Sophronitis grandiflora, 8. cernua, Cypripedium insigne, C. yenus- 
tum, &c., common glass-shades will suffice to protect them from cold 
draughts and the aridity of the atmosphere, which last is most to be 
feared in sharp frosty weather. The compost in the pots should be 
allowed to get comparatively dry before they are remoyed to a lower 
temperature, there being several degrees of difference in temperature 
between soil that is wet and dry. The following is a list of orchids 
suitable for the decoration of the sitting-room :—Lycaste Skinner, 
L. eruenta, and L. aromatica; Coelogyne cristata; Oncidium nubi- 
genum, O. Phalzenopsis, and O. cucullatum; Cattleya citrina; Lelia 
albida, L. antumnalis, L.furfuracea, and L. anceps; Barkeria specta- 
bilis and B. Skinneri; Sophronitis grandiflora and 8. cernna; Ada 
aurantiaca; Odontoglossums, many species, O. Alexandre and O. 
Pescatorei being amongst the best for the purpose. 


Fontenelle and his Asparagus.—He had a great liking for asparagus, and 
preferred it dressed with oil, One day a certain bon vivant Abbe came unex- 
pectedly to dinner. The Abbé was very fond- of asparagus also, but liked his 
dressed with butter. Fontenelle affirmed that for a friend there was no sacrifice 
of which he did not feel himself capable, and that half the dishof aspara; he 
had ordered for himself should be done with butter. Whilst they were talking, 
waiting for dinner, the poor Abbé falls suddenly down ina fit of apoplexy. Upon 
which Fontenelle instanty springs up, scampers down to the kitchen with agility, 
and cries out to his cook, *‘ The whole with oil; the whole with oil, as at first!” 


/N 


\ 


\ 


Dec. 9, 1871.} 


THE GARDEN. 


63 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 


STORING OF ROOTS. 


_ Iv has long been customary to take up Jerusalem Artichokes, 
Carrots, Beet, Parsnips, Salsify, Scorzonera, &c., and to winter them 
above ground. If in small quantities, they are stored in sand ina 
cellar or dark shed. If in large bulk, they are clumped, or placed in 
ridges ont of doors, and protected against severe weather. Onions 
and Shallots are generally placed on shelves or benches in lofts or 
store-rooms. 

Respecting the Jerusalem Artichoke: I have always found it best to 
leave the roots in the ground, where no frost ever injures them. I 
always eut off the stalks in December, leaving a foot or more in height 
standing, in order to indicate where the rows are, and mulch with 
litter or leaves; fern or green bough prunings are laid over the litter, 
&c., to keep the wind from driving it about. In March I trench out 
all the Artichokes, turning in the mulching, rubbish,.tops, or stalks, 
and veplant with whole moderate-sized tubers, four feet apart from 
row to row, and two feet plant from plant. After replanting, 
such as were fit for use were stored in a cold, shady place, and the 
smal! and refuse were kept for poultry and pheasants, for which they 
make good and wonderfully well-appreciated food. 

Carrots should be allowed to get quite ripe, and to have entirely 
finished their growth, previously to taking them up, and particular 
care must be taken in the storage of them, as they are very liable 
to heat if stored together in large quantities. Where carrots are 
- ag merely as a garden crop, and only in sufficient quantities for 
the supply of the establishment—to maintain firmness, crispness, 
flavour, and colour, they are best stored out of doors in a cold, 
shady aspect in thin ridges. Cover the latter with a little loose dry 
_ Straw, then with some wood faggots, and let the whole be thatched 
_ over. Thus managed they will keep till the next summer free from 

wth and excellent in quality; while, if placed in sand and ina cellar, 
op Year’s-day, or sooner, they will be found to have begun to 
grow, after which they are tough.and tasteless, with a heart like a 
ick. Young carrots after the French fashion are, however, what I 
like, and it is quite possible to have them all the winter, and, indeed, 
the whole year round. Let them be sown in July and August, and 
mulch them lightly, previous to frost setting in severely in December, 
with straw, pea haulm, fern, evergreen boughs, &c.; you will thus 


t 
>» 


capital young carrots every day during winter; sow again in- 


September and October on light hot beds, and you will have them for 
early spring. Indeed, as Ihave stated, young carrots may be had every 
day in the year by means of successional sowings. Where old 
carrots are stored in large quantities, pitch some hurdles strongly 
staked four feet apart, place some faggot-wood in the bottom, then 
-‘fill up to the top of the hurdles with carrots, finishing them off in 
the form of a roof at top. Place a faggot upright every eight or 
ten feet apart, in the middle of the ridge; barricade the sides and 
top with faggots, thatching the roof only. The circulation of air 
thus secured prevents fermentation, and keeps all sweet and sound. 
Of conrse, if severe weather sets in, the outside faggots should 
_ be covered with straw, fern, heath, or furze, in sufficient quantity to 
of warn 9 out frost ; for carrots out of the ground will not stand that 
3 without; injury. r 
___ Beet will withstand a good deal of frost; but if allowed to get 
_ much fro-en, it loses both flavour and colour. I have always, there- 
_ fore, made it a rule to take it up early in December when quite ripe, 
and to lay it in thickly in some sheltered corner, covered with earth 
an inch or two up the leaves. Thus stored, it maintains its natural 
_ properties unimpaired. 
___ Parsnips are always mild in flavour, and otherwise excellent, if 
‘ allowed to remain where they grow, and taken up as required for 
_ use; but when taken up and exposed to the atmosphere, if only for 
_ avery few days, their good properties are gone—yes, gone. ‘They 
3 yellow, and so strong in taste as to be generally disliked. Besides, 
if taken up and stored in sand, except in a very cold aspect, parsnips 
goon begin to grow, and then their taste is as bad as that of a rank 


mera and Salsify, also, always retain their natural flavour 


oes 
ee and qualities if left in the ground where they grow, and mulched 
uff ntly to ward off severe frost, previously to winter setting in. 


‘urnips, when young, crisp, and sweet, are delicious. 


Late-sown 
bulbs suffer more from frost than others. I therefore 


sar ale them as long as I can, looking out for frost and 
then ng a quantity before being frozen. I then lay them in 


thickly im a sheltered spot, well covering both tops and roots. 

Am enlinary vegetables few are more useful than the onion, 
which is in daily request both by poor and rich ; and to be able to have 
it in at all seasons is a desideratum. As regards storing 


onions, that is done in various ways. An important point is allow- 


nd \ 


. 


ing them to get really ripe before storing them; and for harvesting 
them-a dry day should be chosen. Pull, and tie them in bunches of 
eight, ten, or more, together, according to size; then take them 
away, and hang them up at once on the rafters or beams of open 
sheds, or in well-ventilated lofts. In such situations they will dry 
gradnally and thoroughly. As the wet days of winter come on, a 
portion might be taken down and roped, if approved of—that is, as 
all know, strung on straw or other bands, and then hung up; or they 
may be topped and cleaned, and placed on loft-shelves and benches. 
But, for many years I never took further trouble with my crops of 
onions than to pull, and tie them in bunches of convenient sizes, and 
hang them up as just described, taking portions of them down now 
and then as required for use, and I have always found them to keep well 
until the following summer's early onions were ready for culinary 
purposes. I do not approve of onions being pulled, topped, and 
disrooted, and then allowed to lie on the ground exposed day and 
night, turned about and bruised, and then taken to some loft-floor, 
shelves, or benches. ‘Thus treated, many are apt to show blotches 
and to decay early, and they have also a tendency to run or start 
into growth, which at once deteriorates their quality. Besides, 
onions exposed, after having been pulled, to sunshine, rain, and wind, 
get so hot and strong, that haying anything to do with them is most 
unpleasant. James BARNEs. 


WORKING IN THE WET. 


Tits is as improyident as it is cruel. Let me not be mis- 
understood. A summer shower hurts no healthy man, and 
there are occasions—such as the planting-out season in May or 
June—when to cease working because of a passing shower 
might involve the loss of weeks, perhaps of a season. It is not 
of such exceptional working in the wet that I now write. 
In summer little harm comes of getting slightly wet if one but 
continues to work or walk. Colds are caught by standing or 
sitting still in wet clothes. But what should be avoided is 
working in continuous rain at any season, or getting wet at all 
in cold weather. I have known gardens where such rules as 
the following prevailed:—When too wet to hoe, digging was 
ordered, and when the ground became so sodden as to render 
this almost impossible, the earth holding on to the spade like 
birdlime, the spade was exchanged for the scythe. And it was 
never considered too wet to mow. I have seen men come off 
lawns with their shoes full of water-and their clothes sticking 
to their backs. Such exhibitions are, however, now rarer thai 
they once were—thanks to mowing-machines, greater in- 
dependence among workmen, and more humane management 
among masters. Still, I believe, working in the wet is by no 
means extinct in many gardens. I have said that such work is 
cruel and improvident. It cannot be needful to prove the first. 
Rain penetrates into the system, and undermines health, and 
health is the working man’s capital. 
~ Working in the wet is, moreover, the dearest of all work, 
and the worst. If performed on the ground it is worse than 
useless. Earth moved in a wet state runs together, adheres 
somewhat like molten metal, and becomes, ina measure, equally 
stubborn and barren. Trampling on the earth in a wet state 
is likewise highly injurious. It breaks down the texture of 
the soil, hinders the free percolation of water, and drives or 
shuts out the air. Even planting in_the wet, so much 
advocated by some, is not to be commended. ‘The earth fits in 
more closely around the roots, and the roots take a kindlier, 
speedier grip of it when applied to them in a comparatively 
dry state. ‘True, water is a capital consolidater of the soil. 
But it does its work best thus :—First of all lay the earth in 
position in a dryish state, and then let the rain or watering- 
pot dash the mellow soil into every nook and crannie. But let 
the rain conyert it into a sticky mortar first, and mark the 
difference—you will need no other evidence against the 
impolicy of working in the wet. 

‘Then. as regards other work, such as that on walls or on 
grass, working in the wet is the dearest of all work. The dis- 
comfort is a hindrance to the worker. here is no end of 
phe He countless fragments of time lost in cloud-gazing, 
weather prognostications, peevislt complainings, &c. In a 
word, the physical stamina is. washed out, and the result is 
little or no work. Fortunately, working in the wet in well- 
ordered gardens is as unnecessary as it is wasteful. With 
ordinary forethought it may easily be avoided. Inside work 
abounds in most gardens. “Most of it, too, is helpful to the 


work outside. So much, indeed, is this the case that, in a 
large establishment with much glass, I haye always difficulty 
in getting the outside men to assist under glass in wet weather. 
The answer is generally, “ Very well, master; but we have 
stakes, labels, pegs, &c., that will soon be needed for so-and- 
so;” and the men are generally right. Hach is held respon- 
sible to provide in foul weather everything that is needed in 
his department when it is fine, if enough of wet weather be 
found for the purpose, and, singular though it may seem to 
many, it is seldom that this is the case. ‘The experience of 
many years thus comes to the aid of humane management to 
give emphatic testimony to the fact that there is no necessity 
for working in the wet. IDEN ae 


Raising Potatoes from Seed.—The following observations by 
Mr. George Such, in the American Gardeners’ Monthly, on raising 
potatoes from seed will probably prove interesting to many who 
think the process is attended with any difficulty. Mr. Such’s garden, 
which I had the pleasure of visiting Jast autumn, is on the sandy soil 
of New Jersey, near’ South Amboy, enjoying, of course, a good deal 
more summer heat than we do; but there can be no doubt that by 
beginning early, quite as good a result could be obtained in England. 
W. R.:—“ Mr. Patterson, to whom Englishmen are indebted as the 
originator of many good potatoes, gives it as his opinion that the pro- 
duction of new varieties from seed is attended with so much labour 
and expense that it should be undertaken by the British Government, 
and not by individuals; and the supposed difficulties could hardly be 
more absurdly exaggerated than they are in a late number of a well- 
known English horticultural journal. Now, the simple fact is that 
it is am easy matter to get a tolerably good crop of potatoes within 
five or six months from the time the small seeds are sown. I have 
now in my cellar more than two hundred yaricties of potatoes, very 
many of full size, all of which were produced from seed taken from 
the potato ball a year ago. It wassaid to be Harly Rose, fertilized with 
white Peach-blossom and other yarieties. The seed was sown about 
the endof March, justas tomato seedissown. It germinated readily, 
and the little seedlings were soon pricked out into pans. In fact, the 
plants were treated precisely the sameas tomato plants, exceptthat they 
were moyed to a cooler position than tomatoes required. Towards the 
end of May the potato plants were set out in rows, just as potatoes 
are usually planted, plenty of room being left between the rows. 
Only this difference was made—yery important, however, I think—the 
potato plants were not set on the level of the ground, but four or five 
inches below it, like celery in trenches. They soon struck root 


vigorously into the good soil that had been prepared for them, and _ 


grew rapidly, the soil being gradually filled in as fast as the strength 
of the stalk seemed to admit of it. By the end of June the trench 
was all filled in to the level, and after that only one slight earthing- 
up was given. In August the potato vines were as larve and flourish. 
ing as if grown from sets. In this month, too, the first of the potatoes 
were dug, and from that time others matured, some varieties being 
early and some late, until the last of October.” 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


Grafting Azaleas.—It is by means of grafting that varieties of 
Azaleas, both new and old, are increased. As regards stocks, two 
varieties have been in general request: the one, the old A. rosea 
elegans ; the other, the newer, A. Sir Charles Napier. There is some 
diversity of opinion as to the suitability of these two stocks; some 
growers resolutely hold to the one—some to the other. Certain it is 
that, in point of habit, Sir Charles Napier seems admirably adapted 
for the purpose, haying a stiff, sturdy habit, and wiry wood. In 
order to prepare stocks for grafting, cuttings should be taken at the 
proper season, potted off singly into small sixty-sized pots, and grown 
on till they are from ten to twelve inches in height, and as thick in 
the stem as the small end of an ordinary tobacco-pipe. New Azaleas 
are, as a rule, received from the Continent in September and October, 
and it is then grafting is generally performed, or as soon as there is 
sufficient youns wood on the newly-obtained plants to furnish scions. 
The stem of the stock is divided by an horizontal cut from four te 
six inches from the bottom, as the case may be, and, by inserting the 
knife at the top, a cut is made in a downward direction. The scion 
is prepared by having both of its sides sliced off, so as to fit 
into the vertical cut made in the top of the stock. It is inserted, 
and tied closely together by means of a piece of bast, then placed 
in a moist, close heat, and thus circumstanced very few indeed fail 
to adhere, %.e., if the barks of both stock and scion are nicely fitted 
together. In this way any variety can be rapidly increased, if 
sufficient stocks can be had on which to operate.—R. D. 


THE GARDEN. 


‘be put into thirty-two sized pots for flowering. 


(Dec. 9, 1871 


Tree Carnations.—Plants of these to furnish ‘ button-holes!”’ or 
flowers for other decorative purposes, should be kept cool and ¢lean 
until Christmas, when they should be placed in gentle heat in order 
to induce them to make shoots for cuttings, which will be foumd to 
strike root readilyona slight bottomheat. After having struck, they — 
should be potted off immediately into thumb-pots, giving them two, 
shifts into larger sizes before the first week in June, when they should: 
Pot them firmly in! 
loam mixed with rotten cow-dung, and afterwards place them in 
beds out of doors.—C. : 

Lapageria rosea.—This fine climber is planted out in tng Lea 
Bridge Nurseries, and bears hundreds of seed-pods about two inches 
long, and nearly an inch through. Each pod furnishes from fifty to 
a hundred good seeds. It is curious that these pods were all pro- 
duced by the late autumnal flowers of the year. It is so svery 
year. The summer flowers that one would expect to be the most 
fertile do not produce seed-pods; the October and Noyember flowers 
do. From the seed an abundance of yigorous young plants maly be 
raised; but if the seed be not sown soon .after arriving at perfection 
—as soon as fit to gather, in fact—it will prove of very uncertain 
germination. If kept over till the succeeding spring, it may! not 
grow at all. This, with like cases, points to the fact that we often 
lose a great deal by keeping seeds, it may be six or nine months, 
for the arrival of spring. Sometimes the little plants of Lapageria 
bloom at six inches high, and when eighteen months old. i 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PROPAGATION, 


Case for sending Growing Plants to Distant Countries.—At a meeting 
of the Edinburgh Botanical aeeiety Mr. M‘Nab placed on the table a smal! case 
of plants, received from Dr. Mueller, of the Botanic Garden, Melbourne. } This 
case contained seven species of plants, all established in pots previous to beimg 


* sent away. It is rarely that we see comparatively soft-wooded plants brought 


home in such good condition, andin so simple a manner. The case was 10) days 
on the voyage, and the plants were only once watered, but had occasionally 
sprinklings of fresh water over the cotton covering. This case, which may 
be easily lifted with one hand, was kept on deck during the yoyage, and so 
placed that no salt water could reach it. It is thus constructed: A rough 
unplaned old box, 13 inches long, 11 inches broad, and 6 inches deep, hais two 
upright pieces of wood, 16 inches long and 2 inches broad, nailed, one im the 


-centre of each end of the box, and a piece in the same breadth and thickness — 


nailed across the top, giving it a ridge appearance. Over this a piece of thick 
unbleached cotton is stretched, and firmly tacked down. The ends are likewise 
covered with the same material. From the great success and simplicity of this 
case, costing not more than Is. or 1s. 6d. altogether it will be found of great 
benefit to amateurs wishing to take out or bring home a few choice plants., The | 
pots containing the plants fill the box, and are kept from moying by hayimg a 
little damp moss introduced between them, and also over the surface of the pots. 
Tn the ordinary Wardian cases, which are usually filled with soil, the plants are 
turned out of pots and planted in the earth, often only a few days before eng 
sent away. In such instances no new roots can be formed. This would reijuire 
a period of three or four weeks, whereas, in the case of well-established plants 
sent in pots, a few hours’ notice previous to removal is all that is required, The 
light which the cotton allows to penetrate, and the air which reaches the ‘plants 
through its fine meshes, seems to be more favourable for the preservation 
of delicate or soft-wooded plants, both as regards colour and substance, than 
the ordinary heavy air-tight glazed Wardian cases, which not unfrequently 
prove-injurious to tender plants, by causing them to become pale and much 
drawnup. © (eva 

Packing Seeds for Long Sea Voyages.—The seeds of all the laws -or 
crateguses may be exported to any ‘colony with the greatest certainty by 
packing them in casks with a little sawdust mixed with the seeds. It is 
customary with nurserymen and others who raise thorns from seed; to bury 
the haws for some time, so that the pulp may rot off, and also for the PUEDES ee 
saying time and ground. The rotting that the haws undergo in their casks or 
boxes will serve the same purpose, and the seeds will be ready to sow when 
they arrive. Seeds of a dry character’ must be exported very differentlyfrom 
these, or they will never reach their destination alive, and, in fact, not afew 
require special treatment. Some seeds—like those of Berberis, for instance— 
should be sent dry, the seeds washed from the pulp, dried, and packed in the 
usual way in strong, dry papers as seedsmen do, and they will travel safely if 
kept ina dry place. Cranberries should also be cleaned out and sent as dry 
seed. Blackberries should be washed out as strawberries are, and the same 
treatment will suit the Arbutus. Of sloes and like plants, the stones may be 
sent packed in single boxes, or little casks or jars. They should, however, be 
mixed with dry and finely-powdered charcoal. Laurel is a difficult seed to 
export. The most practised hands have tried and’ failed with it. This also 
applies to the Portugal laurel. Perhaps the best way to send these would beto 
sow the seeds on the surface of the soil in a Wardian case, where they could — 
vegetate ; or, better still, to raise them an inch or two, and then plant them 
thickly together in a Wardian case, as we have seen cork oaks packed for 
Australia. The wild roses may be sent with safety—seed to be extracted from 
the hips and dried. Siberian crab seed will go as well as apple seed, and in the 
same way—the pips sent out in dry packets, just as nurserymen send us our 
vegetable seed. But all those seeds that are to be kept dry should be kept 
away from the moist, pulpy ones—quite isolated, in fact, or farewell to the dry 
seeds. Some people, in taking ont seeds, put a bag of pulpy moist tree or shrub. pe 
seeds in among them; thenthe ‘‘damp”’ spreads, and parsnips, peas, and 
pelargoniums come out so much mould. Ivy will come equally well from seeds ~ 
dried or sent out in the pulp like the hawthorn fruit. There is no difficulty in 
sending the seeds of conifers; they are “‘dry” seeds, and merely require 
to be kept free from damp. Chestnuts are very difficult to send. {No doubt 
the best way is tosow them in the Wardian case, or raise them beforehand, 
and plant densely in it; but this is sending plants, not seeds. \Oaks are 
rather difficult, and should be raised and sent as described above in the case of 
the cork oak, \ eS 


. . New 


ete 


Dec. 9, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


65 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


SALADS. 

Ty the materials for a good salad are sweetness, crispness, and 
tenderness. Negatively, a salad must neither taste strong, 
feel tough, nor eat hard. To make a good salad, then, the first 
step is, begin by packing all those positive excellencies into our 
material. How is this to be done? Certainly not by growing 
lettuces and endive on any out-of-the-way, poor bit of ground 
or border, as is too frequently done. No, nor by permitting the 
plants to crowd and smother each other in the seed-beds until 
they are ruined for life. Nor yet by rude, rough removals, or 
ruder plantings and neglect afterwards. On the contrary, to 
grow perfect salading, the plants should receive no check on 
their journey from the seed-leaf to the salad-bowl. Quick 
growth clothes both lettuce and endive with all the qualities 
indicated. ‘To promote and sustain this quickness of growth 
the soil must be deep, rich, light, moist, and, to a certain extent, 
warm. In other words, to make first-rate salading, our lettuce 
and endive must receive the highest cultivation; and truly there 
are few things more worthy of it. Hardly anything that our 
gardens Ridaes is more enjoyable or wholesome than a good 
salad. It is therefore high time that the sententious axiom, 
“What is worth doing at all, is worth ay well,” was =: Side to 
its cultivation. High culture applied to lettuce speedily tells, 
and assuredly pays. Neither have we long to wait for results. 
The plants ahi along Wwell-laid lines of growth, and plump up 
into rich, juicy, massive sweetness, as if impatient fora “header” 
into the salad-bowl. Much depends upon cutting them at the 

ipe moment. ‘There is a tide in lettuce asin the affairs of man, 
which, taken at the flood, leads on to the good fortune of a 
perfect salad. That tide is the moment when growth is 
compacted into solidity—-when every tender leaf and stem 
is brittle as glass, charged with rare virtue, and filled to 
overflowing with good flavour and rich juices. Having secured 
it at the right moment, we must have a care that it is not ruined 
on! its passage, full of risk and danger, from the garden to the 

-bowl. Lettuces should be handled with clean hands, no 
should be roughly crushed nor soiled with dirt; every 
bruise lets out juice and lowers the quality; and dirt on lettuces 
i in. True, it can be washed off after a fashion; but water 
hes out the flavour. Pitch them into water for an hour! 
! horror of horrors! Almost as well pass them through 
fire. The water sinks in through the lettuce, taking out 
rich juices, and occupying their vacant place. 
he superiority of Continental salads is owing simply to their 
grown in a perfectly clean manner, and gathered exactly 
at the right moment. To hope to gather good salads in winter 
in (the open air in our climate is madness; those who depend 


in ter on a AS hp material exposed to lacerating hail, 


andl chilled by heavy cold rains, cannot have good salad 
majterial for months at a time. D. 'T. Fisn. 


x NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE HOUSEHOLD. . 


Prieserving the Tomato.—In America the ‘‘ canned” tomatoes are quite as 
ae in winter as the fresh ripe fruit is in summer. The following simple 
rican method of preserving them is worth noting. It is from the American 
Agricrulturist :—"*Having sometimes failed with glass jars, we now use tin 
cans,; 10 inches long and 4} inches in diameter (cut from a sheet of tin 10 by 14 
inches, and cheaply made). A hole, say 1} inch in diameter, is left in one end. 
The tomatoes, in large quantities ata time, are cooked well, as for the table, but 
Withcput salt. They are poured into the cans hot, and a bit of tin well soldered on. 
We p,ut up fifteen to forty cans at a time, and call in atinman to do the soldering. 
as we) have a large number of cans ready atatime. Thus closely sealed they 
Will kteep perfectly a month, a year, or five years, Scald the emptied cans and 


Set th'Jem away dry, and they can be used several times with a little help from 
the ti_nman to smooth the heads.”” > 
FE Value of Fruits.—Fmits are used as a staple food in many warm 


es; but in most ts of Europe they are regarded chiefly in the light of 
Deprived of their stones or seeds, they contain often not more than 
5 per ‘cent. of solid matter. They are very poor in albuminoids; but they are 
usnall dy rich in sugar, and many of them contain much acid. There is the 
sreategst variation in the relative amounts of pectose, sugar, and acid, in edible 
: contain, as a rule, more acid than stone fruit. The gra 
ms from 13 to 20 per cent. of sugar; the cherry only 1} per cent. In the 
there is about 9 per cent. of soluble pectin and gum, whilst the gooseberry 
S 2 per cent. of these bodies. In the common fruits the percentage 
be ac r © mere trace to about 3 per cent. The pear is almost 
alway js free from acids, whilst the currant often contains three times as much 


free azjcid as sugar. The is probably the best fruit adapted for the sick. 
As he ‘at-and -foree producing foods, 53 lbs. of grapes, 6$ lbs. of apples or cherries, 
es, 


10} It bs. s, and 123 Ibs. of straw are equal to one pound of 
starch]}. The dietetic value of the fruits is chiefty due to their fine flavour and 
their e_jbundan: of saline matter.—Dr, Gonna Trish Farmers’ Gazette. 


: 
j 


Hip Jam.—Collect the hips from the rose-bushes when ripe, boil them in 
water until they become soft enough to be easily crushed, and press them 
through a very fine sieve. Take an equal weight of su to that of the fruit, 
boil the hips, when pulpest through the sieve, thoroughly with the sugar, and 
put the jam into a large stone jar. It is liable to ferment a good deal, and, 
therefore, requires space. When taking any out for use, mix and stir it up well 
with a little white wine, and add sugar to taste if required. This jam is 
excellent, either for eating alone as asweetmeat or for making sauce. 


A Fortune from the Salad-Bow].—It stands on record that a noble Gaul 
haying fled the guillotine at the end of the last century, and finding himself 
without cash in this country, contrived to pick up not only a living but a com- 
petency by taking to salad-making as a protession. This is how it came to pass— 
we abridge from Brillat-Savarin:—A French emigre, named D’Albignac, was 
dining at one of the most fashionable taverns in London, when he was addressed 
by a party of dandies who occupied the table next to him with a request to mix 
a salad for them, coupled with a polite compliment upon the proficiency of the 
French nation in the art. D'Albignac, with some hesitation, consented, and, 
being provided with the necessary ingredients, was very successful. In the 
course of the proceedings he entered inte conversation with these people, and in 
answer to their questions he frankly avowed his position ; consequently they felt 
justified in asking his acceptance of a five-pound note, which he accepted 
without much pressing. The dandies asked for his address, and a few days 
afterwards he received a request to go and mix a salad at one of the biggest 
mansions in Grosyenor-square. D’Albignac saw his opportunity, and was not 
slow in availing himself of it. Providing himself with some choice condiments, 
he went, and was eminently successful. He was paid in proportion to his 
success. In a short time his reputation began to spread, and all the people of 
fashion in the capital of the three kingdoms were dying to have a salad mixed 
by the French gentleman—the fashionable salad-maker, as he was called. Ho 
soon set up a carrik (qy. curricle) to go about in, and a footman to carry a 
mahogany case containing choice ingredients to mix salads with, such as vinegar 
of various flavours, oil with or without the taste of olive, &c. Later he supplied 
similar cases ready fitted with ingredients, and sold them in hundreds. In the 
end he amassed some 80,000 francs, with which, the guillotine having been 
superseded in his native country, he retired thereto, where he lived happy ever 
afterwards. 


THE AMATEUR'S REMEMBRANCER.* 


In-door Department.—The most enthusiastic lover of hardy 
plants and the free air will now be glad to avail himself of the 
delicious shelter and genial clime which glass enables us to create 
in our gloomy winter climate. Although the frost may bite, and wind 
pierce without, the winter-flowering greenhouse Heaths, the gay and 
pretty Persian Cyclamens and fresh-opening Chinese Primroses are 
displaying their tender charms as willingly as if it were the sun on 
some balmy mountain meadow that had induced them to blossom, and 
not the gardener’s art. In greenhouses or small conservatories 
sufficient fire-heat should be applied to keep ont frost or dispel damp, 
and air should only be given in the middle of the day when the 
weather is fine. On front shelves, the pretty early flowering plants 
just named, and other things of that kind will serve to maintain 
a certain amount of gaiety, which will soon now be greatly increased 
by the introduction of such plants as Diclytras, Deutzias, Kalmias, 
Azaleas, Roses, Hyacinths, and other Dutch bulbs, which will be coming 
forward in forcing pits. Lilies of the Valley, Mignonette, and 
things of that sort, wanted for succession, should also now be placed 
in gentle heat, as should likewise the sweet Indian Daphne, Persian 
Lilacs, and anything of that sort which may be brought easily into 
flower by the application of a little artificial warmth. Prune and 
dress creepers, tie out Pelargoniums intended as specimens for par- 
ticular purposes, and shift forward Cinerarias into the pots in which 
they are to flower. Cover pits and frames at night when frosty, and 
remove dead leaves or anything likely to engender mould. 

Fruit and Forcing Houses.—tThe pine-apple grower must now 
keep plants swelling-off fruit as near the glass as possible, and the 
atmosphere a little drier than it has been, in order to brighten the 
colour and inerease the flavour. Succession plants should be kept 
growing without check, and should havea little air given them on 
all favourable opportunities. For cucumbers a temperature of not 
less than sixty-five degrees should be maintained at night, and about 
seventy during the day-time. Where early potatoes are a deside- 
ratum afew Ashleafs may be put ina gentle hot-bed to start pre- 
paratory to being planted hereafter in pits or frames. Vines may 
now be pruned and cleaned ready for forcing where grapes are 
wanted early, and, if not already done, mulch the borders in which 
they grow with rough litter. 

Flower-Garden.—Where the small-flowered Chrysanthemums 
have been bedded out they will soon require to be cleared away and 
the beds filled with bulbs or spring flowers, or thrown up rough for 
spring and early sammer planting. Although the great majority of 
flower-gardens are now bare of plants or interest of any kind, that is 
the cultivator’s own fault, for many of the evergreen alpine plants 
of the Sedum, Saxifrage and Sempervivum families look as well now, 
where properly grown and arranged, as at any other season. In fact, 
the mossy Saxifrages now present a fresher verdure than at any time 
during the whole year. Roses may now be planted as well as stocks 


* Complete general calendars, written by some of the most able gardeners in 
the country, are published in ‘Tas Garpgn’’ in the first issue in each month, 


66 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 9, 1871. 


for budding on next season. Some of the more tender of the tea 
kinds might be lifted and laid in a dry, warm, sheltered situation, 
where they can receive some protection from frost. Sweep up fallen 
leaves, and by neatness and order in some measure make amends for 
the want of floral beauty. 

Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Draining, trenching, and deep 
digging may now be advantageously carried on in both these depart- 
ments, wherever such operations are necessary. Now, when frnit- 
trees have shed their leaves most kinds may be pruned and nailed, 
and where new plantations have to be made no time should be lost in 
making them. When planted a good mulching of rotten dung placed 
over the roots will be of advantage, and stakes should be placed to 
standards to secure them against wind-waying. Stems of old trees 
may be cleared of moss by means of a good dredging of quicklime 
put on when the bark is moist; but the most effectual remedy is 
thorough drainage. This is also a good time for root-pruning such 
sorts ag are growing too vigorously, and, on that account, forming 
wood instead of fruit-buds. In the kitchen-garden no satisfactory 
returns need be expected without deep cultivation and liberal appl- 
cations of manure. Therefore, nothing capable of being converted 
into plant food should be Jost. If not already done, fork up the 
surface of asparagus beds, and apply to them a good coating of 
manure, or sea-weed, where that can be obtained.—J. M. 


SOILS, MANURES, &c. 
PEAT. 


To procure good peat is, in most places, an exceedingly 
difficult matter. I haye myself traversed square mules of 
heath-clad mountain land, and could not find a barrow-load of 
peat worth takme home; and the same may be said of other 
soils. The kind of soil that is wanted for storing, whether it 
be peat or loam, is that which is so rich im vegetable matter 
that when the earthy particles are shaken out a tuft of it will 
be almost like a sponge. This, laid up afew months for the 
active vegetable matter to decay, constitutes the pabulum upon 
which the very finest plants are grown. With those who have 
the chance of selectine their own soils, the proper course to 
pursue is to go to the different places where they are to be 


found, and examine them till the desired quality is met with,- 


then send carts and harvest the best. Recollect, soils do not 
deteriorate by keeping; peat, if kept dry, will remain good a 
number of years. Peat, to be of the best quality, should not 
be more than two inches thick, firm in texture and fibry, the 
upper surface covered with dwarf heath, the under resting on 
sand. This will generally be foundin upland positions ; but in 
dry seasons excellent peat for storing may be procured from 
lowland situations. Peat when brought home should be care- 
fully looked oyer, divesting the upper surface of all rough 
herbage, and the lower of sand; then place it in ridges, two 
turyes together in the shape of the letter A, so that the air 
can act well upon it; and, if early in the season, there let it 
remain till the rains of autumn make it necessary to stack it, 
if it is not wanted for use before the following summer; and 
it is better not to use it before that time. Or build some turt 
pits with it, which may be turned to good account, if for no 
other purpose than protecting lettuce or cauliflower plants. 
Thus arranged, it would be so well exposed to the air that it 
will be much improved. Should it not be required in this way, 
it is best to stack it in ridges four feet high, three feet wide, 
and tapering to a single turf at the top. In forming the stack, 
place the turfs somewhat apart, so as to admit of air circulatmg 
freely among them; and if the peat is stacked fresh from the 
common it is best to insert an air drain in the centre. Some- 
times, old pea stakes or pieces of woodare placed between the 
layers; it matters little, indeed, how it is done, if air can find 
its way frecly through the mass. When peat is used fresh 
from the common—which should never take place in a well- 
regulated establishment—it will be found an excellent plan to 
char the outer surface. One of the best supplies of peat I ever 
had was from a common from which all vegetation had recently 
been burnt. In charring peat the turves should be cut into 
pieces three inches wide, as then the parts will be equally 
heated, which is not the case it the turf is placed on the stove 
whole. The charring may be done in various ways, according 
to the conveniences at hand; and, if carefully performed, it 
will answer as well as the thorough aeration which results 
from proper storing, while by it all insect-pests, and roots, and 
seeds of weeds, will be destroyed. A. 


- 


_ the 28th day of January of the present year. 


‘and evidence of perfect health. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


Royat HorrircunruraL Socimry (DECEMBER 6rH).—This, though 
not distinguished by any specially important feature, was an interest- 
ing meeting. Among the more instructive objects shown was a pretty 
batch of Cyclamens, in brilliant bloom, which had only been sown on 
When these charming 
plants can be grown to a blooming size almost as quickly as an 
amnual, no greenhouse should be uncheered by their lovely flowers, 
which start up so profusely in winter and spring. Some beantiful 
blooms of Ipomza czlestina were shown under a glass. Some cones 
of Picea nobilis, gathered from a specimen fifty-eight feet high 
at Sir John Sebright’s, in Hertfordshire, were remarkable for size 
1 A rare Yucca (longifolia) was 
exhibited from Mr. Wilson Saunders’ garden. A good many Chrysan- 
themums were shown, some among the best we remember seeing 
being staged by Mr. Shrimpton, gardener to Mrs. Doxatt, Putney 
Heath. Berry-bearing plants were not by any means good, Mr. 
Standish being first. His eroup consisted of Pernettyas, Aucubas, Skim- 
mias, and Cotoneasters. Some graceful dwarf Conifers were shown, 
such as the Retinosporas, including the elegant R. lycopodioides and } 
Taxus coriacea. From Mr. Praenell, of the Castle Gardens, Sherborne,’ 
came a well-varied and excellent collection of vegetables. A new winte 
radish was shown from the Society’s Gardens at Chiswick, which haf 
been raised from seed brought from California by Mr. Robinso 1 
It was shown in poor condition, but, nevertheless, received a firsts 
class certificate. Further trials, will, however, be necessary to prove ~ 
its value in this country, and also to fest its distinction. Mr. George 
Johnston sent two superb Cayenne Pine-apples, to which a specia 
certificate was awarded. A new Grape, named Waltham Cros A 
huge in berry and large in bunch, was shown by Mr. William Pars 
in excellent condition. Messrs. Lane, of Great Berkhamste 
again sent a collection of their noble Grapes, to which a special cer\ 
ficate was given. A very graceful species of Asparagus, viZ., igh 
decumbens was shown by Mr. Standish; and a rich deep erimso~ 
Cyclamen, named Queen of Crimsons, came from Mr. Goddar/™ 
gardener to Mr. Little, of Twickenham. ‘This last received a fix d, 
Class certificate. From Messrs. Veitch came seyeral plants of ™ 
yellow-fruited Capsicum, called Yellow Gem. These were admiral 
grown on single stems of a foot or so high, and each was furnis ly 
with from eighteen to twenty-four fruit. A fine collection of hyb ed 
Solanums, covered with berries, from Mr. Williams, of Holloway, ned ‘ 
a special certificate. Mr. Williams also exhibited a variety of Lyc d 
Skimneri, with two flowers borne so closely together that they almete. 
resembled a double flower. : ast 
| 

Royal Botanié Society.—The spring shows of this society for next year? 
announced to take place on March 13th, April 10th, and May 8th; thes pre 
shows on May 22nd, 23rd, June 19th, 20th, and July 10th, 11th; all tywo-dier 
exhibitions. 5 : ay 

International Fruit and Flower Show at Glasgow.—A great finit ¢ 
flower show is to take place here inthe second week of September 1872. At ampnd 
ing of gentlemen nominated to organise and carry out the undertaking, it ‘eet- 
unanimously resolved that subscriptions tothe amount of £1,000 shouldwas 
collected, and that a prize schedule should be issued forthwith, in which pr} be 
to about that amount should be offered. A committee was also appointed to lizes 
out the most suitable place for holding a show of the character decided uponjook 

Royal Horticultural Society.—The days on which the meetings and shq- 
take place for next year are as follows, viz. :—January 17th; February 1bws 
March 6th, 20th; April 3rd, 17th ; May Ist, 15th, 16th; June 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th; ith 5 
8rd, 17th; August 7th, 21st; September 4th, 18th; October 2nd; November uly 
and December 4th. It will be seen that there is a two days’ show in May, apth; 
three days’ show in June, the latter being the special féte of the season, At da _ 
we observe, some five gold medals and as many silver ones are to be awardeithis, 
new plants. The society’s provincial show, schedules for which will be is for 
early in the year, is to take place at Birmingham, in, we believe, the bea ued 
grounds at Aston, belonging to Mr. Quilter, on whose hearty co-operatio: tiful 
feel sure, all concerned may fully rely. t : fe we 

Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland.—The condition of this soi 
according to the last annual report, is both encouraging and satisfactor ciety 
council being enabled, after discharging all liabilities, to invest a further, the 
of £1,000 in Government stock, leaving a balance in the bank to current act Sum 
of £68. 5s. 6d. In revising the schedule of prizes for 1872, the council hi count, 
made considerable additions both to their number and yalue; and has dep also 
to discontinue the private winter exhibition of fruits, provision being jelged 
instead for a great public fruit-show, to be held in October, which it is ade 
will prove both publicly interesting and of much practical value. bis panes 
owes much of its prosperity to its active, able, and most courteous secr ciety 
Mr. Ambrose Balfe. _ : 3 _ etary 

Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society.—It has been th 
desirable to hold monthly floral and horticultural meetings in connectio: ght 
this society, similar to those held at South Kensington, a plan which we with 
be pleased to see carried out in other great centres of horticulture. Theme should 
in question are to be held in a suitable room in Manchester, and the suetings es 
exhibited are to be submitted to a competent ‘committee. First and sbjects 
class certificates and commendations are to be awarded, at the discretion ocond 
majority of the members present, to the novelties exhibited, according to)f the 
merit, As the success of such meetings will, of course, mainly depend their 
exhibitors, we_trust that they will aid the society’s efforts in this ney dir¢ Upon — 
with their hearty cg-operation. It is proposed next year to hold these meecuon 


cfmical — 
cober, — 
\terial 


Gardens, and then there will be three more town meetings in September, 0 
and Noyember, for the support of which there is doubtless abundant m: 
in and about Manchester. 


in February, March, and April, then come the summer shows at the ae f 


We wish the moyement every success. 


{ 


‘Dec. 16, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 67 


| THE GARDEN. 


, “This is an art a 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather; but 
Tue Ant 1s Nature.’’——Shakespeare. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Wint1am Rosryson, “THE GARDEN ” OrFIce, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THe PUBLISHER. 

Readers who may find it dificult to procure the numbers regularly 

through the newsagents or-booksellers, may have them sent direct 

from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for sin months, or 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. ‘THE GARDEN” is sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. pe 


HAMPSTEAD HEATH. 


Tue public has every reason to be satisfied with the oppor- 
tune additions to the number of our London Parks which have 
taken place of late years—beginning with the Regent’s Park, 
sec to the public and laid out during the Regency; and 
followed, after a somewhat long delay, by Victoria Park, for 
the use of the extreme eastern suburbs; and Battersea Park, 

- for the transpontine districts of the south-west. As a fitting 

continuation of these steps in the right drection, whatever 
may haye been their shortcomings, we have at last, after many 
efforts, secured Hampstead Heath as a noble outlying park for 
the rapidly-growing suburbs of the north-west. 

This beautiful stretch of undulating ground, from the higher 

rtions of which a vast panoramic view of London is obtained, 
in the midst of which rises in misty grandeur the noble dome 
of St. Paul's, has been thoughtfully and picturesquely described 
by Leigh Hunt and several other popular writers. The scene is, 

in fact, well worthy of thoughtfut contemplation; it is as grand 
as that celebrated view of Rome, with the vast .dome of 
St. Peter’s in its midst, that is obtained from the Sabine Hills, 
which border the far-stretching Campagna to the south-east. 
In fact, our Hampstead view of the great modern metropolis 

_is far more impressive than even that of Rome from the 
Sabine Hills, inasmuch as from that spot we are enabled to 
look upon a teeming centre of human wealth and power, still 
in a state of rapid and unexampled progress, instead of 
age one of decadence; and yet, we were very near losing 
the privilege of possessing a spot hallowed by a thousand his- 
toric associations, and seeing it covered by smug villas, whose 
Cockney gardens and their enclosing walls would have shut 
out the noble view for ever—at all events, during the running 
‘off of leases for ninety-nine years. 

Fortunately, an Act of Parliament has secured the most 
jicturesque piece of ground within half-a-dozen miles of 
ondon, and only just in time. For, doubtless, the “lord of 

the manor,” in the exercise of. fully-admitted territorial rights, 
which at present remain undisputed, would haye turned it to 
the best account in whatever manner the most lucrative results 
‘could have been obtained, which would, undoubtedly, have 
been by letting out the whole space in small plots on building 
leases to speculative builders. This desecration has been pre- 
yented by the spirited vote of £45,000 by the House of 
Commons to rescue this ancient playground of Londoners 
from absorption by the lord of the manor and the builders. 
ublic, who has cere a very big, strong boy, has 

_ struggled hard for his old playground and won it,and the next 

_ thing to be considered is, “ What will he do with it?” The 

_ Times (after blaming the delay that has taken place since 

the acquisition of this new public property) has very wisely 
Suggested that plans for imparking and laying out this 
beautiful site to the best advantage shall be obtained at 
once from our most eminent landscape gardeners, and the 
best plan acted upon without further aS It will require 
the utmost taste and discretion to manage the arrangements 
of the new plantations, walks, and drives, in such a manner 

_as, while ministering to the enjoyment of the public, the 

shall not interfere with those wild eauties of the scene whic 

' form its most attractive charm. Nort Humenreys. 

; 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 


SMALL GARDENS. 


As a sayings bank for scraps of time there is no institution in 
which the cottager, the artisan, and even middle-class man can 
better invest his leisure hours than in the garden; for, apart from 
the life-invigorating occupation which it affords, there is attached to 
it profit in the shape of a supply of fruits and vegetables; and the 
value of fresh, well-cooked vegetables, in a health-giving and sani- 
tary point of view, can scarcely be overrated. 

Passing oyer the essential elements, viz., light, heat, air, and 
moisture, without which plant-life cannot exist in a healthy state, we 
come to the rotation of crops. The true theory of plants not suc- 
ceeding for two or more seasons in succession on the same ground is 
that the soil becomes exhausted of the food necessary for the par- 
ticular plant; and this is proved by the practice of the London 
market gardeners, who manure their ground so very heavily that 
they care nothing for rotation. The late Rey. H. Smith, of Lois 
Weedon, near Daventry, grew wheat upon the same land for upwards 
of twenty years without manure, but then he had an inexhaustible 
store of the mineral constituents of the wheat crop in the subsoil, 
and a small portion of this was brought up every third or fourth 
year, to maintain the fertility of the soil; and in that way Mr. 
Smith considered he could go on growing wheat upon the same plot 
for hundreds of years. The small gardener may not have such a 
store of plant material to resort to, and, therefore, systematic rota- 
tion is his most certain resource. For the purpose of simplicity, and 
to make the rotation clearly understood, lappend the annexed diagram, 
which we will suppose represents a plot forty yards by fifteen yards, 
or just one eighth of an acres— 


This I would divide into four equal proportions, numbered one to 
four, and of the three divisional lines, the centre one should be an 
asparagus bed, and the two other lines, respectively, rhubarb and 
seakale. The marginal dotted line would be planted with fruit-trees, 
say, pyramidal apple and pear trees, at ten feet apart, with two 
gooseberry or currant trees between each pair. Around the onter 
margin a row of strawberries may be planted, or herbs or flowers. In 
each row of seakale and rhubarb three compact-headed apple, pear, 
or plum trees might be placed, without interfering injuriously with 
the under crops. 

Now, in the rotation which I propose there is one-special provision 
that must be made, and it is this: Never sow peas or ranner-beans 
nearer together than eight to thirteen feet apart; and in this way, as 
each division of the plot is thirty feet wide, two rows of these veget- 
ables may be sown in each, without the same crop coming upon the 
same land_more than once in five or seven years. This will give 
eight rows, or seven successional crops of peas and one of scarlet- 
runner beans, which will be ample for any ordinary family. These 
crops arranged, the next consideration is the rotation, and those 
crops we divide under three heads, viz. :—Deepeners, Improvers, and 
Evhausters. Thus, No. 1 will be cropped with celery, carrots, 
parsnips, and onions, all of which require a deeply-trenched soil; a 
catch crop of radishes, lettuce, and a row or two of early cauli- 
flowers, being taken before the-celery need be planted. No. 2 will 
have cabbage, cauliflowers, turnips, and spinach, followed by coleworts 
(small cabbage) directly the other crops are removed. No. 3 will 
contain broad beans, leeks, and early potatoes; these crops being 


‘followed by savoys, curled broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and similar 


winter greens. No. 4 will be stocked entirely with late potatoes in 
rows three feet apart, interlined in July with winter broccoli or other 
brassicas ; broad beans may be dropped in with the potatoes at a yard 
apart, from which a fine crop may be gathered without injury to the 
potato crop. Here, then, we have the whole ground cropped for the 
first year. In the following season 1 will take the place of 4, while 
the other crops will advance one step forward; and this round of 
cropping will continue as long as may be thought proper. No system 
of cropping can be more simple and systematic, and I speak the 
result of nearly forty years’ experience when I say no system of 
rotation can be more profitable. 

As regards cultivation, let us assume that the garden has been 
properly drained, not less than three feet, and, if possible, four feet, 
deep, the drains being from fifteen feet to twenty feet apart. Then 
the ground must be trenched two feet deep, not necessarily reversing 
the ground to that depth, but digging the surface a foot deep, and 
loosening the subsoil another foot, so that it may become enriched 
from the percolation of the manure-water from the surface, and be 


65 


THE GARDEN. 


Dec. 16, 1871. 


ready for bringing up in subsequent trenching. Trenching may be 
defined as reversing’ the whole body of soil two or more feet deep. 
Bastard trenching ‘consists in digging the surface soil a foot deep, 
and moying the subsoil another foot, but leaving it there. ae 
times a laye er of dung is placed between the two layers of soil : 
very good practice for deep-rooting plants. Digging or Cadena i is 
simply the reversal of the surface-soil to the depth of one foot; and 
in performing that operation, it will be found a good practice to pare 
off two or three inches of the surface soil, ‘and place it in the 
bottom of the trench, so as to bury the weed-seeds beyond vegetative 
distance. 

As respects manure, in addition to farmyard dung, finely-sifted 
ashes, soil, weeds—in fact, vegetable refuse of all iinds—may be 
collected tosether, and if regularly soaked with sewage, will soon 
become rich manure. Thus, several cartloads may be collected in 
the course of a year, and will add materially to the fertility of the 
garden. If the soil is light and sandy, salt may be used with con- 
siderable adv antage ; but if heavy, then lime, or lime and salt will 
be preferable. Of concentrated manures, Peruvian guano, if it can 
be procured genuine, is the best, especially for making manure- 
water. Nitrate of soda is a valuable manure for light ‘land, and 
soot may be strongly recommended for heavy soils. 

With reference to cropping, the following remembrancer was 
compiled nearly thirty. years ago, and the fact that it has stood the 
test of that length of time without change or amendment, is the 
best eos oH its. Tee: — 


Sow | SEED-TIME, 


Jan. Feb. Mar, Apr iafay ane suly/ Aus. [sent 

Asparagus. Peal meer 
Artichoke.. 
Beans, Early Broad 
»» Windsor, &c 

» French Dwarf 
Scarlet Runne 


2 


le: 


9 9 


> tow: : 


COCO HPs 


Beet... 
Borecole @ 


Broccoli; Bang (Snow ) 


os Late 

Brussels sprit 
Cabbage, Harly,. 
oA for Coleworts 
Cauliflower, Barly... 
an Late 
Carrot, Early.. 
» ate 
Celery...... 
Corn Salad... 
Cress and Mustard . 
Cueumber 
Endive 
Gourd. 
Kohl Rabi. 

heehee a5 
Lettuce, Cos 
Ss Cabbage 
Mangold Wurzel.. 
» Onion ...... 
Parsnip 
Parsley. 
Peas, Harly . 
», Late... 
Potatoes, Early 
Late.. Rt earth 

Radish, Early and Turnip...! 2 2 

Rhubarb... bo 

Savoy 
Seakal 
Spinach 
Turnips ... 


Turnip, Swede 


Vegetable Marrow.. 
Pot Herbs 


> Merwe: ; 


1 be: 
i) 


~s 
RID eee: i ct 


Riwty 
hil 2 acon nt eS 


CEE one 
he 


low: 
> ei: 
+ bos: 


Lena 


Wit: 
i 
ae ROB ace ae 


: wwe: : 


) JA ee ees 


w 


4 
2 
3 
3 
2) 
2) 
2 


ror 
Is 


Reis: 


ww 
CS a A 
= bois 

tte 


Wo 
Www: 


we 
tw 
w 
ls 
1%) 
w 


we wr hw: 


wer it 


ROG 3 2 
ts bo 
TO 


ioe: 


i) 
twtr : 


Note.—The fizures refer to the weeks in each month; in early situations sow 
the early, antl in late, the latter part of each respective week. 


Sow everything in drills, whether in seed-beds or as permanent 
crops. Smallseeds such as onions, carrots, &c., in addition should be 


dibbled in the drills; half the usual quantity of seed will thus be © 


sufficient. Ayoid broadcast sowing altogether. It is not necessary 
to manure for every crop ; carrots and parsnips are better without it; 
but broccoli, cauliflower, and all the brassicas should be plentifully 
supplied with it, solid and liquid. The first and last crops of tender 
yarieties of veactables, as peas, cauliflowers, French beans, lettuces, 
radishes, should be sown in sheltered situations. To render ‘the 
succession of vegetables certain, sow two or three vyaricties at the 
same time. 

The following list of select vegetables may be of use in these day s 
when seedsmens’ catalogues are so oyerburthened with varieties : 


ASPARAGUS.—OF this there is but one kind, The Giant is only a stronger sort. 


Broan Brsans.—Royal Dwarf Cluster, Broad and Green Windsor. 

Brrr.—Pine-apple, Short Top, Barr & Sugden’s New Crimson. 

BrussEts Sprouts. —Sutton’s and Serymger’s Giant. 

BorEcouE.—Hear ting, Cottager’s Kale, Buda or Asparagus Kale. 

Broccorr.—Snow's Winter White, Hammond's Imperial Hardy, Cattell’s 
Belipse, Carter's Late Summer, Purple Sprouting. 

CauLiIrLowER.—Walcheren, London Market. 

CasBpaGe.—Atkins’s Matchless, and Rosette Colewort, for all seasons. For 
larger kinds, Wheeler’s Imperial and Enfield Market. 

Carron. —Warly Scarlet Horn, Intermediate, and Altrincham for deep soils. 

CrLErRy.—Incomparable, Hooley’ s Conqueror, for size. 

CucumBer.—Telegraph, Master’s Prol ific, Hardy Ridge. 

HwprvE.—Frazer’s Improved Batavian, Digswell Prize. 

Kopyry Brans.—Sion House, Newinet on ‘Wonder; Scarlet Hmaerscns ter’s 
Champion. y 

Lrrx.—Aytoun Castle. 

Lrrreer.—Hardy Hammersmith, All the Year Round, for winter ; ; Tom 
Thumb, Cos, Sugar Loaf, Dunnett’s Perfection, White Paris Cos. < 

Onton.—Hardy, for autumn sowing, Red and White Tripoli; summer crop, 
White Spanish, Globe, James’s Keeping; for pickling, Silver Skinned. 

Parsnip.—Guernsey, Hollow Crown. 

Pess.—Early, Ringleader, Adyancer; main crop, Yorkshire Hero, Veitcls 
Perfection, Ne plus ultra. 

Parstey.—Treble Curled. 

RaptsH.—Wood’s Harly Frame, Short Top, Scarlet and | White, Olive Shaped, 
Red and White Turnip. 

Ruvupars.—Dancer’s Harly Scarlet, Myatt’s Victoria, Mitchell’s Royal Albert. 

Srrvicn.—F landers and Prickly. 

Turnre.—Red American Stone, White Strap-leayed ; Chirk Castle and Orange 
Jelly, for winter. 

Porators.—Veitch’s Ashleaf, Myatt'’s Ashleaf, Haigh’s Kidney, Paterson's 
wantonis and Economist, Milky White, Baron’s Perfection, Almond’s Yorkshire 

ero. 

VEGETABLE Marrow. —Hibberd's Prolific, Moore’s Cream, Prince Albert. 


A few notes upon vegetables may not be out of place. The Royal 
Cluster Dwarf Bean is valuable, forming a ‘plant about a foot high ; 
and the same may be said of Newington Wonder French Bean. 
Carter’s Champion Runner is inyaluable, being nearly double the 
size of the ordinary runner. Among brassicas we attach great im- 
portance to Snow’s Broccoli: it is invaluable, and so is Hammond's ~ 
Imperial for spring use. For cottagers, Purple Sprouting is very 
profitable, and has the true broccoli flayour. Jet me strongly re- 
commend the asparagus, or Buda-kale, for spring use, it is one of the 
finest vegetables we have. A good word must also be said for the 
Rosette Colewort. There should always be a sced-bed of this ready 
for fillmg up every vacant space. A. 


THE LARGE WHITE CALIFORNIAN RADISH. 


Tue fact that some imperfect specimens of this haye receiyed a 
first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society justifies 
some allusion to it. It was when walking through the Chinese 
quarter of San Francisco, in the beginning of November 1870, that 
I first saw it. Among the various vegetable products. which were 
exhibited outside the Chinese shops was what seemed to bea peculiarly 
tender-looking white turnip, with a skin as smooth as glass, and pure 
white. The roots were cylindrical in outline, but usually rather 
neatly rounded at the ends, somewhat like a cucumber, and they were 
from eight to twelve inches Jong, and from two-and-a-half to 
three-and-a-half inches in diameter. Certain that it was a dis- 
tinct and excellent kind of turnip, I made some inquiries as to 
the variety, and learnt that it was a radish.. But, surely, a radish of 
such size must be a tough subject in the centre! On the contrary, 
the largest specimens were found to be as tender throughout as a 
well-grown young summer turnip. I afterwards visited the gardens 
where these radishes were produced, and found them grown, and 
thoroughly well grown too, in heds about four feet wide, with a narrow 
alley between. The plauts, arranged in lines, had abundant room to 
grow, and seemed to haye thriven unchecked in the sandy soil, kept 
well ‘moistened and enriched by the Chinese gardeners. ‘The culture 
seemed tome remarkably like what one sees in a good markct-garden — 
at Paris, the only difference I saw being, that between every two lines of 
plants there was a little hollow scooped out, and in this a small drill 
of half-decomposed manure was placed. Specimens bought in the 
Chinese market at San Francisco, and brought to London with other 
seeds and roots, maintained their freshness and good flavour for 
many weeks. They were shown to some of the most experienced 
seedsmen and growers in London, not one of whom ever suspected — 
they had anything to do with a radish, though they employed the 
tongue as well as the eye test. Where these radishes are grown. 
so well, the winter climate is much like that of our early autumn, so 
they do not suffer from cold. The tops of the specimens shown oe 
South Kensington were dead from frost. . 

The plant must, of course, receive the treatment of an autumn a 
winter radish, and be sown in rich, light, and warm soil. -In the 
colder parts of the country it might be desirable to place some plants 
in positions where they could be readily covered by a ground vinery 
or some such protection, so as to prevent their being checked or 
destroyed by autumnal frosts. If it prove distinct, it will doubtless 
be an acquisition. “7 W.-R. 


Dec. 16, 1871.) 


THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


—_—_ 


THE HARDY BAMBOOS. 


Tiere are no materials more attractive than these for the 
embellishment of pleasure-grounds in the southern and milder 
districts. I have grown and admired the beautiful and grace- 
ful Bambusa (Arundinaria) falcata. It is one of the most 
valuable of all plants for dotting here and there in the 
pleasure-ground, on islands, near water, or in the rougher 
parts of the rock-garden or hardy fernery. When once 
established it is surprising to see the number of vigorous 
young fishing-rod-like shoots that spring from it every 
summer. 
fifteen to twenty feet. Ihave had hundreds of canes an inch 
in diameter at the base, springing from one tuft. At Bicton 
we had them very fine associated with the Pampas grass and 


Arundo Donax, particularly by the sides of streams, and in | 


sheltered and half-shady nooks of the rock-garden. 
and handsomest 

lants of this bam- 
oo I have ever seen 
are at Mount Edge- 
eumbe. The most 
important considera- 
tion in connection 
with this pretty well- 
known plant, how- 
ever, is that at least 
several other species 
of hardy bamboo are 
very likely, indeed, 
to prove as hardy, if 
not hardier, than the 
subject of our illus- 


The best 


tration. For ex- 
ample, I find the 
following ~  descrip- 


tions of good kinds 
in “The Sub-tropical 
Garden” :— 


BAMBUSA JAPONICA 

- (B. Metake).—A large- 
leaved and rather dwarf 
species from Japan, 
growing from four feet 
to seven feet high, with 
erect, thickly - tufted 
stems, which are en- 
tirely covered by the 
sheaths of the leaves; 
the branches are also 
erect. The leaves are 
lance-shaped, with a 
yery sharp point, dark 
green, persistent, nar- 
rowed into a short leaf- a 

stalk, and nearly a 
foot long. This species sometimes flowers with extraordinary pro- 
fusion at the expense of a portion of the foliage, which withers 
away and leaves the naked stems exposed. This may, however, 
be prevented, to some extent, by placing the plants on mounds 
somewhat above the level of the surrounding soil. 
thrive very freely in the late Mr. Borrer’s garden in Sussex, and in 
one or two other places. It loves a peat soil, or a very free moist 
and deep loam, and runs a good deal at the root. 


‘Baxeusa witis.—A fine and vigorous kind from Cochin China, 
Somewhat tenderer than most of the other kinds enumerated, though 
no doubt it 
or it may be found useful if grown in the conservatory in winter and 
planted ont in the open air in summer, as is sometimes done with 
B. arundinacea, which otherwise could not possibly be seen out of 
doors in our climate. Panicle simple, erect, close; spikes long, 
imbricated. Leaves rather large, lance-shaped, striated, clasping 
the stem, which is woody and tapering; nodes rather distant, and not 
very prominent. 


BaMBusA NiGRA.—A rather compact-growing Chinese kind, with 
nearly solid stems, and thinner leaves than those of any other species. 


THE GARDEN. 


With me they used to attain a height of from | 


BambnsaZ(Arundinaria) falcata 


I have seen it | 


ill be found to thrive in the milder southern districts ; | 


69 


| The stems are smooth and bushy, about seven feet high, of alight green, 
dotted and striped with purple when young, changing to a glistening 
black when fully grown; they branch very much at the top, and 
sometimes from the base up. The leaves are oval-oblong, acute, 
| shortly-stalked, with a hard, dry, persistent sheath; their tender 
green colour contrasting finely with the blackish hue of the stems. 
| It is best planted as isolated specimens near the margins of shrub- 
beries, or on slopes in the pleasure-ground in warm, sunny, and 
sheltered positions, in deep, sandy, and well-drained soil. 


Bassusa Quirior.—A Japanese species of vigorous growth, with 
| robust green stems and bright-green leaves, polished above and slightly 
| mealy beneath, the ligule bearing a little bundle of brownish-grey 
hairs on the top. This kind I first saw in the gardens of the Accli- 
matisation Society at Paris, where it was thriving vigorously, and I 
have little doubt of its proving valnable in Britam. 


which has grown very freely for some years past in the neighbour- 
hood of Paris. The stems are numerous and grow as much as ten 
feet high in a season. They are mealy-glaucous at the joints, and 
| the branchlets are numerous and rather closely crowded. The leaves 
are narrow, sometimes 
nearly a foot long, 
and are occasionally 
striped with white. 
This species, which was 
obtained from China 
some years since, has 
thriven very well in 
the gardens at Paris, 
where M. Carriére first 
drew my attention to 
it. From what I have 
seen it do there ‘I 
have no doubt it will 
prove of great value 
in the milder southern 
parts of England and 
Ireland. % 


Bampusa Srront.—A handsome, distinct, and vigorous species, 


BAMBUSA VIOLAS. 
cens.—A hardy and 
vigorous kind, inter- 
mediate between B. 
nigra and B. viridi- 
glaucescens, most re- 
sembling the last-men- 
tioned however. It has 
blackish - violet much- 
branched stems, which 
assume a yellow tinge 
with age. The leaves 
are green above, bluish- 
grey beneath, with an 
elongated ligule  sur- 
rounded by a bundle of 
black hairs. Native of 
China. 

BaMBUSA VIRIDI- 
GLAUCESCENS.—A_ spe- 
cies from Northern 
China, which has been 
4 proved very hardy and free in the Paris gardens, and will, probably, 
| in warm parts of our islands, make a more vigorous growth and prove 
| a more beautiful object than any other kind. The stems, of a light- 
yellowish-green, grow from seven feet to twelve feet high, branching 
from the base, each branch again branching very much. ‘The leaves are 
| yery numerous, especially at the ends of the branches, of a pale-green, 
bluish underneath, sheathing the stem for a considerable length. It 
forms a fine object when planted as isolated specimens in sheltered 
warm glades in the pleasure-ground, or in snug open.spots near 
wood-walks, in very deep, rich, light, and well-drained soil. 


All the above, with one exception, I had the pleasure of 
seeing about Paris in 1867. Several of them were more 
vigorous than Bambusa falcata, growing in the same ground ; 
hence a very good reason for believing that some of them will 
be found of quite as great neal as the one figured, and 
which has been proved to add such a charming a) 
feature to many gardens in the southern and west 
England and Ireland. We are indebted to M™” 

Andrieux, & Co., of Paris, for the above ad\ 
well-grown specimen of B. faleata. 


70 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 16, 1871. 


A PLEA FOR ROCK GARDENS. 
BY JAMES McNAB, ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, EDINBURGH. 


Rock Garpuys may be looked upon as comparatively modern 
institutions, while rockeries are of ancient date. The latter 
are excellent in their way, but depend much on the nature of 
the material at the command of the operator, and on being 
constructed in such a manner as to produce a landscape effect. 
In rockeries the suitable and geological arrangement of the 
material is generally aimed at, more than a scientific or artistic 
distribution of the plants intended to be grown. But with 
rock gardens, on the other hand, the arrangement and formal 
distribution of the plants are specially to be considered. It is, 
however, not necessary that artistic effect should be laid alto- 
gether aside, for it is quite possible to have a graceful arrange- 
ment without sacrificing the individual health and habit of the 
plants. For a long series of years I have been enamoured by 
the diversified forms and extreme beauty of. alpine plants, 
haying always had under my charge a large number of these 
deserving favourites. Their cultivation, however, had always 
been in pots, plunged in ashes in raised pits, covering with 
glass during the winter months when necessary. 

Some years ago the removal of a high wall which separated 
the botanical from the old experimental garden here became 
necessary, to throw the two establishments into one. To 
utilize this large portion of old building material I commenced 
what I called a rock garden, in contradistinction to the 
rockeries which I had previously seen in many places through- 
out the country, where alpine and herbaceous plants, shrubs, 
both evergreen and deciduous, and often trees, were indis- 
criminately growing together, the stronger and wider-spread- 
ing plants otten smothering the weaker. The general effect of 
such rockeries when judiciously constructed was good, par- 
ticularly in the eyes of people not having a botanical taste. In 
the construction of the rock garden here, I got the stones of 
the old wall just alluded to split up longitudinally, and 
arranged on a piece of sloping ground facing the north, which 
I had previously laid out in an undulating and somewhat 
geometrical form, and which I divided into uniform sections, 
separated by stone paths and steps. ‘These sections were then 
divided into angular compartments of various sizes, and each 
filled with soils suited for the various plants to be put into 
them. The compartments of several of the sections were after- 
wards filled with various species of a genus,.such asthe sections 
of Semperyivums, Sedums, Saxifragas, also of Primulas, 
Silenes, Aubrietias, Gentianas, Androsaces, &c. Other sections 
were filled with plants of a uniform height, particularly 
of kinds of which only +a few species exist, while others 
were arranged in geographical order. The success of the 
early part of this experiment was such as to induce me 
to transfer a very large proportion of our alpime plants 
to the rock garden; and I am happy to say that I 
_ haye never had cause to regret it. It was often a difficult 

matter to get such a large collection of alpine plants as 
existed here kept in proper order, particularly when con- 
fined under pot culture, the attention necessary for shifting 
such a collection bemg often more than it was possible to 
undertake at the proper season with a limited staff of men. 
Unless such re-potting was regularly gone into, the foliage 
and flowers of each could not be properly developed. In this 
state, species often get confounded together, which is not 
likely to be the case when all are planted in separate rock- 
work compartments, yet near enough to be easily compared. 
The yarious sections of a rock garden, having the soil prepared 
specially for the different genera, should be equally drained 
and enjoy the same exposure. Under such auspices, each 
individual plant is developed in a more perfect condition than 
it can possibly be under ordinary pot culture; but, of course, 
if anyone could devote a great deal of care and attention to 
a few select favourites, they might develop very superior 
specimens by pot culture. 

The rock garden recently constructed at the Hdinbureh 
Botanic Garden, and still m progress of extension, contains 
upwards of four thousand compartments, of which 2,200 
spaces are filled with various species and varieties of alpine 
and dwarf-herbaceous plants, besides numerous dwarf, shrubby 
kinds, from all temperate parts of the globe. The remaining 


compartments are filled with free-flowering duplicates, placed 
at uniform distances, to please the eye of those whose taste 
is more for colour; but even to the botanical cultivator, such 
free-flowerine duplicate masses cannot be otherwise than 
extremely interesting. : 

All the angular interstices between the irregular plant 
compartments are filled with a selection of bulbous plants, 
such as species of Triteleia, Calliprora, Calochortus, Cyclobothra, 
Cyclamen, white Sisyrinchium grandiflorum; and amongst 
them nothing more pleasing than the Iris reticulata, which 
thrives well m such places and flowers abundantly. It never 
requires to be lifted except for sub-division. : 

Many of the larger compartments between the miscellaneous 
collection of alpines ave filled with a selected collection of spring- 
flowering bulbous plants, such as the Crimean Snowdrop, all the 
varieties of Scillas, of which S. bifolia major and S. sibirica pre- 
dominate; Puschkinia, varieties of the Grape Hyacmth, Vernal 
Snowflake; Bulbocodium vernum, dwarf Narcissus, &e. After 
the spring bulbs are done blooming and cut down, a little good 
soil is placed on the surface, and the spaces are filled with dyart 
annuals, and shallow-rooted summer-flowering herbaceous 
plants, such as Leptosiphons, Clintonias, dwarf Gilias, Mesem- 
bryanthemum tricolor, Holosteum umbellatum, Myosurus 
minimus, Linaria alpina, Papayer alpinum, dwarf Lobelias, Al- 
ternantheras, &c. Such plants are all removed as soon as 
injured by frost, and the surface of the bulbs is again covered 
with a little fresh soil, in order to protect the seeds of the 
annual plants, which rarely start till the bulbous plants 
are over. It will be found, after the expiration of two or 
three years, that some of the bulbs will get into a tufted 
condition, preventing their free flowering. With such 
plants it will be necessary, as soon as their blooming is 
over, to have them lifted and sub-divided, giving fresh soil 
where necessary, and replacing only the larger or flowering _ 
bulbs. 

Besides the choice bulbs planted in the general rock-garden » 
compartments, a large division is also set aside for a general | 
collection of all the spring-flowering bulbous plants, both species 
and varieties, and which are exceedingly interesting during the ~ 
early months. A division is also arranged for Colchicums, of 
which the red, pink, white, and variegated contrast well with 
the varieties of autumn-flowering Crocus, particularly the 
C. speciosus, which succeeds admirably in the stone compart- 
ments, making quite a show during the months of September — 
and October. é : 

Large divisions are also appropriated for a selection of mono- 
cotyledonous plants, exclusive of bulbs, such as the dwarf and 
herbaceous species of Irisand Yucca; also species of Cordyline, 
Sparaxis, Helonias, Ophiopogon, Trillium, terrestrial orchids, 
Convallaria, Uvularia, Narthecium, Tofieldia, Acorus, rare 
species of alpine Carex, &e. . 

The interstices between' the upright stones are filled with 
varieties of Primula vulgaris, both single and double, which 
flower abundantly. The double-flowering sorts, which hitherto 
were of difficult cultivation im the open air, succeed in such 
places remarkably well. Hepaticas are also admirably adapted 
tor such situations, and, with the Primulas, have a gay appear- 
ance during the spring months. oe 

The rock garden recently formed here is 190 feet long and 
at present 85 feet wide, haying a uniform and graduated eleva- 
tion of 12 feet. The extension and elevation of the rock garden 
is still progressing, and when completed the ultimate propor- 
tions will be 190 feet long, 120 feet wide, and the ultimate 
height, 18 feet. In the construction of the rock garden, care has~ 
been taken taken to have it all thoroughly dramed. The soil, 
as well as the sandy subsoil, has all been thrown up, and the 
ground below filled with ashes and foundation rubbish, com- 
posed of stones and other rough material, of which quantities 
can always be had near large towns for nothing. The original 
surface soil is always kept uppermost, for placing the stones in. 
These stones vary from 14 inches to 3 feet in length, from 8 
inches to 10 inches in breadth and from 3 inches to 4 inches in 
thickness, haying more or less angular tops. They are all 


| 


placed about 10 inches or 12 inches deep in the soil im an 


upright position, not “sloping at a high angle to the east,” as 
stated by “G. A. L.,” in the Gardeners’ Chronicle of the 14th 
of October, 1871. 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


71 


Angular stone stumps, varying from 3 feet to 9 feet in cir- 
cumference, and en tent feet in height, are placed on 
prominent points at uniform distances. Hach stone stump is 
planted with Yuccas and Cordylines. he sides of these 
upright stone stumps are furnished with angular buttress- 
stones, which gradually join into the ordinary stone compart- 
ments. These stone stumps, filled with large and formal 
plants of Yucca gloriosa, Y. recurva, &c., tend to give a 
characteristic and decided look to the rock garden. 

After all the stone compartments are arranged, the ordinary 
garden soil is taken out, and is replaced by prepared compost, 
chiefly consisting of turfy loam, peat, and sand, in proportions 
to suit the plants intended for them. I consider freestone, 
or any kind of sandstone of a free-splitting character, to be 
the most suitable, as roots take kindly to it. Besides, such 
stones retain a considerable deal of moisture when under the 
surface of the ground, thus giving a certain degree of nourish- 
ment to the roots during dry weather. When lifting plants 
that have been thus treated, the roots will be found to adhere 
to the stone all round, and can thus be taken up for trans- 
planting in square, triangulargor septangular masses, as the 
case may be. The drainage before alluded to proves very 
beneficial during the winter months, as is evidenced by the 
large number of plants which can be wintered with impunity 
on the elevated slopes of this rock ‘garden, when contrasted 
with many of the same species planted in the ordinary garden 
borders, where they generally decay away with frost and 
damp. The fact of Frost not affecting plants on an elevated 


rock garden to the same extent as when planted in open 


borders was thoroughly tested during the winter of 1870-71. 
The frost set in early in November, and from that period up to 
the end of February, making 120 days, the thermometer in 
the garden registered below the freezing-point on no less than 
seventy-three mornings. During November 1870, on twenty 
mornings the lowest points were on the 2nd, 8th, 9th, 10th, 
22nd, and 23rd, indicating, respectively, 29°, 26°, 25°, 29°, 27°, 
and 26°. During December, on eighteen mornings, the lowest 
points were on the 16th, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 28th, and 31st, indi- 
cating, respectively, 26°, 9°, 20°, 12°, 17°, and 20°. During the 
month of January 1871, the thermometer fell no less than 
twenty-seven mornings below the freezing-point, the lowest 
being on the 21st, oth, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th, indicating 
20°, 22°, 21°, 21°, 16°, and 14°. During February, on eight 
mornings, the thermometer was below 32°, the lowest being 
on the Ist, 2nd, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 26th, indicating, re- 
spectively, 26°, 30°, 31°, 29°, 29°, and 31°. Although this 
long-continued frost, almost without snow, penetrated full 
thirteen inches into the rock garden, it was surprising to 
find that, when genial weather returned, very few plants had 
suffered. 

At some future time, when the rock garden is nearer com- 

letion, it will be my endeavour to give drawings and further 
Stalls of it—then the large Arancarias and Yuccas, which now 
adorn all the prominent points, will be more matured. Mean- 
while, I hope enough has been said to give an impetus to the 
further cultivation of alpine plants on the rock-garden system. 
Rock gardens can afford as much scope for the display of a geo- 
metrical or fanciful taste as any of our modern bedding-out 
flower-gardens, particularly now that mixed summer bedding-out 
flower-gardens are coming more into fashion. A geometrical 
rock-work and flower-garden combined was constructed during 
1870 at Easton Duddingston Lodge, the residence of Charles 


_ Jenner, Esq., and is a good instance of this novel style of 


4 


ei pecans plats. 


gardening. ‘The raised geometrical beds have their sides 
constructed of a series of sloping stone compartments for the 
growth of alpine plants, while their raised centres during 
spring are filled with bulbous plants, and are afterwards 
replaced with a methodical arrangement of summer-flowering 


__ On the ey of William Christie, Esq., of Craigend 
Park, near Edinburgh, an old quarry has been turned to good 
account for rock-garden purposes. When confined entirely 
to the rock as eed a difficulty frequently occurs of 

big 2d places excavated, for the reception of plants. 

r. Christie has successfully combated this difficulty by laying 
out the interior in portions of various sizes and styles, composed 
of stone compartments, for the reception of alpine plants, 


Another rockwork, but more in the rock-garden style, has 
been in process of formation for several years on a piece of 
southern sloping ground at Fettes Mount, near Laswade, the 
summer residence of G. H. Potts, Esq. It is laid ont in 
terraces, a style peculiarly well suited to the naturally sloping 
character of the ground on which it has been constructed. 

In many parts of Argyllshire, villa residences have been 
fixed on merely on account of the natural rocks existing on 
the ground, which are afterwards covered with ferns and other 
rock-work plants. 

In the construction of rockeries, as well as rock gardens, it 
is necessary to provide the means of watering during dry 
weather; for this purpose a flexible tube and hose will be 
found the most efficient means. Of course, a force of water 
from a high reservoir is indispensable. 


AMARANTUS SALICIFOLIUS. 


Tus promises to be the finest-foliaged plant for dinner-table, 
drawing-room, and garden decoration for 1872. It created some- 
thing like a furore wherever exhibited last season. It is impossible to 
exaggerate its beauty, or exhaust its grace, by pen or pencil sketches. 
It isa free-growing plant, of admirable habit, forming a dense weeping 
pyramid of about a yard high, and nearly as much through. The 
plants shown at South Kensington were reported to have been 
grown in the open ground, from whence they were lifted into pots, and 
removed to the show. Everything else looked common-place beside 
them; they were the eye of the exhibition. Long, narrow leaves, 
from a quarter to half an inch wide, and from six to twelve inches 
long, weeped down over each other and the pots in the most graceful 
manner. They exhibited every hue of colour, from bronze-green to 
the most brilliant orange-red. It seemed as if more than all the 
beauty of Croton angustifolium and C. interruptum were combined 
in this charming Amaranth, or whatever else it may be; for I see 
its title is already questioned; and it certainly is like no other 
Amarantus. ~ 

But be it what it may, it is a rare gem for decorative purposes. For 
centres, groups, or rows, massed either by itself or as a set off to 
other flowering or foliage plants, it is likely to prove invaluable. 
In baskets, on brackets, or in vases, in conservatories or living- 
rooms, I cannot conceive anything more rich and elegant; while it 
will obviously give a new character to dinner-table decoration, Those 
long pendent branches, terminating in brilliant plumes, will fit in 
admirably with, and enhance the richness of, the finest services of 
plate, glass, dessert, &c. And to cut for the furnishing of tall vases, 
who that has seen it does not long to have such masses of drooping 
beauty with which to enwreath and elegantise them? Does any one 
think this the language of exaggeration? then let him hasten to 
see and grow the plant for himself. DPR, 


Modern Flower Gardens.—Mr. Henry Kingsley has under. 
taken the herculean task of reforming our modern flower-gardens. 
Everybody must admit that we have too little individuality—that we 
are too much ruled by fashion, and if Mr. Kingsley can help us to 
break through its trammels he will do good service. Most men 
when they propose a scheme of disestablishment—whether it is that 
of a church, a government, or a garden—have some scheme of their 
own to put forth as a substitute; and, as far as I understand Mr. 
Kingsley, he is desirous of reverting to a more natural style of 
gardening than that which is now practised. Byron says, “ There is 
a pleasure in the pathless woods ” ; and I must confess that sometimes, 
after being half-blinded by the glare of a garden that had taken 
thousands of plants to fill it, I should have felt, like Byron, delighted 
with the pathless woods, or with Mr. Kingsley’s garden aw naturel. 
We have been trying to out-do each other in our rage after novelties. 
We have even scaled the house-top and torn off the houseleek to 
plant in lines on mud, so feelingly described by Mr. Kingsley. 
Nevertheless, after the everlasting red-white-and-blue pattern, the 
succulents were a move in the right direction. I am not over anxious 
about seeing them all in a line, which so irritated Mr. Kingsley, but 
I believe true flower-garden reform lies in the direction of making 
a freer use of hardy plants, of neutral tints of foliage and flowers, 
to tone down the bright colours. I should be only to glad to 
curtail our present bedding-out system. I don’t think we can do 
without it till the fashion changes, but by making larger use of 
hardy plants, many of which are especially adapted for massing, we 
shall be able to free our houses of thousands of the usual subjects of 
bedding-out.—E. Hoppay, Ramsey Abbey, Hunts. 


THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 16, 1871. 


THE SEA HOLLIES (HRYNGIUM). 
: (Continwed from page 50.) 

OF quite a different type is the next species that claims attention, 
viz., H. aquifolium, a fine, bold border plant, attaining a height of 
some three or four feet, or even more, with a general contour of a 
candelabrum-like character. As a proof of its classic character, I 
may add that in the Exhibition of 1851, Messrs. Hunt & Roskell took 
the design for one of their most recherché candelabras from an almost 
perfect facsimile of a flowering stem of this plant; and, by way of 
securing the pattern from decay, they electro-plated the plant itself. 

In succession to the preceding we haye a group that is so closely 
allied that, for all general purposes, its constituents may be considered 
under one head: Eryngium planum, H. glomeratum, E. ecreticum, and 
E. virgatum. In all of these the radical leaves are elliptic in shape, and 
of a bright, shining green colour. The much-branched stems rise to 
a height of three feet, with the globose inflorescences yarying in 
size in the several species. The involucral leaves are narrow and 
Spinous, and the beauty of the plants depends more on their elegant 
habit of growth and the general bluish hue, which gives a peculiar 
charm to the yarious ramifications, than upon anything else. These 
plants all seed freely, and in this way may be imereaséd to any 
extent. I ought to add, however, that the seeds of Hryngium rarely 
vegetate the first season, and, therefore, ought not to be discarded, 
as they too frequently are, before they haye experienced the influence 
of a second spring’s sun. 

So much for the entire-leaved section. In our second group, first 
on the list unquestionably stands H. amethystinum. With the radical 
leaves three-parted and flower-stems moderately branched, rising 
to a height of two feet or more, and producing numerous stems, the 
whole suffused with a steel-blue colour, its specific name is in the 
highest degree appropriate ; and a beautiful plant it is. 

Closely allied to it, but much larger and stronger in growth—a 
remark which also applies to its involucral heads of flowers—is 
the Himalayan H. Roylei. This species sometimes attains the height 
of four or five feet, and is of rdbust growth, but rarely matures its 
seeds—at least, such has been miy/experience. ; 

Two slender and peculiarly forky species, viz., EH. cxerulenm and 
E. corniculatum, the former growing about two feet high, the 
latter about nine feet, it will suffice merely to name as desirable and 
distinct, where a collection rather than a selection is the object. 

E. spina alba, which is usually entitled H. rigidum—but so appro- 
priate is its older title that I prefer reversing the order of synonyms— 
is a dwarf plant, native of the south of France, of peculiarly rigid 
aspect, and covered with long projecting white spines, whence the 
name. It is a species but rarely met with, and, as cultivated by me, 
does not appear to be long-lived, usually exhausting its vitality by 
the third year. 

Two species, viz., H. Bourgati and H. Balbisii, closely allied, if 
not absolutely similar, are both well worth cultivation. Dwarf (rarely 
exceeding fifteen inches in height), they have undulated and divided 
radical leaves, marbled over with white; and though devoid of 
any brilliancy of floral colour, the character just alluded to, and their 
general habit, is sufficient to give them a claim to the front rank of 
the herbaceous border. 4 

The third group contains several species all of great similarity of 
aspect, and all coming from the Southern States of America or 
Mexico. Unlike the heretofore enumerated species, they have long 
and somewhat Yucca-like leaves. 

EH. yuccrefolium (syn., H. aquaticum), E. bromelizfolium, and H. 
virginianum are all that I have ever met with in cultivation. So 
like indeed is the second species to a Bromelia that I have several 
times had it sent to me as one. <A nip of the leaf between the teeth 
soon tells to what order it belongs by the presence of that flavour 
peculiar to all the Umbelliters i 

These species are scarcely hardy enough to stand the vicissitudes 
of our climate; and, if I mistake not, have naturally a good deal of 
the biennial character about them. Their interest is more botanical 
than general. To such as have an opportunity of cultivating them, 
I may say that their native habitat is swampy ground; but if srown 
freely under similar circumstances in this country they are almost 
certain to be cut off by an early frost in winter, whereas if grown in 
a somewhat dry, sheltered nook of a rockery they are much more 
likely to survive the perils of their first winter, and to flower suffi- 
ciently early in the season to render the maturation of their seed 
possible, at least, if not probable. 


Hull Botanic Gardens. JAs. C. NIVEN. 


Gop manages all of nature’s growth and bloom in such way, that 
eyery earnest man with an observant eye can so far trace the laws of 
His Providence, as to insure to himself a harvest of fruit, or grain, or 
flowers. And whatever errors may be made are only somany instruc- 
tors, to teach, and to quicken love by their lesson.—Ik. Marve. 


‘ 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FLOWER-GARDENING. 


Tris persica.—Professor Syme informs us that this charming plant proves 
hardy under a wall as far north as Fifeshire, and that it flowers there every 
spring. 


“Carpeting” Ground beneath Trees.—I have recently taken a cottage in 
Derbyshire, as a refuge occasionally from city smoke and fog, There is a 
garden of fair size, in which are laurustinus, yew, holly, and other evergreen 
trees, which have been long planted and long neglected, and are now of large 
growth. I like them as they are; but there are such big bare spaces of earth 
below them on which nothing grows—not even weeds. Will anything grow 
there, and ‘‘ carpet”’ the soil ?—J. S.—[Your best plan is to naturalize on the ~ 
bare ground small herbaceous plants that thrive in similar positions. Try, for 
example, the winter aconite, the periwinkles in considerable variety, the blue 
apennine, and the wood anemones, the St. John’s Wort, the snowdrop, and any 
kinds of crocus or daffodil you can readily obtain. ] 


Flowers.—Some fifty years ago the poet Goethe discovered that all the parts 
of plants had a kind of common nature, and would change into each other, 
Now this was a true discovery, and a notable one; and you will find that, in 
fact, all plants are composed of essentially two parts—the leaf and root—one 
loving the light, the other darkness; one liking to be clean, the other to be dirty ; 
One liking to grow for the most part up, the other for the most part down; and 
each having faculties and purposes of its own. But the pure one, which loves 
the light, has, aboye all things, the purpose of being married to another leaf, 
and having child-leayes, and children’s children of leayes, to make the earth 
fair for ever ; and when the leaves marry, they put on wedding robes, and are 
more glorious than Solomon in all his glory, and they have feasts of honey and 
we call them ‘‘ flowers.”’—John Ruskin, in *‘Fors Clavigera.” 


Advice to Amateurs.—If your notion of country enjoyment is limited by 
thoughts of a good place where you may lie down under the trees, and frolic 
with your children, or smoke a pipe under your yine or clambering rose-tree 
at evening—find,a gardener who is thoroughly taught, and who can place upon 
your table every day the freshest and crispest of the vegetables and fruits of the 
season, leayiny you no care, but the care of bills for superphosphates and 
trenching. If you stroll into his domain of the garden, take your walking-stick 
or your pipe there, if you choose—but never a hoe ora pruning-knife, Joke 
with him, if you like, but never advise him, Take measure of ‘his fitness by 
the fruits he puts upon your table, the order of your grounds, and the total of 
your bills. If these are satisfactory—keep him; if not, discharge him, as you 
would a lawyer who managed your case badly, or a doctor who bled or purged ~ 
you'to a sad state of depletion. - Tf, on the other hand, in establishing a country 
home, you have a wish tq identify yourself with its growth into fertility and 
comeliness, in such sort that you may feel that every growing shrub is a little 
companion for you and yours—every vine a friend—eyery patch of herbs, of 
vegetables, or of flowers, an aid to the common weal and pleasures of home, 
in which you take, and will never cease to take, a personal interest and pride— 
if all this be true, and you have as good as three hours a day to devote to 
personal superintendence—then, by all means, forswear all gardeners who 
come to you with great recommendations of their proficiency. However just 
these may be, all their accomplishments, ten to one, will be only a grievance to 
you. It is far better, if you be really in earnest to taste ruralities to the full, 
to find some honest, industrious fellow—not unwilling to be taught—who will 
lend a cheerful hand to your efforts to work ont the problem of life m the 
country for yourself.—D. G, Mitchell. 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 31.) 


' Areca monostachya (Australia).—Quite a gem in its way, witha 
stem one-and-a-half inch in diameter and four feet high; fronds, dark- 
ereen, two feet long, drooping; useful for a yase; succeeding well 
under greenhouse temperature, and, in a young state, suitable for a 
Wardian case, being slow in growth. j i : 

A. rubra (Mauritius).—A very graceful species, having dark-ereen 
foliage, with a tint of red on the margin of the pinne; but the 
older the plant the less conspicuous the red hue becomes; leaf stalk, 
clothed with dark scales; habit, eracefully spreading, light and 
feathery; suitable for table decoration, and one of the best for general 
stove purposes. Me 

A. furfuracea.—A variety of rubra, from which it differs in the 
absence of the red tint, and in having a denser clothing of dark scales 
on the petiole. A variety called A. aurea has the habit of this’ plant, 
but it has a yellowish tint on the petiole and yellow spots on the 
pinne. A handsome plant, but shy, and very fond of heat.. , 

A. sapida (the cabbage-palm of Norfolk Island).—A useful green- 
house plant, with dark-green, narrow foliage, having a yellow tint; 
habit, spreading, which unfits it for table decoration, but on a 
pedestal it has a fine appearance. Being dwarf in habit, it is useful 
for the ornamentation of the conservatory. — ; 

A. triandra (Hast Indies).—In habit allied to A. sapida, but, not 
being so hardy, is of less value. 

A. tigellaria (Hast Indies).—A spiny species, elegant in a young 
state, and pushing offsets from the base; not a free grower. A. horrida 
resembles this species; but both become ragged as they get old, and 
both like a high temperature. ; 

Acrocomia sclerocarpa (syn., macrocarpa: Tropical America).— 
A nice plant when young; foliage dark green, and petiole clothed 
with long dark spines; when large, ungainly and Jax in habit; not a 
good plant for general purposes. - 

A. lasiospatha,—Similar to the above. 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 73 


Astrocaryum rostratum (syn., mexicanum: Tropical America).— 
A very spiny plant, with fine fronds of a dark-green hue; under 
sides white; stem clothed with very strong black spines, and the 
petiole with smaller ones; fronds dense, and pinnw broad; a good 
stove palm, whose spines, however, are apt to tear other plants that 
may happen to be within reach of them. 

Arenga saccharifera (Sugar Palm; syn., javanica, Westerhantii: 
Indian Archipelago).—Fronds, pinnate ; when fully grown, twenty 
feet long and four feet wide ; under side, white; upper, dark green; 
leaf-stalks round, with abundance of black fibre at the base. A fine 
palm for a large house; but quite unfit for general purposes. 

Attalea Cohune (Honduras).—Fronds erect, twelve feet long ; 
pinnw channelled on under side; bright green. In this species the 
fronds stand without order, which gives the plant a confused appear- 
ance, For ordinary purposes, Attaleas are not very satisfactory ; 
but where a plant is required to stand in a corridor, or near a wall, 
some of them might be found useful. 

A. nucifera (New Granada).—A more lax plant than Cohune ; 
pinnée narrow. 

A. spectabilis (Brazil) —Ivonds more spreading than in the last ; 
margin of pinnw furnished with brown fibre, and the points are 
drooping. There are several other species of this genus; but they 
are not ornamental. ‘ J. C. 

(To be continued.) 


MUSA ENSETE FOR THE CONSERVATORY AND 
; WINTER-GARDEN. 
Comparativety few have any conception of the value of this 
superb plant for the conservatory, large greenhouse, or winter 
garden. When I went to Paris in the spring of 1867, I was 


Musa ensete. 


pleased and surprised to find a noble specimen in one of the 

«cool-houses there, as in England I had not previously noticed 

it ina cooler house than the palm-stove at Kew. Much as it 
has been spoken of during late years as an ornament for the 
flower-garden in summer, its yalue in this country will be in- 

finitely greater as a cool or intermediate house subject; par- 
ticularly as inall but the southern and mild districts it may not 
he placed in the open air without danger. In the conservatory 
it quite surpasses all other plants in the stately beauty of its 
colossal leaves, and gives a dignity to the vegetation of that 
structure which it hitherto has not possessed. It grows freely 
planted out, or in large tubs, in turfy loam, slightly enriched 
and well drained. Ina warm conservatory or winter-garden, 
with plenty of space overhead, it ought to be planted out; ina 
cool house or a small one, it would be better to restrict it to a 
large pot or tub, 


Epiphyllum truncatum,—fFew plants are better adapted for 
decorating the stove or warm conservatory during the months of 
November and December than the different varieties of this 
Ephyllum. Any new mode, therefore, of displaying their beauties 
cannot fail to be interesting. A plant of an erect round Cactus, of 
which I do not know the name, was used here this spring as a stock 
for in-arching some yarieties of E.truncatum, and they are just 
coming now into full flower. This stock was about eight feet in 
height, and about four feet of it, measuring from the top, was in- 
arched with the yarieties of E. truncatum, called spendens violaceum 
and Ruckerianum. Next year I intend in-arching some varieties of 
truncatum on the lower portion of the stock, and, judging from the 
effect of those at present in flower, this plant will, when furnished 
and in full beauty, make a pyramid of Epiphyllum well worth 
seeing. I have some six varieties of Epiphyllum truncatum in-arched 
on the Pereskia; but they are only about three feet in height. 
Nevertheless, when in flower, they are very beautiful as pyramids.— 
Wieriam Tintery, Welbeck. 


Acacia humifusa.—Most of us are familiar with the Acacias, 
their frequently elegant and not rarely singular leaves, and their 
form of beautiful, densely-produced flowers. ‘They are widely culti- 
yated in greenhouses and conservatories in this country, but they 
usually require more nutriment than they can-obtain in pots, while, if 
planted out they generally run up straight to the glass, and become 
objectionable for that reason, their lower parts getting naked, and 
the flowers being chiefly presented to the roof. ‘There are, however, 
some elegant and not over vigorous growers to which this does not so 
much apply, and which may be trained with good effect over an arch 
or up a pillar; but generally the different species of this genus are 
liable to the above objections. It is with much pleasure, then, that 
we recommend one which, flowering profusely and well, has a directly 
opposite tendency to those accustomed to wild life in a New Holland 
Acacia serub. Jt is Acacia humifusa—which, indeed, grows upward 
sufficiently to enable us to train it to rafters, pillars, &e., but then 
begins to throw down long green tresses of fine leaves, and becomes, 
even when out of flower, a graceful ornament to the conservatory or 
greenhouse. In spring these long tresses, reminding one of the pen- 
dulous shoots of the Weeping Willow, become covered with flowers. 
The genus Acacia, though now considerably reduced, contains up- 
wards of five hundred species, but not one which we should select in 
preference to this for the purpose herein mentioned. As to culture, 
there needs little to be said. It, like most of its brethren, will grow 
in almost any soil. We first saw this plant when visiting the garden 
at Floors Castle some years ago, but were not fortunate enough to see 
it in flower. We saw enough, however, to know that A. humifusa is 
about the most valuable plant ever introduced for adding grace to the 
interior of the conversatory or large cool-house of any kind in which 
there is room to plant it out. 


Rhodanthe Manglesi as a Greenhouse Ornament.—It is 
when grown in pots for the spring decoration of the conservatory 
that this charming plant is seen in its finest proportions. For this 
purpose the seed should be sown the first week in August under glass, 
and when the young plants are of sufficient size, they should be 
singled out and planted three or five in a small pot and sheltered 
until they get established. The compost for them should be equal 
parts of turfy loam and peat, with a sprinkling of gritty sand for the 
winter, substituting leaf mould and rotten manure for the peat at the 
subsequent pottings. The best place for the plants is upon a shelf 
close to the glass, where, with a free civeulation of air, they will be 
free from damp and cold draughts. Water moderately, and as the 
plants require it, shift them into larger pots, taking care to stop the 
side branches when two or three inches long, and remove all flower- 
buds as fast as they appear until the plants are thoroughly esta- 
blished. With proper attention plants may be had in eleven-inch pots 
forming half-spheres two feet in diameter, and covered with thousands 
of flowers. To attain that end the treatment must be liberal; the 
temperature should be that of the warm greenhouse, with, after 
Christmas, a warm growing temperature, the heat increasing as the 
days lengthen. It is, however, essential to make as much headway 
as possible in the early part of the spring; for, as the light increases, 
the inclination of the plants to bloom is so great that it is difficult to 
produce them of superior size. The plants will enjoy a sprinkling of 
water daily while in free growth, but as soon as the flowers begin to 
show colour then the sprinkling must be dispensed with; a moist 
atmosphere will, however, still be necessary, therefore damp around 
the pots and the stages and paths in the house. When the plants are 
fairly established and in free growth, weak manure-water will be of 
great advantage to them; it may cither be prepared from guano or 
from soot and cow or sheep dung, and it should be used in a perfectly 
clear state. These plants ave subject to mildew in winter, for which 
sulphur may be used.—B. 


74 


THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 16, 1871. 


Zonale Pelargoniums.—I have raised seedlings of these at the 
rate of thousands a year for some seasons past, not only in the hope of 
improving this class of plants, but to multiply the colours. What- 
ever style of gardening we adopt, it is difficult to conceive any case 
in which these plants will be given up; for, whether in the form of 


beds, clumps, or planted singly, there is nothing to equal them in © 


effect, as far as colour is concerned. ‘The artificial crossing of the 
flowers, and the after-cultivation of the seedlings, has to me been a 
constant source of pleasure and excitement. As long as bedding- 
geraniums were nearly all scarlets, there was a sameness about them 
which prevented many from taking much interest in them; but since 
we have sudceeded in raising so many shades of rose and crimson, I 
haye observed that a marked increase of attention has been directed 
to them. But it is to their value as winter-blooming greenhouse 
plants that I would call particular notice. Few have any idea of 
their excellence in this respect. Ifa number of plants be well grown 
in pots all summer, plunged out of doors and not allowed to bloom, 
and then remoyed to a greenhouse in autumn, the effect which they 
will produce will be found to be car greater than that which a lot of 
chrysanthemums is capable of making, and will be continued three 
times as long. One. great advantage of these plants is, they are 
never attacked by insects, if we except the green caterpillar of the 
Angleshades Moth, so that they give little trouble, and can do no 
harm to vines or other plants with which they may be associated. 
Indeed, I know no tribe of plants capable of producing such an 
effect as this at so little cost, and for so long a period; and I think 
good winter-bloomers will soon be in demand, for though all flower 
well when properly prepared, some bloom much better than others 
during autumn and winter.—J. B. PEarson, Chilwell. 


Poinsettia pulcherrima.—This old and well-tried favourite 
still oceupies a prominent place in our plant stoves during winter, and 
if removed when it has fully expanded its large red bracts from the 
stoye to the drawing-room or front hall, where it can enjoy a little 
warmth, it will be found to be a useful in-door ornament. In such 
situations, however, watering requires to be carefully attended to. 
Heavy applications of water are apt to sour the soil and to cause the 
plants to have a sickly appearance, whereas if proper discretion is 
exercised they will remain in full beauty for at least three weeks, 
even at this festive season of the year. By the latter part of 
January the beauty of the plants will be over, and they may be set out 
of the way in any house, the minimum temperature of which never 
falls below 45°. They should, however, be kept dry until the time 
arrives to cut them down, which will be about the first week in March, 
Then remove them toa propagating or forcing house. Preserve the wood 
cut off to work up fornext season’ssupply. In propagating the Poin- 
settia, most cultivators prefer what may be called the vine-eye system. 
Select thoroughly-ripened wood, and prepare the eyes in the same 
manner as you would those of the vine; perhaps the best possible 
time for carrying out this method is about the first week in March ; 
place then the cuttings or eyes thickly over the surface of a pan or 
a six-inch flower-pot, and set them in the strongest heat at command. 
When they start into growth, be careful to guard against damp. 
Another way of increasing the Poinsettia is this :—Take firm young 
shoots, consisting of three or four joints off the old plants—say, in 
April—and place them in a strong heat. They will soon strike root, 
and their after culture will be precisely the same as that for plants 
struck from eyes. Pot off immediately they are fairly rooted, so as 
to guard against a check, and as soon as they haye filled the pots 
they are in with roots, shift on into larger pots till the strongest 
plants are in eight-inch pots and the weaker ones in six-inch ones ; 
and in those they may remain to flower. A moist atmosphere and 
liberal waterings are required to insure success. 
very injurious to this plant, and, therefore, must be avoided; as 
must also scorching, by timely air giving. Possibly, the best soil for 
Poinsettias would be equal parts of peat, sand, good turfy loam, and 
leaf mould, well incorporated together. By this treatment, plants 
with bracts large and brilliant may be obtained. In order to have 
dwarf specimens, take old plants in March, shake them out, and 
re-pot them in as small pots as their roots can conyeniently be put 
into, and as soon as they are established, shift them on till you get 
them into ten-inch pots, or say a very large specimen in a twelve-inch 
pot, in which it may be allowed to remain to flower. As the shoots 
adyance, tie them out as widely as possible without breaking them. 
About, say the third week in August, take the shoots and bend them 
down to within about nine inches of the pot, and secure them there 
to a stake or the rim of the pot, and in this way form a neat and 
compact head. When well done the plant assumes a handsome shape; 
afterwards care must be taken in watering, for if that is not properly 
attended to the result will be crooked, barren stalks, instead of 
branches well-furnished with leaves. Nyerybody knows how difficult 
it is to keep this plant dwarf and bushy; but the directions just 
given will secure that desideratum.—H. W. 


Cold draughts are . 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


Phalenopsis Lowii.—This is one of the prettiest of the genus, It is found 
growing on limestone rocks in its native country, where it loses its leaves and 
takes a period of rest annually. Mr. Page, Park Hill, Streatham, had a plant 
treated after this fashion, which had ten flowers all open on one spike at one 
time. It is usually kept growing all the year round, which isamistake. It 
should be potted in rough peat and broken crocks, and should haye plenty of 
water during the growing season. P. grandiflora, well established on hoards, has 
been offered for sale in such large quantities lately, and at such low prices, that 
no stove should be without a dozen or more of it. Suspended in baskets from 
the roof, few plants are more effective-—W. Howarp, Balham. 


Palm Culture.—There is one point—as to the amount of sun or shade palms 
require—which I do not find mentioned in any books on their culture. I haye had 
some since last spring in a cool fernery, which Iam obliged to keep much shaded, 
as the roof is exposed to the sun. They haye hitherto done yery well. Query— 
Will they continue to do so? and are there any palms more particularly suited 
to a shady situation than others? Mine would really never have the direct sun 
on them,—HEnry FAULKNER, jun., Fernwood, Roehampton Park.——[The passa 
of palnis will succeed without direct sunlight, and wlll grow very well in suc 
a position as that mentioned, with the exception of Chame:dorias and Geonomas, 
which jrequire a very moist, shady atmosphere and a stove temperature. 
The following would do very well ina cool fernery, viz. :—Areca australis, 
A. Baueri, Chamerops humilis, C. Fortunii, Cocos anstralis, Juba specta- 
bilis, es flabelliformis, Seaforthia elegans, Sabal Adansoni, and Corypha 
australis. 


-Neapolitan Violets at Christmas.—A bunch of violets is always a precious 
possession—eyven when days are calm and bright, and the scented airis redolent 
of the perfumes of many flowers ; but how much more so in the dead of winter! 
Ivemember well, years ago, how in the south of England we used to have 
Neapolitan violets at Christmas, and how their odoriferous blossoms mingled 
with the round red holly berries at our family gatherings in the decline of the 
fast-fading year. This was how we grew them, and with great success: In 
May a compost of fibrous loam and leaf mould was made, and with this we con- 
structed a bed on a warm and dry border. Then, selecting the young, vigorous 
offshoots made by the violets, two or three of these were put together, and so 
made to form a plant, and were placed in this our nursery bed about six inches 
or eight inches apart; and there they grew, and were allowed to remain until 
the beginning of August. Then they were placed in pots about six inches in 
diameter, using a soil composed of two-thirds of leaf mould, and one part 
maiden loam of a fibrous free character, with some silyer sand. We always 
placed good drainage at the bottom of the pots, and when potted, the plants 
were placed in some shady position in the open air for about three weeks or a 
month, and then remoyed to a dry and elevated frame for winter blooming, 
where the pots were plunged in tan, and a thick lining of leayes and short straw 
was placed round the frame to keep them from frost. In selecting materials for 
our lining care was always taken to avoid anything of a heating character, so 
that dung or other material subject to rapid fermentation was eschewed. When 
here, our attention was simply directed to keeping the plants protected from 
cold winds, the foliage dry, and consequently free from damp, which is very 
injurious to the plants at the Christmas season of the year. Such was the mode 
by which we obtained plants of Neapolitan violets in pots laden with pleasant 
flowers at mid-winter. Perhaps our southern locality, almost close to the sea- 
side, helped us somewhat. We grew these in pots for our pleasant little con- 
servatory and sitting-room that overlooked the silvery waters of the Solent 
riyer, that washes part of the south-west coast of Hampshire. Where cut 
flowers only are required, the plants could be managed equally well planted out 
in the frame in such a compost as that recommended for pots, care being 
taken to keep the plants dry during the dull part of the winter.—Quo., in 
“ Field.” 


Lachenalias.—These are highly ornamental plants, much too little grown 
for decorative purposes, They are dwarf, bulbous, South-African plants, and 
therefore perfectly amenable to greenhouse culture ; and few subjects are gayer 
or more useful, as contrasts with other bulbs, than they are when nicely 
grown. lL, pendula, tricolor, and aurea are three distinct’ and beantiful species 
which, with the more common L. Inteola, are equally deserving of general 
cultivation. Pendula is of larger size and stature than the others, with plain 
green leayes and peculiarly-tinted reddish flowers tipped with green. Tricolor 
is a free-flowering sort, with spotted leayes, and yellow flowers margined with 
green and red. Aurea is a very scarce sort, which has slightly spotted leaves, — 
purple-speckled scapes, and very beautiful waxy flowers, which are wholly of 
avich apricot or golden yellow. Mr. Barron, who grows these plants most suec- 
cessfully as conservatory ornaments, has kindly communicated the following 
notes on their cultivation :—“‘ When the plants have done flowering, water should 
be withheld gradually, and by and by altogether. They may be kept ina frame 
until all the leaves have died off, and then placed in any convenient place, 
where they may only be kept dry. In August or early in September the bulbs 
should be taken out of the pots and soil, and assorted, %.e,, the larger and the 
smaller ones each put by themselves. For soil, get some fresh turfy loam and 
peat, with some sand, and a little manure, mixed up together, and fill this into 
clean forty-eight-sized pots, well drained—the latter a very important point; 
place from five to eight uniform bulbs in each pot, and just slightly cover them 
with soil, then water and place in a cold, close frame until they commence to 


grow. In October they must be placed in some cool pit or house near tothe 
glass, as they love abundance of light and air. The temperature must just be 


sufficient to exclude frost, but they dislike heat, which makes the leayes draw 
up weakly and lanky. They require careful watering during winter, otherwise 
at that season they are liable to dieoff. When coming into flower, however, they 
need abundance of water, and sometimes a little heat is beneficial to help the 
flowers to expand. The different sorts cannot be treated exactly alike; aurea, 
for instance, which has been nearly lost to our gardens, haying an awkward 
habit of refusing to grow at all some seasons. My bulbs of it rested for two — 
seasons, remaining quite dormant, and this season they have only started into 
growth after haying the assistance of astrong stovetemperature.” Mr. Stevens, 
gardener to G. Simpson, Esq., Wray Park, Reigate, exhibited at South 
Kensington, last spring, a charmingly-flowered basket of L, luteola, than which 
nothing more beamutifulas a basket plant has ever beenseen, Mr. Stevens has 
been good enough to send the following memoranda on his method of growing 
these wonderful specimens :—‘‘T start them the first week in September, and 
put them in the coldest house I have got. When they have started into growth, 

I give them a little mamure-water made of soot and cow-dung, which I find 
they delight in. I plant them in the strongest loam I can find, mixing a little 
cow-dung with it, and I find them to do wellinit. I have at the present time 
five baskets of them, which T think will be better than the one I brought up to — 
London last spring.”’—FVorist and Pomologist. 2 


E 
r 


. pocanten” 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE BIG TREE—SEQUOIA (WELLINGTONIA) 
‘a GIGANTEA. 
So many imperfect and incorrect accounts of this tree have 

UF in journals at different times, that the following, by 

fessor Whitney, the State Geologist of California, in “ The 
Yosemite Book,” will, doubtless, be acceptable to all tree 
lovers. Very little that is trustworthy has been published 
either in this country or America on this subject :— 


According to Mr. Hutchings’s statement, the Calaveras Grove of 
Big Trees was the first one discovered by white men, and the date 
was the spring of 1852. The person who first stumbled on these 
vegetable monsters was Mr. A. T. Dowd, a hunter employed by the 
Union Water Company to supply the men in their employ with fresh 
meat, while digging a canal to bring water down to Murphy’s. 
According to the accounts, the discoverer found that his story gained 
so little credence among the workmen, that he was obliged to resort 
to a ruse to get them to the spot where the trees were. The won- 
derful tale of the Big Trees found its way into the papers, and 
appears to have been first published in the Sonora Herald, the nearest 
periodical to the locality. The account was republished, among 
other papers, in the Echo dw Pacific of San Francisco, then copied 
into the London Atheneum of July 23, 1853 (p. 892), which is 
believed to be the first notice published in Europe, and from 
there again into the Gardeners’ Chronicle of London, where it 
appeared July 30, 1853 (p. 488). In the last-named journal, for 
December 24th, page 819, Dr. Lindley published the first scientific 
description of the Big Tree. Overlooking its close affinity with the 
already-described redwood, he regarded it as the type of a new 
genus, which he called Wellingtonia, adding the specific name of 
gigantea. His specimens were received from Mr. William Lobb, 
through Messrs. Veitch & Sons, well-known nurserymen. The tree 
had been previously brought to the notice of scientific men in San 
Francisco, and specimens had been sent to Dr. Torrey in New York 
considerably earlier than to Dr. Lindley, but the specimens were lost 
in transmission; and, no description haying been published in San 
Francisco, although Drs. Kellogg and Behr had brought it to the 
notice of the California Academy early that year as a new species, 
the honour and opportunity of naming it was lost to American 
botanists. The closely allied species of the same genus, the Sequoia 
sempervirens, the redwood, had been named and described by 
Endlicher in 1847, and was well known to botanists all over the 
world in 1852. 

At the meeting of the “ Société Botanique de France,” held June 
28, 1854, the eminent botanist Decaisne presented specimens of the 
two species, the Big Tree and the redwood, with those of other Cali- 
fornian conifer recently received from the Consular Agent of 
France at San Francisco. At this meeting M. Decaisne gave his 
reasons, at some length, for considering the redwood, and the more 
recently discovered ‘‘Big Tree” to belong to the same genus, 
“Sequoia, and in accordance with the rules of botanical nomenclature, 
called the new species Sequoia gigantea. The report of these pro- 

ings is to be found in the Bulletin dela Société Botanique de 
France, Vol. I., p. 70. which was issued in July (probably) of 1854. 

In the meantime, specimens had been received by Dr. Torrey at 
New York, and in September of the same year, 1854, Professor 
Gray, of Cambridge, published, in the American Jowrnal of Science, 
appended to a notice of the age of the redwood, a statement, bn his 
own authority, that a comparison of the cones of that tree and those 
of the so-called Wellingtonia of Lindley, did not bring to view any 
differences adequate to the establishment of a new genus. To this 
Professor Gray adds :—‘ The so-called Wellingtonia will hereafter 
bear the name imposed by Dr. Torrey, namely, that of Sequoia 
It does not appear, however, on examination, that 

Torrey had himself published any description of the Big Tree, 
or of the fact that he considered it generically identical with the 
_ redwood, and priority seems to have been secured by Decaisne, so 


_ that the name must stand as Sequoia gigantea Decaisne. 


No other plant ever attracted so much attention, or attained such 


_ acelebrity within so short a period. The references to it in scientific 
_ works and journals already number between one and two hundred, 


and it has been the theme of innumerable articles in popular 

. periodicals and books of travel, in various languages ; probably there 
is hardly ax aper in Christendom that has not published some 
item on the subject. Seeds were first sent to Europe and the 
Eastern States in 1853, and since that time immense numbers have 
found their way to market. They germinate readily, and it is pro- 
bable that hundreds of thousands of the trees (millions, it is said) 
are growing in different parts of the world from seeds planted. 


THE GARDEN. 


75 


The genus was named in honour of Sequoia, or Sequoyah, a 
Cherokee Indian of mixed blood, better known by his English name 
of George Guess, who is supposed to have been born about 1770, and 
who lived in Will’s Valley, in the extreme north-eastern corner of 
Alabama, among the Cherokees. He became known to the world 
by his invention of an alphabet and written language for his tribe. 
This alphabet, which was constructed with wonderful ingenuity, 
consisted of eighty-six characters, each representing a syllable; and 
it had already come into use to a considerable extent before the 
whites had heard anything of it. After a time the missionaries took 
up Sequoyah’s idea, and had types cast and a printing-press supplied 
to the Cherokee nation, and a newspaper was started in 1828, partly 
in this character. Driven with the rest of his tribe beyond the 
Mississippi, he died in New Mexico in 1843. His remarkable 
alphabet is still in use, although destined to pass away with his 


“nation, but not into oblivion ; for his name, attached to one of the 


grandest and most impressive productions of the vegetable kingdom, 
will for ever keep his memory green. 

The Big Tree occurs exclusively in “ groves,” or scattered over 
limited areas, never forming groups by themselves, but always dis- 
seminated among a much larger number of trees of other kinds. The 
groves of the Big Trees are limited in latitude between 36° and 38° 15! 
nearly, at least so far as we now know. ‘The Calaveras Grove is 
the most northerly, and one on the south fork of the Tule is the 
farthest south of any yet known to us. They are also quite limited in 
vertical range, since they nowhere descend much below 5,000 or rise 
above 7,000 feet. They follow the other trees of California, in this 
respect, that they occur lower down on the Sierra as we go north. 
wards; the most northerly grove, that of Calaveras, is the lowest in 
elevation above the sea-level. 

There are cight distinct patches or groves of the Big Trees—ore 
nine, if we should consider the Mariposa trees as belonging to two 
different groups, which is hardly necessary, inasmuch as there is only 
a ridge half a mile in width separating the upper grove from the 
lower. ‘he eight groves are, in geographical order from north to 
south: first, the Calaveras; second, the Stanislaus; third, Crane 
Flat; fourth, Mariposa; fifth, Fresno; sixth, King’s and Kaweah 
rivers; seventh, North Fork Tule river; eighth, South Fork Tule river. 

The Calaveras Grove is situated in the county of that name, about 
sixteen miles from Murphy’s Camp, and near the Stanislaus river. It 
is on, or near, the road crossing the Sierra by the Silver Mountain 


‘Pass. This being the first grove of the Big Trees discovered, and the 


most accessible, it has come more into notice, and been much more 
visited than any of the others; indeed, this and the Mariposa Grove 
are the only ones which have become a resort for travellers. The 
Calaveras Grove has also the great advantage over the others, that a 
good hotel is kept there, and that it is accessible on wheels, all the 
others being at a greater or less distance from any road. 

This grove occupies a belt 3,200 feet long by 700 feet broad, ex- 
tending in a north-west and south-east direction, in a depression 
between two slopes, through which meanders a small brook which 
dries up in the summer. There are between 90 and 100 trees of 
large size in the grove, and a considerable number of ‘small ones, 
chiefly on the outskirts. Several have fallen since the grove was 
discovered; one has been cut down; and one has had the bark 
stripped from it up to the height of 116 feet above the ground. The 
bark thus removed was exhibited in different places, and finally found 
a resting-place in the Sydenham Crystal Palace, where it was un- 
fortunately burned in the fire which consumed a part of that 
building a few years ago. The two trees thus described were perhaps 
the finest in the grove ; the tallest now standing is the one called the 
“Keystone State” ; the largest and finest is known as the “Empire 
State.” The height of this grove above the sea-level is 4,759 fect. 

The exact measurement of the diameter and the ascertaining 
of the age of one of the largest trees in this grove was made possible 
by cutting it down. This was done soon after the grove was dis- 
covered, and is said to have occupied five men during twenty-two 
days. The felling was done by boring through the tree with pump- 
augers; it was no small affair to persuade the trunk to fall, even 
after it had been completely served from its connection with the base, 
It was done, ‘however, by driving in wedges on one side, until the 
ponderous mass was inclined sufficiently, which was not effected 
until after three days of labour. 

The stump of this tree was squarred off smoothly at six feet above 
the ground, and the bark being removed, a pavillion was built over 
it, forming a capacious room, the exact dimensions of the stump 
inside of the bark being, 


Across its longest diameter, south of centre, 13 feet 9} inches. 


” ” »  northofcentre,10 ,, 4 5, 


Total longest diameter .......--..- 24. fect 1} inches. 
The shorter diameter, or that east and west, was 23 feet, divided 


Geen | THE GARDEN, 


(Dzc. 16, 1871. 


exactly even on each side of the centre, Tho thickness of the bark, 
averaging 18 inches probably, would add three feet to the diameter 
of the tree, making 26 feet in all. After this tree had been cut down, 
it was again cut through about 80 feet from the first cut. At the 
upper end of this section of the trunk, or about 40 feeb from the 
ground, as the tree originally stood, we carefully counted the rings 
of annual growth, measuring at the same time the width of each set 
of one hundred, beginning at the exterior; the result was as 
follows :— : 


Virst hundred .,. 3,0 inches. 


Second ,, tee mi af ae TUG sas 
Third o fe mn and vat de Ms 
Yourth ,, Se ih 4a) fy Mg ierate eal 
Pifth A "a oe ne Na ai PAN: sete 
Sixth un nod On Wee es Li Aaa eats 
Seventh ,, ten rah i vie TARO ies 
Highth ,, “At the an we SOs prep 
Ninth  ,, te ti bi wy POR Ay tebe 
Venth  ,, ae Bi it Be Li TE tiles 
Hleventh ,, TONE: 
Twelfth ,, wie ae ne AOD ss 
55 years ,, ef AY, Ae nah be Otel ks 


1,265 years. 80.8 inches. 


There was a small cavity in the centre of tho tree which pre- 
vented an acurate fixing of its age; but making due allowance for 
that, and for the time required to grow to the height at which the 
count was made, it will be safe to say that this particular tree, which 
was probably about as large as any now standing in the grove, was, 
in round numbers, 1,800 years old. 

The Calaveras Grove contains, as will be scen in the table, four 
trees over 300 feet high, the highest one measured in the Mariposa 
Grove being 272. The published statements of the heights of these 
trees are considerably exaggerated, as will be noticed; but our 
measurements can be relied on as being correct.* The Keystone 
State has the honour of standing at the head, with 825 feotas its cle- 
vation, and this is the tallest tree yet measured on this continent, so 
far as our information goes. When we observe how regularly and 
gradually the trees diminish in size, from the highest down, it will 
he evident that the stories told, of trees having once stood in this 
grove over 400 feet in height, are not entitled to credence. Tt is 
not at all likely that any one tree should haye oyertopped all the 
others by 75 feet or more. The same condition of general average 
clevation, and absence of trees very much taller than any of the rest 
in tho grove, will be noticed among the trees on the Mariposa Grant, 
where, howeyer, there is no one as high as 300 feet. 

The Mariposa Grove is situated about sixteen miles directly south 
of the Lower Hotel in the Yosemite Valley, and between three and 


four miles south-east of Clark’s Ranch, and at an elevation of about — 


1,500 feet above the last-named place, or of 5,500 fect above the sea- 
lovel. Jt lies in a little valley, occupying a depression on the back 
of avidge, which runs along in an easterly direction between Big 
Creek and the South Merced. One of the branches of the creck 
begins in the grove. 

The grant made by Congress is two miles Square, and embraces, in 
reality, two distinct, or nearly distinct, groves; that is to say, two collec- 
tions of Big Trees, between which there is an intervening space without 
any. The Upper Grove isin a pretty compact body, containing, on an 
area of 3,700 by 2,300 fect in dimensions, just 365 trees of the Sequoia 
gigantea, of a diameter of one foot and over, besides a great num- 
ber of small ones. The lower grove, which is smaller in size and 
more scattered, lies in a south-westerly direction from the other, 
some trees growing quite high up in the eulches on the south side of 
the ridge which separates the two groves. 

The trail approaches the Upper Grove from the west side, and 
passes through and around it, in such a manner as to take the yisitor 
very near to almost all the largest trees; to accomplish. this, it 
ascends one branch of the creck and then crosses oyer and descends 
the other, showing that the size of the trees depends somewhat 
on their position in regard to water. Still, there are several very 
large ones on the side hill south of the creek, quite high aboye the 
water. ; 


Several of the trees in this grove have been named, some of them, — 


indeed, half a dozen times; there are no names, however, which 
seem to have become current, as is tho caso in the Calaveras Grove. 
A plan has been drawn for the commissioneys, however, showing 
each tree, with its exact position and size, a number being attached 
toeach. he circumference of every tree in the grove was also 


* Several trees were measured twico, und the results, in oyery case, ound to 
be closely coincident. 


carefully measured, and the height of such as could be conveniently 
got at for this purpose. 

There ave several trees in this grove considerably larger than 
any that are to be found in the Calaveras, and their average 
size is greater. The ayerage height of the Mariposa trees, 
however, is less than that of the Calayeras; and the highest of the 
former, 272 feet, is 58 fect less than the tallest one of the latter. 
There is a burned stump on the north side of the grove, nearly all 
gone, but indicating a tree of a size perhaps a little greater than any 
now existing here. The beauty of the Mariposa Grove has been sadly 
marred by the ravages of fire, which has evidently swept through it 
again and again, almost ruining many of the finest trees. Still, the 
general appearance of the grove is extremely grand and imposing. 
There are about 125 trees over 40 feet in Circumference. ‘ 

The principal trees associated with the Big Trees in this grove 
are, the pitch and sugar pies, the Douglas spruce, the white fir 
(Picea grandis), and the bastard cedar (Libocedrus decurrens) ; the 
latter so much resembles the Big Tree in the general appearance of 
its trunk and bark, that there was no person in our party who could 
certainly distinguish the two species at a little distance. 

There are but very few of the young Big Trees growing within 
the grove, where probably they have been destroyed by fire ; around 
the base of several of the large trees, on the outskirts of the grove, — 
there are small plantations of young Sequoias, of all sizes, up to six 
or eight inches in diameter, but only a few as large as this, ‘Those 
trees which are about ten fect in diameter and entirely uninjured by — 
fire, in the full symmetry of a vigorous growth of say 500 years, are, 
although not as stupendous as the older giants of the forest, still 
exceedingly beautiful and impressive. ‘ 

The meadows near the Big Trees abound in gay, blooming 
flowers. Mr. Bolander enumerates, as the most conspicuous: Rud- 
beckia californica—Gray ; Aconitum nasutum—Fischer; Aniso- 
carpus Bolanderi—Gray ; Boykinia occidentalis—T. and G. ; Sidalcea 
malvaflora—Gray; Myrica Gale—L.; Hulsia brevifolia—GQray ; 
Kpilobium angustifolium; Veratrum californicum. <A species of 
lupine is very abundant, and this, with the Rudbeckia, gives the 
main colouring to the meadows, which also abound with numerous 
carices. ‘ 

The southorn division of the Mariposa Grove, or Lower Grove, as 
ib is usually called, is said to contain about half as many trees as the 
one just deseribed. They are much scattered among other trees, and 
do not, therefore, present as imposing an appearance as those in the 
other grove, where quite a large number can often be seen from one 
point. The largest tree in the Lower Grove is the one known as the 
“Grizzly Giant,” which is 93 feet 7 inches in circumference at the 
ground, and 64 feet 3 inches at 11 feet above. Its two diameters at 
the base, as near as we could measure, were 30 and 381 feet. The 
calculated diameter, at 11 feet above the ground, is 20 fect nearly. 
The tree is very much injured and decreased in size by burning, for 
which no allowance has been made in the above measurements. Some 
of the branches of this tree are fully six feet in diameter, or as large 
as the trunks of the largest elms of the Connecticut Valley, of which 
Dr. Holmes has so pleasantly discoursed in the Atlantic Monthly. 
This tree, however, has long since passed its prime, and has the 
battered and war-worn appearance conveyed by its name. © 

No other grove of Big Trees has been discovered to the south- 
east of this, along the slope of the Sierra, until we reach a point 
more than fifty miles distant fromthe Fresno Grove. Here, between 
the King’s and Kaweah rivers, is by far the most extensive collection 
of trees of this species which has yet been discovered in the State. 
This belt of trees, for grove it can hardly be called, occurs about 
thirty miles north-north-east of Visalia, on the tributaries of the 
King’s and Kaweah rivers, and on the diyide between. They are 
scattered over the slopes and on the valleys, but are larger im the 
depressions, where the soil is more moist. Along the trail which 
runs from Visalia to the Big Meadows, the belt is four or five miles — 
wide, and it extends over a vertical range of about 2,500 feet ; its 
total length is as much as eight or ten miles, and may be more. The 


trees are not collected together in groyes, but are scattered through 


the forests, and associated with the other species usnally occurring 
at this altitude in the Sierra; they are most abundant at from 6,000 
to 7,00 feet eleyation above the sea-level. Their number is great ; 
probably thousands might be counted. ‘Their size, however, is not 


great, the ayerage being from ten to twelve feet in diameter, and 


but few exceeding 20 feet; but smaller trees are very numerous. 
One tree, which had been cut, had a diameter of cight feet, exclusive 
of the bark, and was 377 years old. The largest one seen was near 
Thomas’s Mill; this (had a circumference of 106 fect near the ground, 
no allowance being made for a portion which was burned away at the 
base. When entire the tree may have been ten or twelve feet more 
in circumference. At about twelve feet from the ground, the circum. 
ference was 76 feet. Its height was 276 feet. The top was dead, 


16, 1871.} THE GARDEN. 


OLD SPECIMEN OF SEQUOIA (WELLINGTONIA) GIGANTEA, 93 FEET 7 INCHES IN CIRCUMFERENCE, AND 250 FEET HIGH. 


77 


ee 8 teem. 


\ 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 79 


however, and, although the tree was symmetrical and in good growth, 
it had passed its prime. 

Another tree, which had fallen, and had been burned hollow, was 
so large that three horsemen could ride abreast into the cavity for 
a distance of 30 feet, its height and width being abont 11 feet. At 
a distance of 70 feet the diameter of the cavity was still as much as 
eight feet. The base of this tree could not be easily measured; but 
the trank was burned through at 120 feet from the ground, and at that 
point had a diameter (exclusive of the bark) of 13 feet 2 inches; 
and, at 169 feet from its base, the tree was nine feet in diameter. 
The Indians stated that a still larger tree existed to the north of 
King’s River. This tree should be looked up and carefully measured ; 
unfortunately, it was not in the power of our party to do this. 

All through these forests there are numerous young Big Trees, of 
all sizes, from the seedling upwards ; and at Thomas’s Mill they are 
cut up for lumber, ina manner quite at variance with the oft-repeated 
story of the exceptional character of the species. Prostrate trunks 
of old trees are also numerous; some of them must have lain for ages, 
as they were nearly gone, while the wood is very durable. 

Not one of the Big Trees has ever been found south of the grove 
on the south fork of the Tule. The region has not, however, been 
so thoroughly explored that it would be safe to say that none exist 
there. Judging from the extent of the area over which this species 
is scattered, betweeen King’s and Kaweah rivers, it would seem that 
here was its most congenial habitat, and it may eventually be found 
that this tree forms pretty nearly a continuous belt for some fifty 

_ or sixty miles. ' 

From what has been here stated the reader will easily gather 
that the Big Tree is not that wonderfully exceptional thing which 
popular writers have almost always described it as being. Itis not so 
restricted in its range as some other species of the Conifers in Cali- 
fornia; it occurs in great abundance, of all ages and sizes, and 
there is no reason to suppose that it is now dying out, or that it 
belongs to a past geological era, any more than the redwood. The 
age of the Big Trees is not so great as that assigned, by the highest 
authorities, to some of the English yews. Neither isits height as great, 
by far, as that of an Australian species, the Eucalyptus amygdalina, 

- many of which have, on the authority of Dr. Miiller, the eminent 
Government botanist, been found to measure over 400 feet. One, 
indeed, reaches the enormous elevation of 480 feet, thus overtopping 
the tallest Sequoia by 155 feet. There are also trees which exceed 
the Big Tree in diameter, as, for instance, the Baobab (Adansonia 
digitata) ; but this species is always comparatively low, not exceeding 
60 or 70 feet in height, and much swollen at the base. 

On the whole, it may be stated, that there is no known tree which 
approaches the Sequoia in grandeur, thickness and height being both 

en into consideration, unless it be the Eucalyptus. The largest 
Australian tree yet reported is said to be 81 feet in circumference 
at four feet from the ground; this is nearly, but not quite, as large 
as some of the largest of the Big Trees of California. 


THE ARBORETUM FOR DECEMBER. 


At Jand in a natural state intended to be planted should be 
drained, trenched, or ploughed, and subsoiled according to circum- 
stances, a description of work, indeed, in which the steam-plough 
might in many instances be profitably employed. Nevertheless, 
however well ground for planting may be prepared at first, it will 


require to be kept clear of weeds and bushes for some three or four 


years afterwards, otherwise the tree-roots will be deprived of their 
proper amount of food by thickets of weeds and underwood. When 
the trees shall have attained a certain size they will take care of them- 
selyes, keeping all such intruders in check under their shade. Where 
plantations to be made are of considerable extent, let the trees of 
which they are to consist be put in, so as to stand in rows every 
way, an arrangement of much importance, as it admits of horse- 
hoeing being carried on in all directions, and thus may be speedily 
and readily cleaned, provided the work is taken in hand before 
weeds or other undergrowth have arrived at a size to offer any 


_ Serious obstruction to its efficient performance. Where the ground 


__ tobe planted is steep and awkward to work, the best plan is to plant 


_ thickly such trees as Scotch firs, larch, and Spanish chestnut; and in 
_ low, swampy spots, ash and willow, all of which will soon attain a 
size sufficient for poles, first for hops and then for fencing. Both 
hilly and flat districts, I need scarcely say, are much improved by 
trees, which, as far as landscape scenery is concerned, should con- 
sist of as much variety as possible, and, after having been planted a 
few years, they will be found to yield a profitable return. Larch, 
Scotch and spruce firs, birch, beech, ash, and oak are what 
have been chiefly planted in days gone by, and of these some fine 
plantations may still be found. Now, however, we have so much 
variety from which to select, both in the way of pinuses and other 


kinds of trees, that old-fashioned woods do very little more than 
furnish materials for nurses or shelter. Abies Donglasii and 
A. taxifolia are both wonderfully free rapid-growing trees, consisting 
of wood, tough and strong, and full of turpentine. Ponderosa 
is also a valuable Pine, and so is P. Menziesii, where it makes a good 
start ; but it does not succeed so well in some parts of the country as 
in others. Various other pines and firs might also be dotted about in 
new plantations with advantage, taking care to place them in aspects 
which they will thrive best, and to give them sufficient room in which 
tofully develop themselves. The variegated and common sycamore, 
the wood of which is largely used for household furniture, should also 
be freely planted, and the wild cherry, so beautiful in spring and 
autumn, should likewise have a place inall new plantations, its wood 
being much sought after by cabinet-makers. All these and many 
others would be found to add wealth and beauty to a country, if 
plantations of them were made, as they should be, in a methodic 
and systematic manner. JAMES BARNES. 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


TINNED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 


In connection with this subject, to which we have several 
times alluded in this department of Tur Garpen, we beg to 
call attention to an article in the Standard, of Monday, the 11th 
inst., in which the whole subject of preserved fruits, vegetables, 
and meats, is discussed with considerable knowledge and 
ability. The importance of the subject can scarcely be appre- 
ciated by persons who know nothing of what has been done in 
this way in France, and more especially in America, during the 
past few years, and therefore we have much pleasure in trans- 
ferring to our pages that part which is devoted to fruits and 
vegetables :— 

A large variety of vegetables scarcely lose any of their flavour 
through the process of preserving, such as beans, celery, spinach, 
carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, and artichokes; and a 
mixture of yegetables cut into pretty designs, under the name of 
macédoine, may also be mentioned as most useful for soups, entrées, 
and stews, Peas are preserved in excellent condition without any 
use of copper to give them colour—this being obtained, we believe, 
by the simple juice of spinach. They are of three qualities, or rather 
sizes, which are obtained by passing them as they are shelled through 
sieves of different meshes, the smallest, and consequently youngest 
and tenderest, peas passing through all to the bottom, the largest re- 
maining in the top sieve. These are, of course, the most delicate in 
flavour, and obtain the highest price, as only fifteen bushels of them 
are obtained on an average from fifty shelled into the sieves. The 
art of preserving these peas has now reached such a high point of 
excellence that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from those 
fresh gathered ; and it is well known in the trade that early in the 
season they, under the name and at the cost of fresh peas, are con- 
sumed in very large quantities at the first-class hotels and restau- 
rants in London, Paris, and other Continental cities, as well as at the 
tables of private houses. The trade in this one article has so greatly 
increased of late that, as we have been informed, from twenty 
thousand tins, the sale at one establishment alone has risen to five 
hundred thousand annually in the last four years. <A tin containing 
one pint of the best quality, the Petits-Pois a V Anglaise, is retailed 
at about 1s. 4d.; the larger kind, the Gros Pois, at about 11d. Dried, 
mixed vegetables, in small shreds, have not received from the 
English public the attention which they deserve from their excellence, 
cheapness, and convenient form. M. Masson, of Paris, was, we 
believe, the first toadopt this method of preserving at the time of the 
Crimean war, when large compressed cakes were sent out to the 
French troops. After the war large quantities of these were sent to 
England, but, being of a somewhat coarse nature, were not much 
appreciated—meeting, however, with a much more favourable recep- 
tion some hundreds of miles in the interior of Australia, whither 
some found their way. A great improvement has, however, been 
made onthem. It may be stated that for a little over a halfpenny, 
a quart of soup may be flavoured, and the vegetables when eaten 
with it are as good as those used fresh. It is greatly to be wondered 
at that they are not used in every household, even those of the poor, 
as when simply boiled they make an excellent dish of vegetables, and 
comparatively cheap, in consequence of there being no waste, as In 
the case of fresh vegetables. They are incorporated with meat and 
essence of beef in Whitehead’s “Gargantua” solid squares, at less 
than ls. 6d., one of which, boiled in three pints of water, makes a 
deliciously-flavoured pot-pourri of 4ibs. weight of nutritious food. 

The American tomatoes, called by our cousins “ love apples,” 
after the German “Jeibapfel,”” seem to be making their way in this 


80 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dec. 16, 1871. 


country. They are most extensively used in the States, a dinner- 
table being seldom without them, and they are to be found in tins in 
every grocer’s shop, and though somewhat inferior in flayour to 
those produced in the south of France, their cheapness will recom- 
mend them here. Green corn—that is, Indian maize—cooked in its 
“milky ’? state before it is ripe, is a still more indispensable article 
on American dinner-tables. It is now sent here, as preseryed for 
home use in winter, in tins, with the grains stripped from the cob. 
Warmed in milk, with the addition of a little butter, itis eaten as a 
vegetable, and though requiring somewhat of an acquired taste, 
should, from its cheapness, find a large number of consumers. Green 
Lima beans have also been sent from America to this country, and 
can be retailed in one pound tins at one shilling ; but we are not in 
a position to speak of their quality. With the exception of desic- 
cated potatoes, we believe that few vegetables are preserved m England 
as articles of luxury; they are, howeyer, simply boiled and preserved 
in tins, more for shipping and for exportation than for home con- 
sumption, and though when re-warmed hardly distinguishable from 
fresh-cooked ones, there is no saving in their cost; but it would be 
very convenient to have such articles in stock for daily use, 

Various fruits are preserved in tins in this country ; but the best 
as conserves for dessert have hitherto been considered those imported 
from France. M. Poncgon, who is justly considered one of the best 
fruit-preservers in the world, is employed by several firms to preserve 
apricots, peaches, and other fruits for them; and for this purpose he 
goes to Lisbon every year. The fruit he sends home cannot be 
exceeded in quality ; but those prepared by Rodrigues, of Lisbon, 
leave nothing to be desired. It seems, however, more than probable 
that the American fruit, introduced comparatively lately, will com- 
mand a large consumption, not only from its cheapness, but its 
excellence. Tins containing apricots and pine-apples in syrup, 
weighing from apound and a half to three-quarters, are retailed at 
1s. 6d. each, and peaches at 1s. ; and the only fault we can find with 
them is that they are called two-pound tins, thus perpetuating, and 
even renewing, the wretched difference between reputed and actual 
or standard weights and measures, from which we hope eventually 
to be delivered. Of the preserved pine-apple we can speak with un- 
qualified praise, its exquisite flavour being rather improved than dete- 
riorated by the preserving process. When these fruits become more used 
in England, we shall probably receive them at a still cheaper rate ; the 
prime cost of many of them in America, being hardly appreciable, 
from their great abundance. Peaches we are aware are in that 
country used partly as food for pigs ; and in a description we lately 
read of a 400-acre orchard in California,near Yuba City, it was stated 
that there were 25,000 one-year-old peach trees and 16,000 of plums 
inthe “nursery,” while in the bearing part of the orchard there were 
600 two-year-old peachtrees, many of which bore this season 150 Ibs. 
of frnit each, and 2,200 apricot trees. The peach crop in Delaware, 
this season has produced about 4,000,000 baskets, at the value of about 
1,500,000 dollars. Apples also are a mere drug in the American 
market, and might, we think, be introduced here in the form of pulp 
or jam, unless English apples could be so tinned in the districts in 
which they are produced and sold at a less price than pudding apples 
are now retailed in our towns. ‘This is by no means an unimportant 
subject for consideration, as apples for cooking purposes are a most 
wholesome fruit, and it would be a great boon if the poor in populous 
places could obtain them at a cheaper rate. The present price for 
common cooking apples at reputedly cheap shops is about a penny, 
and even more per pound, which, when peeled and cooked, does not pro- 
vide a sufficient portion for one person. We are aware that this is 
an exceptionally dear year, but we think that the present method of 
retailing them at shops till late in the season involves a great waste 
and consequent increase of price, which might to a great extent be 
avoided if they were tinned when ripe at or near the place of their 
production. They are now largely used in the manufacture of cheap 
jams of various kinds; we see no reason why they should not be used 
simply by themselves. The American farmers employ their families 
in the eyening in peeling and cutting up apples into what children 
call “pigs,” and threading them on thin string to dry; and in this 
form many are imported into England for shipping purposes. They 
couldbe retailed at about 7d. per pound, or even less, in London, if there 
were a demand for them, and their use would be well worth a trial, 
as we find that after soaking for twenty-four hours in water about 
half a pound will make a pudding for five persons, which is at a cheaper 
vate than it can be made eyen in ordinary seasons from apples bought 
from retail shops in our towns. Our concluding remarks on this part 
of our subject must be in favour of the 2lb. tins of Chaumontel pears 
put up at a price which would be about 2s. 3d. retail; in our opinion 
they are a conserve exceeding in delicacy even the best brands of 
apricots, peaches, and pine-apples. : 

In the above remarks we have mentioned yarious articles of great 
excellence; but in such matters the public should, after careful 


experiment, judge for itself, following as closely as possible the 
“directions for use,” and remembering, above all things, that most of 
these goods have already been cooked and even overcooked, and 
therefore only require to be rewarmed, but not recooked, when eaten 
hot. What we chiefly complain of, is the amount of prejudice and the 
want of enterprise in all matters of new forms of food offered to us. 
The wise king prayed, ‘‘ Feed me with food convenient for me;” but 
we are apt, as in the case of Australian meat and preserved milk, to 
shut our eyes to its convenience’ and various advantages because ib 
may be new tous. We are now allowing various articles, including 
cheap luxuries in tin cases, to be used almost exclusively on our 
passenger ships, and exported to foreign countries, or lie unused in 
warehouses, while their fitting place should be in a store-room in 
every household, to be used as occasion might require. But, resist it 
as we will, the ages, as fabled by the poets, of iron, brass, silver, and 
gold have passed, and the age of tin has come; and we cannot resist 
the world-wide tendency of preserving and tinning the various pro- 
ducts of the earth at or near the spot where they are produced; and 
then of transmitting and disseminating them by the increased and 
increasing means of transit to the various countries of the globe which 
require them. Waste is thus prevented, adulteration well nigh — 
rendered impossible, and ‘prices lowered and equalised for articles 
both of necessity and luxury, 
“* Accuse not Nature ; she hath done her part: 
Do thou but thine.” ‘ 

We shall best do it by laying aside prejudice, and by the use and 
interchange of the manifold riches of the earth, which modern science 
and enterprise have rendered more convenient for our adoption ; 
and thus realizing, in the matter of food at least, a cosmopolitan 
communism. 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN AT BERRY HILL. 


Ir asked to name afew places in which true taste in garden design 
was evinced we should certainly not omit the name of Berry Hill. 
Seldom haye we seen so neatly-arranged a kitchen and forcing de- 
partment, hardly ever such charming planting as that around the 
lake. However, we are at present only concerned with the kitchen 
and forcing departments, which were always seen in such excellent 
condition under the management of Mr. Rogers, now the superin- 
tendent of Battersea Park. The garden is far from being large, but 
itis most complete in the variety and excellence of its glass structures. 
A noticeable feature is the way the garden is placed lengthwise 
near the road. By this means the breadth of park or pleasure- 
ground is not in the least interfered with. The judicious way in 
which this is arranged cannot, however, be appreciated by seeing the 
plan of the kitchen-garden only. Crops were confined on the pieces 
marked as such to celery, carrots, parsnips, and beet, and other 
subjects that occupy the ground for one year only. One feature not 
shown on the annexed plam deserves notice. It is its flower-beds on 
the strip of grass runing up each side of the central walk. These 
were cut off on each side by a lowhedge of roses. A bold and most 
graceful entrance to the kitchen-garden consists of two specimens of 
the weeping beech trained in the form of a large arch. At present 
Berry Hill is not occupied, and on that account is deprived of much of 
its gardening interest, but the stamp of thoughtful and graceful 
design is not one that even neglect, which soon plays such hayoe with 
cultivated or ‘‘dressed’’ ground, can efface. Berry Hill was, we 
believe, begun by Mr. Kemp, but was completed by Mr. Marnock, 
to whose true taste we owe its most charming features. 


Gates.—Fancy, if you can, a rural home without its gateway 
—lying all abroad upon a common! The great charm of privacy is 
gone utterly ; and no device of shrubbery, or hedge, can make good 
the loss of some little wicket which will invite approach and bea 
barrier against too easy familiarity. The creak of the gate-hinge is 
a welcome to the visitor, and as he goes out, the latch clicks an 
adieu. But there are all sorts of gates, as there are all sorts of 
welcomes; there iS, first, your inhospitable one, made mostly, I | 
should say, of matched boards, with a row of pleasant iron spikes — 
running along its top, and no architectural decorations of pilaster or 
panel can possibly remoye its thoroughly imhospitable aspect. It 
belongs to stable-courts or gaol-yards, but neyer to a home or to a 
garden. Again, there are your ceremonious gates, of open-work 
indeed, but ponderous, and most times scrupulously closed ; the very 
opening of them is a fatiguing ceremonial, and there is nothing like — 
a lively welcome in the dull clang of their ponderous latches. Next, 
there is your simple, unpretending rural gate, giving promise of 
unpretending rural beanties—homely in all its aspect, and giving fore- 
taste”of the best of homeliness within, And I make a wide distinction 


Dec. 16, 1871.) THE GARDEN. 


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_ PLAN OF THE KITCHEN-GARDEN AND GLASS DEPARTMENT AT BERRY HILL, TAPLOW, BERKS. 


Road 


82 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 16, 1871. 


here between the simple rurality at which I have hinted, and that 
grotesqueness which is compassed by scores of crooked limbs and 
knots wrought into labyrinthine patterns, which puzzle the eye, more 
than ‘they please. All crooked things are not necessarily charming, 
and the better kind of homeliness is measured by something besides 
mere roughness. Lastly, there is your hospitable gate, with its little 
rooflet stretched over it, as if to invite the stranger loiterer to 
partake at his will of that much of the hospitalities of the home. 
—D. G. Mitchell. 


MOVABLE GARDEN FOUNTAINS. 


Many a shady garden nook might be very advantageously 
lighted up with the sparkle, movement, and murmur of 
a pretty fountain. For the want of some culminating 
point of interest, such a spot is often passed by without 
notice, though possessing many attractions which could not 
fail to be appreciated if a passing attention could be secured 
to them, and the eye given time to examine them. ‘The 
gushing sound of a fountain, as its waters are shot up- 
wards, or the low music of their falling plash, like the soft 
prattle of subdued whisperings, combined with the visionary 
aspect of its surrounding 
vesture of spray, is seldom 
unsuccessful in inviting 
attention, not only to itself 
but also to its more imme- 
diate surroundings; and 
in this way such a nook 
as the one above alluded 
to might be very pleasingly 
called into notice.. It is not 
necessary that there should 
be an artificial pond, or 
stream, to afford an ob- 
vious raison Wd etre for the 
fountain, as a few low 
shrubs in front would 
conceal the fact that the 
water neither rose from, 
nor fell back into, either a 
natural or artificial pond, 
basin, or stream. Tancy 

would supply what might 
' be there; and the forms 
that might be are nearly 
always more charming to 
the imagination than the 

yi, things which actually are. 
Kytarny, Supposing the absence of 
any pond or basin to receive 
the water discharged by 
the fountain, or any chan- 
; nel to carry it away, the 
water may be allowed to waste itself, with useful results, over 
the surrounding turf, and sink to the thirsty roots of the 
neighbourimeg shrubs. ; 

The movable fountain is a Transatlantic suggestion, and is 
much used in the parks and gardens near the great American 
cities, both as a pleasing object and as a means for thoroughly 
saturating expanses of turf in yery dry seasons, being moved 
from place to place till the desired purpose is ae ee 


Movable Fountain Hose. 


The Slaughter of the Hvergreens.—What a pity it is we 
do not contrive some less expensive and more attractive way of 
destroying the thousands of evergreens planted about London every 
year, than that of planting them and allowing them to blacken and 
perish before our eyes from the effects of our smoke-pested air! There 
perish annually as many beautiful young evergreen shrubs and trees 


in and near London from smoke as would suffice to plant a whole © 


country. We know no greater evidence of obtuseness of mind than 
is shown by this persistent wasting of precious time and precious 
energy and destruction of healthful and beautiful young evergreen 
trees and shrubs. It cannot be too widely known to eyery town- 
planter that so long as we are satisfied to live in a sea of the refuse 
of our fire-places, so long shall we find it impossible to have in cities 
healthy specimens of vegetation that retain their foliage in winter. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, — 


TALL VASES UPON DINNER-TABLES, 


As most of the remarks which I now propose to offer will 
haye reference to the accompanying illustrations, 1b will make 
those remarks more readily intelligible if I preface them with 
a somewhat detailed explanation of the illustrations. 

Each figure represents a table six feet six inches long, by 
four feet six inches wide. It is a common size im small houses, 
and by the addition of extra leaves can be made to accommodate 
sixteen diners. In the middle of each figure will be observed 
a rectangular space, ruled across with thick lines in yarious 
directions ; this space represents that portion of the table 
which is more than fifteen inches from the edge. Within this 
space are placed the several kinds of ornaments designated 
(with more or less propriety) “dinner-table decorations,” the 
marginal fifteen inches bemg reserved for more necessary 
articles. F 

Around each table are placed dots indicating where the 
seats of the diners could be placed if eight persons were to 


Firg:A. 


form the party. In Fig. A there is one seat at each end of the) 
table, and there are three on either side. In Fig. B there are) 
two seats at each end, and two on each side of the table. As 
far as the convenience of those dining is concerned, there is no’ 
advantage in either arrangement over the other, for every one 
has an allowance of at least two feet for elbow-room in cea 
case. i : 
It will further be noticed that lines have been ruled from 
each seat to every other seat at the table (except to the seats 
on each side of it). These lines indicate the limes of sight 
between all the diners, and it is scarcely necessary to observe] 


Fug :B. ‘ 5 } 
than any high ornament standing where one or more of these 
lines cross the table must be an annoyance to two or more of 
the party. : 

If I have succeeded in making these explanations intelligible,’ 
it will perhaps not be thought surprising that the fashion of! 
the present day is to use nothing on the table that is more) 
than fifteen inches high, because any decoration above that 
height, and less than twenty inches high, is liable to intercept, 
the view, and thus interfere with the sociability of the dinner. 
Fashion, we all know, is liable to run into extremes, hence, 
the introduction of zinc and glass trays and dishes little more| 
than an inch high in order that flowers may be arranged as\ 

) flat as possible on the dining-table. Into these we often see 
fragments of flowers stuck, without regard to anything but, 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


83 


colour, and without similitude to anything in nature. Dreadful 
to relate, these miserable imitations of tessellated pavements 
and French shawls have actually had prizes awarded to them 
On many occasions at exhibitions! Let us hope that in future 
judges will be more considerate. 
< ile expressing my disapproval of one kind, I would not 
wish to be understood to object to all kinds, of flat decora- 
tions. I have seen some, and arranged others, that have 
much pleased me; but I have never yet seen any style of 
flat decoration that would not have been improved if one 
or more tall vases had been substituted for a corresponding 
number of low dishes. The accompanying engravings will 
show that I am not unmindful of the risk which attends this 
substitution; but I know it can be done, and I am equally 
certain that, when properly done, the introduction of tall vases 
is a great improvement to the appearance of a dinner-table, 
while they are not in any way objectionable to the diners. 

In my remarks in your first number,* as to the information 
that should be furnished in the schedules sent to intending 
competitors for prizes for dinner-table decorations, I mentioned 
that they ought to be informed how many persons were sup- 
posed to be dining at the table. I now go further, and say that 
the arrangement of their seats at the table should also be indi- 
cated; otherwise the decorator cannot tell whether his tall 
vases are, or are not, intercepting the view. On reference 
again to the illustrations, it will be seen that between the 
crossing thick lines in the middle of the tables there are inter- 

s, in which there is room to describe circles varying from 

to five inches in diameter. It must thence be patent to 
every one who has had patience to follow me, that an object of 
any height that will stand in one of these interspaces without 
overlapping the lines of sight, may be placed there without 
inconvenience to any one at the table. 

Tt will also be seen, that no tall object can be placed in a line 
down the middle of the table when the diners are seated as in 
me. A.—and that no tall object can be placed in the centre of 
either table; but that in the case of a party being seated as in 
Fig. B., there are four interspaces in the middle line of the 

_ table where tall objects might be placed. Wis, 


Instructions for the Growth of bulbs in Windows.—The 

following excellent directions on this subject, issued in the form of a 

_ neatly-printed circular, have been furnished by Mr. J. C. Niven, curator 

| of the Hull Botanic Garden, to the Hull Window-Garden Society. 
' Let us hope that the example may be followed in other places :— 


Such bulbs as Crocuses, Tulips, and Hyacinths may, with a little care, be 
grown in any window, on which the morning, mid-day, or afternoon sun shines, 
and all the more successfully if the window be under the influence of all 


_ Failing the old broken pot, take a’handful of cinders from below the fire grate, 
will do quite as well. One of the Negi ea will get you a bit of old broken 
, that do to cover the hole in the bottom, he is almost sure to have a bit in 
trousers-pocket ; in either case, what we aim at is e. Fillthe pot thus 

the soil, as distributed ready for use, to within one inch of the 


; gently press it down, and make good any deficiency caused by the pres- 
a * 


; them down; butif the roots are protruding 
up the pot with soil, pressing it also down 
Ww een the bulbs so as to fix each in its place when finished. 
In the case of Crocuses, at this season, the buds should just peep out above the 
soil. In this operation, take care of the side buds, not to break or tet them, 
although sc do not produce flowers, they contribute leaves, and leaves are 
pretty, as well useful. Tulips may be treated in the same way; but Hyacinths 
d have, if obtainable, a little sand below the bulb, to assist in the deyelop- 
‘ment of the young roots ; and the upper surface of the bulb should be just above 
the level of the soil. 
-_ But some may say we have no flower-pots, and cannotafford to get any; well, 
I ve you asubstitute. Haye you not an old basin or a ga plate? Perhaps 
All the better for that; it will allow a little of 
aperfiuous water to run out and a little air to comein. The are Pe will 
he} ing witha 


a hole, where the e 
: et i and before filling up with soil insert a Crocus in each of these holes 
. the | 5 wep up with Crocus or other bulbs, and I will guarantee 
iv 
, #t (he ie foener eppeatance) it ill still answer its new purpose to a T. 
Ey sierncer ed, give them a nice watering, not a deluge 
folks don’ ail the pot when they make the tea)—you may at once place 
_ © “Floral Decorations,” p. 4. 


. 


them in the window ; but it would be better to give them about three weeks ina 
cupboard in the dark—mind, not one beside a Under the influence of the 
dark they will'make roots. During this time they will want watering once or 
twice, and when in the window ibly twice a week ; but until they show their 
green leaves and the colour of their flowers, be very careful not to over water 
them. When they are in bloom, on a genial sunny day give them panty of air 
—open the window wide and close the door—it will do both you and them good. 
When done blooming, put them on the outside sill, where the leaves will get their 
full growth, and under these circumstances water them every day. Having made 
their growth, and the leaves beginning to wither, stop the water supply, but not 
till then. For the summer they may be placed in a corner of the yard, or if you 
have a bit of garden plunge the pots up to the rim in soil and leave Nature to 
take further care of them till next November. 

Another Suggestion—Your pots, as I before stated, will be on the outside 
sill; if they are large pots, place among the Crocus roots, about the end of 
March, two or three seeds of Convolvulus major, Canary Creeper, or even 
Nasturtium or Scarlet Runner, stretch a piece of wire or twine up the side of the 
window, and train up the young growing shoots. With a little ingenuity you 
can carry them over the window top till they meet, and then let them hang in 
graceful festoons. If your pots are small get larger ones, put some manure in 
the bottom (say two or three inches thick)—place the small crocus pots in these, 
and if there is room fill up round the sides with manure or sand; so arranged, 
your seeds will thrive and flourish withont disturbing your bulbs. 

If you have had to fall back on the teapot before alluded to, place it in'an old 
broken basin, fill round with manure, so as to rise above the holes where the 
spout and handle were. The roots of the strong feeding seeds from between the 
bulbs will soon find their way out, and if you succeed—and I am sure you will— 
may I not askif I have not pointed out a use for the superannuated teapot 
never dreamt of in the philosophy of the staunchest teatotaler ? 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS, DOUBLE 
WINDOWS, &c. 


For room culture a selection must be made of such kinds of plants 
as are natives of countries the climatic conditions of which bear some 
resemblance to the temperature and air which we can offer to these 
plants in our rooms by means of any contrivances which can be 
adopted for this purpose; and, in the second place, an intelligent 
care and regard must be had to the natural requirements of the 
plants in connection with the peculiarity and special influences of 
room atmosphere. 

For dwelling-rooms, the temperature of which ranges from 55 
deg. to 60 deg. Fahr., a judicious choice will naturally select plants 
which are natives of quite a different region from that inhabited 
by plants which are suited for rooms, corridors, and staircases, 
which in winter enjoy a temperature not much above the freezing- 
point. Here we shall only make the general observation that for 
regularly heated rooms plants from warm, almost tropical, latitudes 
must be selected, and amongst these those in particular which do not 
grow in an atmosphere constantly saturated with aqueous vapour. 
Plants which require such an atmosphere can be grown in rooms only 
where arrangements have been specially provided to supply them per- 
manently with the heat and the moist atmosphere of a regular stove. 
For rooms which have a winter temperature of from 50 deg. to 
65 deg., and in which no special arrangements have been made, use 
may be made of the hardier ornamental plants, and also of some of the 
freer-blooming temperate stove plants, to which may be evenaddeda 
few stove plants from moderately warm latitudes. In particular parts 
of the heated room separated from the rest by a glass partition, plants 
from the temperate moist stove may be cultivated ; but plants of this 
description from the tropical regions proper will not succeed in a 
room. Corridors and staircases which are just secure from frost will 
be most suitably adorned with hardy evergreen plants from temperate 
regions, and also with the so-called cool conservatory plants, while 
rooms which are kept above the freezing-point offer the most suitable 
locations for wintering plants from moderately warm regions, or 
greenhouse plants intended to bloom in summer. The greater number 
ofthe plants of these latitudes, the culture of which is best carried 
on in low, cool-houses, near the glass, such as the Ericas, Epacrises, 
and the tenderer New Holland plants, are not adapted for culture in 
rooms. 

The greater number of plants intended for room culture are, of 
course, purchased by amateurs from nurserymen. Now there are 
plants well adapted for room culture which, nevertheless, usually 
suffer more or less when transferred from the stove to a room; as 
in the former, they mostly enjoy a moist, warm atmosphere, and a 
larger amount of light. But in the inhabited rooms of a dwelling- 
house they can only be supplied with a moist atmosphere, and a 
sufficient quantity of light in certain parts of the room specially 
prepared for them, where they cannot serve for ornament—as, for 
instance, in the double window. 

We know that leaves exhale less water in a moist atmosphere, 
and much more in a dry one. The natural consequence of this 
is, that the leaves and young shoots of all plants growing under 
the influence of the moist atmosphere of a stove have a softer 
and more succulent texture. In the dry air of a room, the 
evaporation from the leaves of the more tender plants is so 
excessive, that the equilibrium between the supply and the evapo- 
ration is disturbed. The result is a drying up of the leaf. 


84: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dxc. 16, 1871. . 


points and margins, or a shrivelling, or even total withering of 
the leaf. From this cause frequently plants in a short time become 
very unattractive in their appearance, while another consequence of 
the derangement produced by overtasking the organs is the decay of 
the younger roots and a diseased condition of the entire plant. The 
amateur removes these debilitated specimens, or sends them into a 
plant-house for recovery ; supplies their place in the room with other 
specimens, with the greater number of which he makes equally bad 
practice ; and so by degrees he loses all pleasure in his room-garden. 
Unsuitable positions, far from the light, and faulty treatment con- 
duce alike to the same bad result, but even with the best care failure 
is sure to attend on plants removed from the stove into a room. 
Whoever wishes to grow fine and permanent specimens for his 
room-garden should not be discouraged if at first the removed plants 
become deteriorated in their appearance, but, on the contrary, let 
him give them a double amount of attention, so that eyen in the 
room they may acquire a fresh and vigorous habit of growth. 
The organs which are developed under the influence of the room 
atmosphere will at the same time gain such firmness and powers of 
endurance as will, with a moderate amount of attention, render the 
plant capable of becoming a lasting ornamentof the dwelling. The 
best modes of heating dwelling-houses destined for plant culture are 
those stove apparatuses which supply an equable, unintermittent, 
and not too dry a heat. Hot-water pipes are, therefore, for dwelling- 
houses, as well as for plant houses, the most suitable. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE SQUARES OF LONDON. 


WHATEVER the present condition or prospects of the squares of 
London may be, we should be thankful that we have them. The 
haunts, or rather the strongholds, of disease and pollution are 
rendered unsafe by these islets in our unparalleled desert of slate, 
brick, and flag. In them the sun shines—dimly, no doubt, from our 
smoke plague—the wind seems to attain a little more freedom, and 
trees persist in growing, no matter how badly they are treated. 
We have many squares in all parts of the city, but assuredly not 
half so many as its colossal expanse requires. In the suburbs, un- 
happily, they do not seem fashionable with the cheap builders nowa- 
days. These seem as if they were gradually tending to the exter- 
mination of small gardens as-wellassquares. If matters were arranged 
as with our neighbours the French, the square and the wide airy road 
would be laid-down long before the builder came to arrange the 
ground as seemed best to him. They say to him: Here yon may build, 
but do not encroach on the space necessary for public convenience ; 
and thus they avoid the tortuous, close, and often dirty suburban 
roads which tend to make many of the most agreeable districts round 
London unvisited by and unknown to all but their inhabitants. I 
know nothing more disheartening and unwise in its way than our 
system of mean and narrow suburban roads. In South London 
matters are not so bad in this respect ; but just think of the road to 
pleasant Kew and its vicinity wid Hammersmith! Why no person 
not inured from early years to such a road would willingly run the 
gauntlet of taking it if there was any alternative. A broad and 
pleasant tree-planted road through such a district would, by opening 
it up and making it attractive to the inhabitants of London gene- 
rally, prove as beneficial from a commercial as from a sanitary and 
an zsthetic point of view. And if such roads as convenience and 
good taste demand existed in a city the size of London, squares 
would be of less importance. Our new Thames Hmbankment, for 
example, is better than a score of squares. 

It surely cannot be necessary to point out the benefits that a 
square confers on the district immediately around it. All, or nearly 
all, our present expenditure for public gardening is on the vast parks 
of which London is happily the possessor. But so long as the parks 
are separated by miles from each other, so long must the sqnare or 
other open space be of the highest importance. The advantage of a 
park to those who pass one hour out of two hundred in it, is not so 
very evident; it is far otherwise with contrivances which improye 
the spots in which people work and sleep. Parks for play and 
exercise, and beautifal garden scenery, let us have by all means; but 
our great want is the smaller open spaces called squares, and wide 
roads planted with trees. Where roomy streets are fringed with one 
or more lines of trees that have been proved to thrive well in cities, 
most of the advantages of squares are secured. But as these seem 
impossible to us at present, if we cannot haye what we like, why the 
best way is to like what we have, and try and make it more worthy 
of our love. 

Into the history of our squares I have no wish to enter; their pre- 
sent condition is what is of most importance to us. We were, I 
believe, the first to make squares; thongh, judging by present 


appearances, we shall be among the last to improve them, We haye 
in London squares of yarious degrees of magnitude and keeping, 
from the West Central squares, with their fine old trees, to the new 
Brompton ones with their three-year old Lilacs; from the wide West- 
end square to the small and dark and grimy ones in Soho or the City ; 
but the yery best of them are badly kept, and utterly unworthy of 
London. From Haton or Russell Square to the ‘‘ Squar de Leicester” 
is indeed a deep and ignoble descent; but the stamp of neglect and 
ignorance is uponall. We will, now, have a look at the condition of 
Leicester Square in the latter half of the nineteenth century of the 
Christian era. When, generations hence, our descendants shall haye 


Ae 1 


Leicester Square, June, 1870. 


abolished smoke from their cities and made them much less effective 
in destroying the health and enfeebling the physical powers of the 
race, perhaps some of them will glance at this beautiful little scene, 
and look back with pity on the urban lives of their sires. An un- 
horsed statue lying in ignoble dirt; a propped-up horse with a large 
basin-like hole in the middle of his back; a filthy dead-dog and dead- 
cat bestrewn surface ; and a rusty, decayed railing, broken away in 
parts, form the picture. A few tattered Hawthorn bushes remain on 
one side, and bloom beantifully there, notwithstanding the neglect, 
and the uncontrolled rayages of the boys when they are in flower. — 
This unhappy square is capable of being made, with but triflmg 
expense, quite as beautiful as such little Parisian squares as that of 


Margin of a London Square, with edge of plantation designed to cutoff the view; 
and Section of Railing surrounding Park Crescent, July, 1870. 


Montrouge, which are, or used to be, perfect gems in their way. 
It is somewhat unfortunate that our French friends should have the 
worst of all our squares in the middle of their London quarter. We 
can hardly expect that they, too, will agree that London is the centre 
of civilisation, so long as we damp their gay souls by such scenery as 
this. Let us turn from this disgraceful scene—a long-standing 
evidence of the feebleness of our vaunted system of local self-govern- 
ment, and glance at the condition of our squares generally. 

So far as I can discover, no clear idea of what a square should be 
has ever been possessed by those who designed them. The chief 
feature they have in common is a very dirty ana yery ugly crowded 


Dec. 16, 187i.] 


THE GARDEN. 


85 


bark of Lilac and other common shrubs just within the margin ; so 
that it is, in most cases, impossible to see into them. It has been 
-assumed that the right thing to do was to hide the persons who now 
and then wander into the sqnare from the passers-by; and thus the 
only fresh and pretty spots in many parts of the town are lost, so far 
as their general effect is concerned ; and all from mistaken ideas as 
to the wants of the few persons who walk about, ghoul-like, in the 
musty and dripping shades of the interior. There is nothing in any 
of our parks, there is no feature in any of our public gardens, more 
beautiful and effective than even our small squares could be made; 
but little can be done so long as the absurd system of cuttting off 
the scene from public view, and from the view of the.persons who 
inhabit the square, prevails. There are squares in London in which 
views, almost Arcadian in their beauty, could be made; yet, from 
the windows of the very persons who support them, you can see 
nothing but a struggle between Privet and Lilac. ‘Two of the finest 
weeping Ash trees that I know of anywhere are near the margin of 
Brunswick Square, but they are so surrounded by the inevitable 


«ructure in centre of a London Square, 1870. 


scrub of mean bushes, that they are rarely recognised by the 
passer-by. .Cleared around and surrounded by well-kept turf, they 
would prove ornaments to the whole district. But it may be urged 
that the squares are private property, and that their owners have a 
perfect right to keep them shut out. from public view, if so disposed. 
Even so, it is quite possible to do this without making the marein 
inviting as a depositing ground for miscellaneons rubbish, and with- 
out wholly concealing the finest objects they contain. 

By allowing the grass to venture near the railing here and there, 
and dotting it with flowers and isolated shrubs, so as to permit of 
pleasant peeps into the interior, quite a new aspect would be given 
to our now gloomy squares, and the change wou!dmot by any means 

‘involye the destruction of all privacy. No conceivable harm could 
come of making these little gardens attractive to the public; and in 
doing this they might be made tenfold more so for those who have 


Plan of small square, with grassy open centre. 


“a right ” to these small fenced morsels of God’s earth. Notwith- 
Standing the great number of persons that often crowd intoa Parisian 
Square, there is not one of the squares of that city that is not a far 
more attractive object than any London one, and I haye not the 


slightest doubt that if we could drop the square of St. Jacques into, 


our West Central district, there would soon be a general desire on 

the part of the owners of our squares that they should be disposed in 

like mamer. In that small, much-frequented square I have seen 

far more rare and valuable plants in masses in the open air than are 

exposed in our great public gardens here, and withont the least 

a di though crowds frequent the place from morning till after 
ask. 


Another important feature of the arrangement of our squares, and 
one which, like the filthy and crowded marginal shrubbery, is com- 
mon to nearly all of them, is the disposition of the central portion. 
The ground is usually so small that it is desirable to make the most 
of it. The best possible course to make it look mean and contracted 
is to raise a plateau, and on this build a structure varying in appear- 
ance, as it looms through the trees, from the aspect of a wooden 
summer-house to that of a bathing-machine. Yet this is what is done 
in the majority of what may be termed the ‘‘ best’? London squares— 
in Cayendish Square and Lincoln’s Inn Fields, for example. The eye 
is thus fixed on the contemptible objects in the centre, an agreeable 
spread of turf is made impossible, and one cannot feel the beauty of 
the trees or shrubs. 

It is most unwise to desire uniformity in any art, but if there is one 
principle which deserves being engraved on the mind of every person 
who has the care of one of these squares, it is that the true way to 
obtain the best effect is by keeping the centre open and_ grassy, un- 
tortured by walks, hedges, or beds. By leaving the centre open and 
working in all our flower and tree beauty round the margins, we may 
in these small spots of ground make pictures to charm every beholder. 
The arrangement I mean will be seen at a glance in the preceding 
plan of asmall square. It is by no means given asa model, but simply 
to explain the principle. The fringes of the central lawn might be 
planted in as varied a manner as possible. In Jarge squares the form 
of the lawn need not be regular as in this case. But it is only when 
the good effects of the sweet fresh lawn in the centre are seen that 
its excellence can be appreciated ; a plan cannot show it. 

(To be continued.) 


STREETS AND GARDENS OF SALT LAKE CITY. 


In the laying-out of their city the chiefs of the Mormon sect have 
displayed a very high kind of capacity for the great work of town- 
founding. They wisely took warning from the bad effects produced 
by the narrow thoroughfares of the older cities and their grimy 
ageregations of closely-built, wretchedly-constructed, and ill-venti- 
lated dwellings, which are frequently almost without the smallest 
space of back yard; and certainly free from the slightest attempt at 
reserving sufficient space for anything deserving the name of a 
garden. 

In order to avoid these glaring evidences of the absence of thought- 
ful judgment in the original foundation of the great cities of the 
world, it was determined to make the principal line of roadway (to 
serve as a public promenade) of such noble width as to leave to the 
dwellings on cither side almost as ample a supply of light and air as 
if they were situated in the open fields. And in order further to 
secure the aspect of the city from becoming one of mere brick and 
mortar, to the utter exclusion of natural beauties, specimens of the 
best native trees were planted along each side of that spacious road 
as soon as it was laid out. 

In accordance with such views the houses were built at a consider- 
able distance apart, and each was surrounded by an acre or more of 
garden-ground. These arrangements have necessarily rendered Salt 
Lake City one of the healthiest cities of the world; although in some 
parts of ‘Main Street” the frontage has become so valuable that new 
houses have filled up the interstices and form a nearly continuous line. 
The gardens are always trimly kept, and often make a rich display of 
flowers of kinds but little known in this country, though most of 
them would probably thrive well in our climate. These gardens, by 
persevering culture, are also rendered very productive in many kinds 
of well-erown vegetables; and the land surrounding the city, by 
unceasing and untiring industry, is made to yield abundant crops 
of the leading cereals. The Mormons are not a poor people in 
all that ministers to the comforts of existence, though they have 
no. “money ’’—and mainly obtain from each other what they require 
by an ingenious system of barter. The course of legal prosecution 
entered upon by the American Government will, in all probability, 
lead to the extinction of those features of Mormonism which are an 
offence to Christian morality ; and Salt Lake City may then form the 
nucleus of one of the most beautiful American cities of the Far West. 


Hampstead Heath.—The coyenanted sum of £45,000 has been at length paid 
over by the Metropolitan Board of Works to Sir John Maryon Wilson, as lord 
of the manor of Hampstead, in purchase of all his rights over this heath, and 
the deed has been signed and sealed by which that open space has heen per- 
manently secured for the benefit of Londoners in general. The Metropolitan 
Board of Works has also borne the legal and other incidental expenses of the 
transfer, amounting to £2,000 more. In commemoration of this transaction a 


number of the inhabitants of Hampstead and the neighbourhood have lately 


raised a- subscription of some £650 as a testimonial to Mr, Philip H. Le-Breton, 
barrister-at-law, chairman of the Hampstead Vestry, and representative ot 
that parish at the Metropolitan Board, by whose exertions mainly the heath was 
tlius secured. The testimonial, consisting of a silver tea and coffee service, a 
gold watch, and a purse of £500, was formally presented the other day to Mr. 
Le Breton at-a public meeting at the Hollybush Assembly-rooms. ‘Thus, within 


86 : 


THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 16, 1971. 


five miles to the north of Charing Cross, as noticed in another part of our 
paper, some four hundred acres of open heath haye been secured to the public, 
which, for beauty and salubrity, can hardly be surpassed within fifty miles. 
Indeed, both on the north and south of the metropolis, notwithstanding its enor- 
mous growth, pedestrians may still find within a moderate afternoon’s walk all the 
refreshment of pure air and fine country scenery. The considerable hills which 
skirt the valley of the Thames on both sides are in this respect of immense 
advantage to London. They are sufficiently distant to secure the city from 
being cramped in its growth, and to allow ample movement of air, while they 
are sufficiently near to be serviceable for purposes of health and recreation to 
the inhabitants. Jiondon creeps up to the foot of these eminences, and then, as 
if deterred by their height and steepness, throws its arms around their base, 
and thus leayes a portion of open ground still accessible to the lungs and limbs 
of its overcrowded inhabitants. 


Convict Gardening in India,—An interesting report, says the Times, of 
the administration of the Nicobar Islands—our great conyict settlement—has 
been issued. At the end of 1868, Colonel H. Man began what is called ‘The 
Royal Dover Garden” at Haddo, Port Blair, as a nursery for fruit and other 
trees, vegetables, &c. About 350 acres of land have been taken up for this purpose. 
The superintendent of the garden has now out in the plantation more than fifty 
varieties of fruit and other trees; 74,500 plants, with an estimated average of 
six suckers each. He has sent out from the nursery 5,600 more, and there 
rvemain close on 50,000. English and other vegetables also haye been raised 
during the year. Of course, this wonderful progress towards social comfort has 
been made chiefly with a view to the free population, but-the ticket-of-leaye men 
and free cultivators receive a share of the benefit. Their monthly ayerage 
number is 174, all of whom are permitted to work as they please and sell their 
produce in the best market. When they fail to find a higher price than is given 
by the commissariat, that market, with regulated prices, is always open to 
them. If the progress indicated in this report continues, the settlement of Port 
Blair will before long become rich in fruits and other productions of the soil. 
The Governor of Madras has contributed tothe garden during the year a present 
of 1,000 plantain shoots, 100 pummeloes, 1,000 oranges, 1,000 limes, 25 pome- 
granates, and 25 jack fruit. 


Victoria Park.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer received at Downing- 
street, the other day, a deputation relative to the proposed building on the 
reserved land around this park. Mz. Reed, M.P., said that the Hast-end public 
did not make a demand for the land as of right, but they entreated the Govern- 
ment to step in and prevent the building over of the ground (some thirty-five 
acres), or at least to suspend the building operations, so as to give time for an 
appeal to Parliament. It was said that as many as 150,000 persons had visited 
the park in one day. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the deputation 
had shown what he never doubted, that it was most desirable that their object 
should be attained. But he had to look upon the matter from a different point 
of view. The money for the park had been advanced by the Government to 
buy land, a certain portion of which was to he given to the Board of Works for 
a park, and another to the-Woods for building. That land was therefore the 
property of the people of the whole country, but they asked him to give it to the 
people of the Hast-end. The same request was made to the Board of Works for 
the reserved land of Finsbury and Southwark parks, but they said the interests 
of the ratepayers would not let it be granted. He had to put the people of these 
islands in the place of the ratepayers and say the samething. If the inhabit- 
ants of the Hast-end wanted this land, they should put their hands in their 
pockets and buy it.—Zimes. 


THE MARKET-GARDEN. 


SIXTY YEARS AGO. 


Av the commencement of my horticultural experience but little 
was Imown of gas, steam, or hot-water apparatuses for the heating 
of either plant or forcing houses, 
a heavy duty on the materials usually employed in the con- 
struction of glass houses, it was not until that was removed that they 
made much progress. The glass, too, of those days, was coarse, 
spotted, and of bad colour,-and in many houses the panes were 
lapped in casement lead—in short, frame and pit lights were generally 
constructed on this principle. EHyen near London, where the most 
improved methods of hothouse building might have been expected 
to be found, market gardeners had almost all their frames and 
forcing lights glazed either wholly in casement lead, or had the 
squares of glass lapped with that material. In the course of time 
some alteration was made in the duty paid on glass—instead of being 
paid by measurement it was paid by weight. A clearer white glass 
called ‘‘crown glass” then came into use, but it began to be 
manufactured so thin, to avoid as far as possible the duty, that 
breakages became extensive. ‘The sash-bars were therefore placed 
closer together, so that, instead of being seyen or eight inches 


‘ 


and on account of there being | were taken in, and trained up the rafters, 


be built, in which comparatively little timber was used, and they 
were glazed with fine, large, clear glass, to admit plenty of light. 
T6 stay progress in this direction seemed impossible, but now com. 
plamts were raised against colour; and glass of various colours was 
tried; but in the end clear glass prevailed. Intensity of light 
Nature usually, if left to herself, counteracts by an increase of 
humidity ; and atmospheric motion she always. supplies. I, therefore, 
endeayoured to follow the lessons which she taught; and this\I did 
with considerable success. f r 

Since that time, however, the principles of ventilation haye been 
taken in hand, and greatly improved. More humidity has been sup- 
plied, and, consequently, greater health and vigour have been secured. 
Few complaints are heard now as to colour; still, there is no doubt, 
that a slight tinge of blue in glass is better than the clear white 
sort. : 

Vineries, pineries, and plant-houses sixty years ago were all lean. — 
to’s, span-roofed glass houses being then unknown. They were 
heated by cumbersome flues, very often so badly constructed that, 
for want of a brisk draught, one end of the house would be parched ~ 
up and the other cold. In many localities, the quantity of fuel 
required for these flues was a serious consideration. Coals were 
dear, and often far to fetch; indeed, in many country establishments 
no coal was allowed for hot-house fires; wood, peat, turf, and balls of 
stiff clay, had to be used, according to the locality. The balls of 
clay were a pretty good thing to bank up with, or place ona good 
wood fire the last thing at night. 

In those days few persons grew pines—their system of culture 
was slow, and at all seasons they maintained a dry heat. Therefore, 
both plants and fruits became nests for scale and bug, and, as 
might be expected, the fruit was poor and imperfect. Grapes were 
generally very badly cultivated, indeed; they were all grown on 
what is now termed the extension system: one vine to a house; or, 
if two-were planted, one would be a black and the other a white 
yariety.- The whole surface of the glass was generally covered with 
a network of wood such as it was, and leaves with but a few small 
miserable bunches of fruit of poor enough quality. Their theory 
then was—and no theory was more persistently practised—that an 
abundance of wood ought to be left when pruning, the idea being, 
that plenty of wood would be sure to produce abundance of fruit. 
Another idea was, that all vines must, if possible, be turned out of 
the house in autumn, or that the house must be uncovered, in order, 
as it was averred, and which was also abundantly practised, that the 
wood might be properly ripened. Stoves and greenhouses were 
generally furnished with grape vines, one to each rafter, oftentimes 
each being a different variety ; and these, too, were turned out to — 
ripen their wood. This practice of haying part of the vine in a hot- 
house, while a large portion remained outside, was, I need not say, 


| anything but favourable to healthy growth. It was, however, con- 


tinued for some time. The vines were planted outside, and the rods 
thus suddenly exchanging 
a wintry atmosphere for the heat of a pine stove. The consequence 
was, that some vines did not even break, others pushed away weakly, 
and were sometimes cut back, in order that a new growth might 
commence from the part which entered the house. ‘This system was 
actually practised as late as 1837, when the memorable Murphy 
winter came upon us; and killed almost every vine exposed in that 
way to its action. That year, when they were placed inside, to 
produce their growth and crop, they were found to be dead—a fact — 
which taught cultivators a lesson for their future guidance. I should, ~ 
however, mention that a few persons, more intelligent than their 
neighbours, had made some years previously considerable improvement 
in vine culture, also in the varieties cultivated, and that they had 
even yentured on the one-rod and close-pruning system, so generally 
practised since by good grape-growers. Ihave noticed of late that 
even in the present day we are not without advocates of the old 
extension system; but whether it may prove a step in the right 


apart, the width was reduced to from four to fiye inches, which was | ‘rection or a retrogade one, time will proye. 


not only considered safer and stronger, but also furnished a pretext 
for using up odd bits of glass. \This kind of glazing had obvious disad- 
vantages, notwithstanding which, howeyer, many span-roofed and - 
other structures were erected on that principle, in which grapes 
pine-apples, salads, early vegetables, and the whole round of garden 
productions, both as respects plants, fruits, and vegetables, were 


’ Early cucumbers were generally grown in those days in frames, 
on beds of well-wrought fermenting stable dung. Leaves were 
sometimes used in country gardens, when they could be pro- 
cured, and preserved by those who were well up in the cultural 
skill of the period. The bed was thoroughly lined and wrapped up 
with the same materials, outside of which were placed thatched 


grown in considerable perfection. When, however, the glass duty | hurdles, evergreen boughs, or faggots, or other material capable 


was repealed, an immediate improvement in the quality of glass took 
place. Nevertheless, when we had got it cheap and good, it was 
reported to burn, scald, and spoil both foliage and fruit. 

Such objections, looked back upon, now astonish us, and they pro- 
bably originated in the fact that more was then attempted under 
glass than the experience and skill of cultivators were equal to, 
for new and, comparatively, but little known features of cultivation 
every day presented themselyes. Elegant glass erections began to 


of breaking the force of driving wintry winds; thus maintaining 
as much as possible, a uniform temperature within—no easy 
matter under such circumstances. Everlasting attention, in fact, 
was required to cultivate cucumbers so as to be able to cut 
good fruit from the 3rd to the 10th of March. Those able to do so 
were considered to be fortunate. Harly cucumbers and melons were 
the only specimens of horticultural produce exhibited then, and little 
clubs or meetings of gardeners, and others interested in horticulture, 


he 


Dec. 16, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


87 


used to be held in certain localities for the’ purpose of raising by 
subscription a small sum to be offered as prizes at such shows. The 
prizes, which were generally in the shape of some simple and useful 
article, such as a silver teapot, milk jug, half-a-dozen teaspoons, pair 
of tablespoons, and such like, were, for the most part, three in 
number, and in yalue varied according to the amount of the funds 
subscribed ; they were offered for the best three threes or dish of 
cucumbers. These little cucumber meetings, or exhibitions, of which 
the greatest number was held from the 3rd to the 10th of March, 
generally took place, as had been previously agreed upon, in the 
room of some hotel or tavern centrally situated or most accessible 
to the greatest number of exhibitors. After the prizes were awarded, 
a dinner was provided, after which a friendly discussion on gardening 
matters took place, with a general interchange of seeds, cuttings, 
&c., for, as was very often the case in those days, there would not be 
a nurseryman or seedsman within many miles—indeed, there were but 
few of either in the whole country. 


I should mention that, in order to obtain these early cucumbers, it 
was the custom to sow the seed from the 3rd to the 12th of the 
previous October, so that plants might be got strong enough for 
ridging out, or placing in their permanent positions by the middle of 
November. The beds, made as has just been described, were 
from four to five feet in height, and when new linings were 
put to them, which was often the case, great care was always 
requisite to keep the least sourness or gaseous fumes from getting 
inside the frame—such was the constant precaution and anxicty 
then required to get fine cucumbers by the first week in March. 
And in attempting this there were often many ‘“break-downs” 
through not having always'in readiness a supply of fresh, sweet, and 
well-worked materials for any emergency, as well as through other 
causes. Those who really did succeed in those days were considered 
to be at the head of their profession, it being generally the case that 
the successful man was a patient, perserving, and attentive cultivator, 
in all branches of gardening, as well as orderly and methodical in his 
habits. My firstemployer, near London, was an extensive and suc- 
cessful cultivator of early cucumbers. There were then but few 

_ others who attempted to grow them on a large scale, on account of 
the trouble and expense they entailed, together with the uncertainty 
of success. There being, consequently, but little opposition, cucumber- 
growing was a profitable speculation to the skilful etltivator. A 
brace of good cucumbers in March always realised two guineas, and 
sometimes fifty shillings, The generality of growers and market- 
gardeners did not attempt to prepare for cucumber culture till 
January or February: the seed was sown and strong plants obtained 
in time for ridging out in March; fruit could then be cut by the end 
of April or beginning of May. In large market-gardens mountains 
of London stable dung were collected, the first use of which was the 
protection of frames for forcing early asparagus, seakale, early 
celery and various other things ; some hundreds of lights were also 
in use all winter for the protection of cauliflower and cos lettuce 
plants, by which enough were grown to plant thirty, forty, or more 
acres. By the time these frames were cleared from their winter 
occupants we always took care to haye in readiness some of the litter 
well wrought in succession heaps, so as to make up at once 
our succession hot-beds, to have also the plants in readiness for 
turning out into the frames, and more sown to succeed them. 
Thus by the middle of April or beginning of May, I have had 
under my care a thousand lights of cucumber plants. 
first week in May we would have the cucumber plants strong and 
ready for planting under hand and bell glasses, at that time much used 
for protecting cauliflower and lettuce through the winter. We had 
generally aboye three thousand of these glasses in use for such 
purposes, the whole of which, by the first week in May, would be 
turned to account for cucumber culture. Between the rows of bell- 
glasses under which the cauliflowers were planted, a space of ten or 
twelve feet was left for winter spinach, as well as for the sowing in 
December of early radishes. This space, when sown, was covered with 
straw for protection. By May these crops were generally gathered, 
when a line was drawn down the centre of the space; in this the 

__ pegs used for giving air under the bell-glasses, were stuck at regular 

« distances apart; two strong men then commenced with large market- 

_ garden spades to make holes or pits, row after row, where each peg 
Stood, first placing the peg on the right-hand side of the hole. A 
gang of men was then employed loading and wheeling hot dung, of 
which a barrowful was thrown into each hole. A man followed with 
a strong fork to shake and shape the litter into form; he was suc- 
ceeded by two more men, who, with their spades broke up the soil, 
~ which had been thrown ont of the pits and placed it on the top of the 
dung. A woman"then put the glass on the top and placed the air 
peg on the south side of it, to be in readiness. Two more women 
brought the plants which had been previously taken from the stove 
and hardened off, and placed a pot against each glass. These were 


About the ~ 


succeeded by the foreman, who turned the plants out of the pots and 
planted them. A woman then followed replacing the glass, pressing 
it down, and drawing a little loose earth round the rim to prevent the 
admission of air. Thus methodically and like clockwork was the 
whole work gone through. By the time the cucumber plants had 
grown sufficiently large to admit of their running out from under 
the glass, the whole of the spinach and radish crops were cleared, 
should any haye remained. The beds were then rounded off, and 
mulched with litter shaken from the stable dung. In this manner 
tons of splendid cucumbers were daily grown for twelve or fourteen 
weeks to supply the London market. The cucumbers grew so 
vigorously and productively in those years that I cannot help looking 
back to the time, and wonder why that, during the last thirty or 
forty years, no such vigour and fruitfulness are tobe seen. A cankering 
disease has attacked them, as the potatoes have been attacked, and 
from which all out-door-grown cucumbers suffer more or less. 

Gherkins were at that time grown in the Fulham and Battersea 
fields, and in Bedfordshire by acres. The seed was sometimes sown 
broadcast, and the young plants, when sufficiently advanced, were 
thinned out by hoeing; or it was sown ina seed bed, with a little 
bottom heat, in the open air, and the young plants were after- 
wards transplanted in rows. The produce was generally gathered 
by women, packed in half-bushel sieves or bushel sieves, and for- 
warded to London in immense quantities. A large quantity was also 
annually sent to the different pickling establishments, and to the 
oil shops that existed near the river side, where they were pickled in 
casks, jars, and bottles for exportation. In order to get rid of the 
surplus crop, and the fruit which had become overgrown, they were 
collected and put in sacks or baskets, sent to market, and sold for two- 
pence or threepence per dozen; even a penny per dozen would not be 
refused at times, so glutted would the market very often be with them. 
Bushels of gherkins might have been seen at the street corners and 
street stands of London, evidencing the relish which the people 
bad for them, even only forty or forty-five years_ago. Although 
cucumbers have not grown well in the open air for many years ae 
yet since the establishment of hot-water apparatuses as a means 
of heating glass houses, they have been inexpensively and success- 
fully grown with but a small share of the trouble and anxiety which 
characterized open-air cucumber culture sixty years ago. 

Melons were never, in my remembrance,very extensively grown by 
the London market-gardener, owing to their requiring more particular 

-attention than cucumbers, and also on account of their being longer 
before they produced any return, and then not so profitable a one as 
the cucumber ; Some cargoes of Dutch melons, too, were sent to this 
country, which lessened the sale of what were grown here. Steam 
vessels also began to venture abroad, and brought to our markets 
melons and other fruits in great abundance ; and imports of this kind 
have been year by year steadily increasing. Gentlemen’s gardeners, 
however, grew melons in those days, and had them for exhibition, 
such displays generally taking place about the middle of May. The 
fruit was then, as now, cut open, in order to test its quality. And I 
must say that I haye seen, more than fifty years ago, as fine 
melons in size, shape, and flavour, as are to be seen now. In order 
that good melons might be produced in the market gardens early in 
May, it was necessary that the seed should be sown about the 
beginning of February. There were a good many varieties in cultiva- 
tion, amongst which were an early, fair-sized, scarlet-fleshed sort, 
called Cantaloupe, a beautiful green-fleshed kind, named Egyptian, 
and a handsome rock-scarlet-fleshed variety, grown as a summer 
crop, after early frame carrots and potatoes. 

It is a singular fact that vegetable marrows were not cultivated in 
this country sixty years ago; and, for some time after their first intro- 
duction, but little use was made of them as a culinary vegetable; they 
were looked upon more as a curiosity than as a useful part of garden 


/ produce, though now so much appreciated. They are certainly much 


superior to summer-grown turnips, either cooked whole or mashed. 
Late of Bicton. Janes BARNES. 


Richmond Sewage Works.—In reply to the advertisement of the Richmond 
Sewage Committee, offering a premium of one hundred guineas for the best 
practicable plan for disposing of the sewage of the parish, upwards of twenty 
schemes were submitted ; and at the last meeting of the committee the premium 
was awarded to the authors of the scheme marked ‘‘C. E.,” found to be 
Messrs. Gotto & Beesley, of Great George-street, Westminster. The system 
proposed by these gentlemen is the same as is carried out by them at Rio de 
Janeiro, where it has been in operation for the last seven years, to the drainage 
froma population of about 400,000. The sewage is deodorised by means of 
sulphate of alumina, charcoal, and other chemicals; then passes through long 
precipitating tanks, when the solid matter is separated ; and the effluent water, 
after being strained and filtered through charcoal filters, passes off clear, and 
free from smell. There are special appliances for drying and removing the 
solid deposit, prepared for agricultural purposes. The high part of the town 
will be drained by gravitation, and the sewage from the low part will be 
pumped. The cost of the deodorising works is estimated at £7,000, and the . 
intercepting sewers at £5,900, or a‘total cost of £12,900. The Sewage Com- 
aoe haye given the necessary notices for obtaining the land for the works.— 

uider, , 


88 THE GARDEN. 


(Duc. 16, 18¥4, 


THE AMATEUR’S REMEMBRANCER.* 


In-door Department.—Remoye Chrysanthemums from green- 
houses and conservatories as they go out of bloom, and fill their places 
with plants from the forcing-pits. Camellias, Epacrises, and winter 
Heaths will soon maintain a certain amount of gaiety, as will 
also Cinerarias, Neapolitan Violets, and those pretty-berried plants, 
the different varieties of Solanum capsicastrum. In cool-houses 
keep up a little artificial heat on dry days in order to be able to give 
air. Water Cinerarias pushing up flower-stalks with liquid manure, 
and fumigate if green-fly appears. Where no better accommodation 
can be found-for the beautiful-leaved Coleuses than a greenhouse, 
they should be kept at the warmest end. Camellias, now swelling 
their buds, will be benefited by being watered now and then 
with weak liquid manure. Auriculas, Polyanthuses, and Car- 
nations, in pits, give as much air to in the daytime as possible, 
whenever that can be done, taking the sashes entirely off; but if 
wet, keep them on, tilted back and front. A temperature just above 
freezing will suit them perfectly. Water seldom; but thoroughly 
when they are really dry. Hyacinths, Tulips, Lily of the Valley, 
Crocuses, and other bulbs, bring on in the forcing-pit, in a 
temperature of not less than 60°. <A similar temperature will suit 
Poinsettias, Begonias, Lilacs, Roses, Deutzias, Rhododendrons, 
Azaleas, and plants of that kind required for the decoration of 
warm conservatories or greenhouses ; and as soon as there is room 
introduce fresh supplies for succession. 


Fruit and Forcing Houses.—Vines starting, if planted inside 
the house, should receive a good soaking at the root now and then 
with tepid water, to promote underground growth. Let the rods 
hang horizontally for a time, in order to induce them to break more 
regularly than if they were fastened up in their proper positions. 
_ Where forcing is about to be commenced, and the roots are outside, 
if not already done, let the border be well covered with fermenting 
material. Prune, and paint the yines with the following composi- 
tion, viz. :—Sulphur and cow dung, or clay, equal parts, mixed with 
tobacco-water, first striping off all loose bark from the old wood. 
Trees in orchard-houses may now be pruned, taking care to shorten 
back to a wood bud, and dress the trees with Gishurst compound, at 
the rate of four ounces to a gallon of water. When re-potting, 
slightly root-prune such trees as haye been too luxuriant; and 
weakly ones encourage with fresh, good soil. Where these constitute 
storehouses for bedding plants, Pelargoniums in pots, Fuchsias, and 
things of that sort, a temperature of some 40° or so must be main- 
tained to keep all safe, giving air every day in mild weather. 


Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Pear trees on walls, prune and 
nul. After pruning trees on espaliers, see that the stakes are in 
good order, or, better still, substitute those figured in our last 
number. Orchard trees of all kinds prune, not forgetting even 
damsons which are often neglected in this respect. Planting 
of all Kinds bring to a close as early now as possible, and when 
the trees are up, trim in some of the strongest of the roots with 
a sharp knife. Gooseberries and currants should haye their buds 
dusted on some damp day with soot and quick-lime or guano, 
to keep birds from feeding on them. Top dress with manure, either 
“pointing” it in now or in spring. Select such strawberries as are 
intended for early forcing, dress them and plunge them im a leaf-bed 
in a cold pit, keeping them about a foot from the glass. They can be 
introduced into a little heat in succession as wanted. In the kitchen- 
garden, peas or beans coming through the eround, protect from birds. 
As soon as it can be done mould them up a little to preserye them 
from cutting winds. Ground from which roots have been lifted should, 
when being dug, have a good dressing of lime to kill insects, and 
should be turned up rough to be pulyerised by the winter’s frost. 
When it can be done, stir the surface-soil among growing crops. 
Endive and lettuces take up on dry days, and store in a dry, airy 
shed. Cauliflowers or lettuces under glass should have air given 
them whenever the weather is at all favourable. Straw covers or 
wooden shutters should be in readiness in a dry state for purposes of 
protection when wanted. They will be found useful for covering 
pits or frames in severe weather. : J. M 


How to Prevent Weeds from Growing on Walks.—To one gallon of gas- 
tar, add about half a pound of air-slacked lime; boil and incorporate them well 
together, and apply them with a common long-handled whitewash brush while 
the surface on which the application is to be laid is in a dry state. This will 
dry in a few hours if applied boiling hot, and the colour will be unobjectionable. 
Before putting on the mixture brush off any loose rubbish that may lie on the 
walks ; of small growing weeds no notice need be taken, as the hot tar kills 
shen instantly. Walks thus treated cannot fail at all times to give satisfaction.— 

. Barnes. 


* Complete general calendars, written by some of the most able gardeners in 
the country, are published in Tirr: GanneEn in the first issue in.each month. 


RABBIT-PROOF PLANTS. 


Atnow me to add the following to the list published in your first 
number, on page 9 :— 
Acanthus spinosus. 
Buddlea globosa. 
Cotoneaster microphylla. 
Juniperus prostrata. 


Pampas grass. Ponies (tree and others), 


Rhododendron. - Forsythia viridissima. 
Hardy ferns (all kinds). Heaths (hardy). 

St. John’s Wort (Hyperi- Jasminum nuditlorum, 

5 sabina. cum.) =, Spirzea arizefolia. 
Potentilla fruticosa. — Leycesteria formosa. 

During a ten years’ residence in Norfolk, where rabbits ave yery 
numerous, these were generally free from their attacks. I do not say 
that, during a severe winter, if there was no other food to be got, 
some of these plants would not be nibbled at; but I have frequently 
seen common laurels, thorns, hazels, &c., killed to the snow-line by 
their depredations, and these not touched. Rabbits in different 
localities may, however, have different notions as to food. In Norfoll: 
I found them particularly fond of dwarf perpetual roses; and fre- 
quently choice hollies used to suffer a good deal from their attacks, 
while rhododendrons, which grew in the woods amongst them, were 
neyer injured The pampas grass is a first-rate plant for planting 
largely in ornamental game covers.—E. Howpay, Ramsey Abbey. 
~——Hunenry rabbits, like hungry dogs or starying men, will eat almost 
anything that can be masticated and-swallowed. Rabbits, as a rule, 
prefer to nibble over a pasture that contains short, sweet, wholesome, 
erass, and a proportion of clover, dandelion, and daisies, but m and 
about woods where rabbits are numerous the grass, from being closely 


and constantly eaten off, gradually disappears, and at the approach of ~ 


winter is succeeded by moss, a very cold, watery, and imnutritious 


substitute ; then rabbits are driven to seek food from other sources” 


than grass, and the bark of small trees, the leaves, stalks, and bark 
of shrubs, and the protruding roots of forest trees are eaten almost 
indiscriminately. Amongst evergreen shrubs, rhododendrons and 
box are generally avoided, but I have known newly-planted hybrid 
rhododendrons to be partly eaten by rabbits. The elder is distasteful, 
and American azaleas are avoided. I have frequently seen yew trees 
barked; mahonias are deyoured in these woods as soon as planted ; 
and periwinkle, which is named amongst rabbit-proof plants, is 
generally eaten to the ground in severe weather. 
and flowering-plants named by your correspondent may well escape 
in winter, because they are not seen aboye ground, and where they 
grow, other.more agreeable herbage appears, so their” immunity 
consists in being inaccessible in a hungry time. Where rabbits are 
permitted, the faet that they require food daily like other creatures 
should be recognised. Inthe absence of wholesome food they will eat 
simply what they ean get. A certain portion of grass land should be 
retained for them and managed accordingly ; a few acres might be 
wired round, or, to be more explicit, surrounded with wire-netting, 
to the exclusion of rabbits until the approach of wintry weather, 
when it could be thrown open for them. If this cannot be done, and 
frosty weather sets in, when the mischief to shrubs is consummated, 
trimmings of quick hedges should be scattered about, and an allow- 
ance of turnips, carrots, or mangold wurtzel made and doled ont daily 
in bad weather. In my experience, rabbits prefer newly-planted 
trees and shrubs to those established. I haye eyen had the fronds 
of newly planted Athyrium Filix foemina eaten, while other ferns 
have been untouched. There is one hint I may give your rabbit- 
preserving readers: certain breeds of wild rabbits are much more 
prone to bark trees than others. The barking of trees is an acquired 


propensity more common to north-country rabbits than @thers. I 


should advise the destruction of those rabbits whose propensity for 


-shrubs is very marked, and try warren or common rabbits from the 


south of England; but the best advice I can give is to have no 
rabbits at all—W. Ineram, Belvoir. 
Ty your first number you hada list of plants and shrubs, taken 


from the Field, which are said to be proof against the attacks of 


rabbits. The names of the majority of them were contributed to 
that paper by me; but I see in the list the laburnum figuring as in- 


vulnerable. Now, our experience here is that it is one of the first to be 


attacked, and we have to protect the stems ever of large trees, both 
laburnum and holly, with a coating of lime and cow-dung, or of Yoal- 
tar. A stitch in time sayes one never knows how many, and the 
knowledge of this may saye much disappointment. — Herperr 
Maxwett, Wigtownshire, N.B. 3 


French Horticultural Relief Fund.—A meeting will be held at the rooms 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, on Tuesday, December 
19th, at 1.30 p.m., to decide on the distribution of the funds accumulated for this 

urpose. 

e Trees in Victoria.—Recent explorations show that the great Australian 
trees exceed in height, though not in circumference, the giants of California, 
though some of the Australians must be regarded as very seauedtae in girth 
as well as height, the hollow trunk of one of them being large enough to admit 
three horsemen to enter and turn without dismounting, while they led a fourth 
horse. A fallen tree, in the recesses of Dandenong, Victoria, was measured not 
long since, and found to be 420 feetlong; another, on the Black Spur, ten 
miles from Healesville, measured 480 feet. ~ 


Some of the bulbs — 


a 


Dec. 23, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


89 


THE GARDEN. 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather: but 
a Tue Art 1s NaturzE.’’——Shakespeare, 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Witi1am Rosrnson, ‘THE GARDEN ” Orricr, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PUBLISHER. 

Readers who may find it dificult to procure the numbers regularly 

through the newsagents or booksellers, may have them sent direct 

from the office, at 19s. 6d. per anmwn, 9s. 9d. for six months, or 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. “THE GARDEN” ts sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 
ILLUMINATION OF DINING-ROOMS. 
Many may be disposed on first thoughts to regard this 
subject as more fitting for the columns of the Builder than 
Tue Garpen. And so it might be, if it were my intention to 
suggest alterations in the mode of lighting. My present 
object, however, is only to treat of the different methods as I 
find them, and to show their bearings upon the decorations of 
dinner-tables. The various ways in which a dining-room can 
be illuminated may be treated of under the three headings of 
Table-lights, Ceiling-lights, and Wall-lights. By Tuble-lights 
I mean all kinds of oil and spirit lamps, candlesticks, cande- 
labra, and gas-lamps supplied by flexible tubes. Upon large 
dining-tables some of these occasionally look well, while upon 
SS tables they are always in the way, and generally regarded, 
more or less,as a nuisance, though in many cases anecessary one. 
Under the heading of Wall-lights I would include all kinds 
of illumination proceeding from, or placed near to, the walls: 
such as gas-arms and branches, girandoles, and all modes of 
lighting enumerated under the heading of table-lights, when 
they are used upon sideboards, shelves, brackets, &c., round 
.the room. By Ceiling-lights, 1 mean chandeliers, gaseliers, 
and sun-burners of various kinds. 
Of these modes of lighting I regard table-lights as the 


most objectionable when flowers are to form part of the deco- 
rations. There is less objection to ceiling-lichts than to table- 
. lights, principally because the “machinery” of lighting is 
more out of the way. But the best of all kinds of lighting is 
Ler from the walls, when not placed too far from the 
ceiling. 
The accompanying diagrams will enable me to explain more 
readily the influence which this mode of illumination should 


. 


exercise over the selection of suitable vases. They represent 
sections of a room fourteen feet wide and twelve feet high, 
containing a dining-table four feet six inches in width, and of 
the usual height, two feet four inches. The xX indicates the 
position of the eyes of a person seated at the table. 

In the illustration of a room lighted from the walls will be 
observed dotted lines proceeding from the wall-lamps, and 
passing above and below the group of flowers in the upper 
dish of the * March glass.” These show that no portion of 
the shade, caused by the light falling upon the upper dish, 
comes upon the lower dish, and that both dishes are fully 
exposed to the light. 

In the sectional drawing of a room lighted by a gaselier it 
will be seen that a trumpet-shaped vase has been introduced 


as the centre ornament, instead of a “ March glass.’ This 
latter form of vase would be quite out of place where the 
illumination is from above, since everything in its lower dish 
must then be thrown into deep shade by the decorations in the 
upper dish. 

When rooms are lighted from the ceiling, itis, perhaps, the 
safest way to restrict one’s self principally to flat styles of 
floral arrangements upon the dinner-table. If I were asked 
to describe the plan of illumination most suitable for dinners, 
I should draw a line from the middle of the dining-table to 


the angle of the room where the wall and ceiling meet (as 


shown by dotted lines in the sketch of a room lighted from 
the ceiling), and I should fix the lights at nine feet from the 
floor where that measurement crosses the dotted line. The 
number of the lights and their size must, of course, depend 
upon the length of the room, which is here assumed to be 
fourteen feet wide. Vie Mes 


Gleichenia flabellata——Would not this make a charming plant for table 
decoration, especially on the interresting occasion of a wedding breakfast? Its 
branches fork off at different heights into three or four divisions, making nice 
receptacles for little Cupids, made either of paper or parian. If this hint were 
taken up by some of our professional table-decorators, [am sure the bridesmaids 
at least, would think the design ‘‘sweetly pretty.”” Happy would I be if 
I could as graphically illustrate this matter as Mr. Hole has his Agave tele- 
graphica.—Wi11aM TILLERY, Welleck. : 

Variety in the Leaf Decoration of Flower Vases, &c.,—Sometimes the 
effect of large flowers is spoiled by intermixture with puny flowers of other 
plants, or an attempt to green down the blaze of colour by fern or other leaves. 
The proper leaves for many large flowers are their own, or some other large 
kind. It may be fancy more than correct taste, but it seems to us that even fern 
fronds are rather out of place with such cut flowers as rhododendrons. We 
remember we once learned from a confectioner to royalty a lesson which is as 
applicable to the dressing of flowers as of fruit, though not perhaps to the same 
extent. He said, ‘‘Each fruit should be dished up garnished with its own 
leaves.” Why not each flower? An attempt to conform to such a law would 
give more freshness and variety to our floral devices than aught else we could 
try. What should we think of the ladies if, with all their changes of dresses, 
they invariably used the same trimmings? ‘Toa large extent this is just what 
we do with our flowers—stiff or graceful, sober or gay, we fringe them all alike 
with the same ferns. Would it not be better taste to try their own leaves first ? 
There is no fear of not using enough fern; but distinctness and freshness could 
oftener be reached if we laid it aside now and then for other greens. Many of 
the Conifer form good substitutes, barring the smell when bruised; and 
asparagus, common grasses, and numbers of other plants, may be used with as 
good an effect as the ferns, 


90 


THE GARDEN. 


[Duc. 23, 1871. 


THE CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from p. 84.) 


THosE modes of ventilation by which cold air enters the apartment 
at once are the most common and the most imperfect. 
sion of air in cold weather by the windows is particularly injurious, 
as it enters the apartment just where the plants are standing. Hyen 
the opening of small ventilators in frosty weather must be very 
cautiously practised, so that a current of cold air may not reach the 
plants. The ventilators which are pushed outwards are much better 
than the valve ventilators, as the current of air can be better regu- 
lated by them. Still better is it to have a ventilator in the wall of 
the room under the ceiling, unless the amateur prefers the newly- 
inyented and useful contrivance by which the external air is con- 
ducted in a warm condition to the stove. Where gas. is employed 
the ventilation must be in the ceiling, or close under it. 

The lighting of the apartment is a matter of no small importance. 
The use of gas for this purpose is attended with particularly hurtful 
consequences, as, in the first place, eyen a very small quantity of gas 
escaping into the atmosphere of a room will cause the leayes to fall 
and make the plants sickly ; and, in the second place, a number of 
gas-burners will raise the temperature of a room at night, when it 
ought to be lower, and moreoyer will consume an immoderate 
quantity of oxygen. Where it would be inconyenient to dispense 
with the use of gas, the pipes and cocks should be well looked to, 
that they do not allow the least escape. These are seldom found to 
close perfectly air-tight, and should be promptly replaced or repaired. 
The use of gutta-percha tubes, such as are commonly employed for 

- conducting the gas to reading-lamps, should be particularly avoided ; 
as these tubes become penetrated by the gas, or, at least, emit a very 
bad odour. ‘Two or three coatings of varnish or oil-paint will make 
them more secure, if they must be used. The gas-pipes should be 
touched with cement in suspicious places, and covered all over witha 

good coating of oil-paint. When the gas is lighted the cocks should 
not be turned so as to let out more than is absolutely necessary to 
feed the flame, or allow the escape of any unconsumed gas. All the 
cocks should be closely examined, and every one that is not perfectly 
air-tight should be at once replaced by another. The plants which 
stand in the windows can be somewhat protected from the glaring 
light and the increased heat, by means of curtains. 

Good ventilation will, in a great degree, obviate the disadvantages 
which arise from too high temperature and the undue consumption of 
oxygen, so that with proper attention to this point successful culture 
is possible, especially when, by the evaporation of water, the air is 
kept somewhat more humid. These two particulars are the essen- 
tial conditions of successful culture in rooms which are strongly 
lighted almost daily and until far into the night. AI 


THE ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS IN APARTMENTS.—The skilful gar- 
dener will easily make such a judicious disposition of plants in a 
plant-house, that eavh will have the position best suited for it without 
prejudice to the other plants, or to the general scheme of the entire 
arrangement, but any difficulties that may arise here, will be expe- 
rienced in a much greater degree with plants cultivated in rooms. 
Of these we shall first consider the most’ common arrangement, 
that is, in windows or their immediate proximity. The best and 
most suitable position is in the window itself. If the window-sill is 
So narrow that the leayes of the plants are brought into immediate 
contact with the glass, so that in winter they are exposed to the frost 
and are in summer liable to be scorched by the sun, then must the 
window-sill be made broader by the addition of a board. This board 
should not only overlap the window-sill, but be higher than it by the 
Space of an inch, as in winter the window-sill itself is a colder position 
for plants than the raised board, between which and the window-sill 
the warm air of the chamber can circulate. Where it is desirable to 
have the greatest number of plants in a window, a series of shelyes 
can be placed over each other, at such distances as the height of the 
plants will permit; but as this arrangement shuts out too much 
light from the room, and is besides rather unsightly in appearance, 
it cannot be employed for decorative purposes, but should rather be 
confined to the double window proper. 

The plants placed in the window for ornamental purposes should 
be so arranged that the leayes of one may not come into contact with 
those of another, nor with the window. In summer and spring, they 
should be shaded from hot sunshine by a curtain of thin material 
inside the windows or by a blind on the outside, or it may suffice to 
place a board before the pots, so as to shelter them from the direct 
influence of the sun. ; 

The amateur should commence the room-culture of plants with the 
determination to grow afew plants into fine specimens, rather than 
have a great number which, from want of a suitable position and 
sufficient room, are always puny and pining away. A few advan- 
tageously placed plants in the full beauty of growth and strength will 


The admis- 


afford more pleasure to the cultivator than a whole host of mediocre — 
specimens. 

Ina room plants do not receive light from above and all round, 
but only on one side. In consequence of this, a more vigorous 
growth is always going on at the side whereon the light falls. 
Therefore, in order to obtain well-formed, symmetrical specimens, 
both sides of the plant should be alternately turned to the light. _ 

When the specimens have in this way been well grown in the 
window, it will be time to remove them to another position in the 
vicinity of the window. ‘This is necessary for two reasons: in the 
first place, because very large specimens in the window would 
deprive the rest of the plants in the room of too much light; and, 
in the second place, because the specimens themselves have no ~ 
longer sufficient room in the window for their own symmetrical 
growth. The growth of handsome specimens abundantly covered — 
with vigorous and perfect leaves will afford the highest degree of 
pleasure to the amateur, and will richly indemnify him for his daily 
care. To this end an uncrowded arrangement of the plants in the 
immediate vicinity of the window on small tables or stands about 
the height of the window-sill is the most suitable. The size of the 
round tops of these stands may be from nine inches to a foot in 
diameter, so as to be just capable of holding large pots. Im draw- 
ing-rooms, where the rest of the furniture is of an elegant descrip- 
tion, these stands may be tastefully wrought in wood; but equally 
suitable are those of a simpler kind, which any basket-maker will 
supply cheaply. I mean those stands supported on four plain legs, 
which are bound together by interlacing wicker-work, the upper 
part of the stand being surrounded by a rim or bordering of 
wicker-work, which serves to shelter and conceal the pots. It will 
be well to have these stands of various heights, from the height of 
the window-sill down, as the larger the specimens grow the lower 
the pots will have to be placed, until at length they rest close to the 
floor of the apartment. We say close to the floor, because a pot or a 
tub should not be placed on the floor, as it would injure it; and, 
besides, in a room which has no regular heating apparatus under- 
neath, a position immediately on the floor would be too cold for 
plants in the winter. They can be placed on low stools or on 
inverted pots; or, where a more elegant arrangement is desired, on 
wooden stands or baskets with feet a few inches high—only, do not 
allow the pots, tubs, or vases to come into immediate contact with 
the floor. The basket-maker, the potter, the gardener, and the 
manufacturer of ornamental garden requisites in iron and wood 
nowadays vie with each other in producing a vast variety of designs, 
and offer free scope for the exercise of individual taste in this 
matter. Tosum up, the conditions to be observed are, to choose a 
position near the window where the plants will receive a full supply 
of light, and to keep the pots raised from immediate contact with 
the floor.—From the German of Dr. Regel. 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


—_— 


THE SWHET INDIAN DAPHNE. 
(DAPHNE INDICA.) 


“Tuts is one of those beautiful plants that are often hurt 
by kindness. Hyerybody wishes to have it, not less for its 
appearance when well grown than for the delicious aroma 
which the flowers exhale. Plant-growers differ as to its culti- 
vation, some considering grafted plants indispensable, while 
others would rather have the plant upon its own roots. Much, 
however, of the success which should attend the cultivation 
of a grafted plant will depend upon the perfect health and 
vigour of the stock upon which itis worked. Sometimes the 
common wood spurge (Daphne laureola) is used, but we have 
found Daphne pontica form the best stocks. These should be 


thoroughly established in three or four inch pots, and the 


grafting may be performed either in the autumn, when the 
wood-of the season is sufficiently firm and ripened, or in the 
early spring, after the plant has done blooming. In the former 
case the grafted plants, after having the graft neatly and 
firmly fixed and the wound made air-tight with a coat of cold 
evafting wax, should be placed in a cold frame or pit under the 
protection of a close-fitting bell glass or hand light, keeping the 
roots sufficiently moist, but not syringing the plants more than 
once a week, when the glass should be left off until such time © 
as the foliage has got rid of the superfluous moisture. In 
spring grafting it is advisable that the stocks should be placed 
ina gentle heat to excite them into growth before they are 
grafted, and if at the same time the plant from which the 


4. 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


91 


grafts are to be taken can be placed in a similar temperature it 
will be well, as then the stock and scion will be in the same 
state of growth, and the chances of success will be much in- 
creased. In the hands of an expert workman the grafts 
need not exceed an inch in length, half to be attached 
to the stock, and the other half, which may haye two 
or three leaves and buds, being left to form the plant. What 
is called side grafting, with the head of the plant left on until 
the graft has taken, is the best, as then the head may be gra- 
dually reduced until such time as the whole force of the plant 
is concentrated on the graft. Of course, plants that have been 
growing in heat must be kept in heat after they are grafted, 
giving them the protection of a hand light in a warm pit or 
forcing-house, until such time as the buds swelling into growth 
show that the grafts haye taken. Then gradually give air, 
until, in the course of a week or ten days, the young plants, 
being properly hardened, may be exposed to the atmosphere of 
the house. 

Cuttings of this Daphne are best put in in the autumn, when 
the young wood is something more than half ripe. Small side 
branches of about an inch long, if they can be procured, form 
the best cuttings; but if not, then larger pieces may be cut 
into portions of about an inch each. In preparing the cutting- 
pot let it be thoroughly well drained; place over the drainage 
a layer of nice fibrous loam, made quite firm, and over that a 
thin layer of silver sand. In this the cuttings may be inserted, 
not too thickly, and then covered with a bell glass. Keep the 
cutting-pots in a cool, close propagating pit or frame fora 
“month or six weeks, by which time they should be nicely cica- 

trised; and if they are then placed in a gentle heat, roots will 
be immediately formed. It will not, however, be wise to pot 
the cuttings off until after Christmas, and then, if placed in 
a close and gentle heat, they willimmedialely start into vigorous 
growth. 

The secret of growing this charming plant—and it is the 
only secret in its management—is the fact that it abhors com- 
posts and nostrums. Give it good unctuous loam full of fibre, 
and it will grow like a willow; nurse it with peat, leaf mould, 
manure, &c., and, like other over-petted things, it will not 
grow at all. This may be considered the reason why ill-grown 
plants are the rule, and well-grown plants the exception. Take 
a nicely-grown plant with three or four branches in early 
spring. Place it in a temperature of fifty or sixty degrees; in 
a fortnight or three weeks it will show indications of growth. 
Then pick out the point of each shoot, which will cause them 
to throw duplicate branches, so that you may have eight or 
twelve of these. When the young branches are about half an 
inch long, the roots may be examined, and, if in a fit state, the 
plant may be shifted into a larger pot. In doing this, take 
care that the pot is properly drained; use the fibrous turf 
before-mentioned, pot quite firmly, and keep the plants some- 
what close until such time as the roots have taken to the fresh 


- soil. The Daphne, in its growing season, delights in a moist, 
_ moderately warm atmosphere, and a free circulation of air. If 


a growth of four to six inches in length can be got by the 
middle of June, then the shoots may be again stopped anda 
second growth encouraged. This will add to the size and com- 
pactness of the specimen, but its blooming will not be so cer- 
tain as if the first growth had been allowed to mature itself. 


The blooming of this plant centres entirely in the thorough 


_ maturation of the wood, and to that end it is much better to 


“ws 


rest satisfied with an early growth, than by forcing a second 
lose the chance of bloom. To insure their blooming, it is 
necessary that the plants be exposed to full light and a 
free circulation of air till the end of June; and if after July, 


_ when gradually inured, they can be exposed to the fullsunand a 


southern aspect, the certainty of their blooming will be much 
increased. During the season of active growth the plants, if 
well rooted, may be assisted with weak manure or soot water 
once or twice a week; and even in the blooming season an 
occasional dose of manure water will be of service. The 
_blooming season oyer, the plants, if not in heat, may be placed 
in a vinery or other forcing house, syringing them lightly, but 
not giving much water at the root. As soon as the leading 
shoots show indication of growth, go over the plants, and pick 
ont the point of each branchlet; keep them in the same 
temperature; and, as the buds begin to break, increase the 


y 


supply of water. Should the plants require more pot room, 
let them haye it when the young shoots have just started into 
growth; keep them in a moist, growing temperature for a few 
weeks, and then gradually inure them to full exposure in the 
open air as before directed. In this manner, using the soil 
before described only, the Daphne may be grown and flowered 
as freely as a common pelargonium; but, unless it is distinctly 
understood that the plant must have a season of growth, 
maturation, and blooming, success in pots is impossible. 

_ Another simple way to succeed with this very popular subject 
is to plant it against the back wall of a greenhouse or conser- 
yatory, in as light and airy a position as possible, and in the 
soil aboye recommended. 


BEGONIAS. 


THESE are graceful and elegant at all times, but moro especially 
are they desirable during the autumn and winter months, when 
flowering plants are scarce. True, we have Chrysanthemums in 
abundance ; but, notwithstanding the assistance they lend us in the 
way of decoration, they are only admissible in conservatory arrange- 
ments to a limited extent, while Begonias are more or less overlooked. 
Although the latter seem to revel in a warm moist temperature 
during the early stages of growth, a temperature of from 55° to 60° 
will be found to suit them perfectly during the summer months, 
giving them the full benefit of sunlight to promote maturation and 
induce profusion of flowers. It may, however, be necessary to rein- 
troduce to the stove some of the varieties, such as the lovely B. 
fuchsioides, in order to bring them into flower. Nevertheless, it 
should be borne in mind that when this is not absolutely necessary, 
it is not a desirable course to pursue in the case of plants that are 
expected to embellish the conservatory during winter. 

For general purposes Begonias should be propagated annually from 
July all through the autumn months. They will root in about ten 
days, and may be potted into small pots in a compost of equal parts 
of loam, leaf-soil, and sand, and kept in a free growing temperature, 
sprinkling them frequently overhead. Im short, they luxuriate in 
moisture when in active growth. The loam in the compost may be 
increased in quantity at each successive potting, and a little well- 
rotted manure may be given when the loam is not of a rich 
character, but this is seldom necessary. Thus treated they will 
make rapid growth, and they will be benefited by occasional appli- 
cations of weak liquid-manure during the autumn to assist their 
flowering. 

The following are the varieties which I grow, viz. :—B. Chelsoni, 
an elegant kind which may well stand in the foremost rank. It is 
a hybrid between Boliviensis and Sedeni. It is good in habit, and 
its bright glossy red flowers are large and attractive. B. hybrida 
multiflora, another of my sorts, a cross between B. fuchsioides and 
B. parviflora, has a free style of growth. Plants of it rooted in July 
1870 are now six feet in height, and nearly as much in diameter, 
covered with rosy-pink blossoms suspended on long, slender stems. 
This is without doubt one of the best sorts we possess. B. Sedeni, 
another garden hybrid, with magenta-coloured flowers, stands a long 
time in bloom, and is well worth a place in any collection. B. 
Digswelliensis also ranks among our best varieties. B. Wiltoniensis 
is dwarf in habit, elegant in point of foliage, and a free-flowering kind. 

These are among the finest for most purposes, but especially so 
where variety is considered a desideratum, There are numbers of 
others, many of which are also well worth attention. For example, 
there are the tuberous-rooted deciduous kinds, such as Boliviensis, a 
charming plant, with very large bright glossy red flowers, B. rose- 
flora, B. discolor, and others. These should be gradually dried off 
in winter, and stored away in precisely the same manner as 
Gloxinias. 

When neatly grown, Begonias make useful adornments for the 
dinner-table, and those possessing a drooping habit are admirably 
adapted for suspended basket-work. They are valuable, too, for 
window decoration, and several of them, such as florida, Wiltoniensis, 
&c., do well when bedded out. They flower freely, and are very 
desirable in mixed arrangements. 


Witley Court. Gro. WESTLAND. 


Single and Double Chinese Primroses in Winter.— 
Take care of the crowns of these, and the leaves and flowers will take 
care of themselyes. No drip must hit the eye of growth. Though 
dull, sunless winteris their summer, nothing is easier thanto keep their 
crowns dry, and to have them beautifully in flower when we most 
want them. Water under—not oyer—the leaves, and see that the 
water never floods the axils of the lowermost ones. The roots are 
greedy of water, and must not be stinted; as the season advances, and 


92 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 23, 1871. 


the new year’s sun acquires power, they may need two or three drinks 
a day. But atall seasons keep the leaves dry, especially in the dead 
of winter. The single varieties suffer more from water on the head 
than the double sorts. Their leayes are larger and more succulent, 
and their mode of growth is somewhat different. The double sorts 
have smaller crowns, and more of them. The most effective single 
plants haye but one crown, deeper and more easily hurt. But the 
safest course is not to wet a single leaf of any of them. Few things 
vex one more than to see the glorious bunches of flowers and foliage 
of these fine plants suddenly damp-off. With careful watering and 
judicious ventilation, however, this may be wholly avoided. Next 
to keeping water out of the crowns, dry them, after watering, with 
a current of air as speedily as possible ; and should perverse, artful 
drip choose the eye of a primrose as its mark, move the plant 
instantly and place it beyond the reach of such mischief.—D. T. F. 


ANGCTOCHILUS CULTURE. 


TuESE sinall but exquisite plants rank amongst the most 
precious jewels of the vegetable kingdom, and few can without 
the deepest admiration behold the delicate tracery and inimitable 
markings of their leaves, where the gem-like hues seem to vie 
with each other in producing the most charming effects of 
liquid colour. The great object of the cultivator should be the 
production of fine foliage, and the development of the fine gold 
and silver yeims which are so characteristic of this genus. The 
only way to accomplish this is to take advantage of the growing 
season, and to encourage by every possible means a strong, 
vigorous, and rapid growth. They are not like some plants, 
which will grow from a foot to a yard in one season, and soon 
become unwieldy and unmanageable by reason of their bulk. 
Ancectochili are small, compact-growing plants, averaging from 
two to five inches inheight; and it is simply impossible to grow 
them too large, provided this is not accomplished at the ex- 
pense of an enfeebled constitution. Some have indulged their 
plants with bottom heat, thinking that by so doing they would 
have increased root action, and consequently more vigorous 
growth. But this has provedamistake. The plants have pro- 
gressed favourably for a time, but the excitement has induced 
weakness of constitution, and death has been the result in 
many instances. ‘The pots in which they grow being generally 
small, the compost in them is sure to be of the same ayerage 
temperature as the air of the house in which they stand, and 
this is found by experience to be all that is required in the way 
of root warmth or bottom heat. Shade they must have; to 
stand them in the sunissimplyfolly. The bright glare of light 
will soon mar all their beauty and stop their growth, even if it 
does not kill them altogether. In their native habitats they 
grow in forests under the shade of trees, where none of the direct 
rays of the sun can reach them. These conditions must be ob- 
served and continued, or all our efforts will be in vain. Bear- 
ing this in mind, look round the house or stove, and select a 
spot where the rays of the sun never penetrate—at least during 
the greater part of the day. An easterly aspect, with a point 
or two to the north, I have found to be the best for them, 
where the first gentle beams of the rising sun call forth the 
active energies of vegetable life. But by the time the sun has | 
been up an hour or two it acquires too much power tne | 
allowed to shime upon the beautiful leaves of these ditionue 
plants. Consequently, if the structure does not of jindow-<ord 
the means of breaking the force of its rays,q¥ desirservant 
cultivator will soon discover some means of alvicuplishing it 
by artificial means; and'here’there must be a word of caution. 
The place they occupy must not be a dark corner. They want 


light, but it must be a subdued licht, softened and toned down, |- 


and adapted to the delicate structure of the plants. Compara- 
tive stillness in the atmosphere is another essential to their 
well-bemmg and well-domg. The open, airy condition of a 
house in which other plants are grown will not answer for 
Aneectochili. Growing as they do in the forest, all currents 
of air are broken by the surrounding trees; and the plants 
being of such diminutive size, the coarser kinds of vegeta- 
tion, grasses, &c., effectually shelter them from anything like 
a draught. Nestling as they do low down, near to the surface 
of the soil, the little world in which they live is one of 
unbroken calm and quiet. To imitate this it is found necessary 
to cover the plants growing in our houses with bell glasses, or, 
what is still better, a small box or frame with a glass top. 


-are attended to, 


This should be about two feet or two feet six inches from bach 
to front, and a yard in length. It is better to inerease the 
number than the size of the boxes. Hight inches deep in front 
and twelve at the back will be very useful and satisfactory 
proportions. These boxes should never be shut close. Itisa 
good plan to have ribs nailed on the under side of the sheet or 
coyer, to prevent it fitting close to the box or frame. And 
then a gentle current of air will at all times be passing oyer the 
top of the plants, not through or among them, and thus as 
nearly as possible imitate their natural conditions: It shut 
close and the atmosphere becomes stagnant, they are almost 
sure to damp off. : , 
They do not seem to be very particular about the kind-t 
soil they have to grow in. I haye grown them in rou» 
lumpy peat alone, and in this they sent down thei roots al 
did very well. I have also grown them in chopped sphagnY™ 
mixed with sand ; but this did not seem to afford them sufticie” 
nutriment, so I adopted a compost between these two extrem¢>: 
Peat is the principal ingredient,’ but a little leaf mould © 
advantageous, as it enriches the compost without making 7 
rank: say, as a guide, two parts peat and one part leaf moula: 
with silver sand equal in bulk to the other two. ‘Then, it 
addition to this, I add pounded. sandstone, made about th® 
size of peas. It is astonishing how the roots will cling to thes® 
pieces of soft stone, which absorb moisture and help to kee’ 
the soil in a uniform state of dampness, and at the same tim, 


secure a free passage for the escape of superfluous water. { 

Drainage must be on the most ample scale; anything like 
stagnation is ruin and death. Ifthe compost becomes in th 
least sour, it is vain to look for success. These plants do no 
root deeply, therefore it is not necessary to have a great depth 
of soil. This affords opportunity for securing a very consider, 
able amount of drainage. The pots should be quite clean, wel 
washed inside and out, and then half filled with crocks, the 
rougher ones being placed at the bottom, and the finer ones o 
the surface. A little moss on the top of these will prevent the} 
compost finding its way down and blocking up the drainage. If 
this is carefully and properly done, the pots may be filled wit 
the compost, and little fear need be entertained of its becoming: 
waterlogged. But in addition to this the pots should stand upon 
two or three inches of pebbles, or some other open material, so’ 
that the water can soon get away, and at the same time thi , | 
material being thoroughly wet, it will constantly and gradually — 
give off moisture to the air in the case. . 

The pots being prepared as above, the creeping stems of the! 
Ancectochili should be laid upon the surface. If there are anxy’Y 
roots proper, they may be let into the compost a little; but by” 
no means bury the stem. This naturally runs upon the surface ? 
of the soil, and the growing plant stands erect, showing its ° 
beautiful foliage and developing its tiny flowers. To bury these ' 
stems isa sure way to brmg on decay; while on the other 
hand to leave them exposed is to get them consolidated, 
hardened, and ripened, and thus they are enabled to bear 
the application of water throughout the year, more especially 
so during the dark days of winter. If these precantions 
water may be freely given without 
the slightest fear, especially during the growimg season, 
from the end of March to the beginning of October; they 
revel in a full supply. They may be freely watered overhead 
with a very fine rose-can or a syringe every afternoon, with 
water about milk warm. Don’t fear wetting the leayes or the 
stems; they delight in plenty of water, and it is a mistake to 
keep them merely damp only ; it leads to weakness and feeble- 
ness of constitution, and causes many to pine away and die. 
Hyen during the winter season they must not be allowed to 
get dry, and a good sprinkling overhead occasionally at that 
season of the year will be beneficial to them. It cleanses them 
of dirt, dislodges insects, refreshes the plants, and adds to 
their health and vigour. It is necessary, however, to be 
cautious that there be no sediment in the water, otherwise it 
will leave a stain upon the foliage and disfigure the plants. 
The flowers they produce are yery inconspicuous and unat- 
tractive, and as they help to exhaust the plants, it is better to 
remove the flower-stems as soon as they make their appear- 
ance. By this means additional vigour is thrown into the 
foliage. Being natives of Borneo, Jaya, and other hot parts of 
the globe, they require a high temperature to grow them well 


NO eae ried 


Dec. 23, 1871.} 


—indeed, I may say to grow them at all; and unless there is 
the convenience of a stove, it is useless to attempt it. Fifty 
degrees may be set down as the minimum, and 65° or 70° on a 
sunny day as the maximum, during the winter mouths. But 
through the summer, while they are growing, they may have 
65° or 70° through the night, witha rise up to 85° or even 
90° in the daytime. This, with the directions given in this 
paper, will grow them to the greatest perfection; and those 
who have them will have the pleasure of looking upon the 

- richest markings and most glorious tints of colour that are to 
be found in leaves. 


The Gardens, Didsbury, near Manchester. Thos. Jones. 


* A CHRISTMAS VASE. 


One of the most effective vases with which we are acquainted was 
arranged as shown in the accompanying illustration. In the centre 
was a good plant of Epiphyllum truncatum, surrounded by a ring 
of large houseleek (Sempervivum tabuleforme) alternated with the 
common Pterisserrulata. We did not see the vase till the Epiphyllum 
had passed out of flower, but even then the effect was very pretty. 


Plants of the Epiphyllum trained as low pyramids are peculiarly 
‘snitable for vase decoration—indeed, it is doubtful if anything that 
blooms in summer would form so loyely a subject for a sitting-room 
or conservatory vase as this, which blooms so freely in mid-winter. 
We -had the pleasure of seeing it in Mr. Flowers’ handsome conser- 
yatory at Furzedown, Streatham, which is usually so well arranged 
by his gardener, Mr. Laing, and where our sketch was taken. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 73.) 


Bacrris FLAVIsPINA (Brazil).—Fronds from four to six feet long, 
irregularly pinnate ; petiole furnished with yellowish sharp spines, and 
there are small ones on the margin of the pinnz ; erect, dark green. 
All the species of this genus are dwarf, forming bushes by pushing 
- up shoots from the base ; they are fond of heat and water. Though 
ornamental when young, when old they get lax, and are apt to 
scratch everything with which they may be associated, thus unfitting 
them for many purposes to which palms are applied. Many species 
of Bactris enumerated in books are not yet introduced. 

B. bacenlifera, liboniana, and setosa.—For purposes of decora- 
tion these are not better than flavispina. 

B. maraja (Brazil).—Fronds, two feet broad, abrupt; throws up 
shoots from the base. This, the best and most compact of the 
species, runs up with a slender stem, which, however, may be cut 
down when too high, when a young stem will take its place; 


must have plenty of heat. . 


THE GARDEN. 


93 


Bentinckia coddapanna (India).—Plant, smooth, pale green ; fronds 
pinnate, spreading ; petiole, round ; stiff in habit, and a bad grower. 

Calamus.—A very extensive genus, consisting of from eighty to 
ninety species. 

Damonorops, forty species. 

These two genera having got much mixed together in garden:, 
and their decorative character being similar, I shall speak of them 
together, denoting the species that belong to Demonorops by the 
letter D. The only difference between the two consists in the 
flower spathe of Calamus being persistent and that of Damonorops 
deciduous. ‘The albumen in Dzemonorops is ruminated; while that 
in Calamus is not—points valueless as far as purposes of decoration 
are concerned; but they may serve as a test in the case of 
imported seeds. Both genera are fond of heat and water, and, 
in a young state, many of the species possess a charming, light, 
feathery habit, which makes them universal favourites. Though 
many of them grow more than a hundred feet in height, and become 
rough in appearance, a few are dwarf, and remain suitable for ordi- 
nary purposes of decoration for years. If watered freely, they may 
be kept in small pots. 

C. australis (Fitzroy River).—Plant, erect; stem, slender; frond, 
one foot long; pinnz, three inches ; spines, pale brown, fine. All 
the species have three veins on each of the pinne, the outer two being 
furnished with small spines on the upper side. This, the smallest of 
the genus, grows only from four to five feet high; and, being very 
graceful in habit, is suitable for a small house or Wardian case. 
Altogether an elegant palm, and one which has the advantage of 
being hardier than the other species. 

C. D. accidens (Java).—Fronds, spreading, dark green; leaf- 
stalk, brown ; spines, irregular. In a young state this is a beantiful 
plant for stove decoration, possessing, as it does, an elegant plume of 
folie: (To be continued.) piste 


THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


HARDY TREES IN THE “ SUBTROPICAL * GARDEN. 


We wish particularly to call attention to the fine effects 
which may be secured, from the simplest and most easily 
obtained materials, by using some of our hardy trees and 
shrubs in the picturesque garden. Our object generally is to 
secure large and handsome types of leaves; and for this pur- 
pose we usually place in the open air young plants of exotic 


Ailantus and Cannas. 


trees, taking them in again in autumn; and, perhaps, as we 
never see them but in a diminutive state, we often forget 
that, when branched into a large head in their native countries, 
they are not a whit more remarkable in point of foliage than 
yery many of the trees of our pleasure-grounds, 


94: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 28, 1871. 


Thus, if the well-known Paulownia imperialis were too tender 
to stand our winters, and if we were accustomed to see it only 
in a young and simple-stemmed condition and with large 
leaves, we should doubtless plant it out every summer as we 
do the Ferdinanda, ‘There is no occasion whatever to resort 
to exotic subjects while we can so easily obtain fine hardy 
plants — which, moreover, may be grown by anybody and 
everywhere. By annually cutting down young plants of various 
hardy trees and shrubs, and letting them make a clean, simple- 
stemmed growth every year, we will, as a rule, obtain finer 
effects than can be got from tender ones. The Ailantus, for 
example, treated in this way gives us as fine atype of pinnate 
leaf as can be desired. Nobody need place Astrapzea Wallichii 
in the open air, so long asa simple-stemmed young plant of the 
Paulownia makes such a column of magnificent leaves. 

The delicately-cut leaves of the Gleditschias, borne on strong 
young stems, would be as pretty as those of any fern; and so 
in the case of various other hardy trees and shrubs. Persons 
in the coldest and least fayourable parts of the country need 
not doubt of being able to obtain as fine types of foliage as 
they can desire, by selecting a dozen kinds of hardy trees, and 
treating them im this way. What may be done it this way, 
in one case, is shown. in the foregoimg illustration, repre- 
senting a young plant of Ailantus, with its current year’s 
shoot and leaves, standing gracefully m the midst of a bed of 
Cannas, 


FRAGRANT FLOWERS. 


Wat is a garden without these? Yet we have seen 
hundreds of gardens without a single sweet-breathing flower 
except the rose. But even the eyver-satisfying and popular 
rose does not receive half the attention that it ought, in eon- 
sequence of the all-absorbing attention required for geraniums, 
calceolarias, verbenas, &c., which are scentless ; not remarkable 
for great individual beauty of flower, like lilies or irises; devoid 
of any pleasing association, and perishing during the first frost 
that comes inautumn. We therefore propose to indicate the 
various ways in which numbers of sweet-smelling hardy flowers 
may be grown without interfering with the arrangements for 
“ bedding-out plants.” : 

Supposing a little bed or two to be devoted to pinks, car- 
nations, &c., on a warm border in the vegetable department, 
or anywhere else away from the flower-garden proper, there 
are not a few other things which might be advantageously 
associated with them, and among these none more conspicuous 
than the rather numerous kinds of German stocks, so sweetly 
scented and so varied; while near at hand might be beds of 
violets of various kinds, and also a collection of everlastings 
and ornamental grasses, not to mention other little specialities 
of that sort; and the whole might be arranged so as to prove a 
source of ceaseless interest to the lover of a garden. However, 
enough of suggestion; let us at once proceed with our enume- 
ration of such sweet-scented flowers as we can obtain cheaply, 
and grow in the open air. ; 

To begin with an annual flower, the finest of all, perhaps, 


not only im point of perfume, but in point of size and exquisite - 
delicacy of colour, is a species of Datura, D. ceratocaulon. It. 


grows a couple of feet high or more when well tended, and has 
flowers of enormous size and of a divine sweetness, especially 
in the evenings, when the large blossoms open after the fashion 
of the evening primrose. Sow in gentle heat in March or 
April, and plant out in rich soil in May; if possible, in an 
isolated spot, so that the plant may not be found what is 
called an “ eyesore’? among the bedding plants, for it closes 
during the day, and looks remarkably like the common thorn- 
apple when in that state. With it might be associated other 
sweet plants, such as the mignonette; the new annual night- 
scented stock (Mathiola bicornis); the large, fragrant, and 
showy yellow Ginothera Lamarckiana, very fine and sweet, and 
particularly so in the evenings, when people most enjoy the 
garden during hot weather, Ginothera odorata, stocks, sweet 
peas, musk. if you like it, in tufts round the edge, clove 
carnations, &e. Of such goodly-sized bed a charming feature 
might be made in some quiet nook; and charming indeed it 
would proye on the summer evenings, between fragrant 
flowers and those that open in the eyenimg and close as the 


Vvising sun laps up the crystal drops of dew that bead round - 


the margin of their petals during the nights. Wallflowers, too, 


might be represented, and fragrant shrubs, such as sweet gale, 
lavender, &c., might be used; in fact, any person who en- 
deavours to glance through the sweetly-smelling host, from roses 
to rosemary, and from primroses and cowslips to the Persian 
lilac and the sweetbriar, cannot fail to remember suitable things 
to form such an arrangement with. The beautiful snowy-white 
and cheap Lilium longiflorum is also worth growing for its 
exquisite sweetness alone; and on all fair, light garden soils it 
appears to us about as easily grown as a potato. 

Whatever may be selected, do not forget the mixed kinds of 
polyanthuses, which are so very sweet, and eyen beautiful in 
poimt of colour, for the sprmg garden. They may be raised 


from seed in abundance. The sweet Alyssum, low white sweet — 


candytuft (Iberis odorata), the fragrant honesty (a biennial), 
the night-scented stock (Mathiola tristis), all come from the 
same order as the wallflowers, and are worthy of remembrance 
in a collection of this sort. Sweet sultans, too, with the 
Moldavian balm, sweet but not showy; the balm of Gilead 
(Dracocephalum canariense), peculiar, best fitted for the ereen- 
house in winter, though it will grow well against a wall in 
summer; and the common balm of the herb ground, which is 
to us always a pleasing perfume, are all worth growing. Not 
afew people gather lavender for homely perfumery; indeed, 
we have never seen this done to such an extent im any garden. 
ag in those at Frogmore, for her Majesty’s use; but there is a 
sweet little herb equally well adapted for such purposes, which 
is not at all so much uged as it ought to be, and that is the 
little British woodruft (Asperula odorata), which is so common 
in many woods, its green mass of leaves powdered over with 
small white flowers. It grows as freely as grass in any shady 
spot of the garden, or imdeed anywhere, and should be pulled 
and left to dry in a drawer. The leaves furnish the fragrance. 
When growing or culled they do not smell, but a few hours 
afterwards the aroma begins to develop itself ; the dried foliage 
and stems of this little herb retain their sweetness for years 
in a drayer. ¢ ; { 

As to hardy shrubs and things of that kind, the common 
jasmine—common, but unsurpassed for sweetness—flourishes 
anywhere on a wall, and is entitled to the gratitude of all for 
bemg obliging enough to flourish in the very heart ofall our 
great wildernesses of bricks, even down in the areas and the 
backyards of those parts of our cities where the truth of Cow- 
per’s line, that “ God made the country and man made the town, * 
is forced upon us in all its reality. Another climbing shrub of 
priceless value, and perfectly hardy and cheap, is Clematis 
Flammula, which makes the garden or the grove as Sweet im 


‘the golden days of autumn, and rather late on towards winter, 


as the hawthorn does in spring. Employ it as a trellis plant, 
or in any position where you would employ a climber; but to 
thoroughly enjoy it, plant it in your shrubbery, near some old 
stump of a tree, some old specimen that was cut down, or any- 
thing that it can crawl over, and then ib will give no trouble, 
but the highest satisfaction. Itis very useful for cutting for 
in-door decoration, and a few sprays of the flowers among the 
autumnal blooming roses (now so common) look very well, as 
they do indeed in any group of cut flowers. Then there is the 
early spring-flowering Daphne Mezereum, the low and charm 

ingly-coloured D. Cneorum; the extremely disagreeable, when 
broken, but deliciously sweet-flowered spurge laurel; not to 
mention the bay, the various kinds of lilac, and the myrtles and 
sweet verbena, which make large shrubs in the south of Eng- 
land and Ireland; the great flowered American Magnolia, the 
fragrance of which is as powerful as its flowers are large and 
nobly formed. In the south this plant makes a fine plant for 
walls, as indeed it does on favourable soils in the midland 
counties of England and Ireland. At Bicton there was a wall 
of this which, previous to the scathing frost of 1860, used to 
scent the whole place ; and though the plant does get cut down 
now and then in very hard winters, it is well worth planting 


again, if indeed that be required, for the old plants shoot up 


afresh. ‘Then there is another fine wall shrub to which far 
more attention should be directed than has yet been the case. 
We allude to the deliciously sweet Chimonanthus grandiflorus 
the most worthy of all shrubs to be placed in a warm corner 
against a wall, let that belong to terrace, house, outhouse, or 
ottage. It has the distinguishing peculiarity of flowering in 
Y : i ? 


j > = 


<o D = 


eae 


‘Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


95 


winter, when sweet flowers are scarce; anda few sprigs of it, 
‘ gatkered and placed in a vase of flowers in the drawing-room, 
distil an almost matchless odour without being observed by 
those who know not the plant; for the flowers, though not 
small, are singularly inconspicuous. Finally, do not forget our 
old friend the winter heliotrope (Tussilago fragrans) which 
flowers so sweetly about Christmas, and may be culled for 
mixing among cut flowers at that period, its unobtrustive 
blossoms scenting the room. But do not admit it into the 
garden, or it may become a contumacious weed. Some “ out- 
ot-the-way place” is its home. An old lane, bank of rubbish, 
hedge bank, or any such wild or half-wild spot, will suit it to 
perfection ; and, besides, the wild latitude it will have to run 
about in, will insure a plentiful supply of flowers, which could 
not be had from a small garden patch. V. E.R. 


PINKS, CARNATIONS, AND PICOTEES. 


Iv was perhaps no wonder that, before the glare of colour 
which adapted itself to the wants of those who had but little 
taste in gardening, a great number of second-rate plants were 
driven out from cultivation and forgotten ; but that such richly- 
coloured, often elegantly-laced and tinted, and always gratefully 
odorous subjects as picotees, carnations, and pinks, should 
almost disappear from cultivation under its auspices, is truly a 
marvel. Here we have a rare combination—beauty of colour, 
dwariness and neatness of habit, perfect hardiness, capability 
of growing in almost any soil and in any part of the country, 
aromatic and delightful fragrance, and, im a word, the highest 
beauties of any flowers we know. And yet what is the practice ? 
Why, there are many gardens where such a bunch of the clove 
carnation, or common pink as you may buy in London for a 
mere trifle from the flower-hawkers could not be culled. Now 
there is no reason whatever why we should not have a moderate 
and tasteful display of what is called “ bedding-out,” and enjoy 
the peerless beauty and grateful fragrance of this fine tribe of 
hardy andessentially English flowers. There is no reason what- 


.- ever why we should sacrifice all beauty and interest to the dis- 


play of a few things which merely attract by their colour, but 
produce such a monotony in gardens generally, that we are 
quite surprised that educated people do not cease to take an 
interest in gardens at all. Why not have your beds of carna- 
tions richly striped and fine inform, your elegant picotees laced 
with the most refined elegance of colour, and your sweet and 
abundantly blooming pinks, from the common pink of the 
London flower market to large and rich Anna Boleyn? 
Suppose you cannot, in your narrowness of heart, afford them 
a bed in the flower-garden, why not devote afew yards of a 
snug border in the kitchen-garden to them, evenif there be no 
space wherewith to put them round the borders? For their 
‘value for cutting alone, for bouquet making .and in-door floral 
decorations, these flowers would be well worth cultivating, 
even if they had not attractions enough to entice anybody with 
a particle of love for flowers to their quarters to see them open 
their beautiful petals. We know one large place in which the 
demand for cut flowers is very great, and it is well met by 
devoting a portion of ground in the reserve garden to pinks and 
carnations; they supply a great want, and are cut in quantity. 
Great is the amount of variety in the three sections, and many 


- the charms that may be added to a garden by a selection of the 


best of each. Each may be raised from seed without much 
trouble, though of course in that way you cannot expect to get 
the choice varieties which you may obtain by buying young 
* plants of a nurseryman. 


Golden-Edged Lemon Thyme.—(Thymus citriodorus aureo 
' marginatus.) —This golden-edged variety of the old lemon thyme 
is about as superior to the so-called silver variegated form of the 
common thyme as genuine cliquot is to gooseberry wine. In habit 
it is equally dwarf, dense, and compact as our old familiar garden 
favourite, and it retains its variegation so perfectly and evenly dis- 
tributed, that out of some thousands of plants not a single one showed 
any tendency to revert to the normal state, nor was a green leaf to 
be seen. As a variegated plant it possesses these qualities: a deep 
green and bright shining leaf, which contrasts with and sets off to the 
best advantage its golden variegation, the latter monopolising fully 
one half of the leaf’s surface. Infact, I can compare it to nothing but 


a perfect miniature of the lovely variegated Coprosma, which will 
soon claim high rank amongst bedding plants. What a charming 
marginal zone it will make by itself! or, perhaps, better still, 
alternated in tufts with the denser forms of the Aubrietia, whose 
purplish-blue flowers would contrast—each borrowing intensity from 
its neighbour—as markedly as the habit of the two would be in har- 
mony and accord! Add, if you like, an interior circle of Alternanthera, 
and thus complete a girdle of beauty such as even Flora herself might 
rejoice to wear. No flourish of trumpets has announced its advent, 
but quietly and unobtrusively will it take its well-defined position in 
the flower garden, and I am no prophet if it does not keep the same 
through a long series of years. Everyone to whom I have shown the 
plant gives utterance to but one exclamation—charming !—Jas. C, 
NivEN, Botanic Gardens, Hull. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FLOWER-GARDENING. 


Croquet-Ground.—What is best to do with a recently turfed croquet-ground, 
coarse, and on a sandy subsoil?—Brra.——[Top dress with half-inch finely 
et fresh loam, and sow with a mixture of good grass-seeds suitable for light 
soul. 

The Maiden-Hair Meadow Rue.—CanI find this charming plant wild? and 
how shall I treat it?—S.m—[Thalictrum minus is abundant in various parts of 
the country, but in many districts you will find it easier to obtain plants from 
nurseries. As to treatment, it only requires to be planted. The wild plants 
should be taken up carefully, and must be well established, and not disturbed, 
before they show their full beauty. ] 


Melianthus major.—In the account of this (p. 50) it is said, ‘‘In the open 
air we have not noticed it in flower in this country.” Ihave seen it here both in 
flower and seed more than once. But to produce flowers, it is not the right course 
with the plant to treat it as a hardy herbaceous one. It must not be cut down, 
for the flowers are produced on the wood of last year. In mild winters its fine 
foliage is very striking; nor do I agree that its bloom is not ornamental. 
As a large, well-grown plant itis certainly ornamental, and the flowers are very 
sweet.—Hunry W. Expacomsr, Bitton Vicarage, Gloucestershire. 


Moss on Lawns.—Will you kindly tell me how to remove moss from my 
lawn? It almost destroys the grass.—R. H., Portrane.——[It is better not dis- 
turbed till early spring, as even a mossy turf for a while is better than a 
mutilated one, It must be torn from the ground with long-toothed rakes ;. and 
this should be done twice, allowing an interval of a week to elapse between the 
rakings. In the early part of March the ground should be dressed with fine 
rich loam, with about a sixth part of lime added. It should be fine, so as to 
saye the trouble of stone-picking, and then sow with a mixture of fine lawn 
grasses. If lime is cheap in your neighbourhood, give the lawn a liberal dress- 
ing of it as soon ag you may venture to disfigure itin the autumn. That may 
do without the rooting up.] 


The Mole Tree.—The Caper Spurge (Euphorbia Lathyris) is know as the 
Mole Tree in some parts of Pennsylvania from a popular notion that it keeps 
moles out of gardens. Those of our readers who have sufficient faith may 
perhaps feel inclined to try the experiment. A yet more remarkable protector 
of gardens is found in Canavalia gladiata, a twining leguminous plant, which, 
according to Dr. MacFadyen, is called ‘‘ Overlook” by the negroes of Jamaica, 
who plant it along their provision-grounds, from a superstitious notion that it 
fulfils the part of a watchman, and, from some mysterious power ascribed to it, 
preserves the property from plunder. Even the better informed adopt this 
practice, although they themselves may not place confidence in any particular 
influence which the plant can exercise, either in preventing theft or in punishing 
it when committed.—B. 


Sub-Tropical Plants Without Glass.—I have little or no glass, but should 
like some of these in my garden. I could get a frame or small pit, if necessary. 
An Amargvr, Yorguay, Devon—[Your best plan will be, to select all the 
beautiful hardy plants of picturesque habit which you can get, such as the 
Bamboos, Pampas Grass, Yuccas, &c. These, with graceful young conifers, &c., 
will go far to produce a good effect. With a pit, a frame, or, if your soil be 
warm and well drained, even without them, you could grow Cannas, perhaps the 
most valuable of all fine-leaved flower-garden plants. Some, like the Castor-oil 
plant, may be raised in a warm pit or frame, and some plants of much value, 
when properly placed in the flower-garden, may be raised with hardy and half- 
hardy ae Among these may be named Artemisia annua and the common 
hemp, 

Tall Border Plants.—Can you furnish me with the names of a few plants of 
this description which would look well in front of shrubberies, or at the back of 
mixed borders ?—Dr1tra.—[The following, we should think, will answer your 
purpose :—Aconitum stcerkianum, A. variegatum’; Delphinium, tall varieties ; 
Baptisia exaltata; Lathyrus latifolius, L. latifolius albus, L. grandiflorus ; 


‘nothera Lamarckiana, (2. Jamesii; Epilobium angustifolium, E. a. album; 


Lythrum Salicaria rosea; Echinops exaltatus, E. ruthenicus: Galega officinalis, 
G. o. alba; Aster Nove-Anglie, A. Noyi-Belgii, A. elegans, A. ericoides, and 
many others; Achillea Eupatorium; Campanula latifolia, C. pyramidalis ; 
Asclepias Cornuti; Verbascum Chaixii; Phlox, taller kinds; Tritomas, in 
variety; Dracocephalum speciosum; Lilium tigrinum Fortunei; Polygonum 
Sieboldii ; Arundo Donax; Pampas Grass ; Anchusa italica ; Arundo conspicua ; 
Eupatorium ageratoides, E. purpureum; Helianthus orgyalis, H. multiflorus 
flore pleno; Hollyhocks; Hibiscus roseus, H. militaris; Chrysanthemums ; 
Dahlias; Pyrethrum uliginosum; Crambe cordifolia; Phytolacca decandra ; 
Lupinus polyphyllus; and Macleayia cordata. ] 

Yuccas.—Perhaps no class of hardy plants deserve more encouragement 
than Yuceas, of which several interesting species are now grown in British 
gardens, viz., Yucca gloriosa, recurva, superba, flaccida, and filamentosa. 
Notwithstanding the stately habits of these plants, it is surprising to find them 
so, scarce in many of our nursery. establishments. Yuccas are plants of easy 
propagation, and advantage should be taken of this circumstance to have them 


more generally diffused. They succeed best in a rich, loamy soil, and, when in 


flower, amply repay any trouble taken to bring them to maturity. A good 
fiowering spike, independent of its leafy stem, often‘attains the height of four 
or five feet, and measures from three to four feet in circumference, each spike 
producing several hundred cream-coloured tulip-shaped blooms. After flower- 
ing, the stems of the large varieties generally divide into two or more leaders, 
and, if well cared for, a succession of flower-spikes will in time be produced 


Pm 
a 


96 


THE GARDEN. : 


[Duc. 23, 1871. 


iS 


from them, the strongest stem flowering first. In Scottish gardens, the variety 
most commonly grown is Y. gloriosa; but in Ireland, more particularly near 
Dublin, Y. recurva appears to be most prevalent, and it is, without exception, 
the most ‘gracetul of the tribe. The effect of this variety in Merrion Square, 
Dublin, is quite remarkable. Their prevalence in that locality is due to the 
energetic efforts of Mr, Adair, who has done much to extend the cultivation of 
many new and half hardy plants i in Ireland. Although Y. superba and recurva 
are most abundant near London, yet a large propor tion of Y. gloriosa is also to 
be met with, while flaccida and filamentosa are common Hoth im the London 
gardens and throuchout the country, both species being frequently found under 
the same name. The Yucca may be considered by many as rather stiff and 
formal in habit; but a method of growing them, which tends to take off the 
stiff appearance, while it preserves their original character and outline, has 
recently been adopted here. This method is to grow them in raised stone com- 
partments, or in rustic stone stumps, aS we call them, a description of which 
will be found at pp. 70, 71 (No. 4) of THe GarpEN. It is desirable that the soil 
should be made good considerably below the base of the stones, so as to induce 
the roots to go down. It will be found that the roots of the Yucca take freely 
to the stone, and will soon penetrate to the soil below. The stone stump for the 
cultivation of Yuccas is intended to stand on extensive rockworks or grass 
lawns. Their effect on grass lawns is considerably improved by haying them 
raised on circular rockwork mounds standing two or -three feet above the 
surface. This raised portion should be formed into rockwork compartments, 
and filled with dwarf Alpines, or with such plants as sedums, sempervivums, 
and saxifrages, the spaces between the buttresses being admirably adapted for 
them.—J. MeWab, in “ Villa Gardener.” 


A TROPICAL DELL IN THE GARDEN. 


Onn of the boldest and most charming little pictures formed 
by Mr. Gibson, when superintendent of Battersea Park, was 
the placing in a shady and thoroughly sheltered nook stove 
and greenhouse plants and ferns that will not suffer from 
exposure to our summer climate. ‘Phe plan, so happily shown 
in our illustration, is well worthy of imitation in the southern 
and milder parts of the country. Our illustration shows a 
scene somewhat more free in its disposition than Mr. Gibson’s 
admired nook at Battersea. 


Shady and sheltered Dell, with Tree Ferns and other Stove Plants 
placed out for the Summer. 


Some palms, like Seaforthia, may be used with the best 
effect for the winter decoration of the conservatory, and be 
placed out with a good result, and without danger, in the 
summer. Many fine kinds of Draczenas, Agayes, Yuccas, &e., 
which have been seen to some perfection at our shows of late, 
are emimently adapted for standing out im summer, and are in 
fact benefited by it. Amone the noblest ornaments of a good 
conservatory are the Norfolk Island and other tender Aran- 


carias.; and these may be placed out for the summer, much to | 


their advantage, because the rains will thoroughly clean and 
freshen them for winter stormg. So with some Cycads and 
other plants of distinct habit—the very things best fitted to 
add to the attractions of such a nook as the ‘abarwe. Besides, 
there are tall hardy ferns, and other picturesque hardy plants 
with a tropical aspect, which might be planted out in such a 
dell. They would make the furnishing of it am easier matter, 
In fact, there is no moderately-large gardening establishment 
which ought not, between tender and hardy plants, to embellish 
such a dell in the most graceful manner. ‘here are, however, 
many districts in which “it would be unwise to place the stove 
plants m the open air; and eyen in the warmest, it would be 
necessary to secure the most perfect shelter and as warm a 
position as possible. 


THE WILD-GARDEN. 
DITCHES, NARROW SHADY LANES, BIC. / 


May usually seek sunny and favourable positions for their 

gardens, so that even those who are obliged to be contented 
with the north side of the hill would consider my present fancy 
(the ditch) the whim of a lunatic. What, the gloomy and 
weedy dyke asa garden! Yes, there are thousands of ditches 
in eyery county in England. that may readily be made more 
beautiful than the most finished and expensive ‘‘ modern flower- 
garden.” But what would growin them? Many of the most 
beautiful wood and shade loving plants of our own and similar 
latitudes—things that love not the open sunny hillsides or wide 
plains of grass, but take shelter im the stillness of deep woods, 
hide im dark valleys, are happy deep between riven rocks, and 
gaily occupy the httle dark caves beneath the great boulders on 
many a horror-stricken mountain gorge, and which garland 
with inimitable grace the vast flanks of rock that guard the 
dark or noisy course of the rivers on their paths through the 
hills, And as these dark walls, ruined by ceaseless pulses of 
wintry tide, are beautiful exceedingly, how much more may we 
make all the shady dykes and narrow lanes that occur every- 
where! or while the nymph-gardener of the ditch may 
depend for her novelties on the stray grains of seeds brought in 
the moss by the robin when building her nest, and the nymph- — 
gardener of the river wall on the mercy of the hurrying wave, 
we may place side by side the snowy white wood lily (Trillium 
grandiflorum), whose home is in the lonely shades of the 
American woods, with the twin flower of Scotland and northern 
Hurope, and find both thrive on the same spot in happy com- 
panionship. And so in innumerable instances. And not only 
may we be assured of numbers of the most beautiful plants of 
other countries thriving in deep ditches and in like positions, 
but also that not afew of tliem, like the white wood lily, will 
thrive much better in them than in any position in garden ~ 
borders. This plant, when in perfection, has a flower as fair as 
any white lily, while it is seldom afoot high; but, m conse- 
quence of being a shade-lovmg and wood plant, it usually 
perishes im the ordinary g garden bed or border, while inashady 
dyke or any like position 1 it will be found to thrive as well as in 
its native woods; and if in deep, free, sandy, or vegetable soil, 
to grow into specimens not surpassed in loyeliness by anything 
seen in our stoves or greenhouses. 

The following is a large selection of hardy plants well suited 
for the positions above named, Very considerable difference is 
among them as regards size; the stronger-growing subjects 
will take care of themselves among the scrub at the top of lane 
and ditch banks :— 


Acanthus in var. 


: Cypripedium g¢uttatum 
Aconitum in yar. aa 


Lupinus polyphylus 
spectabile 


Mimulus in yar. 


Adiantum pedatum Cystopteris in var. Mitchella repens 
Allium in yar. Dentaria in var, Muscari in var. 
Alstreemeria aurantiaca Digitalis in-var.- Myosotis in yar. , 


Myrrhis odorata 
Narcissus in-var. © 
Q@nothera in var, — 
Onoclea sensibilis 


Dodecatheon in var. 
Dondia Epipactis 
Dpigea repens 
Epimedium in var. 
Bpipactis palustris Ornithogalum in yar, 
Hranthis hyemalis Orobus vernus 
Hrythronium americanum Osmundain var,_ 
_Dens-canis Proniain yar, — 

Bupatorium i in var. Podophyllum Emodi 
Perula in yar. ” peltatum 
Vicaria grandiflora Polygonatum in yar, 
Bragaria im yar. Polystichum in var. 
Fritillaria in var, ~ Pulmonaria in yar, 
Funkia in var. Pyrola in var. - 
Geranium in yar. Sanguinaria canadensis 
Gladiolus communis Scilla in yar. 

a5 segetum Sibthorpia europaea 
Gootlyera pubescens Smilacina in var. 
Helleborus in var. Struthiopteris in var, 
Hemerocallis in var. Stylopkorum diphylum 
Hepatica in var. . Symphytum caucasicum 

* Hydrocotyle bonariensis ‘Trillium in yar, 


Anemone in var. 
Aralia nudicanlis 

» racemosa 
Avenaria balearica 
Arum in yar. 
Arundinaria faleata 
Asplenium in yar, 
Aster in var. 
Athyrium in yar, 
Bambusa in var. 
Botrychium in var. 
Brodiea congesta 
Buphthalmum ¢ erandi- 

forum 5 
Calystegia in var. 
Campanula in var, 
Cerastium im yar. 
Chelidonium in var. 
Conyallaria majalis 
Convolvyulus in yar. 
Coptis trifoliata 
Cornus canadensis 


Coronilla in var. Hypericum calycinum Triteleia uniflora 
Corydalis in var, Jetfersonia diphylla Trollius in yar. 
Crinum capense Lastrea in-var. Tulipa in var. 


Grocus in yar. Lathyrus erandiflorus: Uvularia grandiflora 


Cyclamen europreum ns Tatifolius Veronica in var. 

AQ hederefolium TLeucojum in yar, Vinca in var. 
Cypripedium acaule Lilium in yar. Viola in yar. 

7 Calceolus Linnea borealis Woodwardia in yar. 


Primroses, oxlips, polyanthuses, &c., in great variety. 


The above selection is almost exclusively confined to. “exotic 
things. 
features may be made !—Wield. ‘ 


With these and our.own wildlings what interesting A 


: 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 97 


_INSECTS, BIRDS, ETC. 


: THE MOLE-CRICKET. 
(GRYLLOTALPA VULGARIS.) 


“‘Tuis insect has the reputation of doing much damage to yarious 
roots. Itis, however, certain that it is not wholly a vegetable feeder; 
some say not chiefly one. It eats, and no doubt benefits the gardener 
by eating, many grubs and worms; but the balance seems to be on the 
sideofinjuryratherthangood. Curtisstates thatinthe south of France 
farmers and gardencrs complain of the damage done to their crops of 
peas and beans by these crickets, and that in Germany they haye been 
known to destroy one-sixth, and even one-fourth, of a crop of young 
corn by eating offthe roots. He quotes Mr. Brackenridge to the effect 
that the moie-cricket is the greatest enemy the gardener has to con- 
tend with at Berlin, where it appears about the beginning of summer 
in myriads, and nothing in the herbaceous way is proof against its 
ravages, adding that he (Mr. Brackenridge) had seen the stem of a 
Dahlia an inch thick cut through by it in the course of a night with 
as much precision as if done by a knife. He further mentions that 
in the Botanic Garden there the devastations of these insects are so 
extensive that duplicates of the more tender and uncommon species 
of plants require to be kept in pots to protect them from its ravages. 
This was many years ago; we do not know how the case may be 
now. We are, ourselves, sufficiently familiar with the Botanic Garden 
at Berlin, but we do not remember eyer to have heard the insect 
mentioned by any of the establishment. One thing, however, is 
certain, and that is that whereyer it appears it is greatly dreaded by 
cultivators ; and, as Curtissays, it is scarcely possible that experienced 
gardeners should have thus unhesitatingly stigmatized it if it 
had done nothing to deserve its bad name. M. Souchet, the 
great French Gladiolus-gtower, is stated to be in the constant 
habit of waging war by every means in his power against this 
cricket, in“the belief that if it were allowed its own way for a 


Perfect Insect, after filth and last casting of skin.— Insect after leaving egg. 
(After Boisduval.) 


fortnight in his grounds, serious loss would be the result. On 
the other hand there are some, perhaps many, naturalists who 
believe that mole-crickets do very little damage, and that the little 
that they do is not so much by eating as by disturbing the roots in 
the course of their grubbing and their excavations to form their nests; 
and the fact that they are certainly carnivorous, so far supports the 
view that they take. Curtis bears testimony to their carnivorous 
habits. One that he kept alive with grass turves in a cage fed upon the 
caterpillars of the lackey moth, with which he supplied it for some 
time. Dr. Kidd, in his memoir (quoted by Curtis), says that these 
insects prefer raw meat, and that they will attack each other, when 
the victor devours the flesh of the vanquished, which is in accord- 
ance with the statement of Bouché, that the mother devours a great 
number of her offspring, so that out of. a hundred not more than 
eight or ten survive. 

The evidence as to its carnivorous habits, therefore, seems strong 
enough, and no doubt the creature does much good by eating wire- 
worms and other underground grubs and insects, but the injury it 
actually does to the objects of the gardeners’ solicitude (in whatever 
way the mischief may be done) is sufficient to warrant us, as horti- 
‘culturists, in putting it down in the list of our enemies, and waging 
war against it accordingly. 

Before entering on the means of attack we had better reconnoitre 
and ascertain its habits and history. We shall not occupy the time 
of the reader by giving a description of the insect, except on one or 
two points. The figures (all of natural size) which we give are worth 
pages of description. As to its structure, we shall only say that it 
is an excellent example of the adaptation of structure to function. 
The mole’s “‘hand”’ has often been likened toa shovel. The fore tibia 
of the mole-cricket is still more like one, or rather a combination of the 
shovel and rake. Its eyes are small, and adapted for little light, and it 
has two ocelli on the forehead. The form of the head and thorax, like a 


projecting cone, is admirably adapted for pushing their way through 
the half-opened galleries, and it is so strong that, according to 
Roésel, it can propel six pounds’ weight on a smooth surface. It has 
two bodkin-like spines projecting behind like feelers, and which, 
indeed, serve that purpose @ posteriori, for, like the mole, it runs 
backwards and forwards with equal facility. The colour is brown, 
and the texture (of the head, thorax, and legs more especially) hard 
and horny, and it is clothed with a rust-brown, silky, short velvety 
pubescence, which is apparently analogous to the fur of the mole, 
although why it possess it is one of those points the purpose of which 
has not yet been made out. The wings do not appear at first; when 
complete they haye a long projecting termination, which will be seen 
in the largest figure. 

These animals usually inhabit a loose, sandy soil, and prefer it dry 
to moist. In England, indeed, Mr. Curtis says that they are espe- 
cially found in damp situations, as around the margins of ponds 


Larya after third casting of skin. 


and along the banks of streams. Curtis is so almost invariably 
accurate, that one hesitates to dissent from him; but their known 
habits on the Continent, where they are vastly more common than 
here, do not allow us to doubt that their proper ground is dry and 
sandy, and that they are rarely to be met with in rich, heavy earth. 
They live under ground, and burrow horizontally during the day, but 
come out at night; and it has been said that they are sometimes 
luminous at night. The perfect insect flies very freely about at 
night, and comes into lighted rooms where a window is open. The 
male makes a chirping noise, which has been compared to the distant 
whirring of the goat-sucker. 

The pairing of the insects takes place about the end of June or 
beginning of July, or, in some seasons, a little earlier. The female 
then constructs a. nest for her eggs in the vicinity of her burrows. 
She makes it about four to six inches below the surface of the 
ground, and in an excavation of the form and size of a hen’s egg, to 
which anumber of zig-zag, slightly-inclined paths lead. The walls 
are moistened with saliva, well smoothed, and built up in such a 
manner that, with proper care, the whole nest, like an excavated and 
rounded clod of earth, may be lifted out. A few, more or less 
straight, flat paths diverge on various sides from it, which are. easily 
recognised by the earth being slightly upheaved for about the 
breadth of three-quarters of an inch. In addition to this, a few 
perpendicular openings serve, not only to regulate the moisture ‘of 
the cell, but also to provide a means of escape to the femate watching 
by the eggs on the approach of danger, of which they are very 


Larva after fourth casting of skin. 


sensitive and wary. The nest is usually formed on an open 
unshaded spot, and the ground above it is loosened, and, where it is 
necessary, the roots of plants are eaten away, in order to admit the 
full warmth of the sun. 

Nothing betrays so surely the existence of a nest as the decay 
here and there of plants, whose roots may probably not exceed an 
inch in thickness. The number of eggs ina nest is variable. The 
average is 200; but more than 300 have been found. At the close 
of the breeding season, the female does not immediately die off, as 
is the case with most other insects, but remains as a faithful sentinel 
in the vicinity of the eggs, and, indeed, in one of the perpendicular 
openings already mentioned, out of which its head appears. Never- 
theless, it does not hatch the eggs, any more than do our other native 
female insects. It still lives when, three weeks later, the young 
larvee escape from their eges, of which, as we have seen, there is 
reason to believe that it devours many, although it is right to state 
that the fact is disputed. 


98 


THE GARDEN. 


- (Dec. 23, 1871. 


The eggs are oval, greenish white, about a line in length and half 
a line in breadth, and sufficiently firm to withstand slight pressure. 
The young are hatched in about a month after they are laid. It 
is thus about the middle of July that the larve leave the eggs, 
although even then newly-laid eggs have been found, and Ratzeburg 
found some as late as the 6th of August. But this, which is the 
case with all insects, is not to be wondered at, as the female has 

_ many eggs to lay, which she does by degrees, and does not imme- 
diately afterwards die. At their first appearance, the laryz are like 
black ants, about one-eighth of an inch long. During the first 
three or four weeks the young insects remain together, inactive, and 
nourishing themselves upon the rich, vegetable earth, or on the more 
delicate roots in their vicinity, from which we may conclude that 
freshly-manured ground would have a special attraction for the 
female when about to construct her nest. About this time the 
casting of the skin for the first time takes place, the larye then 
become more lively, and scatter about in yarions directions. 
Towards the end of August, consequently from three to four weeks 
from the time of the first casting of the skin, the second follows, 
and four weeks later the third, when they are, on an ayerage, one 
inch in length. They now descend a little deeper into the ground, 
and begin their winter sleep. It depends greatly upon the weather 
of the following year at what time they awaken; but when they 
do, they shortly after cast their skins for the fourth time, and 
receive wing stumps. Tho last casting of the skin, before they 
become perfect insects, follows about the end of May or beginning 
of June. Of course, these dates do not apply to insects hatched 
from eggs laid at a later period. As far as has been yet discovered, 
yery dry and very wet summers are alike destructive to the mole- 
cricket. 

Of its natural opponents the most formidable is the mole. Bouché 
says that a field which contained an infinite number of root-worms 
and mole-crickets was entirely freed by the moles in two years. 
Rooks and crows in this country, and choughs (red-legged crows) and 
hoopoes on the Continent, assist in keeping them under. But we 
have also very successful artificial means of destroying them. 
Perhaps the most successful of any is as follows :— 


When this strong and well-armed little fellow gets into a bed of 
choice Gladioli you cannot well dig him out, as you could if he 
happened to be in an open spot. The way he is killed here (at M. 
Souchet’s gardens at Fontainblean) is so interesting and effective, 
that I must relate it. M. Souchet explained it to me; but so many 
receipts for exterminating vermin are not worth the trouble of trying 
the second time, that probably I should not haye noticed it had he 
not called a workman and given me an illustration on the spot. 
When the mole-cricket goes about, he leaves a little loose ridge like 
the animal after which he is named, and when his presence is 
detected in a closely-planted bed of Gladiolus at Fontainbleau, they 
generally press the ground quite smooth with the foot, so that his 
track and halting-place may be more distinctly seen the next time he 
moves about. This had been done in the present instance in the 
case of a young bed of seedlings. We saw his track, and a workman, 
who had brought with him a jar of water and one of common oil, 
opened a little hole with his finger above the spot where the enemy 
lay, then he filled it with water twice, and on the top of the water 
poured a little oil. The water gradually descended and with it the 
oil, which, closing up the breathing pores of the mischievous little 
brute, caused it to begin |to suffer from asphyxia, and in about 
twenty seconds we had the pleasure of seeing it put forth its horns 
from the water, go back a little when it saw us, bub again come 
forth, to die on the surface, hindered for ever from destroying valuable 
bulbs. Being very strong and well-armed, a single mole-cricket can 
do a deal of damage in a bed of Gladiolus, and therefore the moment 
the workmen of M. Souchet see a trace of the pest, they take means 
ie catch it as described, jars of water and oil being always kept at 

and. 

This remedy is not a new one; we know its history. “ A simple 
plan,” says Curtis, ‘‘of pouring water into their burrows first, and 
then a few drops of oil which killed the insects, probably by stopping 
their respiration, was actually purchased by Louis the XV.”; and 
there seems no reason to doubt that the recipe so acquired has con- 
tinued to be used traditionally in the Royal gardens of France eyer 
since down to the present time. Attempts to improye upon the oil 
by substituting coal-tar or soap-refuse for it, or by mixing it with 
turpentine and other ingredients, haye been made, but the true rationale 
of the death of the insect seems obviously to be that the oil closes up 
its breathing pores, and consequently the simpler method seems also 
the best. Turpentine has been used to drive the insects away by its 
smell. Traps, such as jugs buried upright in the places which they 
frequent, haye been found to catch a good many. Fresh sods placed 
on the borders where they have been observed, have been found to be 
used as a lurking-place, and many are taken under them on turning 


them over in the morning. A more wholesale way, however, is to 
search for the nests in June or July, before the eggs are hatched, and 
destroy the whole batch of them; and the best time to seek for them 
is immediately after rain or a strong morning dew, at least in loose 


.Sandy soil, as the openings conducting to the nest are more easily 


discovered than in dry weather, when they either fall together or are 
not at all visible. The spots where the plants are withering in 
patches are recorded as guides to the nests. 


The following plan proposed by Kollar, is strongly recommended 
by Curtis, yiz.: to dig three or four pits in September in the infested 
places two or three feet deep and‘a foot wide, then fill them with 
horse dung, and cover them oyer with earth; attracted by the : 
warmth of the fermenting horse dung, all the mole-crickets about 
will resort to these pits on the first frost, and may then be easily 
destroyed. > 


To the above may be added a precaution mentioned by Taschen- 
berg, which he learned from Richter, formerly gardener to the 
King of Prussia, in order to protect certain plants from the rayages 
of the mole-crickets, viz.: to plant them in willow baskets made 
like pots. A.M. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON INSECTS, VERMIN, ETC. 


Wireworms,—I haye found these pest attack rape cake placed about an inch 
underground, and on examining the piece of cake daily have generally dis- 
covered them half buried in it. This I have found more effectual as a decoy for 
wireworm than potato.—W. 


Rabbit-proof Plants.—With reference to the list of rabbit-proof plants in 
your Nos, ] and 4—why have Gorse and Spanish-broom been omitted? A great 
desideratum, for purposes of landscape gardening, is a cow-proof plant. Does 
pies 5 ing exist? It should also be sheep-proof, and rabbit-proof as well. 


Ants.—How shall I get rid of thesein a smallstove? They swarm everywhere. 
Lavra.—T[ Place half-picked bones here and there on the shelyes and wherever 
the ants resort, and when you visit them an hour or two afterwards they will 
be covered with ants. Have a bucket of scalding water at hand, and drop the 
Swarming bones into it. We have destroyed many thousands in one day by 
this plan. ae, of Coarse sponge dipped in treacle-water will do as well as 
the bones. ‘ 


Another Insect-Destroyer.—M. Cloéz, who is engaged at the Jardin des 


- Plantes at Paris, has invented what he considers a complete annihilator for plant 


lice and other small insects. To reduce M. Cloéz’s preparation to our measures, 
it will be sufficiently accurate to say, take 34 ounces of quassia chips, and 6 
dram stayesacre seeds, powdered. These are to be put in seyen pints of water, 
and boiled until reduced to five pints. When the liquid is cooled, stram it, and 
use with a watering-pot or syringe, as may be most conyenient. ‘This prepara- 
tion we are assured has been most efficacious in France. Quassi has long been 
used as an insect destroyer. The stavesacre seeds are of a species of Jarkspur, 
or delphininm, and used to be kept in old drug-stores. They contain delphine, 
which is one of the most active poisons known, and we haye no doubt that a 
very small share of it would prove fatal to insects.—American Agriculturist. 
[The stavesacre is rarely now seen except in botanical gardens, and has none of 
the beauty of the commoner cultivated delphiniums ; but seed may be obtained 
without trouble, and this is well worth a trial]. 


Remedy for the Apple Maggot.—Two conclusions are inevitable: first, 
that the tomtits, now so abundant in our cider counties, must inevitably perish 
were it not for the oak galls and the hosts of apple grubs which haye sprung up 
in the crevices of the bark, and which these active birds are hunting for during 
every moment of our short winter days ; and, secondly, that without the assist- 
ance of the tomtits the apple crop would be entirely destroyed by this irre- 
pressible insect. Many a proprietor of garden or orchard in Herefordshire, 
Worcestershire, and Devonshire will contend that the tomtits must be killed, 
because they peck holes in the apples and pears just above the insertion of the 
stalk—a fact that cannot be denied, an act which cannot be defended ; the blue- 
headed tomtit, in particular if he have any conscience at all, must plead guilty 
to its commission ; but gentlemen will find that exactly in the same ratio as they 
diminish the number of their tomtits so do they increase that of their worm- 
eaten windfalls, To myself there is no sight more pleasing than a little blue- 
cap searching every crack and cranny in the trunk of an apple-tree for the 
cocoons of the apple grub; his excessive, his indomitable, industry, the sharp- 
ness of his sight, the knowing manner in which he turns his head on one side 
the better to peer into the crevices, the drollery of his attitudes, infinitely sur- 
passing those of gymmast or acrobat, and his merry, although perhaps 
unmusical, note—all commend him to my affection, and indeed, to my 
protection, where I can possibly extend it; but almost every apple-grower ~ 
of my acquaintance prefers worm-eaten apples to blue-headed tomtits, and I 
find it impossible to overcome this preference. Supposing, however, that our — 
little chrysalis escapes the prying eyes of the bluecap; supposing no such ill- 
fortune hetide him as to be transferred from his carefully-selected retreat to the | 
crop of the little bird—then by the middle of June the chrysalis has become a 
moth, and is again on the wing and hovering round the young apples on a 
midsummer evening as before. “‘Is there no remedy but the tomtits?” asks 
some deyoted enemy of the titmouse race. Yes, a partial one. By burning 
weeds in your gardens at this time of year you may drive away this little moth. 
If you have trees the crops of which you value, make a smoking (mind, not a 
blazing) fire under each. It will put you to some inconvenience if your garden 
be near your house, but the apples thus saved will repay you for that. Then, 
again, you may pick eyery apple that the grub has attacked. © This is indeed a 
radical cure, buf who can accomplish it? After all, Nattve’s remedy is by far 
the best; for the tomtits will serve you without giving you any trouble, and 
simply for their own gratification. And then, again, supposing you are possessed 
of an orchard (mind, this remedy will not do for a garden), turn in your pigs ; 
nothing is more agreeable to the porcme community than crunching a windfall. 
It is proverbial that a pig always delights in going the wrong way; and I verily 
believe they like these windfalls all the better from a conviction that they are 
taking what they ought not. Thus the pigs are fed, and the grubsare destioyed 
before they have left the stall where they were fattened.—Ed, Newman, in 
‘* Field,” 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


99 


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THE ARBORETUM. 


DECIDUOUS versus EVERGREEN TREES. 


Durine the planting season it may be well to remind the 
many who are continually planting coniferous and other ever- 
green trees, without knowing how long they may endure the 
climate, how futile their efforts are likely to be, and how poor the 
result they will produce compared with what might be expected 
if they worked with permanent materials, so to speak. Judging 
by the scant attention now paid to the planting and group- 
ing of deciduous trees, one would suppose them lower in the 
scale of attractions than the Conifers, which are planted every- 
where. Deciduous trees are really by far the most valuable in 
this country. There are three weighty reasons why conifers 
should not be planted so extensively as they are, viz., first, 
their short-lived character with us; secondly, their inferiority 
in beauty to deciduous trees; thirdly, their smaller size and 
inferior majesty of port. A great number of species described 
as hardy are, for the most part, not reallyso. They endure the 
climate for a while, sheltered in sunny nooks here and there, 
but a severe winter comes and nips them, or an easterly breeze 
comes and half burns off all the leaves. Unproved exotics, 
that thrive for a little while, but succumb to some unusually 
bitter spell of weather, we have given them everywhere places 
of honour that should be filled by subjects more congenial to 
our clime, and as a consequence we often find disease or 
a vacant place where we looked for a long life of dignified 
beauty. 

Not a few arereally hardy, anditisimpossibletoembellish our 

dens and country seats without their aid; but none the less 
is it a mistake to depend wholly, or almost wholly, on them, as 
many do nowadays. Then as to beauty, they are wholly in- 
ferior to our finest deciduous trees—inferior inasmuch as they 
arechangeless, and without the supreme charm of fair blossoms. 
No pine that ever grew equals in beauty a well-developed horse- 
chestnut. The different varieties of the common hawthorn also 
yield more beauty than any pine. Nobody can dispute our 
classing the Conifer as inferior in beauty to flowering trees. 
Then as to size and port—on the whole deciduous trees are the 
largest. On the sierras of California the trees are indeed magni- 
ficent, and here and there in Canada you meet witha white pine, 
the Jeaves of which rustle plaintively: more than a hundred 
feet above one’s head; but in the West the whole size of the 
tree is concentrated in the trunk, and in Canada and other pine 
countries you may travel for days without seeing any but small 
crowded trees. The common deciduous trees of the parks of 
Europe, with their massive trunks, majestic limbs, and pic- 
turesque ramifications, are grander than any pines. Nor in this 
connection must we compare the giant pines of the West with 
what we can grow in England. It is a delusion to think that 
our climate will ever permit the Sequoias and the other great 
pimes to live for anything like the time they have existed in 
their native homes, the long and brilliant summer of which is 
certainly necessary to they making a robust growth and 
perfecting it thoroughly. 

Inconnection with this subject, the utter neglect of deciduous 
trees should be takew into consideration. Very few seem to 
take any interest in any of them but the common kinds; and 
they are hardly ever grouped so that their beauty may be set 
off to advantage, few developing the handsomest-flowering 
kinds into good specimens, isolated in open groups, or forming 
pictures by their aid—which it is very easy to do. But, badly 
as they are treated, they generally live, even in crowded cities 
and their suburbs, where conifers and most other evergreens 
foe annually in thousands; and those who plant them usually 

_ have the reward of planting something a little more enduring 
than themselves. The millions of evergreens planted to perish 
in the smoke-fog of London were not so worthy of a place as 
the few young planes once placed in Mecklenburg Square, 
which are now more majestic objects than one could find in 
many a wild forest country. Those who plant in all but the 
most favourable districts will find nearly as much difference in 
the result of planting deciduous and evergreen trees as the 
Londoners haye experienced ; though in every case away from 
towns a sufficient number cf. the really hardy kinds should be 


planted. : L OFC. 


The Yellow Pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas Fir.— 
I can remember seeing ponderosa and Abies Douglasii growing side by 
side near the Flower Garden at Scone in 1839, the positions being no 
great distance from Douglas’s native village, in the churchyard of 
which is erected a monument to his memory. On one side of this is 
a list of a few of the trees and shrubs introduced by him, the spelling 
and pronunciation of which greatly puzzle the village rustics. 
Instead of such names, if a few of the many charming shrubs or 
trees which he introduced had been planted at the base of the monu- 
ment, they would have deprived it of the eeld bleak look which it now 
has. My employer has just had a fine specimen of ponderosa cut 
down, in order to give more space to a splendid tree of Douglas fir, 
which has reached a height of seventy feet, and which is clothed to 
the ground with beautiful cone-bearing branches. The circumference 
of the trunk, a foot from the ground, is eleven feet six inches. The 
height of the ponderosa was fifty-four feet ; and the circumference of 
the trunk, a foot from the ground, six feet. In cutting it up into 
short lengths we found it to be very fullof turpentine. We have had 
several large trees of different species of pinuses cut up that were 
killed here during the hard winter of 1860-61, but none had 
such a strong resinous smell as this. I cannot, however, speak of its 
value as a timber tree. As faras I can learnit was placed here about 
1830. Our soil isa good gravelly loam.—J. M. H., Ledbury, Hereford- 


shire. 


Notes on Smoke-effects in and about Warrington.—In the remarks which I 
am about to make, I have strictly confined myself to what has come under my per- 
sonal observation with regard to the destruction of trees, shrubs, and plants by 
smoke and chemical vapours, and alsoin regard to certain plants that will not grow, 
I believe from natural causes. Among evergreens that are most severely injured 
by smoke, &c., are the conifers. The Scotch fir has long since disappeared with 
us; so has the spruce. About two years ago we planted one hundred young 
healthy plants: there are only a few now alive, and those are sickly. | have seen 
nice plants in other parts of the town gradually dying. The arborvite (Thuja 
occidentalis and Thuja warreana), the sayin, lavender, rosemary, laurustinus, and 
Cotoneaster microphylla are among the plants that, fifteen or twenty years ago, 
flourished well with us, but have now disappeared. Among plants that just exist 
are the yew, several varieties of heaths, the sweet bay, common laurel, and 
Portugal laurel. The deodar and araucaria we have not tried here, but I have 
seen in the town very meagre specimens, The common holly has grown very 
well till within the last three or four years; the tips of the plants are now dying. 
The evergreen oak (Quercus Ilex latifolif) has so far stood pretty well; so has 
the box. Among evergreens that flourish best is the rhododendron, the plants 
here are healthy, flower freely, and grow to a large size; the only complaint is 
the foliage is dirty. The aucuba is more vigorous than the rhododendron, 
and grows almost under any treatment, but the very best of all is the ivy, par. 
ticularly the Irish ivy, this does not appear to be damaged in the least beyond 
being dirty. Among deciduous trees and shrubs that suffer most are the moun- 
tain-ash, service fruit, beech, hornbeam, wych, and several other large-leaved 
elms. The common variegated sycamore has suffered very severely the last two 
or three years. The birch and Normandy poplar are now suffering to some extent 
in various parts of the town. The ash, till two or three years ago, was among the 
trees least affected ; its having withstood dense smoke for so many years, and its 
being now so much affected tends to show that, though it will not stand chemical 
vapours yet it will stand black smoke pretty well. The horse-chestnut a few years 
ago grew well and flowered profusely, but it is now suffering severely. Some 
trees that were able to resist the effects of smoke a few years ago are now sinking 
rapidly, a sign that they dislike chemical yapours more even than dense smoke. 
While large elms suffer, the common English elm (Ulmus campestris) has so far 
proved to be one of the very best growing trees im a smoky atmosphere, retain- 
ing its foliage longer than any other old-established tree with which I am 
acquainted. We had, two years ago, planted several plane trees (Platanus 
occidentalis), and so far they appear to be the very best trees for this locality. 
The common oak stands as well here as in the country. We have also two or 
three Turkish oaks growing well. Among others that stand well are the tulip 
tree, common laburnum, lilac, and mulberry, which keeps its foliage well. The 
hawthorn and elder are the very best of all trees or shrubs to withstand delete- 
rious vapours. I do not think it necessary to say much about fruit trees, beyond 
stating that red and white currants have nearly succumbed. Black ones still 
grow. Gooseberries are getting worse, so are apple-trees, but pear-trees still 
grow well; but the fruit is dirty. Among soft-wooded flowering-plants, dahlias, 
stocks, pansies, mignonette, nasturtium, lobelia, ageratum, pentstemon, antirrhi- 
num, and a few others, flower very well. Forthe last few years I have paid some 
attention to variegated and fine foliage plants in the flower-garden, and have 
found this to be the best course to take to get a good display of colour, which is 
a fine substitute for flowers ina town atmosphere. The rose we used to grow 
well, but now itis very inferior. The Scotch rose we haye been compelled to 
destroy, it was so bad. The chrysanthemum is also very inferior to what it was 
a few years ago. Near Runcorn, Widnes, St. Helen’s, and Newton, large 
numbers of trees are entirely destroyed by chemical vapours. Plants affected 
by smoke only. gradually decline, but by deleterious gas the destruction is much 
quicker.—B. Green, Bank Hall, at a recent meeting of the Warrington Literary and 
Philosophical Society. 


A Pine Forest.—A pine forest is one of the most beautiful features of nature. 
Of all quiet scenes it is surely the quietest. ‘The harsh sounds of the busy 
human world, and even the dreamy murmurs of summer, are hushed there; no 
song of bird or hum of insect disturbs the solemn stillness ; and only at rare 
interyals the mournful coo of a doye, making the solitude more profound, is 
heard in the deeper recesses. The weary, careworn spirit bathes in the serenity 
of the silence, and feels the charm and refreshment of its highest life. The 
trunks of the trees have caught the ripened red of many vanished summers, and 
are bearded with long streaming tufts of grey lichen, which impart to them a 
weird, savage appearance; but they are touched with grace by the wild flowers 
growing at their roots—childhood sporting in unconscious loveliness at the feet 
of oldage. They form long-drawmi aisles and vistas, like the pillared halls of 
Karnak or the Thousand Columns of Constantinople, which are indiscribably 
attractive, for they appeal to that love of mystery which exists in every mind ; 
they reveal only enough to stimulate the imagination, and lead it onward to 
loyelier scenes beyond. It is the same vague sentiment of expection or hope 
that gives the charm to every natural as well as to every moral landscape. 
Life itself without these vistas of expectation would not be worth liying. When 


100 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 23, 1871. 


, 


the sun is shining brightly, and pierces here and there through the dusky 
foliage, the effects of tlle chequered light and shade, the alternations of green 
and gold, are very lovely. Richly-tinted mosses, that ‘‘steal all noises from 
the foot,” paling clusters of delicate ferns, starry flowers of Trientalis, waxen 
balls of Pyrola, and green and crimson leayes of the blae-berry, cover every 
inch of ground not occupied by the boles of the trees, and form mosaics more 
beautiful than those of the Vatican. The dim, slumbrous air is laden with an 
all-pervading balsamic fragrance, strongly stimulating that sense which is 
more closely connected with the brain than any other, and suggesting number- 
Jess vague but sweet associations and memories of the past; while through the 
pyramidal tree-tops may be obtained glimpses of the quiet sky, which seems to 
come close to the earth, as if in sympathy, and appears calmer and bluer than 
elsewhere by contrast with the dark-green motionless foliage. Beautiful, 
indeed, is the pine forest in all seasons: in the freshness of spring, when the 
gnarled boughs are penetrated and mollified by the soft wind and the warm 
sun and, thrilled with new life, burst out into fringes and tassels of the richest 
green and cones of the tenderest purple; beautiful in the sultry summer, 
when among its cool dim shadows the cheated hours all day sing vespers, while 
the open landscape is palpitating in the scorching heat; beautiful in the sad- 
ness of autumn, when its unfading yerdure stands out in striking relief amid 
changing scenes that haye no sympathy with anything earthly save sorrow and 
decay, and directs the thoughts to the imperishableness of the heavenly Para- 
dise; beautiful exceedingly in the depth of winter, when the tiers of branches 
are covered with pure, unsullied wreaths of snow, sculptured ly the winds into 
curves of exquisite grace. It is beantiuiul in calm, when the tree-tops scarce 
whisper to each other, and the twitter of the golden wren sounds loud in the 
expectant hush ; it is more than beautiful in story m, when the wild fingers of the 
wind play the most mournful music on its erent harp-strings, and its full 
diapason is sublime as the roar of the ocean on a rock-bound shore. I do not 
wonder that the Northern imagination in heathen times should haye invested it 
with awe and fear as the favourite haunt of Odin pnd Thor; or that, in after 
times, its long rows of trunks, vanishing in the dim perspective, should have 
furnished designs for the aisles of Christian temples, and the sunset burning 
among its branches should have suggested the gorgeous painted window of the 
cathedral.— Bible Peachings in Nature. % 


THE EVERGREEN CYPRESS. 
(CUPRESSUS SEMPERVIRENS.) 

Tus accompanying is an illustration of three well-known 
Evergreen Cypress trees which are distinguished for their 
great age, size, and beauty, and—more eyen than all these—for 
haying been planted by the hand of Michael-Angelo Buonarotti. 
They ‘stand in the garden of the Convent of the Chartreuse, 
at Rome, which is said to be situated on the site of the baths 
of Diocletian. It will be seen that there are four trees in the 
group, but that one of them is of a smaller size, and, appa- 
rently, considerably younger than the others, and that another 
is fast going to decay, so that these famous Cypresses of 
Michael-Angelo will soon be reduced to two. 

Michael- Angelo was born in 14:75 near Florence, and did not 
come to Rome—at least, did not ‘acquire such celebrity as 
would have led anyone to ask him to plant memorial trees, 
until after the year 1500. ‘We shall, therefore, not be far wrong 
if we estimate the age of these trees at from 360 to 380 years. 
We haye no recent account of their sizes; but they were 
measured by M. Simond in 1817, who states that the cireum- 
ference of the largest was then about thirteen fect. 

This is a big tree, but it is by no means the largest with 
which which we are acquainted ; for fia of Somma, im 
Lombardy, is nearly twice as” thick, viz., 23 feet in circumfer- 
ence, and 121 feet high. That is the tree which is said to have 
been of the age of our Saviour, and, consequently, may be 
eyen older than the great Sequoias, about whose longevity so 
much discussion has at various times taken place. It is cer- 

tainly noteworthy, although only confirmatory of what we 

might expect, that this quality of extreme endurance should” 
be found im the two most remarkable species of Cypresses of the 

Old and New Worlds respectively; and it applies not only to 

individuals, but also to the life of the species themselves, 

which extend back into past geological epochs. 

The home of the Evergreen Cypress is the south-east of 
tae Turkey, Greece rand its Archipelago, Asia Minor, 

Syria, Persia, Cashmere, and the Himalayas. In fact, its dis: 
tribution is parallel with that of the Cedar, except that the 
blanks im the course of its spread are better filled up 
than in the latter. Both occur on the mountains of Lebanon, 
and as the Cedar of lebanon differs from the Cedar 
of Mount Atlas, so the Evergreen Cypress of Lebanon has 
sufficient distinctness to have led to its beimg described as a 
distimet species (C. sphzerocarpa); but it is merely a variety, 
and occurs mingled with typical specimens. As in the Cedar, 
too, the Himalayan individuals differ somewhat from the 
European, and, like the Deodar, have heen described as distinet 
species under the names of C. indica, Roylei, and Whitleyana. 
The degree of difference, however, is less than that between 
the Cedar and the Deodar, and the latter may very well be 


regarded as a distinct species even by those who do not so 
consider the Himalayan Mvergreen Cypress. Whether the 
parallel can be completed by the extension of the Cypress to 
the western parts of the Mediterranean may be questioned. 
So far as we know, this Cypress does not occur on Mount 
Atlas, but is found, both in cultivation and apparently wild, 
throughout the Mediterranean region generally. The received 
opinion, however, is, that in all “the countries where it now ~ 
grows to the west of Greece and Turkey it has been introduced. 
A statement by Pliny, that in his time there were standing at 
Rome some. Cypresses that were more ancient even than “the 
city itself, would seem rather to lead to the inference that our 
tree must have been aboriginal there; for although there had 
been some communication and ‘attempts at colonization or 
settlement between Greece and Italy prior to the arrival of 
Aineas in Latium, they do not seem to have been of such a 
character as would have included arboriculture or horticulture 
as one of their elements. Still, on the other hand, Pliny tells 
us, without qualification, that the Eyes was introduced 
from Greece to Tarentum. 

The Cypress has been gr own in Bneland for three hundred 
years atleast, but there are no trees. anywhere of great age. 
The climate is scarcely warm. enough for Cypresses, and 


- although they withstand ordinar y winters, every now and then 


comes some envious frost which carries them off, so that we 
haye to begin all overagain. Mr. Palmer’s tables of the effects 
of the winter of 1860-61 show that out of thirty-seven places 
indiscriminately reported upon in England there were only eight 
where the Wyergreen Cypress had escaped without injury, while 
at twenty-two it had been killed. In Scotland, out of seven 
places it was killed at five, and escaped uninjured at none. 

There are only two returns from Ireland, at one of which it 
escaped uninjured and at the other was. killed. 

There are two very marked yarieties of this species dis- 
tinguished by their habits of growth, ‘which become more 
especially distinct as the tree’ “gets older—one upright like a 
Lombardy Poplar, the other spreading ‘and- forming, when old, 
something like a head. The Somma tree, of which Loudon 
gives a good ficure, is of this kind. The upright form is known 
as fastigiata, the spreading as ‘horizontalis. In’ former years 
it used to be a vexed question whether these two were distinct 
species or only varieties. ‘There is scarcely any question as to 
this now. We have become more familiar with the vagaries of the 
Cypress tribe, and we know that similar differences in habit 

may be observed in almost every species. ‘Asa casein point take 
the Californian Cupressus macrocarpa or Lambertiana, names 
respectively given in the supposition that the two trees were 
distinct varieties ; but although the difference in’ appearance 
between the two is often as great as that between an umbrella 
shut and one open, we have evidence that both have been raised 
from the same packet of seed. In the sameway we have lately 
had a beamtiful fastigiate variety of Cupressus Lawsoniana 
resembling in -port and habit: the upright variety of C. macro- 
carpa. - This variety of form is an advantage to the landscape- 
gardener, who, with the same species, can thus produce potally 
dissimilar effects, : 

The Evergreen Oypress isatree'of easy culture and pr opaga- r 
tion, and, unlike the. ‘Thujas, the seeds begin to germinate in 
some three or four weeks from the time of sowing. A. M, 


HARDY TREES AND ‘SHRUBS. 


CoNTEMPLATION of the beautiful in “nature, not only refines and 
humanises, but exalts the mind.’ “Who among us does not hail with 
delight the unfolding of nature’s woodland charms in spring? But 
to appreciate the beauty of such.scenery in its fullest extent, we 
should possess an intimate knowledge of the materials of whieh it 
is composed; for a person who scarcely knows one tree or shrub 
from another, will derive no more pleasure from a collection of 
different species of such things than from.an assemblage of plants 
of the same kind. Cowper says there is ‘‘ No tree in all the grove 
but has its charms ;” nevertheless some species are more effective 
than others, both in colour and form; and thus when scenery con- 
trived by man is contrasted with that of wild nature, the parts 
which trees and shrubs play in the way of ornament soon become 
apparent. What would our landscapes, for instance, be without 
trees ? or where would be the charms of hills, plains,) and islands 
without them? Again, in the case’ A pleasure-grounds, wrested, as 
it were, from nature’s dominio the hand of man for purposes for 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


4) 
a 


Cre 
Sra be PP a 


j 
pats * 
Riri cties 

Hos aioe 


wie 


> 


, 


-and sizes which they ultimately attain. 


Dec. 23, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


103 


which nature alone seemed inadequate, we see a farther illustration 
of the part which a judicious selection and arrangement of trees and 
shrubs sustain; for the beauties of a pleasure-ground consist in the 
contrasts which the variety and distinctness of each tree and shrub 


- produce. 


The chief interest, therefore, of all gardens necessarily depends 
on the variety of exotic trees and shrubs with which they are 
adorned. The different points to which attention should be 
directed in the study of trees and shrubs are, pictorial form, 
height, breadth, general magnitude, outline, the mode of growth, 
Spray, and shape and size of leaves. The first qualities, however, 
in a tree which will strike a general observer, are either its height, 
width, or the outline which it makes against the sky, or against any 
object behind it. The characteristic beauty and general forms of trees, 
Ineed scarcely say, are infinitely varied, the changes, also, in the foliage 
at different seasons of the year form never-failing sources of enjoyment 
to loversof nature. Trées also furnish shelter and shade, and are the 
cheapest and least precarious mode of increasing the immediate 
value, as well as future income, of an estate. To clothe the barren 
mountain with foliage, is not only a laudable measure with reference 
to general ornament and shelter, but it is, for the most part, the best 
purpose to which such wastes can be used. In all cases a more 
extensive and judicious choice of trees may be made than that 
which we usually see, and much improvement might be effected 
in their distribution. In the allocation of different kinds in shrub- 
beries, little interest seems to be taken or knowledge displayed 
as to the form which the plants will assume at an advanced stage of 
growth; and thus plantations that have been thickly planted as 
screens and never thinned, soon defeat the purpose for which they 
were intended. 

Trees and shrubs on lawns should for the most part be disposed in 
an isolated manner, that is, in such a way that each individual plant 
may assume its natural shape and habit of growth. When trees and 
shrubs, however, in a pleasure-ground attain a large size, they very 
frequently become more or less crowded, and, therefore, destroy the 
individuality which belongs to each. Therefore, as they advance in 
growth, they should either be cut in or thinned ont, so as to fully 
develop the nobler individuals and, where possible, to form groups. 
Half the trees which are planted, whether for ornament or for profit, 
are either disfigured or rendered comparatively valueless by having 
been originally planted too closely together, or by being allowed to 
remain too long without thinning; care should therefore be taken to 
place them in the first instance at a distance apart sufficient to permit 
them at a future day to display their individuality. The form and 
outline of trees and shrubs also vary very much according to the 
physical circumstances in which they are placed, such as soil, situa- 
tion, and climate, and we only get the full grandeur of character 
which an individual tree is capable of expressing when, from its youth 
up, we save it from being weakened and deprived of light and food by 
other trees. 

In planting trees and shrubs, the first point to be considered is 
the selection of such kinds as are known to flourish in the particular 
locality allotted to them, and to thrive in the soil about to be operated 
upon; the next thing to be determined is the ultimate object in view, 
viz., whether you wish to create a permanent wood, or to plant 
merely as a means of reclaiming the land, or for shelter, or for 
ornament. In the formation of large masses of trees and shrubs, or 
when trees are introduced into ornamental plantations, they should 
be kept as much as possible in the background; great care should 
also be taken that all the taller-growing kinds are placed in the rear 
of the less vigorous and slow-growing ones; otherwise they will soon 
overgrow them and, eventually, leave only branchless skeletons, such 
as we so frequently see disfiguring plantations ardund many country 
seats. Again, we often find on lawns, groups of trees planted with 
the full intention on the part of the planter in the outset that the 
nurses should be timely removed to allow such trees as are intended 
ultimately to adorn the grounds to assume their natural forms; but 
these nurses are, in nine cases out of ten, allowed to become robbers, 
excluding light and air from those trees which they were at first only 
intended to shelter. Another evil lies in planting trees where they 
will not thrive, a fact evident in many of our oak plantations, which 
in numerous cases are curious cradles in which to rear “ the wooden 
walls of Old England.” No department of rural economy is so 
injudiciously practised as the planting of trees, and this is, in a 
great measure, attributable to an unacquaintance with the forms 
Their selection, too 
often betrays little forethought or reflection on the part of the 
planter, and consequently the kinds planted are seldom in keeping 
with the places they occupy. The use of single trees in breaking the 
formality of an unsightly situation, and in varying an uninteresting 
surface, is well known. ‘Trees suitable for planting singly should be 
chosen according to cireumstances ; such, for instance, as those which 


best resist the wind for exposed situations, and those which require 
moisture for low or damp places. No thick plantations, large clumps, 
or broad belts of trees and shrubs, should be allowed except in exten- 
sive places, or for useful purposes, as timber trees. Where concealment 
is wanted it can be well enough effected by scattered trees and shrubs, 
placed so as toform groups ; which, moreover at once convey an idea of 
extent, by allowing glimpses of open space and glades of turf. 

The predilection which different trees and shrubs indicate for differ- 
ent soils may occasionally furnish hints to planters for the selection of 
species, and prevent that meagre, starved, and poverty-stricken appear- 
ance which too often manifests itself, notwithstanding, that heavy 
expenses have been incurred; for trees and shrubsin a state of nature 
are all indicators of the character of the soil and subsoil where they grow. 
They also point out its aridity or moisture, a fact which should be kept 
in mind by the planter for his guidance in the selection of proper and 
suitable kinds for particular sites, for it is lamentable to see unsuitable 
trees so frequently planted by persons unacquainted with their nature 
and habits, in _places where they only exist; whereas, if suitable kinds 
had been selected and properly planted, a very different effect would 
have been produced. When the planter has only to consider what 
trees he should like to see growing around him, and not what the land 
is most suitable for, he can plant what he pleases, as some kinds of 
trees appear to flourish, and really do so, in most soils for a few 
years; but, after some ten or twenty years, they become stunted and 
dwarfed, lose their foliage prematurely, and, either actually die, or 
surviye only to perpetuate the melancholy spectacle of a well- 
intentioned work injudiciously conducted. 

Gerorcr Gorpon, A.L.S. 


TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS OF HEIGHT AND CIRCUMFERENCE 
OF SEQUOIAS IN THE MARIPOSA GROVE. 


1 ‘ Cireum- 
pas ference | : 
No. | Height. at at 6 feet | Remarks, 
Gunna aboye the 
* | Ground. 
6 
U 
il | | 
12 | Very fine symmetrical tree. 
15 | Fine sound tree. 
16 31 fect in diameter, Hollow. 
20 Fine tree. 
STE” et nie Very fine tree, not swollen at base. 
27 250 
Oe |"p savente 
31 186 29.6 Very straight and symmetrical. 
35 Eerste 50.8 | 
38 226 
49 194 | 
51 218 56. 39. Very fine tree. 
52 a Ieee 40. Fine tree. 
Diets | AP. ecs 81.6 59. Very fine tree, but burned at base. 
CRN Bates 82.4 50. Very fine tree. 
66 221 39.8 
69 219 35.7 
70 225 43.9 
77 AB Zetie Stes | 27.8 
102 Shp Larne | 50. Very fine tree. 
158 223 \* 
164 PAST ihe sieves 27.6 
it To es ER Ee | SORES, Much burned at base. 
171 ves Ey adel |i Be Badly burned on one side. 
174 Spa Rahat ace | 40.8 
194 JOB he aces | 46, ae Mes united at the Na , 
9°05 98 ” | § Much burned on one side, formerly 
ae aan 87.8 | sense % over 100 feet in circumference. 
206 
216 63.2 Very large tree, much burned at base. 
226 ean Fine tree. 
236 46. 
238 57. 26 ft, in diameter, burned on one side, 
239 | 26.6 
245 67.2 Burned on one side. 
253 | 60, 
262 fe EO Half burned ayay at base. 
275 | : 
De erecta fe Rr CPR Neaiiaere 9 Burned on one side nearly to centre. 
290 46. 
301 61. 
( Largest tree in the Grove, 27 feet in 
804 260 CPL a oor diameter, but all burned away on 
| | U_ one side. 
(\ Splendid tree, over 100 feet in cir- 
SOOM lareceaes TET Dees cumference originally, but much 
} L burned at base. 
348 CY fae SE Dees | 51 
Professor Whitney, in “ The Yosemite Book.” 


The Axe Essential.—Most planters about a country home are too much 
afraid of the axe; yet judicious cutting is of as much importance as planting; 
and I have seen charming thickets shoot up into raw, lank assemblage of boles 
of trees without grace or comeliness, for lack of courage to cut trees at the root. 
For all good effects of foliage in landscape gardening—after the fifth year—the 
axe is quite as important an implement as the spade,—Rural Studies, 


104: 


THE GARDEN. = 


[Dzc. 23, 1871. 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


GARDEN SCULPTURE. 


GARDEN scuLPruRE should, if possible, haye an object; and 
not be dotted here or there with no definite purpose; for, unless 
this principle be scrupulously observed, detached vases, or 
other pieces of sulpture, become merely intrusive spots; while, 
if well placed im suitable situations, as at the principal entrance 
of a house, or at certain distances apart on the parapet of a 
terrace, théy become very valuable adjuncts to the general 
effect. It is much easier toregulate the tasteful distribution of 
such objects near the residence than in the open garden; and 
consequently lawns and shrubberies are occasionally disfigured 
with excrescences in the way of vases or statues in an ignorant 
and disagreeable manner that seriously offends the traimed eye 
of taste. Statues may, however, be sparingly introduced in the 
front of dense shrubberies, in which situation they are some- 
times very effective; fohage forming a good back ground; but 
they should not be placed under the drip of. tall trees, both on 
account of the drip, which would soon discolour them, and 
because statuary should have a direct vertical light to secure 


A decorative screen of garden sculpture. 


that brightness of effect which is its principle charm. In 
certam situations where a solid screen is deemed desirable, a low 
wall, architecturally embellished so as to form a base for yases 
or groups of figures, may be resorted to with good effect. For 
instance, let it be supposed that abroad walk connecting orna- 
mental grounds with a fruit and yegetable garden is left open 
for the purpose of preserving the effect of distance ; the merely 
utilitarian features of the latter being tolerably well screened 
to the right and left of the walk by a deep flower border. Still 
it may be desirable to terminate the view alone the walk ata 
certain distance; m which case a screen formed by a group of 
sculpture similar to that represented above, would effectively 
complete the purpose in view, and form a very agreeable 
object for the eye to rest upon as the closing feature of the 
vista. But this device could only be resorted to with good 
effect, and full advantage, in gardens where similar kinds of 
- sculptural features are adopted in the pleasure-crounds; in 
which case the effect of such a group as that in our eneraying 
would be perfectly consistent in the situation proposed, and 
would have the additional advantage of seeming to extend the 
area of the ornamental grounds to some distance beyond their 
real limits. This last advantage is far from being either an 
illegitimate or unimportant one, as the restricted space of 
most of our gardens renders it necessay that, in the art of 
laymg them out, the smallness of their extent should be 
concealed by skilful arrangements. H.N. H. 


LANDSCAPE TREATMENT OF RATUWAYS. 


I xyow that it is the habit of many who control large estates 
adjoming railways to ignore, so far as possible, this iron 
neighbour, and to make all their plans of improvement with a 
contemptuous disregard of the travellmg observers, who count 
by thousands, considering only the few who look on from the old 
high-road, or those, still fewer, who have the privilege of the 
grounds. It is his duty so to illustrate them as to make them 
command the acceptance of the multitude. He has no right 
to ignore the onlook of the world, and be careless if the world 
condemms or approyes. ; 

A high railway embankment traversing the low lands of a 
country estate, if at a good remove from the homestead, is not 
so awkward a matter to deal with as might at first bé supposed. — 
A few years of well-tended growth in a forest screen may be 
made to exclude it altogether; but care should be taken lest 
such screen, by its uniformity, should present the same tame 
outlines with the embankment itself. ‘l'o ayoid this the woody 
plantation should flow down in little promontories of shrubbery 
upon the flat; it should have its open bays upon the embank- 
ment itself, disclosing at interyals a glimpse of the passing 
trains ; and, above all, the bridge or culyert, which keeps good 
the water-courses of the land, should be distinetly indicated, 
and might have its simple decorative features. ; 

All this, if picturesque effect only is aimed at: but if it be 
desirable to utilize such monster embankment, it may be* 
remembered that its shelter, if looking to the south, would 
almost create a summer climate of its own, and would make 
admirable lee for the forcing-houses of the gardeners. and for 
the growth of whatever plants or vegetables craye the first heats 
of the spring sun. 

Tf, on the other hand, such embankment flank the north, its 
shadow will offer capital nursery ground for the rhododendrons, 
ivies, and all such plants as are impatient of the free blast of 
the sun. p 

And, after all, if these happy accidents of position and 
opportunitiy did not favour such special culture, it should be 
the duty and the pride of the true artist in land-work to ascer- 
tain what other growths would be promoted by exceptional 
disturbances of surface. The finest and highest triumphs im 
landscape art are wought out in dealing with portentous 
features of ugliness, and so enleashing them with the harmonies 
of a given plan as to extort admiration. 

The railway, with its present bald embankments and its 
baldness of all sorts, is a prominent feature in many of 
our suburban landscapes. It cannot be ignored, and the 
study must be to harmonize its sweep of level line, its barren 
slopes, its ugly sears, its deep cuttimgs, with the order and 
grace of our fields and homes. Rains and weather stains 
and wild growths are doing somewhat to mend the harsh- 
ness; but a little artistic handling of its screening foliage, and 
adroit seizure of the opportunitiesfurnished for special culture, 
will quicken the work. And it is to this end that I haye 
thrown out these hints upon so novel a subject as that of 
railway landscape gardening. D. G. Mitchell. 


Water.—If the improyer will recur to the most beautiful small 
natural lake within his reach, he will have a subject to study, and 
an example to copy well worthy of imitation. If he examines 
minutely and carefully such a body of water, with all its aceom- 
paniments, he will find that it is not only delightfylly wooded and 
overshadowed by a variety of vegetation of all heights, from the 
low sedge that grows on its margin to the tall tree that bends its 
branches oyer its limpid wave, but he will also perceive a striking 
peculiarity in its irregular outline. This, he will observe, is neither 
round, square, oblong, nor any modification of these regular figures, 
but full of bays and projections, sinuosities, and recesses of various 
forms and sizes, sometimes bold, reaching a considerable way out 
into the body of the lake; at others, smaller and more varied in 
shape and connection. In the height of the banks, too, he will 
probably observe considerable variety ; at some places the shore will 
steal gently and gradually away from the level of the water, while 
at others it will rise suddenly and abruptly in banks more or less 
steep, irregular, and rugged; rocks and stones, covered with mosses, 
will here and there jut out from the banks, or lie along the margin 
of the water, and the whole scene will be full of interest from the 
variety, intricacy, and beauty of the various parts. “If he will 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


105 


accurately note in his mind all these varied forms, their separate out- 
lines, the way in which they blend into one another, and connect 
themselves together, and the effect which, surrounding the water 
they produce asa whole, he will haye:some tolerably correct idea of 
the way in which an artificial lake ought to beformed. Let him go 
stil further now in imagination, and suppose the banks of this 
natural lake, without being otherwise altered, entirely denuded of 
grass, shrubs, trees, and verdure of every description, remaining 
characterized only by their original form and outline. This will give 
him a more complete view of the method in which his labours must 
commence; for uncouth and apparently misshapen as those banks 
are, and must be when raw and unclothed, to exhibit all their variety 
and play of light and shadow when verdant and complete, so also must 
the original form cf the banks and margin of the piece of artificial 
water—in order finally to assume the beautiful or picturesque—he 
made to assume outlines equally rough and harsh in their raw and 
incomplete state——A. J. Downing. 


. 


THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 


NEW PEAR.—BEURRE LUIZET. 


THE fruit of which the following is an outline ripened on the 8th 
“of November last year. In shape it may be said to be acute pyri- 
form, somewhat one-sided, rather ventricose at the base, and bent 
at the top. Skin, clear, greenish-yellow, finely dotted and streaked 
with russet, with veins and patches of a lighter russet about the 
stalk, and covered with beantiful vermilion on the sunny side. 
Stalk, rather long, and swollen at both ends, obliquely set on the 


/ ; Beurré Luizet. 
surface of the fruit. Eye, large and wide open, and set in an even 


shallow basin. Flesh, compact, white, fine, and melting, without 
grit at the core. Juice, abundant, sparkling, rich, sugary, and 
slightly acidulated, with a delicious beurré flavour. : 

This variety grows freely upon the quince, bears abundantly, and 
forms yery handsome pyramids. It was raised by M. Luizet, a 
nurseryman at Ecully ; bore its first fruit in 1856, and was sent out 
about 1860. I imported it in 1865, and have found it to be one of 
our best Christmas pears. It keeps well, and ripens in succession, a 


valuable property, as it prolongs the time during which it can be 
enjoyed. : 

As with all pears worked upon the quince, the stock should be 
planted an inch or two under the surface, a practice which will con- 
tribute greatly to the health of the trees. The quince stock is 
exceedingly fond of half-rotted stable manure, a plentiful supply of 
which should be annually laid over or slightly forked in about the 
roots. Pears on quinces are, like roses, fond of being occasionally 
lifted and replanted, an operation which invigorates them. 

J, Scorr. 


ORCHARD HOUSES. 


Ture future of gardening will be more and more under glass. 
This was the opinion I formed when the duty was first taken off 
glass. How confirmed one’s opinion is now! Is it not ridi- 
culous to suppose that people who can afford to grow fruit at all, 
that is to say, choice fruit, will be content to pursue plans of 
culture which must often result in failure ? I remember, some 
thirty years since, walking with an old lady of the old school 
round her garden in spring, and seeing all her peaches care- 
fully covered up with canvas to protect the blossoms from 
frost, and hearing her remark, “ Is it not absurd to go to all 
this expense? why, I do not get peaches fit to eat more than 
once in four or five years.” Was it not Dr. Johnson who said 
he only once had as many peaches as he could eat? ‘There 
are many favoured places in the south of England where it. 
is worth while to grow peaches on walls; but in the vast 
majority of places if would be much more sensible to plant 
pears. Few people know the value of pears. Instead of plant- 
ing the finest varieties on south and west walls, we find them on 
north and east aspects, where few can ripen that are worth a 
wall, whilst the best situations are taken up by unprofitable 
peaches and nectarines. In our uncertain climate all tender 
fruit must be grown under glass, if we are to be at all certain 
of a crop, or care for quality. A rose may be a rose by what- 
eyer name you call it, but a peach with about the flavour of 
a white turnip is not worth calling a peach. If it be deter- 
mined to build glass houses for fruit culture, the next con- 
sideration will be of what form they shall be built. The idea 
that strikes most persons is to cover their walls by building 
what are called lean-to houses. For yery early vineries, this 
may be advisable, but not for stone fruit. I never founda house 
cost less, if you took the number of square feet covered into 
account, when built against a wall than when erected away from 
a wall; It is impossible to provide the same ventilation in a 
lean-to house as you can in a double-roofed house, and trees 
will fail sometimes against a wall to set their fruit, whilst those 
planted in the same house in the front of the sashes will be full 
of fruit. In every respect I prefer a double-roofed house; and 
if it saves nothing, why spoil your pear walls? Is it advisable 
to heat orchard houses? After nearly twenty years’ experience, 
I say, yes, if you want a certainty as to a crop, and are anxious 
for the best quality procurable. At the same time if circum- 
stances forbid the expense, I would still say, to any one south 
of the Trent at any rate, glass without heat is far better than 
any wall without glass. 


Chilwell. J. B. Pearsoy. 


ORANGE CULTURE. 


As the cultivation of the orange as a dessert fruit is again exciting 
some attention, it has occurred to me that the reproduction of the 
subjoined paper, read before the Horticultural Society of London so 
long back as March 13, 1820; might not be without interest. For 
many years I had models of the fruit to which the paper relates, and 
I have now before me a drawing of two China oranges, girthing 
thirteen and a half inches, and weighing one pound each. These 
were grown in 1818, and I have the authority of the late Mr. 
Donald Munro, so many years curator of the Society’s gardens, 
expressed but a short time before his death, that the collection of the 
Citrus tribe shown by my late father in that year was the best 
that had ever been exhibited before the Society. ‘The collection con- 
sisted of ‘fourteen species or varieties, a handsome dish of each. 
These were grown in the garden of J. M. Mundy, Hsq., at Shipley, 
near Derby, where at that time the regular supply of oranges for 
dessert was regarded in the same business view as that of peaches, 
grapes, or pine-apples. For refined and elegant appearance upon 
the table, nothing can be more desirable that oranges cut with two or 
three leayes adhering, and sometimes with a spray of bloom. 


106 


THE GARDEN. 


> 


[Drc. 23, 1871. 


Oranges at Shipley were a speciality: my earliest lessons in the | 


garden being taken in gathering their blossoms for conseryes and 
distillation; and I can confidently affirm that, in a half century’s 
wanderings, I have never seen them nearly so well-grown as they 
were there. They were managed as follows :— W. P. Ayres. 


The greenhouse in which they were grown at Shipley was forty-nine feet long 
and seventeen feet wide, witha glazedsashed roof, slopimg to the south ; the back 
and sides were solid walls ; the front wasnine feetandahalfihigh, and had glazed 
folding-doors, the intervals between which vwere filled with fixed glazed sashes. 
The floor was stone pavement, and the house was warmed by a flue built on 
arches, and carried under the payement near to the front glass, the heated air 
being admitted through ventilators from a narrow air-chamber adjoining the 
flue. The back wall, on the inside, was eighteen feet high, and that, as well as 
the sides were covered with a trellis, the openings of which were six inches 
square. Adjoining the back wall, at even distances from each other, were six 
holes in the pavement, each two feet square. In these were growing trees in the 
following order:—l, a lemon; 2, a China orange; 3, a lemon; 4, a citron; 
5,fa Seville orange; 6,a lemon. They were planted young, in a border under 
the pavement, and their branches were trained to the trellis. Citron trees were 
planted in the same manner against the west side ; and these were trained to the 
trellis at the two sides respectively. Besides the above eight trees, there were 
twenty-two in tubs, seventeen of which were brought from Malta; they were 
small when planted, but they grew finely, and the fruits they produced were 
excellent, both as regards size and flayour. In addition to these trees in tubs, 
other greenhouse plants in pots were kept in the house in the winterseason. The 
conservatory was some thirty-two feet long; and was divided longitudinally 
into three borders; the back border was three feet eight inches wide, and its 
level was elevated three feet above the other part of the house by means of a 
wall which supported it. A paved walk, some two feet wide, was carried over 
the border, so that only about one foot of it, next the wall, was exposed to view; 
in this border, at even distances, were planted one lime and three lemon trees; 

-the-lemons.were of my own working. The centre border was thirteen feeb 

broad ; in it were planted, in a double row, four in each row, at even distances, 
eight trees, viz.: two standard China oranges, one dwarf China orange, three 
Seville, and two Maltese oranges ; these last were young vlants; the other six 
trees were all in a bearing state. In the front border, which was only four feet 
wide, these trees were planted in 1818 :—one was a China orange, three years old 
from the bud, and the two others were lemons. This house was also used for 
the growth of grapes ; vines were planted in the front of it, on the outside, and 
were introduced through holes inthe walls. The trees in each of the tree borders 
of the conservatory were trained in different ways. Those in the back were 
fastened to a trellis against the wall. The trees in the centre had their branches 
in part secured to a row of stakes set along the front and sides of the borders, 
at even distances from other supports, being so placed as to allow the branches 
to be spread evenly over the border, thus exposing the first to sun and light, and 
also producing a beautiful effect. In the front border the trees were trained flat 
on a horizontal trellis, after the manner of peach-trees, the trellis being two feet 
from the ground. 

Both in the greenhouse and conservatory the borders were filled at the time the 
trees were planted with a compost made as follows: To twelve barrowfuls of 
strong, turfy loam, were added six of good rotten dung, and three of vegetable 
mould; these were properly incorporated six months previously to being used, 
and were then putinto the borders. [This, no doubt, was the orthodox method of 
preparing composts in those days, and was described accordingly ; but I have 
reason to know that the compost was used quite fresh, that it fermented 
moderately, and maintained a gentle bottom heat for several} months after the 
trees were planted. This fact my father, in after life, when bottom heat 
became better understood, regarded as a potent element of success; and no doubt 
he was right.] After I had planted both houses, haying afew old trées in tubs 
and pots which were not in good health, I was induced to try the effect of a 
richer compost, and I also applied to them waterings of liquid manure. The 
sickling trees thus treated were restored to health in twelve months, and as they 
made fine fruitful wood, Iwasso satisfied with mynew compost and manure water, 
that I determined touse themin future with all my other plants, whetherin borders 
or in tubs or pots. I have spphed them in the manner hereafter detailed, and the 
beneficial effects resulting from their use have exceeded my expectations, not 
only in the vigourand richness of the wood and foliage, butin the abundance, size, 
and flayour of the fruit. The compost in question was formed of ten parts (a 
wheelbarrowful being my usual integral quantity) of strong turf loam, seyen 
of pigeons’ dung, seven of garbage from the dog kennel or butcher’s yard, seven 
of sheep dung, seven of horsedung, and ten of vegetablemould; these were mixed 
together twelve months previous to use. The manure water consisted of three 
wheelbarrowfuls of cow droppings fresh from the pasture field, two of fresh 
sheeps’ dung, and two pecks of quicklime thrown into a hogshead [of soft water, 
the mixture being frequently stirred for a week or ten days before it was used, 
and when applied to the plants ought to have about the consistence of cream. 
By the usual mode of managing orange and similar trees in greenhouses, hoyw- 
ever fine the plants, they only serve the purpose of ornament, and are otherwise 
useless, neyer producing fruit fit for the table. ‘This arises from gardeners 
taking these trees out of the house when they put out their greenhouse plants 
for the summer; whereas, they ought to keep them under cover the whole 
Season, availing themselves of the removal of the other plants to give them the 
peculiar treatment necessary to bring them into bearing. Oranges and similar 
trees require little warmth in winter ; I thereforeneyver suffered my house to rise 
above 50 degs. by means of fire heat until the end of February or the beginning 
of March, when the trees, if in good health, will begin to show blossom ; fire heat 
should then be increased, say to 55 degs. ;{but the houses ought not to be warmed 
above 65 degs. at this time even by sun heat, the excess of which must be checked 
by the admission of air; and indeed the more air the trees have during the time 
of blossoming, the more certain will be the crop of fruit. I washed my frees with 
ahand syringe about twice a week in winter, advantage being taken in cold 
weather of the middle of the day for that work. In summfbr they were ‘syringed 
in the morning every day, and when in blossom a rose was used haying holes 
so small that they would not admit a fine needle to pass through them. As 


soon as the fruit was set I began to water at the roots with the manure 


water above described, giving more or less according to discretion, and they 
had no other water during summer, except what little fell from their leayes 
after syringing. \ 

Karly in June the greenhouse plants were set out of doors for the summer, and 
I then began to force the orange trees, by keeping the heat up as near as possible 
to 75 degs., for I do not consider that either citron, oranges, lemons, or limes can 
be grown fine and good with less heat. Whilst this forcing was going on, par- 
ticular attention was paid to watering. In June I also gave the trees, whether in 
borders or in pots or tubs, a top dressing of the rich compost already mentioned, 
an application which was of the greatest benefit in assisting them to swell their 
fruit. The surface soil was moved with a small hand fork, taking care not 
to disturb the roots all the loose earth was then removed down to the roots and 


replaced with the compost, an operation to which I attributed much of my 
success in producing such fine and abundant crops. 

With respect to pruning, early in webruary, the more unpromising branches 
were cut away to make room for younger and more productive wood, and‘if the 
trees afterwards grew very strongly, the shoots were shortened according to their 
strength in the same way as peach-trees are shortened. Some nicety is required 
in thinning and arranging the crop. When the fruits are about the size of green- 
gages itis proper to thin them. Two fruits should never be left together, for 
they would neither be fine nor well formed, the quantity left to ripen should also 
depend on the age and strength of the tree. The thinnings being without pulp 
when of the size mentioned above, are much esteemed by confectioners and make 
excellent preserves. 

The fruit which I exhibited to the Society was part of the produce of 1818, 
which was particularly great. that year, nineteen of the older trees yielding two 
hundred andseventy eight dozen of ripe fruit, being nearly fifteen dozen on an 
average to each tree. The citron tree m the greenhouse bore eight dozen, each 
citron measuring from fourteen inches and a half to sixteen inches and a half 
in circumference; three China orange trees, viz.: one in the greenhouse and two 
in the conservatory, had sixty dozen of fruit, some of which measured thirteen 
inches round. Six Seville orange trees, viz.: one in the greenhouse, three in 
the conservatory, and two in tubs, bore one hundred and forty dozen of fruit. 
Seven lemon trees, viz:: three in the conservatory, three in the greenhouse, and 
one in a tub, had fifty dozen of fruit, andfrom two lime trees, in tubs, twenty 
dozen of fruit were obtained, _ 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT-GARDEN.” 


Peach Trade in America-—The transmission of peaches over the Delaware 
Railroad, in a single day, amounted to ninety-eight car-loads for New York, and 
twenty for this city.—Philadelphia Paper. [The car-load alluded to is a large 
railway waggon]. R ; 

Apricot Disease.—Is the Moor Park more liable to this than any other kind P 
and is-there any remedy? My trees of the Moor Park have suffered much. 
Recror.—([lt is an unfortunate M@isease, for which no reason nor remedy has 
yet been found. The Moor Park is the kind most subject to it. At Frogmore 
they have removed many trees and planted seedlings in their stead, and as yet 
the result is satisfactory. ] 


Remarkably Prolific Apricot Tree.—A Breda apricot tree, growing in the 
garden of Arundel Castle, in the year 1838, covering about one thousand super- 
ficial feet of wall, which had been planted about seyenty years, had the following: 
enormous crop :—Ripe fruit gathered, August 15th, 480; 20th, 600; 24th, 240; 
28th, 744; 30th, 900; September 2nd, 72; llth, 168; destroyed by wasps, &c., 
oe. pare fruit, 3,852. Thinned for tarts, &c., when unripe, 13,885. Total,” 
17,707. 

Vertical Cordon Pears.—Will you kindly tell me how to form these, com- 
mencing with maiden trees?—Norra Watrs.—([Nothing is simpler. The 
leading shoot of the maiden tree will usually grow erect, and, beyond stopping 
the side shoots in summer, at five or six joimts from the base of the current 
year’s growth, there is scarcely anything more to be done. Cutting back the 
shoot annually is usually practised; but it isnot really necessary, except when 
the leading shoot is a weak or mutilated one. ] 


Fruit-Trees for growing against an Oak Fence.—What fruits would you 
recommend for growing against an oak fence seven feet high, there being one 
hundred and thirty feet each of east and west aspect, and one hundred feet north 
aspect? The garden is on the chalk, at Sutton, in Surrey.—F'. H.—[On the west 
aspect plant ten trees: 6 Pears, viz., 2 Marie Louise, 2 Glou Morceau, 2° 
Beurré Rance; 2 Moorpark or Peach Apricots; 1 Mayduke and 1 Elton Cherry. 
On the east aspect put6 pears: 1 Fondante d’Automne, 2 Louise Bonne of Jersey, 
2 William’s Bon Chrétien, 1 Beurré Bosc; 4 Plums: 1 Denyer’s Victoria, 1 Prince 
Engleboot, 1 Autumn Compote, 1 Jefferson. Against the north aspect plant 
Morello Cherries and Red and Black Currants.—Eb. ] 


Best Fruit for a Small Garden.—Will you or any of your correspondents 
tell me the best kinds of hardy fruits for a cottage-garden in the Midland 
Counties? F.L.— [We should regommend the following :—Six Kitchen Apples: ~ 
Lord Suffield, Spencer’s Favonrite, Selina, Blenheim Orange, Wellington, 
Northern Greening.—Six Dessert Apples: Red Astrachan, Eye Apple, Cox’s 
Orange Pippin, Sturmer Pippin, Kedleston Pippin. Court pendu Plat.—Six 
Dessert Pears: Beurré de Capiaumont, Beurré Diel, Beurré Superfin, Beurré 
Clairgeau, Suffolk Thorn, Winter Nelis.—Six Plums: Chapman’s Prince of 
Wales, Denyer’s Victoria, Jefferson, Green Gage, Wine Sour, Prune Damson. 
—Gooseberries: Rumbullion, Warrington, Yellow Champagne, Green Gage, 
Roaring Lion, Crown Bob, Whitesmith, Overall—Currants: Black Naples, 
White Dutch, Red Grape, Raby Castle.—Strawberries : Dr. Hogg, Sir J. Paxton, 
Sir C. Napier, La Constante, President, Frogmore Late Pine. ] : 


Preservation of Fruit-Buds,—Buds must now be pickled, if you wish to 
keep them; birds are on the wing with sharp, hungry beaks, intent on devourms 
those of gooseberries and plums chiefly, but also any other plump sorts should 
these fail. The best remedy against, any such depredations is pickling with 
soot. This acts asa deterrent; after a taste of fresh soot they turn up their 
beaks, singing a curious note of disappointment, sounding something like, ‘Did 
you ever?’’ and at once take wing, in search of sweeter food. The sight and 
smell of soot ever afterwards is enough, and it is a remedy which is cheap, and 
easily applied. On one of these foggy mornings, when Queen Gossamer reigns 
in structural beanty over everything, out with dry soot, and dust each dropping 
bough and bud. The soot will stick, and the work is done. If heavy rain dash 
it off, or dry weather or high winds sweep the buds clean, renew the pickling. 
It does the trees or bushes no harm. On the contrary, it is good manure for the 
roots, and it saves the buds.—D. T. F, “ 


Strawberries in Autumn,—The best strawberry for autumn fruiting with 
me is Patrick’s Seedling, which produces a good crop, and the flayour and 
appearance are both good, The next best as to productiveness is one of which 
I haye lost the name; it isa very distinct variety, but not so hardy as the 
former, and cannot be relied on after the end of September, except the season 
is warm. Another that produces fruit with the least trouble is Sir Walter Scott; 
but it is pale and soft, though of good flayour in antumn. Swainstone’s 
Seedling is good a8 to crop and flavour, but pale and soft. Black Prince is fine 
in colour, and notyery small. The most hardy of allis May Queen; I haye had 
this within a week of Christmas, but unless thoroughly ripe itis acid, and itis, 
moreover, small compared with others. The time to keep them in a cool frame 
as a period of rest must be regulated according to the time they are required in 
frnit—from one month to four, or nearly as much; but itis not practicable to 
tell within a week or more when the fruit will be ripe. We have gathered about 
twenty-five quarts (14 Tbs. to the quart) Since about the third week in August. 
Those, however, who wish to grow a regular crop must proyide some means of 


Dec, 23, 1871.1 


THE GARDEN. 


107 


SNe oe from rain and frost in October and November, such as that afforded 
y spare lights. It is not absolutely necessary to have forced strawberry plants 
for securing this autumn crop of fruit. It may be done in the following way :— 
Having the borders some four feet or five feet wide, about the proper fruiting 
time, or sooner if the season is more than ordinarly wet, place some spare lights 
over the plants, and by this means, and by removing all the fruit before it is 
ripe, give them their period of rest. Do not keep the lights over them except 
the day is wet (which also I ought to have stated above), for this will cause a 
current of air over the plants. Withhold water from them till they are wanted to 
be started into growth, except they should be actually dying for the want of it. 
Or some may be grown in pots, as for early forcing, and these are much more 
Manageable, as they can be removed from place to place as desired, and in 
autumn can be carried to an orchard-honse, or even the back or front of a green- 
house, where they will get abundance of light and air. It will be found that 
forced plants will not do for pots, as they will give but a very poor crop. Since 
November I have gathered some twenty-five quarts, and there are still fruits in 
all stages of growth, but the frost has affected those not covered.—George Lee, 
Clevedon, in ‘‘ Florist and Pomologist.”’ 


The Cherry Plum (Prunus myrobalana).—With such a pretty homely 
name, One would be justified in supposing this a common plant, whereas it is 
not by any means so, though it deserves universal cultivation, for two reasons : 
1st. It is the earliest of ornamental flowering trees. Before a single tree in 
-the orchard or garden shows a flower, it is a snowy mass, looking as con- 
Spicuous in its lonely beauty as a white-sailed clipper on a dark sea. The flowers 
are sweet-scented, a little more than three-quarters of an inch across, white, 
with a brush of yellow stamens in the centre, and produced abundantly all over 
the tree. 2ndly. Its fruit is edible, and it is worthy of cultivation for that 
alone. On this point Mr. A. F. Barron says: ‘‘ When at Burghley Park Gardens, 
Stamford, I observed several good-sized trees of this pretty little plum, quite 
heavily laden with fruit. I was informed that it was very much used by the 
Marquis of Exeter’s family, when quite ripe, for dessert, but principally for 
tarts, for which purpose it was greatly esteemed and more relished than the 
Morello cherry, which it somewhat resembles. The fruit is also used for 
bottling and for preserving, like other plums and cherries. Through its habit of 
early flowering, however, we generally lose the fruit by frosts, except in un- 
usually open seasons, and in some fayoured situations, as at Burghley, which is 
high and dry. The tree is of slender growth, but attains a great size—from 
thirty to forty feet; the leaves are very small and rounded ; fruit, medium sized, 
of a slightly oval shape, its colour pale red, with a long slender'stalk like a 
cherry. Indeed, when gathered, a dish of them more nearly resembles one of 
red cherries than of plums. The flesh is yellowish, sweet with a slight acidity, 
and juicy. Ripe early in July, but will hang on the trees a long time. It has 
Many synonymes, as Harly Scarlet, Miser Plum, Virginian Cherry, Roblet, &c.” 
Enough has been said, we trust, to show that it ought to be made as common in 
our gardens and pleasure-grounds as the red Hawthorn. If insome low situa- 
tions it fails to set its fruit, its early bloom will please, even if the cold rains 
whiten with it the winter-beaten grass. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. . 


PARKS AND PUBLIC GARDENS IN AMERICA. 
(Continued from page 46.) 


I was much disappointed with Philadelphia, which, though 
a large, wealthy, and, in many respects, a very interesting city, 
is very oppressive in the monotony of its long, straight streets. 
In many of the streets here, too, the house-sewage passes to 
the gutters through little channels cut in the footway. In hot 
weather this is anything but a satisfactory arrangement, and it 
looks more like what one would find in an Irish town awaken- 
ing toa sense of improvement than in the city of brotherly 
love. There is a square here planted with the native trees of 
America, many of them old specimens; but, as usual, they 
were planted just as if ina dense wood, and with the usual 
result. They did not add much beauty to the place, nor fully 
develop their own; nor could they be advantageously seen. 
But here, again, once out of the town, and in the magnificent 
Fairmount Park, the visitor is at once struck with the splendid 
and spirited way in which public parks are made in America. 
Tmagine a piece of ground, stretching back from the margin of 
a broad winding river with picturesque and rocky banks, 3,000 
acres in extent, and boldly and beautifully diversified in all 
parts! If this park be wisely treated in the natural manner, 
and all the money and thought spent upon it devoted to em- 
bellishing it with hardy trees and other subjects that thrive in 
the region, it will surpass anything we know of; but if it falls 
into the hands of those who, instead of enriching it with natural 
beauty, go far to remove all traces of that by making the 
beautiful surface geometrical here and there; by constructing 
expensive fountains and costly bridges; by statuary, &e.—in a 
word, by denaturalising it—it will be a great misfortune for 
public gardening. Here, too, there is a wonderful cemetery, 
hundreds of acres in extent, on beautifully diversified ground ; 
and clean, well kept, and well planted. In this cemetery I 
gathered specimens of a beautiful Gordonia, a shrub with frag- 
rant white flowers, something like those of Magnolia glauca; 
and the whole was in effect a vast and well-kept garden. 

Of Baltimore I have the same story to tell: a vast public 


_ park, as sweetly diversified as a bit of Switzerland, and com- 


manding noble views of the surrounding country. Here, too, I 


\ 


saw the trail of the serpent just alluded to, in the shape of two 
long lines of ponderous vases, ranged along a short drive near 
the entrance, all of the same pattern, looking like stone sentries 
keeping the streets. If the Baltimoreans let that sort of thing 
go on, Nature will soon become quite subordinate to the stone- 
cutter or the stucco-moulder in their beautiful park. 

Boston is, to my mind, more agreeably laid out than any 
other large American city. The streets are not rigidly 
rectangular, as is generally the case, but are more like those 
of an English city, and certainly cleaner than those of any of 
the other large eastern cities. It has an immense advantage, 
too, in being cut up by very broad salt-water boulevards. 
Boston Common, which all have heard of, does not, to the 
stranger, seem an attractive spot, and a public garden 
formed on one part of it is, to our mind, as ill-looking 
a pattern as man ever designed for his delight. There 
is no breadth and no repose in it, but a dotting-about 
of beds and borders everywhere, and a piece of water 
in the centre appears to have been designed from the pattern 
that would result from placing three fiddles with their necks 
together, and then tracing a mark around them. It will be 
apparent what I mean—a hybrid between the geometrical 
and the’natural form of fountain basin; the whole surrounded 
by a vertical margin of stone. But I hear Boston, like many 
other cities in the States, is thinking of a new park, and I 
doubt not that it will be worthy of her status among ‘American 
cities. Here I noticed a very desirable kind of wide street 
between two rows of houses, having a belt of grass in the 
centre, with trees and shrubs and flowers, the roads passing 
on each side of this and between the central strips of grass 
and garden and the houses. Here, too, is a beautiful ceme- 
tery—Mount Auburn. In this, as in other large American 
cemeteries, a pleasing and, to a stranger, a novel way of 
naming the paths, walks, and rides through the cemetery, is 
in use. Thus, we see “Cowslip Path,” ‘Lavender Path,” 
* Primrose Walk,” “ Oak Avenue,” and so on through quite a 
catalogue of names—mostly pretty: English names. Some of 
the paths, however, are unfortunate in their names, Pelar- 
gonium, Crategus, &c.; but let us hope that these dreadful 
ones were only discovered after all the English names of 
flowers and trees had been exhausted. 

Unfortunate Chicago, before the fire one of America’s greati 
cities, and in Europe reputed to be the great city of the West, 
by some unhappy mistake often called the “garden city,” is 
not anice place. It is large and thriving, but the situation is 
very low, and its surface not broken up by the grand rivers 
and estuaries that sweep through the great cities of the eastern 
coast. Looking over its surface from a high building, it is 
more suggestive of Chelsea or the flats of Rotherhithe than of 
Manhattan or Boston Harbour. There are a few fine streets, 
and some hundreds not fine; and there is a tremendous popu- 
lation of rats that hive under the wooden footways. Here, too, 
the sweet practice of leaving the garbage in the gutter for 
many days prevails, and some of the streets are long enough 
for a pilgrimage. The city is on the margin of the great 
sea-like and clear Lake Michigan. One would think they 
would welcome its glassy surface and sweet air, as in no other 
part near does Nature come to speak to them, so to say. Not 
so: they throw their rubbish into it, and drive dirty railway 
waggons along its shores, and in various similar ways shut it 
out from the view of the town. Here at least two parks are in 
course of construction by, we believe, Mr. Olmsted, the designer 
of the Central Park-at New York, a. gentleman excellently 
qualified for the work, and who has the broadest and truest 
notions of the most essential things in public gardening. In 
connection with these parks, fine tree-planted boulevards are 
being made to connect one park with another, and to open up, 
in an effective manner, parts of the suburbs which will one 
day, no doubt, be densely covered with houses. : 

Washington, the capital, is well and boldly laid out; the 
streets magnificent in breadth, and frequently well planted with 
trees, though much remains to be done in this way. With 
streets 160 feet wide, you may plant trees without darkening 
the windows. The situation of and the views from the city are 
very fine, and there is not a little interest for the horticulturist 
here, in consequence of this being the head-quarters of the 
Agricultural Department. — 


108 


~THE GARDEN. 


[Dac. 23, 1871.. 


THE SQUARES OF LONDON. 
(Continued from page 85.) 


THE gardening in our squares is of a peculiarly lugubrious descrip- 
tion, and of a style quite apart. Hardy subjects are not made a 
study of, and the bedding plants with which the country is ablaze 
in many parts are varely seen. Year after year the same tone of 
slimy melancholiness is assiduously preserved. The trees crowd upon 
each other, and only those that tower above all, and assert their beauty 
and dignity in spite of the gardener, are seen to advantage. Any 
flowers planted usually soon perish in the solemn shade. The walks, 
generally designed so as to cut through and destroy the prettiest 
spots in the square, appear to receive most attention, but it is some- 
times shared by the ugly, high, and elaborate seats piled round 
the bases of the beautiful trees so as to interfere with the effect of 
their stemsas seen across the lawn. All the necessary seats, as well 
as tool-houses and arbours, should be placed near or towards the sides, 
where they would be useful without being obtrusive. It is quite casy 
to place all such objectionable features so that while as convenient as if 
piled up in the centre, they shall not be objectionable from any point 
of view. : 

The gardeners of the squares are a mysterious, not at all under- 

stood race. Occasionally, an individual may be seen emerging from a 
public-house in the near neighbourhood, pipe in mouth, and presently, 
gaoler-like, unlocking the gates of his gloomy retreat and disappearing 
within its shade. ‘That is all we know of him, so we will pass him 
by for the present. Any beanty our squares possess is independent of 
their designers or care-takers. All present nearly the same dead level 
of feeble monotony. An idea, however, has been carried~ont in~ 
Golden Square, so original that it deserves an illustration, which 
will also save yerbal description. The materials employed have all 
the merit of simplicity—earth, old drain-tiles, and a chopping-block ! 
If it be too much to hope for a system which would beantify our 
squares, may we not pray for a public inspector with power toremoye 
any objects that make them resemble the playgrounds of lunatic 
asylums ? 

The best feature of the London squares are their noble trees. 
Driving or walking through the north-western districts you fre- 
quently come upon Planes which would command admiration in the 


Tos 
| 


‘Bed in Golden Square, Ji uly 13, 1870. 


largest forests. Huddled together, at first, with a number of miscel- 
laneous trees, these, thanks to their splendid constitutions and noble 
stature, towered above the masses of overcrowded shrubs around 
them, and spread forth their grand old boughs so freely that each 
tree seemed as if it wished to fill up the square. Free from disease, 
regardless of dust, asleep, but how very beautiful in sleep! When 
the mnultitndinons fires are active around them in winter, these 
glorious trees give us in our dreary waste a glimpse of the beanty 
of the grand wild woods. And let it not be thonght that the Plane 
is the only tree that would thrive perfectly in our squares, even in 
the most smoky and crowded parts. It would take a list longer 
than this article to enumerate all the beautiful deciduous trees and 
shrubs that grow in the temperate and colder regions of the world, 
and the great majority of which would do perfectly well in our 
London squares, if properly planted and attended to. It would be 
perfectly easy, even with our present knowledge, to select as many 
beautiful trees that would thrive in the squares of London, as would 
represent in them the brake and forest beanty of every important 
cold region in America, Hurope, or Asia. ‘To select such trees and 
shrubs, and plant them so as to secure to each a due amount of light 
and air for its development, would prove a very desirable occupation 
for those interested in our squares. 

The few kinds that haye raised their heads above their fellows 
eloquently tell the advantage of paying chief attention to the planting 
of hardy trees. Here, for instance, is a peep into Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 
which may help to show some of their beauty. This square, fortn- 
nately, is nob cut off from public view on all sides by miserable 
masses of Privet and crowded Lilacs, and here and there isolated 
trees are seen that would be remarkable around onr finest and oldest 
country seats. % 

-It is utterly impossible to give an idea of the islets of lovely and 
brilliant flowers into which our squares could be made by this plan. 


The system of planting evergreens should, on the other hand, be discon- 
tinued, except in the case of afew kinds in suburban and open squares. 
The best plan would be, with all the evergreens annually purchased 
for London planting, to make a gigantic bonfire on the 5th of Novem- 
ber every year. Many of them being of a resinous nature, would 
afford the boys a very satisfactory blaze. We should in this way 
effect two objects—save our squares from being defiled by the soot- 
begrimed dying evergreens, and quickly spend at the same time the 


Me gio 


= wprenns, | 


large sum of money which people will persist in throwing away on 
evergreens every year. Z ‘ 
One noteworthy way of producing variety would be the devoting 
of one square to the trees and shrubs of a particular country; one, 
for example, might have British trees and ‘shrubs alone, another 
American trees, another Chinese and Japanese trees and shrubs, and 
soon. The greatest improvement that could be effected in the London ~ 
squares would be the intelligent planting of hardy trees and shrubs ; 
an improvement, moreover, which could be-carried out at a compara- 
tively small cost. It would be permanent, too; and permanence in 
these matters simply means saving of constant trouble and expense. 
But there is no reason whatever why the squares should be devoted 
to hardy trees and shrubs alone. On the contrary, the best way 
would‘'be to allow much latitude, so as to secure variety. When 
our municipal bodies begin to understand the management of city 
gardens, one of the first principles they will discover is that each 
square and small garden should differ as much as possible from 


View into a properly arranged Square. 


its neighbours. Some of the suburban squares might be devoted to 
that evergreen vegetation which cannot be grown in the central 
parts ; some in all parts might be gaily decorated with bedding and 
fine-foliaged plants; others chiefly with hardy border and spring 
flowers ; one might even be devoted chiefly to rock plants, and so on. 
But nothing of this kind could be attempted unless all or most of the 
Squares were under one responsible head, who could determine what 
was best to do in each case, and select a man acquainted with the 


4 


Dec. 23, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. - 


109 


special branch to carry it out as well as possible. As arranged at 
present, all the squares are managed almost exactly alike. How to 
unite them under one responsible and efficient chief or department, it 
is net my object to point ont; at present it may be impossible to do so; 
but assuredly we shall never know how much our squares are capable 
of pleasing and instructing us till a reform of this kind is effected. 
Of the opening of most of our squares to the public I have said 
little, but those who haye seen the happy crowds who freqnent the 
sparkling little squares in Paris, will probably consider this an 
important aspect of the question. Private interests and public 
prejudice may be against it mow, and may long continue so, but I 
have no doubt that in the interest of all it is the true plan. It will 
yet, I trust, be adopted im all parts of London, as the advantages 
enjoyed by those who “possess keys” are surely not such as need 


prevent their offering the boon in question to the poorer inhabitants, 


many of whom, perhaps, seldom have an opportunity of seeing more 
of nature than is visible in the streets of London. Once devoted to 
public use, and under intelligent supervision, a modest allowance 
from the public purse would suffice to convert the squares into some 
of the most beautiful gardens that ever refreshed the spirits of man. 
They would save many from the attractions of the public-houses, 
which are now permitted to flaunt their destructive allurements at 
every corner, No part of a city should be without places where 
persons might meet and talk and rest in the open air. In Continental 
cities, what with the seats along the tree-planted bouleyards and 
squares, this is quite possible; but how very different in London! 
With us men are literally driven to the public-house; and public- 
houses necessarily with us assume an importance unexampled in any 
other country—forming, indeed, the chief feature in our street 
scenery. The squares would also, even if they did nothing else, 
help to save the nation of London children from the gutter. An 
important subject in connection with squares and city gardens is 
that of playgrounds. No system of city gardening can be good 
which does not meet this want. It is not enough to have open 
spaces or beautiful little gardens; we should keep the children from 
the filth and dangers of the crowded streets. The best way, in the 
case of all large cities, is to have, as far as possible, squares or open 
Spaces arranged as playgrounds alone. These should, as a rule, be 
planted with large trees, so that nothing could interfere with the 
sport below. This plan would have the effect of drawing off the 
most frolicsome and noisy elements from the garden squares, 
leaving them quiet, and almost free from danger of damage. Asa 
rule, no playground should be made in a garden square. The smaller 
class of square would do best as playgrounds, and there are not 
unfrequently in large cities open spaces which, by a trifling 
expense, might be made into recreation grounds of this kind. 

The numerous old cemeteries in all parts of London would, if pro- 
perly embellished, prove as useful as any squares of similar size; and 
some of the large suburban cemeteries, now so much surrounded by 
London that they must soon be closed, would make excellent public 
gardens. To no other use should they be put, and it is in nearly all 
cases quite practicable to make old cemeteries into pleasant city 
gardens withont displacing the monuments, and thereby destroying 
the associations of the spot. All such places should be religiously 
preserved for ever to the public. 

Since writing the above, I have visited most of the great cities in 
the United States. They have few squares, and those very badly 
arranged, and J am more than ever convinced of several things—first, 
that London is even now better provided with squares than any other 
large city ; secondly, that these squares are managed so as to conceal 
any beauty of which they are capable ; thirdly, that, by a system, 
some of the main features of which I have endeavoured to indicate, 
these squares might be made beantiful in themselves, and have the 
most beneficial effects on the aspect of many parts of London.— 
British Almanack and Companion. . 


A Winter Garden in Rome.—Among the various improve- 
ments likely to take place in the Eternal City as a consequence of the 
cessation of sacerdotal rule is the creation of a winter-garden in its 
centre. Attached to the garden there is to be a magnificent theatre, 
and also a café and a grand arena for open-air performances and 
concerts. It is somewhat strange (though some may think otherwise) 
that no recent improvements of this kind haye been originated in 
Rome by the Papal Government; the creation of the noble Piazza 
del Popolo and the beautiful promenades of the Pincian Hill having 
been Suggested and carried into execution during the French 
occupation at the beginning of the present century. As Palms, 
Camellias, Agaves, and other beautiful plants which cannot contend 
with the severity of our British frosts, will bear the comparatively 
mild winter of Rome with but little injury, the projected winter- 
garden may be made highly picturesque and attractive. A December 
walk in the Villa Borghesi, which is one of the pleasures of Rome, is 


sufficient evidence of the fine effects that may be produced by judicious 
planting. The groves of evergreens, and the early springing up of 
Cyclamens on the grassy slopes of the Villa Borghesi, render that 
promenade a yery delightful one to strangers, who, in such places 
fully realise all those dreams of the beauty of Italian scenery and 
the softness of the Italian climate which are, in too many respects, 
so sadly disappointing. H. N. H. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PUBLIC GARDENS. 


Want of Plan in London.—Mr. Lowe has been thrashing another deputa- 
tion. Kast London has got a park—Victoria Park—and wants to enlarge it. 
The Government, however, had advanced the money for the park on condition 
of being recouped out of the sale of certain reserved lots, and is accordingly 
selling them for building purposes. A deputation of East Londoners, headed 
by Mr. Reed, on Saturday fortnight waited on Mr. Lowe, asking him to suspend 
the sales; but he refused, describing the facts, and declaring thatif East London 
wanted the land East London must pay for it. The statute was clear, and 
England cannot pay for East London. The argument is unanswerable; but 
Mr. Lowe forgets that it is not the fault of London, but of the country at large, 
that it is without the institutions which every other city enjoys, which create 
municipal feeling and elicit local liberality. Nobody does or can bequeath a 
fortune to East London, as he might to any city with a decent constitution. We 
believe the failure of successive Cabinets to organise London costs the metropolis 
half a million a year in legacies and gifts alone.—Spectator. 

Hampstead -Heath.—Mr. Le Breton, the chairman of the Parks and Open 
Spaces Committee of the Metropolitan Board of Works, writes to the 7imes 
that the brief report of his speech at the meeting of the Board which appeared 
in that paper of Saturday week does not convey the full effect of the remarks 
which he made with regard to Hampstead Heath. What he then stated was that 
the Act of Parliament for the preservation of the heath required the Board to 
maintain that open space as nearly as possible in its present state and natural 
aspect, and to drain, level, and improve where wanted. He said that it 
especially was the duty of that body to repair the mischief which had been done 
by digging and removing sand and turf, to restore the herbage, fern, gorse, 
heather, and broom, to plant judiciously, and generally to endeayour to bring 
back the heath to the beautiful wild condition in which it was some years since. 
Mr. Le Breton adds that persons unacquainted with the provisions of the Act 
desire that the heath should be laid ont as a park; but, even if this were 
allowable under the statute, he doubts whether it would meet with general 
approval. The purchase of the heath, owing to some legal difficulties, was only 
completed at the end of last month, and no time has been lost by its present 
owners in taking measures for the protection of the trees, some of which are in 
danger of falling, obtaining plans for draimage where wanted, and gencrally 
doing all that is necessary for restoring the heath to its former state, and for 
improving and preserving it. 

Desecration of City Grayeyards.—Are we not becoming too much accus= 
tomed to the idea that anything, however sacred, may be turned into money P 
Ts not this the case with regard to burial-grounds? They fetch a large sum and 
they disappear. After the Great Fire of London care‘appears to have been taken 
in rebuilding the City to reserve in the main the burial-grounds of the parishes 
in which the churches themselves were not rebuilt. They are dotted as green 
spots all over the City, as many must often have observed. When the present 
extensive buildings of the Bank of England were erected, one whole parish was 
swallowed up. It was generally understood that its churchyard was respected, 
and is represented by the pleasant open garden court which gives such cheer- 
fulness to the offices around it. St. Clement Danes’ parish appears to view the 
subject in another light, and makes short work of the matter. Some years ago 
one of its burial-grounds, situate in Portugal Street, was disposed of for the site 
of part of King’s College Hospital, and all trace of its former use has now dis- 
appeared. We haye just heard that it has parted with another of its burial- 
grounds, adjoining Clement’s Inn, for the site of a portion of the New Law Courts. 
One burial-ground, its principal one, in the middle of which the church of 
St. Clement Danes’ stands, still remains to the parish. An effort is being made, 
in connection with the Law Courts, to induce the parishioners to sell this also. 
Can we hope, after what has been done, that they will be proof against it? I 
trust we may. Sites can be got without invading these small churchyards, 
which have been bought over and oyer again by those who lie in them.—W. 
Butterfield, in ‘* Times.” 

Watering Roads.—Some idea of what might be done by improved manage- 
ment is given in a report drawn up by the chief surveyor of St. Pancras, and 
laid before the vestry of that parish at its last meeting, on the subject of ‘‘street 
watering.’’ In 1856 the surveyor, Mr. Scott, had a diary of a water-cart kept 
during a week in the height of the watering season, and he found that through 
an average working day of 10} hours (exclusive of the intervals for breakfast 
and dinner) the time of the cart was thus occupied :—Filling at the stand-post,” 
1 hour 20 minutes; distributing water on the roads, 50 minutes ; travelling to 
spread the water and back to the stand-post, to and fro, 8 hours 7 minutes. 
Since that year additional stand-posts have been established, and from 
observations taken in 1864 and again in 1867 Mr, Scott finds the following 
results :—Filling, 2 hours; distributing, 1 hour and 30 minutes; travelling to 
and fro, 6 hours 30 minutes. This, however, is a favourable average ; as, where 
only one cart works from a stand-post, so that there is no loss of time by waiting, 
the maximum time occupied in filling is but2 hours10 minutes. Asthedistributing 
will occupy only about 1 hour 36 minutes, the time occupied in travelling to and 
fro is 6 hours 14 minutes under the most favourable circumstances. It may, 
therefore, be taken that only one-fifth of the working day is occupied by filling, 
about one-seyenth in spreading the water, and about two-thirds of the day in 
travelling to and fro. By additional water-posts it has been reduced nearly to 
the minimum under the existing arrangements, and no further economy can be 
effected without a complete alteration of the system. A change proposed by Mr. 
Scott is the adoption of a water-van that will hold 450 gallons, instead of the 
ordinary water-cart, that holds about 220 gallons. This water-van, he alleges, 
will be in every way an improvement upon the water-cart, which does not dis- 
tribute the water equally over the surface, and by reason of the height of the 
distributor from the ground causes a cloud of dust to arise (whenever the 
weather is hot and the surface dry) from the force with which the water falls 
upon the road. The van, holding 450 gallons of water, will occupy nine minutes 
in filling and six minutes in spreading the water, but it will only occupy three 
hours and fifteen minutes in travelling to and fro, so that in seven hours it will 
accomplish as much work as the present water-cart effects in ten hours. By 
substituting 50 of these vans for the 71 water-carts which during the watering 
season are employed in St. Pancras, Mr. Scott estimates that a total saving of 
nearly £1,000 a year will be the result, and ‘that a great improvement will be 
effected in the method by which the roads are at present watered. 


110 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 23, 1871. 


A Warning.— God grant that the very sight of the calamity with which 
we haye stood face to face may fall out in some valiant, practical resolve, 
which may benefit this whole nation, and join all hearts as the heart of one 
man to do that which is pointed to by plain and terrible facts—that, as far as we 
have power, no man, woman, or child in Britain, be he prince or be he beggar, 
shall die henceforth of preventable disease. Let us repent of, and amend that 
scandalous neglect of the well known laws of health and cleanliness which destroys 
thousands of lives yearly in this kingdom without need or reason, in defiance 
alike of science, of humanity, and of our Christian profession. Two hundred 
thousand persons, J am told, haye died of preventable fever since the Prince 
Consort’s death a few years ago. Is that not a national sin to bow all our hearts 
as the heart of one man? Oh! if his Royal Highness’s foul and needless disease, 
by striking once at the very highest, shall bring home to us the often-told, seldom- 
heeded fact, that this same disease is striking perpetually at hundreds among 
the very lowest whom vwe leave to sicken and die in dens unfit for men, unfit for 
dogs—if this illness shall awaken all loyal citizens to demand, and to enforce, as 
a duty to their Sovereign, their country, and their God, a sanitary reformin town 
and country, immediate, wholesale, imperative—if it shall awaken the ministers 
of religion to preach that, till there is not a fever alley or a malarious ditch left 
in any British city—then indeed his fair and precious life will not haye been 
imperilled in vain, and generations yet unborn will bless the memory of a Prince 
who sickened as poor men sicken, and all but died as poor men die, that his 
example—and it may be hereafter his exertions—might deliver the poor from 
dirt, disease, and death.—Canon Kingsley. : 


GARDEN STRUCTURES. 


- A NEW MODE OF SHTTING THE SADDLE BOILER. 


As saddle boilers are usually set they require attention every two 
or three hours, and, indeed, the length of time during which boilers 
generally will last without fuel is a point on which too little 
thought has hitherto been bestowed. In my case my aim has been 
to set my saddle boiler so as to lose as little heat as possible. As it 
is usually fixed the flames rush out at ‘the further end, curl round 
the flues, and ayoid the sides of the boiler. My plan has been to 
distribute the flames as is done in warming a brick oven, and to 
place the fuel in such a way that any cold air which might find its 
way through the bare grate should not reach the sides of the boiler. 
This is effected by lowering the flue opening, a principle always 


observed in the construction of the splendid furnaces which may be . 


Seen in the manufacturing districts. When the flue opening is thus 
lowered, the hottest air cannot escape until it has parted with its 
heat. But the great point is to have the flue to come out at the 
door end, thus completely avoiding that through rush of air so 
universally experienced in the old way of setting this boiler; while 


in my plan the cold air, running over the fuel, assists in its combus- 
tion, after which it rises and floats thoroughly heated under the 
boiler top. 

My saddle boiler, set in the old way, produced feeble results on 
account of the defects just pointed out, and the constant influx of 
cold air through the door, which cannot be kept out howeyer well the 
door is fitted; but when I altered the setting of it I had no further 
trouble. The pipes under the new arrangement always remain hot 
for ten or twelve hours together. The accompanying woodcut will 
illustrate what I have been doing. It will be seen that the grate is 
made smaller, and that it is confined to the back end, while the dark 
aperture close to the door will be recognized as the outlet of the fine ; 
the further end being bricked up so as to leaye the boiler space like 
a small oyen. Under such circumstances the flue may go down the 
sides and over the top of the boiler in the usual manner ; but, let it be 
observed, that the top never heats; therefore the flue may as well go 
right away and leave the top uncovered. 

In stoking, let the hot fuel be at the back and the cool in front, as 
seen in the representation. Below the dotted line the air is cold, 
and the direction it takes is shown by little arrows; the directions of 
the flames will indicate the hot air currents. 

If I were setting a saddle boiler, I should carry the flues straight 


back to the right and left of the boiler, then unite them at the 


further end, and put a damper vertically down into the flue. This 
would retain the hot air completely, but if the damper is up the 
chimney, the heat will accumulate there also. Fire ascends, and 
therefore your boiler ought to be higher than the flue and damper. 


The Cedars, Cliswick. A. Dawson. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN STRUCTURES. 


Hot-Water Le ME hate ery that so many buildings are heated by hot- 
water apparatus I beg to offer a few remarks upon their preseryation. 1, The 
water used for filling them should be only rain water, which will prevent the 
«boilers furring for many years. 2. The water should be changed each year, it 
being run off quickly as possible, so as to carry all sediment with it. 3. 
Where the boilers are of cast-iron, the upper or furnace door should never be 
opened until after haying nearly closed the damper in the chimney, so as to pre- 
yent any sudden rush of cold air intothe furnace. A sudden rush of cold air 
in severe frosty weather across a hot cast-iron boiler is very likely to crack it— 
particularly the bottom ring of a tubular boiler: and although a hot-water 
engineer and boiler-maker, I like to see all work last out its fair time.—Duval 
Campbell, in ‘* Builder.” < 


How to Heat a Small Conservatory Free of Cost.—A few years ago a 
friend of mine bought a house, one of a row; it contained two sitting-rooms on 
the ground floor—one to the front, the other to the back. In summer the back 
room was unfit for habitation, owing to the heat caused by a closed range in the 
wall which separated it from the kitchen of the adjoming house. This suggested 
to me an idea which has been carried out successfully. In planning a new villa, 
I placed the kitchen fireplace in the west gable; the space behind the range was 
left open, and against this was built a conservatory, 14 feet by 8 feet. The open 
space behind the range is furnished with a wooden door, over which, in the 
thickness of the wall, is formed an air-flue, haying a damper. By shutting the 
door and opening the damper, the heat from the range is carried off, and 
vice versa. This contrivance may not suit those who wish to maintain a high 
state of temperature in the conservatory during winter, but a heat sufficient to 
protect plants from frost, and to cause some to flower during that season, can 
be maintained free of cost.—S., in ‘‘ Builder.”,——[Another correspondent of the 
same paper says (assuming the kitchen fire to be out at ten o’clock at night) 
that by this plan the conservatory would be found to be quite cold in the morning, 
when a little warmth would bemost desirable, and suggests the following asa 
more efficacious means of heating such structures :—‘* Use the waste heat from 
the kitchen during the day to heat a reservoir of water, say sixty to one hundred 
gallons. This can be raised to boiling point in about two hours, and all the 
ordinary kitchen operations going on just the same; then pass the air over the 
reservoir and out to the conseryatory. The mass of water will retain its heat 
nearly intact until morning, and thus do effectually what is attempted.” 


Roof Gardens.—But where is the Space? may be asked. So may be asked, 
where is the space for a garden in an uncleared forest? The space for gardens 
in a City is equal to that of the whole city, less the streets and passages; in 
short, it is the whole space occupied by the buildings. So then the buildings are 
to be cleared away to convert the whole city into a garden? Not so, only the 
roofs of the buildings. .... Is it impossible to make flat and permanent roofs 
—roofs permanent as a foot-payement? I think, nay, I’m sure, it is not a 
difficult operation, if set about with commonsense. We have for ages made 
flat roofs to ships at sea—I mean the decks. Planks nailed down side by 
side are caulked with tarred or pitched hemp. The planks are wet naturally 
in some climates and artificially in others, and their constant swelling 
keeps the joints tight. We put wine and liquors into barrels—the wine 
swells the staves and the liquor does not run out. We put wine and liquors 
into stone bottles, and we cork the opening with an elastic cork—the cork swells 
and the liquor does not run out. The difference between these arrangements 
and that of the flat roofs that let in water is, that in the one case the materials 
are elastic, in the others brittle. For many years past a valuable building 
material has been in-use—slate, sawn or cut into large tables of any required 
size, from half an inch to three or four inches in thickness. If we suppose four 
walls to be built up in a square, and overlaid with a solid table of this slate, pro- 
jecting a foot beyond the walls, and with a descending edge to prevent water 
running underneath to the walls, it is evident that nothing short of a Swiss 
flood descending the Rhine, and rising upwards, could get access by way of the 
roof. But we can’t get slates solarge. No; but we can get very large slates, 
and we can put them together so as to be water-tight. .How? As we joimt wine- 
bottles with corks, cork the edges of the slates in grooves. They will be very 


long corks doubtless, but they will be very efficient, and will last a very long — 


time, and can be very easily replaced if needful, without the slightest dithculty 
of access, and at a very trifling cost. So now we have got a really flat roof with 
a slope, say of half an inch to the yard, tolead away the rain water, and oyer- 
hanging the wall, with a cornice all round and a parapet six inches in height, to 
prevent rain from falling over or into the street. On this parapet is an orna- 
mental railing to preyent accidents. Thus there is a flat payement on the house- 
top, as flat as the foot-payement in the street below. The slates are laid on 
rafters of iron or wood—or iron.and wood, the edges being kept together by iron 
dogs. But the slates are only an inch in thickness, and are exposed to heat and 
cold. Well, the rain and the snow will not affect them, for the cork provides 
against that. .... And nowas tothe cost. This kind of roof, once in demand, 
would be cheaper than ordinary roofs in first cost and immeasurably cheaper 
in maintenance. The roof would be at least as permanent as the walls. The 
system awaits only the riddance of smoke for open-air purposes, but for green- 
house purposes it might be accomplished to morrow. Hyery separate house in a 
row might at once possess what is at present the peculiar luxury of people who 
happen to possess corner houses. Ifa London builder about to erect a row of 
four-roomed cottages were to adopt such a system, it would be equivalent to 
adding another story as a garden to each house, with the same outlay and with- 
out increasing ground-rent, If at the same time he could arrange his fires to 
prevent them engendering smoke, and carry water on to the roof, he jwould 

rovide for the operation of washing and drying without slops in the house. 

ut we must get the Legislature at work to compel smokeless arrangements in 
dwellings as well as in factories. Looking back in these pages, they seem so 
unusual as to read like a romance. Gardens on our house-tops! Babylonian 
luxuries! But I am nothing if not practical. And, for my own part, I shall feel 
greatly obliged to any critic who will demonstrate to me that any part of this 
proposition is either not practical, or not practicable; in short, not a matter of 
pounds, shillings, and pence, by which landlords may reap profits and tenants 
reap a large amount of comfort and health,—Alt the YearRound, 


Dec. 23, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


111 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
“You see, sweet maid, we marry 
A gentle scion to the wildest stock ; 
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race; this is an art 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather: but 
The art is nature.—SHAKESPEARE. 


Dermition or Grartie.—Grafting is an operation which 
consists in uniting a plant, or a portion of a plant, to another 
which will support it, and furnish it with a part of the nutri- 
ment necessary for its growth. The plant which receives the 
graft should be furnished with roots; it is destined to draw 
nutriment from the soil, and transmit it to the part grafted. 
It is called the stock. We shall mention a few exceptions 
where the stock is a simple cutting without roots; but it is 
planted in such a manner as to be soon furnished with them. 
The other plant, or portion of plant, which is grafted on the 
stock should have at least one shoot or eye, and be in good 
condition—that is, neither withered, nor mouldy, nor decayed, 
nor wet. It is called the graft or scion; it is analagous to a 
cutting in communication with the soil, and continues its 
normal growth through the intervention of the stock. Not- 
withstanding the intimate union of the stock and the graft, 
they preserve their individual character and constitution dis- 
tinct: their layers of wood and bark continue to be developed 
without the fibres and vessels of one converging with those of 
the other. Itis, as it were, a federative union which leaves to 
the interested parties their independence. Not unfrequently 
the union of the grafted pieces suffers a clean severance at the 
point of contact, either in consequence of the weight of the 
branches, the violence of the wind, or some other casualty. 
However, the parts thus broken may be used again, either as 
stocks or grafts, just as before. Almost all dicotyledonous 
plants may be grafted. Uptothe present the monocotyledonous 
plants have been tried without success. Their structure does 
not present the least capacity for the adhesion of the parts 
when put together ; and without this intimate union, grafting 
is impossible. : 

Ossect or GraFtinc.—The object of grafting is—Ist. To 
change the character of a plant, by modifying the wood, the 
foliage, or the fruit which it was required to produce. 2nd. 
To excite the development of branches, flowers, or fruit on the 
parts of a tree where they were deficient. 3rd. To restore a 
defective or exhausted tree by the transfusion of the fresh sap 
of a vigorous kind. 4th. To bring together onthe same stem 

» the two sexes of moneecious plants, in order to facilitate their 
reproduction. 5th. To preserve and propagate a great num- 
ber of woody or herbaceous plants for use or ornament, which 
could not be reproduced by any other means of multiplication. 
Without grafting, our orchards would not contain such rich 
collections of fruits for all seasons; our forests would be with- 
out a large number of important kinds of trees ; and we should 
not experience the pleasure of seeing in our parks such a 
brilliant array of native and exotic shrubs. There remains 
one more observation to be made in favour of grafting, that is 
that the plant, or rather fragment of plant, grafted on another 
preserves its original qualities and characteristic properties. 
It will produce branches close or spreading, leaves purple or 
silvery, flowers white or rose coloured, fruit large or small, 
early or late, exactly resembling the variety from which it was 
taken, and without being influenced by the neighbourhood of, 
or contact with, several similar kinds grouped on the same 
stock. We could also quote instances of plants which, when 
grafted, grow more vigorously than when on their own roots. 
If it is considered that grafting is easy to be practised, that it 
inyolyes only a trifling degree of bodily exertion, and develops 
a love for gardening, it will be allowed that it is both a 
useful and an agreeable operation. z 

Conpirioys or Succuss.—In grafting, a great deal of the 
success depends on the skill of the operator. The other con- 
ditions essential to success are affinity in the species, vigour of 
stock and graft, the condition of their sap, their intimate 
union, the season and temperature. C. Barter. 


(To be continued.) 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
POT CULTURE OF THE TOMATO. 


Many objections have been urged against this mode of growing 
tomatoes; but owing to the changeableness of our climate, uniforrh 
success need not be expected out of doors. It has been asserted 
that plants in pots would be infested with red spider, but with plenty 
of water applied to both root and top, that little pest may be kept 
from eyer getting a footing. q 

Ripe fruits may be had by the end of April by sowing in the 
previous autumn, and keeping the plants growing on steadily in a 
pine-stove or cucumber-house, allowing a rather limited quantity 
of fruit to remain on each plant. To have them by the end of May, 
seeds should be sown in the beginning of January. The young plants 
soon come up in a genial temperature, like that of a cacumber-house, 
and a six-inch pot will be large enough to admit of a good many being 
raised; a friable loam is a good soil for them during their earlier 
stages, afterwards they may haye a compost consisting of four parts 
turfy loam and one part stable manure witha few quarter-inch bones 
incorporated with them. Tomatoes require to be potted very firmly, 
burying from a quarter to half an inch of the stem at each 
repotting. But little drainage is needed, and three, five, nine, and 


- eleven, or thirteen-inch pots are the sizes required for the different 


shiftings. The pots get filled with roots very quickly, from nine 
days to three weeks at the most being long enough between the shifts. 
When put into their fruiting-pots leave a space of one-and-a-half or 
two inches at top for surface dressings of equal parts loam and dung, 
to which may be added a little bone dust. Liquid manure should be 
given as soon as the roots find their way out of the bottom of the 
pots, watering with it every time the plants are dry, until the fruit 
begins to ripen, when it shonld be exchanged for clear water. If grown 
in melon-honses under as much light as can be given them, the 
plants make rapid progress, and when the fruit begins to change 
colour they may be remoyed to a cool-house. It is necessary to pinch 
the shoots just above the fruit, so as to keep the plants ‘‘ stocky 
and dwarf. About thirty tomatoes is a plentiful crop for one plant ; 
nothing is gained by leaving toomany. After the early fruit has been 
gathered the plants may be placed in a cold frame, keeping up a 
genial temperature by husbanding sun heat, and paying attention as 
before to stopping the shoots; remove also all decaying leaves, and 
water constantly with liquid manure, giving a slight top dressing 
about once a fortnight. When the soil gets higher than the rim of the 
pot, arrange it so as to form a sort of basin for the reception of water. 
Under this treatment, a large quantity of fine tomatoes may be had 
from a dozen plants in eleven or thirteen-inch pots. In warm seasons, 
they would doubtless do well plunged at the foot of asonth wall, 
where they should be mulched and kept well watered. I find the 
Improved Dwarf Orangefield best for pot culture. Goliath produces 
large and handsome fruit, but it is too robust for pots. Of Defiance 
T have no personal experience, but it is said to be very suitable for 
this purpose, being dwarf and remarkably prolific. 


Ilford. R. P. B. 


PROTECTION OF BROCCOLI. 


THovGH broccolies vary yery considerably in their powers of 
resisting cold, but few or any of them can be warranted zero-proot 
or anything like it. Already the frost has nearly reached that point 
in some localities, and but for its night-cap of snow, much broccoli 
would have been wrecked. As it happens, I believe most of it has 
escaped. But frosts equally or more severe are probably in store for 
us, and as we cannot command the snow to come to our aid, it will 
be wise to be well provided with protecting material. True, it is 
almost impossible to find one to equal snow in potency and efficiency. 
But that is no reason why we should not use the best materials 
within our reach. Among these may be enumerated asparagus tops, dry 
bracken, and cleanstraw. The first are the best. If cnt before they are 
dead-ripe and kept in a dry place until wanted, and then Jaid lightly 
over the crowns of the broccoli, it is astonishing how much frost they 
will keep off. Hach delicate spray shuts two doors against the loss 
of heat, and the material is so light that it cannot injure the plants 
protected. The common bracken is almost equally good as a protec- 
tion, possessing the characteristics of lightness in an almost equal 
degree. Both these protectors are likewise difficult of displacement 
by winds. So much cannot be said of straw—the first wind is almost 
sure to displace it. Being composed of single rods, as it were, it has 
likewise a great tendency to drop between the plants. For these 
reasons it should only be employed when the others cannot be had. 
Some use boughs of Spruce Fir or branches of evergreen shrubs. 
They will keep off frost, but they bring other evils, such as the 
dropping of the needle-like leaves of the former into the broccoli, 
and the flavouring of it with laurel or other leaves. Still, with these 


112 


THE GARDEN. 5 


[Dsc. 23, 1871. ~~ 


drawbacks, boughs are good protection against frost. But every 
gardener grows asparagus, and if the tops are carefully preseryed, 
enough will mostly be found to shelter the whole stock of broccoli 
from the rigours of winter to such a degree as to carry this most 
valuable crop safely through. D. T. FB. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON KITCHEN-GARDENING. 


Fennel.—The common Fennel of our gardens (Foniculum yulgare) was 
formerly much cultivated in America; and in the early days of New Hheland it 
was the custom of old ladies to carry sprigs of it to meetings, to keep them 
awake during long sermons. This practice is not yet entirely obsolete; and, in 
the more primitive portions of the country, the patch of fennel may still be 
seen, and the meeting-house is redolent of its odours. Another use for the 
plant was found by those who kept bees, who were in the habit of rubbing the 
inside of the hive with it at swarming-time, under the impression that the odour 
would attach them to their new domicile. It is sometimes smoked like tobacco, 
as a remedy for colic. In classic times the fennel was held im great esteem. 
Pliny tells us that it was so much used in the kitchen, that few meats were 
Seasoned, or dishes served up, without it. The modern Italians still cultivate it 
as a salad herb ; but it has not found much favour in England in this capacity. 
Phillips, however, states that it eats yery tender and crisp when earthed up as 
celery, which should be done at least fourteen days before it is used. The 
Same author, referring to the old superstition that snakes were yery fond of 
fennel, and cleared their eyes with its juice, says that he planted it on a bank 
in his shrubbery where he had frequently seen snakes, and frequently found 
the stalks wounded and eaten nearly half through, although the reptiles, whom 
he supposed to have been the offenders, were never caught in Slagrante delicto. 
whe evidence seems to us scarcely strong enough to conyict the snakes as the 
culprits. 

ow to Grow Good Horse-Radish.—Any out-of-the-way corner it is gene- 
rally thought will suit Horse-Radish, but my plan is to put it in one of the best 
quarters of the garden. The following is the way in which I plant it every 
year, and for four years in succession on the same piece of ground, I trench 
the ground two feet deep, giving it at the same time plenty of rotten stable 
manure. I then form some four-feet beds, like those for onions, slightly 
treading them. Between tlre beds I make alleys about eishteen inches wide and 
four inches deep. Then I go to my old Horse-Radish bed and take the roots all up. 
The thickest pieces I save for present use; the next size I secure for plants for 
my new beds, selecting for this purpose roots as long and straight as possible. 
With the back of my pruning-knife I clear all the fibres off them, and with a 
Jong smooth planting-stick make holes sideways in the beds in such a way as to 
leave the ends of the roots under ground the same depth as the tops, say three 
inches, planting about one foot apart. This should be done in November, and 
in spring all the tops will break out from the sides of the beds ; the roots will 
have four feet of space to grow in, and by planting sideways plants for another 
year can be readily secured. In this way I have grown in one yeara single 
Stick of Horse-radish twenty inches long and six inches round from a very 
slender root.—Tuurston Sournworrn, Castle Head Gardens, Grange, North 
Lancashire[ We haye neyer seen Horse-Radish grown in the way just 
described ; but/straight clean sticks of it haye been produced as follows :—The 
ground, a light black sandy soil, was manured and deeply trenched. Dibber- 
holes, in rows, were then made in it, some fifteen inches deep, and into these 
were dropped crowns from old roots, the holes being left open. Thus treated, 
we have seen sticks produced in one season as thick, but, if we recollect rightly, 
‘scarcely so long, as that named by our correspondent. | 


‘ 


THE AMATEURS REMEMBRANCER. 


In-Door Department—Howeyer winterly the weather may he it 
is surprismg how much floral beauty may be had in-doors even at this 
season, if, in addition to a little conseryatory or greenhouse, there is a 
forcing-pit, heated by hot water and furnished with a bark bed im which 
to plunge the pots. In this, bulbous plants may be brought into flower 
at any time, and among these must not be forgotten that sweet-scented, 
beautitul little plant, the Roman Hyacinth. Of that universal favourite, 
too, the Lilly of the Valley, there can scarcely be too many. Another 
charming plant that will stand gentle forcing well is Luculia gratissima, the 
great Hydrangea-like clusters of blossoms of which rank among the most 
fragrant of Christmas flowers. Roses and similar shrubs should also be 
brought forward in succession. Start some Vines in pots, in order to get 
a tew bunches of early Grapes. For Cucumbers maintain a moist, erowimg 
temperature of from 60 degrees to 70 degrees, or even a little more in the 
middle of the day, and water occasionally with weak liquid manure. Sea- 
kale and Rhubarb may now be pushed slowly into growth; but do not 
follow the old-fashioned way of covering them with heaps of leaves and 
manure out of doors. Take up the roots, place them im a covered box for 
example, and bring them forward in a little warmth. Both Seakale, 
Rhubarb, and Chicory may be forced and blanched im this way. 

Flower-Garden and Shrubberies.—Where the latter are so 
planted that the shrubs flow over on to the turf, little attention in the way 
of cleaning will be required, and this is the way all shrubberies should be 
arranged. Shrubs encroaching too much on one another, or running out 
too far over the grass, may now be pruned in. Keep walks clean and neat. 
Choice beds of Tulips and other bulbs should be protected with mats or 
other means from frost. For the coral garnished branches and spray of 
Hollies there is now great demand for weaying into wreaths and other 
tasteful devices for house decoration, and those who keep a few evergreens 
in pots, plunged in some out-of-the-way corner, for the ornamentation of 
entrance-halls, windows; &c., will be busy getting them up and dressed for 
that purpose. Among these should be some of the gold and silver Hollies, 
which are yery effective by gaslight. Little groups of Holly, with 
different coloured leaves, intermixed with dwarf Tirs, Laurustinus, Slim- 
imias, Aucubas, especially such as haye been induced to bear fruit, Laurels 
and Box associate nicely with statuary, and add life and interest to niches, 
recesses, and other places in which they may be placed. In warmer positions 
such beautiful berry-bearing plants as the different varieties of Solanum 


Capsicastrum, Ardisias, some of the new Japanese Aucubas, and dwarf 
Orange trees might be used with advantage, especially if intermixed with 
bright-leayed Draczenas, and such plants as Poinsettia pulcherrima, the 
great scarlet bracts of which are very brilliant and striking. With 
materials such as these, and cut flowers for table ornament arranged 
according to the directions given by our tasteful correspondent, “ W. T.,” 
our homes need require little more in the way of.Christmas decoration. 
Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Pruning and nailing must be pro- 
ceeded with whenever the weather is very favourable for such work. Finish 
up planting of all kinds, and throw up vacant ground rough, to be acted on 
by frost. If not already done, lay down broccolies with their heads to the 
north, or take them up wholly with balls, and replant thickly in some 
sheltered place, covering, durimg severe weather, with light, dry pea 
haulm, fern, or boughs of evergreens, a protection which should also be 
applied to such as have been left in their growing quarters. Give air on 
all favourable occasions to young cauliflowers in shallow frames, or under 
hand-glasses or cloches, to stand the winter. Carrots sown late, to draw 
young, should receive some slight protection on the occurrence of frost. 
Lettuces and Endive should also be protected under temporary frames. 
Clear autumn-sown onions some dry day from weeds, and sift some dry 
earth amongst them. In frosty weather, wheel out manure to quarters 
where it will hereafter be wanted. Jd. M. 


OBITUARY. 


DR. BERTHOLD SEEMANN. 

Tus distinguished botanist and traveller died at the Jayali Mine, 
Nicaragua, on the 10th of October last, at the early age of forty- 
seven. He was an intrepid| traveller, and had assisted in ex. 
plorations in many parts of the world. Although lately much 
engaged with important mining concerns in Central America, he was 
none the less enthusiastic botanist and collector, and quite recently 
our gardens have been greatly enriched through his efforts. Dr. 
Seemann was born at Hanover, in the year 1825. After receiving 
an excellent education in the Lyceum of his native city, he obtained 
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Gottingen, 
and was appointed, in 1846, naturalist on board her Majesty’s 
ship Herald, in which capacity he made a yoyage round the world, 
and three cruises to the Arctic regions in search of Sir John 
Franklin. He next dared to face—and faced with success—the 
perils of scientific investigation in the South Sea Islands and in 
the dismal swamps of Central America, while at the same time 
he edited the solitary English scientific ‘Journal of Botany” 
and the ‘‘ Flora Vitiensis,’’ which latter he just lived to complete. 
As a scientific writer _Dr. Seemann was widely known by his 
‘Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,” published in 1853; 
“4 Popular History of Palms,” in 1855; ‘‘ The Botany of the Voyage 
of H.M.S. Herald,’ in 1857; ‘‘ Viti—an Account of a Goyernment 
Mission to the Viti, or Fiji Islands,” in 1862 ; ‘‘ Popular Nomenclature 
of the American Flora;” ‘ Paradisus Vindobonensis ;” ‘“ Twenty- 
Four Views of the Coast and Islands of the Pacific ;’ and ‘“‘Dottings 
on the Roadside in Panama, Nicaragua, and Mosquito,” written in 
collaboration with Captain Bedford Pim, and published in 1869. Dr. 
Seemann was also a frequent contributor to the leading scientific 
journals of London and editor of the ‘‘ Bonplandia.’’ He was like- 
wise a Fellow of the Linnzean Society of London and Vice-President 
of the Imperial German Academy Naturze Curiosorum. We deeply 
regret the loss, in the prime of his life, of such an energetic and 
accomplished naturalist. 


The French Horticultural Relief Fund.—It has been determined to 
transmit all the moneys collected for this fund to M. Riviere and some Of his 
colleagues, for distribution as they may think best- ‘This seems to us the best 
course to pursue under the circumstances, as the sum collected (£540, or there- 
abouts) can alleviate but a few of the most pressing cases, and these are best 
known to the French gentlemer entrusted with the distribution of the fund. 
The losses are estimated at something like £105,000; let us, therefore, hope 
that British sympathy will be exerted more heartily in behalf of the sufferers 
before the subscription list is finally closed. i 

Crystal Palace Company.—At the annual meeting which took place the other 
day, it was stated that the past year had been a satisfactory one. The average 
yearly attendance during the last eighteen years, it was said, amounted to 
1,659,000, whilst last year the number was no less than 2,120,000, or the highest 
number that had ever visited the Palace in any one year. The total earnings for 
the year amounted to £139,330, and the expenditure to £96,028. After providing 
for debentures and preference stocks the balance would be sufficient to pay 2 per 
cent., and still leave a margin; but, upon maturely considering the subject, the 
directors felt it to be their duty strongly to advise the meeting to accept the 
smaller rate of 14 per cent. The outlay for permanent repairs had already been 
very heayy, for in the past year alone not less than £15,000 was so expended, or 
an increase of £3,324. And they had been advised by their engineer that there 
‘were other repairs, especially the renewal of the roof, which would not bear 
delay, and must be done if the company would keep the building in a safe and 
sound condition. The expense on that account, therefore, in the coming year 
was not likely to be less than in the past. The aquarium, it was mentioned, paid 
asmallrent. Since its opening it had been visited by more than 40,000 persons, 
and the receipts were upwards of £1,200, which encouraged the hope of still 
greater success in the future. Another new source of revenue was the establish- 
ment of a curling pond, the entire expense of making which was borne by the 
Curling Club. It was suggested that some restriction should be placed upon 
the issue of free passes, which last year reached the enormous number of 100,000, 


> 


Dec. 30, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


113 


> THE GARDEN. 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: changes it rather: but 
Tue Art 1s Narure.’’——Shakespeare. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WittraM Rosrnson, “ THE GARDEN ” OFricer, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
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EVERLASTING FLOWERS. 
(THE RHODANTHES.) 


TuEsE interesting subjects deserve a better fate than usually 
befalls them. Many lovely things deserve the name, but they 
‘are so badly grown or so badly selected and arranged that the 
very name must be offensive to many sensitive persons. The 
close-fitting bundles sent from Germany are cases in point. 
They often contain flowers, too, that have no real claim to the 
term “everlasting.” The most evident mistake made by those 
who gatherand preserve everlasting flowers is their neglect either 
to gather or properly preserve the loveliest of all everlasting 
flowers—the Adtercny varieties of Rhodanthe. 

Tf cut at the right time, the whole plant retains its fulness 
and beauty, and the flowers that pure but delicate rosy tint, 
till Rhodanthes are fit to gather again the following autumn. 
By that time, if not protected by a glass, the flowers are often 
obscured by dust. All the Rhodanthes are what is called 
“half-hardy annuals,’ requiring some such treatment as 
follows: Sow in March or April on a gentle hot-bed, or ina 
close frame without bottom heat, the latter mode succeeding 
perfectly, unless the seeds are sown too early in the season; 
‘they may even be sown in the open borders at the end of April 
or beginning of May, but will not then flower so early. It 


matters very little about the Rhodanthe flowering early, but it - 


is of the prentest importance that it should flower well; and 
this may be as well attained by sowing it on a warm light and 
sandy border the first week in May as by any other means. 
Cover the seeds with about one-eight of an inch of fine sandy 
soil, and take a little more pains with the sowing than is usual 
or necessary with annual flowers. But, to make sure of a crop, 
sow also some seed on a gentle hot-bed or common cold frame, 
to be planted out when an inch high. There are two or three 
beautiful congeners of this exquisite plant, all worth growing, 
though it can hardly be said that any of them is more beautiful 
_ than the old one; but if they only approached it, they would 
be valuable. One is called maculata, and: is more robust, with 
larger flowers having a dark crimson ring round the centre; 
there is a pure white variety of this. Another is atrosanguinea, 
a new and distinet species, with dark eye. The most vigorous 
and beautiful plants are, however, raised under glass for green- 
house decoration, as described in Tue GarpEn of December 16th, 
p- 73. If when they flower they are not cut, but allowed to 
seed away like the other annuals, they will, of course, soon 
perish; but if on any fine day about ten days after the first 
flowers begin to open, and when some are fully expanded— 
colour a lovely rose, with the back or outer portion of the 
- drooping, bell-like flower gradually shaded off to silvery pink, 
through the little scales which make it look like the neck of a 
dove; some opening, and numerous pretty buds around those— 
then cut as much as you want (cut them off near the ground), 
and place them on a shelf in a dry room—a darkish room for 
choice. They will prove ornaments for “in-door decoration ” 
which the artificial florist can never approach. | 
As to arrangement : well preserved Rhodanthe blooms with a 
few graceful ornamental grasses make a lovely composition, 
and far superior to any of the ugly hay-like bundles so much 
sold now, with dozens of kinds of flowers dyed and otherwise 


jammed into them. The colour of the flowers of Rhodanthe 
is so exquisitely delicate and pretty, and so likely to invite 
close inspection, that it is desirable to place them under 
close bell-glasses, where they may remain unsoiled by dust. 
We know one little tuft of Rhodanthe garnished with a spray 
of most graceful grass (Bromus brizeformis) which was placed 
under a glass shade in 1865, and which now looks almost as 
well as ever. 


PLANT LIFE IN TOWNS. 


Tue health of towns has become a hackneyed subject, but we 
seldom hear about the health of plantsin towns, Yetthe two are not 
only nearly correlated, but well-nigh identical. Were plants healthy, 
the inhabitants would probably be so likewise, and the obverse is 
true. Towns in or near to which plants refuse to thrive are also 
those most fatal to man. The primary foundations of health in both 
are heat, light, food, cleanliness, pure air, and suitable water. With 
the single exception of heat, which in the open air may be assumed 
to be nearly equal in town and country, it must be admitted that 
large towns imperil the purity, lessen the quantity, and interrupt the 
constancy of most if not all the other essentials of health. In many 
large towns the light of the sun is obscured for more than one-half 
its shiaing hours. Therefore, who can wonder at the pale faces which 
one finds among men, women, and children, and the shabby aspect of 
plants in towns? Heat is the great quickener, light the chief 
strengthener, of plants. They ever turn towards the light. The 
reason why so many die in dwelling-houses is that they have so little 
light. They linger, pine, and refuse to grow in many towns for the 
same reason. The pestilence that kills plants by thousands is bred 
of that semi-darkness which hangs as a death pall over so many of 
our smoke-capped cities. When that darkness flies before the rigid 
enforcement of a Smoke Prevention Act applied to every fire, then 
indeed will plants in towns rejoice, be clothed with new strength and 
adorned with fresh beauty. 

Of the importance of food in sufficient quantity and of congenial 
quality little need be said. It is alike essential to plant life whether 
in town or country. Short rations mean weakness ; unsuitable food 
breeds disease. The earth in its natural condition is one great store- 
house of plant food. Not such earth, however, as is common to most 
towns—an ‘‘omnium gatherum” of all kinds of refuse. In such unsuit- 
able root-runs, nevertheless, many town plants are expected to find 
their food. Is it any wonder that they fail? Plants in towns have 
many special trials to endure which we have little power to abate. 
But we can provide good earth, fully stocked with food, for their roots. 
Whether planted on the sides of our streets, in town squares, or in the 
open parks, every tree should have a space of the following dimen- 
sions wholly for its own use: It should measure ten or twelve feet 
across and four feet deep, and be stocked with the best maiden 
loam within reach; smaller shrubs and flowers to have provision 
made for- their wants on the same liberal-scale. Were this done 
at first planting we should have fewer complaints of town plants . 
refusing to grow, becoming unhealthy, or actually perishing in so 
many instances. ¢ 

Cleanliness is another grand essential to health—it is its parent, 
alike in the vegetable world and the animal kingdom. The best cure 
for dirt on plants is the water-hose overhead. Daily, or rather 
nightly sousings will keep them, in the dirtiest towns, tolerably 
clean. In public parks and town squares the whole of the gravel, 
even more than the grass, should be kept thoroughly watered, if 
plants are to be kept clean. Prevention is better, as well as much 
easier, than cure. The dust is laid on with more ease than washed 
off plants after it has been sown broadcast over them by the wind. 
If the streets and all paths are kept thoroughly watered, the great 
pest of dust, which works such disfigurement and injury among 
plants in towns, will be well-nigh abolished ; and when that happy 
day arrives—as come it must, in the interests of plant life, if not 
in our own—when every chimney consumes its, own smoke, town 
plants may remain as clean, or cleaner, than those in the country: 
for in the latter we cannot afford to water dusty roads, as is done in 
all large towns. St 

Finally, plants in towns suffer from lack of water. The air is 
fire-parched and smoke-dried, and the earth is often riddled like a 
sieve below, and made waterproof on the surface, Town trees are 
not only starved for lack of food, but literally shrivelled up for the 
want of suitable water. Drought above and below kills more plants 
in towns than all the other evils I have specified. The mischief is 
great; but the remedy is at hand. Water-pipes and sewers run full , 
past the parched plants. Turn a stream of both on to these, 
and their health and strength will be established. If sewage is 
not accessible, clean water always is. It will be observed I use 


114: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzce. 30, 1871. 


the term “suitable water.” All water is suitable but such as is 
very hard, or poisoned with mineral or chemical substances. Soap- 
suds is one of the best of applications to almost all plants; rain, or 
river water, is much better than that of springs. The secret of 
success in watering is thoroughness. ‘To the roots, much and seldom 
must be our motto; to the tops, every day, or rather, every 
evening, if practicable, during dry weather. But these overhead 
showers must not be trusted to for watering the roots. The latter 
must haye enough to drench them through to their lowest depths. 

D. T. BF. 


Suburban Trees and their Destroyers.—Nothing has 
appeared in your columns in which I take more hearty interest than 
in your efforts to arouse public attention to the wretched condition 
of our London squares, and to what they might be made if properly 
managed, and also to the want of more trees for both shade and 
ornament on the principal thoroughfares leading from town to 
suburban districts. Butthereis another matter of evenmoreimportance 
than the planting and proper management of such trees as it is 
desirable to haye, and that is, the preservation of those that already 
exist. Londonis rapidly absorbing on all sides what a few years 
ago were outlying districts. If its present rate of progress is con- 
tinued, this generation will see many of the villages that are now 
situated half-a-dozen miles from the town properly so called, united 
to it by interminable lines of bricks and mortar, and, unless an effort 
is made to preserve the few trees that at present flank the main 
roads, the suburbs will soon be as leafless as the heart of the city. 
The road to Southgate is pronounced by all acquainted with it to be 
one of the prettiest round London. Many of the houses that fringe 
it are large and substantial, and are inhabited by well-to-do people. 
Such cottages as still remain are neat in themselves, and possess 
nice little well-kept front gardens, in which may be found, along 
with a host of other appropriate things, those universal favourites, 
the rose and the honeysuckle, revelling in luxuriant growth. Our 
local horticultural society has done much to stimulate small holders 
in this direction by offering prizes for the best kept gardens. The 
roadway is divided from the ample footpath by a broad margin of 
grass, on which stood a beantiful row of lime trees, which, judging 
from their appearance, must haye been planted some fifty or sixty 
years ago. Apart from their stately look, these afforded a grateful 
shade to pedestrians. But now, I am sorry to say, they must be num- 
bered with things of the past, the local board haying within the last 
few weeks employed men to behead the whole of them some ten feet 
from the ground, leaving them hideous monuments of district mis- 
management. After such vandalism as this, surely London wants a 
Haussmann, not only to rectify the blunders and shortcomings of 
times gone by, but to prevent such atrocities as that to which I haye 
just alluded.—T. Batyus, Southgate. 

How to keep Cats out of Town-Gardens.—Has anyone with 
a small garden in a densely-populated neighbourhood eyer been 
troubled with cats? Has anyone had reason to observe that natural 


curiosity, that incarnate loye of Imowledge, which impels the feline — 


race to search for it round the roots of freshly-planted specimens ? 
Haye finished beds borne witness to the infernal gambols aw clair de 
la lune? present a “perfect cure,” or, what is better, prevention. 
The material.is simple enough, and obtainable everywhere; it is 

wire-netting. But howto apply it? At 

first I had it fixed on the tops of the 
- walls and fences, thus raising them four 

feet all round the premises. Well, this. 

answered for about an hour and a half, 

after which interval it was of no ser- 

vice whatever, apparently an attraction. 

Tabbies and tortoisehells, tailed and tail- 

less alike, seemed to approve of and fall 
into the arrangement readily. They also brought friends to see the 
novelty. Now, the grandest discoveries have ever been of the simplest 
character. By simply taking down the wire-netting and fastening it 
flat on the top of the wall or fence, like a coping, projecting two feet 
on each side—if it bend down by its own weight and form an angle 
So much the better—I have for now six months been able to defy all 
the assaults of the enemy. I haye seen many a grimalkin, perched 
in a tree, with wistful eye ‘‘ view the landscape o’er,” but never yet 
has one managed to cross. It might be asked, Why have the wire on 
your own side too? Stop abit; the foe may get in through a gate 
or window carelessly left open, and then, if anyone is fond of what 
our neighbours call le sport, if he admires feats of agility, he will 
wish to keep the intruder from getting out immediately. Let him 
close the gate and begin. To watch the pursued puss run or rather 
fly along up in the angle A, is a delight hardly to be surpassed, except 
by watching two! To see ‘‘ the affrighted foe race round the walls 
and run to each ayenue,”’ will be vengeance enough without the whip, 


with which, however, it is well to be armed, as I have found a cat in 
despair face about and attack dogs and children. Let this simple 
remedy be tried. I will answer for it that the angle B will keep any 
cat from getting in, and the angle A from getting out, until you choose 
to let it.— Penumbra, in “ Journal of Horticulture.” 


TOWN TREES. 


THE trees best fitted for street and square planting about large 
towns, where smoke and dust abound, are such as will look clean, 
shining, fresh, and flourishing, after every shower of rain. Their 
foliage, too, should be of beautiful shape, and change to various 
tints in antumn, mostly falling off all at once, instead of causing a 
continual litter on the occurrence of every puff of wind for weeks. 
They should, moreover, be such as will form a nice, pleasant, and 
variable summer shade, admitting freely light and air in winter. 
Nothing adds so much to the adornment of towns or villages as 
judicious tree planting by the side-walks of streets, waste corners, 
village greens, &c. Such embellishments give to cities an air of 
verdant beauty, which never fails to interest the casual visitor, 
and they comfort the habitants by their welcome shade during the 
heat ofsummer. But independently of the interest which they excite 
when budding out in the spring, in blossom, or in fruit, they soften and, 
in a measure, regulate the atmosphere, abating its excessive heat in 
Summer and partially breaking heavy gales and storms. b 

The following, to some extent, embody these desiderata, and are 
well fitted for planting in large towns where much smoke, dust, fog, and 
darkness preyail, viz. :—Platanus orientalis, P. acerifolia, P. hispanica, 
P. occidentalis, P. pyramidalis, and P. laciniata; Liquidambar ; 
Salisburia ; Populus alba and P. canadensis ; Weeping Willow ; Horse- 
Chestnut, Scarlet-Chestnut; variegated Sycamore; Acer macro- 
phyllum, A. platanus; and A. barbatum,; Lilacs, on account of their 
early buds and blossoms; Laburnums; double and single scarlet and 
white Thorns; and Syringas. The common Robinia and its varieties 
also make good town trees. JAMES BARNES. 


SOILS, MANURES, &c. 


SOIL FOR POTTING. 


Ox of the most common and fatal errors into which the 
mexperienced fall is that of making choice of inert and finely 
pulyerised soil for potting with. "This and insufficient draim- 
age are more disastrous to pot plants than any other two points 
of culture that can be named. To pot plants m common 
garden soil which is generally destitute of fibry matter, and at 
the same time to neglect thorough drainage, is the shortest 
and surest way of reducing a plant, however hardy and ~ 
vigorous, to a state of inaction and premature decline. Such 
soil is destitute to a great extent of what forms the food of 
plants. Were this its only famlt, it might be remedied by the 
application of stimulants in a liquid form; but the principal 
want or error hes in its methanical condition being at variance. 
with the requirements of a healthy pot plant. What is required 
is organic or turfy matter, which in its gradual decomposition 
affords food to the plant, and at the same time forms a root. 
medium, which freely admits the wholesome influence of the 
atmosphere, and has the power of absorbing therefrom the 
esssential gases so necessary to the well-being of plant life. © 
A plant potted im finely pulverised soil, or rather dust, 
entirely destitute of fibre particles, finds itself, especially 
after frequent waterings, in a close hardened medium. It 
young roots are ever formed in a healthy condition they 
are most difficult to be kept alive, if that be at all possible 
under such circumstances. Such a body of soil, especially 
if watered with water im which there is a sediment, soon 
becomes solid, and no tender plant can thrive in it. The 
soil most suitable for the growth of plants in pots should 
contain a large proportion of decomposing fibry matter, such 
as the roots and herbage which are common to the surface of 
old pastures. The fibry matter which such soil contains not~ 
only presents in its gradual decomposition the constituent 
elements which form the chief food of plants, but prevents at 
the same time the soil from becoming compressed and soured. 
Such soil should be chopped up or teased with the hand without 
removing the fibre. Sifting should never be had recourse to, 
except when it is to be used for potting young things mtovery 
small pots; and cyen then, instead of separating the fibre from 


Dec. 30, 1871. 


THE GARDEN. 


115 


the finer soil, it should be all passed through the sieve, simply 
for the purpose of breaking it up and making it fit for going 
into small pots without taking the fibre out of it. Soil of this 
fibry_description—fresh and open—should form the chief of 
mixtures for potting with, and is in itself very nutritious. 
Manurial substances, such as leaf mould and rotten dung, can 
be added to sucha staple with safety in the case of grosser- 
feeding plants. The amountof sandadded to it must be decided 
by the character of the roots which various plants make. 
Heaths, azaleas, and the generality of New Holland plants, 
which make fine hair-like roots, require a more sandy soil than 
others; while such as oranges and camellias, which make strong 
crow-quill like roots, demand a very moderate admixture of 
sand. The former plants, too, require more of a peaty than a 
loamy or calcareous soil; but in all cases there should bea 
large amount of fibrous material. In using such soil, it should 
always be inclined to the dry side, as, when used wet, it is apt 
to become compressed and ill-conditioned. A 


~ 


House Sewerage.—The distressing illness of his Royal Highness 
the Prince of Wales has aroused the public toa sense of the danger of 
haying their houses provided with fever-traps. I will explain how I turn 
the fever-trap into. a harmless, useful adjunct to my garden. I have 
the cesspool, or dead-well, dug as far from the house and well as the 
limits of my garden will allow; the top of the cesspool is covered 
loosely with a stone, leaving space for any gas there may be to escape. 
As soon as the gardener comes to his work, he sprinkles earth upon 
the previous twenty-four hours’ accumulation, sometimes adding a 
little lime. When he requires any manure for the garden, he goes to 
the dead-well and takes from thence a highly fertilizing and inodorous 
compound, equalin every way andsimilar to the A B C, containing, 
indeed, some accessories of fertilization that are eliminated in the 
A BC process. I utilized the sewage from the house and stable in 
the manner I have described for three years whilst in Hampshire, and 
am doing the same now in Surrey. The top of the well being pretty 
open, no.gas can accumulate. The application of earth and lime 
entirely deodorises the matter, by the aid of which I grow roots and 
cattle-melons of enormous size.—Auticus. 

Earth-Closets for the Garden.—Ten years ago, and during 
the time of the formation of the new gardens here, no expense what- 
ever was spared witha view to make, everything as complete and 
comfortable for the work people as it could possibly be made; and 
the accommodation then provided leads me to speak of the water- 
closets. On account of these being used by a number of people, say 
from thirty to fifty, for a period of ten years, they were a continual 
source of annoyance, being every now and then ont of order, and they 
emptied themselves into a cesspool, which overflowed in a disagreeable 
way in the sunk fence which cut off the gardens from the park. 
About twelyemonths ago, therefore, when, from the severity of the 
winter, pipes were bursting in all directions, I resolved to try the 
dry-earth closet-system, as we had come toa complete breakdown 
with our water-closet plan. The site chosen for our new earth-closet 

~ Was in our rubbish-yard, where there is always abundance of earth 
thrown out from the potting-shed, and here we erected our closet, 
or I should rather say, closet and shed combined; the dimensions 
_ of which are thirty feet long, eight feet wide, and eight feet 
high; at one end we fixed the closet, which occupies six feet, the 
remaining twenty-four forming an open shed for the storage of 
deodorised feeces when mixed with earth. The closet is entirely 
shut off from the mixing or storage department; the feces bin 
being curtained oyer by a wooden flap, which is hooked up every 
_ morning by the person whose duty it is to cover with earth the 
soil which has been deposited during the previous night and day. 
Once a week the bin is cleared out and thrown back to the end of 
the shed, where it remains until wanted for manurial purposes. 
The system has now ‘been used for nearly a year, and the quantity 
of fertilised earth thrown back to the end of the shed does not 
yet exceed two ordinary cartloads; and this, I believe, might 
again be used as a deodoriser in cases where earth was not so con- 
veniently to be had as it iswith us. This closet, although situated 
within twelve feet of a much frequented walk, hidden only by a few 
bushes, gives as little indication of its presence as though it were a 
hundred miles away. Having no machinery, it does not require the 
earth, to be either dry or sifted, but used just as it comes from the 
potting shed. In this case earth has most advantageously superseded 
water, and peat-charcoal will doubtless soon effectually supersede 
earth for deodorising purposes, not only for closets generally, but also 
for the sewage of large towns. Hitherto, even our best engineers 
seem to have but one idea with regard to the treatment of the sewage 
question, viz., the erection of enormously expensive steam-engines, 


~ 


and the purchase of hundreds of acres of land upon which to pump 
the sewage. For this purpose a town near to where I am now writing 
was advised by its engineer to spend over £200,000, but the authorities, 
before committing themselves, asked what this £200,000 would give 
them ? ‘Only an experiment,” was all the answer which could be 
obtained. Therefore, until something more tangible shall have been 
fixed upon, better perhaps let the pestiferous ammonia continue to 
flow into our rivers as it has hitherto done. Must another Watt 
or another Stephenson be created before the sewage difficulty 
ean be solved ?—Winriam Minter, Combe Abbey Gardens, near 
Coventry. {The dry-earth system deseryes adoption in every 
garden.—Ep. | 


PLANT MATERIAL FOR PAPER. 


Ar a late meeting of the Society of Arts a paper was read by Mr. 
R. Johnson, on ‘‘ Esparto,” including practical remarks on the nature, 
cultivation, past history, and future prospects of the plant: also, a 
demonstration of the importance to the paper-making trade of prompt 
and vigorous measures for its preservation. Mr. Johnson commenced 
by remarking that esparto, or Spanish grass, was at present almost 
universally used in the paper trade; that most of our leading journals 
and periodicals were printed on paper made from this material; the 
imports into this country having increased from 50 tons in 1856, to 
over 100,000 tons in 1870, and exceeded 130,000 tons in eleven 
months of the present year: the value haying also advanced from £4 
a ton in 1858 to the sum of £10, the current price last year. After 
alluding to the knowledge possessed by the ancients of the value of 
the plant, its botanical classification, and its appearance and growth, 
Mr. Johnson said that the best climate for its production was on the 
sea-coast at moderate altitudes. Here it was fine, short, even esparto, 
so much prized by paper-makers. In the interior this prime sort will 
form one-half and sometimes no more than one-fifth of the whole. A 
sandy or thinly-coated stony soil is suitable, but the grass never 
reaches perfection in clay. The most suitable zone runs from 32° to 
41°, including the southern part of Spain and northern rivers of 
Africa. When fully ripe in the autumn the leaf or annual growth is 
pulled off the perennial stock, or atochon, which is left uninjured in 
the ground, ready to send forth shoots in November or December, 
The operation of harvesting should always take place in dry weather. 
Immense waste has taken place owing to want of care in managing 
the crop. It is estimated that at the time it was first used for paper- 
making the quantity in Spain amounted to about 220,000 tons; but 
since then large quantities have been allowed to rot in the ground, or 
have been grubbed up to make room for cereals or to serve as thatch. 
When the sudden demand took place, instead of going back to dormant 
lands in the interior, the collectors called on the coast for double 
crops, which hadamost deteriorating influence on the crop, and insome 
districts led to the complete extinction of the plant, not that double 
cropping in itself was injurious, if carefully and judiciously done, 
but the harm was caused by the host of careless harvesters. Careful 
cultivation is essentially necessary for the growth and preservation 
of the plant, which otherwise will yanish away. Mr. Johnson then 
gaye some practical suggestions on the best mode of preserving and 
propagating esparto from personal experience, including observations 
on raising the plant from the seed, the time of sowing, mode of trans- 
planting, and the method of burning. The latter mode consisted in 
firing the old atochas or roots, by which means the soil is cleansed, 
and stimulating the plant, it being believed that the atochas so pro- 
duced are quite as healthy and long-lived as the seedlings. This 
mode can only be applied to old lands; and with reference to new 
lands, the sowing process is to be preferred to transplanting. The 
process of burning has several advantages: it destroys the old worn- 
out atochas, it cleans the roots of the young plant, and leaves in the 
soil an efficient manure to sustain and stimulate the young plant. As 
previously stated, the amount of esparto formerly grown was estimated 
at 220,000 tons, but at present it is doubtful whethermore than 150,000 
tons could be mustered. 

Mr. Hyde Clarke suggested that the growth of esparto grass should 
be encouraged in Asia Minor, where the climate was suitable, and no 
doubt every facility would be afforded by the Ottoman Government, 
as it had alfeady done for cotton, and suggested that the Council of 


the Society of Arts should take the matter up as one of great 


importance. 

Other speakers followed, and from the general observations made 
it appeared that as it took about fifteen years to bring the plant to 
maturity, the establishment of new esparto growing districts would 
not bring the relief to the paper trade which was required in pro- 
viding an immediate supply of some cheap and good material. 
The fibre of wood had been tried, but had proved a failure, 
and it was added that it must be regarded simply in the light of 
adulteration. 


116 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dre. 30, 1871. 


a = 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


The Egg Plant.—In America the fruit of the ees plant grows 
as large as a moderate-sized gourd, and it is there a delicious veget- 
able. We might try them in pits and frames in summer, planting 
them out on a gentle hotbed, and giving them a yery sunny position. 
Many say they do not understand how others can like the egg plant. 
We can: cooking is everything. The best directions are given in 
the American Agricultwrist by one of its house-keeping readers. Cut 
the fruit across into thin slices, say a quarter of an inch thick; salt 
and lay these together over-night;,in the morning take them from 
the brine, and sprinkle finely-powdered cracker over both sides of 
the slices ; then fry brown (not black), in just enough fat to keep 
them from sticking to the griddle. Some use Indian meal, instead 
of cracker, but the cracker is best. We eat them thus cooked, and 
esteem them a really cheap delicacy, though we once,thought them 
poor stuff. A subscriber at our elbow says :—‘‘ Cut them into slices 
nearly half an inch thick; sprinkle on salt; lay them together with 
a light weight on the top; in the morning drain from tke brine, rol] 
in flour, and fry in butter, and they can’t be beat.” 


Russian way of Dressing Cucumbers.—The cucumber is sliced in the usual 
way. A few celery leayes must be previously chopped very fine, and mixed 
with a good quantity of the best oil, sufficient vinegar, pepper, and salt being 
added to give it the proper piquancy. This mode of dressing cucumber makes 
an agreeable change im summer to many palates. As the flavour of celery is 
very powerful, proper caution is requisite. 

The Miniature Savoy Cabbage.—This has been one of the most useful of 
our green vegetables during the recent severe frost. The seed was sown March 
23th, and the plants were put ont in the usual way when forward enough. They 
have formed compact hearts the size of a tea-cup to that of a breakfast-cup. 
Dhose who doat on solid savoysas big as drums would despise these little things; 
but they suit our taste well, because elegant, tender, and delicate; whereas 
gigantic savoys are inelegant, tough, and coarse, no matter how skilfully they 
may be cooked and seryed. The miniature sayoy bears much the same relation 
to the savoy proper as the elegant and delicate London colewort, or ‘‘ collard,” 
bears to the cabbage proper; and these two little treasures of the kitchen-garden 
are equally unprofitable if judged by mere dead weight or bulk of produce. We 
haye received the miniature savoy under a yariety of names, such as ‘Tom 
Thumb,” ‘Little Pixie,” and ‘‘ New Harly Green Dwarf,” but there appears to 
be only one stock of it; at all events, we can find no difference im our several 
samples to justify difference of name.—S. H., in ‘‘ Gardeners’ Magazine.” 


Colorado Produce—Grace Greenwood, in a letter to the New York Times, 
giving an account of Denver autumn fare, writes :—‘‘ The buildings devoted to 
farm products and mineral specimens were always crowded, and were to me by 
far the most interesting departments. ‘ 
stock, but nowhere on earth had I ever beheld such immense, such Brobding- 
nagian vegetables. Think of carly potatoes, sound and sweet to the core, 
weighing 6 lbs. apiece! Consider a turnip weighing 22 lbs.!_ Bring your mind 
up to a cabbage of 501bs.! Shudder before an awful blood-beet of 16 Ibs., and 
make obeisance before a pumpkin actually weighing 130 Ibs,! I really reverence 
that pumpkin, that mountain avalanche of summer sunshine. I would make a 
pulpit of it, or the platform of Woman’s Rights Convention, or put it to some 
other sacred or dignified use. Think of Spanish cucumbers by the yard, and 
wheat, oats, and barley more than six feet tall. You need not be surprised to 
have a Colorado friend write to you from his ranch in this wise :—‘ Sitting in the 
cool shade of a stalk of barley growing by my door?” _ 

When to Peel Potatoes.—One party argues that it is necessary to rethove 
the skims before boiling, to permit hurtful gases to escape, and to allow the 
water to enter the potato, to cook it thoroughly. As to the gases, there need be 
no fear. Good sound potatoes contain no gas that is noxious. Instead of 
opening a way for the water to readily enter the potato, we think it desirable to 
keep it ont as much as practicable, Potatoes contain water enough in their 
composition to answer all purposes for cooking, as is seen in the moist substance 
of a baked potato, which is generally conceded by almost everybody to be better 
than the boiled article. It is stated that a pound of the substance of this yeget- 
able contains about three quarters of a pound of watery juice, to two or two 
and a half ounces of starch. In cooking, the water of the juice is absorbed by 
the starch grains, which swell and often burst the cells. The albumen coarulates 
and forms irregular fibres. There is, then, no necessity for letting water enter 
the potato through openings madein the skin. Even if potatoes boiled whole 
were no better than thosé peeled before cooking, economy would decide in 
fayour of the former practice. Part of the substance is necessarily wasted by 
peeling raw. It also takes more time than after cooking. They will Keep hot 
much longer if the skins are left until used ab the table; .but it is generally 
thought preferable to mash and otherwise prepare them before placing them 
before guests.—American Paper. ; 

_ Vegetables in London Dining-Rooms.—It is myfortune to dine occas:onally 
in what are considered the best London dining-rooms, in which the meat is 
generally irreproachable, the wines drinkable, the beer perfection ; but I hardly 
ever get any vegetable that is edible. Nothing but an extreme weaknes for 
asparagus could have induced me to face it as served at Simpson’s, the Rainbow, 
and other London dining-rooms this year. Not only its smalmess—though it is 
Sometimes very small—not only the meagre size of the “‘dish”” served up to.an 
adult Christian, do I complain of, nor its price, but thé way im which decayed and 
blackened and dirty “sticks” are served up among the better ones. Itis bad 
enough to have it poor and thin; it is bad enough to have but very little of it 
even in that state; but it is intolerable that the cook should not bestow on the 
removal of the decay that arises in the conveyance of this yeretable from the 
market gardens of London and Paris to the pot, or while 4t is lying in state 
in Covent Garden, as much attention as he does to assorting his potatoes. As 
for the lettuces—leathery, hard, and dirty even in the month of May—they are 
only fit to throw to rabbits that have good teeth and get plenty of exercise. 
There is no more reason why they should be so than that we should have crab 
apples instead of Ribston pippins. But the radishes, the radishes! Unless your 
readers were all unhappy wretches who had run short of provisions in traversing 
some uninhabited country, and tried many a bitterly-disappointing root, I could 
hope to give them no idea of the hard, long, spongy, fibre-girt, acrid-tasting roots 
that do duty for radishes in London dining-rooms. These haye no more in 


I had seen elsewhere as grand-looking 


common with the delicate little masses of crisp suceulence whith well-grown and 
timely-gathered radishes present, thana wiry old swedeturnip, ready to start for 
seed, has with a tender garden turnip gathered a few months after its birth. No 
doubt the majority of persons who.frequent such places have no idea of a better 
radish, or we should not haye-these rats’ tails disgracing the civilization and 
cultivation of the nineteenth century. Ignorance may be bliss in the case of the 
creatures one pities as they munch these masses of thready and bitter tissue, but 
it is all the time very bad for their digestion and teeth, as well as offensiye to the 
eyes and ears of sensitive person.—V., in ‘* Field.” Fl: 
Frijoles.—From the town of Taos, in the extreme north, to the Isthmus of 
Telmantepec in the south, there is not a Mexican cottage, however humble, 
where frijolés are not cooked and eaten at least once, and often twice, durime 
the twenty-four hours, and that too, where there are plenty of other edible 
substances of superior quality—as, for instance, the banana, the yam, the sweet 
potato, the manioc root, andan endless list of other roots and fruits, available 
for food. The frijolé is nothing more than what we are accustomed to call a” 
“kidney bean,’? and known to our French neighbours as the “‘haricot.”” Itis” 
true, the kinds eaten in Mexico are somewhat different from either our scarlet- 
runners or dwarfs. But they are only varieties of the same plant; differing 
from the French haricots more in the colour of their outward cuticle than in 
their essential substance or flavour. The kind commonly used in Mexico—that 
mostly met with on the table-lands—is a small black bean (phaseolus Hernan- — 
dezii) : while another sort of a brownish-red colour is cultivated on low-lying 
tropical lands of the coast, The latter has the reputation of being a superior 
kind—considered as an article of food. Frijolés in Mexico are not eatén, as with 
us, pods and all, in their greenunripe state. Before coming into the kitchen they 
are fully ripe, and shelled clean of their capsules—in short, they are in sacks, 
In Mexico these beans are first boiled until they haye become thoroughly soft. 
To effect this a little lye is sometimes thrown into the earthen pot in which the — 
boiling is done—just as in preparing Indian corn for tortillas, When well boiled 
the beans are next submitted to a simmering process, being mixed with a little 
lard and some chili pepper—not the dry, pulverised dust, known to us as 
“cayenne,” but the green, pulpy pod of the capsicum, crushed between the two 
stones used in tortilla making. In addition to the lard and capsicums, the 
frijolés are further sayoured with just a sowpcon of onion, or it may be garlic; 
thus producing a dish that, for piquancy, is not easily excelled, and, all things 
considered, can scarcely be equalled in cheapness. If introduced into England, 
and naturalised in our cottage homes, it would prove a real blessing—cheaper 
than even dry bread and cheese, and far more palatable than a scrap of badly- 
cured American bacon—the only article of so-called flesh-meat which labourers 
have usually the privilege of tasting. The frijolé will grow im the climate of 
England as well as upon the soil of Mexico: indeed, it does grow here, thriving 
most luxuriantly, and yielding a hundredfold—since it is but the scarlet-runner, 


or the still more prolific ‘‘dwarf.’’? And capsicums can also be cultivated in 


any quantity, while onions are grown everywhere. Lard is not dear—at all 
events, it is the cheapest of culinary aids—and im the cooking of frijolés only a 
very, small quantity is required. This dish, of course, calls for an accompani- 
ment of bread, just as any other stow or soup; and in Mexico it is eaten with 
the universal torti?7a—the latter, as is well known, being torn into pieces, and 
employed as a scoop or spoon, that is swallowed with each mouthful of the 
stew.—Mood Journal. 


Salads and Salad-Making.—The art of making a salad is one of those 
attributes with which every person credits himself, whereas in truth it is 
possessed by a very small number of the gifted few. ‘The Huglish, as a rule, 
are as crude and coarse in their salads as in their cooking. A hard, overgrown, ~ 
cos lettuce, some tough, pungent, fibrous, or woolly radishes, a few onions, and 
a bunch of watercress put into a dish, with some commen malt vineger, pepper, 
mustard, and salt, constitute to the majority of English people the bean itéal of 
asalad. We would as soon graze with Nebuchadnezzar, or turn ruminant ab 
once. There are salads and salads, graduating from the simple repast to the 
most elaborately prepared viands, culminating in the glories of delicious lobster 
salad. yen the simplest form of salad admits of preparation on several 
different principles. Our own method is diametrically opposed to the common 


. practice, but let our readers give it a trial; they can but return to the other 


system if they do not like our directions. The ordinary plan may be exemplified 
by the following directions for a lettuce salad: Wash and pick two or three well- 
bleached lettuces, taking off the outer leaves; then dry them well in an open 
wicker-work basket made with a handle, swinging it to and fro at arm’s length 
to get rid of the water, and cut them across a few times (not very small) ; mix 
a saltspoonful of salt into a tablespoonful of vinegar until dissolyed, and pour ib 
over the salad, adding half a spoonful more vinegar to suit the palate if desired; 
then pour in three tablespoonfuls of Lucca oil, sprinkle a little pepper over this, — 
and mix the whole with a wooden spoon and fork, and keep turning the salad 
over and over as you mix it, until it has well imbibed all the ingredients. A few 
nasturtium flowers are often added, which give a far more pleasant zest than ~ 
cayenne pepper; watercress, purslane, or mustard-and-cress may be introduced 
if agreeable. In this plan the vinegar is first added to the washed salad, and a 
large amount of stirring is required to diffuse the oil, so that the salad should 
not taste oily. Our system is the opposite. ‘The lettuce (and we prefer that 
most delicious of all lettuces, the soft Neapolitan, the merits of which are 
appreciated but by few cognoscenti in this country)—the lettuce, we say again, 
should not be washed if the process can be dispensed with, bub if necessary 
each leaf should be separately wiped, cut up, and put inthe bowl. If you must 
wash your salad, you cannot be too careful in draiming all the water from it, for 
every drop of water left in a salad tends to spoil it, no matter what amount of 
talent has been bestowed upon the dressing of it. Great care is also necessary 
in picking the salad, so as to exclude every leaf that is the least tainted or dis- 
coloured, Itis a great mistake to cut mp uae and endives into fine threads ; 
this operation at once destroys the freshness, taste, and character of the dish. 
Of course I do not mean that cos lettuces simply split in two should be made 
into asalad; but there is a happy medium, which is always bestin most things. 
Besides, it is by no means the largest lettuces which make the best salads; the 
cos lettuce, which we call Roman: lettuce, is all yery well in its way, but the 
cabbage letttce—the laitwe pommée, when itis well pommée—is by far preferable. 
This should be cut into quarters like an orange, and n0 more. Now add the oil, 
and stir until each portion is covered with a thin film ; then stir together in your 
salad-spoon the salt, yinegar (which should be real French), pepper, and a 
little powdered white sugar, without which no good salad was ever made. 

these to your lettuce, stir, eat, and be thankful, If you like additional flavours, 
they may be added. Mustard may be mixed with the vinegar, and cayenne used 
with orinstead of common pepper. The remotest suspicion of scraped onion or 
shallot may be added—not large slices, which will make you odorous for a week 
—and other vegetables, as beetroot, cresses, lamb’s lettuce, &c., may be intro- 
duced ; butlet the grand pace still remain, namely, that the salad be dry, and 
that the oil be universally diffused before the vinegar is added. By so doing 
salad is never greasy, and the vinegar and other adjuncts preserve their true 
flayour, not bemg absorbed by the vegetables. So muchfor the preparation of 
a simple salad.i—Zhe G, C., in ** Queen.” ‘ 


} 
{or 


Dec. 30, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


117 


THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


HERBACEOUS PLANTS FOR EXHIBITION. 


Anour two years ago the Royal Botanic Society judiciously offered 
a prize for twenty-four hardy herbaceous plants, and fearing that 
there might be little or no competition for it, I did my best to back 
the Society’s efforts, in what I thought to be a good direction, by 
sending a group, as I was anxious the class should not fall to the 
ground. I am, therefore, pleased to find that the Royal Horticultural 
Society has taken the same matter in hand, and that they offer many 


+ 


prizes for plants of this kind, viz. :— 
, May 15th, 12 Hardy Perennials in 12-inch pots. 


June 19th, 
July 17th, 


6 Pesonies in pots. 


12 Hardy Perennials in 12-inch pots. 
6 Delphininms in 12-inch pots. 
6 Pentstemons in 8-inch pots. 


6 Phloxes in 10-inch pots. 
6 Lobelias in 8-inch pots. 


Aug. 21st. 12 Hardy Perennials in 12-inch pots. 
Besides cut blooms of Peonies, Phloxes, Pyrethrums, &c. 

In order, therefore, that these prizes may be well contested, I 
have made out a list of such plants as will constitute the basis of a 
good collection, from which specimens for exhibition may be selected. 
The names are those under which they are generally known, and 
they represent plants which flower from April to September, and 
which are suitable for pots, viz. :— 


Alyssum orientale 
A. saxatile compactum 
Anemone alba 
Anthericum Liliastrum 
Aquilegia cwrulea 
_ Armeria cephalotes 
Astilbe (Spire@a) japonica 
Aubrietia deltoidea 
randifiora 
thionema mem- 
~branaceum 
Betonica grandiflora 
tricta 


8 

Calystegia pubescens 
flore pleno d 

Campanula carpathica 

©. carpathica alba 

C. coronata 

C. coronata cerulea 

C. grandis 

©, persicifolia 

C. p. plena 

C. p. albo-plena 


Cc. R maxima 
C. Trachelium albo-plena 
C. turbinata 
C. turbinata grandiflora 
C. Van Honttei 
Centaurea montana 
Conyallaria majalis 
C. majalis striata 

is lanceolata 


=) 

5 

rs 

S 

mE 
“aiqnop 


D. Keteleerii 

‘D. Bella Donna 

D. coronet 

D. formosum 

D. Hendersonii 

D. Le Mastadonte 
Demagnificum 

D. Jules Bourgeois 

D. Nahamah 

Dielytra spectabilis 
Doronicum austriacum 
Gaillardia Loiseli 
Gentiana acaulis 
Geranium pratense fl. pl. 
G. sylvaticum fi. pl. 
Harpalium rigidum 
ope matronalis 
albo-pleno 


Tooting. 


> 


*o[surs 


Hesperis matronalis 
purpureo-pleno 

Iberis corresfolia 

I. Garrexiana 

Tris nudicaulis 

I. germanica 

I. g. Enchantress 

I. g. Smee 

I, g. Jacquesiana’ 


Phlox Premices des 
Bonheur 

P. Princess Troubetskoy 

P. Purple Prince 

P. Roi des Roses 

P. Roi des Blanche 


P. Souvenir de Ferns ~ 


P. Amabile 
P. Dame Blanche 


I. g. Duchesse de Nemours P. Ninion 


I. g. Libandi 

I. g. pallida 

I, g. Versaillaise 

TI. g. Walner 

Liatris spicata 

Lupinus polyphyllus 

L. polyphyllus albus 

Linum flavum 

L. campanulatum 

Nierembergia rivularis 

Cnothera fruticosa 

&. Fraseri 

Onosma taurica 

Peonia tenuifolia flore 
pleno Be 

P. officinalis rubra 


plena 
P. Caroline Allain 
P. Etendard de Gand 
P. Eugenie Verdier 
P. Festive maxima 
P. Jeanne d'Are 
P. Madame Calot 
P, Madame Furtado 
P. Modeste Guerrin 
P, pulcherrima 
P. Reine de Roses 
Pentstemon glaber 
P. procerus 
Phlox divaricata 
P. Nelsonii 
P. subulata 
P. Aurora Boreale 
P. Comte de Lambertye 
P. Edith 
P. George Ville 
P, Liervallii 
P. Lucien Tissarand 
P. Madame Cannert 

d’Hamale 
P. Miss Logan 
P. Mr. Malet 
P. M. Edouard André 
P. Pius 1X 
P. Professor Koch 


P. Virgo Marie 

P. Mons. Ingres 

P. Souvenir de Soultzmott 
Polygonatum multiflorum 
Physostegia virgini- 


ana 

Potentilla Louis Van 
Houtte 

P. Pheebias 

P. Le Dante 

P. Dr. Andry 

Primula cortusoides 

P. amena 

P. nivalis 

Pyrethrum floribundum 
plenum 

P. fulgens plenissimum 

P. Gustave Hertz 

P. imbricatum plenum 

P. Iveryanum 

P. Lady Blanche 

P. Madame Munier 

P. Monsieur Barral 

P. niveum plenum 

P. Rey. J. Dix 

P. roseum plenum 

P. rubrum 

Spirwa palmata 

Statice latifolia 

8. latifolia alba 

Stenactis speciosus 

Tritoma Uvaria glauces- 
cens 

T. grandis s 

Trollius napellifolins 

Tradescantiavirginicaalba 

T. virginica azurea 

T. v. rubra 

Trillium grandifloruam 

Veronica urticefolia 

V. verbenacea 

V. caucasica 

V, multifida 

V. maritima alba 


“ayquop 


V. Guthriana 


Tuomas Brown. 


é 
~ Wall Plants.—Walls afford the best positions for many half- 
hardy subjects that do but little good in the open air without their 
aid ; walls, if well-coyered and carefully attended to, are among the 
most useful aids toa garden. Well covered in every part with good 
climbers, the stiffest and most awkwardly placed of wall surfaces 
becomes a thing of beanty, and may afford interest and flowers at all 
seasons, from that of the wintry bloom of the clear yellow Jasminum 
nudiflorum to the heats of early autumn, when the fine Clematises 
become masses of flower. The climate of the British isles isso much 
varied that plants which grow as standards in the south may require 
a wall in the north; in the sonth we may have walls covered with 


sweet Verbena, and even with Pittosporum. In the south we grow 
the fig as a standard; in the north it can barely exist with a wall. 
But in all parts we may make good use of every particle of flower- 
garden wall, no matter what its texture, aspect, or height. The first 
and most important consideration in the covering of garden walls is 
the selection of the plants. But even where these are well selected, 
there is frequently a mistake made in the training, by paying no 
proper attention to train the tree over the wall in a spreading 
manner, but, on the contrary, allowing it to run “up to a head,” so 
to speak, each plant being topheavy, and narrow and naked at the 
bottom. Instead of taking one good specimen and making it cover 
a full portion of the wall, people plant them rather thickly, and then 
keep continually clipping away the luxuriant shoots that ought to ° 
widely furnish the wall. The best shoots should be taken out in a 
fan-like manner, so as to cover the wall to the very ground. In 
training them ont, in fact, thestrongest shoots should be taken to the 
right and left, perhaps to send up straight shoots themselves. The 
object should be to keep every part of the wall covered, the centre of 
the tree as much so as the top of the wall, and in fact all parts 
equally. When once the trainer is impressed with the desirability of 
covering the wall equally in all its parts, he will have no difficulty in 
doing so. A great point is to make the strong-growing kinds cover 
agreat deal of surface. Confine them toasmall space, and you must 
cut them away fortnightly, or allow them to run disgracefully 
wild.—V. G. R. 


DIMORPHANTHUS MANDSCHURICUS. 


Tuts is one of the noblest shrubs for a long time introduced to 
our gardens, and one which especially commends itself to us at a 
time when plants of noble port and foliage are beginning to be more 
generally esteemed. It is a magnificent hardy shrub, of erect 
habit, with very large, much-divided, spiny leaves, which greatly 
resemble those of the Angelica tree of North America, and in this 


Dimorphanthus mandschuricus.—Hardy deciduous shrub section. 


country attaining a height of six feet to ten feet, which it will pro- _ 
bably much exceed when well established in favourable positions. 
It is certainly the most remarkable fine-foliaged shrub that has been 
introduced into our gardens for years, and is therefore of the highest 
importance for the sub-tropical garden. As to its treatment, it 
seems to thrive with the greatest vigour in a well-drained deep 
loam, and would grow well in ordinary garden soil. As to position, 
isolation in some sheltered but sunny spot will show it to great 
advantage; but it may also be grouped with like subjects, always 
allowing space for the spread of its great leaves. 


The Earliest Spring Flowers.—Can you name a few of the very earliest 
spring flowers that would bloom well? I leave my garden early in April for town, 
and want to grow mostly those that bloom very early.—L. J. G.—({The following 
will doubtless answer your purpose, viz. :—Helleborus niger, and others; Russian 
violet, Czar violet; Hepaticas, blue and pink, single and double; Myosotis 
dissitiflora; Arabis albida; Aubrietia grandiflora; Blue pansy; Erica carnea ; 
Saxifraga Sint yr Primrose, double lilac, do. white, do. purple; Daisy, 
white, Aucuba-leaved daisy; Iris, dwarf early ; Lamium maculatum ; Tussilago 
fragrans; Dwarf wallflower, Belvoir var.; Oxlips, improved ; Winter Aconite ; 
Snowdrop ; Scilla bifolia; S. sibirica; 8. pracox; Crocuses; Dogs-tooth violet; 
Hyacinth ; Anemone; Tulip; and Daffodil.—W. Ingram, Belvoir.) 


118 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 30, 1871, 


VARIEGATED PELARGONIUMS. 


TuEsr haying become great favourites for the decoration of 
our flower-gardens in summer and for beautifying our con- 
servatories in winter and spring, a few hints as to the best 
mode of successfully keeping them during the winter, and the 
most expeditious and safest way to propagate them in early 
spring, summer, and antumn, may prove useful. Growing all 
the best and rarest kinds, propagating thousands of them, and 
haying myself raised many popular varieties, I will simply 
describe my own most successful practice. The variegated 
pelargonium is very impatient of dampness about its fohage 
and too much moisture at the root. It is therefore necessary 
at all times to guard against any extreme in either case, and 
particularly in the winter season. We will begin with the 
treatment of the plants in September, after they have been 
taken up from the flower beds or borders, and give ‘our 
mode of treating them from that time till May, when they 
may be planted out im the open bed again. After that the 
only care they will require is such as need not be described 
here. 

The soil most suitable is a nice, soft, yellowish loam, mixed 
with well-decomposed leaf-soil and clean river or Reigate sand. 
The pots the plants are to be grown in should at all times be 
perfectly clean, especially on the inside; for if dirty pots are 
used, when it becomes necessary to re-pot the plants, it will be 
found, on turning them out of the pots preparatory to shifting 
them into larger sizes, that large numbers of the most healthy 
roots are broken off and clinging to the old soil left on the 
sides of the pot; this must always be avoided. If the pot is 
perfectly clean when the plant is put into it, the ball will 
turn out entire by simply turning the plant upside down, 
and gently tapping the edge of the pot on the bench, and at 
the same time pressing the large piece of potsherd over 
the hole in the bottom of the pot with a small piece of wood, 
or with the forefinger. To drain the pots well should be 
borne in mind, and this is done by placing one piece of broken - 
potsherd over the hole, then several other pieces above and 
around it; on the top of these should be placed some pieces 
of fibrous turf, to prevent the soil from trickling down amongst 
the drainage. - : ' 

Having a quantity of soil mixed as above recommended, the 
pots clean and properly drained and the plants taken up from 
the beds, we will proceed with the work of potting them, after 
haying reduced the quantity of foliage on each plant and just’ 
nipped off the points of their roots. It is always advisable to 
reduce the foliage before potting any plant taken up from the 
open ground. When this is done the roots will the more 
readily commence their work; when all the foliage is left on 
the plant more is required from the roots than they can 
perform. In reducing the foliage the leaf should not be cut 
off close to the stem; it is better to leave the foot-stalk of it 
entire, with a very small portion of the leaf still attached to it. 
The cut stalk will then gradually dry up and drop off of its 
own accord in a week or ten days’ time, and the wound at the 
base of the stalk will be partly healed before it drops off, 
thus preventing the plant from suffering any injury; but 
when the leaf is cut off near the stem_it often happens that-in 
decaying it taints the stem, so to speak, or at all events decay 
is conveyed to the stem of the plant, causing that to rot. 
Whenever this decay is observed it should at once be cut out 
clean with a sharp knife, else in a very short time it will eat 
its way through the stem of the plant. Many valuable plants 
are lost in this way. 

In potting the plant hold it in the left hand, and continue 
shaking it whilst the soil is being thrown in about its roots 
with the right; this will cause the soil to settle itself nicely 
about its roots, but care must be taken not to have the plant 
placed.too deep in the pot. As soon as the pot is filled up with 
soil give it a few taps on the bench, keeping the plant steady 
in its place in the centre of the pot by placing the thumb of 
each hand firm against the stem of the plant on each side. A 
little more soil should then be placed on the top; this must be 
pressed moderately firm with the thumb of each hand. If the 
soil is in a nice moist state, no water will be required for a 
week or ten days after the plants have been potted. After 
pottimg they should be placed in a rather close house or frame 


for two or three weeks, by which time they will have com- 
menced rooting freely, when they should be put im a more airy 
situation, and allowed to enjoy all the light of the season. 
They must be frequently looked over, and every little bit of * 
decaying leaf must be at once remoyed. The plants may be 
kept in a situation similar to that recommended above till the 
first week in February, giving them but little water during the 
winter months; and whenever it is found necessary to water 
them it should always be done early in the morning, giving all 
the air possible afterwards, so that the atmosphere may become 
dry before shutting-up time; this will prevent the foliage from 
taking any harm during the night when the house is shut 
up close. - : 

Tn the first week of February the plants should be all shaken 
out of the soil they have been growing in all through the 
winter; this should be done very carefully, the object beimg 
not to injure the roots. The same care must also be observed 
with reeard to clean pots, and for this potting they should 
not be too large; the smaller the pot the better for the first 
potting. If the roots can be got mto it without their bemg 
too much cramped or injured, so much the better; the roots — 
will occupy the soil much quicker. The soil must be in a nice 
state of moisture. The plants will not require water for a 
week or more after potting, unless the weather should happen 
to be very frosty; when large fires have to be kept up, the 
plants will want water oftener. When water is given, it should 
be applied copiously, so that the whole of the ball of soil may 
be well soaked. It -is always the safest and most proper plan - 
to give a thorough good soaking when water is given, and the 
plants should never be watered before they actually want it. 
If proper care is taken in this way, the plants will soon begin 
erowing away very freely, and will be ready for a shift into a 
larger pot by the third or fourth week in February. At this 
shift the soil recommended above may haye a small quantity 
of well-decomposed cow manure (in a perfectly dry state) added 
to it. The same care must be observed with the soil as in the 
autumn or winter potting—it must not be too wet nor too dry. 
Tt should also be as nearly as possible of the same temperature 
as that the plants are growing in. ‘ ; 

By the time the plants have been potted, a fortnight after the 
second shift, their roots will have reached the sides of the pots, 
and their tops will have commenced growing away freely. The 
work of propagationmaynow becommenced. ‘Thesame mixture 
of soil as recommended for growing the plants will do for this 
purpose, only it will require more sand mixed with it to keep it 
porous; and the best plan is to strike the cuttings in single 
thumb or small sixty-sized pots, which must be clean and well 
drained. ‘There should be about two inches of drainage put 
into each pot, which may consist of any of the following 
materials—viz., broken potsherds, oyster shells, or charcoal. 
In either case a portion of it must be broken into small 
pieces and placed on the top of the larger pieces, to keep the 
soil from trickling down amongst the drainage. The soil should 
then be placed in the pots, pressing it moderately firm, and 
fillme the pot up to within half an inch of the rim; a quarter 
of an inch of good clean sand should then be laid over ib and 
pressed pretty firm. This done, all will be ready for insertmg 
the cuttings into them. For taking these offa very sharp knife. 
should be used, so that the cutting may be taken offas clean as 
possible; and when the stock of any variety is small, and the 
object in view is to increase it as rapidly as possible (this is 
usually the case with new varieties), a little judgment is required 
in taking the cutting off so as to preserve the dormant eyes at 
that portion of the shoot next the cut. As soon as the young 
shoot has developed five leaves it may be taken off. The cutting 
should be separated from the plant a quarter of an inch below 
the position of the oldest leaf, andin trimming it a portion only 
of two oldest leaves should be cut away, leaving the leaf stalk 
entire. When the cuttings are ready a small dibber will be re- 
quired formaking a hole for the cutting in the centre of thepot. 
The dibber must be a little larger than the cutting, and quite 
flat at the end; the hole should be more than half an inch deep. 
The cutting may then be placed in the hole made by the dibber; * 
the base of it should sit flat on the bottom of the hole. The 
space left. between the sides of the hole and the cutting should 
be filled up with fime dry sand, which will trickle into every 
little crevice; and as soon as the cutting is secured by means 


Dec. 30, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


119 


of two little hooks made out of deal or any other soft wood, 
the-soil should be watered; this will consolidate the sand about 
the stem of the cutting, perfectly excluding the air from its 
base. The two hooks should be. put in reverse, one pointing 
one way, and one the other. These should be hooked on to the 
leaf stalks, by which means the cutting will be kept perfectly 
firm in the pot—a very desirable object in the case of new and 
rare kinds. 
After the cuttings have all been potted, they may be placed 
in a temperature of 60° or 65°, in a position as near the glass 
as possible; and if the pots can be plunged about half their 
depth in any sort of material having an average bottom-heat 
of 45° or 50°, they will strike much quicker. As soon as the 
cuttings are rooted, they should be shifted into three or four- 
- inch pots, and kept in a nice growing temperature, and 
abundance of air must be given them on-all favourable 
occasions. By the end of April these rooted cuttings may 
be decapitated, and the top of each put in, in the same way 
as described above. By this time also there will be two or 
more cuttings fit for taking off on the stump of each of the 
shoots from which the earliest were taken; these also may be 
taken off and propagated in the same way. The work of 
propagation may thus be carried on till the end of May or 
the second week in June; after this time the cuttings will 
strike with less trouble if pricked out in the open ground, fully 
exposed to the sunshine after the first week or ten days. Up 
_ to that time it is better to partially shade them by merely 
sticking small pieces of evergreens amongst them; this will 
eye their foliage from being scorched by the sun. If it is 
esired to grow the plants on into large specimens for the 
greenhouse, they will require shifting into larger pots about 
once in six weeks or two months during the spring, During 
the whole of this time great care will be necessary in watering, 
and abundance of air must be given on all occasions. An 
average temperature of 50° is the most suitable for these 
beautiful plants during the winter months; as the spring 
advances an increase of temperature may take place, but it 
should never exceed 70° whilst the plants are grown under 
glass, and only reach that temperature during sunshine — 
J. Wills, F.RALS. 


NOTES ON HARDY FLOWERS. 
Amone tall Asters the best are turbinellus and Nove Angliz ruber, 
and among dwarf ones discolor and horizontalis. [There are a good 
many other first-class kinds ].—Astragalus Tragacantha I never could 


succeed in growing from cuttings——The great secret of growin” — 


Aubrietias well is to cut them back after flowering.—In some gar? as 
it seems impossible to grow Bulbocodium vernum; [ cannot © ow it 
here. [We have noticed it thrive on deep bad clay soil. ;—Does 
_ Cotyledon umbilicus generally grow in damp places? In this neigh- 

bourhood it is on the dryest of old walls—Who has Crocus Cart- 
wrightianus in cultivation ?—Dracocephalum grandiflorum is a most 
capricious plant. I have had it often, and never could keep it. [It 
ought to thrive in well-drained. sandy loam, with plenty of moisture 
in summer. |—Eryngium yuecefolium is very similar to E. bromelize- 
folium, but it is certainly more hardy.—Erythroninmamericanum is not 
worth growing, for it utterly refuses to flower. I have had it for 
years, but have never seen a flower on it.—Geranium argenteum 
cannot be called hardy. [It is so in some places on the rock- 
garden in well-drained spots.|—Gypsophila paniculata is one of the 
most useful of flowers for nosegays with which I am acquainted.— 
Single shoots of Hemerocallis fulya variegata taken up in the spring 
and potted, form the best table plants I know of.—Heucheras are 
useful for filling up corners—as, for example, square corners of 
beds close to the grayel.—Hieracium aurantiacum becomes a dreadful 
weed if allowed to go to seed.—Iberis jucunda is very distinct and 
pretty. I. Pruiti is said to be very fine. It seems very hardy, but 
has not yet flowered with me.—Izis susiana is a grand fellow, but I 
neyer knew it remain more than one year. [Requires a pit to thrive 
and inerease. |—Lychnis Lagascz, I think, should be treated as an 
annual, for it has a tendency to flower itself to death. [It is a good 
perennial on rocks. |—Lysimachia Ephemerum should be grown in 
moist shady places——Mazus Pumilio is not hardy.—Meconopsis 
aculeata. Who has this? In this country it is an annual, and grown 
from seed.—Meum athamanticnm should not be allowed to flower.— 
Mirabilis Jalapa, I believe, is not taken up in the winter at Kew and 
Chelsea.— Narcissus Bulbocodium often entirely disappears, even where 
it had seemed most healthy. How is this?—Nertera depressa. 
M2. Niven says the right name is N. scoparioides, and that it should 


be grown under glass. I think he is right—Nierembergia rivularis is 
not hardy with me.—Omphalodes Luciliw. Is this hardy >—Onosma 
taurica is very apt to die after proper flowering.—Oxalis Valdiviana is 
an annual, but takes good care to sow itself.—Parochcetus communis 
will live out of doors, but certainly not flower.—Ramondia should be 
always on the shady side of the rockwork.—Saxifraga ligulata is an 
excellent plant for the greenhouse in winter: it is scarcely hardy. 
—With respect to Triteleia, the whole plant smells of garlic, except 
the flower, which has a perfume like that of primrose.—Tropzolum 
polyphyllum I consider to be one of the best of herbaceous plants, 
but it does not last long in flower.—Tulipa Clusiana is a very shy 
bloomer.—Umbilicus spinosus I think is quite hardy, but the slugs 
attack it most fearfully.—Vesicaria should be kept constantly free 
from seeds; old plants soon lose their beanty and die.—Zapania 
nodiflora perishes in hard winters.—Colchicum chionense I have had 
many years. It seldom flowers, and then the flower is not equal to 
that of variegatum; but it is worth growing for its curious narrow 
undulated (almost crimped) leaves. It is very slow of increase.— 
In regard to Fuchsias: I believe that south of the Trent they are all 
hardy, except those of the fulgens section. A few miles from here I 
saw this year many of the fine greenhonse exhibition kinds which had 
stood out for years uninjured—I don’t think Limnocharis would 
long stand a winter, even in water that did not freeze,—Vicia sylva- 
tica is a most lovely ornament of our woods, but I advise no one to 
take it into their garden W. H. Ennacomse, Bitton Vicarage, 


THE TREE CARNATIONS. 


THE reason why Tree Carnations are not to be seen more at this 
season of the year must be either that their culture is not properly 
understood, or that they are not sufficiently appreciated by the 
possessors of gardens. The latter reason seems to be to me impossible, 
for whois there that doesn’t love a Carnation flower at this, the dullest 
of all seasons? The unsightliness presented by their straggling 
habit of growth during the trim summer months may be supposed as 
another reason why they are not as they should be just now. In 
short, I think they are looked down upon in summer too much, and 
are apt to be shoved aside for some other showy, trim-looking plant, 
in the same way as early,forced. roses are too often huddled into 
any out-of-the-way corner, to be chilled, parched, soddened, and 
tattered. 

Tree Carnations, to be in perfection at this season, require attentive 
summer care, and I have always found that in-door care is the safest, 
and with it more heat (dry heat), with plenty ofair. To have Carna- 
tion flowers all the year round in quantity, one must have a quantity 
of plants. Of course we could cut them every day in the year, not 
from the same set of plants, but from sets of plants—plants of all 


‘ages, from the rooted cutting to those four years old. The oldest 


plants we rely upon chiefly for flowers at this season, and the younger 
at spring-tide. To keep upastock of plants we put in a batch of 
cuttings at any time—every month, say—one cutting to the smallest 
pot, in sandy loam, or loamy sand rather, for the sand predominates 
by being added, and they are placed under a hand-light or bell-glass. 
Two hand-lights are kept going for the purpose. When a batch is 
rooted, others follow. They are potted on gradually from two to 
twelve inch pots; and while in sizes less than six-inch they are 
stopped sufficiently to form a good bottom of from five to ten or more 
breaks. In this form and condition they are potted into the ten or 
twelve-inch pots ina pure loam, without any manure or any stimulating 
mixture’whatever, further than a dashofsand. They get, when once 
the pots are full of roots, a liquid-manure watering every week from 
the manure tank. 

Further than this, they get only that which common sense dictates, 
namely, staking and tying with care every growth that cannot sup- 
port itself. Hazel stakes we find best for the larger plants, and 
Privet ones for the smaller ones; a painted stake should only be used 
when these are not to be got. Further, care must be used in putting 
long enough stakes after the second year, as the growths are some- 
tintes over three and four feet long. We have many times seen 
people look critically on such long spindley-looking plants ; and some 
gardeners, who probably have been brought up in the faith of the 
necessity of training everything to a formal shape, have passed them 
by as beneath their notice. Buta dozen blooms at this season soon 
compensate for the want of symmetry in the plant’s habit. Who- 
ever, therefore, can’t bend his ideas to the plant’s wants and 
requirements must leave Tree Carnations alone, and seek for plants 
of a more uniform, port. 

The sorts we grow are the following, and to-day more than a dozen 
fine blooms haye been cut, and as many more could have been fur- 
nished' had they- been wanted: — Henshaw’s Scarlet, Rembrandt, 
Eclipse, Hector, Comte de Douy, Beauty, M. Valiant, Eugéne Ducreux, 
Charles Baltet, Prince of Orange, The Bride, Jubilee, Belle Rose 


120 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 30, 1871. 


Lady Stuart, and several seedlings of merit. Of conrse the summer- 
flowering variety, Souvenir de la Malmaison, finds a favourable place 
in the collection. Tree Carnations rank as high as the Gardenia, 
Camellia, and Daphne, and are infinitely superior to Cinerarias and 
other kinds of flowers usually to be seen at this season. We grow 
our plants on the side stages of our heath-house, where they have 
plenty of head room, which they really require, for some of the 
plants are fully five feet high and two or three feet through. I may 
remark further that we cut the flowers a day or two after they are 
opened, if likely to be wanted in numbers, and place them in damp 
sand in a cool room, as we do Gardenias and such like flowers." In 
warmer, much warmer, localities, I have grown Tree Carnations 
out-of-doors in summer, and lifted them in autumn; but never did 
I find them so satisfactory as when kept always in pots—for this 
reason, that I failed to lift them with sufficient root to winter them 
well, far less to flower them to my liking,—H. K., in ‘ Gardeners’ 
Chronicle,’ : : . 


WIGANDIA MACROPHYLLA. 
(W. CARACASANA.) 


Tis noble plant, a native of the mountainous regions of 
New Granada, is, from the nobility of its port and the magni- 
ficence of its leaves, entitled to hold a place among the finest 
plants of our gardens. Under the climate of London it has 
made leaves which have surprised all beholders, as well by 
their size as by their:strong and remarkable veining and 
texture. It will be found to succeed very well in the midland 
and southern counties of England, though too much care 


Wigandia macrophylla (W. caracasana).—After Vilmorin, 


cannot be taken to secure for it a warm sheltered position, free 
good soil, and perfect drainage. 

‘Ttmay be used with superb effect either ina mass orasa single 
plant. It is frequently propagated by cuttings of the roots, 
and grown in a moist and genial temperature through the 
spring months, keeping it near the light so as to preserve it in 
a dwarf and well-clothed condition; and, like all the other 
plants in this class, it should be very carefully hardened off 
previous to planting out at the end of May. It is, however, 
much better raised from cuttings of the shoots, if these are to 
be had. It may be also raised from seed. W. macrophylla has 
the stems covered with short stinging hairs, and bearing 
brownish viscid drops which adhere to the hand like oil when 
the stem is touched. 


NOTES ON NEW HARDY PLANTS. 


Som= account of two or three novelties in this way, though certainly 
not of the highest yalue, may nevertheless not be without interest. 
The first is the so-called Aqnilegia aurea of Roezl, collected by him 
in 1869 and distributed by his friend M. Ortgies, of Zurich. Of the 
few seedlings of this raised by myself, several. bloomed during the 
past summer, and differed from each other only in vigour. Its habit 
of growth is somewhat slender, the stem reaching nearly, if not 
quite, two feet in height, with the characteristic biternate foliage of 
the genus, closely resembling in detail that of the A. caerulea. The 
flowers are of medium size, with straight spurs as in A. canadensis, 
but distinguished from that species by sepals which are ultimately 
reyolute, and by the broader limb of the petals. The colour of the ~ 
flowers is not, however, golden as the name would imply, but a pale 
straw-colour. As a garden plant it is perhaps less showy than many 
other species, but will be acceptable from its‘distinct shade of colour 
as well as for its novelty. 


Next I have to introduce a malvaceous plant, also one of Roezl’s 
introductions, and sent out last season by a French firm under the 
name of Malva aurantiaca-rubra, a most objectionable compound, 
and one which must inevitably have been set aside, even had not the 
plant in question proved to be but a re-introduction of an old acquaint- 
ance. It is a greyish, half-shrubby perennial, clothed with stellate 
hairs even to the calyxes, and grows about eighteen inches high, with 
somewhat weak stems and semi-trailing branches, at least those near 
thebase. The foliage is heart-shaped, variously lobed, and incised, on 
longish stalks. The flowers are rather small, in axillary clusters 
near the top of the stems and branches, of a pale orange red, and 
present a rather pleasing contrast to thesilvery grey of the foliage. 
It blooms throughout the summer and succeeds inany light soil. As 
already hinted, it has previously been cultivated in British gardens, 
haying been introduced by Douglas long since, under the name of Malva 
Munroana, and has recently been transferred to the genus Malvastrum 
by Dr. Asa Gray, the specific name being retained. 


The third name on my list is a Patagonian annual crucifer, Crambe 
filiformis, a name suggestive rather of coarseness and culinary herbs; 
than of anything at all fitted for the domains of Flora, at least that 
portion of them deyoted to ornamental gardening. 4 


The present species is, however, remarkable for its graceful, airy, 
erowth, which constitutes its chief attraction, the flowers themselves 
being small. It commences blooming when only a few inches high, 
and in its earliest stages might excite but little interest, but as the 
season advancesit throws out innumerable slender,thread-like branches, 
studded near. their extremities with neat whitish four-petalled flowers, 
forming ultimately 3 compact little bush about a foot or more in 
height, and as much in diameter. Jt continues in-blossom till the — 
end of the summer, Though sent out by an Erfurt firm as an annual, 
the root appears likely to survive, so that it is probably at least 
a biennial. zs : 


Tpswich. W. THompson. 


- A New Japanese Ornamental Grass.—We now have the pleasure of bringing 
to notice an entirely new ornamental grass which was sent from Japan by Mr. 


Thomas Hoge, under the name of Imperata japonica. This grass haslong and ~ , 


narrow leayes, which are yariegated with green and white. The flower-stems, 
which are produced in great profusion, are four or five feet high, and bear at the 
top a cluster of flower-spikes along which the small flowers are arranged. Hach 
of the small flowers is surrounded at its base by a ring of silky hairs as long as 
itself, When the grass is quite ripe, or when the clusters are cut and placed in 
a warm room, the spikes bend gracefully and the hairs spread and give the — 
whole head a most beautiful appearance, not unlike that of an ostrich feather. 
These heads will be highly prized as parlour ornaments, as they retain their 
beauty for an indefinite time. The name under which Mr. H. sent the plant is 
probably one given by some of the foreign botanists in Japan. .It is, however, 
not an Imperata, as its manner of flowering is quite different from that genus. 
We have not at hand the materials for a proper determination, but it agrees 
well with the brief description given of Eulalia japonica.—Hearth and Home. 
——[We had the pleasure of seeing this grass in Mr. Hogg’s garden in New York 
in 1870, and admired it much as a large variegated grass. The flowers, however, 
are yery beautiful and curious. It is probably not yet in this country. ] 


» Forget-me-Not.—Our well-known Forget-me-Not (Myosotis palustris), like 


many more old fayourites, has had of late to make room for fashionable flowers 
of the day; yet the endearing name, Forget-me-Not, would have been enough 
of itself, one would have thought, to induce everybody to plant a small patch of 
«this Myosotis, which soon spreads and becomes a bed, and when dressed once 
or twice during summer, by removing the old flower-stems and dead leaves, it 
continues to produce flowers in abundance from early spring until late in 
autumn. A good many different kinds of Forget-me-Nots grow wild, both in 
England and in southern Europe; but none are so attractive or so much 
admired as M. palustris. Nor did its beauty escape our forefathers ; for we 
find that a collar of gold enamelled with Forget-me-Nots was presented by the 
ladies of the Court of England to Lord Scales, brother to the Queen of Edward 
the Fourth, as a token of their approbation and regard for his heroism and 
loyalty as a distinguished English" knight. I may add, that all who wish to 
begin its culture will find it growing in marshy situations, or by the margins of 
streams. It will be found to be quite at home in the bog-garden ; but so accom- 
modating are its habits} that it will grow almost anywhere, and, under cultiya- 
tion, its general appearance is much better than that which ithas in a wild 
state,—A, D, Antison, Bishop Auckland, ? f 


, 


- ing shoot especially was 


‘ 


harsh and formal hnes 


less primness that en- 


shrubbery or pleasure- 


Dec. 30, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


121 


YOUNG CONIFERS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


Our general tendency is to plant conifers much too near | 
the house, and in positions where they cannot attain full 
development. The wisest planter will ask himself, Am I 
placing this tree so that it may attain its fullest development ? 
and act accordingly. Some of the most graceful conifers 
attain the largest dimensions, as for example, Thuja gigantea 
and the Deodar; but that they attain great proportions is no 
reason whatever why they should not, when young, be planted 
to adorn any position for which their grace and size may adapt 
them. The remedy is to remove them when they have gone 
beyond the desired size. Graceful as are young plants of the 
Deéodar, of the Retinosporas, and Cypresses when well- 
grown, healthy young specimens of the true Thuja gigantea 
(commonly sold as T. Lobbi) seem to Serpass them all. | 
At least we have never 
seen anything in the vege- 
table kingdom more 
graceful than young speci- 
mens of this at Mount 
Shannon, Cork. Thelead- 


very striking. It seemed 
like a fishing-rod laden 
with the most exquisite 
fronds of ferns, each 
standing quite clear of 
its fellows, by reason of 
the rapid growth of the 
central shoot. We now 
have quite a number of 
conifers distinguished by 
this ravishing beauty of 
form when young. Few, 
however, surpass the Deo- 
dar in .the numerous 
districts where it does 
well. 


THE FORMAL 
MARGIN. 

No really good effect 
is possible in the gene- 
ral aspect of ornamen- 
tal gardens till two 
simple improvements 
are carried out: these 
are the covering of 
bare borders, and 
the breaking up of the 


that belt nearly every 


ground plantation with 
ugliness. Referring to 
the -last only in_ this 
instance we need not 
remind the reader of what 
every person who looks 
into a garden must know, 
of the wearisome, spirit- 


girdles us everywhere. 

The remedy is Simple, yet nobody thinks of applying it. Like 
all really essential principles and improvements in gardening 
no involved arguments are necessary to explain it. But 
we, unfortunately, are not yet departed from the strait-laced 
phase of gardening. We cut in everything that stretches 
forth its shoots, mercifully to hide our foolishness. The first 
thing stupidity will ask itself on reading this note is, How 
are we to get the mowing done? What should we think of 
those who arranged a house chiefly for the convenience of the 
dusters? Mowing may be perfectly well done without in the 
least injuring the most picturesque fringe to a plantation. 
There is no need to go beyond the outer leaves of the outlying 
subjects: a little spray of long grass here and there is an 


ornament, not a blemish. 
| public parks is materially injured by the dreary expanses 


Cedrus Deodara.—(After Alphand). 


The effect of our gardens and 


of wide bare borders. In summer the effect is bad enough, 
but it is tenfold worse when the naked ground is sheeted 
with the winter’s slime. On the other hand, when the 
trees and shrubs are allowed to throw their graceful 
arms over the ground, and none of these bare-dug sur- 
faces are to be seen, the wnoffended eye dwells with 
pleasure on the trees and shrubs. All true landscape- 
gardeners should save us from rigidly formal margins, and 
every gardener should know that to dig and trim and 
curye his borders into formality is to steal from them 
every grace. All his efforts should tend to hide instead 
of exposing naked earth, and to break the margins of 
beds of shrubs in many ways instead of carving them all 
to one unsightly pattern 
of stiff, rigid formality. 


YUCCAS. 

Amone all the hardy 
plants ever introduced into 
this country, none surpass 
the various kinds of Yucca, 
or ‘* Adam’s Needle,”’ as it 
is commonly called. There 
are several species hardy 
and well suited for flower- 
garden purposes, and, more 
advantageous still, distinct 
from each other. The effect 
afforded by them, when well 
developed, is equal to that 
of any hothouse plant that 
We can venture in the open 
air for the summer, while 
they are green and orna- 
mental at all seasons. They 
may be used imany style of 
garden—may be grouped 
together on rustic mounds, 
or in any other way the 
taste of the planter may 
direct. If we had but this 
family alone, our efforts to— 
produce agreeable and pic- 
turesque effect with hardy 
plants could not be fruitless. 
The free-flowering kinds, 
filamentosa and’ flaccida, 
may be associated with any 
of our nobler autumn 
flowering plants, from the 
Gladiolus to the great 
Statice latifolia. The 
species that do not flower 
so often, like pendula and 
gloriosa, are simply magni- 
ficent as regards their effect 
when grown in the full sun 
and planted in good soil; 
and I need not say bold and 
handsome groups may be 
formed by devoting isolated 
beds to Yuccasalone. They 
are mostly easy to increase 
by division of the stem and rhizome; and should in all cases be 
planted well and singly, beginning with healthy young plants, so 
as to secure perfectly developed specimens. Hereafter will 
follow a further description and account of the culture of the most 
important kinds. _ : 
/ Yucca ALoIvoLiA.—A fine and distinct species, with a stem when 
fully developed as thick as a man’s arm, and rising to a height of 
from six feet to eighteen feet. Leaves numerons, rigidly ascending, 
dark-green, with a slight glaucous bloom, eighteen to twenty-one 
inches long, and broad at the middle, with the horny margin rolled 
in for two inches or three inches below the point, and finely toothed 
in the remaining portion. Flowers almost pure white, in a vast 
pyramidal panicle. This plant is hardy, but the factis not generally 
known. (To be continued.) 


122 


[Dzc. 30, 1871. 


THE GARDEN. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 


Avrinity Burwrrn Srrcrms.—The laws of the affinities of 
species are almost unknown. ‘The observations hitherto made 
~ haye been undertaken inapractical rather thana purely scientific 
spirit, as in the fertilizing of plants. The results obtained 
up to the present can only be regarded as matters of fact. No 
theory has as yet been deduced from them, except that kinds 
to be united by grafting must be of the same botanic 
family. 

For instance, the peach and the apricot are grafted on each 
other with difficulty, while both do well on the almond tree 
and the plum tree. All the cherries’ unite with the Mahaleb: 
but it wall not succeed as a graft on any of the cherries. The 
sweet chestnut prospers on the oak; but will not do so if 
grafted on the horse chestnut, which belongs to another 
family. The medlar and the quince, which haye “solitary 
flowers, flourish on the hawthorn, whose flowers are in 
corymbs. ‘The Chionanthus, so nearly allied to the lilac by 
its panicled flowers and simple leaves, only succeeds well on 
the common ash and on the flowering ash, which have com- 
pound leaves. On the other hand, the Sorbus, with pinnate 
leaves, is more vigorous when erafted on the thorn, whose 
leaves are more entire than when grown on its own roots. 

The grafting of evergreen trees on deciduous kinds presents 
More than one singularity. , 2 

The Photinia, allied to the beam tree, the Hriobotrya, allied 
to the medlar, are grafted on the medlar, and not on the 
hawthorn. On the last, as a stock, the Cotoneaster and the 
Pyracantha do well. The Mahonia flourishes on the Berberis, 
~ and the common. laurel succeeds on the bird cherry and eyen on 
the wild cherry, from which it differs so much in appearance. 

The grafting of deciduous plants on those that are cyer- 
green has, in almost every case, been attempted in vain. 
Those who are fond of oddities can, with the assistance of 
grafting, have on the same thorn stock at the same time 
_truitme branches of the pear, the. medlar, the beam tree, the 

Seryice-tree, the mountain-ash, the Huropean and Japanese 
quince, and also see there the flowers of the double and red 
thorns, the Cotoneaster, and the Pyracantha. : 

They may gather from the same plum-stock plumg, apricots, 
peaches, nectarimes, almonds, the corymbs of the Canadian 
cherry, and flower garlands of the Chinese and J: apanese plum. 
But these whimsicalities are unworthy the attention of culti- 
yators. 

Whoever wishes to study grafting in the works of celebrated 
ancient authors on horticulture will find a string of absurdities, 
some of which we shall mention. Virgil speaks of a plum- 
tree which bore apples‘after haying been grafted, and recom- 
mends the grafting of the pear on the ash. Martial advises 

-the grafting of the cherry on the poplar. Columella, whose 


works are equally trustworthy, would have the olive grown on. 


the fig. Palladius speaks of the walnut bemg grafted on the 
Arbutus, the pear on the almond, and the citron of his native 
island of Sardinian on the mulberry-tree. Pliny considers 
thunder injurious to trees grafted on the white thorn. 
Madame de Genlis, itis said, grafted the rose on the holly or 
the black currant, in order to obtain green or black roses; and 
the Abbé Rozier recognised the possibility of it. Others 
united, in their imagination, the apple to the briar, hoping to 
gather therefrom Calvilles; the orange to the holly, in order to 
acclimatize the former in open woods; the vine to the walnut- 
tree, so as to have grapes full of oil. They are merely so 
many hallucinations, like the story of a cornel grafted on a 
peach-tree in a garden at Troyes, published by M. de Caylus 
in his “ History of the Conjunction of Plants.” The ancients 
are not the only persons guilty of falsification in the matter of 
grafting. There have been many instances of it iz our own 
time, and we shall long continue to hear of black roses being 
produced from a black currant stock, &c. : 
Morvan Vicour or run Parzs.—It will always be better to 
unite by grafting only such subjects as have between them 
Some analogy in pomt of vigour, time of commencing to 
vegetate, and hardiness. If any difference should exist, it 
would be preferable that the graft should be of later vegetation 


than the stock, and also more yigorous and hardy. Tender 
varieties suit well with a stock of moderate vigour; but on 
a weakly stock they produce a worthless tree. When grafted 
on too vigorous a stock, it is difficult for them to absorb all 
the sap furnished by the roots; an evenness of growth cannot 
be established between the stock and the graft. ‘Then follow 
weakness and disease—disagreeable results. ‘The reyerse of 
this, to have the graft more vigorous than the stock, is more 
admissible. The pear-tree on the quince, the apple on the 
paradise, the cherry on the Mahaleb, give us proofs of this. 
‘The tree will be less vigorous than if perfect harmony existed 
between the two parts, and, its growth being thus tempered, 
it tends more to the production of fruit. Very great differ-. 
ences in the matter of vigour may be lessened by means of 
double grafting, in which we first graft on the stock a variety 
of intermediate vigour, and on this, later on, we graft the 
variety which we desire to propagate. The stock should 
always be strong enough to receive the graft. If it is weakly, 
although the graft will unite with it, the future tree will 
always be tender. -Stocks that have been planted a year at 
least should be employed. The number of the grafts on each 
stock should be in proportion to its vigour, so as to obtain the 
favourable results which will follow from the exact adjustment 
of the powers of vegetation. Sometimes grafting is success-_ 
fully performed, during the repose of the sap, on stocks taken 
up out of the soil, which are replanted immediately after 
grafting. The graft, on its part, should come from a pure 
source. ‘The tree which furnishes it should be healthy, if it is 
desired to transmit health and hardiness. In the raising of 
plants, it is easier to prevent than to cure, disease. The 
degeneration—more apparent than real—of species and varic- 
ties is especially due to the selection of bad subjects for pro- 
pagation. ‘The parent plant or tree which furnishes the scions 
should always be of a strong, healthy constitution. : 

Intmate Union or tun Two Parts.—In every kind of 
grafting it is indispensable that the two parts gratted should 
be in close communication, not by means of the epidermis or 
the pith, but through the generating layer—that is, the new 
and living layers of inner bark or alburnum, in the tissue of - 
which the cambium flows. A perfect joming is not effected 
except on this condition. The multiplicity of pomts of contact 
is favourable to a more complete union, which will also be 
assisted by a similarity of texture between the scion and the 
stock, especially as regards the herbaceous or woody nature of 
their tissues. Lastly, the speedy cohesion of the parts depend 
on the skill of the operator, who should know bow to ayoid — 
wounds, or to cicatrise them, and to preserye them from the 
action of the atmosphere.—C. Baltet’s “ L’Art de Greffer. 

(Lo be continwed.) a 


2 THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
FOUR NEW PEARS. ie 

Tun domains of Pomona are at present so richly furnished 
that it may be asked, “‘ What new pears can be announced as 
surpassing in merit those already known?” It would appeat', 
in fact, thab after the Hparene, Beurré Giffard, André Desportes, 
William, Beurré d’Amanlis, Monsallard, Boutoe, Madame 
Treyve, Senateur Vaisse, Souvenir du Congrés, and Comte 
Lecheur, no other good summer pears could be discovered. 
We are inclined to think, and with good reason, that of recent 
varieties of autumn pears none can surpass in quality the 
Beurré Baltet, Beurré Benoit, Seieneur, Beurré Hardy, Beurré 
Superfin, Fondamte des Bois, Héléne Grégoire, Louise bonne 
d'Avranches, Thompson’s, de Tongres, Beurré de Naghin, Marie 
Louise, Doyenné du Comice, Duchesse d’Angouléme, Napoleon, 
Beurré Dumont, Doyenné Boignard, Van Mons, Sucrée de 
Montlugon, Ne plus Meuris, Fondante du Panisel, and 
Beurré Bachelier, all of which are pears of unexceptionable — 
quality; and, finally, that the Beurré Diel, Triomphe de 
Jodoigne, Figue d'Alencon, Leon Grégoire, Jules d'Airoles, 
Passe Colmar, Beurré d’Hardenpont, Orpheline d’Hnghien, 
Nouvelle Fulvie, Marie Benoit, Duchesse de Bordeaux, Passe 
Crassane, Olivier de Serres, Doyenné d’Hiver,. Doyenné 
d’Alencon, and Bergamotte Hsperen will long remain unrivalled 
as first-class winter pears. : 


Dec. 80, 1871.) 


In these prefatory remarks, let us not forget our fine old 
acquaintances the Beurré Gris, Doyenné d’Antonine, Crassane, 
St. Germain, and winter Bon Chrétien (which are not to be 
surpassed in the flavour of their fruit, but which are, unfor- 
tunately, not always of robust growth, unless when grown on a 
wall), nor the delicious little pears, Doyenné de Juillet, Citron 
des Carmes, Rousselet de Reims, Avocat Allard, Monseigneur 
Sibour, Colmar Nelis, Zéphirin Grégoire, Castelline, Beurré 
Millet, and Joséphine de Malines, which for family use are 


~ more highly esteemed than the enormously large Van Marum 


and Belle Angevine. 

_ Do not, however, be mistaken. The pear-tree is so variable 
in its fruit (different kinds ripening at different periods 
throughout the four seasons), that there is always room in the 
list for any new acquisition which recommends itself by the 
vigour, habit, or productiveness of the tree, or by the size, 
shape, and colour of the fruit, and, above all, by the rich 
qualities of the flesh, which may be sugary or vinous, sweet or 
acidulous, juicy or perfumed, whatever may be the season at 
which it ripens. ’ 

_ These considerations have induced us to give the first place 
in the list of pears to Clapp’s Favourite, the Poire de !Assomp- 
tion, the Fondante Thirriot, and the Beurré Baltet pire :— 


Crarp’s Favourrre.—Raised in America, it has been highly extolled 
by Downing, and is in every respect deserving of the praise which 
he has bestowed upon it. The tree ismagnificent in the vigour of its 
growth and in appearance, and in point of productiveness leaves 
nothing to be desired. The fruit is of the largest size, very handsome 
in shape and colour. Sometimes it is so highly tinted with carmine, 
that one would imagine it to be a William, an Epargne, or a Louise 
bonne d’Avranches; at other times it‘ takes the appearance of 
the Poire d’Amour, or the Bon Chrétien de Vernois, and remains 
yellow, with a fine green under-tint. The flesh is fine, snow-white, 
melting, and of a delicate flavour. It ripens about the middle of 
August. Clapp’s Favonrité will be highly prized at the most sump- 
tuous desserts, and will be a valuable subject for the speculative cul- 
tivator. It does well either on its own roots or grafted on the quince ; 
accommodates itself to the pyramid or palmette form, and succeeds 
equally well in the open ground or ona wall. If the wall is fully 
exposed to the sun, the fruit should not be allowed to ripen on the 
tree. In 1871 Clapp’s Favourite and the Souvenir de Leopold First 
produced the two largest pears that we gathered. 

Porre bE 1’ Assomprion.—If we consider the enormous prices which 
are sometimes asked for new varieties, this pear is well worth the 


- 2,000 francs its raiser, M. Ruillé, of Beauchamps, in the Lower Loire, 


demands for the sole right to its possession. Imagine a tree like a 

\thick-stemmed Colmar d’Aremberg, with short branches laden with 
fruits which resemble sometimes a large short Colmar or a broad 
Duchesse, sometimes a pyriform William with an indented skin, of a 
delicate yellow streaked with red and sometimes tinted with carna- 
tion. ‘The flesh is delicate, melting, exceedingly juicy, sugary, 
perfumed, and refreshing at all its periods of ripening, which extend 
from the middle of August to the end of September. The tree may 
be grown as a pyramid, palmette, small candelabrum, and cordon, 
in the open ground or on a wall, in the sun or in the shade. It is par- 
ticularly well adapted for the columnar form, which is its natural 
habit, and which,as occupying but asmall area, is calculated to secure 
it a place in every fruit-garden. It does well either on its own roots 
or grafted on the quince, 


Fonpante Trirrior.—This, named after its present possessor, who 
at first intended to call it Triomphe des Ardennes, grows on 
a very vigorous, branching, tall, and productive tree. The fruit is 
rather large, and grows on long stalks-in clusters. In shape it is 
cylindrical-obtuse, sometimes pyramidal or truncate ; the colour being 
of a fine green, passing into light yellow, spotted and shaded with 
rose-colour. The flesh is white, delicate, often melting, often half 
_ brittle, always sugary. It is best in quality in the earlier stages of 
its ripening, which takes place in September and October. The 
tree, which is vigorous both on its own roots and when grafted 
on the quince, is well adapted for orchards or fruit gardens, as a 
tall standard, pyramid, vase, candelabrum, in the open ground or 
on a wall. ; 
_ Beurre Barrer Pern.—This, raised from seed by the writer’s father, 
is a fruit of the largest size and first quality, produced in abundance on 
a tree of low and handsome habit. ‘The form of the fruit varies from 
the pyramidal top-shape to the thickly-rounded ; the colour passes 
from a lively green to a sulphur yellow, with a slight tinge of vermi- 
lion and a few reddish spots. The flesh is very delicate and melting, 
juicy and with a fine and agreeable flavour. The earliest begin to 
ripen in the commencement of October, but the usual or regular 


THE GARDEN. 


123 


period of ripening is during the whole month of November. At the 
present time (the first fortnight in December) we have some fine 
specimens still hanging on the trees. The tree is robust, of low 
habit and handsome growth, either on its own roots or grafted on the 
quince. It adapts itself to all forms of training, whether as a pyra- 
mid, column, palmette, candelabrum, goblet, or standard, in the open 
ground, or on walls with different aspects. The superior property 
which the fruit possesses of hanging long on the tree indicates that 
the Beurré Baltet pére is well adapted for planting in orchards 
exposed to winds from all quarters; but it should be gathered 
before the first white frosts come on. During four years in which 
we have studied this pear in our experiment-grounds and pomological 
schools, its good qualities have never once disappointed us. 
Troyes, France. Crartes BALTET. 


A New Way to “Make” Fruit-Trees.—Mr. Sullivan Hutchin- 
son, of Bristol, New Hampton, received letters patent last May for a 
new and noyel invention for making productive fruit-trees in a single 
year from fruit-bearing limbs. Limbs that can be spared from 
trees that bear desirable fruit are transformed into independent trees, 
which will bear right along, just as though they had not been 
severed from the parent stock; and in a short time become fine, 
thrifty trees, retaining the habits of the parents from which they 
were taken. This is what Mr. Hutchinson claims his invention will 
do, but from the imperfect description we haye had of the process, 
it is impossible to give a very clear idea of how the thing is done. 
Into the limb, however, which is intended for the future tree, small 
roots are grafted just above where the limb is severed. Below these 
roots the branch is girdled. About and below the roots is placed a 
box filled with earth. This operation is performed in the spring. 
During the summer the roots grow, and life is thus established 
between them and the limb above. In autumn the limb is severed 
at the place where it was girdled, and set in the ground in the same 
way any young tree would be. The next year, according to Mr. 
Hutchinson’s statement, this new tree will bear fruit just as though 
it had not been cut from its parent. To what extent this operation 
may be carried, and how successful it may prove, remains to be seen. 
Experiments to a considerable extent have been made in Bristol and 
New Hampton, and we hear that farmers in various parts of the 
State are buying town and farm rights with the intention of testing 
the practicability of this new system of -producing early-bearing 
fruit-trees. If successful, a complete revolution in our manner of 
obtaining apple trees will be the result. Instead of buying trees 
from the nursery, which require years to come into bearing condition, 
the limbs from our old trees will be converted into new ones that 
will give us fruit at once.—Cardener’s Monthly. 


Striped and Variegated Fruits.—Althongh frnits are mainly valued for 


“their edible properties, says Mr. Barron, in the Morist and Pomologist, yet it 


eqnal excellence can be obtained under a more beautiful exterior, the combina- 
tion of the two qualities is certainly to be preferred. Some object to the 
colouring of striped fruits, and fancy that they have too much of a painted look 
about them to be good to eat; but many of these fruits are as well flavoured as 
the ordinary kinds. The following is a list of all the examples of striped fruits 
which I can at present call to memory :— 

¥i¢.—Col di Signora Blanca Panachée: green striped with bands of bright 
yellow. 

Prars.—Beurré d’Amanlis Panachée: beautifully marked with broad bands 
of rosy red and yellow, very striking and pretty constant; desirable. Duchesse 
d’Angouléme Panachée, or Duchesse Panachée: the quict green of this fruit is 
prettily set off with broad stripes of deep yellow. Lonise Bonne d’Avranches 
Panachée: this is Louise Bonne of Jersey, very prettily striped with broad 
bands of rosy red and yellow; very handsome. Virgouleuse: fruit pale 
yellow, striped with rosy red. Culotte de Suisse : fruit light green, striped with 
yellow. Winter Crassane: fruit pale green, striped with yellow. 

ApriEs.—Reinette Rayée: this is an exceedingly pretty little fruit, very 
evenly and regularly marked with broad bands of rosy ved and yellow. 
Reinctte x Fenilles d’Aucuba: fruits striped with yellow slightly rosy; leaves 
resembling those of the aucuba. Hoary Morning: very beautifully striped 
with rosy red. Yorkshire Greening: this is at times prettily marked, but not 
constantly so. Devonshire Red Streak: slightly striped. There are hesides 
many apples showing streaks of colour, but they are not sufficiently distinct to 
be here noticed. 

Grarr.—Aleppo Chasselas Panaché: this is a most singular variety, some 
berries being prettily striped with black and red, or white, some half black, 
others half white or red, others again wholly black, red, or white ; leaves striped 
with green, red, and yellow; flavour inferior. 

Aprrcor.—Abricotier Panaché (the striped apricot): fruits medium-sized, 
pale orange, shaded on the exposed sides with bands of reddish orange and 
pale yellow ; leaves prettily blotched with yellow. 

Currants.—Striped-fruited: the fruits of this variety are yellow, distinctly 
striped with red; it is, however, a very shy bearer. Commune & Feuilles 
Panachées has also the fruits slightly striped, and the leaves variegated. 

Metons.—Queen Anne’s Pocket: the fruits of this are quite of an_orna- 
mental character, small, round, and prettily striped with broad bands shading 
from dark orange to pale yellow. All the other varieties of Cucumis Melo 
Dudaim, to which this variety belongs, are more or less gaily striped. There 
are, besides, numerous yarieties of gourds, which are wonderfully beautiful in 
their striping; but these, though botanically coming under the designation of 
fruits, since they are not practically used as such, are here passed over. 


124 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dzc. 30, 1871. 


How to induce Seedling Fruit-trees to Bear Harly,—At a meeting of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, the followin's communication from the Rey. W. 
Kingsley was read :—‘‘ Hyeryone knows how very lone is the time between 
sowing the seed of a fruit-tree and getting frnit from it, so that few men of fifty 
years of life have the courage to propagate seedlings. I believe the time may 
be shortened most materially, and that a yery few words will explain the 
correct way of growing seedling frnit-trees. I have been led to the idea by the 
difficulty I have had in getting some grafted trees into bearing, and by observing 
that precisely the same sort of growth occurred in some trees that had origi- 
nated in suckers from old ungrafted trees. In almost all these cases, whether 
apple, pear, plum, peach, or orange, the wood was thorny; and though I cut 
back, and used the cuttings for scions, all had the same thorny and fruitless 
character. However, in experimenting upon a set of seedlinz peaches, some 
were allowed to grow wild, some steadily pinched in, some cut in closely and 
pinched, and some trained as single rods; all these last fruited as soon as the 
shoot got beyond the thorny part of the stem. It then occurred to me that it 
was only necessary to get beyond this part of the growth as quickly as possible. 
This is done by encouraging the growth of the young seedling to a single 
upright shoot, and then using the point of that shoot as a scion on a strone 
stock ; then the shoot from this scionis to be again trained at full length, and its 
point again used as a scion. In this way a shoot may be got hayine buds 
twenty feet or more from the root in a couple of years. I can speak from 
experience of the success of the process in the case of peaches and oranges, and 
some plums; pears and app!es I have not yet tried. In this way I got over the 
difficulty with thorny pear trees. The trees that I could not get to fruit had 
been grafted with scions taken off too near the root, the sorts being new ones. 
By selecting the scion near the root, or far from it, a grafted tree would be 
produced that would bear only after a long interval or quickly, according to 
the gardener’s will. At any rate, what has been said shows the importance of 
choosing the points of the leading shoots as scions for forming dwarf trees.” 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


- LANDSCAPE TREATMENT OF FARMS. 


Iv reference to the possible connection of landscape art with 
lands submitted every year to agricultural and economic uses, I 
propose to examine the matter in detail. If all farm-lands showed 
only the method of Alderman Mechi, and his system of pumping 
liquid manure by steam into the middle of any field—to be distributed 
thence by hose and sprinklers—should preyail, we should have, of 
course, only flat surfaces and rectangular fields to deal with. But 
it is safe to say that it will not prevail upon most of our farms 
for many years to come; yet it is none the less true that farm- 
lands are chiefly valued for the crops they will carry, and for 
the annual return they will make. Are lands under such rule of 
management susceptible of an zsthetic governance as well? Will 
treatment with a view to profit discard, of necessity, all considerations 
of tasteful arrangement ? I think not, and for reasons among which I 
may adduce the following : Judicious location of a farm-steading, with 
a view to profit simply, will be always near the centre of the lands 
farmed : this is agreeable, moreover, to every landscape-ruling in the 
matter. The ricks, the chimney, the barn-roofs, the dove-cots, the 
door-yard with its skirting array of shrubbery and shade trees—if 
only order and neatness belong to them, as good economy would dic- 


tate—form a charming nucleus for any stretch of fields. If there 


be astream whose power for mechanical purposes can be made ayail- 
able, economy dictates a location of the farm buildings near to its 
banks: tastedoes the same. If there be a hill whose sheltering slope 
will offer a warm lee from the north-westers, a due regard for the com- 
fort of labourers and of beasts, to say nothing of early garden crops, 
will dictate the occupancy of such sheltered position by the group of 
farm buildings: taste will do the same. If such slope has its rocky 
fastness, incapable of tillage, and of little value for pasture, economy 
will suggest that it be allowed to develop its own wanton wild growth 
of forest: a just landscape taste will suggest the same. If there be 
a broad stretch of meadow or of marsh land, subject to occasional 


overflow, or by the necessity of its position not capable of thorouch - 


drainage, good farming will demand that it be kept in grass: good 
landscape gardening will do the same. 

Again, rolling hillsides, which, by reason of their declivity or imprac- 
ticable nature, are not readily subject to any course of tillage, will be 
kept in pasture; and will have their little modicum of shade. The 
good farmer will be desirous of establishing this shade around the 
brooklet or the spring which waters his herd, or as a sheltering belt 
to the northward and westward of his lands: the landscapist cannot 
surely object to this. The same shelter along the wayside is agreeable 
to all aesthetic laws, and does not surely militate against any of the 
economies of farming. Indeed, I mayremark here, as I have already 
done in the progress of these pages, that the value of a sheltering belt 
of trees is not sufficiently appreciated as yet by practical farmers; 
but those who are not insensible to the quick spring growth under 
the lee of a garden-fence, will one day learn that an evergreen belt 
along the northern line of their farms will show as decisive a gain in 
their fields or their orcharding. 

Again, in the disposition of roadways, there is no rule in lanscape 
gardening which is not applicable toafarm. Declivities are to be 
overcome by the easiest practicable grades, and the curves which 


_ place “we 


will insure this in most landscapes are those which are justified at a 
glance by the economic eye, as well as by the eye of taste. A straight 
walk up and down a hill, is a monstrosity in park scenery ; and it is 
a monstrosity that cannot be found in pasture-lands, where cattle 
beat their own paths. Nyen sheep, who are good climbers in search 
of food, whenever they wend their way to the fold, take the declivi- 
ties by zig-zag, and give us a lesson in landscape art. An ox-team, 
in worming its way through woodland and down successive slopes, 
will describe curves which would not vary greatly from the engineer- 
ing laws of adjustment.— Riyal Studies. } 


OAK LODGE, ADDISON ROAD, KENSINGTON. 


Tuat “m small proportions we just beauties see,” is well 
illustrated in garden design. It is most rare to find a large - 
laid out.” Places of this description of any size 
are unfortunately too rare, but for the truest examples of taste 
in garden design we must go to comparatively small places. 
The best example we know of a well-arranged garden in 
London is the one of which we now furnish a view of part of 
the grounds: As we have not at present a plan of it, we will 
confine ourselves to saying a few words on the portion shown 
in our plate. Perhaps the first thing asked by some of those 
who have not seen the charming garden, of which our illustra- 
tion gives but a feeble notion, will be, Why is a rock-garden in 
such a position? Because a formal and ugly duck-pond and 
island were there before the garden was designed, and the lease 
stipulated that there they should remaim. Permission was, ~ 
however, granted to modify the scene a little, provided the 
water, &c., were not tlone away with. -Here, then, was a 
problem: a small formal pond and an ugly formal bank just im 
the place where a clear-seeing landscape-gardener would desire 
a little repose and a spread of velvety grass. But it was solved, 
and ably solved. The ugly bank became a varied mass of pic- 
turesque rock, seamed with graceful ferns and trailing shrubs; 
the water fell into what seemed a natural hollow in the earth, 
and around it sprang up tufts of Iris and Yucca. Rich masses 
of specimen Rhododendrons crest the rocks. The rocks, m 
fact, form a sort of. retaining/wall for the masses of earth to 
accommodate these plants, + Some old pear-trees and a pair of 
grand old Wych elms were carefully preserved, and grandly 
add to the effect of the scene. Mr. Alfred Dawson, who 
sketched and etched the view for us, does not usually betray 
any animosity to a well-garlanded rock-garden, but in this case 
he has, while givmg us the rocks faithfully enough, been 
somewhat cruel to the graceful drapery of vegetation with 


which they are clothed by ignoring its existence to a con- 


siderable extent. It is a mass of artificial rock cleverly and 
artistically constructed, but, like all masses of the same 
species of rock, it is not suitable for alpine and rock plants, _ 
&c. The opposite side of the rock is yery much more 
attractively varied with gently swelling banks and tastefully 
grouped masses of shrubs; and there are various other very 
praiseworthy features about the grounds. Although the placeis 
only a few acres in extent, and in a comparatively closely-built 
neighbourhood, it seems as free and broad, to one standing on 
the lawn, as if it were fifty. The boundary-line is so skilfully 
managed, and the surroundings so carefully concealed by a 
graceful veil of trees and shrubs, that the feeling of repose is _ 
perfect.. Oak Lodge is the residence of Mr. McHenry, for 
whom it was designed by Mr. Marnock. 4a 


The Axe a Magician.—While selecting the best site for a 
mansion, one of the chief objects to be considered is the view to be ~ 
obtained from the principal windows of the house when completed, 
such as distant mountains or hills, church spires, towers, castellated 
buildings ; frequently rivers, lakes, and even the open sea. After 
the house has got a certain length on, the artistic laying out of the 
grounds is the next point of consideration, and this is generally done 
by forming kitchen and flower gardens, evergreen shrubberies, and, 
for the better protection of the house and grounds, finishing off with 
clumps or belts of trees of various breadths, planted round the outside 
boundary fence: When the gardens are at first laid out the trees are 
generally small, and the views so extensive that the possibility of 
their being ultimately shut out isneyertaken into consideration. As 
time rolls on, many of these residences become buried up amongst a 
dense forest of trees, and few of the original panoramic views are 
visible, unless one ascends to some eminence or gets outside of the 


125 


THE GARDEN 


Dec. 30, 1871.) 


ee: 
Sn 


VIEW IN THE GARDENS, OAK LODGE, ADDISON ROAD, KENSINGTON. 


Dec. 30, 1871.} 


THE GARDEN. 


127 


wall. Such shut-up places coming into the market are frequently 
undisposed of for a fength of time, owing to their close and damp 
nature, the unsuccessful owner never for a moment thinking that 
such closeness can be easily cured. Some parties, more knowing than 
others, often secure such secluded places, and immediately com- 
mence a reformation; the charm worked by the woodman’s axe, with 
the aid of the artist or landscape-gardener, is often marvellous, and 
at a comparatively trifling expense, in certain cases the nature of the 
thinnings paying for the improvement affected. After the cutting 
for utility, as well as for landscape effect, has been accomplished, the 
debris all cleared away, and the place again put into proper condition, 
its market value will be found to be greatly increased. In some 
localities the stem-pruning of a few of the-large specimen trees often 
produces a peculiar but pleasing effect while looking at views between 
the stems and beneath the spreading branches. In other cases, the 
heading down of some of the intervening trees and the trimming 
up the branches of neighbouring ones also tend to bring in 
views which have long been shut out. In some instances the removal 
of trees altogether, and the stem-pruning and branching of others, 
produce views truly grand, and without in the least degree injuring 
the health of the trees operated on. A mansion-house known to me, 
situated on a somewhat rising ground abont a half a mile from the sea, 
but which was almost excluded from it by large trees and a thicket of 
evergreen and deciduous shrubs, by the judicious removal of some of 
the under branches of the large and wide-spreading trees, the clearing 


_ or thinning out of a few of the eyergreen and deciduous shrubs, and the 


_ partial heading down of others, beautiful views of Inchkeith and the 


Firth of Forth have been obtained from the principal windows of the 
mansion. At another large mansion, the removal of a gigantic oak 
tree in front of the drawing-room windows has opened up, on one 
side, a rich expanse of country, with hills and wooded glens, which 
before was scarcely visible except througha network of branches, and 
that during the leafless months of the year. On another property, 
the breaking through some extensive belts of spruce fir has been the 
means of varying and improving the foreground landscape, besides 
bringing*into view a range of hills and wooded banks, with here and 
there the entire outline of a fine old Scotch fir or beech tree, which, 
if well shaped, forms a beautiful object in the landscape. Although 
the remarks here given refer to vistas and views as applicable to 
mansion and villa residences, such effects to be produced by openings 
are equally applicable to the wooded banks of rivers, extensive woods, 
and wooded glens quite remote from dwellings. The eye, when once 
practised to such landscape effects, will find on many large properties 
numerous spots eminently calculated for such openings.—Jas. 
WNab, in “ Farmer.” 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


FORM OF DINNER-TABLE PLANTS. 


Tr has been the fashion for three or four years past to bring 
into descriptions of many of the new plants that have been 
introduced during that time the assertion that they are suitable 
(or invaluable) for dinner-table decoration. This may mean 
that the leaves or the flowers of the plant are capable of 
arrangement in a vase so as to look well upon a dining table; 
but that is not the meaning which these words conyey to the 


majority of those who read them. When a plant is mentioned 


as desirable or useful for any particular purpose, readers in 
general, and gardeners especially, conceive that the writer 
refers to the whole plant, and not to amy individual part or 
parts of it; and as a result of such recommendations we often 
see plants put upon dinner-tables that are utterly unfit for such 
a position. I have been led to notice this at the present time 
in consequence of some remarks which have recently appeared 
with respect to Amarantus salicifolius, of which beautiful plant 
I was favoured with a very early view. I may therefore count 
myself amongst the first and oldest of its admirers since its 
introduction into England, and I regret to see it proposed to 
be used in an unsuitable manner. It is noteworthy and charac- 
teristic of their good taste, that the firm who introduced it do 
not adyertise the plant for dinner-table purposes. 

The following are extracts from the remarks to which I 
refer: —“ Amarantus salicifolius promises to be the finest- 
foliaged plant for dinner-table decoration for 1872... .. It 
is a free-growing plant of admirable habit, forming a dense 
weeping pyramid of about a yard high, and nearly as much 
through. .... It will obviously give a new character to 
dinner-table decoration.” Assuredly it will be a novel feature, 
as well as a most unmitigated nuisance, if plants three feet 


high and three feet in diameter are allowed to be placed on a 
dining-table. I do not say that the plant cannot be made 
available for dinner-tables. To us in the metropolis it has the 
sreat drawback that it does not begin to assume the beautiful 
colours in its leaves until the London season is over, while 
those who, in the country, can use it as an in-door plant will 
find it more suitable for breakfast and luncheon decoration than 
for dinners, as its colours do not show to advantage by arti- 
ficial light. It is quite possible that, for daylight use, good 
dwarf plants might be obtained by late sowing, and also that 
suitable plants might be “ manufactured” by removing all the 
lower branches from a plant of the usual size, thus converting 
it into a standard, with a stem about two feet high; but I 
searcely like to suggest such interferences with the natural 
appearance of so elegant a plant: and the more so, since there 
are so many plants well suited to the purpose, without requiring 
to be tortured into forms foreign to their normal style of 
growth. 

Tt cannot be too often repeated, for the information of those 
who write or talk about the suitability of plants for dinner- 
table decoration, that plants for that purpose must come under 
one of the following categories, or they are inadmissible :—They 
must either be below fifteen inches in height, so that those 
seated at the table may see over them; or they must be 
standards, and have no branches or leaves within twenty inches 
of the cloth, so that diners may see under them. Any object 
that interferes with the view acrossa dining-table between fifteen 
and twenty inches above the cloth, is an inconvenience to those 
at the table, and should never be allowed. Wel: 


oS 
THE CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from p. 90.) 

Iv order to grow perfectly good and fine specimens inaroom, the best 
thing to do is to select small plants in small pots, so that the subjects 
may become gradually acclimatized to the atmosphere, and capable of 
supporting it permanently. In this way a partial deterioration of the 
foliage may occur, which, however, will not be followed later on by 
any serious diminution of the appearance or beauty of the plants, 
and, moreover, in small pots the roots suffer less when any injury 
occurs to the leaves. A normal condition of health can, in the last 
case, be sooner re-established by placing the little plants in the most 
favourable part of the window until they have grown sufficiently 
strong to be moved elsewhere. It is only after the establishment of 
the new growth in the atmosphere of the room, when the plants have 
been thus accustomed to it, that they are to be shifted into larger 
pots, for which directions will be given further on. 

Some instances from the author’s experience will show that when a 
man does not allow himself to become discouraged, but rather gives 
double attention to such plants as appear to droop at first, he is 
likely to be well rewarded for his care. 

A feeble specimen of Dracaena concinna was brought from the 
plant-house into the dwelling-house. All its leaves, except a few, 
dried up and withered, but they began to grow again, and stronger 
and stronger from year to year, so that now, after the lapse of six 
years, the plant retains the greater part of the leaves produced in the 
room, and has grown to be such a strong and handsome specimen as 
one is seldom fortunate enough to raise in a plant-house. In the first 
year only small and narrow leayes were produced, but after that 
time they grew larger, broader, and more luxuriant ‘from year to 
year, and never showed any of the ugly spots which are so often seen 
on the leaves of these plants in plant-houses. Now the plant has a 
crown of forty healthy leaves, which are more than two inches broad, 
and more than two feet long. About the same time with the Dracwena 
concinna, a specimen of Draczna Jacquini, Kunth. (D. ferrea, ‘‘ Hort.”’) 
was removed into the dwelling-honse. In spite of every attention 
this plant always looked miserable, finally lost all its leaves, and, in 
consequence of the partial decay of its roots, was shifted into a 
smaller pot, and placed in the window. Before it had stood there 
quite a year, it had put forth a new and strong growth; was then 
shifted into a large pot, and soon made a fine specimen, with twenty 
leaves a foot and a half long and three and a half inches across, of a 
dark red colour, which it preserved pure and without spots. A 
specimen of Dracaena marginata (Lam.), about a foot high, was also 
brought into the room. In the course of three years it had grown 
five and a half feet high, and preserved all its leaves (except those 
which were produced in the plant-house), so that, from one foot above 
the ground to the top of the plant, it was thickly covered with 
foliage. , 

The last instance we shall mention is that of a specimen of Cordyline 


128 


THE GARDEN. 


- [Dxc. 30, 1871. ° 


cannzfolia (R. Br.) _ Knowing from experience that the best way to 
grow a good specimen of this plant in a room is to remove it thither in 
a young state, we brought in in a two-inch pot a very young plant, 
the roots of which reached the sides of the pot. Soon after its 
remoyal all the leaves died off one after another. However, the plant 


was placed in a sunny part of the window, and in July (it had been — 


brought into the room in April) it produced the first new leaves, and 
at the same time roots which filled the pot. It was then shiftéd into 
a larger pot, and by autumn had produced eight new leaves, of which 
the largest were one and a quarter foot long, including the leaf stalk, 
and one and a half inch across. In the course of the following year 
it developed twenty-four new leaves, three feet long and three and 
a half inches across, so that it soon became a particularly handsome 
specimen, and remained for a long time thickly covered with leayes 
from the ground up. 

These few instances may suffice to show that evergreens which 
are intended to be kept permanently in rooms, must first be gradually 
inured to the atmosphere, and must first have made a new growth, in 
it, before they can be looked upon as fully acclimatized. But the 
amateur who, when his plants on their first introduction into the 
dwelling become ill-looking and sickly in consequence of the change, 
remoyes them, and supplies their places by others, will very seldom 
succeed in growing good or durable specimens. 

The following precautions should be observed, in order to prevent, 
as much as possible, any injury to large plants when removed from 
the plant-house into the dwelling house :— 

1. Do not select any specimens in a growing condition, but choose 
those which have made their full growth, or such as are only 
commencing to push. The younger and more recently formed 
the leaves are, so much the more susceptible are they of being 
spoiled by being introduced into the atmosphere of a room. 

2. Choose, if possible, the summer for introducing the specimens 
from the plant-house into the dwelling-house, as, the air being 
admitted into both these places at that season, the difference 
in the moisture of their respective atmospheres is not so 
considerable. t 

3. In removing plants into a warm room for the winter, do not 
select any which are growing in a low, moist plant-house, but 
such as have been already hardened in the drier air of a high 
and dryish house. Care should be taken in this respect, not 


only with plants which are intended for permanent culture’ 


in the dwelling-house, but also with those which are only 
placed there for temporary decoration. 

4. Plants when first introduced into a room should be placed as 
near as possible.to the window, with some shading from the 
direct rays of the sun in spring and summer. This protection 
will only be necessary for a short time after the introduction 
of the plants. ; ‘ 

5. Plants removed from a moist plant-house should be sprinkled 
with water every morning and evening for the first week, 
which will prevent’ the injury which would result from the 
excessive evaporation from the leaves. ; 

In~ foregoing remarks we have discussed the question of the 
introduction of plants into the rooms of dvwelling-houses, but we 
must here impress upon all amateurs the cantion that they will 
imperil, and probably destroy, all the results of growing plants in 
rooms, if they attempt to remove periodically into the open air, or 
into a plant-house, any evergreen subjects that haye once been used 
to the atmosphere of aroom. The following is an instance in the 
experience of the writer:—Nrom some Cordylines which had been 
grown for years in a room, a selection was made of those kinds which 
are well known to be capable of enduring the open air in summer. 
These were placed in a glass-roofed balcony with open sides. Here, 
very soon indeed, Cordyline rubra, ©. violascens, C. australis, C. 
spectabilis, and C. stricta put forth a new anda stronger erowth than 
they had made in the room. A specimen of C. australis, which had 
been already cultivated in the room for two years, and was coyered 
with a mass of handsome overhanging leaves, especially distinguished 
itself by the development of leaves much larger, broader, and of a 
deeper green, just such as this species only produces when placed 
in the open air in summer. In the midst of this growth, these 
experiment plants were taken back into the room in autumn; but the 
results of moving them were very unfavourable to all the plants. In 
the course of the following winter, C. australis lost all its old leayes 


and a portion of the new ones as well, and continued in a very sickly. 


condition all through the winter, so that this fine specimen, which 
had kept its leaves for three years, was quite ruined by the experi- 
ment. C. stricta, which is one of the most durable plants for room- 
culture, and which, to be sure) on this account had, when brought 
back to the room, been placed in a rather dark part at a distance 
from the windows, gradually lost all its leaves and soon died. 

That these injuries, which all the other plants which were thus 


experimented on likewise suffered in the loss of all their old leayes 
and a portion of the new ones, could only be attributed to their 
having been shifted from the room to the open air, was manifest 
enough from the fact that all: the other specimens, which passed the ~ 
summer in the room, continued to grow away uninjured as in former 
years. The falling off of the old leaves was in this case entirely 
the result of the reaction of a summer’s growth made under 
different conditions and influences, and which cost the plants 
the loss of the advantages of several years’ acclimatization in the 
room. The partial loss of the leayes of the new growth resulted 
from this circumstance, thatthat growth was not quite completed when 
the plants were brought back into the room, where the higher 
temperature stimulated them toa further growth in the course of the 
winter. This part of the injury might have been prevented ‘by re- 
moving the plants back to the room somewhat earlier in the season. 

It is to be understood that all the preceding remarks on the 
acclimatization of plants in rooms are applicable only to the more 
important evergreen ornamental plants, whether intended for the 
temporary or permanent decoration of apartments, . 

For the management of plants flowering in winter and spring, the 
rules just given will be useful; but for summer-flowering plants, 
such as fuchsias, pelargoniums, &c., the room’is merely a winter 
shelter. As we haye devoted separate chapters to the var'ous aspects 
of room culture, we shall give the necessary directions in the proper 
place. 
: What has been said respecting evergreen ornamen.al plants will 
apply equally te all flowering plants with evergreen foliage, which 
are wintered in ordinary dwelling-rooms with a temperature of 
from 10° to 15° Réaumur. Such are camellias, Indian azaleas, &e., 
of which many amateurs purchase yery handsome specimens at high 
prices. The buds with which these specimens are thickly covered 
excite lively expectations of future flowers. But it happens other- 
wise. In spite of the greatest care one bud after another drops off 
without opening, and with them all hope of flowers fall equally to 
the ground. 6 

Eyen when camellias are grown in a plant-house, a change of | 
position usually proves highly detrimental to the development of 
bloom. Inamuch greater degree is this the case when a camellia, 
raised in a plant-house and covered with buds, is transferred to the 
dry air of a dwelling-room. But the amateur who wishes to succeed 
with these plants should not allow himself to be discouraged by the 
unfavourable results which always follow for the first year after their 
remoyal, but should rather continue his care of them. His per- 
severance will be rewarded by the success of growing camellias in a 
dwelling-room to as fine specimens and as well furnished with flowers 
as it is possible to do in any plant-house. These plants, like the 
evergreens, should make a new growth in the apartment to which 
they are removed, and, like them, should not be afterwards shifted to 
the open air. The special treatment of these handsome plants will 
be fully given in its proper place.—F'rom the German of Dr. Regel. 

(Lo be continued.) 


THE VARIEGATED PINE AS AN IN-DOOR 
' ORNAMENT. , 


Notnme could be more appropriate or decorative as an | 
in-door ornament than a well grown entire plant of the 
variegated pine-apple, especially one grown expressly for the 
purpose, the fine development of the foliage having been care- 
Pally attended to. A fine plant so treated, and placed within 
a handsome majolica vase, large enough to conceal the pat in 
which the plant is grown, could not fail to be strikingly 
effective. either in halls, corridors, or grand staircases—aye, 
and eyen for vases placed upon terraces in the open air 
during the summer season. ‘The variegated variety differs 
from the normal form of pine-apple im its foliage being 


_broadly laced with orange-yellow, suffused when younger with 


reddish-crimson colours, which contrast beautifully with what 
is left in the centres of the leaves. The fruit, too, partakes to 
some extent of the varied hues of the foliage, and adds mate- 
rially to the general effect. It is, moreover, edible, but in 
flavour it is inferior to any of the varieties which are now- 
grown for the sake of their fruit alone. : 

The cultivation of this yariety is by no means difficult; the 
soil best adapted for it is a mixture of two parts turfy loam, 
one part peat, and one part leaf-mould and well-decomposed 
manure, to which should be added a small quantity of silver or 
sharp river sand. The plants should be potted in spring, but 
if they are to be placed in vases or other ornamental devices, 
it is advisable to use somewhat small pots, in order to ensure 


Dec. 30, 1871.] 


their fitting more readily into such receptacles. Where plants 
are wanted for such purposes, the soil may be made a little 
richcr in quality, to compensate for lack of quantity. After 
potting they must be grown in a stove, warm frame, or pit, 
and where a gentle bottom heat is obtainable, they should be 
plunged into it, in order to induce a rapid development. When 
sufficiently large, if required for in-door decoration, gradually 
inure them to a cool temperature, and be careful that cold 
water does not remain in the crown of the plant. These direc- 
tions having been followed, the plants will be ready for any 
use to which the taste of the owner may choose to put them, 


Beare | 7 eae ae aT: iyi - 


Lim 


t ’ Variegated Pine-apple. 


When grown to a large size the variegated pine is a striking 
plant for exhibition purposes, and if it is intended to use it in 
that way we should advise it to be grown in a brisk heat, with 
full exposure to sunlight, as by this method the colours are 
much brighter than in the case of plants which have been 
subjected to too much shade. 

OF the liability of the leaves to get broken when used as a 
drawing-room ornament, there need be noapprehension. They 
are always armed, and will take care of themselves. Indeed, 
the old Scotch motto, “Nobody shall touch me with impunity,” 
has an especial applicability in the case of this plant. W. 


Le SS ne = ES 


THE ARBORETUM. 


OLD YEWS. 


YeEw-TrREE VALE, a dell on the chalk downs near the woods of 
Wotton and the country of Sylva Evelyn, is one of those fine wild 
parks adorned and planted by nature herself. Here may be found 
as many as fifty great yew trees grouped together on an uneven 
slope, permitting no other growth except that of a few attendant 
hawthorns, with the green turf under foot. The yews stand in, 
what iscalled in America, an “opening,” or wood pasture. Around 
is a game preserve, with a liberal growth of furzes, hollies, junipers, 
and lesser yews. It is undoubtedly part of the primeval forest, 


untouched as yet by culture, or even by any chance hand ‘sticking 
_ ina tree”; for everything that grows on this retired site is indi- 


genous. The lesser native evergreens, the butcher's broom, ivy, and 
misletoe, are freely sprinkled around; so are the oak, ash, birch, 


r ‘elder, maple, hazel, crab, bullace, and sloe, and the usual hedge- 


‘its. 

The bow has been cut in Yew-Tree Vale, Druidical rites may 
have been celebrated here, and the golden knife may have sliced 
the misletoe from the predecessors of these old thorns. The place 
has an aspect of Ancient Britain, ang its silent repose seems to plead 
against reyolution and deprecate change. May none attempt to 
beautify its anciént face, and desecrate the vale by introducing any 
novelty within its precincts ! : 

Many of the trees aro now in the vigour of old age such as yews 
enjoy. One at least has grown younger in appearance, and has 


THE GARDEN. 


129 


now more life in wood, bark, branch, and leaf than it had twenty 
years ago, when accident induced that singular effort of rejuvenes- 
cence which the yew can exert so powerfully, and which the short- 
lived fir is incapable of making. A fire was lighted in the hollow of a 
tree which had stood for many years previously green and grand, 
and firmly supported by a strong outer shell of wood. Twenty 
years later the charred marks had-disappeared, and at the exposed 
edges, wherever nature could work, a new growth of bark and wood 
had repaired the damage, and given the intended victim a stronger 
hold of life, and, mechanically, a firmer support than it had on tho 
day of the outrage, with a greener growth overhead, and an 
abundant crop of branches breaking out on the repaired trunk. 

Many of the old yews have formerly parted with a slab from their 
bulging trunks, that has, perhaps, been worked up by shepherds and 
others into nut-crackers, cups, and little keepsakes, which have had a 
value, small or great, in the villages round for these hundreds of 
years. It is curious to see how tho hardy giants have patiently 
repaired the ravages of this rude carpentry by enveloping the section 
with a new growth gradually overlaying the excised surface. In 
some instances, an unhealed portion ‘shows the old wood underneath 
marked by the tool, and evincing by its decay that.the robbery of 
the plank must have occurred hundreds of years ago. There are 
trees that would be thought sound but for the scars.and eyelet-holes, 
which reyeal a mass of decaying wood behind. Occasionally the 
marvellous power of life produces a new stem from the root, which 
grows up through the dying parent, nourished by the mould formed 
by a mass of rotten wood, dead leaves, remains of roosting birds, 
and dead animals. In one instance, a white beam tree has struck 
root in the decaying material within the hollow, and has carried its 
stem through the top of the foster parent, where its silvery leaves 
appear to grow on the yew in glittering contrast to the sombre hue 
of the,ancient evergreen. 

The decay of the wood within, and the cracking of the weakened 
bole in “windy storms,’”’ is the beginning of the end. The next 
stage is a hollow tree; then perhaps a fire; then reparation ; then 
several more hundred years, till the outer shell and vestige of a 
trunk is broken by wilful violence, or, by sheep and deer rubbing 
against the time-honoured remains, or striving to enter the hollow 
for shelter. Then comes utter decrepitude; limbs fall and tear 
down part of their perishing support, and at last the venerable ruin 
is rendered to the dust from which it gathered life and strength 
so long. 

Any visitor of Surrey scenes wishing to find ont these patriarchs 
of the yew-tree family may inquire the way to the narrow racé- 
course, or to Newland’s Corner, a noted meet for hounds, and the 
first shepherd he may chance to meet will lead him to tho less 
notorious spot he seeks. H. NEWLANDSs. 


THE COMMON LAUREL A USURPER. 


Turrp is no plant perhaps that deserves the title of ‘usurper” 
more than what is generally called the common laurel. No doubt this 
fine, free-growing evergreen is one of the most desirable of shrubs 
when kept in its appropriate place, viz., where it has ample space—in 
large shrubberies, or under trees on the margins of woods and copses, 
or flanking the carriage drive and boundary fence; for nothing can 
be better as a dense low background, a shelter from winds, or ascreen 
from unsightly objects and buildings, offices, &c. 

In accordance with the ordinary ideas of gardening, this shrub is 


the first obtained from the nursery, as it is also the cheapest, to adorn - 


the approach to the dwelling or the limited garden at the rear. 
Placed usually in the very front of the border, and quite close to the 
walk, it grows most rapidly into a vigorous shrub, its shoots often 
attaining in a single season to three, four, or even five feet in length. 
Tt is impossible to exaggerate the evil of which this rampant shrub 
has been the cause; the smaller conifers, such as thujas, junipers, 
and delicate cypresses, as well as bays, laurustinus, arbutus, rhodo- 
dendrons, and roses, and other refined and compact shrubs, are con. 
stantly found to be quite hidden or destroyed by its wealth of shoots. 
I must confess that I have enjoyed the utmost satisfaction in ordering 
hundreds to be cut down and carted away, thus not only developing 
to the view many better things, but opening the finest vistas and 
distant peeps of scenery, and have rejoiced in many a ‘“‘ bravo” and 
outburst of thanks for this bold and liberal application of the hand- 
bill, saw, and hatchet. The term “ usnrper,’”’ however, has yet to be 
explained; this vaunted, self-called laurel is really no laurel at all; 
he usurps the name only from the old Celtic word ‘“‘blaur”’ or “laur,” 
or “green;” it is simply a species of cherry (Prunus Laurocerasns), 
and has no right to trench upon the classical, noble family of 
“ Laurus,” which without doubt is one of the most valuable genera in 
the vegetable kingdom, being spicy, warm, fragrant, and medicinal. 
The species include Laurus nobilis, or sweet hay ; L. cinnamomum, 


130 


THE GARDEN. 


[Dec. 30, 1871, 


L. Sassafaras, L. Camphora, L. Cassia, andmany others. Theseare true 
laurels, and it is to be regretted that not more than two are hardy 
in Britain, one of these only (the bay) being evergreen. It is high 
time, then, that this falsenomenclature as regards the common lanrel 
should be set right, and the term “cherry laurel,” or ‘‘ evergreen 
cherry,”’ be given to this ordinary though ornamental shrub. The 
leaves are believed to be poisonous even to cattle, but the panicles of 
small black fruit it bears are sweet, and not unpleasant to the taste. 
They are especially appreciated by tramps of the Bipsy community. 
One word in justice to, and appreciation of, this cherry laurel. 
Its large, oblong, glossy leaves, of the finest golden green, 
contrast admirably with the more sombre, deep tones of the Portugal 
laurel (also a Prunus), the bay, holly, &c. And here it may be well 
to name that the Alexandrian laurel is not a true Lanrus, but a Ruscus 
—R. racemosus or R. alexandrinus—and is presumed to be the plant 
with which the ancient poets were adorned, while heroes and victors 
were crowned with the bay (Laurus nobilis)—2. W. Cooke, Glen 
Andred, in “ Field.” : 


THE WALNUT (JUGLANS REGIA). 


Tis is comparatively but little planted, a singular fact when the 
beauty and value of its wood are taken into account. Wor gun stocks 
and much of our finer sorts of furniture, Walnut timber is invaluable. 
Walnuts, moreover, are free growing trees on almost all kinds of soil, 
and the crops of nuts which they produce would pay at least the rent 
of the land on which they grow, while its freehold might be purchased 
with trees of four score years ofage. Walnuts in’a landscape also are 
trees of mark, theirmaenificent heads of fine foliage in parks or paddocks 
rendering them especially adapted for such situations. They associate 
well with Oak, Beech, Him, Spanish and Horse Chestnut, as well as 
with various other trees, and they do not rob the land more than their 
companions do. Their smooth glossy leaves are waShed clean with 
every shower, and the foliage is not so thick as to throw the rain off 
the grass or to keep air currents from circulating freely among the 
branches. Thore are, therefore, no trees either in park or pasture 
under which herbage grows better than it does under Walnuts, 

Besides, Walnuts comeintoleaf late, make their growth quickly, and 
lose. their foliage nearly all at once, after the first autumn frost. 
Thus a chance isgiven to take the leaves out of the way, so as not to 
injure the grass; while the shining dark young wood, with the greyish 
mature limbs are left full in view. As to any tree that will grow 
more:quickly into a size to be useful, I do not know where to look 
for it. I have seen old Walnut trees that measured from sixty to 
ninety feet in height—diameter of branches from sixty to ninety-six 
feet, and of bole or trunk, from three to five feet diameter; and, no 
doubt, larger trees are elsewhere to be found. 

Considering, therefore, all its good qualities, what can be the reason 
that Walnuts arenot more extensively cultivated in this country than 
they are? Is it because young folks will sometimes pillage a few 
nuts, rather than spend their cash in the purchase of French walnuts ? 
Surely not. That the French grow walnuts more extensively than 
we do is certain; they find, too, a market amongst us for their nuts, 
which, had we moretrees, we might with advantageshare with them. 


JAMES BARNES, 


The Upright Cypress.—In England this Cypress is recorded to 
have been growing in gardens early in 1500, since which time it has 
been planted in almost every shrubbery, and it is still deservedly a 
favourite with most people. I have never seen C. sempervirens in this 
country much above sixty feet in height ; but trees of this size are by 
no means scarce. There are several varieties-of it as regards habit, 
all of which are useful and highly ornamental. They grow freely, and 
will succeed almost anywhere and on any kind of soil, but they always 
start best associated with common shrubs planted pretty freely as 
nurses, to be cut away or thinned out im due season in order to give 
space both for root and branch; when fully grown, they seed” 
freely, and with us, in Devonshire, the wood is both durable and 
useful when converted into house furniture, harps, and other musical 
instruments, resisting as it does the worm and moth. As to 
growth, I like to see all plants of noble port with a foot or two of 
clear bole at the base. Cypresses are not expected to make grand 
effects in the background of free-growing trees; thoy are more 
fitted for planting near the front, or as! single trees on grass, or in 
and about cemeteries, &c. They form striking contrasts with 
buildings, especially with such as have horizontal roofs; but they 
will not withstand the smoke of large cities. Cypresses are not 


_yigorous-growing enough to plant among large trees, bub with such 


things as Thorns, Crabs, Amelanchier, Yews, Hollies, Portugal 
Laurels, Ilexes, Cotoneasters, Laurustinus, double blossomed Furze, 


Phillyreas, Bays, Arbutus, Thujas, Junipers, &c., they are quite at 
home, These, together with Laburnums, purple Beeches, and scarlet. 
crimson and yellow Horse-Chestnuts, Judas trees, Sumachs, é&c., are 
the materials with which ornamental grounds cannot well be oyver- 
stocked.—Jamus BARNuS. . 


The Lombardy Poplar (Populus fastigiata.) —This fast- 
growing pyramidal tree is not so fashionable with planters now asin 
years gone by. About a century ago no plantation was made without 
it, and for shutting out unsightly buildings, &c., in the landscape, it 
was considered invaluable. Hyen now it may to a limited extent be 
introduced into plantations of round-headed trees, to give them life 
and interest, especially when looked at from a distance, its pointed 
head producing a pleasing contrast to its less aspiring companions. 
This effect is more particularlyapparent in Cheshire, Worcestershire, 
Herefordshire, Gloucestershire. and Somersetshire, than in other 
counties. It associates well with old churchyards, .cemeteries, old 
ruins, amongst pointed-headed cypresses and yews; a plant or two of 
it has also a homely look at the entrance to a village, or it may be 
onits green. At the same time it would be out of place to plant this 
poplar largely anywhere except where it is wanted to plant out 
rusightly objects.—JAMES BARNES. 


The Poplar.—The beauty of Poplars inantumn is far more noteworthy when 
numbers of trees are taken together than in any single Specimen. Sometimes 
the mountain-ash fades to a splendid red colour and is very beautiful in itself, — 
but it is very uncertain, and one specimen will do so while another will not. 
The white poplar, however, is the most beautiful common tree in this wespect 
(common, I have said, but it is not half or a quarter common enough as yet) 
when half of its leaves are turned a fine yellow, while the rest show all manner 
of weaker tones of yellow till you come to the youngest, which have their own 
inimitable pearly sheen in the most bewitching contrast with the yellow in the 
middle of the tree; the great openness of the foliage in this tree also allows a 
full light to pass through it so as to show it up to the best advantage. By all 
means plant white poplars on the windy side of your garden, Afterwards, 
oxainary, plants will do better, and the outline of the trees is so soft and sweet. 


“In small proportions we just beauties see.”—Not only those broad and 
striking effects which belong to a great range of field and wood, or to bold 
Scenery, Come within the domain of landscape art, but those lesser and 
ordinary graces that may be compassed within stone’s throw of aim ~ or, 
We do not measure an artist by the width of his canvas. The panora.uas that 
take in mountains are well if the life and the mist of the mountains are in them; 
but they do not blind us to the merit of a cabinet gem. IT question very much if 
that subt.e apprehension of the finer beauties which may be made to. SRReaS 
about a given locality does not express itself more pointedly and winningly in 
the management of a three or five-acre lawn than upon such reach of meadow 
and upland as bounds the view. The watchful care for a single hoary boulder 
that lifts its seared and lichened hulk out of a sweet level of greensward ; the 
audacious protection of some wild vine flinging its tendrils carelessly over a bit 
of wall, girt with a savage hedge-growth—these are indications of an artist 
feeling that will be riotous of its wealth upon a bare acre of ground. Nay, I do 
not know but I have seen about a labourer’s cottage in Devonshire such adroit 
adjustment of a few flowering plants upon a window-shelf, and such tender and 
judicious care for the little matlet of turf around which the gravel path swept to 
his door, as showed as keen and artistic sense of the beauties of nature, and of 
the way in which they may be enchained for human gratification, as could he 
Set forth in a park of a thousand acres.—D. G. Mitchell. ~ 


TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS OF HEIGHT AND CIRCUMFERENCE. 
OF SEQUOIAS IN THE CALAVERAS GROVE, 


Circumference 
Name of Tree. 6 feet above Height, 
Ground. 

= ; Feet. Feet. 
Keystone State . n ne ae : 5 45 325 
General Jackson . gees 6 . 40 819 
Mother of the Forest (without bark) Sah 315 
Daniel Webster : . G 47 307 
Richard Cobden . TG 5 ° 41 284  * 
T. Starr King . . . . . . : 52 283 
Pride of the Forest. 3 5 > 48 282 
Henry Clay . . . . . . AZ 280 
Bay State . 5 . 5 . . . 46. 275 = 
Jas. King of William . . . 51 274 
Sentinel . q 5 f . 5 : 49 272, 
Dr. Kane - 2 D . : . 5 50 271 
Arbor vitz: Queen . . . < . 30 269 
Abraham incom. . . . reed 4h t 268 
Maid of Honour . x . 5 . . 27 266 
Old Vermont . A . . 6 5 : 40 265 
(Un Cle | Sana eve eer eerie ae ee 43 PAM | 
Mother and Son (Mother) . ay) Ud ble 261 
Three Graces (highest) 2 . - se 30 262 
Wm. Cullen Bryant i d 48 262 
U.S. Grant . . . ‘< . 5 B84 261 
General Scott . . 5 5 : “ 43 258 
George Washington . . . tee 51 256 
Henry Ward Beecher . . . 7 . 34 252 
California : < . G : . . 33 250 
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. . : : 5 . 50 250 =. 
Beauty ofthe Forest . . .+ 2 . 39 249 
J.B. M’Pherson . A 5 . 6 . OL 246 
Florence Nightingale . A ci 37 246— 
James Wadsworth . * 5 . . . 27 239° 
Elihu Burritt. 2. . . Rito 81 ~ 231 


Dec, 30, 1871.1 


THE GARDEN. 


| 131 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


~ WHAT TO DO WITH HAMPSTEAD HEATH. 


Tre wisest desire we have heard for a song time expressed 
in connection with a place of this nature is the one attributed 
to Mr. Le Breton and the inhabitants of Hampstead that their 
heath should be preserved intact, not “laid out” as a park, 
formal or otherwise. On Hampstead Heath, notwithstanding 
its hideous fields of gravel pits and other mutilations, nature 
is even now more delightful than in our most elaborate parks. 
Till very recently, London was begirt with a chain of airy 
commons, which offered many attractions to the botanist and 
entomologist, though that charm is fast decreasing in the case 
of Wimbledon and Hampstead. Even yet, however, a bit of 
sundew may be picked up on Hampstead Heath, while briar 
and furze hold ane sway over hundreds of acres; and one 

may yet find little lawns with carpet of turf soft as velvet, 
and fringed with graceful high ferns. Some of us are too 
apt to assume that the more common or heath hype of 
vegetation is one only fitted to be exterminated by the 
“improver.” But when we understand these things better, 
we shall find that the efforts of the landscape-gardener must 
be devoted to preserving what we now too often ruthlessly 
destroy. There are many spots on Hampstead superior to 
those we artificially create, and with the added charm of utter 
wildness. If those entrusted with the care of Hampstead Heath 
insist that all its wild charms be preserved, they will have made 
an important step in true landscape gardening. A network of 
trim roads and walks would be a poor substitute for its wide 
pathways of velvety turf. The slimy-dug borders of the 
central parks of London are hateful beside its graceful mixtures 
of bracken, briar, furze, and thorn. 

But preserving all its natural beauty should not prevent 
us froma enriching it. This may be done without injuring 
it or formalizing it in the least degree. There are many 
spots in it which it would be pure vandalism to disturb; 
but there are also many where a sprinkling of hardy-flowering 
deciduous trees, or a group of the hardiest and nob.st ever- 
. green trees, would lend a variety and a beauty which would 
charm all beholders. Wherever the gravel-digger has been 
yery busy, we must follow, and with some trouble re-embellish 
the earth he has defaced. It is often possible for the tasteful 
landscape-gardener to take much advantage of disfigurements 
of this kind, and by a little grading and careful planting, to 
render them much prettier and more diversified than before 
they were created. Without costly planting, or planting that 
will cause any trouble, or require any attention when once 
finished, we may get the highest beauty that may be obtained 
from rolling ground, green grass, and beautiful trees. And 
what park in existence offers scenes that might be charmingly 
embellished by tasteful planting more than Hampstead 
Heath? 

For proof of how much such embellishment would gratify and 
exalt the taste of the people we are left in little doubt by the 
weird group of Pinus sylvestris (Scotch pine) on Hampstead 
Heath. Some of our best artists haye introduced them into 
their pictures, and they are well known in our literature. 
There is nothing in any of the London parks so beautiful as 
this group of Scotch fir, which has taken care of itself for long 
years unguarded; and surely where such a gratifying result 


comes from the planting of one kind of tree one need hardly 


plead for the judicious planting of other kinds? This may be 
carried out without in the least interfering with the wild 
beauty of the heath. By the time the pines which have 
delighted the present generation of artists and tree-lovers begin 
to decay, a score of groups of other noble trees should be 
arriving at maturity. It is folly to leave a ge ground so 
well calculated as Hampstead Heath for the display of tree 
beauty an almost treeless waste. Jt is almost needless to add 
that the planting advocated need not involve any “laying out” 
of the ground, but simply the placing of suitable hardy trees 
in carefully-selected positions. ‘The groups would require 
a fence for a few years; afterwards they would require no 
more attention or protection than the Scotch firs have. A 
trifling expense would suffice for the purchase and planting of 
the best trees for the purpose. 

Other great and peculiar charms might be added to Hamp- 


stead Heath by the naturalization of hardy flowers, which 
would multiply freely and grow healthfully in such a position. 
There are numbers of charming hardy flowers, such as the 
daffodils, the blue anemone (A. apennina), the globe flowers, 
wood hyacinths, snowdrop, crocuses, &c., which would be as 
much at’ home on the heath as the bracken and the furze. 
Such as these might be bought cheaply in quantity, dotted about 
in the short grass and about low wild shrubs, and the result in 
a few years would be a vast wild spring and carly summer 
garden surpassing all that art in “t.im gardens” has yet 
effected. 


FLOWERS AND FOUNTAINS. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


THE two fountains in Trafalgar Square have been so severely, 
not to say unmercifully, criticised, that condemnation need not be 
reiterated. ‘They are already in possession of the unenviable distinc. _ 
tion of being the best-abused fountains in Europe, and it will only now 
be necessary to allude, in some detail, to their admitted meagreness 
and nakedness of aspect, in order to point out the more clearly how 
those defects might be alleviated, if not even partially obliterated. 

The most magnificent and, on the whole, the most successful of 
modern designs for town fountains of a strictly decorative character 
on a grand scale, are indubitably those of the Place de la Concorde 
at Paris. But even they have a certain indefinable defect—a kind of 
frigidity or bareness, which, by means analogous to those about to be 
proposed for the improvement of our comparatively pigmy structures 
in Trafalgar ‘Square, might easily be overcome. In pointing out 
that there is a something still wanting to the complete decorative 
success of the great fountains of the Place de la Concorde, it must 
not be imagined for a moment that it is sought to depreciate the 
stately and truly artistic merits of thpse fine works, which, for their 
important features of colossal statuary, combined with ornamentation 
that in itself reaches the level of high art, are certainly not to be 
approached in excellence by any similar works of recent construction 
in any part of Europe. 

The French have, in fact, been the only nation in the nineteenth 
century whose artists have succeeded in laying hands on the true 
artistic principles which necessarily govern the general forms as well 
as the minor enrichments properly belonging to the class of structures 
at present under discussion. 

Many other examples of French success in this department of art 
might be cited, which form splendid ornaments to several of the 
great provincial towns of France, but it will suffice to mention one 
only, a fountain serving as a magnificent base and pedestal to the 
statue of Bruat (see next page), which the writer saw and 
sketched a few months before the late deplorable war. Bruat, 
who was one of the brilliant and successful leaders of the First 
Empire, was a native of Colmar, and the monument erected to his 
memory by his townsmen, is, in every respect, a very nobly-devised and 
finely-executed work. The principal mass of the structure supporting 
the statue consists of four richly-sculptured basins, separated by four 
symbolic figures of colossal dimensions and of great merit as pieces of 
high-class sculpture. The artistic treatment of these grandly- 
designed figures might, however, be pronounced by a certain class of 
critics as “thoroughly French”; though they undoubtedly produce 
a fine effect, which is the chief object in architectonic sculpture. 
Moreover, the “ drawing” of these grand figures is artistically and 
anatomically correct, which cannot always be said of works which 
have the supposed merit of greater sobriety and severity of treatment. 
The bold and largely-conceived mouldings, and the rich miasses 
of incidental ornamentation also, although but minor features in 
the composition, are very skilfully and grandly traced, by the hand 
of a true master of his art; being as superior to those which belong 
to the base of the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square, or to those 
of the adjacent fountains, as it is possible to conceive. The whole 
composition is the work of M. Auguste Berthold, a young sculptor, 
who resides at an old family chateau, which nestles among a rich 
mass of ancient trees, not far from Colmar, in preference to entering 
the troubled artistic atmosphere of Paris or any other great city. 
He has thus determined, as I learnt, to carry on the enthusiastic pur- 
suit of his art undisturbed among the woods of his native Alsace. 

It may be urged by cayillers, in depreciation of many of the 
characteristies of French art generally, that all the best features in 
many of the noble fountains that have been erected during the 
present century in various parts of France have been borrowed from 
Italian models. That may be very true, for in the general style, in the 
disposition of parts, and in the noble sculpture of the fountains of 
the Place de la Concorde, the French artists were evidently inspired 
by the exquisite piece of fountain-work which was designed by 


132 


THE GARDEN. 


‘[{Drc. 30, 1871. 


Giovanni di Bologna for the Piazza Vecchia at Florence; and in all 
probability M. Berthold had also seen and studied Bernini’s famous 
fountain on the Piazza Navonna at Rome, before he designed the 
structure which is one of the greatest ornaments of Colmar. But, 
while admitting this, it must be confessed at the same time that such 
French artists have invariably stamped their works with the dis- 
tinctive genius of their own age and country, and that their 
productions have a well-knit compactness and completeness seldom 
to be found in their Italian models. 

The Bruat statue-fountain stands at the entrance of the public 
gardens, and is therefore backed by the rich greens of great masses 
of foliage, the dark tones of which form a background against which 


The Bruat Statue-Fountain at Colmar, 


‘ 


the outlines of the various marbles define themselves with excellent 
effect—the sculptured’ outline of the base being immediately sur- 
rounded by a dwarf edging of-a low-growing evergreen shrub, while 
symmetrical masses of richly-tinted flowers form additions of living 
colour, which have the effect of enlarging the base of the structure 
and imparting additional importance to its aspect, and, at the same 
_time, softening the sharply-cut forms of the marble into the sur- 
rounding space, and warming the general effect by the addition of 
a floral framework, the absence of which is one of the chief causes 
of the naked coldness of aspect of our fountains in Trafalear Square. 
Those fountains haye other inherent defects in regard to the situa- 
tion they occupy, which cannot yery well be mended without their 
absolute removal, and the replacing of them by larger and better works; 
for, in the first place, they are on too small a scale, and consequently 
have a meanness of aspect which no improvements or surroundings 
can entirely overcome; and, secondly, their form, as small tazzas, with 
an insignificant elevation in the centre, from which the water was 
originally made to ascend a few feet and then fall in frothy foam, 
caused them when first erected to be compared to big saucers with 
bottles of ginger-beer popping off in the middle; the aptness of which 
ill-natured mot caused it to stick to them with such tenacity, in spite 
of the dignified silence with which the ridicule was submitted 
to by those chiefly concerned, that it eventually became absolutely 
necessary to do away with the gingerbeer-bottle effect. To accomplish 
this, a dozen or so of separate: water spoutings were contrived, instead 
of the Single central one. Had these supplemental jets been produced 
in some ‘picturesque manner, showing their raison d'etre through 


\ 


artistic means, the effect would haye been as good as could be expected 
on so small ascale. But the modus operandi was entirely inartistic. 
The leaden squirts through which the jets are thrown up were left 
plainly visible, no means being sought by figure, shell, vase, or 
any other device, to secure an “agrecable and pictorial effect and 
produce a decorative out-shoot for the water; so that when the 
fountains are not playing, these ugly, black excrescences are in the 
highest degree unsightly. 

Our niggardly grants for purposes of a purely decorative character 
were, perhaps, insufficient either for an entire reconstruction of the 
fountains on a large scale, with enrichments of high-class sculpture, 
or even for clothing the projecting pipes with some artistic device, 
however simple, by way of rendering them worthy rivals of the 
Fontaine Louvois (engraved below). 

There is, however, a means by which the extreme nakedness and 
chilly aspect of these, our only metropolitan fountains of a decorative 
character, might be very considerably abated. All who take an 
interest in such matters, and who do not pass over with closed mental 
eyes the changes and daily - -varying aspects of our yasb city, must 
have witnessed with satisfaction the temporary improyement wrought 
upon the dingy desolation of Trafalgar Square by the recent intro- 
duction of a few tolerably well-grown Bay trees during the 
summer months. A touch of living colour is ever-refreshing in the 
highest degree ; and had the trees been bigger and more numerous, 
the inevitable result of an experiment of that kind would haye been 
very charming, though far from fulfilling all that a love of the stately 


_and beautiful in such an important and central situation might desire. 


But, at all events, the plan essayed was in the direction which the 
writer of this article wishes to recommend, with the view of imparting 
a more cheerful aspect to that dull, black expanse of flag payement, 
which a very competent authority once pronounced to be the finest 
site in Europe for art purposes, and which might still be made a 
very noble and attractive area, if properly treated. 

The plan recommended is simply this: Let a portion of the neve 
pavement be taken up round the basins in which the fountains stand. 
Let a finely-designed moulding, dwarf but massive, surround the basins 
at the distance of a certain number of feet, and let the form of the ~ 
enclosure correspond symmetrically, but not regularly, with that of 
the basins. The space between the basins and the new enclosure 


should then be turféd, and in the turf there should be wi ell-devised 
flower-beds, which, during the whole of the spring, summer, and 
autumn—that is to say, from the Crocus season to that of Chry- 
santhemums—should be filled with bold and richly-coloured plants. 
Few will be found to deny that a very pleasing and satisfactory 
effect might be produced in this manner at comparatively small 


Fountain i in the Blpee Louvois. 


expense, especially if the same Biehl were sadgutil to and the 
‘base of the Nelson Column and in front of the terrace wall of the 
National Gallery. Im the last-named situation the Bay trees, duly 
supported by the fresh green of an expanse of turf, would produce 
ten times the effect they have hitherto done when placed separately 
on the dark, uncongenial payement. 5 
It may be urged ‘that turf and flowers will scarcely thrive as might 
be desired so ‘close to the dense and smoky neighbourhood of the 
Strand, St. Martin’s Lane, and the crowded masses of sooty brick- 
work which form the antifloral region known by the name of Seven 
Dials. In reply to this objection it is to be remarked, ‘by way of 
answer, that many of the old City churchyards, especially that of 
St. Andrew’s, ieee and that of St. Sepulchre, at the corner of 


\ meas 


Dec. 30, 1871.] 


THE GARDEN. 


133 


the Old Bailey, as well as several which are situated in the dark and 
narrow lanes of the very heart of London, have already been trans- 
formed from recesses of mouldy blackness into flower and shrub 
studded spaces of refreshing green; and that the plants flourish 
sufficiently well to convey an air of pleasantness to spots which were 
depressingly desolate before. The inference therefore is, that in 
the comparatively open space of Trafalgar Square, turf, shrubs, and 
plants, with occasional renewals, would thrive sufficiently well for all 
the purposes songht by their introduction, and would form a very 
pleasing addition to the present nakedness and repulsive frigidness 
of the fountains. With regard to the fountains themselves, a great 
im provement might be effected, at small cost, by getting rid of all 
the unsightly squirt-pipes, and doubling the supply of water to be 
emitted froma single apertare. The increased supply of water ought 
to be cast up to a much greater height than that attained by the 
present vertical jets, and it should issue from a handsomely-designed 
columnar opening much higher than the present one. ‘This increased 
supply of water might then be made to fall in a copious cascade into 
a secondary tazza at a well-calculatel elevation above the lower 
one, from which it should be made to descend, in an unbroken 
glassy sheet of glistening gossamer-like texture, to the spacious 
basin below, which might be enriched very advantageously by the 
introduction of masses of water plants symmetrically distributed. 

A few hydraulic difficulties might be set up by opponents to such 
ascheme; or the expense might be objected to; but difficulties of 
that kind might be very easily, and even cheaply, got over; and it is 
to be hoped that all who delight in witnessing the creation of such 
embellishments for our metropolis as will place it more upon a par. 
with other great cities in its ornamental features, may, even as early 
as next spring, be called upon to admire such improvements of the 
so-termed “finest site in Europe,’’ as will make it more worthy of 
that high sounding designation. 


THE INFLUENCE OF OUR PUBLIC GARDENS. 


As the young artist looks to Italy for models and for inspiration 
so look numbers of untravelled amateurs and gardeners to our great 
National Gardens, and hence a reason why their true character and 
importance, as regards the art of laying out grounds, should be widely 
known throrghout the land. The chief public gardens of a country 
must have a powerful influence on its private ones, and it is most 
unfortunate that with us this influence can rarely be anything but 
injurious to all the true interests of garden design. Most of our 
public gardens and parks are designed in direct violation of the very 
essentials of the art of laying out grounds ; many of them show pre- 
cisely what to avoid, and though this merit is not alluded to in their 
guide-books, it may, to one who rightly uses it, be of greater im- 
portance than any other feature. Descending or ascending to par- 
ticnlars, let us glance at a few of our public places. Look at Kew, in 
some respects superior to any botanic gardenor botanical establish- 
ment in the world, but in point of design no higher than a chess- 
board. That breadth—i. e., an open spread of lawn here and there— 
is the most essential principle in garden design one would think was 
known to everybody who ever thought of arranging or planting a 
public garden or park. Without this, you cannot get any but a con- 
fused effect—you cannot fully see the beauty and dignity of our now 
rich arboreal flora; without this you may have a thousand kinds of 
noble trees, and get little better effect than you do in a large un- 
thinned plantation. You can, in fact, no more make a really beauti- 
ful garden or park without at least one sweet spread of open, turfy 
ground than you can a lake without water. At-Kew, both in general 
design and in the arrangement of details, this principle is completely 
ignored, and the good old.one of putting in a tree wherever there is a 
little opening adopted. The result is that the finest botanic garden 
in the world is devoid of any picturesque beauty. As to the Paris 
botanic garden it is infinitely worse; there, not only is all the 
breadth destroyed, but even the very turf has gone! - 
Take, again, the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at South 
Kensington, and, leaving out of view entirely the question of style, 
assume that the geometrical is the only one. This garden was 
specially designed for flower-shows and for the reception of crowds. 
Now, if there has been any one thing taught by all previous experience 
of large flower-shows and the gardens in which they have been held, 
it has been that the happiest effect is only attained where there is a 
quiet open lawn on which crowds can promenade at pleasure, and 
pass from it with ease to the various important points of interest in 
the garden. And what has been done to meet this want? The 
design is the most complicated one we have ever seen even for a 
geometrical garden. Every place where a bit of turf might have 
spread out to form a foreground, or a setting for the different objects 
which a garden should contain, is frittered away—here a maze (what 
an idiotic adjunct to any public garden ranking above that of a 


tea-house!) ; there a short avenue of Lombardy poplars cutting off the 
view, for no evident reason; beyond, placed on a bank, lest its lovely 
effect should be lost, a fire-shovel pattern wrought on the earth, with 


- all the beds filled with broken stone-rubbish of various colours. In 


short, there is no room anywhere except on parched and wearying 
gravel walks. At every step a sensitive person who visits the garden 
in the hope of seeing trees or plants or flowers is offended by a sickly 
low-clipped yew hedge, a dead wall, a flight of steps, a ghastly 
corridor, or one of the many contrivances by which nature is shut out 
from the scene; and if a prize had been offered for the very worst 
kind of garden in which to enjoy a flower-show or plants or trees of 
any kind, a garden more fitted to win it could scarcely have been 
designed. In this case, however, the deviation from the right course 
was so marked that it is not likely to be so harmful, as the manifold 
contortions of the scene disgusted even the admirers of the style ; 
and since the finishing of this unhappy garden there have been much 
fewer gardens of the same style made in connection with country 
houses. 

The only one public garden that betrays any judgment or insight 
into what a garden should be is the small garden of the Royal 
Botanic Society in the Regent’s Park. We speak not of its collections, 
which are poor, nor of its gardening, but simply of its design when we 
say that if the judgment which has done so much with eighteen level 
acres had been equally successful with the vast surfaces in some of 
our public gardens, they would be models indeed. The Botanic 
Garden in the Regent’s Park is disfigured by absurd conglomerations 
of rock, by a still more absurd small geometrical garden; but in point 
of general design it has helped to keep a true spirit of landscape gar- 
dening from slumbering among us during one of the most marked 
periods of retrogression that it has ever lived through. I mean the 
period of the success of those who preferred the presence of bar- 
barous artificial things in the most important parts of our gardens to 
Nature’s own children, of which we shall never weary—who often 
spent sufficient wherewith to plant a thousand acres with the noblest 
trees in the world on a water-squirting contrivance, who, where we 
wanted peace and variety, gave us the monotony that dulls the sensi- 
tive spirit, and the angularity and barbarous gyrations that torture it 


. —wretches so callous to every mercy of nature, and so estranged 


from all passion of joy in her works, that, when we asked for flowers, 
they gave us broken bricks and slates, arranged in patterns by their 
miserable “art.” We could name gardens of from five to twenty acres 
in extent near London and in the home counties which display more 
merit as regards plan than all the public gardens in Britain put 
together. Plants and trees and flowers, no matter how disposed, 
fail not to charm the wearied, dust-pested citizen; but it cannot 
be too widely known to all interested in horticulture that there 1s 
NO GOOD DESIGN IN OUR NATIONAL BOTANICAL AND HORTICULTURAL 
GARDENS.—Field. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 93.) 


”.CALAMUs ApspERsus (syn., C. getta: Java).—Fronds, erect, clothed 
with nearly black spines, arranged in whorls of from nine to ten at 
base. The whole plant has a dark-green hue, and is very spiny. A 
strong grower, and yery elegant where a central plant is required for 
a water-tank. 

C. asperrimus (Java).—Plant, erect, and clothed with yellow spines 
irregularly disposed; top of leaflets gracefully drooping; grows 
from sixteen to twenty feet in height, and forms a dense bush. A 
very elegant, free-growing palm, of a yellowish tint. 

C. ciliaris (Java).—Dwarf, and erect; when three feet high the 
fronds are a foot long and six inches wide, grey; spines very slender, 
pale green; pinne dense; very compact, and feathery—in fact, the 
gem of the genus, and very desirable for table decoration where a 
small plant is required, or for intermixing with orchids for the sake 
of contrast. 

©. deprespusculis (Java).—Plant, dense; fronds, compact and 
spreading ; spines on petiole, small, light brown ; young plants fur- 
nished with fronds, eighteen inches long and eight inches wide, 
almost flat. Avery distinct, slow-growing, and beautiful specie’. 

C. flagellum (Assam).—Fronds, six feet long; pinnx, distant; 
spines, yellowish. A plant of lax growth, and not very useful in the 
way of decoration. 7 

C. leptospadix (Java).—A very elegant slender-stemmed palm; 
fronds, flat and short ; pinni, dense; spines, few, brown; the whole 
plant velvety in appearance, very compact, producing fronds at 
intervals of four inches apart. One of the best of palms for table 
decoration. : 

C. (Demonorops) Lewisianus (Penang).—Plant erect, slightly 
spreading at top; fronds, from six to eight feet long; spines, yel~ 
low. An exceedingly elegant free-growing species for the general 


134 


decoration of large houses. CO. Jenkinsiiis so very like this plant, that 
whoever has the one does not require the other. 

C. (Demonorops) melanochzetus (Java).—A strong useful plant, 
with dark shining foliage and habit compact; spines, few; fronds, 
from two to four feet long, dense. 

C. montanus.—Under this name seed was received at Kew from 
Ootacamond, but the name is a somewhat doubtful one. Though said 
to be a cool-house palm, it appears to be very fond of heat. ~ 
_ _C.pachystemonus (Jaya).—A tall, free-srowing plant with broad 

pinne ; spines, long and pale. Where a plant is required to run 
quickly up the corner of a house, this may be of use, otherwise it 
possesses little value. : 

C. Rotang (Bengal)—When young a spreading graceful palm, 
with dark-green foliage ; pinne, long, distant; spines, few, black. A 
plant variously named in gardens, but readily distinguished by its 
black spines and dark foliage; when old it gets lax in growth. 

C. Roxburghii (India).—Frouds, spreading; rather lax; 
green; spines, brown, few. Not one of the best of palms. 

C, tenuis (Java).—A slender, erect plant; foliage, sparse; spines, 
few. A distinct palm but not very handsome. 

C. trichrous (Sumatra).—Fronds, erect, forming a beautiful plume 
at top; habit, dense; spines, yellowish. A very good plant for table 
decoration. 2 s 

C. viminalis (Java) —Plant dwarf, flowering* at three feet in 
height ; stem, slender, yielding offsets freely ; fronds, spreading, two 
feet long ; spines, yellow, small. A very beautiful, useful-sized plant 
for a small house. (Lo be continued.) J. CROUCHER. 


dark 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER* 


In-Door Department.—In greenhouses or small conservatories a 
low, equable temperature must be maintained ; and now, when there is 
little attraction im the way of flowers out of doors, no effort should be 
spared to have Camellias, Azaleas, Roses, Deutzias, Sweet Indian Daphnes, 
Cinerarias, Chinese Primulas, Cyclamens, &c., brought forward in as 
fine condition as possible. Among these perhaps none excites so much 
interest as the Rose, of which a few well-rooted, carefully-prepared plants 
in pots may now be placed in gentle heat, and forced steadily, for Roses 
dishke a high temperature. They should be syrmged-every morning, 
along with other inmates of the forcing-pit in a growing state; andas soon 
as they get fairly into leaf, aphides and rose-grubs must be kept im check— 
the first by tobacco fumigations, the second by means of hand-picking. 
Otherwise carefully attend to them; but never allow either Roses or other 
plants to open their blooms in the forcing-pit. When they approach that 
condition, remove them to the conservatory or other show house which 
they are destined to ornament. During winter all plants in pots should 
be watered in the morning, and, except in the forcing-pit, everything 
should be kept on the side of dryness, to prevent damp and drip. Give 
air whenever favourable to plants im frames, removing the sashes alto- 
gether in the middle of sunny days from such things as Carnations, Pinks, 
or Auriculas, but in rainy weather keep them on, tilted back and front. 
Where Vines are not already pruned, that’ operation should now be per- 
formed without delay. After which, having well mulched the border, the 
house should be shut up for forcing, 


Flower-Garden and Shrubberies.—With the exception of a 
Christmas Rose or two, we have had little to interest us in the way of flowers, 


since the Tritomas and Michaelmas Daises left us; but on walls we shall | 


soon have Chimonanthus grandiflorns, the blossoms of which when gathered 
are highly prized in-doors on account of their fragrance. The Jasminum 
nudiflorum will also soon be opening everywhere its bright blossoms, 
which, when issuing from among Ivy leaves, have a cheerful appearance. 
With these and other evidences of floral life, lawns smoothly rolled, and 
clean and comfortable walks, out-door gardens even now afford a certain 
amount of real enjoyment. Hyergreens overgrowing the bounds assigned 
to them may still be cut back, but the pruning of the tenderer lands of 
Roses and other shrubs likely to be hurt by frost had better be deferred 
till spring. Planting, and alterations in the way of ground work, should 
now be finished with as little delay as possible. 


Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—While open weather lasts push 
forward pruning and nailing. Orchard trees, often too much neglected, 
should have their heads opened up a little by cutting out all ill-placed 
branches, and such as cross one another. If not already done, mulch all 
root-pruned or newly-planted trees with rich, partially decomposed 
manure. Clear wall and other trees from insect-pests, and stake and 
name such as are in need of such operations. Mulch Strawberries with 
rough stable dung, shaking it lightly over both plants and alleys. Its 
strength, washed down to the roots, is of much benefit to the plants, 
while the strawy portion left affords them protection; In the Kitchen- 
Garden, manurmg and trenching must now be pushed forward with 
vigour. Peas peeping through the ground pretect with spruce branches in. 
the event of frost. Broccoli may also still be taken up, and put in closely 
together where it can at any time receive protection, or it may be pulled 
up and hung by the heels in some shed or cellar out of the reach of 
frost. Cauliflower plants should now have plenty of air. Stir the ground 
among Cabbages, Spinach, and similar crops. Examine Potato and Onion 

* Complete general calendars, written by some of the most able gardeners in 
the country, are published in Tar GARDEN in the first issue in each month, 


THE GARDEN. 


‘ 


_ [Duc. 30, 1871. 


stores to see that nothing is gomg wrong, and continue to take up Rhubarb 
and Seakale, and place them in darlmess in gentle heat to force. Sweep 
and roll walks, and maintain as much interest as it is possible to keep up 
at this dead season of the year. 


fermentation shall have become active, turn the heap over once or twice to 
permit its rank heat and steam to escape before making up the bed, 


THE FOOD OF PLANTS.* 


You know that wood is capable of being burned entirely 
away, with the exception of a small, almost imsignificant, 
residue of white ash which is left. This is the mineral matter 
of the wood, from the circumstance of its being of the same 
nature as the matter of which our most common rocks and 
minerals are composed; whereas that portion of the wood 
which burns away is called the organic matter, from its bemg 
the matter of which the livmg plant is mainly constituted. 
When wood is exposed to heat—by being thrust into the fire, 
for example—it gives off gases which burn with flame. Now, 
where wood is subjected to heat, and more particularly to the 
hot flame of the burning gases surroumding it, it becomes 
blackened, or charred, or conyerted into charcoal. 
principle is made use of in the production of charcoal for 
manutacturing purposes. mt 
produce charcoal, they resort to one or other of two principal 
methods. One of these is to heat the wood to redness in an 
iron box or oven, entirely excluded from the air, with the 
exception of a pipe allowing the gases to escape ; and after these 
gases have been driven off through the pipe, nothing is found 
left in the iron box or oyen but a quantity of charcoal. 
Another way of making charcoal consists in piling the wood 
up into a large heap, and setting fire to it. By this means the 
outside wood, in contact with the air, gets burnt away to a 
greater or less extent; but the inside wood, bemg simply 
heated by the burning which is taking place upon the outside 
of the heap, does not get burnt away, but gives off its gases 
which burn on the outside; and what is left in the mside is 
charcoal, produced by the action of heat upon wood out of the 
access of air. Now, if you examine a piece of charcoal, it will 


be found to have lost both size and weight compared with the 


original wood. But you will observe that the resulting char- 
coal presents exactly the form of the original piece of wood. 
The conclusion, therefore, is that wood is a substance partly 
composed of charcoal; or, in other words, that charcoal is one 
of the constituents of wood, Charcoal may be said to be an 
impure form of carbon, and, in practical effect, if not in actual 
fact, carbon isa simple substance. It is a substance which has 
not yet been decomposed, and is not, so far as our present 
knowledge goes, decomposable into two or more different 
kinds of substance. Now, charcoal is not only a constituent 
of wood, but also of hay and corn, and, indeed, of vegetable 
produce generally. : 

But it is important tliat we should know, not only that 
vegetable produce, wood, hay, and corn, contain charcoal, but 
that we should be able also to form some notion of the amount 
of charcoal or carbon which they contain. Now, it is found 
that pure, dry, woody matter contains yery nearly half its 
weight of carbon. It contains in reality forty-five per cent. 
Now, if we pass from pure woody matter to the consideration 
of other forms of vegetable produce—such, for instance, as 
starch—ve find that that contains exactly the same proportion of 
charcoal as woody matter, and that sugar contains very nearly 
the same proportion. But some other vegetable substances 
contain a much larger proportion of charcoal, as, for instance, 
resin and turpentine, and the oils expressed from seeds and 
fruits, as linseed oil, cabbage-seed oil, and olive oil, &e. All 
these substances contain a much larger proportion of carbon 
than is contained in wood. Now, just as certain vegetable 
products contain more carbon than wood, so there are other 


When manufacturers want to 


Stable dung and leaves may now be 
thrown together to ferment for cucumber and other hotheds. Wheh 


The same | 


products which contain less; and among these I may refer © 


to the different acids, or sour substances, which are found 
more particularly in the juices of unripe fruit. There, for 
example, is a fine specimen of tartaric acid—an acid which 
exists in the juice of the grape, and is produced on a large 
scale, in wine-growing countries, in the process of converting 


* Apstract of a lecture delivered by Professor Odling, F.R.8., in the Hulme 
Town Hall, Manchester, November 24, 1871. a <p 


La 


Dec. 30, 1871.) 


THE GARDEN. 


135 


grape-juice into wine. In the same way we meet with 


citric acid in the juice of lemons, and other vegetable acids in 


other vegetable juices. 
a smaller proportion of carbon than is contained in wood.. 


Now, all these vegetable acids contain 


' But having regard to the fact that the great mass of vegetable 


produce is composed of woody matter, or of substances such 
as starch and sugar, having substantially the same composition 
as wood; and having regard, further, to the circumstance that, 
of other vegetable products, some of them contain a larger, 
and some of them a smaller, proportion of carbon than is 


' contained in wood, it results that the amount of carbon con- 


~ charcoal. 


tained in woody matter may be taken as a fair representative 
of the amount of carbon contained in vegetable produce 
generally, viewed asa whole We may say, then, that the dry 
organic substance of a growing plant contains, on an average, 
about 45 parts in 100, or rather less than half of its weight of 
Now it is found that on an acre of meadow land, or 
arable land, or wood land, there are produced in the course of 
a single season several thousand pounds weight of vegetable 
produce, containing not unfrequently as much as two thousand 
pounds weight of charcoal; while the charcoal of an average 
crop may be taken at over 1,600 pounds, or nearly three- 
quarters of a ton per acre. Some notion may, therefore, be 
formed of the large amounts of charcoal or carbon accumulated 
somehow in vegetable produce. And when we pass to the 


consideration of vegetation, not as we see it here, but as it 


manifests itself in the luxuriant growth of tropical climates, 
the amounts of produce, and, consequently of carbon con- 
tained in the produce, become yet more astounding. Hum- 
boldt, among his experiences in South America, records the 
existence there of forests so huge and so thick, that monkeys 
might run on the tops of the trees for a hundred miles in a 
straight line without a single break. And the millions of tons 


of dry wood, capable of being furnished by these forests, are 


composed, we know, to the extent of nearly-half their weight 
of charcoal! You perceive, then, that the growing plant, 
whether large or eal tree of the forest or grass of the field, 
may be regarded by us simply as a contrivance for producing 
carbon. 

In the case of cereals or other crops that are grown in a 
single season, it is evident that we remove from the land at 
the end of the season several thousand pounds weight of 
vegetable produce which did not exist in the form of vegetable 
produce a few short months previously. Nevertheless, the 
actual substance, or weight of matter, constituting this produce 
must have existed before the growth of the crop, although in 


avery different form. The several thousand pounds weight 


‘ultimatel 


of wheat and barley and oats, grown onan acre of land in a 
engi season, were not produced out of nothing; but were 
produced out of many thousand pounds weight of something 
pre-existing at the beginning of the season in the form of 
certain very different kinds of matter, out of which this 
matter of wheat and barley and oats was somehow constituted. 
In the same manner, when, in course of time, the acorn grows 
into a tall oak-tree, the several tons of matter which go to 
compose the woody tissue of the full-grown oak were not pro- 
duced out of nothing, but out of many tons of matter which 
existed, though in a different form, before the acorn was eyer 
planted ; and which have been accumulated, and transformed 
into woody matter, by the plant or tree, during the period of 
its many years growth. Tor the matter or substance of which 
the grown oak is finally composed was not furnished by the 
acorn, but was furnished to the acorn, or young plant springing 
from the acorn, by external and yery different forms of pre- 
existing matter. The problem, then, which I wish to put is 
this, what is the external matter or substance out of which the 
matter of wheat and barley and oats and hay and wood is 
E produced? And more particularly, what is the 
sufficiently abundant substance containing carbon, out of which 
the carbon of all this vegetable produce is accumulated ? for I 
need scarcely say that this carbon can only be got from some 
substance already containing carbon. Iron can only be pro- 
duced from iron-stone, or matter containing iron; copper can 
only be produced from copper ore, or matter containing 
copper; and in the same way it is evident that the carbon of 
vegetable produce can only be obtained from matter con- 
taining carbon. What, then, is the primitive matter containing 


carbon, out of which, in the course of the growth of the 
plant, this carbon of vegetable matter is ultimately produced ? 
It is well known that in forest lands there exists a large 
amount of rich vegetable mould, the produce mainly of the 
decay of leaves; and this vegetable mould, which has received 
the name of “humus,” is found to be exceedingly rich in carbon. 
Further, richly carbonaceous vegetable matter of much the 
same kind is found in a sod of grass turf; and again, matter 
of a not dissimilar kind is commonly added to arable land in 
the form of farmyard manure. Now, until about thirty years 
ago, the prevalent notion was that the carbon of vegetable 
produce was furnished to the plant by the carbonaceous matter 
of the soil called humus, or by a matter of a similar nature. 
The vegetable matter of the growing plant was conceived to 
be formed out of pre-existing vegetable matter; and plants, 
like animals, were thus supposed to live upon food more or 
less resembling in composition the tissues or parts of the 
plants and animals respectively nourished. Now, notwith- 
standing the inadequacy of this notion, and notwithstanding 
its discordance with well-known facts, and with facts that had 
been fdr a long time well known, it prevailed for very many 
years almost without question. About thirty or more years 
ago, however, the consideration of eminent agricultural 
chemists both in England and in France was directed to this 
view of the subject, and very serious doubts of its truthfulness 
began to be entertained. But the notion was not ultimately 
exploded until the year 1840, by the celebrated German chemist, 
Liebig. Now, I do not propose to advert to all the arguments 
which may be employed to show the inadequacy of this humus 
theory to account for the accumulation of carbon in plants ; 
but I will direct attention to some of the most promiment 
reasons only. First, it is probable that in certain rich soils 
there does exist an amount of humus, or such like vegetable 
matter, containing a quantity of carbon sufficient to furnish 
the crop grown upon the soil with the carbon which it ulti- 
mately contains. But this vegetable humus is exceedingly 
insoluble in water; and Liebig made the curious calculation, 
that if all the rain that falls upon the land during the period 
of the growth of the crop were to remain upon the land, and 
to dissolve as much of this humus matter as it is capable of 
dissolving, so as to become thoroughly saturated with humus ; 
and then, if all this water so saturated with humus, instead of 
draining away, as we know that most of it does, and evaporating 
from the surface, as we know much of it does—if all of this so 
saturated water were absorbed into the tissues of the plants, 
nevertheless there could not be dissolved in this water, and so 
supplied to the plant, a sufficient quantity of humus to furnish 
the quantity of carbon ultimately found in the crop. This, of 
course, does not amount to a demonstration that the plant 
cannot get its carbon from the humus of the soil; it is only a 
a demonstration that the plant cannot get its carbon from this 
humus by the only process of absorption of which we have any 
knowledge; and, accordingly, it comes to this, that if plants 
do acquire their carbon from humus, they must get if there- 
from in a manner with which we are totally unacquainted. 
But another argument, and a much more striking one, has 
reference to the fact, that the carbon of the crop may be 
increased two-fold, and eyen three-fold, by adding to the soil 
matters which contain no carbon whatever. 

Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert have found that, taking the average 
of seventeen years, the gross amount of produce removed from 
an acre of continuously unmanured land, in the case of wheat, 
was 2,434]bs., and that when from this gross produce they 
subtracted the amounts of water it contained and of ash which 
it yielded, there remained 1,963lbs. of dry organic matter; 
and when they came to analyse these 1,963lbs. of dry 
organic matter, they found them to contain 880lbs. of 
carbon. And this, mind, is the average produce of seventeen 
years’ continuous growth of wheat, on land to which nothing 
whatever was added. Now to a similar strip of land the same 
experimentalists added every year a certain quantity of mineral 
matter, corresponding to the ashes yielded by each successive 
crop remoyed; and on the strip so treated, the amount of gross 
produce was found to be increased from 2,434 Ibs. to 2,912 lbs., 
the amount of dry organic matter to be increased from 
1,963 lbs. to 2,347Ibs.; and the amount of carbon to be in- 
creased from 880Ibs to 1,052lbs. Now to another slip of 


n 


\ 


_ 107,118,000 Ibs. of palsy oil 
32,000 tons, of carbon, t 


136 


land they added year by year exactly the same quantity of 
mineral matter and, m addition, a considerable quantity of 
ammonia salts—the ammonia salts and mineral matter being 
alike absolutely free from carbonaceous organic matter. And 
am the case of this strip they found that the amount of gross. 
produce was increased to the surprising extent of 6,394]bs., 
while the amount of dry organic matter was increased to | 
0,149 lbs., and the amount of carbon to 2,308lbs. These 
results, it will be observed, are fully: as high—in most cases 
indeed somewhat higher—than are results obtained ona fourth 
strip of land, supplied year by year with an abundance of farm- 
yard manure, containing not only the mineral. matter and 
ammonia added to the third strip, but rich also in carbonaceous 
organic matter. It is inconceivable then that the plant should 
acquire its carbon from these organic matters of the soil, seeing 
that the amount of carbon in the crop may be increased twofold, 
and in some cases nearly threefold, by adding to the soil sub- 
stances, such as mineral salts and ammonia, which are entirel 
free from organic matter. It is inconceivable, too, that the 
original humus in the soil could furnish the carbon contained 
in a succession of crops for seventeen years consecutively. 
Indeed, it is found that many plants flourish best, in a state 
of nature, upon soils which, if not absolutely free from organic 
matter, are yet to all intents and purposes free. Thus, 
according to Darwin, rich harvests of maize are yielded in the 
interior of Chili and Peru by soils consisting of the merest 
quicksand, never enriched by manure. According to Colonel 
Campbell, the soil of the cinnamon gardens at Colombo, and 
where else the tree is cultivated, is pure quartz sand, as 
white as snow. Dr. Schleiden, again, observes that the oil 
palms of the western coast of Africa are grown in moist sea- 
sand; and that from the year 1821 to the year 1830 theve were 
exported, as produce of these palm-trees, into Hngland.alone, 
containing 76,000,0001bs., or 
ese thousands of tons of carbon being 
furnished by trees grown in a soil that was practically free 
from organic or carbonaceous matter of any kind whatever. 
The only further argument with which I will trouble you is 
based on the observation that-when plants are ‘grown upon 
soils actually containing organic vegetable matter, so far from 
this vegetable matter in the soil being used up or decreased 
by any feeding of plants upon it, it is very much increased; 
so that the more vegetation we get from the surface, the more 
humus we get accumulated in the soil; and we say, therefore, 
that so far from humus being the cause of vegetation, 
vegetation, on the contrary, is the cause of humus—the 
humus being produced chiefly by the decay of matter formed 
by vegetation. 
(Lo be continued.) 


“An Ice Well on Fire!”—Such weré the sounds that greeted 
my ears one day, now some years ago; and as I was hastening to a 
scene of apparent confusion nearly half a mile distant, I was told 
that the man whose duty it was to supply the mansion with ice 
had accidentally allowed the candle to drop by the side of the well 
among the straw, which became a mass of flame and smoke, driving 
‘him from the well to seek aid from parties at some distance off. 
Shortly our fire-engine was on the spot, and on my arrival, to my 
astonishment,a stream of water was pouring into our well-stored ice- 
house. This I prevented being continued, as now no flame, but dense 
smoke, issued from the opening. One courageous fellow volunteered 
to be let down, fixing a line around him in case of suffocation, and 
he found fire still alive, but placing the hose of the engine 
in that direction all further danger to our ice ceased, but not until 
it had been considerably reduced by fire and water. Ont of nearly 
two hundred loads, we saved fifty, which sufficed for use that season. 
Since this mishap I haye never used straw as a lining between 
the ice and walls of ice-houses. As it isan important part of a 
gardener’s duty to secure for his employer an ample quantity of ice 
about this season, I may remark that ice stacks should be made in 
suitable places of yarious sizes; but none containing less than fifty _ 
loads will keep for any length of time, so as to afford a supply for 
early use. Ice stacks may, however, be considered as useful 
auxiliaries, not as substitutes, to a good ice well, as they enable 
us to postpone the opening of the latter until July or August. In 
the casé-of both ice well and stack, proper drainage from the bottom ~ 
must be secured; and never use salt in storing the ice, as is cus- 
tomary in some parts of the country. Avoid the use, too, of straw, 


THE GARDEN. 


(Dec. 380, 1871. 


which should only be employed for blocking up the entrance to the ~ 


well, orfor thatching the stack; for when straw gets damp, it assists 
in wasting the ice. I may add that we stored away in our ice-house 
and stack nearly three hundred cartloads by the middle of November, 
this season, an early date for so large a quantity —Davip CUNNINGHAM, 
Moor Park, Rickmansworth, Herts. “ 


Rabbit-Proof Plants.—Experience appears to differ considerably 
on this subject. In THE GARDEN of December 16th and some of 
the earlier numbers, several plants and shrubs are named as being 


rabbit-proof, which no rabbits of my acquaintance, at least, haveever 


manifested a great dislike to in hard times. These are, if I recollect 
aright, hollies, cotoneasters, roses, mahonias, and the Pampas grass. 
The first of these they eat up wholesale here, so that we had the 
greatest difficulty in getting young plants up. Cotoneasters and 


mahonias they bark unsparingly. Roses they eat even when their \ 


natural food is plentiful, and I have shot them with the bite in their 
mouth. The Pampas grass they stump to the ground; indeed, the 
amount of damage half-a-dozen rabbits will effect during a hard 
winter would hardly be credited. An experienced woodman of my 
acquaintance declares that nothing but rhododendrons is safe from 
them in severe winters.—J. Simpson, Wortly Hall Gardens. 


Tne Long-tailed Titmouse.—This is a bird which ought to be 
cherished by all possessors of fields and gardens, for there is scarcely 
a more determined enemy to the many noxious insects which destroy 
fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Fortunately for ourselves, the Long- 
tailed Titmouse is very fond of various sawflies which work such 
mischief among our fruit-trees, and often lay waste whole acres of 
gooseberries ; and it is no exaggeration to say that, to a possessor of 
an orchard or fruit-garden of any kind, every Long-tailed Titmouse is 
well worth its little weight in gold, When, then, we come to consider 
the inestimable and unappreciated services which this tiny bird 


renders to mankind, we should not only be devoid of all gratitude, ~ 


but likewise of all common sense, were we willingly to destroy our 
feathered benefactor.—Wood’s ‘‘ Homes without Hands.” 


7 


Bitter Willows as a Game Covert.—For the formation of a game covert 
where profit is not the object, the Salix monandra, a bitter willow, is a valuable 
subject, and is comparatively secure from the attacks of game, There is 
hardly any situation in whic! 


in rich bottoms, will attain a height of from seven to thirteen feet in 
one year’s growth. Among other kinds in the 8. purpurea group, 8. For- 
byana is also an excellent willow for the same purpose; but, although 
these two kinds are not yaluable to the basket-maker, they grow into 
excellent poles for farmers’ and other uses. It may be remarked that 
feathered game has an especial liking for willow plantations, whilst they afford 
them a more secure protection than any other description of cover.. The 
S. Kerksii is equally secure against the rayages of game, and, although not so 
vigorous in its growth, still it would be found of more value, in a commercial 
point of view, where profit is desirable. I should recommend cuttings from 
three to six feet in length, in preference to rooted plants, as beimg more 
easily planted, and growing quite as readily, and even more so, on foul and 
rough land.—Scaling’s ‘‘ Salix,” 

Bees and Brambles.—In October last, while walking in the glen next to 
Fairlight Glen, on the Hastings side, I picked up a stick about a foot long, and 
began to break it without looking at it. It broke into fragments very easily, and 
when about five inches were left I happened to notice it. I found it was a stem 
of bramble. The whole of the pith was gone, and the space occupied by a 
number of transparent cocoons, each containing a maggot, such as one finds in 
an apple. These cocoons were (as shown in the pen-and-ink sketch I send 


herewith) end to end, without any interval between them. They were about — 


three-eighths of an inch long by one-eighth in diameter, and of uniform section 
throughout, so that the maggot did not entirely fill each cocoon. I regret very 
much that when I left Hastings I forgot to bring the stick away, as I had 
intended to send it to you. I wrote for, but did not succeed in obtaining, it. Can 
you tell me the name of the insect? and whether what I have described is its 
common habit ?>—A. M.——[From this graphic description, and the excellent 
sketch received therewith, we at once identify the object as the nidus of Osmia 
leucomelana. We have often found this bee in dead bramble sticksin June. 
We are frequently asked the cause of the abundance of these dead bramble 
sticks in summer, and always attribute it to the operations of these bees, which, 
during the previous year, have eaten all the pith out of the shoots when young 
and succulent.—Ep. Field. ] 4 


Fertilization of Cereals.—I am not aware, says Dr. Syme, in Journal oy 
Botany, of any observations on this subject. This year I turned my attention to 
it from being at work on the grasses for the third edition of ‘‘ English Botany:”” 
and as my residence is in the midst of cornfields, Thad ample opportunities of 
inyestigating the subject. In wheat and barley the stigmas receive the pollen 
from the: anthers before the latter are protruded, and the exserted anthers I 
found to be always empty. In the oat mostof the protruded anthers are empty, 
but occasionally anthers with pollen are to be found after protrusion, and 
stigmas exposed at the sides of the florets, which I have not been able to find in 
wheat and barley. All the British forms of the Agropyrum section of Triticum, 
and Hordeum murinum, maritimum, and bulbosum, protrude their stigmas and 
unemptied anthers in the manner usual among the Euryanthes. My obser- 
vations are confined to the county of Fife, and the case of the oat seems to show 
that the mode of fertilization is not always constant in the same species, so that 
observations are required in other places. The question is more important than 
it appears at first sight. I haye noticed letters in the newspapers from farmers, 
predicting a bad wheat harvest because the ** wind had blown off the flowers.” 
Now, if the anthers may be blown off without affecting the fertilization no harm 
is done, and the belief of this may save a needless panic and uncalled for rise in 
the price of corn. 


this plant will not grow, and a good coyert ~ 
would be formed by it in one season, as it puts out abundant shoots, which, — 


aa 


THE 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr rrsEL¥F 1s Nature.’’—Shakespeare. 


THE SGARDENSUNE THE HOUSE, 
FLOWERS FOR THE DINNER-TABLE. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


T nave just seen, in the private dining-room of a London 
Club, such a display of Orchid blossoms, those gorgeous 
jewels of the tropics, as made that square, unpretending, gas- 
lighted room a very hall of beauty. No other flowers at once 
convey to one the impression that we stand in the presence of 
supreme beauty. They are the floral queens of loveliness, whose 
charms are unrivalled and undisputed. The very buttertlies 
of their own regions, gorgeous as are the dazzling colours of 
their painted wings, must cede the palm of beauty to these 
glorious flowers. Even the golden splendours of Papillio 
Priamus, and the flashing metallic azure of Morpho Adonis, sink 
_ into a secondary rank of beauty as they flit past the wondrous 

forms and exquisite tints of these unrivalled blossoms. The 
colouring of the tropic butterfly is glaring and coarse when 
compared with the pearl-like graduation of the pervading 
tints of Orchid flowers, and their striking contrast with 
the purples, crimsons, and oranges of their markings. 
And, then, there is the dainty texture of their exquisitely- 
formed petals and sepals, often of a flake-like semi-trans- 
parent tissue, that leaves far behind the cunningest manipula- 
tion of the artistic wax-worker in his vain attempts to imitate 
their beauties. That pale dead wax makes but a sadly poor 
and brittle petalage compared with the flakes of living beauty 
that form the Orchid flower, which in its seulpture-like vitality 
is evidently intended to be “a thing of beauty and a joy” for 
a much longer period than a common flower. It is, in fact, 
well known that the flowers of many of the most splendid 
Orchids endureinall the splendour of their loveliness for several 
weeks among the balmy shades of the deep recesses in which they 
delight to hold their court of beauty, secure from the disturb- 
ance of any invading wind more ruffling than the warm breath 
of a tropical eyening; and where no todo ardent sun-ray can 
- intrude till softened down to tender, caressing warmth by the 
deep yeil of interwoven foliage that meets above their bowers. 

What a gloriousjprivilege to possess these exquisite creations 

of nature in our uncongenial climate !—creations, of which it 
might besaid, “the earth hath stars, and these are of them.” To 
beable tocommandtheir growth, totimethe period of their expan- 
sion to an hour, is a triumph of our civilization in which it is 
very sweet to indulge. The poet Cowper only expresses dimly 
the refined enjoyments which improved horticultural appliances 
and the stores of new beauty which the enterprise of our 
travelling botanists have since brought within our grasp, when 
he said,— 

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too: 

Unconscious of a less propitious clime, 
» There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug, 
: While the winds whistle and the snows descend.” 


The genuinely flower-loving poet little dreamt what exquisite 
and entirely novel beauties of the floral world were destined to 
be placed at our disposition by means of that artificial protection, 
the results of which so delighted him; and most assuredly he 
would haye been no less astonished than delighted, if he could 
haye seen the display which I have just enjoyed—a display not 
raised sparingly by such laborious means as would haye rendered 
each flower precious, but produced by sheer horticultural skill, 
in such lavish abundance as rendered it possible to cut a whole 
hamperful for the embellishment:of a single meal. As the 


i 


GARDEN. 


137 


result of such successful culture, just such a supply was gathered 
from his private collection by one of our merchant princes, 
merely to embellish a dinner-table prepared for a comparatively 
small number of friends—about a dozen—the preparations for 
whose reception I have just enjoyed the privilege of examining. 
The tablé was circular, and in the centre was placed a tall, 
slender, trumpet-shaped vase of simple glass, twenty-seven 
inches high, from the mouth of which seemed to be breathed 
forth, as by some horticultural magic, not delicious sounds, but a 
cloud-like group of forms and hues—fair and fairy-like, as 
though they had arisen through that crystal tube from the very 
spirit-land of flowers. Their forms seemed scarcely those of 
the flowers of earth, so strange, so weird, and yet so beautiful ! 
so wildly fantastic, yet so exquisitely symmetrical! so chaste 
and delicate, and yet so gorgeous in their varied tones and 
tints! Aboye all the others climbed forth, with a paradoxical 
angularity of grace, a branching, many-flowered Oncidium; a 
little lower drooped three elegant Sprays of the closely-bloomed 
Calanthe vestita. Still lower shot brightly forth, bold and 
sparkling, several of the starlike flowers of Angraecum sesqui- 
pedale, from whose brightness seemed to emanate a soft astral 
light, while the long train-like appendage streaming wildly 
from them made them look likea constellation of comets about 
to dart from their spheres. Then came again Calanthes, 
drooping low in their tender tints of white and violet; then 
a spray—queen of this bevy of fair flowers !—of the exquisite 
Phalenopsis amabilis—a fairy shower of snowflakes, that is 
to say as to their beauty, but more substantial, more sculp- 
tural, not like the snowflake on the lake, white for a 
moment, and then gone for ever, but created to endure to the 
very longest limit ordained to floral life, in all its pristine 
perfection. Then, travelling round the group, came more 
Calanthe, and another comet constellation of Angraecum, and a 
huge pendent spray of Epidendrum ciliare, whose sharp 
intercrossing sepals looked like piled lances, and whose bare 
and slender flower-stem was hidden by an oyer-lying and grace- 
fully curving spray of Odontoglossum Alexandre. Other things 
as rare and as beautiful followed, each coming forth from among 
feathery fronds of delicate ferns (especially the Maiden-hair), 
the only kind of foliage, except their own, that the flowers of 
the Orchid tribe can tolerate association with; but from tufts 
of this kind of vegetable plumage they seem to issue as con- 
genially as from among the neighbouring greenery of their 
native dells. 

Atits base, the trumpet-shaped vase sprang from a shallow 
crystal saucer, filled with mosses, from the midst of which 
issued other and larger fern fronds, some reclining gracefully 
against the slender stem of the yase, and others drooping with 
anegligent grace on to the snowy table-cloth; a few wandering 
stems of the climbing Myrsiphyllum asparagoides straggling 
playfully stillfurther afield. Reposing upon this bed of delicate 
greenery other Orchids lay, revelling in their beauty. Cattleya 
exoniensis, Lelia elegans, and several other superb beauties 
boldly basking in the glare of gaslight as luxuriously as if 
still growing among the balmy dews and rich warm shadows of 
their native dells of the prolific tropics ; one pale creamy beauty, 
far beyondall others in loveliness—Odontoglossum A lexandrae— 
exhibiting rich crimson maculations that shone like rubies. 

Beyond this central yase and its gorgeous freight of floral 
magnificence was arranged, circling about the grand central 
group like a guard of honour, a constellation of lesser vases, 
each bearing its plume of floral beauty. And this was not 
yet all the display, for, again, in front of each expected 
guest was placed a lesser vase, each with its delicate spray of 
Maiden-hair fern enshrining a single blossom of some exquisite 
Orchid—such button-hole bouquets as Covent Garden can only 
furnish forth sparingly, and at fabulous prices. 

Surely, the decoration of our dinner-tables by means of 
such exquisitely-beautiful natural objects tends to invest even 
the vulgar charms of turtle and amontillado with a certain 
amount of real elegance, and to raise trains of thought 
aboye the ordinary level of such occasions; far above the mere 
materialism of the banquet, towards a more spiritualistic 


‘contemplation of some of the most exquisitely beautiful of all 


created things. The ancients placed roses on the banquet- 
board not only as a symbol of the briefness of existence, and as 
expressing in their evanescent beauty the motto, “Enjoy while 


138 


THE GARDEN. a 


[Jan. 6, 1872. 


ye may,” but also with the view of showing that life is not only 


to be lived, but also to be embellished; and horticulture is_ 


evidently one of the many means through which its embellish- 
ment may be most advantageously achieved, and by which it 
may be endowed with beauties of never-ending variety, and 
its feelings and aspirations perfumed, as it were, with a 
civilizing and eleyating influence. ee 

P.S.—It was intended that a sketch of at least one of the 
lesser vases, with its Orchid and its fern fronds, grouped by a 
tasteful and experienced hand, should haye accompanied this 
wandering reverie on Orchid heanty, but the project was given 
up in despair, as it was found that wood engraving, even of the 
highest kind, could not convey any adequate idea of the delicate 
tones of the original’ flowers. 


FLOWERS UNDER ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 


Iv is a more important matter than at first sight may be apparent 
to know exactly what flowers are the most effective when secn 
under the influence of artificial light. Some flowers, as we all 
know, which are most beautifulin the day-time ave dull and dirty- 
looking at night, and for that reason totally unfit for table decora- 
tion. Although this is well known to those who are conversant with 
the arrangement of flowers for festive occasions, sufficient attention 
is not, as a rule, paid to the suitability of the various classes of 
flowers for the purpose, either by the gardener, or those who have 
the dressing of the éperenes and the filling of the vases, when 
that work is done by the housekeeper or the lady herself. ‘Too 
much is left to chance; and, instead of growing a certain number 
of plants which furnish flowers most suitable for the work, no con- 
sideration is paid to the matter until they are wanted, and then the 
flowers that are most plentiful are gathered and used as best they 
may be. There is no remedy for this state of things unless those 
who have the arrangement of the floral decorations know exactly 
which are the best, and then give instructions accordingly. It is a 
grave question whether éperenes ought not to be dressed in a room 
darkened, and then lighted attificially: there would then be fewer 
mistakes than are now commonly met with: In my opinion, the 

: whole question of dinner-table’ decoration is in need of reform, 
especially with reference to the publie exhibitions, which, as at 
present conducted, do but very little towards educating the public 
in principles of taste, ov in showing which are the most suitable 
flowers for the purpose. Regard ought to be paid to effectiveness 
when subjected to the influence of artificial licht. As at present 
conducted, these exhibitions do but little good, for the appearance of 
flowers during the day-time is alone considered, and it is worthy of 
note that, at the last exhibition of table decorations at the Crystal 
Palace, the leading prizes were awarded to stands dressed with 
flowers, which, howeyer light and elegant they appeared at the time, 
were utterly unfit for the purpose. i : 

The question, then, arises, what flowers are the most suitable ? 
And I willat once proceed to answer it. Tirst of all, it must be 
said that shades of lilac, blue, mauye, and purple, must be ayoided, 
and preference given to white and various shades of red. Amongst 
greenhouse plants, many of the Azaleas and Camellias will be found 
invaluable. Of the former, Admiration, white; Chelsoni, scarlet; 
Comet, scarlet; Fascination, bright rosy red; Flag of Truce, double 
white ; Flower of the Day, white, striped carmine; Francis Devos, 
double scarlet; Grande Duchesse de Bade, scarlet; La Superbe, 
scarlet; Mars, brieht crimson; Reine des Roses, rosy carmine ; 
Stanleyana, rosy carmine; Vireinalis, white. ‘The best of the 
Camellias are Beali, deep carmine ; Chandleri elegans, rosy carmine ; 


Countess of Derby, white, flaked carmine; Donckelaari, red and. 


white ; Gem, carmine ; Imbricata, red; Jenny Lind, white and rose ; 
Madame Pepin, rosy carmine; Queen Victoria, carmine; Victoria 
Magnosa, deep carmine. Nearly all the Cape Heaths are useful, as 
also are the Epacris. The best of the latter are Carminata, Hclipse, 
Hyacinthiflora, H. candidissima, H. carminata, Lady Alice Peel, 
Miniata splendens, The Bride, and Viscountess Hill. ‘The white and 
carmine varieties of Cyclamen persicum are invaluable either for 
placing upon the table, or for furnishing cut flowers for the épergne 
or for the little glasses by the side of each euest. The dark rose- 
flowered varieties are not so good. The Chinese Primulas: crimson 
and white are both good, as also are the carmine yarieties. Draco- 
phyllum gracile, Imantophyllum miniatum, Kolosanthes. Pelar- 
goniums : all the carmine and white varieties, such as Gauntlet and 
Blancheflenr, and the scarlet-flowered zonals. All the scarlet- 
flowered Salvias and Tropsolums; Vallota purpurea, the flowers of 
which are nof purple, but scarlet; white garden lilies, especially 
Tdlium eximeum and Lancifolium album ; Rhynchospermum jasmini- 
0. 19s ; all fuchsias with red or white tube and sepals may be turned 


to account. From the stoye we can take all the Achimenes with 
scarlet flowers—Stella, Scarlet Perfection, and Coccinea being 
especially good; Auchmea fulgens, Adschynanthus splendidus. All 
the scarlet-flowered Amaryllis, Anthurium Scherzerianum, Aphelandra 
aurantiaca, A. Roezliana, Clerodendron Balfourianum, Hpiphyllum 
truncatum, H. t. aurantiacum, EH. t. violaceum, Hucharis amazonica, 
Euphorbia jacquiniflora (should be grown in quantity); Gesnera 
exoniensis, G. refulgens, G. zebrina splendens; Ixora Colei, I. 
coccinea superba, I. crocata, I. salicifolia, I. Williamsi; Poinsettia 
pulcherrima. This also should be grown in quantity, for the single 
bracts intermixed with the other flowers and fern-fronds produce a 
most brilliant effect. Specimen plants are also inyaluable for table 
decoration. Justicia coccinea and J. speciosa, and Thyrsacanthus 
rutilans, are all useful, the latter being a real gem, and Stephanotis 
floribunda. Several orchids are useful, especially Coelogyne cristata, 
Barkeria Skinneri, Burlingtonia candida, Calanthe Veitchi, C. veratri- 
folia, C. vestita. Many of the Cattleyas, Cymbidium eburneum, 
Cypripedium niyeum, Dendrobium albo-sanguineum, D. densiflorum 
album, D, infundibulum, D. moniliforme, D. nobile, D. Parishi, D. 
pulchellum, Epidendyum yitellimum, Goodyera discolor, Laelia anceps, 
L. albida, Lycaste Skinneri, Odontoglossum Blunti, Phaius albus, 
Phalzenopsis amabilis, P. grandiflora. Amongst hardy plants adapted 
for forcing, mention must bemade of Lily of the Valley, Astilbe (Hoteia) 
japonica, Dielytra spectabilis, Double White Narcissus, White and 
Red Hyacinths, White Lilacs. Hyacinths are yery valuable for table 
decorations if the bells are stripped off the spikes, and used either 
singly or in bunches of four or five—TV. C., in “ Gardeners’ 
Magazine.” s ¢ 


THE FOOD OF PLANTS.* 
(Concluded from p. 136.) 


I AVE now brought forward not all the arguments which 
might be adduced, but a sufficient number of them to satisfy 
you that the quantities of carbon accumulated in the crop or 
tree are not deriyed from carbonaceous matter existing in the 
soil; and seeing, in this way, that the solid substance of the 
earth does not suffice to furnish the carbon required, our atten- 
tion is next directed to the water which falls upon the earth as 
a possible source of all this carbon. Now water—pure water, 
that is to say—is a substance which itself contains no carbon, 
and therefore cannot furnish any carbon to the plant. But 
certain natural waters are found to contain carbon in small 
quantity. \ Por instance, the drainage water of peat bogs, and 
land-drainage water in general, contains a certain amount of 
carbonaceous organic matter derived from the land; but we 
have already seen that the land does not contain enough of this 
organic matter to furnish the carbon of vegetation directly,and 
cannot therefore furnish it indirectly through the intervention 
of water taking up organic matter from the land. But we find 
that rain water does contain carbon derived from another 
source. The rain, in falling through the air, acquires different 
impurities or additions from the air; and more especially it 
takes up a certain carbonaceous constituent of the air, on which 
T shall have directly to dwellmore particularly. And I am not 
merely speaking of rain which has fallen in great cities like this, 
and which has become contaminated with carbonaceous soot and 
smoke of imperfectly burnt coal; but I am speaking of ram 
wherever it falls, whether on land or ocean, in town or country, 
at the end of a period of drought when the air is foul, as at the 
end of a period of wet, when it has been washed clean by con- 
tinuous showers. Pure water, I have said, is free from carbon. 
But all water that has been left in contact with the air, and 
especially water that has been condensedfromand fallen through 
it, contains, in small proportion, a particular definite compound 
of carbon, namely, carbonic acid, very different indeed in its 
nature fromthe indefinite compounds of carbon we have hitherto 
spoken of under the name of humus and vegetable organic 
matter. In this way our attention is necessarily ‘directed to 
the air as a possible source of all the millions of tons of carbon 
that are accumulated in forest trees and annual crops, growing 
on extensive areas of land. Andalthough at first sight it must 
strike us all as bemg improbable—scarcely, we should think, 
possible—that any such quantity of solid carbon could be got 
from the fresh,-transparent, intangible, fleeting air, yet, when 
we consider that upon setting fire to a heap of wood, or of the 
charcoal produced from wood, and letting it go on burning, it 


* Abstract of a lecture delivered by Professor Odling, F.R.S., in the Hulme 
Town Hall, Manchester, Noyember.24, 1871 J 


Jan. 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


139 


is mainly resolved into matters which are dispersed into the 
air, and are themselves acrial, we begin to perceive that the 
improbability is not in reality so great as at first it appears. 
When we burn, however large a quantity of wood, or of the 
charcoal produced from wood, there is nothingy you know, left 
behind Lut an insignificant quantity of ashes ; there is no solid 
hody formed ; there is no liquid body formed; there is nothing 
but an acrial body formed, which is discharged intothe air. 
Now this acrial body used actually to be called air—fixed air, 
‘to distinguish it from ordinary atmospheric air—but it is 
nowadays called carbonic acid gas. This gas is possessed of 
many curious properties; but is more especially characterised 
by two. he first of these is the property which it has of 
extingnishing fame. Another is that it combines with lime to 
produce carbonate of lime or chalk. Now lime is a substance 
which dissolves in water to form a clear transparent liquid ; 
but chalk will not dissolve in water. When carbonic acid 
exists in a large proportion, it has the property of rendering 
lime-water milky and also, as I have said, of extinguishing flame}; 
but when the proportion of carbonic acid is not sufficient to 
extinguish flame, we are able, nevertheless, to recognise its 
presence by the property it has of converting clear lime water 
into an opaque white mixture of chalk and water. Now I have 
stated that the aerial substance into which solid charcoal was 
converted, when it underwent the process of being burnt in air, 
was carbonic acid gas, which is a compound of carbon with the 
aerial or gaseous substance, oxygen; and that when carbon or 
charcoal burns in ordinary air, it unites with the oxygen of the 
air to form the aerial substance, carbonic acid gas, which is 
discharged into the air. But although the air does, beyond 
question, contain carbon in the form of carbonic acid, the pro- 
ortion that it contains is exceedingly small, not more than 
our parts in tenthousand. A room twenty-five feetlong,asmuch 
broad, and sixteen feet high, would hold 10,000 cubic feet of air, 
containing four cubic feet of carbonic acid gas. And these 
four cubic feet would weigh 2,465 grains, and contain 607 grains 
ofcharcoal—that is to say a quantity of charcoal about the size of 
an egg. And when we pass from the consideration of air in 
rooms, to that of the air pressing everywhere upon the surface 


of the earth, we shall get to results great almost {beyond con-' 


ception. It is well known that the weight of air overlying 
every squareinch of the earth’s surface is fifteen pounds. Now, 
fifteen pounds on the square inch is 2,160 lbs. on the square 
foot; so that every square foot of the earth’s surface has oyer- 
lying it 2,160lbs. of air, and these 2,160]bs. of air con- 
tain about 1} ]b. of carbonic acid gas, equivalent to very 
nearly half a pound of carbon, I have shown that there are 
produced, in many cases, from an acre of land, some 2,000 Ibs, 
of carbon in a single season. Now, reckoning from feet to 
acres, we find that not merely at the first instant of the 
growth of the crop, but that during every instant of the period 
of its growth—at the end no less than at the beginning—there 
is overlying the acre of land furnishing those 2,000Ibs. of 
of carbon some 20,000 lbs. of carbon in the form of carbonic 
acid, existing, though in such small proportion, in the air. 
Calculating in this way, we find that the amount of carbon 
existing in the atmosphere, in the form of carbonic acid gas, is 
not only enormous in its absolute quantity, but that it is far in 
excess of the wants of vegetation, and far in excess, moreover, 
of the quantities of carbon contained in all living beings, both 
plants and animals, existing on the surface of the earth, and in 
inflammable carbonaceous minerals, such as coal, which exist 
buried beneath the surface. In this way, then, we come to the 
conclusion that by their contact with the air, plants are at any 
rate afforded the opportunity of getting that carbon, which 
constitutes so large a proportion of theistructure. The question 
now is, do they avail themselves of the opportunity afforded 
them? do they actually absorb carbonic acid gas from the 
atmosphere, and extract the carbon of the gas which they absorb? 
The evidence on this point dates from the latter end of the last 
century; when it was ascertained by the older chemical philo- 
sophers, and more particularly Dr. Priestley, and by Saussure 
and Sennebier, that when growing plants are exposed, under 
the influence of sunlight, to air containing carbonic acid, they 
do asa matter of fact absorb some of this carbonic acid ; and, 
that having absorbed it, they donot discharge it again into the 
air, but instead discharge only its one constituent oxygen; the 


necessary inference being that its other constituent, carbon, is 
retained in their tissues. Of late years, the subject has been 
investigated with great care and elaboration by the. French 
chemist Boussingault, who ‘has shown not merely that plants 
haye this property of absorbing carbonic acid from the air, and 
of discharging the constituent oxygen of the gas into the air 
and retaining the constituent carbon of the gas in their tissues, 
but that they do this with extreme rapidity. In the case of 
some oleander leaves, enclosed in a glass globe he found, by 
measuring the leaves and analyzing the air passing over them, 
that under exposure to sunlight there was an absorption of 
carbonic acid from the air at the rate of 564 cubic inches, or a 
fixation of carbon at the rate of 11} grains per hour per square 
yard of leaf surface exposed, showing the extreme rapidity with 
which the absorption of carbonic acid from the air and the 
retention of its carbon actually took place. Moreover, he made a 
great number of other experiments, which established not merely 
the general fact that plants can absorb carbonic acid gas from. 
the air, and can discharge the oxygen and retain the carbon of 
the gas so absorbed; but, operating with seeds, and more par- 
ticularly with peas and yetches, and growing them in artificial 
soils quite free from carbon, he found that the entire weight of 
the carbon ultimately accumulated in the grown plant was 
identical with the weight of carbon contained in the carbonic 
acid gas which the growing plant had absorbed from, and the 
oxygen of which alone it had discharged back into, the atmo- 
sphere. In this way, then, Boussingault established the 
important fact that plants acquire their carbon from the 
carbonic acid of the abundant ever-changing air in which 
they are grown. 

We have thus considered the source from which the carbon 
of vegetation is obtained. But we have yet another point, and 
that is—what becomes of it ? Now, a little consideration will 
show that just as the carbon of vegetation is produced from 
the aerial substance, carbonic acid gas, so the destiny, if I may 
so say, of the carbon of vegetation is to be reconverted into 
this sameaerial substance. First of all, let us see what becomes 
of the most abundant of vegetable products, namely, wood. 
You know that a great deal of fresh wood is put to no inter- 
mediate use, but is at once chopped up for the fire; and when 
this wood is burned, its carbon combines with the oxygen of the 
air, and is so re-conyerted into carbonic acid. Again, a con- 
siderable quantity of wood is manufactured into charcoal, and 
this charcoal is then burned and so converted into carbonic 
acid. And with regard to the diverse applications of wood, we 
know that much of it is made into furniture, and that this 
furniture does not last for ever, but finds its way from the 
best rooms to the attics, and at last to the fire-place. Wood is 
also used for the building of ships and in the construction of 
houses ; but in course of time the ships get broken up and 
the houses get pulled down, and the wood of both ships and 
houses becomes ultimately sold for firewood, and then the car- 
bon of this wood gets burnt into the very carbonic acid from 
which it was long years before produced. In other cases the 
wood or woody matter, although it never undergoes a process 
of actual burning, nevertheless undergoes an equivalent process 
of oxidation. At the present season, or but yery recently, we 
had large falls of autumn leayes, and those leayes are still 
accumulated in many places, and undergoing not burning but 
decay. Now the process of decay consists really in a slow 
combination of the carbon of the leaves with the oxygen of the 
air, whereby carbonic acid is produced. Indeed, woody matter 
of all kinds exposed to the weather, to the action that is of air 


and water, gradually undergoes decay or oxidation, and, if Teft 


to itself, crumbles away, and in course of time disappears 
altogether, being converted into the invisible aerial matter 
carbonic acid. When we pass from the consideration of wood 
to that of the hay and grain eaten by different classes of 
animals, and mark what becomes of all this food, we shall find 
that so much of it as is both eaten and made part of the blood 
and substance of the vegetable-feeding animal, undergoes one 
or other of two principal changes. A large portion of it gets 
oxidised in the body of the vegetable-feeder, with production of 
carbonic acid discharged principally from the lungs in the act 
of respiration. Another portion gets accumulated in his body, 
whereby it is fattened and rendered fit to become the food of 
the flesh-feeder. And when the flesh-feeding animal eats up 


140 


THE GARDEN. — 


riled 


[Jan, 6, 1872. 


the bodies of the vegctable-feeders, their vegetable derived fat 
and lean that becomes assimilated in his body is found to suffer 
there a speedy oxidation. ‘Therefore, in.the case of food con- 
sumed in our bodies, as in the case of wood consumed on our 
fires, the carbon of vegetable produce is directly or indirectly 
conyerted back into the aerial carbonic acid from which it was 
originally formed, The. conyersion of carbon into carbonic acid, 
on the fire, is a burning process, attended with the evolution 
of heat. The conversion of carbonic acid into carbon and 
oxygen, in the tissues of a growing plant under the influence 
of the sun’s rays, is an unburning process attended, not with an 
evolution of heat, but with an absorption of heat from the solar 
rays: and it follows that there is just as much disappearance 
of solar heat in the production of the charcoal, as there is eyolu- 


tion of heat im the ultimate combustion of the charcoal pro-~ 


duced. So that, you sce, the quantity of heat which the charcoal 
eventually gives out in burning on the fire, is the exact 
equivalent of the quantity uf solar heat which disappeared in 
the act of growth of the wood, from which the charcoal furnish- 
ing our fire was obtained. From what has been said it will be 
seen, too, that plants derive their carbon from the air rather 
than from the soil in which they grow. 


- THE TWO PATHS. 


: = * 
THE NEW GARDENS AT ROCHESTER CASTLE. ~ 


A yury wholesome feeling in fayour of public parks and 
gardens has fairly set in, and, to say nothing of the metropolis, 
one after another of our great provincial towns has already 
provided itself with one or more such places of healthful 
recreation, ‘The arboretuneat Derby, planted some thirty years 
ago upon land presented to that town by the munificence of Mr. 
Strutt, the friend and patron of Loudon, who superintended 
the plantation, must already have become a well-timbered park, 
though still in the youth of its arboreal existence. Zoological 
or botanical gardens are already old-established institutions 
at Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and other great 
centres of commercial activity. The noble ruins of Dudley 
Castle have long since been planted about with shrubberies, 
now well grown, and containing many finely developed trees. 
From the shady walks ofthose shrubberies, promenades emerge 
upon a plain of undulating green sward—untrimmed and 
untortured by the innovation of gravel walks, in the midst of 
which rises the magnificent ruin, just as it might have 
appeared twelve months after the rude marks of destruction 
dealt upon it by Cromwell had been freshly clothed by nature 
with a mantle of tender green, to hide the cruel devastation. 
When the authorities of the city of Rochester wisely determined, 
in the beginning of last year, to treat the enclosure surrounding 
the magnificent shell of the grand old Norman Keep as a public 
promenade, after the same good fashion as Dudley, for the 
benefit and recreation of the inhabitants of their ancient city, 
they certainly took the proper course in advertising for com- 
petitive designs for the best plans for laying out the area 
in question. Prizes of forty pounds each were offered to the 
authors of the two best designs; and twenty pounds to the 
third. These prizes offered for plans which only admitted of 
the most simple treatment ought to haye been sufficient to 
secure the services of the most competent horticultural 
artists; but the result does not seem to prove that such was 
the case. } 

“What number of desiens were sent in I haye no means 
of knowing; but I learn from the columns of the Builder that 
six were selected from the bulk, as the best; from which, three 
were nominated to prizes. The one selected for adoption was 
marked, ‘‘ Norman,” in the competition, and was the work of 
gentlemen, who, being architects and surveyors, do not seem to 


have possessed the requisite qualifications for the picturesque 


laying out of gardens and the planting of them with suitabld 
trees, selected with taste aud care from the abundant arboreal — 
stores now at command. That the qualifications of ordinary 

architects and suryeyors fits them for this kind of work seems } 
plainly open to doubt. But the plan engraved in the Builder, and 
which we reproduce in a manner well adapted to do the fullest i 
justice to the design in question, sets all doubt upon the subject 
at rest; for anything more bald, uninyentive, inappropriate, — 
and tasteless could not be imagined. In no respect does the 

plan rise above such an one as might have been furnished for 
a suburban tea-garden by an intelligent labouring gardener; 

and thought suggests that it must haye been meant for 

Rosherville, rather than for Rochester. It has indeed all the 

commonplace vulgarity suited to such a purpose. A Chinese 

pavilion for a brass band is placed in the middle, and meaning- — 
less walks, leading nowhere in particular, cut up the whole 

surface; utterly destroying the breadth and repose which 
ought to characterize such a site. Surely, nothing could haye — 
been devised by the utmost stretch of desecrative ingenuity é 
more calculated to destroy every association connected with i 
the history of the place, and utterly disgust every visitor of © 
taste and feeling who may in future visit a spot hallowed by — 
one of the most remarkable of the still existing monuments of 
the feudal story of Britain. One is tempted to inquire how 
many other designs were sent in—whether twenty, forty, or 


“sixty, and whether they were openly exhibited, in order that 


the public and the press might have the opportunity of 
expressing their opinions before the final selection was made. 
It is the more probable that the drawings were never openly 
exhibited at all; or, not till some small official conclave had 
made its own private selection of the plan to be adopted; for it 
is almost impossible to conceive that, among a number of 
designs sent in, something infinitely better than the wretched 
p!an adopted could not have been found. 

Not to dwell upon the unpleasant subject of the proposed 
plan, nor to indulge in regrets for many better ones that may 
haye been rejected, it may be well to consider briefly what 
onght to have been the manner of laying out and planting this © 
plot of historic ground. It rises finely aboye the broad waters 
of the Medway, crowned at its highest point by the erand old 
castle and its round-arched window-openines, which are still 
in many places nearly perfect, even to their crisp sculpture, so 
‘characteristic of those arts of nearly eight hundred years ago, 
of which Rochester Castle is a noble remnant. That ancient 
fortalice, in its hoar antiquity, and with its venerable beard of 
grizzled lichen, still erect in its baronial grandeur, is scarcely 
second in interest to the noble pile at Warwick, against the 
vulgar restoration of which Mr. Ruskin has written such noble 
words, or even the stately remnants of Kenilworth, with all 
their associated romance. It is most certainly not second in 
interest to the grand ruin at Dudley; andin throwing freely open 
to the public the ancient turf-clothed slopes that surround it 
the greatest care should be taken not to disfigure and yulearise 
the historic site by common-place gimeracks; and by such 
sadly prosaic treatment, of the true tea-garden school, as are - 
exhibited in the accepted plan. at at 

Those venerable slopes should be but yery tenderly, 
very affectionately, and very sparingly, touched by art 
of any kind; ‘and: the art which is permitted to approach 
them should be of a very high class—the ans celare avtem. 
That soi-disant art, of the glaring kind, which dashes itself 
insolently at the eye, like an offensive intruder, as it always is, 
should be kept entirely aloof, at any cost. With this view, the 
whole of the central space (disfigured in the plan by the 
trumpery band-stand) should be kept broadly and srandly 
open, and undisturbed, except by the planting of a few, very 
few, choice trees, destined to become large and striking 
objects, either singly or in groups of three or five. In every 
other respect the expanse of turf should_ remain unbroken; 
obtrusive gravel walks, with trimmed edges, would be utterly 
destructive of the calm repose which ‘should pervade Such a ~ 
scene. ot 

A single pathway, partially concealed with shrubs of various 
lands, chiefly evergreens, might extend around the interior — 
circuit of the enclosure for some two-thirds of the distance from 
the entrance, in the direction of the castle; but the occasional 
openings should be wide and clear, commanding, in some 


\ 1 ~ ~ 


THE GARDEN. 


‘ATISVYO UALSAHOOU LV NAGUVD « AZId, MAN AHL—HLVd DNOWM ZHL 


TRIG RRA A nO bo 


Jan. 6, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


143 


places, uninterrupted views across the open green, and in 
others fine glimpses of the castle from different points of 
view. As to flower-beds and flower planting, in the ordinary 
-sense, there should be none of it. All must be strictly a 
nature garden; and nature, lefé alone, does her garden work 
exceedingly well. Over the broken walls of our ruined abbeys 
and castles she has hung, with unerring grace, her glistening 
mantle of ivy ; not cropping its fringes either with the aid 
of the mechanic’s straightedge or gardener’s peg-line. And 
then she leaves portions of the hoary masonry free from the 
ivy-woven scarf, inorder that, at sunny angles, she may plant 
in the crumbling crevices seeds of the golden wallflower, to shed 
its perfume over the scene of venerable decay, and that she 
may suspend graceful tufts of the creeping antirrhinum from 
certain joints of the dislocated stonework; while along the 
ridge of the ancient parapets she plants its more ambitious 
congener, the greater snapdragon, whose bold spikes of pink 
or crimson flowers form a gorgeous crest-work to old ruined 
walls. Rochester, too, has long been pple for an excep- 
tional and elegant addition to nature’s ordinary wall furniture; 
those old battlements being known as one of the few spots in 
England where the wild carnation is found; and many an 
enthusiastic field botanist has made a deyout pilgrimage to the 


ancient castle of the Medway to gather specimens, destined> 


to be long cherished among the choicest treasures of his 
herbarium, 

Those ancient flower-wreathed walls, and the window-gaps 
‘in the great square keep—those “loops of time,” whose 
crumbling sills have been long since replaced by mingled 
masses of flowers and ferns—should be allowed to give the key- 
note to the floral treatment of the green space of the enclo- 
sure. Hollows, in suitable aspects, may be naturally carpeted 
with primroses and wood anemones; others with blue bells, 
mingling tints with purple squills; while towering foxgloves, 
purple, white, and grey, may contrast their hues with the 

ellow and orange of the wild linaria on bright and sunny 

anks. And then, huge clumps of the pale golden daffodil 
might be made to light up the deeper parts of shadowy dells, 
and many other delightful natural features might be developed 
by careful, and not obtrusive, art. In short, nature may 
be aided, in the setting forth of her fair display, in sucha 
manner’ as to conceal the aid afforded. Thus, wallflower 
and antirrhinum seed may be freely sprinkled in the crevices 
and along the ridges of the walls, and nature may be safely 
left to rear such of her numerous progeny as she chooses, 
while rejecting others; just as, after the thick planting of 
primroses, blue bells, foxgloves, and other of the queens of our 
native flora in what appear to be the most suitable spots, 
nature may be left alone, to extend or diminish the colonies so 
planted according to her own good grace, ever unerringly 
guided by the suitableness of the situation and the soil. So 
treated, the ground about Rochester Castle may be filled with 
attractions of an elevating character, that will be in sweet and 
_ reposeful accordance with the scene of noble ruin. But, cut 
“up in the glaring fashion of the tea-garden horticulture 
exhibited by the published design, it will become a desecra- 
tion to the spirit of the place, and a disgrace to the city 
authorities, who permit the perpetration of such a vulgar piece 
of atrocity. H.N. H. 


{Tf Rochester wants a Rosherville, there cannot be the 
slightest objection; but, in the name of good taste, do not 
let it be made within the precincts of the glorious old Castle. 
The illustration will enable the reader to judge of this 
piece of “prize” garden design. The chief vices of “land- 
scape-gardening”’ are well shown init. The scarcity of taste- 
fully-designed gardens in private places need puzzle us no 
longer, when a beautiful piece of ground, in one of the most 
hallowed spots in England, is thus violated. As an example of 
the true course to be pursued in such a case, we may point out 
the quiet and beautiful garden surrounding the Abbey and 
Roman ruins at York.—Conpvcror. ] 


The Odour of Box.—So they walked over the crackling leaves in 
the garden, between the lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity; 
for this is one of the odours which carry us out of time into the abysses 
of the unbeginning past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than 
this, it must be that there was box growing on it.— Elsie Venner, 


THE PLANTING AND LAKE MARGIN AT 
BERRY HILL. 

We this week engrave a plan of a portion of the pleasure- 
grounds at Berry Hill, to show the beautiful character of the 
planting carried out there by Mr. Marnock. The comparatively 
small portion represented enables us to show the planting much 
more clearly. Besides, this small portion of good work clearly 
shown and clearly understood will teach much more than a 
large plan, in which the eye is caught by walks, drives, and 
other details which, while they make a plan seem pleasing to 
some, are only fraught with danger to garden scenery. Here 
we are brought face to face with a graceful piece of water and 
a narrow slip of ground running between it and the public 
road, and we can study its treatment without having the eye 
of the tasteful offended or that of the injudicious beguiled by 
the geometrical twirlings which are unfortunately rarely absent 
from garden plans or gardens, but which have nothing to do 
with pure gardening. Our plan gives a clear idea of the 
planting, and also of the free and tasteful disposition of the 
margins of the water, but only a visit can give an idea of the 
charming effects of the scene trom many points of view. 

What are the merits of the planting, and the disposition of 
ground shown by the plan? Ist. The natural flow of the 
margins of the water. 'The true and natural way in which the 
banks slope into the water cannot be seen, but it helps to lend 
a great charm to the place. Two kinds of wretched water 


-margins may be named in opposition to this: the railway bank- 


like margin, in which the ground rises stiffly and abruptly; and 
the French pseudo-natural style, in which the very edge, instead 
of being allowed to kiss the water, is plastered with a tarry 
compound, and made to look like a section from a newly-tarred 
ship’s side, both in colour and curye. The kerb-stone style is 
nearly allied to this. The most violent example I know of it is 
in the public gardens at Boston, U.\*. The line of cement and 
stones that guard the edge of the ornamental water in the 
Regent's Park for the past few years\is quite as bad in its way, 
as may be seen from the suspension bridge near Hanover 
Gate. 2nd. The tufts of water plants, and isolated specimens 
and groups near the margin, are well selected and placed. 
An isolated specimen of the common Tamarix is quite lovely 
by the edge of the water. Dovaston’s Yew, too, near 
the margin, and on~one side slightly drooping over it, is 
very effective. Groups of stately water plants, like the 
Lythrums, Epilobiums, and taller rushes, and of floating ones 
like the water lilies, are most effectively placed in various 
positions. 3rd. The formal lines which margin most of 
our ornamental plantations are unseen. Hence the most 
perfect ease. The scene is as free from stiff formalism as 
some quiet little lawn by the side of a mountain lakelet. 
4th. There is a rich variety in the planting. No hasty 
glance suffices .to exhaust its interest; no eye, however 
learned in plants, may-not find a new friend or a fresh lesson. 
We have only been enabled to write the name of the family in 
many cases on the plan. The “group” is often a whole 
family of distinct species of our handsomest trees or 
shrubs. In some cases the ground beneath the trees looks 


“much too bare; but in the smaller groups on the grass 


there is nothing in wild plant-life more lovely than the 
way the beds and groups of the various kinds of savin 
and other dwarf conifers send their shoots fearlessly over 
the short grass,and the way the American and other vines 
throw their long shoots over the low grassy banks. The 
grouping of the various families, too, is noticeable, as supe- 
rior to the general mixture and dotting plan. 5th, and 
lastly for the present, the breadth of sweet little lawn pre- 
served is the most noticeable feature of all. On the small 
lawn, fringed by tufts of Tamarix, trailing vine, and with the 
groups of heath and Kalmias, the effect would have been 
totally destroyed by dotting specimens. Now, from every 
point on it the varied planting towards the road is seen to the 
greatest advantage. Not less charming are the peeps through 
it and across the water to the open sweep of rising pasture- 
land on the opposite side. Some might suppose it needless to 
point out the advantage of this last feature. Not so! In the 
great majority of gardens, when a pretty new conifer arrives 
it is usually planted in some open green spot, and if the garden 
eyer bore any evidence of thoughtful design, by perseverence 


144 ; THE GARDEN. [Jay. 6, 1872. 


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THE RIGHT PATH.—PLAN, SHOWING A PORTION OF THE LAKE AND PLANTING AT BERRY HILL, TAPLOW. < 


‘ 


Jay. 6, 1872.] : 


THE GARDEN. 


145 


in this direction it is soon obliterated. ~ Mr.. Marnock, who 

designed Berry Hill, tells me he frequently finds, after an 

absence of a few years, all his openings and bits of verdant 

foreground planted over with young conifers as regularly as a 
_ cabbage plot. % ConbucToR. 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN, 


BLECHNUM. BRASILIENSE. 
(SYN., CORCOVADENSE.) 

For mixing with such palms as Latania, Phenix, Chame- 
rops, and others, this is a fine plant, with much majesty of 
port; while the undulating margin of the pinne add to its 
charms of a minorcharacter. It is a plant of free growth, and 
sufficiently hardy to be growninthe open air in sumer. Though 
not generally termed a tree fern, it is, nevertheless, a good dwarf 
one; excellent for decorating greenhouses, in which it relieves 
the monotony produced by masses of fuchsias, pelargoniums, 
and similar plants. Its spores vegetate freely, and if put on a 
damp wall, in any unsightly corner, they will grow into nice- 
sized plants. 'Those who wish to have tropical effects with 
little trouble should, by all means, have this fern, which is not 
only a plant of very great beauty, but one which will grow and 
appear dressy at all seasons of the year. J. CRovUCHER. . 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN 
- FOR JANUARY. 
Br THOMAS BAINES, Sovrnearte. 


Stove.—Calculate what the 
probable requirements for the 
next few months will be as regards 
eut flowers and blooming» plants 
for general decoration, and pro- 
vide accordingly. A blaze of 
bloom in the flower-garden in 
the dog-days would be but a 

poor recompense for the absence 
of the more simple—yet, never- 
theless, more welcome—harbin- 4 
gers of spring; and if this holds " 
_good in ont-door gardening, it is 
equally applicable to that carried 
on in-doors. Therefore, look well 
as to what it may be necessary to 
introduce to the cool end of the 
stove, forcing-pits, or whatever 
structure is available for bringing 
on such plants as are required for 
_bloom later in the season. At no 
_time of year are roses unaccept- 
able, and at no season are they 


| purpose. 


| of greater service than in early spring. 


| places where many plants would suffer or die outright. 


| placed in heat. 


different kinds of Alocasias, using half sphagnum well chopped 
and half fibrous peat, with a liberal admixture of sand, for the 
Richardia (Calla) sthiopica forces well, and if placed now 
in moderate heat, will soon throw up its great white, trumpet-shaped 
flowers. Spring-struck Hydrangeas will likewise succeed in a similar 
temperature with the Richardia, and at no season will they be found 
They are much more useful 
grown as small plants with single heads than in a larger state ; they 
last long in bloom, and admit of being set about with impunity in 
Eucharis 
amazonica is another useful plant, and a general favourite. It will 
throw up its flowers at any time, after haying been subjected toa slight 
check before being introduced to heat. This is a plant that may be 
grown to almost an unlimited size, or it may be divided, and kept in 
eight or ten-inch pots. These smaller-sized plants will be found the 
most useful for general purposes, and especially for winter and early 
spring blooming. Some of the older plants of Fuchsia should now be 
A light kind named Mrs. Marshall is one of the best 
for general decoration, blooming, as it does, early, in the greatest 
profusion. As soon as the plants have “broken,” they should be 


| shaken out, and re-potted in three-fifths good loam, one-fifth rotten 


dung, and one-fifth sharp sand, the whole made firm in the pots. 
But, in potting these and all other plants, do not fall into the common 
error of filling the pots too full, to the exclusion of room for suffi- 
cient water at one application to moisten the whole of the ball ; for, if 
only the upper portion of the soil and roots get moistened, the result 


is almost sure to be disease, and sometimes even death. 


Orchids.—The plants in the 
East-India house will now be 
at rest, and with their growth 
fully matured, are in the best 
possible condition for a thorough 
cleaning, with a view to remove 
all scale, thrips, &c., which, with 
the low temperature now main- 
tained, will not increase fast, 
and,\ consequently are much 
easier, to reduce to a minimum 
than ‘when circumstances are 
more fayourable to their develop- 
ment. Those who are not dis- 
posed to grow a collection of 
orchids, but who, nevertheless, 
value orchid flowers in the winter 
season, should not omit to grow 
those most valuable winter- 
blooming favourites, Calanthe 
yestita, C. Veitchii, Dendrobium 
moniliforme, Zygopetalum crini- 
tum, lLycaste Skinneri, and 
Cypripedium insigne. These are 
comparatively cheap, of easy 
culture, and produce a profusion 
of flowers that last long, either 
on the plant, or when cut. See 
that all potting materials, such 


more valued than in early spring. 
To have them early, the best way 
_ is not to prune them in autumn ; 
but, to place them in very gentle 


Blechnum brasiliense. 
Dwarf tender Tree Fern: suitable for shady dells during the summer months. 


heat with all their simmer growth on them; keep them as near the , 


glass as possible. But be careful not to admit cold currents of air upon 
them, otherwise mildew is certain to attack them. Feed them well 
with liqnid manure, but not in too strong a state. When flowering 
is over, give them aseason of rest ina cold house or pit, and then 
prune them, surface dress with strong loam well enriched with rotten 
dung, and re-pot-in similar material such as require that attention. 
When the frosts are over, plunge them out of doors for the summer, 


as sphagnum, fibrous peat, and 
clean crocks, are in readiness for 
that operation when necessary. 
If any of the Cattleyas, or other inmates of the Mexican house, show, 
by excessive shrivelling of their pseudo-bulbs, that they are getting 
too dry, apply water; but let it be done sparingly, otherwise it will 
excite growth, which is most undesirable at present. “The roots of 
many of these plants are pushing actively at this season, when they 
are otherwise at rest. See, therefore, that these do not become a 
prey to cockroaches, woodlice, and other pests, that are particularly 


| fond of them. 


Where they will make their growth, attending well to them with | 


water. Plants so treated will last good for at least a score of years. 
I should recommend the stock employed for this purpose to consist of 
half Teas and of half hybrid perpetuals. Towards the end of the 
month, cut back, and pot a portion of the. Allamandas, Clerodendrons 
and Bougainvillea glabra, the last being the only species of that 
handsome genus suitable for pot culture. ~ If this plant is well 
managed, it is almost a continuous bloomer, and it is a universal 
favourite, its delicate manye bracts harmonizing well with every 
form and colour of flower with which I have scen it associated ; 
and if not grown in too hot a place, it will last, in a cut state, for 
a week ata time. A portion of the Gloxinias and Achimenes may 
also now be potted, and they should be placed in heat as soon as the. 
operation-is performed; for if left in the potting-shed in cold damp 
soil even for a few days, they are in danger of rotting. Re-pot the 


| their blooming-pots, no time should be lost in doing so. 


Conservatory.—Where Pelargoniums haye not yet been placed in 
For com- 
post, use good loam, witha moderate admixture of thoroughly rotten 
dung, and sufficient sand. Do not use too large pots—eight-inch 
ones are sufficient for the largest plants—and pot them hard, other- 
wise they-are disposed to produce more leaves then flowers; keep 
them as near the glass as possible in a night temperature of 45°, 
and water them sparingly for the next two months. The best time 


_ to pot Lilies isin the autumn, as soon as they die down; they dislike 


| 
| 


| 


any mutilation of their roots, which are then less active than at any 
other season. If not already potted, however, that ought to be at 
once attended to. They thrive well in rich, fibrous loam, with a little 
leaf soil and some rotten dung added, with enough sharp sand to 
insure porosity. Great differences occur in regard to the time of 
blooming of Lilium auratum. If a dozen bulbs of it are started, 


146 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jax. 6, 1872. | 


some may not flower for two months after the others, the consequence 
of which isa desirable succession. ~If plants of L. lancifolium are 
not required to flower until autumn, when they are most useful, they 
should be placed in as cool a temperature as possible, to insure the 
exclusion. of frost, and all the kinds used for pot culture should 
receive just sufficient water to keep the mould in a healthy state, 
but not more until they appear above the soil, and then they should 
receive all the light and air possible to keep them short and compact. 
Now is a good time to divide and re-pot Vallota purpurea, which is a 
most useful autumn bloomer ; but be careful in the operation not to 
mutilate the roots more than is necessary. It will be found to 
succeed in soil similar to that recommended for lilies. Remove all 
blooming plants from the conservatory as soon as their flowers 
become shabby or unsightly, and give prominence to such fine 
foliaged plants as do not require a higher temperature than is main- 
tained here. Many of the Agaves, Yuccas, Dasylirions, &e., though 


not furnished with gay flowers, possess attractions for those who can - 


appreciate the beauty of form ynite equal to the most gorgeous 
blooming plants. All work that can be done at this season should 
be completed as soon as possible; for unless time is taken by the 
forelock, it is difficult to recover lost ground. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE IN-DOOR GARDEN, 


Anthurium magnificum and Alocasia metallica.—will A. 
magnificum thrive under the treatment which Mr. Baines recommends for 
A. Scherzerianum ? I have also a plant of Allocasia, in a twenty-inch 
pot, measuring five feet in diameter. I do not wish to increase the size of 
the pot : how shall I proceed ?—Ep. Woorten, Charlton.—[Mr. Baines, 
to whom your query has been submitted, says that Anthurium magnificum 
and Alocasia metallica will both succeed perfectly in the soil recommended 
for A. Scherzerianum. Both, he adds, require liberal pot room, and in re- 
potting only remove by hand any soil that may be getting sour. Give to 
both plenty of draimage, and supply them well with weak liquid manure 
during the time of active growth. They also require a somewhat higher 
temperature both while growing and at rest than Anthurium Scherzeria- 
num—say a night temperature of 60°, with a rise of 5° in the daytime, when 
at rest ; when growing, 70° at night, and from 80° to 85° by day. | 

Bouvardia Davidsoni.—This variety of Bouvardia, which is 
of American origin, appears to be a sport from B. Hogarthii, which 
it resembles in every particular, except that the flowers are white 
instead of red, and, I think, a trifle shorter in the tube, which 
will be an adyantage to them ina cut state. A few small plants 
which I had of it are coyered with flower-buds; I therefore conclude 


it will be a free-floweringe plant, and valuable for furnishing flowers. 


for coat bouquets. Bouvardias of all kinds are extremely useful, 
as they flower all the year round, and are plants of easy culture.— 
W. Howarp, Balham. : 

Acacia Riceana (humifusa).—In reference to the Acacia noticed 
at p. 73 as A. humifusa, allow me to remark that it was under that 
name here, or something like that name; but feeling dissatisfied 
about it, I sent a piece of it to Dr. Hooker, and he gave it the 
true name, A. Riceana—under which it is now known, and figured 
in the Botanical Magazine last year. It is, as you justly observed, 
a most elegant and admirable plant for a conservatory or elsewhere. 
What enhances its yalue so much is, that it is not only beautiful 
when in flower in Apriland May, but that it is graceful in appearance 
all the year round, and at this season more particularly, when 
plants of a graceful, persistent character are so much valued. I 
have used it with satisfaction in every conceivable way, from the 
decoration of an “‘ancestral portrait’’ to the adomment of the human 
head, and in “‘button-hole” bouquets. It will stand days without 
water, as you may prove by the piece I send you per post; 
so that it is needless to say how admirably suitable it is for the 
dinner-table, twined, as it may be, to any degree among cande- 
labra and the like, without injury in the least. How such an 
elegant plant has been overlooked so long, I cannot imagine. It has 
been kindly distributed through me by the Marquis of Beaumont to 
many of our principal gardens, Kew included, where, no doubt, in 
years hence it will form a feature, as it is here at present. On the 
whole, Acacias haye no beauty but when in flower. This, however, 
is a grand exception to the rule, the beauty of which cannot be 
known but by seeing it in its improved state as it now is in the 
garden here.—H. K., Floors. The singularly graceful shoot sent 
seems after its voyage in the cold and ten days’ existence in London 
as fresh as when cut. | “> 


Carbolic Acid Plant.—Andromeda Leschenanlti which grows in the Neil- 
gherry Hills, has been found to yield carbolic acid. Mr. Broughton, the medical 
officer for that part of India reports that itis far superior in purity to the ordi- 
nary product of coal tar, being less deliquescent and free from any admixture 
of noxious comitants; as its cost is far above that of the mineral product, and as 
Jatter can be chemically purified, the discovery has no economical commercial 
rene, but it is nevertheless interesting in a botanical point of yiew.—Daily 

aper, 


CEMETERIES. 


Every considerable town requires, or will require at no late 
day, not only fields for the disport of its livime swarms, but 
other fields (requiring exeeptional care of their own) for the 
interment of its throng of dead. Indeed, the living can steal 
some chance moments of rural enjoyment, by bursting into 
fields and gardens of their neighbours, or by plunging into 
untamed wilds; but a man cannot steal a grave: there is no 
larceny possible to us of some charming spot upon a neighbour's 
hill-side where our bones may rest... .. : 


In dealing with the question of a public cemetery adequate 
to the needs of a growing population—as in the question of a 
public park—our larger towns show a provoking delay, blinding — 
themselves year after year to the necessities of the case, and 
deferring positive action, until the needed investment assumes 
gigantic proportions. There are scores of towns whose grave- 
yards are absolutely brimming with the dead, who yet take no 
decisive measures for an increase of the privilege we all sigh 
for at last—of a quiet sleep under trees. : 

Among the requisites for a country cemetery are to be 
named, I think, first, a distance not exceeding forty minutes” 
drive from town; next, a friable soil, and- one not underlaid 
with rocks. An absolutely dry soil is also desirable, and a 
shéltered position: for in the last tender offices of respect to 
the dead, we are exposed to all seasons, anda harsh sweep of 
northerly winds adds dismally to the chill of a wintry burial. 
I think we love to catch, too, in such localities, the first warm 
beat of spring sunshine, and that we welcome the early violets 
on graves we know, as we welcome them nowhere else. 

Tf with all these requirements can be associated pic- 
turesque variety of surface, secluded glens and pools, where, 
as in Mount Auburn, water flowers show their white regalia, 
it would be well; but there should be no sacrifice of the quiet 
seclusion which should belong to such a spot to compass the 
garish charms of over-nice and pretentious gardening. ; 

Park gardening and decoration is one thing; that of ceme- 
teries is quite another. Aims, treatment, effects, all should be 
different. Sombre masses of wood, heayy shadows, these 
should be present ; above all things, there should be ayoidance 
of those sudden surprises and graceful deceits by which gar-. 
deners sometimes win their lesser honours. Great simplicity of 
design is also essential, not only as in keeping with the sepul- 
chral offices of such ground, but bemg, to a certain extent, 
proof against the harm which an elaborate plan must suffer by 
injudicious planting in private inclosures. ; 

From the fact last named—the giving over of individual lots 
to private caprices of planting or arrangement, no consummate 
er finished gardening can, of course, ever be looked for in our 
cemeteries. The general effect will be at best spotty, and lack 
coherence. The course of the principal drives or walks, the 
establishment of the capital masses of foliage, the ordering and 
adaptation of the encircling belt, the finish and appointments of 
the entrance-way—these are the objects which will demand 
taste and skill for their happy execution. To twirl a great 
labyrinth of serpentine paths through a forest, shaven clean of 
its under-brush—to throw rustic bridges oyer a flow of sluggish 
ditch-water, and to construct grottoes where they sit like 
mountebanks in the hollows of the hills, is not good gardening ~ 
for cemeteries—if it be goodanywhere. Ifthere be great reach 
of irregular surface, there should be sunny glades to contrast 
with masses of solemn shade. Rustic or other littlenesses 
should not pique and arrest attention. The story of the place 
should be told in the largest letters of the gardener’s vocabulary 
and the interpretation easy—quiet—seclusion—rest. 

Something might be said of the character of the trees which 
should beplanted in these fields of the dead. The willow is the 
traditional weeper, and in place; but such product of the 
gardener’s art as a weeping ash isa terribly starched mourner, 
and should be banished as an impertinence. All curious and 
rare exotics, I should say, have no place there; unless, like the 
yew or the cypress, they bear some story of association which 
chimes evenly with the solemn shadows around. The darker 
evergreens generally are most fitting; and there isa variety of 
the Norway spruce, with long, pendulous arms, that is one of 
the stateliest and comeliest and friendliest of mourners it is- 
possible to imagine. It the Mediteranean cypress would but 


Ne 


ie 


Jay.'6, 1872.] > THE GARDEN. alidig’ 


withstand the rigour of our season, its dark plumes, leading up 
on either side to the gateway of a tomb, would make a standing 
funereal hymn. 

Near to Savannah, in Georgia, and upon one of the creeks 
making into the irrregular shores thereabout, is a cemetery 
called, if [remember rightly, Buena Ventura. In old times, 
any visitor at the Pulaski used to find his way there, and was 
richly repaid for the visit. There was noproper “keeping” to 
the grounds. You passed in under a lumbering old gateway 
of unhewn timber; the paths were not carefully tended; there 
was much of rampant and almost indecorous undergrowth; 
the tombs were mossy, and the graves, many of them, sunken ; 
but great live-oaks over-reached your path, and from their 
gnarled limbs hung swaying penants of the. weird grey moss 
of the Southern swamp lands—festooned, tangled, streaming 
down—now fluttering in a light breeze, and again drooping, as 
if with the weight of woe to the very earth, ‘There was some- 
thing mysteriously solemn and grave-like in it. The gnarled 
oaks and the slowly swaying plumes of grey told the completest 
possible story of the place. Had there been no tombs there 
you would have said that it was the place of places where 
tombs should lie and the dead sleep. I have alluded to the 
scene only to show what and how much may be done by foliage 
and tree limbs, with their investing mosses, to give character 
to such a spot. ; 

Neither the live oak nor the Spanish moss is available, indeed, 
im our Northern latitudes; but there are various degrees of 
fitness in the trees at command. The yew and the compact- 
headed Austrian pine,and the balsam firalways in their sables; 

-eyen the much degraded Lombardy poplar, in full vigour, 
carmes a ceremonious, self-possessed stiffness not unbefitting ; 
while the glittering-leaved beech, and hornbeam, on the con- 

trary, with their ceaseless, idle flutter, are the most unseemly 
of chatterboxes. The ash, again, without liveliness of colour 
has great dignity of carriage, and in its half mourning of 
autumn purple is one of the stateliest and fittest of attendants: 

I know there is a philosophy which ‘denies the propriety of 
seeking for, or multiplying any solemn symbols in connection 
with death, or the places where the dead lie; which believes in 
opening wide and langhing landscapes around graves, and in 
smothering all memory of the short-lived, funeral black 
under the gayest of colours. It seems to me, however, 
that so far as such a philosophy puts its meddlesome liveli- 
ness upon churchyards and tombs, it is only a gay hypocrisy. 
Death is always death; andthe place where the dead le always 
Golgotha. The real grief that goes thither with its bitterness, 
will be put down by no pelting of bright colours, and mock 
grief may be mended by what solemnity belongs to the scene. 

Dd. G. Mitchell. : 


: THE FPRUAT.GARDEN, 


THE FINEST PEARS FOR WIRE TRELLISES. . 


 Ixquinms having reached us as to the best kinds of pears for 
_ furnishing neat wire trellises now justly becoming «popular, we have 
much pleasure in publishing the following list. They have been 
selected specially for this purpose by an experienced fruit-grower 
well acquainted with each variety, and the conditions which suit it 
best. It is most desirable to exercise caution in selecting pears for 
_ this purpose, as if bad kinds, or those that do not ripen properly, are 
- selected, the result will be anything but satisfactory. 
_ Those marked with an asterisk are especially recommended. No 
_ fixed time gan be assigned for ripening, as much depends upon seasons, 
localities, tocks, condition of the trees, &c., and some pears, such as 
_ the Marie Louise will ripen in succession for two or three months 
_ together. The following kinds, however, ripen, as a rule, during the 
months under which they are arranged :— 
JULY, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER. 
* Doyénne @’ Bté—Small; excellent; a great bearer; requires to 
be gathered before it is quite ripe. 
Peach or Poire Péche—Medium size; greenish yellow; slight 
musky flavour ; excellent. E 7 
* Williams’ Bon Chrétien.—One of the finest.of pears; large and, 
excellent ; requires to be gathered before becoming yellow or 
the flavour is gone. 
- * Beurré de VAssomption.—An earlier, larger, and superior form of 
Williams’ Bon Chrétien. i= 


Souvenir du Congrés.—Another form of Williams’ Bon Chrétien ; 
very excellent. “ 

Beurré Giffard—Medium size; pyriform; excellent in quality; 
ripens early. , 

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER. 

Bewrré V@Amanlis—Large; melting; of excellent quality and a 
great bearer. 

Jersey Gratioli.mLarge, russety, melting; an enormous cropper ; 
and fine in quality. 

* Flemish Beauty—Large, russety, splendid quality, a great 
cropper, and sometimes very beautiful. 

British Queen.—Above medium size ; warmly russeted ; fine melting 
flesh ; excellent. 

* Bewrré Superfin.—Large, roundish, pale lemon-coloured, russet, 
fine, melting, buttery, hardy; a great bearer, and very 
excellent. 

* Lowise Bonne of Jersey.—One of the best pears in cultivation ; a 
great cropper. 

OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER. 

* Fondante d’Antomne.—Medium size; roundish; fine; rich; 
melting ; great cropper; hardy. 

* Suffolk Thorn.Medium size, warmly russeted, fine, melting, 
rich, a great cropper, and hardy. 

* Madame Treyve.—Medium size; very rich; melting; juicy; 
excellent. 

Comte de Lamey.—Medium size; roundish, rich, and sugary; great 
cropper ; hardy. : 

Seckle.—Small, but very rich and excellent ; a great cropper. 

* Thompson’s.—Medium size ; rich, melting, and excellent. 

* Marie Lowise-—A well-known excellent pear, and one which 
cannot be too much cultivated. 

* Beurre Bosc—A very hardy and prolific sort, of excellent 


quality. 3 
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER. 
* Maréchal de la Cowr.—Largeand most excellent ; great cropper ; 
hardy. 


Beurré Clairgeau.—Large and very beautiful ; moderate in quality ; 
a great cropper; hardy. 

* Bewrré Diel—Large, and in some situations most excellent in 
quality ; a great cropper. 

* Glout Morceau.—A large well-known pear of the highest 

} quality. : 

Doyenné du, Comice—Large ; probably the finest pear in cultiva- 

tion; invariable good ; moderate cropper. 


DECEMBER AND JANUARY. 

it Winter Nelis-—Medium size; melting, rich, and excellent; a 
moderate bearer. 

Beurré Sterckmans.—Large, melting, rich, and vihous; a great 
cropper 

* Ne plus Mewris.—Medium size, good quality, very hardy, and a 
great cropper. 

Zephirin Grégoire.—Medium size, rich, sugary, and vinous. 

* Beurré Rance.—Large, and in some situations excellent. 

* Josephine de Malines—Medium size: rich and excellent. 


The Shiraz Apricot.—This does not differ much in appearance 
of tree from the better known varieties; it is indeed very much like 
the peach apricot, and like that it is very vigorous. It is, however, 
yery different as regards its fruit, which is distinct from that of all 
the varieties of apricots known to our gardens. It is distinguished 
by its elongated form, and principally by its kernel, which is 
elliptical, pointed at the two ends, resembling that of certain plums. 
Another distinctive character is its flesh, which has nothing in 
common with that of any other kind. Instead of being dry, more or 
less clammy, with little sugar, and of a somewhat acrid flavour, like 
the flesh of apricots, it is soft, pulpy and honey-like. This apricot is 
without doubt the best of all; it is delicious; its flesh is so melting 
that it has not much consistence of texture, and therefore it softens 
quickly after being ripe. When better known, it cannot fail to be 
preferred to all other kinds for dessert. The fruit has nothing 
about it to fiatter the eye, and owing to its want of consistence it is 
not likely to be a good variety for commercial purposes; but it is 
probable that it will make excellent preserves, It must not be 
confounded with another which was much spoken of some years ago, 


‘and which was said to have come from Smyrna, and to have sweet 


kernels, which after all was not surprising, as this character is 
common to many varieties of apricots. The leaves of this kind are 
smaller than those of the apricot of Shiraz, and its appearance 
generally resembles that of the kind called Musch Musch. We 
received the Shiraz apricot from M. Regel, of St. Petersburgh. The 


‘ 


148 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jax. 6, 1872. 


following is an enumeration of its principal characters; Tree 
vigorous, in port and aspect very near the common apricot, which its 
flowers also resemble; fruit longish, heart shaped, slightly narrowed 
at the base, then suddenly enlarging, and gradually narrowing to 
the apex, which finishes in an obtuse point; skin pale yellow, or 
white-yellowish, frequently splitting; flesh yellowish and tender, 
very melting, soon soft, and almost pulpy, sugary and honey-like; 
water abundant, lightly and agreeably perfumed; kernel quite 
elliptical, attenuated in a point at both ends, fillmg completely the 
cavity.—i. A. Carriére (in Revue Horticole). 


THE UPRIGHT SYSTEM OF TRAINING FRUIT-TREES 
ON WALLS AND ESPALIERS. - 


Tue value of this system is not sufficiently known with us,- 
yet there is no country in which it is certain to be of 
such great use. Wall culture is necessary for the production 
of the finest fruit m many northern and temperate climes. 
We seem to have long recognised this fact, but not to a suffi- 
cient extent, and the progress with wall-fruit cultivation is 
very slow. Notin one garden out of ten is sufficient attention 
paid to it, while it is most rare to find the walls of gardens in 


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Upright Pear-trees in the U Form. 


» which considerable pains are taken with the fruit-trees covered 
as they ought to be. We will assume that the cultivator is 
sufficiently aware of the importance of walls in the production 
of the very finest fruit, and that he has selected the yarieties 
really worthy of culture in this way. After these there is a 
third condition ef success indispensable to perfect wall 
culture, the absence of which leaves half our wall-surface bare 

_ and robs us of quantities of the finest fruit. This is the true 


mode of covering walls quickly and well—the erect training. 


The wrong and the tedious, and therefore the profitless mode, 
is the large fan or horizontal tree, which takes a dozen years 


to form well even in good hands, and perhaps by the time it is ~ 


formed some new yarieties will have come to light, and the 
judicious cultivator will be anxious to clear away the results of 
sO many years’ work. 

There is no need to spend eyen one-third of this time in the 
covering of even the highest garden walls with forms of trees 
as fruitful, as agreeable to the eye, as any of the old large 
forms, and much more easily made. The simplest and best form 
for every kind of wall-fruitis the erect one, with from oneto four 
or five branches ascending from the bottom to the top of the 
wall. In this way a good cultivator, by selecting healthy and 
vigorous plants to begin with, may furnish a wall ten feet high 
in two years from the time.of planting. 

To do so, he would not, of course, follow the common prac- 
tice of cutting hard back the shoots; if he thought they ~ 
would not break regularly, he would bend them down to 
induce them todo so. With good young trees, three years 
are the most thatshould be required by any gardener to coyer 
the wall by this system. It must not be supposed that it is 
applicable only to the pear; it is equally soto every other kind 
of fruit-tree worthy of a place against a wall. In the case of ~ 
the peach a still smaller form is, we are quite certain, desirable. 
A peach-tree with two branches like a capital U may seem 
awkward to persons only accustomed to the fan mode of 
training; but we have seen many walls perfectly covered by ib 
on the Continent, and itis far better suited to our climate than 
alarger form. Trees trained in these particular forms are not 
required to begin with; we haye simply to take, in the case of 


Peach-tree in the double U Form 
(Sketched after Spring Pruning). 


Single Upright Pear (a good 
Form for very High Walls). 


the pear or the apple, a young nursery tree, with its five 
branches or so, and train four or five of them, as may be 
required, in a vertical manner against a wall, and at equal 
distances. 

The general adoption of this system would soon fill our 
fruit-rooms and cover our half-naked walls. It would prove 
of the greatest possible advantage to gardeners generally, in 
enabling them to rapidly cover the many bare walls one sees; 
and if a desirable system for ordinary garden-walls, it is 
much more so for the walls of stables, houses, &c., which it 
takes years to furnish by the common plan. The only case 
where it is not so suitable as a spreading mode is on very low 
walls and trellises. These, however, should never be erected 
for fruit-growing purposes. : 

Examples of walls as well covered as those shown in our 


Jax. 6, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


149 


" woodcuts are not unfrequent in France and Belgium. When 
in the neighbourhood of Geneva in 1868, the late Mr. H. A. 
Watson, then gardener to Sir Robert Peel, showed us many 
examples of walls well covered with peach and other trees 
* trained in this form, and we have lately seen a very good 
example of growing the apple thus with Mr. Sage, in the 
garden at Ashridge Park, who covered a portion of his walls 
in two years with choice desert apple-trees. In Tue Garprn 
for December 9th figures of upright forms admirably suited for 
tall wire trellises were given. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 


Make Your Trees Branch Low.—Train your pear trees so that 
they will branch at’a distance of one or two feet from the ground. The 
advantages are easily enumerated. 

1. They are easy to trim. 

2. It is easy to gather the fruit. 

3. Falling fruit is little injured. 

4, All branches being sturdy will not be strained by over-bearing or 
over-weight of fruit. 2 

5. The soil will be kept shaded and moist. 

6. The trunk will be protected from the scorching sun.— Horticulturist. 


Wiring Fruit Walls.—Mr. Fish merits the best thanks of young 

gardeners for his sympathetic observations under the head of ‘‘ Pruning 
and Nailing in the Cold.’ He says truly that there is a great 
amount of tying and nailing to be got through in a certain time, but 
if gardeners would advise their employérs to adopt the French system 
of wiring walls, they would save much labour and inconvenience. 
The antiquated system of decorating the limbs of fine young trees 
with rags ought now to be classed among things of the past. When 
* the plan of wiring was brought into notice my employer had all the 
walls in the kitchen-garden fresh pointed with mortar, first un- 
fastening the fruit-trees, many of which are large andold, and, after 
having the guiding-nails inserted, had the wire put behind the trees, 
‘drawn through the eyes, and made fast at eachend of the wall. The 
raidisseur or tightener I placed about midway on each wire, instead 
of at each end. Two of our walls, with south aspects, are each eighty 
yards in length, and one raidisseur was found to be sufficient for wires 
that length. The result isadmirable; the trees look better and bear 
better than under the old plan, and there is a great saving of labour. 
The wiring was done in 1869, so we have had time enough to prove 
its utility. Our crops of wall-fruit during these two last years have 
been good. Our walls required upwards of 3,000 yards of galvanised 
wire —J. M. H., Ledbury. 


THE FRUIT-GARDEN FOR JANUARY. 
BY WILLIAM TILLERY, WELBECK. 


Out-Door Fruit.—January being in general one of the severest 
of the winter months, the planting of hardy fruits during the next 
four weeks must be ruled by the state of the weather. If mild, 
this operation may still be performed; for even winter planting, if 
the roots are mulched, is better than driving it off till the spring. 
If pruning has been neglected in November and December, it should 
now be attended to. The nailing of wall-trees should likewise be 
vigorously carried on in mild, dry weather; for this work, if 
neglected in the autumn and winter months, often sadly interferes 
with pressing operations in the spring. Figs on walls, if not pro- 
tected, should now be so, as severe frosts in January and February 
often injure them. 4 

Orchard-House Fruit.—Having grown in pots or in the borders 
in an orchard-house many of the newer varieties of peaches, nectarines, 
apricots, plums, and cherries, last year, the following list of the sorts, 

_ and their time of ripening, may not be without interest :—Of peaches, 
the earliest kinds grown in pots here were the Early Beatrice, 
_Lonise, and Rivers, all three varieties ripening in July in succession. 
_ The Early Beatrice ripened ona wall in the open air on the 20th of 
July; but its flavour was watery, and not so good as the fruit grown 
on the pot trees. Hales’ Early York is a delicious small peach, like 
_ the Early York; but it ripened earlier in August than that variety. 
Dagmar, another of River’s seedling peaches, ripened about the 
middle of August, and is a high-coloured and good-flavoured kind. 
Malta, a small peach of the Noblesse section, was the juiciest and 
best flavoured of all the August sorts. Magdala, another new kind 
_ ripened in the end of August. It is creamy in colour, with a crimson 
cheek, and is well flavoured. Of the newer varieties of September 
peaches, the Alexandra Noblesse, Dr. Hogg, and Stump the World, 
were the best. Some were grown in pots, and some were planted 
out on the back wall. The latest sorts, ripening in October and 


November, were Lord Palmerston and Princess of Wales, the latter a 
very large creamy-coloured sort, slightly tinged with rose next the 
sun, and a great acquisition amongst the latest varieties. Among 
nectarines, the earliest in ripening was Lord Napier, which was fit 
for table about the beginning of August, the same season as Hunt's 
Tawny. The Stanwick and Pine-Apple ripened about the end of 
August, and were two very high-flavoured varieties. The Victoria 
was the latest in ripening, and is a valuable sort for late keeping and 
flavour. Of plums, the newer kinds grown in pots were all of the 
gage section. Oullin’s Golden Gage was an early sort, ripening in 
July. McLaughlin’s Gage is an excellent American variety, which 
ripened early in August. Boddaert’s Green Gage was a very good 
large plum; ripening in the middle of August. Transparent Gage 
was one of the very best flavoured of all the gages, and was ripe in 
the beginning of September. Among cherries, the earliest in 
ripening in May was the Guigne Tres Precoce, and about the same 
time the Belle d’Orleans. The Frogmore Early Bigarreau, and Barly 
Lyons, were ripe about the end of May; and the Bedford Prolific 
about the middle of June. Of apricots, Precoce Doulins was a very 
early and good kind, ripening in July. Grosse Péche is a variety 
as large as the Moorpark, but was earlier in ripening. St. Ambrose, 
a French sort, does well in pots, being better flayoured than when 
grown on the walls. 

Early Vines.—Those started in December will now be breaking, 
and they should have air on all favourable opportunities; but the 
giving air to vines during severe frosts in January and February 
requires much attention, especially if the weather is windy. A tem- 
perature of 60° during the night, and a rise to 75° in the day, when 
the vines are in bloom, will keep all safe. Vines lately pruned will 
want the rough bark peeled off them, and they should be dressed 
with some strpng composition, to keep mildew and insects in check. 
I have always found the following mixture very efficient for the 
purpose, namely, four ounces of soft soap, six ounces of sulphur to 
a gallon of water, and as much quicklime and clay as will bring the 
mixture to the consistency of thick paint. The water must be 
boiled, so as to melt the soap ; the other ingredients should be stirred 
in, and the mixture used when cold. When itis used for peach or 
nectarine trees, more water and clay must be added to cool it; for I 
have known the young bark and flower-buds of these trees injured 
by it when it is put on too strong. Home-made brushes of bast 
matting, tied on short pieces of stick, are quite good enongh for 
painting the mixture on the trees, and, to make safe, every cfevice 
must be filled up; and when the first coat is dried, a second applica- 
tion must be made on places missed in the first dressing. If the 
vineries are heated by pipes with troughs in them, all the sulphur 
and lime of last year’s dressing should be scraped or washed off, 
for fear of rusting the tender berries after the vines are out of 
bloom. When the vines are forced carly, the outside side border 
should be protected by some slightly fermenting materials, such 
as litter, or tree-leaves ; and if covered on the top with wooden 
shutters, the covering will not want renewing till taken off in the 
spring. 

The earliest forced peaches will now be in bloom, and the night 
temperature may rise from 50° to 55°. Peach-trees swelling their 
buds in the second peach-house will require daily syringing, and the 
atmosphere of the house should be kept damp by sprinkling the 
floors and pipes. 

Pine Apples.—For the general stock maintain a mean tempera- 
ture of about 60° at night, allowing an advance of some five or more 
degrees during the day. 

Cherries.—When cherries are forced early, the temperature must 
be kept low, never allowing it to rise above 50° until the fruit 
is set. 

Strawberries.—A second batch will now want introducing to 
the shelves of a peach-house or pit at work. For early forcing, 
plants with good plump crowns ought to be selected; and I find 
those potted in rather small pots with good matted roots always set 
their fruit the best. 

Cucumber House or Pit.—At this dull time, cucumber plants 
are frequently much infested by thrips, so that repeated fumigations 
must be resorted to, as well as syringings, to keep down red _ spider. 
A sowing of both cucumber and melon seed ought to be made early 
in the month, to raise plants to fill up vacancies. I find early 
melons do very well in boxes in a pine stove, selecting Scarlet Gem 
and Egyptian Green Flesh as the types of the high flavour of early 
sorts. 

When French beans are forced in stoyes or early vineries, they 
must not be placed too near other plants, for fear of introducing red 
spider. I find the best soil for growing them in is good strong or 
turfy loam ; and the varieties most to be depended on forcing early 
are the Newington Wonder and Fulmer’s Forcing for. the spring 


supply. 


150 


THE GARDEN.” 


[Jaw. 6, 1872. 


- THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


OPUNTIA RAFFINESQUIANA. 


Axtow me to add the testimony of my experience as to the 
complete hardiness of this Opuntia in this climate. I got a 
plant of it in the spring of 1869 from Messrs. Haage & 
Schmidt, of Erfurt, which has ever since that time been in an 
open border exposed to all weathers. Last winter was par- 
ticularly severe; and this winter the thermometer, quite near 
the plant, has marked 21° below zero centigrade. It was 
often covered with a foot in depth of snow last winter, and it 
has been-so once this year (1871) already. 

This Opuntia 1s a very free bloomer, and its dwarf-branching 
habit makes it better suited for out-of-door vase or rockwork 
culture than for a border. All the Nopalea division of Opuntia 
are very rapid growers. Many of them have fine flowers, and 
bloom freely; but they shortly get very large and cumber- 
some. I practised at one time the followmg plan of keeping a 
large collection in a comparatively small space: I chose some 
large specimens of stout, erect kinds, such as Tuna, pseudo 
Tuna, coccinellifera, &c., and grafted a branch (frond) of a 
different kind on almost every branch. This was very easily 
effected, by cutting the end of the branch to be grafted into a 
sharp wedge at its lower extremity, inserting it into a gash 
made on the branch of the stock, and running one of the 
Tuna’s sharp spines through both of these, to maintain the 
graft in its place. aS 

To show what a large size some of the Nopalea will attain 
eyen in this cold climate with very little artificial heat, I may 
mention that, some years since, | saw in an old tumble-down 
conservatory some miles from here a plant of the Tuna, or 
pseudo-Tuna, that had been originally grown in a wooden 
case, but from which the bottom had long since rotted away, 
leaying the roots to ramble at pleasure im the earthen 
flooring. This plant had reached the roof, fully twenty feet 

_high, and had already forced out several panes of glass. Its 
diameter fully equalled its heieht, and it formed a thick mass 
of fronds borne ona stout stalk, or rather, trunk, as thick as 
aman’s leg. The rusty old stove, shaky sashes, and broken 
panes, fully bore testimony as to the plant getting but little 
artificial heat. Isaw it in midsummer, when it was really a 
grand sight, covered with thousands of gsulphur-coloured 
blossoms, as large almost as half-crown pieces. ; 

Versailles. Prop. Patmar, _ 


THE BFOXGLOVE. 


One of the most beautiful features about some of the French 
woods, especially in-those connected with many of the old royal 
residences, is the masses of gorgeous-coloured foxeloyes in all their 
natural beauty, associated with bracken and heather. One spot 
particularly calls for especial notice in the Versailles wood, through 
which the Chemin de Fer de Ouest passes to Rambouillet and on to 
Brest. This spot, I yenture to say, is unequalled anywhere for such 
masses of this splendid, uncultivated flower. There may be places 
in this country where foxgloves look and thrive as well, and, no 
doubt, there are hundreds of places where they would grow and 
flower in perfection were a few hundred plants planted in fayourable 
spots at first, since it would perpetuate itself easily. This was done 
at one or two private places, to my knowledge, and was brought 
about by the sight of those above mentioned. I could mention a 
few places in France where the proprietors introduced them with 
effect near the flower-gardens, in large masses, alongside the avenues 
that in all French chateanx run away rieht and left into the uncared- 
for woods. Foxgloyes among masses of green, whether bracken or 
what not, have a grand and majestic look, such as is not easily 
forgotten when once seen; and I think, in places where we too often 
see such masses of nettles, with a very small amount of trouble we_ 

- might see in their stead the beautiful foxgloves, asa rule, in perfection. 

I purpose planting some hundreds next year about, here and 
there, among rhododendrons—newly planted rhododendrons, for 
where these thrive in the natural soil I haye invariably seen the fox- 
glove do well. Many hundreds of plants cam be raised from a good 
packet of seed, and, nowadays, when we haye ‘such fine, spotted, 
improved strains, I think we may look forward to the time when all 
our woods, and shaded, frequented nooks, will be beautified with this 
fine wild flower. To those who haye had no experience with this 
plant I would further remark—procure a packet of seed and sow 


‘ wages, but get their share of the gathering. 


it in a pan, in a moist heat, inWebruary. Assoon as large enough 
to handle, prick out an inch apart or so in a frame or under a hand- 
light where there is a slight heat, and where no frost can enter. A 
month or so after they will be large enough to plant out into borders, 
to be lifted again in autumn to plant in permanent places anywhere 
and everywhere where suitable, to flower the following summer. 
They must be nearly two years old, and strong, ere they flower 
profusely. We had spikes of flower last year fully four feet long, 
from two-year-old plants. These were planted, however, in garden 


soil among large rhododendrons, and had a fine effect. They con-_ 
tinued to throw up spikes all the summer, and being a moist year, 


they, moreover, being situated on an east aspect shaded by a high 
wall, they continued to flower till September. j 

I can’t say they are as brilliant as the gladiolus, but one thing in 
their fayour is, they can be grown among large evergreens in a dressed 
and formal way as well as in the shady woods. At the Chateam de 
Dampierre, the residence of the young Due de Luyne—who was 
killed during the late ‘war, under melancholy cireumstances—about 
twenty miles from Versailles, I remember seeing, some “years ago, on 


fits being pointed out to me by M. Cide (the gardener there) an 


improved spotted form of foxglove. It was amongst a lot, growing 
wild; and he kindly gaye me a pod or two of seed, from which I 
have grown the sort here and elsewhere. It is among foxgloves 


what the new spotted form of gloxinia that came out at the French — 


Exhibition in 1867 is among gloxinias, and it yaries in colour from 
pure white to dark pink and purple. The one I speak of as growing 
in the Versailles wood is a much darker variety, and shows at a 
distance, but is not spotted, ,as is the sort which I grow.—H. K., im 
“ Gardeners’. Chronicle.” vee 


CHRISTMAS HORTICULTURE IN VIENNA. 


Iy no part of Hurope is there found so near an approach to the 
glory of the autumnal tints of the. American forests as in the 
eastern proyinces of Austria, especially in the neighbourhood of 
Vienna. A press correspondent writes as follows of the Austriait 
foliage in autumn, and of the foliage which succecds it at Christmas, 
“about the glorious grandeur of the timber in the Prater, and the 
wonderful tints with which autumn decorated the giants and dwarfs 
of that forest.” Indeed, they were beantiful at that date he had reason 
to know, but now, in the last days of the expiring year, we haye an 


arboricultural phenomenon which puts them quite in the shade. 


“Within the last few hours a very large plantation of trees and a 


nursery-garden of shrubs have broken out not only into leaf, but ito ~ 


bloom. The colours of the leaves, fruit, and flowers bring to the — 


mind the fruit and vegetable market at Lisbon. The crops are so 


great that, after Christmas, and indeed before the 6th of January, 


‘they must he very much thinned, or the trees will be useless till next 


year. This sort of fruit harvest is an annual institution in Vienna. 
The produce is garnered by young children, who are not paid any 
With so much lemonade 
and cake each per noctem, they work ‘short time,’ and are home by 


ten. A great amount of women’s labour is, however, lost at this 


_ harvest, as the mothers or aunts usually sit on benches while their 
young charges bear all the heat of the evening. 


It is evident that 
this class in Austria take great pride in their children, and in their’s 
and their own costume. Many of the mothers would look well in a 


London ball-room, and the children be ‘much admired’ as brides- 


maids at a grand wedding. Sometimes when the trees are stripped— 
and it is wonderful with what rapidity this horticultural operation 
is executéd—the employers give a supper, consisting chiefly of sweet- 
stuff, to their youthful gang, who then go back to their lodging- 
houses—usually very clean and well-kept—in charge of their parents. 
The trees stripped are an improvement on the Christmas rose, which, 
according to authorities, produces ‘beautiful. white flowers about 
Christmas.’ White flowers! allez donc! these produce red, green, 
yellow, black, blue, pink, fruit and flowers—and will be known to 
those great botanists and night horticulturists in England, Professors 
Gunter, Fortnum, Mason, Hedges, Butler, &c., as the arbor~multifer 
or Christmas Tree.” 


The Viennese cultivators of Christmas trees excced those of all 


other parts of Germany in taste and ingenuity. 
whole groves of young firs made to put forth luxurious blossoms with 
an air of naturalness quite sufficient to deceive juvenile-botanists, 
who devoutly believe the inflorescence to be real—but artificial shrubs, 
suchas camellias, paulownias; palmsin full bearing of real cocoa-nuts, 
are so beautifully executed that botanists of a larger growth might 
be deceived without being ashamed, so perfect is the deception. 
Vienna is the Paris of Germany. It. has specialities in matters of 
taste as distinctive as the celebrated articles de Paris, and which 
fully equal them in elegance ; while in matters of real horticulture, 


the art is nowhere carried to greater perfection in the matter of - 


7” 


Not merely are — 


Jan. 6, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


151 


real flowers for the table, at all seasons of the year, At the Imperial 
Castle of Laxenburg there are vast gardens (under the immediate 
Superintendence of Herr Rauch, a pupil of our eyer-regretted John 
- Claudius London), where table flowers are regularly produced for the 
Court, where they are deemed indispensable all the year round—the 
winter violets of the large new variety being produced there in the 
depth of winter with a lnxuriance of bloom and richness of perfume 
which I have not met with elsewhere.—H. N. H. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


ae 


Soil for a Rock Garden.—I am about to construct a rock-garden, and shou'd 
be much obliged if you wili inform me of the best kind of soil for it. There is 

lenty of peat not far distant, but the garden is onasandy loam. E. L. H. 
Fror a great number of rock plants almost any kind of open soil will do; and in 
a free loam numbers of alpine plants delight. To have plenty of soil, and that so 
arranged that the roots may descend deeply into it, and find an abundant supply 
of moisture in it during the heats of summer, is of greater importance than the 
Kind of soil. For some of the Gentians, for Spigelia marylandica, Rhexia 
virginica, and dwarf ericaceous plants, some portions should haye a silvery peat 


soil). 

Hoses and Evergreen Climbers for a North Wall.—Will you or any of 
your readers kindly give me the name of a good, free-blooming red rose; to 
climb on a wall which has a northern aspect? Also the names of a few pretty 
flowering evergreen creepers, to plant on a wall with the same exposure ?—L., 
Exeter—[You cannot do better than plant Amadis, a fine Boursault rose, 

flowering purplish crimson, and the plant of vigorous habit. Also, if you have 
room enough, Splendens, Lauré Dayoust, and Ophirie. It is not so easy to get 
“ pretty flowering evergreen creepers” for a north wall, though you may get 
some excellent deciduous things for that purpose. If your soilis warm and 
light, the myrtle may do well against your wall, andthe Laurustinus will be sure 
to do so, and though it is not a *‘ creeper,” yet it is quite as easily trained against 
a wallas any such. We have seen it grow very high and look beautiful against 

a house in winter. The camellia may also be grown against the house in the 
southern parts of England and Ireland, and we have seen beautiful blooms cut 
from such in February. . 

Japan Creeper (Ampelopsis tricuspidata).—I have often 
garnished the dessert with the beautifully tinted foliage of the Gros 
Guillaume, Black Prince, and West’s St. Peter’s Vines; but none of these 

after they begin to change colour last long, and it is pleasant to have so 
goodly an acquisition ‘as the Ampelopsis tricuspidata, than which for 
purposes of dessert garniture nothing can be more beautiful. Nor have we 
yet done with our new friend. I have often to cater leaves for ladies’ 
maids who take an interest in adorning their ladies’ hair for the evenings. 
The leaves of the old Cissus discolor and the red raceme of flower and 
leaves of Euphorbia Jacquiniflora used to be favourites ; but now, with the 
extra ammunition afforded by this new Ampelopsis, I have no fear of being 
destitute as regards fine leaves for that purpose. — Win. Miller, Combe 
Abbey Gardens. . z 

Giant Sunflower.—This much-neglected plant not only forms a 
handsome contrast in the shrubbery, but its numerous seeds are much 
relished in the poultry yard, being particularly beneficial to the birds 
during the moulting season. The sunflowers I have grown this season 
measure from 38 inches to 43 inches in circumference, their heights ranging 
from 8 feet to 12 feet, the circumference of stem from § inches to 9 inches~ 
at the thickest part, and the seeds which I counted from one head 
amounted to 1,630. I sow the seed from the middle of March to the middle 
of April; the ea should stand at least three feet apart. If flowers 
as large as the heads already mentioned are desired, the side shoots should 
be nipped off as soon as they make their appearance at the base of the 
leaves, leaving only the terminal bud to flower. The sunflower is a greedy 
feeder, and will consume large quantities of liquid manure, which should 
be liberally supplied after the plants have attained the height of about a’ 
foot. Watering with soft water overhead in dry weather will be found 

_yery beneficial. Wherever the sunflower is sown, a handful of soot should 
_be scattered pretty thickly over the spot to repel the attacks of slugs, who 
are very apt_to eat the young plant off as soon as it appears.—Thomas S. 
Jerrolda.—_( Mr. Jerrold has forwarded to us two heads of sunflower, the 
larger being 39 inches in circumference. As the seeds are greatly relished 
by pheasants, and possess high fattening properties, it might be advantage- 
ously sown in some situations; but it requires very rich soil, and is an 
impoverishing crop.—Eu. Field. | ~ ' 
_ Aquilegia formosa.—I observe that Mr. Ellacombe recommends 
this as one of the most desirable of the genus. I never myself yet 
_had the good fortune to obtain it true. Iam inclined to think it 
must be rare, even if it be at all in English gardens. But my chief 
“motive now is to warn amateurs that the Aquilegia formosa of 
Seedsmen’s lists is a very different plant from the A. formosa of 
Fischer, referred to by Mr. Ellacombe, and is, in short, merely a 
double variety of the common Columbine sprontinginto many shades. 
‘The true A. formosa is closely allied to A. canadensis and A. truncata 
(A. californica of gardens), but is described as haying stamens and 
styles not protruding beyond the mouth of the flower. I observe, 
with regret, a disposition in some quarters to hybridize the species 
of this genus. There is so much tendency to vary in some of them, 
that I think the aim of the cultivator should be to obtain, and 
retain, each species as pure as possible; for I doubt if any hybrid 
will ever exceed in beauty or interest the original type, or that, if 
such could be produced, that they conld easily be perpetuated.—, 
W. Tuompson, Ipswich. } 


THE FLOWER GARDEN FOR JANUARY. 
BY G. WESTLAND; WITLEY COURT. 

By means of neatness and order endeavour to render all ornamental 
grounds as enjoyable as possible. ~ Walks and -grass must be fre 
quently rolled when there is no frost, and no greater improyement 
could be undertaken than to make grass verges and lawns perfectly 
level. I do not mean like a billiard-table or croquet-ground, but 
where the ground naturally slopes the fall should be uniform and 
regular. Where verges are irregular it is easy to turn back the 
turf and to make the ground ‘quite level, and then re-turf, beating 
quite firmly with iron rammers; but do not give the edges the final 
trimming until such time as the grass has taken root, and all danger 
from hard frost is over. Smoothness, I need scarcely remark, is one 
of-the main constituents of beauty; therefore a lawn which is not 
perfectly eye-sweet can never please. Turn up vacant flower-beds 
to the amelioratins influence of frost, and renew the soil in such as 
may require that being done; turn gravel walks, surface dressing 
them with a coating of fresh gravel, and lay box edgings. 
Frequently examine half-hardy plants protected during severe 
weather, and endeavour to render their covering efficient by giving 
additional protection when necessary; also protect bulbs during 
severe frost. Plant and re-arrange flowering deciduous shrubs, 
keeping in view ultimate effect; and so dispose of the stronger 
growing varieties as not to overgrow the more delicate kinds. Even 
hawthorns, beautiful and desirable. though they are, frequently 
occupy the front rank of mixed shrubberies, when they would have 
been better placed further back, or set in groups; but all the stronger 
growing kinds are in better keeping as park ornaments. The best 
for dress grounds are the different varieties of Cratwgus oxyacantha, 
as, for example, Paul's new double scarlet. This is a splendid 
variety that merits extensive cultivation. C. 0. multiplex, the best 
double white, C. 0. punicea, the finest single scarlet, and C. o. rosea 
superba, may-be accepted as fair types of the kinds that will give 
most satisfaction. The double varieties just named are splendid 
subjects for pot culture. If not already done mulch all newly- 
planted trees with leaf-soil, dung, or spent tan; top-dress hollies, 
rhododendrons, and such plants as may require stimulating, 
with rotten manure and soil. Prune deciduous plants and climbers, 
and train such as may require it. Shake snow from evergreen trees 
and shrubs as soon as fallen, for if it is allowed to lodge heavily on 
the branches much damage may be done. 

Tender roses must be efficiently protected, and mulch dwarf roses 
of every description. More particularly is this necessary with such 
varieties as are worked on the Manetti stock. In planting roses on 
this stock it is important to see that the place of union of the bud 
with the stock be underground. The great propensity of this 
Italian briar to produce suckers, together with its tenderness,-is, in 
my opinion, an objection to its use. I give the preference to such 
roses as are grown on their own roots; these, when well established, 
give less trouble and produce the~best results. The more delicate 
varieties should be budded on the briar stock, which is hardier in 
constitution than the Manetti. And I would advise the inexperienced 
to plant the most vigorous growers. Prune climbing and hardy 
pillar roses. By pruning I do not, however, mean the whole to be 
clipped over with the shears ; on the contrary, use discernment in the 
execution of this operation. Strong growing roses, such as the 
Boursault, require well thinning out, shortening the young wood but 
little. Prune the moss rose by cutting out the old wood and short- 
ening back the young, pegging down the shoots on the beds which 
afford the best means of growing this rose. 

Austrian roses should have all weakly wood cut clean out and the 
head thinned, but do not shorten the shoots at all. Provence roses 
may now be pruned, but the pruning of roses in general had better 
be deferred for some time to come, 

Pits and Frames.—In such as are heated give no more fire heat 
than is absolutely necessary to expel frost, and give air as early in 
the morning as the state of the atmosphere willadmit. Towards the 
middle of the month the stock of bedding plants should be looked 
over; and soft wooded plants, of which there is a scarcity, should at 
once be placed in a growing temperature to produce cuttings for 
propagation. The heliotrope is. well deserving of extended cultiva- 
tion, and is very desirable in mixed arrangements. The finest 
varieties for bedding are Etoile de Marseilles—a star, indeed !— 
Surprise, and Jersey Beauty, the last very dwarf, and one of the best 
for bedding. 

As regards geraniums in boxes and store pots, a portion of the 
variegated sorts may be placed in heat when cuttings are required, 
but I would warn the inexperienced not to be in undue haste, as 
the‘loss of a week or two is often more than regained by the supe- 
riovity of the cuttings put inlater. Water carefully but effectually, so 
asto thoroughly moisten theball. Coldframes containing comparatively_ 
hardy plants, such as Gazanias, Centaureas, Echeverias, and Veronicas, 


152 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 6 1872. 


* &c., must be attended to as regards covering when the weather is 
frosty ; and to insure the glass being kept clean, mats should be 
‘employed next it, oyer which a sufficiency of fern or litter may be 
Strewed to keep out frost; during the prevalence of severe frosts and 
snow there is no necessity to remoye the covering, as it will 
stand for a month, if needs be, in perfect safety ; but in such a case 
inure them afterw ards to light by degrees, so that the transition is 

_ nottoorapid. For those who, have not the advantage of a propogating- 
pit, and who have to depend on heating material, now is a good time 

to get dung and leayes together, and thoroughly mixed, so as to 

become of an uniform moisture. ‘Take advantage of wet weather to 
make labels and procure stakes of various sizes; trim and tie them 
into bundles. Wash flower- pots and store them away for potting, 
and see that soils are procured in sufficient quantities, and in proper 
condition for potting. 


YUCCAS. 
(Continued from p. 121.) ~ z 


Yucca ANGUSTIFOLIA. — A somewhat dwarf species, the whole 
when in flowet not being more than two or three feet high. 
The leayes are thick, and rigid in texture, from fifteen inches 
to eighteen inches long, and about a quarter inch broad, of a pale 
sea-oreen colour, with 2 numerous white filarhents at the edges. The 


Yucca filamentosa. 


inflorescence is a simple raceme of white flowers slightly tinged 
with yellow. ‘Till more plentiful, this had better be grown in warm 
borders, in well-drained sandy loam. WN. America. -~ 


Yucca filamentosa yariegata. 


Yucca CANALICULATA.—The leaves of this species are entire, 7.e., 
neither toothed nor filamentous at the margin, and form a dense 
rosette on a stem which rises one or two feet above the ground. 
Each leaf is from twenty inches to twenty-four inches long, and two 
inches to two-and-a-quarter inches broad at the middle, very strong and 
rigid, and deeply concave on the face. The flowers are of a creamy 
white, in a large panicle four feet to five feet high. Wine for isola- 
tion or groups. ‘Till more plentiful should be encouraged -in fayour- 
able positions and on warm soils. Mexico. 

YuccA FILAMENTOSA.—A yery common and well-known species; 


with a much-branched panicle, four feet to six feet high, and apple- - 


green leaves, from fifteen inches to twenty inches long by one-and-a- 
nalf inch to two inches broad at the middle, fringed at the edges with 
grey filaments two or three inches long: the outer leayes spreading, 


fertility of the flower. 


the central ones erect or slightly recurved. This species yaries 
very much when raised from seed: one variety (concava) has short, 
strong, broad leaves, with the face more concave than in the type 5 
another variety (maxima) has leayes nearly two fect long by two- 
and-a-half inches broad, with a panicle seven feet to cieht feet in 
height. This species flowers with much yigour and beauty, and 
is well w orth cultivating in every garden ; not only in the flower- 
garden or pleasure-g oround, but also on the rough rockwork, or any 
spot requiring’ a distinct type of hardy vegetation: amd so is its fine 
though delicate variegated variety. All the varieties thrive best and 
flower most abundantly in peaty or fine sandy soil. N. America. 


(Lo be continued.) 


DOUBLE FLOWERS. 


Ir will doubtless appear strange to some tobe told that, botanically 
speaking, nearly all double flowers are imperfect, and that, so far 
from a double rose, for example, being more perfect than a single 
one, precisely the reverse is the case. But a little consideration will — 
demonstrate the truth of this. A perfect flower may be defined as 
one which contains in itself all the requisities for the perpetuation of 
itself; it must therefore have at least one stamen and one pistil. “ 

Before passing on to the consideration of the means by which double 
flowers are produced, and to the evidence of their imperfection, it is 
desirable that we should clearly understand what a double flower is. 
A great many of our most popular garden plants, of those which we 
most commonly term “double ”’—asters, chrysanthemums, zinnias, 
mavigolds, daisies, dahlias—haye, in reality, no claim to that title. . 

We all of us lena the common wild rose, with its calyx, corolla of — 
five pink leaves, and numerous yellow stamens. If we contrast this 
with any of the double-flowered forms which are so justly esteemed 
as ornaments of our gardens, we shall be struck, not only with the 
presence of a great number of petals in the garden plant, but also with 
the corresponding absence of stamens. Here and there we may find 
a few stamens still remaining in the centre of the flower ; but the 
blossoms in which they are found thus to remain are regarded as ~ 
imperfect by the gardener, and are the exception rather than the rule. 
It is evident, therefore, that this development of the petals is coexistent 
with the diminution or disappearance of the stamens; and, as we have 
shown that it is on the presence of these stamens that the fertilisation 
of the flower depends, it necessary follows that their diminution or / 
disappearance must be accompanied by a relative diminution in the 
This transmutation of stamens into petals By, 
the commonest method by which double flowers are produced. 

Although it is only in cultivation that we find perfectly donnles 
flowers, there are many plants which, in a wild state, exhibit a 
tendeney to become double. It is chiefly in such as haye a great 
number of stamens that we notice this tendency; in the creeping 
buttereup, for instance, we usually find the normal number of petals 
increased, and perfectly double flowers of this, and of other species, 
are not very rare. ‘The ~yellow bachelor’s button of our gardens is 
but a form of the meadow buttercup in which all the stamens are 
converted into petals ; and, as in conqequence of this conversion the 
plant can never produce seeds, it is only by roots that this form can 
be propagated. Some plants, although but few, are normally semi- 
double, such as the camellia and white water lily ; but in these species, 
although there are many rows of petals, the essential organs are not 
interfered with to any appreciable extent. 

The majority of the double flowers which occur Soult as well 
as most of those which are popularly cultivated, are composed of 
numerous separate petals’ (polypetalous), as anemones, carnations, 
roses, stocks, wallflowers, geraniums; and, among monocotyledons, 
hyacinths and tulips. In most of these cases—especially in such 
blossoms as have numerous stamens—the additional petals are chiefly 
derived from conyerted stamens, and this conversion is considered, © 
as in the rose, essential to the horticultural perfection of the 
flower. Various other circumstances, Bowevetss in certain cases bring 
about the same result. 

In monopetalous flowers—that is, those which haye the corolla all 
in one piece, and not divided into petals—such as the primrose, we 
not unfrequently find the calyx assume a petaloid texture and 
appearance. ‘This is often the case with double cowslips and poly- 
anthuses, which haye thus two corollas, the stamens and pistil — 
remaining unaltered. When the corolla is ‘triple instead of double, — 
we find the stamens conyerted into a corolla. Sometimes only one 
stamen is thus metamorphosed, and we then have a single petal 
protruding from the centre of the flower. Often, too, the mere 
increase in number of certain paits is the cause of doubling. In> 
some cultivated double campanulas we find the monopetalous corolla 
split up into its component petals, and so becoming polypetalous. 

It is interesting to notice the various artificial means which may 
be taken to produce double flowers. Suppose, for example, that out ~ 

- f 


JAn.. 6, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


153 


of a thousand single stocks, one or two should be found with an extra 
-petal—with five petals instead of four. By preserving the seed pro- 
duced from one or two—by carefully raising, and again selecting only 
such plants as evinced the desired peculiarity—we might in time obtain 
Specimens so perfectly double that in the attainment of our object we 
‘should have forgotten that we had at the same time effectually pre- 
vented tke perpetuation of our treasures. This plan, however, of 
raising double flowersis far too uncertain, as well as too lengthy in 
detail, to be practically carried out. A French writer, M. Chaté, 
gives some interesting statements of the way in which double stocks 
are produced. ‘The gardeners of Erfurt,’’ he says, ‘‘ have for a long 
time, to a certain extent, monopolised the sale of seeds of these plants. 
To obtain these seeds the Erfurt gardeners cultivate the flowers in 
pots, and place them on shelves in large greenhouses, giving them 
only sufficient water to prevent themfrom dying. So cultivated the 
plants become weakened, the pods shortened, and the seeds less 
numerous and better ripened; and these seeds give from sixty to 
seventy per cent. of double flowers.” M. Chaté’s own metihod, how- 
ever, is eyen more successful than this; he obtains eighty per cent. 
of double flowers, and that by very simple means.  ‘‘ At the time of 
flowering,”’ he says, ‘‘I nip off some of the flowering branches, and 
leave only ten or twelve pods on the secondary branches, taking care 
to remoye all the small weak branches which shoot at this time. I 
deaye none but the prin- 
cipal and the secondary 


one exception—that of Epacris impressa—has been recorded for 
Australia. It is impossible to say whether the absence of double 
flowers from Polynesia and Australasia is owing to the non-existence 
of cultivators in those parts, or whether they really never occur. In 
Europe double flowers of various tribes are not unfrequently found 
wild. The fact that civilised man has always taken a peculiar fancy 
to them has caused their transfer to gardens and greenhouses when- 
ever they are found. Hence the countries longest or most highly 
civilised have supplied the majority of double flowers—the camellia, 
most perfect of all, coming from China and Japan. 

Tt is a curious fact that double flowers and variegated leaves rarely 
exist on the same plant; and those who regard the production of 
double flowers as an evidence of strength see in this a confirmation 
of their theory, variegated leaves being in many cases indicative of 
weakness. It has been asserted that they are never coexistent, but 
there are exceptions to the rule.—James Britten, F.L.S., in ‘ Pield.” 


BIRDS FOR THE GARDEN. 


The Californian Quail.—Here and there on the rough dusty 
roads, in busy little groups, or escaping under the young pines and 
evergreens, this pretty bird is often seen in the lower parts of the 

: sierras of California. And 
E : happy is the hungry 


branches to bear the 
pods. All the sap is 


pedestrian who finds a 
dish of the fat and de- 


‘employed in nourishing 


| licate bodies of Cali- 


the seeds thus borne.” 


fornian quail in the little 


The result, as stated, is 


hotel at the end of his 


eighty per cent. of double. 


day’s journey, as I did 


flowers. 


at Grass Valley. The 


The passion for double 


flavour is delicious, but 


flowers, now so general 
among us, seems to be 
an accompaniment of 
civilisation. Mr. Noel 
Humphreys thus speaks 
of theircultivation among 
the Chinese:—‘ The 
Chinese, having re- 
mained comparatively 
undisturbed for several 
thousands of years in the 
enjoymentofanadvanced 
kind of oriental civilisa- 
tion, in which a love of 
flowers has ever been a 
ds inguished feature, 
succeeded in producing 
several kinds of double- 
flowering plants many | 
centuries before such 
_double-flowering varie- 
ties were known in Enu- 


Californian Quail. 


the bird is so pretty 
with its long crests that 
one regretted to see the 
settlers’ boys shooting 
them for their dinners, 
as they do the fat squir- 
rels. For a country 
dating from 1849 (those 
who went there in that 
year are known as “old 
forty-niners”’) there are 
many interesting gardens 
. in and near San Fran- 
ciso, particularly in the 
suburb of Oakland, on 
this sideof San Francisco 
Bay. In visiting an un- 
| usually pretty one there, 
belonging to Mr. Moss, 
I was astonished to see 
my friends of foot-hills 
and highland valleys 


rope. Ofthesethe double- 


literally swarming 


flowering peach, plum, | 
and cherry are now well 

known. They were, indeed, pictorially known to us centuries ago 
by their representations in Japan ware and porcelain; but then 
our botanists only thought such representations imbecile vagaries 


of the Chinese pencil, and gave that ingeuious people — those | 


Celestials of the ‘ Flowery’ Empire—no credit for having positively 
produced by horticultural perseverance the flowers whose portraits 
they delighted to paint on their matchless China ware.” Among 
_ ourselves, the rage for double flowers, which has resulted in the pro- 
_ duction of ugly double fuchias and uglier double geraniums, appears 
‘to be developing. Asan evidence of this, we may note that so common 
a plant as the double stock is mentioned neither by Turner nor 


Gerarde ; but as, in 1629, both Johnson and Parkinson describe it, we _ 


may suppose that this improvement took place between the reigns of 
Elizabeth and Charles I. Double roses and pinks are of earlier 
mention; but many of our modern double favourites are of quite 
recent date. - fi 

In connection with this part of the subject it is worthy of remark 
that, ina natural state, double flowers are chiefly produced in the 
northern hemisphere, where the influence of cultivation is more 
extensively felt. Their distribution has been carefully traced by Dr. 
Seemann, who says that in Polynesia and the whole of Australasia 
not a single species with double flowers has turned up, although there 
are a few in Sonth Africa and South America, the stamens of which 
are converted into petals.. Since this statement appeared, however, 


. 


under the acacias and 
other evergreen shrubs 
of the garden. Mrs. Moss obtained some, and they had multiplied 
so fast that there were multitudes of them in the garden, in 
which they did not seemed frightened in the least degree. I never 
saw a game bird, or indeed any bird, look so much at home in a 
garden before. Efforts more or less successful have been made to 
naturalise this as a game bird in England. Its beauty, harmless- 
ness, and the fact that it isso much at home in a garden seem to 
point out the garden or pleasure-ground as the most desirable home 
for it. The bird is of a pleasing lead-colour, with an olive-brown 
gloss on the back and wings; the throat black, with a white line 
running backward from the eye; the crest black, and about an inch 
and a half long. Why should we not naturalise beautiful birds such 
as these in our pleasure-gardens ? W. R. 


Dionza muscipula.—Mr. Bain, late of the College Gardens, Dublin, a most 
successful grower of this plant, used to propagate it according to Mr. Baltfe, 
the able secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, as follows :— 
When re-potting the plants, about the beginning of the year, he took up the 
plant, divested it of every particle of soil, and with very sharp scissors cut off 


the crown, which, when potted, formed astrong and perfect plant. He then 


| verse or other sections, soas to have a scale to each morsel. 


took the remaining or basal portion of the axis, on the surface of which were 
the scales formed by the bases of the old leaves. This he cut into small trans- 
These he dis- 


| tributed evenly, as you would seeds, over the surface of a small pot, which he 


' glass, in an airy and perfectly cool house. 


put standing in water, and placed uncovered on a shelf immediately under the 


s 


ood 
Ox 
ie 


THE GARDEN. 


(Jan, 6, 1872, 


THE ARBORETUM. 


TREES FOR TOWNS. ; 
PLANTING requires to be done carefully everywhere. The 
Arbutus makes a glistening and beautiful bush for Ireland and 
the warm and genial parts of England and Scotland; but-on the 
cold clay about London it is not worth planting. Araucaria 
imbricata is truly a noble tree in many parts of the country, 
notably at Dropmore, and at Woodstock in Ireland; and it is 
likely to make equally noble objects in many places where it has 
been more recently planted. But all that did not justity the 
* planter’ who placed those noble specimens of it in front of 
Tattersall’s, ab Knightsbridge, there to perish of smut drapery 
and vile accumulation of London smoke and dirt. Planting trees 
in and neara large city requires as much judgment as anything 
I know of connected witharboriculture. It doesnot appear to 
be understood eyen by some landscape-gardeners ; for I could 
enumerate several instances of extensive plantmgs in and 
round London within the past few years which have perished, 
from their total incapacity to withstand smut and the other 
“evil humours” of our London atmosphere. : 
At one time the vegetation of our gardens and shrubberies 
consisted to a great extent of trees that lose their leaves in 
winter. Then came the lanrel, the Portugal laurel, the elegant 
tapering cypresses, and a host of evergreens from yarious 
parts of the world, and fashion wisely went in their favour 
immediately: This has been carried into London plantings, 
and with great detriment to vegetable beauty therem. Had 
half the attention and money that haye been devoted to 
the putting evergreens to die therem been directed to the 
planting of ornamental, free-flowering, deciduous trees in the 
London squares and parks, we should by this time have an 
array of floral beauty in and about London in the early 
summer months which would put to shame the best of our 
summer parterres. Deciduous flowering and ornamental trees 
should be the sine quad non of the London planter. Whenthe 
fires are allalight in town, and smut darkens the yery air, the 
leaves of the evergreens are fully developed, and reaping the dis- 
advantages of iball. Asa rule, they soon succumb; and what can 
be more miserable than a scrubby or a dying “evergreen” ? 
- The box, holly, Aucuba do, it is true, where the soil is free and 
light; but even these often fail, and look miserable to the last 
degree. But the deciduous tree is asleep when the deadly 
vapours are yomited so abundantly from our chimneys. All 
its life is wrapped up within it safe under a warm ava and 
- a layer of mucilage, ready to burst forth into bloom and life 
of fresh young leaf when the fires begin to go out and the 
air of London to approach purity. Then it starts into flower 
- and leaf; to go torest agai as soon as people return to 
town and the fires begin to work with yigour. Deciduous trees 
do as well in and near London as they do in the country; 
whereas, in most cases, it 1s mere waste of money to plant 
evergreens or conifers. 

The double cherry may be seen in flower even in London, 
fresh and beautiful as if in the open country. The charm- 
ing pink, scarlet, and other hawthorns, do as well in and near 
town as in their‘own native woods; while, with the exception 
of the Japanese privet, there is scarcely an evergreen of which 
the same may be said. Now, as a rule, in the London squares 
and parks sufficient advantage is not taken of this fact; 
though Victoria Park, Battersea, and Kensington Gardens, 
contain fine examples of the kind of trees I allude. to. If, 

~ instead of the miserable massing of starved privet and half- 
dying laurels, that never even acquire a respectable degree of 
greenness, andnever yield a flower worth looking at, webad belts 
of those beautiful deciduous trees and shrubs to be enumerated 
presently, which burst imto vivid green in spring and in early 
summer are covered with fragrant flowers of great beauty, how 
much we should gain thereby! The evergreen is planted for 
the sake of its refreshing colour in winter, but if our atmo- 
spheric conditions utterly prevent the attainment of this condi- 
tion, why persist in throwing away money on such useless 
planting. Besides, our people do not—nor is it very desirable 
that they should—trequent our town parks, &c., during the 
depths of our cold, wet, and sunless winter. Therefore, 
the absence of vegetable beauty at that season is ot slight 


importance, although for my own part I prefer the winter 
aspects of deciduous trees to that of evergreens. ‘Those noble 
old plane trees, marbled all over their stems, where the great 
patches of bark fall off, and betraying a mixture of picturesque- 
ness and graceful symmetry which I know not where to find 
equalled among trees—the delicate grace of the Babylonian 
Willow, with its long swaying shoots stripped of their summer 
coverine—the bright gleam of the yellow osier when the sun 
does shine on it through the almost ever-dark though shifting 
cloud canopy—these are things to_be enjoyed even now in our 
London parks and squares; and this sort of beauty might be 
increased tenfold in and near London by the planting of the 
kinds of trees advocated. And,-finally, a strong reason for 
planting such should be the beauty they afford when pushing 
into leafinspring. Thereisno more beautiful,no moremagical 
sight than the bursting into leaf of deciduous trees in northern 
and temperate climes. The beauty of evergreens does nob 
equal it, because they lack that delightful changefulness. 
Change, perpetual change, is in some sort essential to our life 
and work; and, from an zsthetic point of view, the trees—bare 
but picturesque and perhaps noble or graceful in winter; 
“thrusting out their little hands into the ray” in spring; 
the most beautiful of all natural objects in summer, when 
a mass of fluttering leaflets green as an emerald; and full 
of mellowimg and changeful beauty in autumn, when the 
leaves of not a few American trees that would do well near 
London assume tints of the most pleasing character—are far 
better for us than the evergreens, which we cannot grow in 
perfect health. : 

Of the trees best suited, then, for London planting, and which 
are likely to withstand the evil influences of its atmosphere, the 
following are the most prominent, and those which the writer 
has observed to flourish well under the influence of smoke, &c., _ 
and which, therefore, should be planted more extensively than — 
other trees in planting our commons. Fs 

The great advantage of many of the things I recommend is, 
that they flower freely and beautifully. What can be more 
attractive than masses of the snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier 
Botryapium) in April, or than the tiny rose-flowered almond 
trees, which grow well in the very heart of London with no 
attention after planting? Nothing more encouraging than to 
see these opening ona fine spring morning. They are not half 
sufficiently planted in our parks, and some of them indeed do _ 
not contain a specimen, the Regent’s Park to wit, except we 
include a few young plants lately put im the new avenue gardens. 
But we want bold, natural-lookmg groups of these things 
instead of the ever-repeated limes, elms, &c, They are quite 
as cheap, and do eyen better than some of those common ones 
which, however desirable and indispensable, should not be the 
only trees to be observed in our recreation grounds, when we 
may buy some of the handsomest and noblest ornaments of the _ 
woods of America and Hurope for a few pence a piece. The 
bird-cherry is also a free-flowering subject, especially suited for — 
London. Then thereis the weeping, double-blossomed cherry, 
which is certainly when in flower the most beautiful of all 
flowering trees, and yet itis very rarely planted, though nothin 
can do better than it does on the stitfest, coldest soil in the 
northern and north-western parts of London, simply because 
the leaves are off and the plant is at rest when the atmosphere 
is at its worst, and the leaves and flowers have time to come out 
and become fully matured and developed before the “ blacks” of 
approaching winter come on. P Bases 

Of course, everybody will recognise the value of the 
various kinds of horse-chestnut; and the plane is the noblest 
of all London -trees. There are not a few of great merit 
which are yet too costly to be used for this purpose, and 
some few which are of such low stature and slow growth, 
that their planting would not be desirable, and, therefore, I 
omit them. The common lilac does so well, and flowers so 
freely, that the planting of its finer and variously-coloured 
varieties is very desirable. I allude to such as the Siberian, 
the white (virginalis), and, of course, the Persian, for the 
dwarfer clumps. But space forbids individual comment upon 
each of the plants suitable for this work; and, therefore, I 
will give a concise list of the best deciduous kinds, and follow 
that with the names of afew of the best evergreens :—These are 
the Snowdrop-tree of which there is a good example at Sion — 


Jay. 6, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


House ; Gymnocladus canadensis (the Kentucky coffee-tree); a 
handsome tree ; Koelreuteria paniculata, a handsome, graceful 
tree, with spikes of yellow flowers; the “Mock oranges” 
(various species of Philadelphus), which are covered with 
white flowers—fragrant, too; Prunus sinensis flore pleno and 
tmloba, very beautiful shrubs peeuliarly adapted for the 
margins of dwarfish groups in parts—not so well for common 
planting. Sophora japonica is a noble tree, with very 
graceful foliage, exceedingly well adapted for the poor sandy 
soils that occur rather extensively in some of our commons, 
in consequence of drought not affecting it. It can bear any 
amount of drought and heat likely to occur in this country 
without suffering in the. least, and this surely is a great 
point! Not a few of the greater willows are very fine, 
and grow freely in London; and so does the Ailantus, 
or Tree of Heaven, as it is called. It has great pinnate 
leaves, which, when looked down upon from the windows, 
appear like, and indeed are as graceful as, the fronds of 
large ferns. : s 
~The Robinia, or common acacia (Cobbett’s Locust-tree), 
though a failure as regards the virtues which its advocate 
accorded it, is admirable for planting near, or rather in, cities, 
where it grows and flowers freely and beautifully. The 
common birch is not sufficiently used, although the most 
bewitchingly graceful of all indigenous trees. ‘The weeping 
yariety of the mountain-elm, or, in other words, the large- 
leaved weeping mountain-elm, forms a truly picturesque tree 
in winter, and affords dense shade during the summer months ; 
the purple-leayed and virminalis also thrive freely amid the 
smoke of large towns. The Lombardy poplar is as valuable 
for its pointed habit, so to speak, as for its exceeding 
willingness to grow amid our smoke. It is surprising it is 
not used to better ends in our park planting. The Abele 
poplar, too, is invaluable, and particularly its comparatively 
new white variety. But least of all must be forgotten the 
many noble American and Huropean thorns, so full of flowers 
in spring and so full of bright fruit in autumn, freely 
attracting song-birds, the presence and the melody of which we 
should cultivate as far as possible. 

Of the conifers, I doubt if any are worth recommending 
for London planting except the Scotch and Austrian pines, 
and these only pretty well out of London. The deciduous 
Ae (Taxodium distichum) might, however, be tried near 
the margins of the ornamental waters in our parks. ‘The ever- 
greens which do best are the aucubas, hollies (in great 
variety), box, yew, Japan privet (which flowers freely and 
sweetly, and is altogether an admirable thing for London; it 


“may be grown in a back-yard!), and the hardier kinds of eyer- 


green oak. Very few more, indeed, are worth planting. 
Bringing fresh, brightly-leaved evergreens and conifers. to 
London, and there planting them, is generally as successful a 


_ practice as planting them in the salt sea wouldbe. They either 


die, or become so miserable-looking, that it soon becomes 
imperative to dig them up and throw them away.—V. E. K. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Larch for Poor Lands.—My object in writing now is to give 
you particulars of a sale of larch just held on my father’s property near 
Lianwrtyd Wells, in the Aeron Valley, in Breconshire. The trees 


- are growing on sideland mountain land, barely worth five shillings 


an acre, and are two to three miles distant from a railway station, 
and nearly forty miles from any colliery. No. 1.—625 larch, growing 
on 33 acres, realised £305. No. 2.—1,200 larch, growing on 5} acres, 
realised £595. No. 3.—351 larch, growing on 2% acres, realised £350. 
Thus 114 acres of larch produced £1,250, or over £108 per acre. 
The trees had been planted by my grandfather, and were from forty 
to sixty years’ growth. Had the plantation been situate either 
nearer the South Wales coal district or the midland counties, and, 
consequently, had the advantage of lower railway rates, a consider- 
ably higher pride would haye been obtained. The timber was very 
fine indeed : No. 8 averaged over 20 feet a tree, and several sticks 
contained nearly 60 feet of timber. The chief lots were purchased 
by a Manchester firm, and are to be sent to Stockport at a railway 
charge of over £1 per ton measurement. Great profit can be made 
8 ee almost worthless land with larch—John Lloyd, jun., in 
veld, ' 


4 


Abies Menziesii.—In the arboretum at Bicton is a magnificent, 
perfectly-grown pyramidal plant of this conifer, measuring seventy feet 
in height, with a last year’s leader, from two to three feet in length, at 
its summit. It is branched so densely, even down to the green sward, 
that it is impossible to get a sight of its bole without pulling aside 
its branches or creeping underneath. Its bole or trunk is nearly 
nine feet in circumference, the spread of its branches is upwards of 
forty feet in diameter. It grows freely, its thick foliage being of a 
lovely silver-colour underneath, and above rich vivid blue green, 
and very distinct from that of every other conifer with which I am 
acquainted. Cones began to show themselves in April; they are of 
a delicate pale green, changing when nearly full grown to a rusty 
blue or greyish colour; when ripe they become a rusty brown. 
The seed ripens the end of September and beginning of 
October, and the cones soon open their scales on windy sunny 
days, and allow it to fly away and get distributed a long way off. 
The male catkins are pendulous, and yery abundant in March and 
April, so plentiful indeed that I have seen on a windy, drying, 
sunny day the pollen wafting about in the atmosphere like a cloud 
of dust. By the time the cones, which are at first on the upper sides 
of the branches, are full grown the little branches on which they are 
produced have themselves generally made their growth; therefore 
the weight of the cones renders them pendulous, and a very splendid 
sight it is to behold so beantiful a shaped tree with silver-white- 
blueish shining green leaves and brown cones waving in the breeze ; 
it is in short a sight when once seen not easily forgotten. Eyen at a 
long distance this tree shows to great advantage.—JAmeEs Barnes. 


A Gigantie Tree.—In travelling from La Victoria, a small town 
in the province of Aragua, towards Puerto-Cabello, in Venezuela, the 
road leads, in part, along the northern shore of the Lake of Valencia, 
situated in a longitudinal valley nearly 1,500 feet above the level of 
the sea. This valley is of unsurpassed fertility, and Humboldt calls 
it one of the most charming realms he has ever seen in all his travels. 
In the middle of the road above mentioned, three miles west of 
Turmero, stands the famous Zamang, an enormous tree, belonging to 
the sub-order Cxsalpinew. It is not so much on account of the 
height or the dimensions of the trunk for which this tree is celebrated ; 
but it is the size, and especially the horizontal diameter of its head, 
that attracts attention. Its head is somewhat of the shape of an 
opened umbrella, and covers very nearly an acre of ground. In 1857 
T measured the head in its greatest diameter from E.8.H. to W.N.W. 
most carefully, and found it to be 206 feet 11 inches. Fifty years 
preceding it was found by Humboldt to measure in its greatest 
diameter 192 feet, French measure, which is equal to about 204 feet 
6 inches English. Hence we see that this extraordinary tree has, 
within fifty-seven years, increased the horizontal diameter of its 
head only by 24 feet, from which we may infer that it is of a good 
old age. The natives assert, moreover, that as far back as the 
discovery of the country by the Spaniards, three ceuturies and a half 
ago, the Zamang was, even at that early day, reputed for its enormous 
size. At the time I saw it, it was but thinly covered with leaves, and 
seemed to lack vigour of growth. The natives hold it in high 
veneration, and it was against the law to break even the smallest 
twig. Besides their own enormous weight, the branches sustain the 
additional weight of an astonishing mass of succulent heavy epiphytes 
and parasites, such as Bromeliads, Orchids, Cacti, Mistletoes, and 
fleshy Piperaceze.—a. F. 


UNDER THE VIOLETS. 


Her hands are cold; her face is white ; 
No more her pulses come and go; 

Her eyes are shut-to life and light ;— 
Fold the white vesture, snow on snow, 
And lay her where the violets blow. 


And grey old trees of hugest limb 
Shall wheel their circling shadows round 
To make the scorching sunlight dim 
That drinks the greenness from the ground, 
And drop their dead leaves on her mound. 


At last the rootlets of the trees 
Shall find the prison where she lies, 
And bear the buried dust they seize 
In leaves and blossoms to the skies. 
So may the soul that warmed it rise ! 


—Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
4 


156 


THE GARDEN. P 


[Jan. 6, 1872. 


TREE, SHRUB, AND PLANT LABELS. 


Ever since man first rezaled himself upon fruits and green meat? 
he has had some kindof plant nomenclature. But “ the herb yielding 
seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind”? were of com- 
paratively easy division and remembrance, contrasted with our pre- 
sent host of plants, natives of every clime, and diversified so as to 
be almost beyond the comprehension of any but those who study 
botany in all its bearings. . Although this science deals with the 
vegetation of the globe, and horticulture, strictly speaking, deals 
only with that useful or ornamental for our gardens, the stores of the 
latter have for many years become so rich and varied that a good 
system of naming plants has long been one of the chief wants of the 
gardening community. It is desirable even where the cultivator or 
proprietor may know every plant himself ; and how much more so in 
the case of the great majority who have the ordinary degree of know- 
ledge in this respect! It fis desirable, too, from the aid it affords in 
helping young people to an initiatory knowledge and love for natural 
history. It is always satisfying to the mind to know the name of a 
thing, and if its native country be indicated and a hint given of its 
associations or uses, if it have any, a still better move will be made 
towards fixing it in the reader’s mind; and when once a little know- 
ledge is gained in this way it is always pleasant and usually com- 
paratively easy to add to it. Anything which facilitates the acquire- 
ment of a knowledge of beautiful and interesting natural objects is 
valuable. A distinguished botanist once told us that he was first led 
to the study of the subject by the considerable amount of information 
and facts about plants placed so simply before the reader in some of 
Loudon’s books on plant nomenclature. But books on botany, horti- 
culture, or any*other such subject are not usually referred to till they 
are wanted. On the velvety turf of lawn or garden is the most suit- 
able place to make first impressions in this way, and; as nearly every 
pleasure-ground and garden has some permanent and interesting 
objects, it is most desirable that they should be named in the simplest 
and most useful way. For many years past the discovery of a really 
useful label has been a great object with our leading horticulturists. 
Yet it is veryrarely that you see the plants well named, even in our 
best public gardens; and to find them so in a private garden is very 
rare indeed. Therefore it may not be unacceptable if we describe 
the best, neatest, and simplest system of labelling all kinds of plants 
—from the tiny greenhouse fern or rockwork alpine to the young 
towerine Wellingtonia or rare old specimen of some old tree with 
a history. 

It is a pleasing custom with many people nowadays to plant young 
trees, and of course they generally select something permanent and 
noble in character; thoroughly hardy it ought to be above all things, 
though subjects that perish during a severe winter are frequently 
selected. When they do well, these form grateful souvenirs or 
memorials of the planters; and really, considering how often our 
artists fail when they set about what Artemus Ward calls ‘‘sculping”’ 

-a memorial, a man of any taste would rather be commemorated by 
the least dignified of our trees than by many of the so-called 
successes, let alone the admitted failures, of the studio, Her Majesty, 
the late Prince Consort, and the other members of the royal family, 
have planted many trees in various parts of the country, as well as 
in their own grounds at Windsor, Osborne, and other places, and it is 
‘a desirable custom which many others practise more or less. In all 
such cases a good special and permanent label is desirable. It should 
be. one to insert in the ground, neat and in 
-every way presentable. Now, unquestionably 
the best for this purpose are those used in 
the Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park, 
in a few cases at Kew, and in all cases, we 
believe in the royal pleasure-grounds. Round 
the mausoleum of the Prince Consort at 
Frogmore, for instance, the various mem- 
bers of the royal family have each planted 
a tapering and suitable young green pine, 
a family of trees in which the late Prince 
was much interested. These are named 
with the labels we refer to, the name printed, 
and then bedded firmly under glass in an 
iron frame, the whole closely cemented, and 
very neat. Nota desirable label by any means, observe, for a general 
collection, because expensive and permanent, but the best, so far as we 
know, for young trees of special interest. Now most people seek a 
permanent label for their plants; but we think it a bad plan, and for 
thisreason: The contents of a garden are usually in a state of change ; 
we are continually adding to and taking from them. “New plants are 
introduced, and surpass the older kinds or new varieties, and then 
you “ring out the old” by throwing them away. A severe winter 
comes and kills a number of handsome pines or shrubs, which you 
determine not to plant again. Fashion changes the garden vegetation, 


t Vet Res 


Tlex dipyrena, 


TheTwo-seeded Holly, Ws 


Large and yery unsuit- 
able label used in Ken- 
sington Gardens and 
Hyde Park. (From a 
sketch in Kensington 
Gardens, 1870.) 


too, and then what becomes of the permanent labels*that are cast 
and burnt into the face of hardware and cemented into cast-iron ? 
They are generally useless, of course, and thrown aside with old 
ivon, “ec. : Z 2 
The label which can be used again is the best, and therefore we 
prefer a cast-iron label of what is usually called T shape, or, in other 
words, a slip of cast-iron with an, oblong head slightly thrown back. 
These are cast very cheaply in the north, and will last for centuries. 
Of course you will have to paint and write the names of the trees on 
them when they come to hand; but that can be readily done by any 
handy painter, who will probably be glad of such a job in winter. 
In a large garden or a public garden where much naming is required, 
the right way is to train a boy or youth who is likely to remain in 
the place todo it ; and we have done that ina few weeks by placing a 


n “ 


oeoS 27 offen-= ae none 


Cast-iron labels: the simplest, neatest, and best form for shrubs, herbaceous 
plants, and all cases in which the label has to be fixed in the ground, 


copy of the desired kind of letters before him. We have found it of 
great advantage to give the face of the label a coat of copal varnish 
~when the letters are dry, and we usually use white letters on a black 
ground, giving three coats of black over one of red-lead. These are 
the best labels for the usual shrub and choice young tree vegetation 
of a pleasure-ground or flower-garden. They will require repainting 
probably every half dozen years or so, and should you from any 
cause cease to cultivate the plants to which they belong, they may be 
newly painted and re-used at pleasure. One can get more than one 
hundred of them for the price of two or three of the permanent 
labels recommended for choice specimens. We suspect that with 
three coats of white lead, and the letters done in black, they would 
last longer than with the black ground. 

Next we come to the wants of old trees, or any trees of respectable 
elevation and bole, or body, so to speak. When a rare tree attains 
size and dignity, like many of those at Sion House and in hundreds 
of fine old English parks and pleasure-grounds, it is still more © 
desirable to label it than a young specimen, 5; 
however choice. With such big trees it is ~ 
always amistake to use a ground label, which, 
indeed, we only recommmend for the younger 
and choicer subjects, because another kind 
could not be affixed to the tree in a satisfactory 
way. The cheapest, best, and simplest of all 
labels for large specimens are made of pieces 
of tin about four and a half inches long by | 


Scarlet Oak. 


uercus 
cocetneus, 
Widzier 


Position for tree label. 


The simplest, neatest, and 

best label for trees. i : 5 h ¢ 

three and a half deep. About half an inch of the upper edge should - 
be bent down at a right angle so as to form a little coping for the 
Jabel, two holes made just beneath the little angle, through which 
you pass a stroneish copper wire, that is firmly nailed to the tree. 

Place it so that it may be easily read, and at about five and a half or 
six feet from the ground. This label will last for a long time, and is 
in every way satisfactory. All Jabels inserted in the grass in pleasure- 


- erounds are liable to be pulled up by mowers, or some person or other, 


-and in this way frequently get lost, whereas the labels on the bole 
are removed from all such mishaps, and are more satisfactory than 
any other kind whatever. f 2 


(To be continued.) - - 


Weeds in Louisiana.—A Louisiana railway engineer was acquitted 
of neglect in running over a man, because “ the weeds on the track grew 
so high as to obscure the person.” : : 


Gaultheria Shallon for Pheasant Coverts.—I wish to ask a 
question or two about Gaultheria Shallon, and its adaptability as food and ~ 
covert for pheasants. Will it thiive as well or better than the Berberis 
under trees? Will it bear berries when well shaded, and.does it grow 
high enough for covert P—A. L. ; : ite 


~ 


Jan. 6, 1872:] 


THE GARDEN. 


157 


THE PROPAGATOR. 
THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from p. 122.) 

Season ror Grarrinc.—On principle, grafting should be 
performed while the sap is in motion. When it is done in 
spring or in autumn, the time should be chosen when the sap 
has begun to flow, or before it has ceased todo so. In summer 
it is best to avoid the period of its greatest activity. In all 
kinds of grafting, the condition of the sap should be nearly 
similar in both. scion and stock: when it is not so,it is much 
better to have the scion in a less advanced stage than the stock. 
The season of grafting in the open air is from the month of 
March till September, that is, generally speaking; in warm 
countries, vegetation commences a month sooner. Certain 
plants also preserve the flow of the sap up to October and 
November, which permits a delay in gratting them until that 
time. The time most suitable for the different methods of 
crafting will be indicated further on when we come to describe 
each method. The tradition which ascribes greater vigour to 
grafts made at the time of new moon, and greater productive- 
ness to those made at the end of the last quarter, we consider 
Simply ridiculous. A calm atmosphere, and warm rather than 
rainy or cold, is both agreeable to the operator and conducive 
to the success of the operation. Heat, within certain limits, 
stimulates the nutritious fluid, while cold, on the contrary, chills 
and benumbs it. During the frosts of winter, grafting cannot 
be carried on except in the shelter of the propagating-house, 
where artificial heat and ‘the other arrangements of the horti- 
culturist will bring on vegetation to the desired extent at all 
seasons. Grafting under glass, either in houses or frames or 
under the cloche, is constantly practised from January to March, 
and from July to September. 

ImeLeMests anp Arrntances FoR GRArTING.—Simple, handy 
tools, with well-steeled blades, and kept in good condition, are 
preferable to complicated implements with several blades or 
bristling with salient or cutting points, which may wound both 
the tree and the operator. The tool with a fixed blade is more 
firm in the handle, but one with a closing blade is more easily 
carried in the pocket, the apron, the tool-case, or the basket. 

Tue Secateur.—This is an implement formed with two arms 
of steel or iron, one of which terminates in a cutting blade, the 
other in a blunt bevelled crescent, against which the branch 


. Tue Secateur. 


to be cut rests. The handles being wide and roughened on the 
back are, in consequence, easier to hold ayd less fatiguing to 
the hands. The secateur is used for the following purposes :— 

1. For cutting off the heads of stocks which are too thick for 
the pruning-knife, and not thick enough to require the 
saw, in those modes of grafting which demand a pre- 
liminary shortening of the stocks. 

2. For cutting off scions from the parent-tree. 

3. After grafting, for cutting, above the scion, any stocks 
that have not been previously shortened, with the object 
of stimulating the development of the graft. 

4. For cutting off the heels of grafts made on the branches 
of the stock after a year’s growth. 

*5. For severing from the parent tree scions grafted by 
G approach. 
6. For pruning spine-bearing plants and trees. 
In general, the wounds occasioned by the secateur require to 
be dressed with the pruning-kine—*‘ L’Art de Greffer,’ by 
Charles Baltet. (To be continued.) ; : 


THE KITCHEN-GARDEN FOR JANUARY. 
BY JAMES BARNES, LATE OF BICTON. 


Ir frosty weather should happen to set in, take care to have all 
salad and other kinds of vegetables required for use protected, and a 
store of such as are daily wanted should be put into cellars so as to 
be readily comeatable. Maintain everywhere neatness and order ; 
trench all vacant ground, turning it up in as rough a state as possible, 
so as to permit frost to pulverize and sweeten it, and to clear it of 
the larvee of insects, which dislike exposure to hard frost. In trench- 
ing, open a thoroughly good trench and break up the ground well at 
the bottom of it with strong forks, allowing it to remain rough and 
loose. Turn into the trench all surface vegetation and rubbish, and 
over that lay the mould from the next trench, again well breaking up 
the bottom; and so proceed till a!l has been turned over. By well 
moving the soil and getting down deeper and deeper every year, any 
depth of soil may be secured, and thus not only will crops be supplied 
with abundant food, but also, in dry seasons. with moisture. I was 
always an advocate for thorough drainage, deep culture, and surface 
stirring, and it is wonderful what luxuriant crops I have thus been 
enabled to obtain from land at first by no means good. Whatever 
vegetable refuse may be lying about, or collected at the rubbish heap, 
keep close together covered with earth and salted—salt being a 
good deodoriser. If there is one thing more than another a gardener 
should feel anantipathy to it is aweed ; not only do weeds impair the 
appearance of a garden, but their production costs a considerable 
amount of money, inasmuch as they rob the soil of that which should 
go to support profitable crops. Deep trenching is a good way of 
keeping them in check, and there is no doubt that by deep culture 
the amount of most kinds of crops might be greatly increased. 
Surface stirrings should also be constantly carried out on all suit- 
able occasions. Where required look out for a new stock of bean and 
pea sticks, and get them prepared so as to be ready for use when 
wanted. Seed lists, too, should be made ont, in order to give the 
seedsmen time to get the goods put up in proper order before the busy 
season has arrived, and when you have the seeds home place them 
with the list methodically into thoroughly clean drawers or cupboards. 
See also that they are placed securely from the ravages of mice, and 
in a dry situation to prevent mildew or dampness. Of course, all 
kinds of vegetables, salads, &c., now in season, will be securely pro- 
tected, and easily comeatable daily, as required for use. Asparagus, 
seakale, rhubarb, and chicory roots should be all protected, in readiness 
to take up in succession at any time; no matter what the weather 


‘may be, these must be had for table, and if other vegetation is 


frozen in and covered with snow, there will be more inquiry 
for such articles. Cucumbers should now be sown pretty freely 
in succession, and those bearing fruit must not be checked 
for lack of heat, which should be 70° to 72° by night, and more by day, 
the increase being regulated by the light and sunshine we get. Sow 
early melons, which should consist of ‘early, short-jointed, not over 
free vine and foliage-producing kinds. About the middie of the month 
willdo. Sow in an intermediate house or frame in pans or boxes 
just free from frost, a pinch of some early variety of cabbage, 
cauliflower, or celery, to grow on in frames, to succeed the out-door 
stock when exhausted. For celery, like parsley and onions, there is 
an everyday demand. Carrots and radishes sow in succession, both 
ona slight bottom heat and on an open dry border if free from frost ; 
look sharp after damping, shrinking, canker, mildew, and slugs. All 
young stocks of vegetables, salads, &c., dredge with wood ashes for 
mildew, and dry dust to prevent canker, &c. Keep everything clear 
of decayed leaves; surface-stir soil on fine days among growing cro: s; 
air freely to maintain strength and sturdiness, and cover and pretect 
enough to preyent injury from severe frost. Mushrooms will be in 
request, and a valuable article they are to have in abundance at this 
season ; kindly moderate warmth and gentle humidity should be main- 
tained ; about from 55° to 60’ will be a secure warmth for keeping beds 
in full production of useful mushrooms ; never allow a draught ; if 
you do, a check will follow. It is a'good plan to work the material for 
succession beds always in the mushroom-honse during the dead of 
winter, a practice which produces by gentle fermentation just the 
natural, gentle ammonia-charged humidity in which the mushroom 
luxuriates. ; - 


Hard Soil in Gardens.—There is one point in the practice of 
farmers that seems to me in advance of that of horticulturists—that is, 
the degree of artificial compression given to the earth for various crops. 
Agriculturists seem to expend as much labour in crushing or rolling the 
ground down as in breaking or raising it up.and this not merely to provide 
a smooth surface but a compact tilth. his is considered essential for 
most crops on the farm ; the roots bite the earth better, and the stems 
grow more sturdy and erect. The importance of a hard seed bed for 
onions is generally recognised in gardens, but beyond this a good many 
cultivators go little or no further. I have long observed that broccoli, 


158 


‘THE GARDEN. 


[Tan. 6, 1872. 


cauliflowers, cabbages, grow better if the ground has been trodden or 
rolled firm previous to planting. Firm planting is also helpful to a good 
start. Hspecially has this been seen to be the case with autumn cabbages 
planted towards the end of September to stand the winter. Last summer 
I had a striking imstance of the value of a hard root-run for sayoys, 
Brussels sprouts, and broccoli of various sorts. It happened in this way : 
The greater portion of our strawberry crop was cut off by the May frosts. 
Still, a few blooms escaped here and there. JI was consequently unwilling 
to trench them down till the juicy fruit from such was secured. So 
towards the end of June a row of winter stuff was planted with an iron- 
shod dibber between each row of strawherries. Our ground is » strong 
loam, so the plants were put in with difficulty. They started freely, and 
have grown stronger than any planted at the same time in ground prepared 
in the usual manner.—D. T. FP. 


FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
BY R. DEAN, EALING. 


AURICULAS.—Attention should still be directed to the remoyal of 
dead leaves, and to giving the plants plenty of air whenever the 
weather is favourable. We should, however, guard against heavy 
rains, strong drying winds, and severe frost. Water sparingly, but do 
not allow the plants to flag. During a mild January, root-erowth 
will often. become active towards the end of the month, and then 
extra water should be given.—Carnations and Picotees can scarcely 
be grown too hardy, provided they were early potted and are well 
rooted; but they will, nevertheless, require to be protected from cold 
icy winds, from rain, and from seyere frost. Little or no water 
should be given, except in very dry weather, and then only in the 
morning, and at a time when there is no danger from frost. Avoid 
as much as possible wetting the foliage. Remove at once any 
decaying leaves, and see that the plants are kept thoroughly clean, 
and that they have full exposure at all times during favourable 
weather. If not already done, the soil required for the plants to 
bloom in should be at once prepared. If already mixed, it should be 
kept dry, and occasionally turned. It should consist of three parts 
good strong loam and one well-rotted manure ; and it isa rule with 
Carnation-growers to prepare, in-autumn, a sufficient quantity to 
last through the year. ‘This should be well mixed together, laid 
in a heap where it can be fully exposed and frequently turned. As 
the surface-becomes frozen in severe weather, the crust should be 
removed, so that as much of the soil as possible may be subjected to 
the influence of frost. The heap must be covered in wet weather, 
The loam should he carefully cleared of wire-worms; and, before using, 
a little coarse sand should be added to it.—Re-pot any Calccolarias or 
Cinerarias that may be getting root-bound, into larger pots, and 
keep them gently erowing; place them near the glass, and giye air 
gon all favourable occasions, fumigating when necessary.—lrom 
‘Dahlias remoye any mould or decay that may be found on the 
stems or tubers.—Hollyhocks, strong and healthy, should haye 
abundance of air during fair weatner. Keep them free from 
excessive moisture and from decayed foilage. Late-struck cuttings 
will be found to winter best in a greenhouse or pit, near the glass, 
where they can haye the advantage of a little fire-heat in damp or 
frosty weather.—Pansies in beds may have a little light material, 
such as hay or fern, laid among them during severe weather ; after 
frost, the plants should be gently pressed into the soil, from which 
they may have got to some extent uprooted ; and the surface of the 
beds should be kept stirred when the weather is dry. From Pansies 
in pots, wintered in cold frames, remove the lights during favourable 
weather, but the plants should be protected from cold winds, rain, 
and frost. Dust with sulphur the foliage of any that may become 
affected with mildew, and remoye decaying leayes.——Pinks in beds 
should be protected with fern, or small branches of Spruce Fir, on 
the north and north-east sides. In snitable weather clear away all 
dead leayes from them, and place a little fresh soil around their 
stems, at the same time pressing the plants firmly down to prevent 
their being uplifted by frost.—Verbenas in pits or greenhouses 
should be looked over, and haye all decaying leaves and harbingers 
of damp removed. If green-fly-appears on any of the plants, they 
should be fumigated ; every insect should, if possible, be destroyed. 


The Manchineel of Sonth America,—This plant, which is euphorbiaceous, 
is reported by the natives to be so deleterious as to give off poisonous effects to 
those who rest under its shadow. This has been denied on good authority, and 
was recently put to the test by the well-known botanist, H. Karstens. He 
fathered some of the juice of the tree in the district of La Guayra, and was pre- 
Sently seized with a burning fecling all over his body, followed by swelling, 
especially of the face and eyes, Next day he could not open his eyes, and their 
irritation was so great that he had to pass some daysina darkroom. On the 
third day the swelling began to abate, and the cuticle to desquamate, after which. 
he gradually recovered. These effects are similar to those produced by other 
Euphorbie; but the manchineel (Hippomane manzanilla) seems to differ from 
most in being capable of affecting individuals at some distance. Probably the 
immediate cause of the irritation is the dried juice, pulyerised, and carried by 
the air. - 


| well grown. 


-Aithionema grandiflorum.—Among the various pretty tribes 
of rock crucifers, there is no family more yaluable than the 
Asthionemas. They are remarkable for peculiar neatness of habit 
and delicacy of bloom, produced in dense masses when the plants are 
We have had Jong in cultitivation some attractive 
species, and the above-named one is a very charming addition to the 
number. It is of larger and more sturdy habit than the excellent 
All. saxatile, less spreading and prostrate in habit, less glaucous im 
tone, and with much larger flowers, purplish rose, in elongated spikes. 
It is a yaluable plant for the rock-garden, thriving freely in sandy 
loam, and being exceedingly well suited for edges and slightly-elevated 
rocky banks. Asa border plant it will also thrive where the soil is 
free and welldrained. Being somewhat impatient of transplantation, 
it is desirable to allow some plants to ripen seed -on sunny edges 
or borders. 
deserves a/place in eyery collection of alpine and herbaceous plants. 

Park Baths.—The important question of bathing in our public parks 
seems at present to be attracting some attention. Amongst the statistical 
facts of the past year, says the Zelegraph, we are told that dunng its coutse 
no fewer than 433,000 persons bathed in the Serpentine. The statement 
is interesting from more than one’point of view. Give the Londoner the 
bare chance of a plunge into cold water, or, still better, of a swim, and you 
will find no reluctance on his part, to avail himself of it. The desire is as 
wide-spread as the means of gratifying it are, unfortunately, limited. Why 
should this be? As matters are conducted—or rather neglected—at pre- 
sent, the result is perfectly disgraceful to a city like London. 
we desire that fresh clean water should be within the reach of every 
inhabitant of the town, we are not the less scandalized at such a sight as 
may be seen in Hyde Park every summer evening. It is nota right thing 
that hundreds of young men, in a state of nudity, should be seen running 
about the grass in view of the promenaders. Goimg up the Thames, above 


- Richmond, it is impossible to take a party of ladies for an ordinary pleasure 


row without feeling every five minutes that it would have been a wiser 
course to leave them at home. The moral is, not that any real obstacle 
should be placed between the people and the fresh water, but that proper 
spots should be assigned for bathers, and that these spots should be care- 
fully closed in from public view. ; nie 


Dear Sced.—Some seed of Primula japonica was sold at Steyens’s 
the other day, and realised the following prices :— 


ott 
% ounce white flowered 1215 0 ~- 
x »» Purple crimson . 5 1515 0 
+ ;, white, with rosy centre . 1515 0 
5-16th ,, scarlet ~ ; A 4 6 O 5 . 10 4 0 
5-16th ,, lilac, crimson centre . 6 ES 6 Ce difah 110) 
3-16th ,, clearrose colour . . y E é Bye) 27718) 
4 >, mixed .colours ; 1515 6 


Total £85 11 6 


1-16th of an ounce was said to contain about 8,000 seeds. The whole 
amount was 1-16th over 2} ounces.—W. HE. GuMBLETON, Junior 
Carlton Club. - = 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—Janvary 6. 


Prices of Fruit:—Apples, per half sieve, 2s. to 5s.—Cobs, per 100 Ihs., ‘ 


60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.—Grapes, per lb., 2s. 6d. to 6s.— 
Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s—Melons, each, 2s. to 5s—Oranges, per 100, 
Gs. to 10s.—Pears, per dozen, 3s. to 6s.—Pine-apples, per lb., 4s. to 8s.— 
Pomegranates, each, 4d. to 8d. : t 

Prices of Vegetables :—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d. Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 83d—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. to 3s.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 83d.—Capsicums, per. 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, 


“per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 


1s. to 2s.—French Beans, new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d— Horse Radish, per bunch, 3s. to 5s—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 
—Lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushrooms, pex pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d. 
—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 94.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.— Rhubarb, per bundle, Is. 6d. to 2s.—Salsafy, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 3d—Seorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s. 3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s, 6d.—Shallots, per Ib., 8d.—Spinach, per buen 3s. to 4s.— 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure the numbers regularly 


through the newsagents or booksellers, may have them sent direct 
from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for siw months, or 
5s. for a quarter, payable im advance. THE GARDEN is sent 
to subseribers by Friday evening’s post. All the nwmbers of THE 
GarpEn may be obtained from the office, and through all book- 
sellers and newsagents. z : 

All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WILLIAM ROBINSON, “THE GARDEN ” OrricE, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PUBLISHER. - : 


Seedlings in pots will, of course, transplant-easily. Ib ~ 


Strongly as _ 


~~ 


Jan. 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. - 


159 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
THE ART ITSELF Is NatuRE.’”’—Shakespeare. 


THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


ROSES AND ROSE CULTURE. 
BY S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 


For another month, should the present open weather 
continue, rose trees may be advantageously planted. The best 
position is that in which they can enjoy the morning sun until 
the meridian, and in which, while they have abundance of air, 
they are protected by evergreen hedges, or other “breaks” and 
screens surrounding them at some little distance, from the 
full force of stormy winds. The best soil is a rich mellow 
loam, into which a walking-stick disappears to the handle, or 
a strong clay, with a slight element of lime, well dug, and 
drained, and dunged. If the purchaser wishes to grow the 
rose in its highest perfection, he must buy briars when he buys 
his rose trees, and bud the one from the other in the succeeding 
summer; because, as a rule, the first rose produced, if it escape 
frost and the buds around it are removed, will be the most 
beautiful. In some soils, and in some seasons, many of our 
best roses attain their full glory on the Manetti stock; but our 
indigenous Dog-rose is the most reliable parent of heroes. 

~ When the object is to grow roses for home enjoyment rather 
than for public competition, I recommend rose trees upon their 
own roots, or “worked” so low upon the Manetti or briar that 
the scion may be planted below the soil, and thus form 
additional roots of its own. I will add a most select list of 
rose trees which possess the three chief elements of excellence, 
(1) vigorous growth, (2) beautiful and (3) plentiful flowers. 

Gloire de Dijon will supply more good roses in a season than 

any other variety, for it is first in spring and last in winter to 
roduce its abundant flowers, exquisite in colour, form, and 
ragrance. It deserves a high wall, with a southern aspect, 
and there, upon its own roots, once fairly established, there 
seems to be no limit to its luxuriance and longevity. = 

As to Maréchal Niel there is no disagreement as to the 

lowing beauty of its golden flowers, but there has been much 

iscussion as to its culture and constitution. The most suc- 
cessful method of treating this variety, without which no 
rose-garden is complete, is to bud it or graft it so low on the 
briar that it may be planted below the surface, and to give it a 
wall looking east or south. It is not frost-proof, but if the roots 
are well protected by manure placed. upon the ground above 
them, three inches deep and a foot each way from the stem, 
applied in November dry and hard, no winter can kill the tree. 
However much an extraordinary frost may injure the upper 
Berk a grand reinforcement from below will come up in the 

ollowing summer. And both these rose trees will grow 
admirably upon arches of wood or iron. ~ 


I dare not include in a list, which I intend to be very strictly. 


limited to roses both robust and vecherché, the lovely Climbing 
Devoniensis. Budded on the Celine (hybrid Bourbon) stock, 
it makes upon a wall a marvellous growth, and gladdens 
sight and smell from May to December with its large, tea- 
scented blooms, but it has not strength to resist a cruel frost; 
and he who grows it must be prepared to mourn if an 
exceptional frigidity, as in 1860 and 1870, should chill the 

* life-blood withm. And yet I cannot refrain from saying, 
before I pass on to hardier roses,— 


‘ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, 
~ Than never to have loved at all.” 


There is only one summer rose, by which is meant a rose 
blooming but once, which I must insist upon in a yery choice 


collection, and that is Blairii 2. There is no rose tree more 
generally useful. If its luxuriant shoots are only reduced one 
fourth of their length in pruning (the weakly wood being 
altogether excised), it produces its blushing beauties in 
abundance, amid foliage large and glossy. 

From the Bourbons also I elect but one—Sowvenir de la 
Malmaison. Grown upon its own roots, and well mulched 
through the winter, it gives us, early in summer and late in 
autumn, the flowers so exquisite in the eve of their full 
development. How well I remember the first healthy little 
plants which I bought at Berkhampstead a quarter of a 
century ago, some of which are in my garden now. Well 
might Mr. Lane say, as he looked fondly upon them, that 
“they were worth a crown apiece,” for, long outliving the 
good rosarian who reared them, they have helped. to win me 
many a golden prize. 

Of Teas and Noisettes I have none to name, except the two 
first on my list, for these only are reliable as garden roses. 
Of the delicate loveliness of such flowers as Devoniensis, 
Sowenir dun Ami, and Madame Bravy, no one -is more 
cognizant than I, but, because they are delicate, I may not 
include them among varieties which are to be handsome and 
hardy also. ‘ 

And so we come to those hybrid perpetuals, which combine 
both these good qualities—and combine them always. There 
are scores of glorious roses in this division, which generally 
attain their full excellence, such as Charles Lefebvre. There 
are many others, which, when the season suits them, are not 
to be surpassed in beauty (such as Duc de Rohan, Marie 
Beaumann, and fifty others), but which disappear altogether 
from our rose shows when drought or damp or vernal frost 
has been unkindly for them; and these [I have omitted, 
wishing to provide for the young amateur such roses as cannot 
disappoint, and knowing well that, once successful, he must 
include them hereafter in his collection—hereafter, when the 
happiness of growing roses will far exceed those failures and 
disappointments which, had they met him at his outset, might 
for ever have destroyed his hopes. 

Alfred Colomb is one of the few perfect roses which is 
toujours gai. In colour, a rich carmine, with a crimson glow 
on it; in style, large, globular, symmetrical. 

Baroness Rothschild—one of the most beautiful, and, so far 
as I have tested it, one of the most reliable of our light- 
coloured roses, for though short in limb, she is strong and 
sturdy in constitution. It seems ungraceful to describe a lady | 
thus, but in writing and speaking of roses, one meets with 
strange antitheses. Of this very rose,and only the other day, 
a rosarian said tome, “Ah, yes—isn’t she lovely!” and then 
added, with a tender pensiveness, “I do believe that I’ve given 
the Baroness more than double her share of—pig-manure ! ” 


(To be continued.) = 


THE PAMPAS GRASS. 
(GYNERIUM ARGENTEUM.) 


Wuen I say that this is one of the most valuable and most 
generally useful of hardy flowering plants, I state what few 
will venture to gainsay, except, perhaps, those who have only 
seen it growing on thin, poor, dry soils, stunted and starved; 
or in exposed situations, where it may sometimes be seen with 
its foliage blown about and disfigured, and its fine feathery 
plumes broken and unsightly. Although not over fastidious 
about soil, to grow it successfully it requires a deep rich one, 
rather damp than dry. It also likes a sheltered situation, but 
not one much shaded, and it always prefers a cool to a warm 
subsoil. Where, therefore, these conditions do not naturally 
exist, means should be employed to secure them artificially. 
Eyen under favourable circumstances the vigour of the plant 
will be greatly increased by trenching and opening up the soil 
some five or six feet from the point at which each specimen is 
to be permanently placed. 

Whether employed to ornament the villa-garden, or for 
planting in or around flower-gardens of greater pretensions, 
few hardy autumn and early winter flowering plants are 
handsomer than this; and when well placed on lawns or in 
shrubbery borders, it is likewise highly effective, lighting 
up and relieving heavy masses of sombre foliage, after almost 


160 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 13, 1872. 


eyerything else in the way of flowering plants has passed 
away. By the sides of drives, too, or walks, either singly or 
in masses, so as to come suddenly and unexpectedly into 
view, the effect is grand-in the extreme. : 

At Castle Kennedy it has been extenSively used for some 
years past as a decorative plant, and nowhere so successfully 
as in the American ground, which is about two acres in 
extent, surrounding a circular piece of water, which covers 
upwards of an acre. The American ground was formed about 
twenty-five years ago, and is so arranged, as to haye Rhodo- 
dendrons, Azaleas, Kalmias, Ledums, Andromedas, &c., planted 
in groups by themselves. The water which occupies the 
centre of the ground is surrounded by a grass terrace and 
broad grass walk. The dwarfer growing of the shrubs stand 
nearest the basin, and the taller ones further back, supported 
behind by fine old evergreen oaks, conifers, &c. Oring to the 
amount of flowering shrubs,.there is almost a superabundance 
of bloom during the height of the season; but after the end 
of July there is a blank—a felt want which few plants are 
calculated so well to supply as the Pampas Grass. Here, in 
well-drained ground, consisting principally of peaty soil three 
or four feet deep, sharpened by a liberal admixture of sandy 
gravel, we have considerable numbers of this stately grass, 
many of which now form large round masses, measuring 
from ten to twelve feet in diameter, and from six to seven feet 
in height, each plant throwing up annually from sixty to a 
hundred flowér-stems from eight to twelve feet in-height. It 
should be mentioned, however, that there is a considerable 
number of varieties of Pampas Grass in cultivation, some 
flowering as early as the close of September, others following 
‘in succession during the autumn and early winter, while 
many are still in flower (8rd January), although now some- 
what bleached and broken by winter storms. The flower- 
stems of the earlier varieties have larger and more spreading 
heads, and are generally a shade browner in colour than the 
later varieties. The latter also differ much amongst them- 
selves, but they haye generally a white and silyery appearance, 
the heads being compact, and less liable to be broken in stormy 
weather than those of the early sorts. The sites here for the 
Pampas Grass, amongst the American plants, were well 
selected for effect; and durmg the autumn, when in full 
flower, in connection with the fine foliage of the rhododendrons 
and kalmias, the warm fading tint of the azaleas, &c., the 
whole, backed up and supported by the masses of fine old 
evergreen oaks and conifers, and reflected by the water on 
calm days as ina mirror, an-effect is produced not easily to~ 
be forgotten. 

To those who have not had much experience in planting the 
Pampas Grass, and who contemplate so domg, I would say, 
never plant in the autumn. Although a comparatively hardy 
plant when of some size and well established, small plants are 
easily injured by severe frosts, particularly soon after bemg 
transplanted. ‘The latter end of April or the beginning of 
May is perhaps the safest time to transplant, something, as a 
matter of course, depending on the locality. Strong plants 
should only be used; if weak ones have been provided, grow 
them on in the nursery or reserve ground for a year or two 
before planting them out in their permanent places. 

In situations where game abounds, and where, as is fre- 
Sently the case, it is desired to introduce the Pampas Grass, 
if young plants are put out, hares eat them greedily while the 
leaves are young, and eventually destroy them. By dividing 
old plants, and keeping large pieces together, they may be 
safely planted in such situations, beg then hare and rabbit 
proof, as the hard old leaves are too much for them. Plants 
grown in a nursery or reserve garden for a few years will 
answer the same purpose, always keeping in mind that, if you 
want to grow the Pampas Grass quickly, feed it well. 

Castle Kennedy, Stranraer. ARCHIBALD FOWLER. 


HARDY PLANTS AND TREES. 
EAST AND WEST VERSUS NORTH AND SOUTH. 


Iy classifying plants and trees as hardy or tender, writers, 
I would submit, err somewhat in dividing the climate of these 
islands into north and south. North and south of the Trent 
or Tweed such and such plants are hardy or tender. In™ 


' caleeolarias survived without any care. 


your number for December 30th, for instance, one of your 
correspondents states that fig-trees in the north will barely 
subsist against walls; whereas, in the south they grow as 
standards. A more intelligent and practical division of the 
climate (with an exception for some trees and plants which 
require more sun than an average northern summer can 
boast) would be into zones of east and west. The west coast, 
being exposed to the full influence of the warm currents from 
the Atlantic, enjoys a temperature in winter many degrees 
higher than the less-favoured east; and even when the 
thermometer registers an exceptionally low temperature, 
plants survive without injury which would infallibly perish im 
a much higher temperature on the east coast. This is, pro- 
bably, owing to the fact that the soil is warmed by the constant 
affiux of the Gulf Stream for many ages. For instance, here> 
(I write from the south-west of Scotland) we never think of 


affording protection to myrtles, lemon-verbenas, laurustinus, ~ 


and other delicate things, either standard or against walls. 
Fuchsias stand out without any coyering—the common red 
sorts grow into huge masses ten or twelve feet high, a 
gorgeous sight in August. True, these exotics are sometimes 
killed to the ground. For instance, in the eyer-memorable 
Crimean winter, 1854-55, we had a lemon-verbena, the stem of 
which measured nine inches in circumference, killed to the 
ground; but it sprung up, and has again covered the wall 
which it adorns fourteen feet high. 


Last winter was a pretty severe one—we had three weeks 
good “curling”; yet, in my garden seyeral dozens of yellow 
c I have seen a scarlet 
“ Foxhunter” verbena survive; but that was in a bed outside 
a greenhouse. I write these few notes in the hope of encourag- 
ing gardeners and amateurs all along the west coasts to try 
experiments with some of the many lovely tender things, 
which may not be so tender after all. Try them first im a 
good soil against a sunny wall, and if they succeed, ex- 
periment more and more boldly with single plants and 
standards. 


Permit me to add a few words about rabbit-proof plants. 
There are many things which, if afforded protection when 


first planted, will soon make such robust growth, that they 


will defy the attacks of these creatures. Mahonia, for 
instance, and Cotoneaster, Pampas Grass, and the different 
Berberries—of these I speak from experience; and here 
22,500 rabbits were killed in eight months. When small and 
tender, they fall an easy prey; but, if wired round at first, do 
not seem to suffer. Nothing, I am convinced, is more vulner- 
able or, indeed, attractive to rabbits than hollies. They will 
bark trees fifty years old, or five hundred if they could find 
them. : Herpert MaXxwEt. 


The Aivlour, Portwilliam, Wigtownshire. 


- 


bs 


Indigofera floribunda.—Although the Indigoferas constitute a 
very pretty genus, we rarely see them in good condition in this 
country : in glass-houses they get but little attention, out of doors 
they are too tender as a rule, though one, I. Dosua, makes a very 
_pretty bush, and I. floribunda makes a first-class wall plant. Hvyery- 
body interested in coyering walls with ornamental plants should 
employ it. It is graceful in habit, the foliage being of a slightly 
glaucous hue; the shoots droop downwards—an excellent poimt in a 
wall plant—and bear abundance of light rosy flowers. A specimen 
of it flowers every year against the end of one of the glass-houses in 
the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea. It is one of the most perfect 
wall plants I have ever seen. Walls eight or ten feet high may be 
quickly covered with it.—S. : 


Old Friends.—The plants that come up every year in the same place, 
like the Stars-of-Bethlehem, of all the lesser objects, give me the liveliest 
home-feeling. Close to our ancient gambrel-roofed house is the dwelling 
of pleasant old Neighbour Walrus. I remember the sweet honeysuckle 
that I saw in flower against the wall of his house a few months ago, as 
long as I remember the sky and stars. That clump of peonies, butting 
their purple heads through the soil every sprmg in just the same circle, 
and by-and-by unpacking their hard balls of buds in flowers big enough to 
make a double handful of leaves, has come up in just that place, Neighbour 
Walrus tells me, for more years than I have passed on this planets Itisa 
rare privilege in our nomadic state to find the home of one’s childhood 
and its immediate neighbourhood thus unchanged. Many born poets, I 
am afraid, flower poorly in song, or not at all, because they have been too 
often transplanted.— Oliver Wendell Holmes, z ° : 


i 


Tt comes from Texas. 


Jan. 13, 1872.) © 


THE GARDEN. 


161 


YUCCAS. 
(Continued from page 152.) 

Yucca rLAccipa.— A stemless species, somewhat resembling 
Y. filamentosa, but smaller, with a downy branching panicle three 
feet to four feet high. WFoliage in close rosettes of leaves, one-and- 
a-half feet to two feet long, by about one-and-half inches broad. at 
the middle, often fringed with filaments on the edges: the young 
ones nearly erect, the old ones abruptly reflexed at the middle, 
almost appearing as if broken. This gives such an irregular aspect 
to the tufts, that it at once distinguishes this kind from any of the 
varieties of Y. filamentosa. It also flowers more regularly and 
abundantly than its relative, and is exceedingly well suited for 
groups of the finer hardy plants, for borders, or for being planted in 
large isolated tufts. N. America. 

Yucca GLaucescens.—A very free-flowering kind, with a panicle 
three feet to four feet high, the branches of which are short and 
very downy. Leaves sea-green, about eighteen inches long, with a 
few filaments on the margins. The flowers are of «, greenish-yellow 
colour, and when in bud are tinged with pink, which tends to give 
the whole inflorescence a peculiarly pleasing tone. A very useful 
and ornamental sort—fine for groups, borders, isolation, or placing 
among low shrubs. N. America, : 

Yucca Giortosa.—A species of large and imposing proportion, 
with a distinct habit and somewhat rigid aspect. Flower-stem over 
seyen feet high, much-branched, and bearing an immense pyramidal 
panicle, of large, almost pure white flowers. Leaves numerous, 
stiff, and pointed. One of the noblest plants in our gardens, and 
suitable for use in almost any position. It varies very much when 
grown from seed—a good recommendation, as the greater variety of 
fine form we have the better. The chief variéties in cultivation are 
Y, g. longifolia, plicata, maculata, glaucescens, and minor. The soil 
for this plant should be a rich deep loam. N. America. — 

Yucca Rupicona.—A species somewhat resembling Y. aloifolia, 
with a stem from four feet to seven feet high, and pale-green leaves 
eighteen inches to twenty inches long, by one inch broad at the 
middle, almost erect and frequently twisted, the horny margin being 
broader and the teeth more distinct than in Y. aloifolia. This is not 
much in cultivation as yet, and will probably be difficult to obtain 
for some time to come. N. America. 

Yucca TRECULEANA.—This species is -one of the most remarkable 
of the noble genus to which it belongs, from its habit, and especially 
from the dimensions to which its foliage attains. Like many plants 
of its family, young specimens differ considerably from those which 
have reached maturity. Thus,- while the former have their leaves 
bent, generally inflected, the full-grown plants exhibit them erect, 
rigid, very long, and yery straight. The stem of this plant is stont, 
about ten inches in diameter, furnished on all sides with leaves 
about four feet long, straight, thick, deeply channeled, acuminate for 
a considerable length, and ending in a stiff, very sharp point, very 
finely toothed on the edges, which are of a brownish red and 
scarious. The flower-stalk is very stout, about four feet long, much 
branched ; the branches erect, from one foot to one foot eight inches 
long, bearing throughout their entire length flowers with long and 
narrow petals of a yellowish white, shining, and, as it were, glazed. 
It is a hardy and very vigorous plant. It is not rare to see on the 
Continent specimens of more than six and a half feet in diameter. 
Fine for banks and knolls, placed singly, or for the boldest groups. 


(To be continued.) 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


MODE OF TRAN SMITTING SEEDS AND CUTTINGS. 


Tuer introduction of certain seeds in a fit state for germination 
has long been wished by cultivators. I have repeatedly tried to get 
collectors to send home seeds in strong earthen jars, or bottles firmly 
packed in soil and closely corked, the soil to be taken six or eight 


_inches under the surface, so as to contain the natural moisture only ; 


however, few, I am sorry to say, seem inclined to give this method a 
fair trial, being rather disposed to send by the old system, viz., in 
‘dry paper. As far back as 1834 I introduced in this way acorns of 
many varieties of American oaks in excellent condition for growing, 


_ while portions of the same seeds, brought home in paper and also in 


canvas bags, did not succeed. Some acorns were also brought home 
in a box between layers of sphagnum moss, having the superfluous 
moisture previously wrung out of it. By this method of packing 
the acorns all succeeded well. Dr. Little, of Singapore, a gentleman 
distinguished for his horticultural skill, has been very successful in 
introducing into this country many rare plants, such as gutta percha 
(Isonandra Gutta), and many rare and yaluable orchids. He seldom 


misses an opportunity of sending home seeds peculiar to his district, 
but it too frequently happens that they are completely dried up 
before reaching this country. During his visit to Hdinburgh, in the 
year 1870, I told him of the disappointments so often experienced 
with many of his seeds, and recommended him to try the stone- 
bottle system. About the middle of November last I had the 
pleasure of receiving a stone jar from him, filled with palm seeds, 
firmly packed in soil, all quite fresh and capable of germination. 
In districts where sphagnum moss abounds, I would recommend it 
in preference to soil, as it retains the moisture for a much longer 
time, and is not liable to mould or decay. In sphagnum the radicles 
of the seed are often slightly protruding when they reach their 
destination, while the soil, with its natural moisture, keeps the seeds 
much in the same condition as when sent away. With pulpy or 
berried seeds, the above methods are by no means satisfactory. I 
have found from experience that all pulpy seeds succeed best when 
rubbed out in dry white sand. After being spread out in the sun or 
wind for a day or two to dry, collect the mass and pack firmly in 
stone jars, and when they reach their destination, take out the con- 
tents of the jars, and cover with soil according to the size of the seeds. 
By this method, I have frequently sent to Australia, Canada, and 
other distant parts of the world, the seeds of strawberries, goose- 
berries, raspberries, brambles, currants, blackberries, laurels, elder- 
berries, thorns, hollies, yews, &c. Any portion of the pulp remaining 
seems less liable to decay when mixed with dry white sand than with 
soil or sphagnum. Fora long series of years it has been customary 
to send home seeds packed in charcoal, and I regret to see it still 
recommended. Such a practice, however, ought to be entirely 
abolished, as it tends to destroy the vitality of the seed. Unless in 
the case of seeds with very fleshy cotyledons, few others packed in 
this way ever grow. It is not necessary that seeds should always be 
sent home in comparatively dry soil in earthenware bottles. About 
eighteen years ago, I had some seeds of the Akee fruit (Blighia 
sapida) sent from the West Indies. They had been put into a large 
old blacking bottle (after being thoroughly cleaned inside), in a mix- 
ture of soil and water, firmly closed with a clean bung-cork, and 
thickly sealed over. When they reached me, I broke the bottle, and 
found every seed in a growing state. Hach was put ina pot and set 
in a dark place for a time, light being admitted gradually ; they soon 
lost their pale hue, and are now fine thriving trees. This simple 
method is also worthy of imitation with many hard tropical seeds. 
Wide-mouthed glass bottles are also extremely useful to botanical 
collectors and amateur horticultural travellers. During my annual 
autumn peregrinations both in this country and abroad, I have kept 
cuttings of rare stove and greenhouse plants in clean old pickle 
bottles, in excellent preservation for a fortnight, with a little moss 
and water, and haye always found them to succeed well after 
reaching home. Alpine plants are easily conveyed from their native 
habitats by the glass bottle system.—J. McNab, in “ Proceedings of 
the Botafvical Society of Edinbwrgh.” - 


HOW TO RAPIDLY INCREASE NEW AND RARE 
VARIEGATED PELARGONIUMS. 


Many of the kinds in which the leaf colour is most highly 
developed are slow of growth, and cannot be readily increased, 
while single little plants of new kinds, bought perhaps at 
the rate of ten shillings a leaf, naturally take a long time 
to yield a stock. Doubtless many of our readers have 
such plants, and they will probably find the following way 
of propagating them useful. Generally, variegated pelargo- 
niums are propagated by cuttings, and these strike freely 
enough; but, as the “plant” of a new kind is simply a 
rooted cutting, it is obvious that much progress cannot be 
quickly made in that way. They may be struck as readily 
from leaves as from cuttings. The way is to cut off- the leaves 
with a portion of the stem—a mere little heel attached to the 
base of the leaf. We have recently seen cuttings of the most 
precious kinds of variegated pelargoniums inserted with a 
“heel” no bigger round than a pea, and in a week they have 
been well rooted, and sending up vigorous little stems from 
the eye that was dormant at the base of the leaf when it was 
cut off. The leaf is' only put in just far enough to well cover 
the bases so that the eye when it starts may not have much 
earth to push its way through. Insert in light sandy soil, 
surfaced with silver sand; a watering consolidates all, and 
there is little more to be done till the young plants are ready 
to be potted. They may be struck most rapidly in a genial 
hot-bed or warm moist stoye, and may be put in pans, boxes, 
or small pots. One point requires a little attention: it is 


162 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 13, 1872. 


the keeping of the leayes im an erect and natural position. 
Having so very little support below, the slightest touch might 
cause them to fall; and if they happened to flag in a dry 
atmosphere, the leayes would fall down one over another, and 
perhaps not rise again—accidents which would of course mter- 
fere with the success of the operation. By bending one end of 
a bit of copper wire, so as to form three parts of a ring, and 
then bending this part back a little, a perfect support is formed 
for a leaf. It merely requires to be inserted immediately 
behind the leaf, the crook being go placed under the leaf that 
the central parts of the blade will rest upon it. This simple 
contrivance keeps the leaf im as erect a position as if it were 
supported by a stout stem. It need scarcely be remarked that 
this mode is only recommended, and only necessary, for the rare 
and very valuable kinds. In the case of established sorts, and 
of those of which we can get a stock, all we require to do is to 
insert the cuttings in the open garden border in the summer 
and early autumn months. 


Rose Cuttings.—I donot strike these, as some do,in puresand. On 
the contrary, I take my cuttings and put them into pots or frames in the 
stiffest turfy loam I can get, which I ram hard and fast round the cuttings. 
The loam thus treated will retain as much moisture as is required during 
most weathers. If pots are used, the plan is to let the mould be right up 
to their brim, and to tilt them a little if there is any danger of too much 
water getting atthem. Beyond this they require no attention, unless it be 
to set them im some nice half-shady yet airy position favourable to root 
formation. July, August, and September cuttings will root the same 
season; October cuttings should either be in a frame or in pots, so that 
they may be removed there. Water of course, if drought prevails, 
thoroughly but seldom, as the loam so well maintains the necessary 
degree of moisture.—A. - 2 

A. Prolific Sweet Pea.—You may perhaps consider it worth while 
to record in your pages the following facts, showing the marvellous 
fertility of the sweet pea under favourable circumstances. A single seed 
of it, self-sown, came up in my garden early last spring, and I have just 
gathered from it four hundred and sixteen pods, contamimg two thousand 
two hundred and forty peas! The plant came up im a single stem, then 


branched out into four principal trunks (if I may call them so), and these | 


developed into a perfect bush, eight feet in height, and having the appear- 
ance of a large cluster of sweet peas from a handful of seed. In addition 
to the seed’ gathered, many dozens of the flowers were plucked for 
bouquets. Inay observe that the sweet’pea seed which was sown this 
year by me was unusually small and unproductive in results.—I’. L. 8. 
[This fact well illustrates what we have often poimted out—the great 
superiority of many annual plants when sown in theautumn. Few persons 
who have not seen the difference would believe it, and numbers who sow 
. their annuals every year in April have buta small idea of the value of these 
ag ornamental plants. Whence this difference in the strength and profusion 
of bloom between annuals sown in spring and in autumn? It comes from 
the spring-sown kinds being called upon fortheir bloomand seed beforethey 
have had time to extract sufficient nutriment out of the earth for a strong 
bloom. It is the nature of the greater number of annual plants to vegetate 
in autumn, and to grow slowly, and gather strength through the long 
winter and spring, so that by the sunny flowering time they are deeply 
rooted and strong in leaf and shoot, and with vastly more flowering power, 
if we may so say, than the plants of the same and sown in spring. It is 
needful to bearin mind, however, that we must confine our autumn sowings 
of annuals to those that are not too tender for our winter; but of the hardy 
sorts there are a good many fine ones seldom treated right ED. Field.) 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. 

Is it an art or a trade that I propose for discussion? I 
think it isan art. The backwoodsman would not agree with 
me; there are many plethoric citizens who would not agree. 
Good roads, and paths laid where you want them, and plenty 

- of trees—is there anything more than this in the laying out of 
grounds? Is there any finesse, any special aptitude requisite, 
or anything that approaches the domain of art in managing the 
matter, as such matter should be managed? I think there is; 

» and that it is am art as yet, in this country, almost im its 
infancy ; and yet an art mstinctively appreciated by cultivated 
persons whereyer it declares itself, whether upon a small or a 
large area. : ; 

We have admirable engineers who can lay down an approach 
road, or other, with easy grades, and great grace—so far as the 
curyes count for grace; and we have gardeners who shall lay 
down your flower-beds and grounds for shrubbery according to 
the newest rules, and with great independent beauties in them- 
selves ; but itis quite possible that both these classes of workers 


' 


~~ Es a 
may fill their designs admirably, and yet steer clear of the sreat 
It is an art which 


principles of the art I purpose to discuss. 
takes within its purview good engineering and good archi- 


tectural work, and good gardening, and good farming, if you 


please; but which looks to their perfect accordance—which 
dominates, in a sense, the individual arts named, and accom- 
plishes out of the labours of each a congruous and captivating 
whole. i 

Good farming, good gardening, good engineering, and good 
architecture may stand side by side upon a given estate, and 


yet, for want of due conception of what the landscape really 


demands for its completed charm, the effect may be incongruous 
and unsatisfying. Over and over again a wealthy proprietor 
seeks to supply the somewhat that is lacking by inordinative 
and cumulative expenditure: he may thus make outsiders 
wonder and gape; he may also secure a great assemblage of 
individual beauties; but the charming oneness of effect which 
shall male his place an example of taste and a perpetual 
delight is somehow wanting. BEE, 
The true art of landscape gardening lies in such disposition 
of roadways, plantations, walks, and buildings as shall. most 
effectively develop all the natural beauties of the land under 
treatment, without conflicting (or rather in harmony) with the 
uses to which such lands may be devoted. - Thus, in a private 
estate, home interests and conveniences must be kept steadily 
4n view, and these must never be sacrificed for the production 
of a pictuesque effect, however striking in itself. Again, in a 
public park the same law obtains, and any good design for 
such must show great amplitude of roadway, and broad, open 
spaces for the disport of the multitude. Upon farm-lands, 
which I hold to benot without the domain of landscape treat- 
ment, there must be due regard to the offices of rural economy, 
and the decorative features may be safely brought out in the 
shape of gateways, belts of protecting shrubbery, or scattered 
coppices upon the pasture-lands. Upon ground entirely level, 
the range of possible treatment is, of course, very much limited ; 
but the true artist im landscape effects can do something even 
with this; no architect worthy of the name despairs if he is 


confined to four walls of even height; in his own art, if he 


loves it, he finds decorative resources.—D. G. Mitchell. 


THE GARDEN AT MONTAGUE. HOUSE. 


Wirutn a,stone’s throw of the Houses of Parliament is one 
of the most tastefully-designed little gardens we know of— 
that of the Duke of Buccleuch, at Montague House. If well- 
laid out gardens are rare in the sweet, open country, where 
hill and dale and brook for ever teach their lessons, we need 
scarcely say they are still more so in our forests of slate and 
brick. Gloomy, pasty, shaded by miserable, badly-erown trees, 
and flowerless, from the privet and other weedy shrubs that 
occupy the ground, London gardens have rarely been dis- 
tinguished for loveliness of any kind. Sometimes, indeed, a 
giant plane or some other hardy tree pushes wp unobserved and 
gets its head into the light of day, and after a generation or so 
of fleeting human creatures has passed away, people look up 
and see an object as noble as any to be seen in the fairest 
forests. But then we have to thank the tree and not the 
garden for this. ~ ; - Z 

The annexed plan sufficiently describes the garden to which 
we wish now to direct attention. As may be seen by looking 
at the section running from the terrace of the house to the 
small one overlooking the Thames Embankment at A, the 
ground rises slightly towards the river, and on the slight 
elevation are placed the few flower-beds used. The effect of 
these from the house is very good. ‘The little lawn, as may be 
observed, has been kept nice and open, and in the small clumps 
between it and the walk are mamy of the most interesting and. 

ornamental species and varieties of deciduous trees and shrubs. 
Among the older trees which have been carefully preserved, 
is a remarkable and beautiful specimen of the cut-leaved alder. 

The portion of the garden which lies in front of the mansion’ 
was likewise laid out at the same time as that shown in our 
plan, and is also thoroughly well done, An innovation on what 
is commonly seen in such places is the isolation on the turf of 
herbaceous plants of fine habit; among these we were elad to 
see our somewhat scarce and fastidious friend Bambusa Metake 


THE GARDEN. 16: 


v 


MM AS pie Zernum 
tee Wy crea + 


2) 
. ny pres 4 
CS Des LtEa. 


( fees Gras* 
© aie 


Zee. 


Rhododendron. 


ean 


Offence. 
Salistupa. 


PLAN OF THE GARDENS AT MONTAGUE HOUSE, WHITEHALL 


164 at 


THE GARDEN. 


Jan. 13, 1872. 


erowing quite healthfully. This part of the garden is cut off 
from the street by a wall of young ivy, which is trained up 
both.sides of a strong double galvanized wire trellis. It is the 
Trish Ivy, the best kind for the purpose. 


Hedges, Walls, and Groups.—Hedges have this advantage 
over walls—they sift the rough wind into soft breezes rather than 
form eddies. When air in rapid motion hits a solid barrier, a large 
portion of it often leaps aver it; its direction is changed ; its force, 
at times, hardly broken ; but when the same air hits a hedge, so 
much of it is sifted through or entangled in its innumerable meshes, 
that no eddy is formed. Hence the superiority of living to dead 
shelters. There is, however, this drawback to the hedge: it lives at 
the same table as the plants sheltered, and, unless placed well back, 
it not only stands between them and the rough wind, but likewise 
between them and their nourishing food. Another objection to 
hedges is their stiffness and formality amid the flowing grace of.a 
beauteouslandscape. They areas objectionable as dead straight walls. 
This evil may partly be remedied by choosing a line of curved beauty 
for the hedge. But a line of one breadth throughout, and forming a 
connected whole, is almost sure to be formalin appearance. A simple 
mode of breaking up this formality is to vary the thickness of theline ; 
in others instead of a hedge, merely employ masses of shrubs, now 
swelling out boldly like the crest of a long wave, and again receding 
into a single file or so of shrubs or trees. A gracefully varied series 
of small groups is certainly the most artistic shelter.—P. 


INSEE CES MB IRD See Te: 


THE COCKCHA FER. 
(MELOLONTHA VULGARIS.) 


HveEryBopy is acquainted with the cockchafer, therefore we 
need not describe it; but we have thought it advisable to give 
figures of it im its various stages. It will be seen from 
these that eggs of it laid this year do not reach the perfect 
stage until four years hence—that is in ordinary years; 
but in a series of very warm seasons or in warm climates 
it is said to reach maturity in three years; this is, however, 
exceptional or abnormal. Hence, according as there are few 
or many in any one year, the produce of that year, developed 
four years later, will be correspondingly scarce or abundant; 
but people naturally pay more attention to the years in 
which they are numerous than those in which they are few, 
and regard ib is an insect returning in numbers every fourth 
year; so much so that in Germany the fourth year, in which it 
appears as a scourge, is known by the name of the “flymg 
year”; and, indeed, the flying years and leap years are co- 
incident in Saxony and some other places. It is on the Rhine, 
the Weser, in Switzerland, and further to the south, that they 
appear as a triennial plague. é 

The eggs are large, dirty-white, rather longer than. thick, 
but otherwise almost’ globular, and are deposited near each 
other afew inches below the surface of the ground, which is 
generally selected of a loose, rich, vegetable earth. ‘The larvae 
change their skins several times and grow slowly. They feed 
upon the roots of any plants growing in their vicinity. In 
winter, or during a very dry season, they grub very deep down 
(as much as a yard or aeeedl and a half), and during the former 
fall into a state of torpidity; indeed, a severe winter is often 
prognosticated from the depth of their winter abode. There 
are differences of opinion as to the period of their life at 
which the grubs do most damage; some thinking that they are 
specially injurious during the first two years, when they have 
most to grow; others (with whom we agree) holding that their 
worst epoch is when they are perfect, or during the third year 
(the year before the “flying year”), because they are then 
older, larger, and require more nourishment. As, however, 
eyery year quantities of cockchafers become perfectly developed, 
larve of every size are always to be found im the earth. Pre- 
paratory to their change from the grub into the beetle, the 

‘ full-grown ones go further down in the ground, and work 
themselvesa hole, the earth round which becomes compacted into 
a kind of case or cell, and init become chrysalids. This happens 
in July or August, but may be sometimes earlier and sometimes 
later. In September, October, and the following months, the 


\ 


= 


beetle may be found almost ready to appear next summer. If 
undisturbed, they will lie quietly in their cradles, awaiting the 
early spring, when they will work their way up, and on a fine 
warm May evening make their appearance through a circular 
hole in the ground. In the “flying year” one may see in Ger- 
many the ground in patches bored so as literally to resemble a 
sieye. This was very marked in 1864, im the neighbourhood 
of Halle, when they came in fearful multitudes. ? 

It is not only in its larval state that this insect does mischief ; 
in the perfect state it is alsoveryinjurious. The great swarms 
of 1864 just spoken of, in a week’s time left the largest oaks 
standing leafless. The chafers come out about the beginmine 
or middle of May on the Continent; here a few days later. 
When newly come out of the earth, they cluster themselves, 
upon fine warm evenings, on the tops of trees, and begin the 
work of devouring them. ‘The oak is the favourite food of the 
perfect insect, and the trees ‘are robbed of their leaves before 
the underwood; then come the horse-chestnuts, maples, plum 
trees, poplars, willows, &c. An observer, speaking of the 
ravages of the perfect insect in France, says, “The ground 
was, almost covered in some parts with the dead bodies of 
cockchafers ; and along one part of the railroad near Rouen, I 
noticed a wood nearly a mile Jong quite stripped of leaves by 
this pest. It is no exaggeration to state that many great 
towering Lombardy poplars, oaks, and birches were stripped ~ 
as bare as if it had been a December instead of a fine June 
morning.” Only very few deciduous trees escape them; but 
the lime and acacia are said to be eschewed, or only eaten 
last. After all the trees in the place are despoiled, they then 
pass to herbaceous plants. : 

Very soon after the first appearance of the chafers they pair. 
M. Taschenberg found at the most only thirty developed eggs 
in the ovary, and this about eight days after the pairing of 
the insects had taken place, so that the statements of greater 
numbers being deposited are probably incorrect. 
to six weeks later, consequently some time in July, the grubs 
creep out of the egg. They keep much together during the 
first year, and usually cast their skins for the first time after 
their winter sleep. ¢ “A Lys 
. In this country they never reach such vast numbers as they 
do on the Continent; and in Scotland they are sufficiently 
scarce to make any entomologist who is particular about his 
localities prize them as rarities. : ; 

As regards their destruction; the introduction of starlmgs 
into infested districts has been attended with much success. 
Mr. Booth, the well-known nurseryman of Hamburg, says :— 
“ About ten years ago we suffered terribly from cockchafers ; 
whole plantations ‘of rhododendrons and comfers bemg com- 
pletely destroyed by them. Against such deyastion all artificial 
remedies were more or less powerless: We then adopted the 
starling plan. We ‘caused 100 breeding cages to be made of 
the very simplest construction, and in the spring they were all 
occupied. Im what colossal quantities the starlings devour 
these insects, you willfind recorded in “ Lang’s Natural History.” - 
As soon as the cockchafer comes, or is coming, out of the earth 

the starling is there; it picks the chafer clean out, tapping 
about on the ground with its beak until it finds it. Beside 
almost'every hole from which a cockchafer has escaped, one © 
might find the wings and whatever is uneatable, proof enough 
that the chafer’s enjoyment of life had not been of long dura- 
tion. We increased the number of cages, and have now from 
175 to 200.. We have since then had plenty of cockchafer years, 
but have not again experienced such injury from them; and — 
in working the ground to a greater depth for them, the 
number of grubs found is comparatively few.” ; 

The remedies which have been proposed and tried, with more 
or less success, arenumberless. ‘They almost all, however, bear 
upon the dislodging of the insect from a particular spot, rather 


| than upon a more general mode of dealing with them. Perhaps 


the most efficacious is the collecting of the insects and their 
grubs. The collecting, however, must be continuous and not 


Intermittent, and must be persisted in, nob only in “flying 


years,” but as long as any are to be seen; and to have a fair — 
chance of success it must be followed, not only by one, but by 
all neighbouring landholders at the same time. In order to 
obtain such simultaneous action, it has been proposed in ~ 
Germany that an obligatory law should be passed compelling 


\ ‘ } = 
, 


From four — 


y 


Jan. 13, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


eee 


united action, In the last flying year (1868) in Saxony, the 
authorities took this matter wp as warmly as could be done, 


where no law relative to it existed, and they were seconded in 
‘the most earnest manner. 


In the beginning of the year 


Dr. Stadelmann, Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society 


of the province of Saxony, had distributed patnphlets in which 
he demonstrated by figures the immeasurable injury to the 
economy of mankind which grubs and cockchafers committed, 
and earnestly begged people to assist in the collection of the 
same, and, at the same time, sent to all the principal sugar 
manufactories, landed. proprietors, magistrates of towns, &c., 
a printed form in which the details of collecting, purchasing, 
the method of destroying, and the uses to which the dead 
insects might be put, were all shown. Everyone seconded his 
wishes, and the lists show the enormous figures of 27,709 cwt. 
of insects destroyed by vapour, hot water, or whatever other 
remedy was most convenient to hand. Mixed with lime, they 


“were used as manure. The report adds that allowance may 


be made for a much larger quantity destroyed, but not 
carefully recorded. A supplement to the above, from some 
official persons in the province, gives an additional number of 
300 ewt., raising the number to 30,000 cwt. By repeated 
counting we know that a pound of cockchafers contains 530 
insects, so that the above figures represent the destruction of 
an average of 1,590 millions of cockchafers. Allowing that the 
half of these, consequently 795 millions, were females, whilst in 
general females predominate in all insect species, and that each 


1. Perfect Insect. 2. Eggs. 3. Grub inits First Year. 4, Grub in its 
Second Year. 5, Grub in its Third, Year. 


of these had deposited only ten eggs, certainly too low a figure 
when the fayourable weather, c&c., are taken into consideration, 
this universal war prevented the birth of 7,950 millions of 

rubs. If such a combined and active warfare were continued 


for another cycle or two of flying years, the cockchafer would 


become as rare as it has been common for thirty years and 

more. Withregard to the above enormous prevalence of cock- 

chafers in Saxony, it ought to be explained that it may in some 

measure be due to the extensive cultivation of beetroot, the 

nutritious and juicy roots of which are greatly liked by the 
b 


To proceed with the directions for collecting. Vor the perfect 
insect it ought to take place either very early in the morning 
or on a very rough day, when the chafers are hanging loosely 
to the trees with drawn-up legs, and when a slight shake or 
blow with a club or stick will bring them easily to the ground. 
On warm, sunny days they are very lively from six o’clock in 
the morning, and on shaking the trees they fly away or rise 
from the ground in a manner which increases the difficulty 
and serious] ee the task of gathering them and putting 
them in sacks. Sacking spread out under the trees greatl 
assists in the speedy collecting, saving time, and saying the 
trouble of much stooping. The grubs, again, are collected in 
working the ground. Here the depth at which the insects are 
lying at the time must be kept in mind, in order that the 
plough may bring them to light; and when gathered together, 


although the impressionis correct thatthey cannot stand the sun 
they should under no circumstances of weather be deposited in 
heaps, even upon a firmly trodden path, as the undermost can 
easily bore their way through the ground again, and a part of 
the trouble taken will be thrown away. Spread flat upon firm 
ground with a hot sun shining upon them, they will soon be 
dead ; if there is no sun, they had better be put in some wooden 
tub, or in a watering-pan. 

We may mention another remedy which an experienced 
French gardener states that he has constantly employed with 
good results, and which under some circumstances may be 
worthy of trial. In June, where it is possible, he sows in the 
garden, particularly infested by cockchafers and where a large 
brood may be expected, rows of salad, which it is well known 
the grubs are fond of and by which they are enticed. © In 
August these places are hoed ina hot sun, thus turning up 
the young grubs gathered round the salad, and, if left exposed, 
the sun soon kills them. This simple work is repeated several 
times on a very hot day, and, according to the assertion of our 
informant, during the four years which followed the “ flying 
year” he had suffered nothing from the grubs. 

Another remedy, based upon the baiting system, and of 
the same nature as we have already described in speaking of 
the mole-cricket, is described in the Mersebuwrgher Official 
Journal. It seems that it was tried in the “ flying year” 1864, 
in a nursery belonging to the royal forestry at Bischopsrode, 
comprising one and a half acres of land, and surrounded by 
high trees, especially by oaks, completely ravished by cock- 
chafers. Just before the flying time, seventeen different spots 
were artifically prepared as breeding places in the following 
manner :—Alongside the paths, and near the fences, from 
three to four square feet of ground were covered with fresh 
manure from five to six inches high, without mixture of straw 
or any other material; upon this was laid two or three inches 
of fresh earth, ay smoothed down and raked. These spots 
were carefully watched during the flying season, but, owing to 
the absence of any bored holes, were left undisturbed until the 
middle of July, when it was discovered that in those spots 
exposed to the sun the manure was a living mass of grubs a 
quarter of an inch in length, whilst in those places more in the 
shade the numbers of eggs was inconceivable. These heaps were 
brought together, and collectively burnt outside the nursery. 
In regard to this, M. Taschenburg, to whom we are indebted 
for much of the information here given, justly observes that 
this method may be very well adapted for Festina: but will not 
do equally well for gardens or fields. As the cockchafer only 
lays its eggs upon a free open spot, it is very natural that all 
such places as were offered by this nursery surrounded by trees 
should be selected by the female chafers to deposit their eggs ; 
but in an open field or well-cared-for garden, where every place 
is alike favourable, they would hardly have allowed themselves 
to be so entrapped. 

As might be expected where the evil is so common and 
wide-spread as on the Continent, there has been no lack of 

uack remedies in the form of manures, powders, and lotions. 
‘o mention these might amuse but could not instruct our 
readers, therefore we abstain from recording them, <A, M. 


Rabbit-Proof Plants.—(See p. 136).—My. Simpson’s experience 
has reduced the list of rabbit-proof plants to one, namely, the Rhodo- 
dendron; and Mr. Ingram states (p. 88) that even Rhododendrons do 
not always escape. The truth appears to be, as stated by Mr. Ingram, 
that barking trees by rabbits in some places is an acquired pro- 
pensity.. Freshly planted trees and shrubs are certainly more 
attacked than older plants of the same kinds. Therefore, all fresh 
planted trees ought to be protected by wire netting, or some guard of 
the kind, for three or four years after planting; and the rabbits 
should be kept down as muchas possible. When I recommended the 
Pampas grass as a desirable plant for planting in wildernesses and 
for home covers, my mind recurred to some grand old plants of it, 
which I had seen in Norfolk, to which no ordinary rabbits would do 
any harm. Most likely they had been protected when first planted, 
as it was the custom to mat this grass up when first introduced. It 
is, however, pretty hardy, and a grand subject for planting sparingly, 
either singly orin groups, on the banks of rivers, lakes, &e.; but it 
loves a good soil; therefore some pains ought to be taken with it ab 
first.—E. Hospay, Ramsey Abbey. 


166 


THE GARDEN. : 


x 


(Jan. 13, 1872. 


IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


FORCING LILACS. 

Frw hardy shrubs are more useful or easier to force than 
the different varieties of lilac. The Persian kinds are generally 
either grown in pots, or potted up for that purpose, and they 
form splendid objects for room, staircase, or conservatory 
decoration, when grown to a single stem like a standard rose, 
with a crown of any desired size drooping with its weight of 
floral beauty and sweetness. But if you want flowers for 
cutting in abundance, hie off into the woods or shrubberies, 
which ought to be full of charming lilacs. 
bushy plants, and count up the terminal buds, sound and plump, 
from a score to a hundred of them there may be all on 
one bush. Hach of these is a bunch of bloom in embryo. 
You want it in flower by the end of January. Very well. 
Up with the plant with a good ball, and transfer it to a hot 
bed—warm leaves area capital medium—of a temperature of 
from 60° to 70°. Plunge the ball overhead in these leaves, and 
keep it moderately moist. The heat must not exceed 70°—65° 
being a better temperature. The roots wonder greatly what 
has happened, and being somewhat impatient of so much 
warmth, send out scouts to report. Scarcely has this been 
done, when the buds burst their winter covering, and come 
forth to hail the spring in a genial mood, in a balmy air of 
from 55° to 65°. 

Under such conditions, a glorious harvest of lilac blooms 
may be gathered every month or six weeks. I know of no 
plant that will yield so much blossom with so little trouble in 
so short a time as the lilac; and it is a universal fayourite, and 
seems to bring more real spring with it than almost any other 
forced plant. When done with, remoye the plants to some 


THE 


cool place under cover till the severe frosts are over; then | 


plant them out from whence they came, and in about three years 
they may come in again to be forced. Or, better still perhaps, 
cut the big plants back, pull them to pieces, making of each 
separate bough a plant, and away to the wood or shrubbery, 
or rich reserye ground, with the little lilacs to grow into 
blooming plants once more; then begin again, and gather the 
lilacs from December to July. D.T. F. 


TORENIA ASIATICA. 


THIs is one of the most graceful flowering plants ever introduced 
to our stoves. Trailing plants are usually attractive, from their 
freedom of habit, and consequent tendency to grace the interiors of 
the structures in which they are placed: When we get a free and 
spreading subject, and, as in this case, a profusion of beautiful bloom, 
it becomes worthy of more attention than is usually deserved by a 
tender plant. The Torenia is especially valuable as a basket plant ; 
it is no less useful when allowed to fall in a rich spray of blooming 
shoots over the edge of the pots, so that, when placed on brackets 
or elevated shelves, the shoots may fall down far below the pot and 
so hide it. The culture of the Torenia is simple; its chief require- 
ments are a free, rich, and light soil; the temperature of a stove 
or intermediate house. The soil may be equal parts of peat and 
‘light turfy loam, with a mixture of sand sufficient to keep the whole 
porous, and a small portion of well-decomposed manure. A tempe- 
rature of 55° to 60° will be sufficiently high during the autumn 
and mid-winter months; it may be increased with advantage 
ten degrees, when the sun begins to warm up the houses in early 
spring. But perhaps the chief point, though a simple one, is the 
procuring of a regular supply of young plants, as by the aid of these 
the cool stoye, conservatory, or greenhouse may be embellished with 
graceful free-flowering plants of Torenia during more than half the 
year. Short-jointed cuttings strike very readily in early spring; 
they should be inserted in peaty soil with plenty of sand, and 
plunged in a bottom heat of about 80°; in a month or so they 
will be struck, and should then be placed in fiye-inch pots. After 
this, with cleanliness, in a moist warm temperature they will go om 
as freely as conldbe desired. Somekeep them growing nicely the first 


year, so that by the approach of winter they are well furnished’ 


plants in ten-inch pots, and then early in the following year shift 
them into twelve-inch or fifteen-inch pots, in which they begin to 
flower in early spring, forming fine large specimens, and continuing 
in perfection for months. Plants struck in the summer instead of in 
the spring, and kept.at rest through the winter and until March in 
sfive-inch pots, are the best to succeed those that are brought in very 
early ; they should be placed in their blooming pots or baskets about 
the end of July or beginning of August, and with a temperature of 


io 


Examine the: 


about 65° will go on blooming through the autumn, and far into the 
winter months. As young plants grow and flower most freely, ib is 
best to throw away the old ones, and strike a few pots of cuttings 
every year. The two-yearly course is not necessary in all cases, 
excepting where particularly large and fine specimens are desired. 
If cuttings are struck in yery early spring, and four or five put in 
each ten-inch pot, and these on the upper shelf of an early vinery, 
or any other position near the glass in a warm house, kept clean and 
freely supplied with moisture, they will soon make fine plants, as 
they would if placed in baskets under like conditions, ‘The shoots of 
plants grown on the top-shelf of a‘lean-to yinery, fall freely towards 
the light, and are, without any training, peculiarly suited for placing 
on brackets, &c. The plant may be readily trained over trellises, but 
is not so desirable in this form. A more natural and pleasing way is 
over a flat, spreading wire frame, or scrambling through a few twigs, 


or through the top of a young larch thickly set with branchlets; but — 


‘the best way is, without any training at all, to allow the branches to 
fall loosely over the edge of the pots or baskets. J. B. 


s 


Euphorbia Jacquiniflora a Grand Climber.—We have at 
the present time an example of this beautiful plant in full bloom, 
trained on the back wall of a plant-stove. It covers an area of 
160 feet, and bears more flowers of finer quality than I ever grew 
before on twenty plants in pots. Some of the wreaths are quite 
three feet in length, and the stems on which they are borne are as 
thick asa man’s thumb. As it is not desirable to have the whole of 
the blooms so large, where cut flowers are an object, we adopt the 
pinching system. This is done when the shoots are about half 
grown; every other shoot is topped, causing it to throw out a 
number of smaller shoots, which flower freely, and are much more 
convenient for cutting purposes; besides, the plants look much more 
handsome than when bearing all the bloom at the top. I observe, 
also, that the pinched shoots retain their foliage much better at the 
base of the plant than when they are allowed to run at will.— 
G. J. Gy in “ Gardener.’ r ‘ 
Tea-Scented Noisette Roses for the Camellia House.— 
In Maréchal Niel, Réve d’Or, and Céline Forestier we seem to haye 
acquired what may be called ‘‘Hvergreen Tea-scented Noisette Roses.” 
Rose-growers will understand the value of this foliage-retaining 
property on recollecting how the merits of Lamarque, Solfaterre, and 
Triomphe de Reanes are detracted from by reason of the branches of 
these kinds becoming bare and leafless at certain seasons. Let us, 
then, use these grand yellow evergreen roses for shading our frost- 
excluding yet temperate camellia houses. Let them run up the 
pillars, and, when reaching the glass, spread the branches out about a 
“foot beneath the roof. Anyone who has seen the fine golden ovals 
(“‘ roc’s eggs all yolk,” I) think Mr. Hole once called them) hanging 
down from some branches, rambling just under the glass of the fine 
conservatory at The Poles, near Ware, could hardly doubt that the rose 
was thereat home. Close to the glass, intercepting the sunlight from 
the shade-loving plants below, these roses seem to enjoy themselves 
thoroughly. The moist atmosphere required for the Camellias is just 
what the leaves like, and just what red spider, all roses’ indoor 
enemy, does not like. Care must be taken to supply them at the 
root with all-important nourishment in the shape of solid and constant 
supplies of mild, cooling liquid manure, this to induce eyery year 
strong, vigorous second growth. It is from these vigorous shoots that 
the fine flowers are produced, and the problem to solve is how to get 
annually this fresh supply of flowering wood. In the rose house here. 
we have produced strong breaks by bending down shoots after 
flowering, and nicking the bark just above a, good eye; but in a 
closer, more moist and congenial atmosphere strong root action should, ' 
with summer pruning, produce plenty of flowering wood. In pruning, 
thin the old wood well out, leaying at almost full length thin, long, 
or sappy, Succulent branches. In April and May a cloud of yellow 
clusters should hang from the roof, a fresh abundant wood growth 
succeeding the flowers, to be ripened off with the camellias.— 
Geo. Paul, Cheshunt, in ‘* Field.” ; 


f 


e 


Near Relations.—Relationsare veryapt to hate each otherjust because | 


they are too much alike. It is so frightful to be in an atmosphere of 
family idiosynerasies ; to see all the hereditary nncomeliness or infirmity 
of body, all the defects of speech, all the failings of temper, intensified by 


concentration, so that every fault of our own finds itself multiplied by — 


reflections, like our images in’a saloon lined with mirrors! Nature knows 


what she is about. The centrifugal principle which grows out of the ~ 


antipathy of like to like is only the repetition in character of the arrange- 
ment we see expressed materially in certain seed-capsules, which burst — 
and throw the seed to all points of the compass. A house is a large pod 
with a human germ or two in each of its cells or chambers; it opens by 


~ 


dehiscence of the front-door by-and-by, and projects one of its germsto - 


Kansas, another to San Francisco, another to Chicago, and so on; and 
this that Smith {may not be Smithed to death and Brown-may not be 
Browned into a mad-house, but mix in with the world again and sttuggle © 
back to average humanity.— Oliver Wendell Holmes, é ries . 


Jan. 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


167 


THE CULTURE OF PITCHER PLANTS. 


Antone the wonders of the vegetable world these are not the least” 


wonderful. When we speak of pitcher plants we do not mean the 
Sarracenias, which produce trumpet-like or cornucopia-formed leaves, 
ner the Cypripediums, which have pitcher-like flowers, but veritable 
pitcher plants, which produce perfect leaves, and then from the end 
of each, hanging by a long slender cord, a pitcher—some large 
enough to hold nearly a pint of water, and others scaréely larger 
than a child’s finger. The use and economy of these pitchers it is 
difficult to define, and. how the water gets into them is a puzzle to 
all. 


The mouth of each pitcher, it will be seen, is covered witha | 


lid, in many cases fringed with hair-like appendages, through which _ 


it would be difficult for either rain or dew to pass. The pitchers 
again are not suspended by the mouth, but by the base, and there- 
fore it is impossible that the water can run from the leaf to the 
pitcher, as is supposed by some. The true explanation appears to be 
that the plant has the power of secreting water so long as it is 
surrounded by an atmosphere the state of which is fayourable to its 
growth, but in an arid atmosphere pitchers cease to be formed; and 
if the pitchers that are 
formed are regularly day 
by day deprived of their 
water they soon become 
unhealthy and perish. 


To cultivate the pitcher plants successfully, certain rules are neces- 
sary, and the first and main one’is that they must never know the 
want of water; then the temperature must be sufficient, and the 
atmosphere during the growing sedson must be moist. If once 2 
plant is allowed to flag for want of water, it will take a long time to 
resuscitate it. The pitcher plants will grow either in pots or hanging 
baskets, or they may be planted out in beds or boxes specially prepared 
for them. Here we.grow them in different ways, but I think the 
larger-pitchered kinds, such as N. Rafflesiana, Hookeriana, and some of 
the hybrid varieties which have recently been introduced, are most 
effective when grown in hanging baskets or handsome yases. Of 
course, with suspended baskets the greatest watchfulness ig required 
in watering. For choice I prefer pots, but these should be of an 
ornamental character, or otherwise they should be placed in vases 
when the pitchers are in perfection. 

Given'a healthy young plant in a four or six inch pot in spring, I 
take some rough fibrous peat and break it into pieces about the size 
of eggs; then sufficient sphagnum (which has been previously 
scalded), some clean broken crocks and silyer sand added to make 

y a light generous mixture. 
wire. The pots are best drained 
by placing an inyerted small 


bottom and then filling in 


Travellers in the tropical 3 
countries of which these 3 
plants are natives are glad ; 
to plunge into the swamps H 
to slake their thirst with ; 
the water which they find } 
in these pitchers ; and it is } 
said that some birds and 
small animals also resort 
to the pitcher plant for a 
supply. So far as we have 
tasted it, the water is per- 
fectly pure and sweet, and 
must be welcome to the 
wayworn traveller under a 
torrid sun. For the oppor- 
tunity of figuring this su- 
perb specimen of Nepenthes 
Rafflesiana we are indebted 
to Mr. Speed, the superin- 

-tendent of the Duke of 
Devonshire’s noble gardens 
at Chatsworth. There, in the 
Ambherstia house, which is 
necessarily maintained in a 
moist tropical temperature, 
the pitcher plants are grown 
perhaps better than in any 
other place in England, 

many of the plants form- 
ing a dense thicket of ~ 2 
branches 5 to 15 feet high. 


A Pitcher Plant grown at Chatsworth in 1870 
(from a photograph). 


around it with broken pot- 
sherds, so that the pot shall 
be about one-third full, 
covering the whole securely 
with sphagnum; then fill 
in your compost, which it 
is scarcely necessary to 
remark 


a | pot over the hole at the 
3 


should be mado 
warm before using; place 
the plant in the centre and 
press the compost closely, 
but not firmly, around it. 
The collar of the plant at 
the time of potting should 
be two inches below the rim 
of the pot, so as to admit 
of top dressings, which are 
of great importance in the 
growth of the plants. The 
best compost for this pur- 
pose is cow manure rubbed 
quite fine, and some half. 
decomposed leaf mould. 
Give a dressing a quarter - 


plants seem to require assist- 
ance, and then cover over 
with live sphagnum, which 
imparts a nice finish to the 
plant. 

This is a capital time to 
commence the cultivation of 


We are also indebted to Mr. ; z 
Speed for the - following 
account of his method of 
cultivation. He says: One 
cannot help regretting that 
this singular and very interesting tribe of plants is not more generally 
found in select collections ; but I suppose it arises from some fancied 
difficulty in their cultivation, and the idea that they require a high 
temperature, whereas any person who has the convenience for 
growing pines or orchids may also grow pitcher plants. 
_ The Nepenthes, like many more rare and valuable plants, have 
been killed with kindness, most people imagining that they must be 
sereened from every ray of sunshine, and also from direct light. 
Keep a plant in a close, moist atmosphere, with regular shading 
from every gleam of sunshine, and you may get luxuriant growth, but 
no pitchers ; inure it regularly to full light from this time forward, 
shading only for a short time in the hottest part of the day, and 
then with a yery slight shade, and almost every leaf the plant makes 
will produce a pitcher. This, I think, is strong proof of the 
necessity for direct light to these plants. Last year I tried an experi- 
ment with some plants of N. phyllamphora, which was rather shy in 
bearing pitchers in the Amherstia house, where it was much shaded ; 
but in a large roomy house, with no shading, it grew and produced 
pitchers very freely—so much so, that it was by far the best plant I 
had of that variety. The plant of N. Rafllesiana, engraved, was 
grown in the house devoted to Vandas, and was kept close to the glass. 


' in thousands. 


3 
> 
> 
? 
2 
2 
? 
$ 
; 
? 
2 
2 
2 
? 
5 
? 
3 
3 
> 
> 
3 
> 
; 
> 
5 
} 
3 
3 
? 
> 
? 
2 
2 
; 
2 
3 
3 : ; 
¢ of an inch thick when the 
2 


Nepenthes, for, started away 
' in the early spring, and 
thoroughly inured to light 
and air, they will by July 
and August be richly fur- 
nished with finely-coloured pitchers. Water must be given regularly 
in sufficient quantity, of course taking care that it is of the right 


_ temperature. Cold water wonld be fatal at once. Should the sphagnum 


top-dressing become shabby, replace it with fresh, and add the top- 
dressing as frequently as the plants seem torequire it. The plants once 
established, the syringemay be used freely night and morning; water 
copiously at the roots, and in bright weather it will be found a capital 
practice to sprinkle the paths, borders, and other spaces frequently 
throughout the day—in fact, maintain a moist but not a close 
atmosphere. 

Plants that have been much shaded must not be exposed to bright 
light suddenly, but they must be inured to it gradually, until ablast 
a piece of thin Nottingham net; to break the fiercest rays of the sun, 
will be sufficient shading for them at any season. I commenced this 
treatment twelve months ago, and I have been rewarded with double 
the number of pitchers ever seen upon plants of the same size before, 
N. Hookeriana having given me fifty well-developed pitchers, and 
N. Rafflesiana thirty, while of the smaller kinds I have had pitchers 
I leave these facts to speak for themselves. I have 
said nothing as yet of temperature; but a minimum of 65° by night, 
rising to 85° or 90° by day with the sun heat, will be the right thing. 


168 


THE GARDEN. 


Jan. 18, 1872. 


“If the plants can stand over a tank of warm water or evaporating 
troughs, so as to geb a gentle, moist bottom heat, it will be very 
suitable for them; indeed, a friend informs me that one of the best 
plants he ever saw had thrown its roots into the evaporating trough 


of a hot-water pipe, where the temperature must frequently have- 


been as high as 90°, and yet the root luxuriated, being seyeral feet 
long, anda complete wig of fibres.—Field. 


THE LILY OF THE VALLEY IN POTS. 
AtpHonse Karr says the flowers of the lily of the valley 


are like pearls in shape and lustre, but like pearls perfumed. ~ 


Considering that it is a plant wild in abundance im some parts 
of this country, those who pay a high price for it every year 
for forcing may well liken it to such precious gems for an 
additional reason. And the plants, too, are often thrown away 
as useless after having been- forced. We have to describe a 
plan of culture much better and cheaper than that in common 
use, and certain to produce finer plants of lily of the valley 
than are often seen even at spring flower shows. 

To begin with, it would be as well to secure “imported 
plants,” as by doing so-we insure a bloom during the current 
spring, and commence at the same time to accustom the plants 
to the treatment which must be annually pursued. However, 
it is by no means necessary to buy imported plants, as those 
potted up from the plantation in the open ground will do; but 
they must get a year’s residence in pots before flowering well. 
The forcing of this lily is so very simple that we need not. 
describe it here. In a warm Vinery, in a melon or cucumber 
frame, on a shelf in a forcing-house, or in any like position, it 
comes into bloom with facility, provided always that the plants 
are furnished with flower buds. It is the want of these that 
we have to guard against. Given plants well furnished with 
prominent roundish buds, bringing them into bloom in a heated 
structure is a thing that anybody can perform; but no skill 
will suffice to make presentable plants without these well- 
filled “crowns.” Now the secret of getting these desirable 
buds consists im allowing the plants to make a perfect and 
healthy growth after flowering. By causing them to do that, 
we secure finer plants than are imported: for the especial 
purpose of forcing. Judging from the plants seen at shows, 
and in many gardens, they are not kept from year to year. 
The finest plants we have ever seen are now in bloom, and have 
been regularly forced during the past five years. Once out of 
flower, instead of being thrown aside in some out-of-the-way 
place in the open air, they are. placed in a comfortable frame 
or on the shelves of a cool-house near the glass—anywhere, in 
fact, where they may have perfect protection, and can continue 
their growth without the slightest check. 
think that, from being hardy, they may be placed in the open 
air with impunity before the frosts and all danger are gone, 
and act upon it, a decided mistake will be committed. No 
matter how hardy a plant may be, once excited in a high 
temperature, in winter or spring, they must be retained therein 
till genial weather arrives, or they will be destroyed or much 
injured. It is just likewhat occurs with the hyacinth, and 
also with other forced flowers. Generally they are exposed to 
cold, and neglected or badly treated, and therefore flower very 
poorly and weakly the year afterwards, so much so that people 
usually throw them away altogether as useless; whereas, if 
placed in cold frames, and permitted to make their growth 
and die down unmutilated, they would prove quite as good as 
at first. In the case of the lily of the valley a much better 
result is gained by this management than from the expensive 
and specially-prepared crowns. If brought into bloom very 
early, say soon after Christmas, the plants should be allowed 
to grow away in any place that may be spared for three months. 
Those that are m bloom ‘now, or going out of it, should be kept 
iu such’a position as that before-named for about two months 
to come, when they may be placed in the open air, plunged in 
coal ashes in some sunny spot, and there allowed to ripen and 
gradually die down to rest. Once that stage has arrived, it 
matters little where they are; but the most convenient plan 
will be-to leave them piunged in the coal ashes, and, as batches 
are wanted from.time to time to introduce to the forcing house, 
take them up, clean the pots, refresh their surfaces, and place 
them in-the desired position. The chief point once settled, 
there remains the potting and little else. Should the plants 


Should anyone | 


when in flower be closely packed in rather small pots, as is 
usually the case, it will be better to place them in pots a size 
larger, not mutilating- the roots more than may be necessary 
for efficient potting. And when these plants im their turn fill 
the larger pots so that re-potting seems again desirable, each 
specimen may be cut in two and the stock increased. It is not 
desirable to grow them in pots more than eight inches across 
or thereabouts; unless in special cases, where a wide pan or pot 
is desired. Another advantage of this mode of culture is, that 
the plants grown after it are furnished with abundance of 
healthy large leaves expanding with or before the flowers. The 
plants usually seen are but sparsely furnished with leaves while 
the flowers are out. Thus, if any one thing be clear it is that 
buying lily of the valley roots from Continental gardens is 
unnecessary. If, beginning with roots potted from the open 
garden, we should select the plumpest and most likely crowns, 
try and get afew flowers from them during their first spring 
in pots, and in any case treat them so as to secure a perfect 
bloom the following season. Hyery second year would suffice 
for the re-potting or dividing of the plants.  - hab, 


‘Succulents for Cool Greenhouse,—I shall be glad if you will name such 
succulent plants as I may grow ina cool greenhouse?—ALPHA. {Ma. Croucher, 
who is very well acquainted with these plants, obliges us with the following list, 
viz. :— 


Aloe picta Echinopsis oxygona Kleinia tomentosa 

> variegata ey Zuccariniana Mamumillaria stellaris 

»> serrulata. 5A tubifiora 53 decipiens 

ss prolifera “A Schellhasii Ar discolor | 
Agave, any of them Echinocactus californicus mis densa, 
Anacampseros -arachno- os Scopa Fe kertaey Parkinsonii 

ides Echinocereus pectinatus 3 auriceps 

A. rotundifolia 54 Labouretii ~ a spinosissima 
Cereus strigosus x texensis gracilis 


” 
»  cinerascens viridiflorus Opuntia humilis 


mere hkas 
Gasteria Bowieana 33 


»» repens missouriensis 
.5, . Bockii >» maculata 3 on Clavarioides 
Cotyledon coruscans = verrucosa _ cristata, 
oy pulverulenta Es glabra f) vulgaris 
Crassula Iactea ay undata ~ oy microdasys 
oy cordata Ay albicans > ~ cylindrica i 
Ay perfoliata Haworthia margaritifera Pachyphytum bracteosum 
aN ericoides i ny fasciata 33 roseum 
Hcheveria fulgens ae attenuata Rochea falcata, ise 
»» , metallica re tessellata Sempervivum holochry- 
Pea glauca x spiralis sum 
An retusa — Rs yadula » ~ Spathulifolinm 
Echinopsis multiplex Kleinia fulgens oe anreum — \ 
Bs Eyriesii » repens ce Haworthii 


THE ARBORETUM. 


ON TREE MANAGEMENT. oy 


AnyonE observing timber trees in woods and in hedgerows 
as he passes by rail through any fifty miles of England can 
hardly fail to be struck with-the absence of anything like 
method in timber management. He may find some exceptions 
to this general rule in some few woods which are of sufficient 
magnitude to return a regular yearly income. 
these cases, the knowledge of the subject is almost invariably 


inferior to that displayed in the culture of land for ordinary 


purposes. ‘Two distinct systems are followed, both equally 
injurious to the general good: in one district everything is 


But, even in. 


cut down; in another, everything is left to stand. Here the 


trees are injured by indiscriminate crowding, good, bad, and 
indifferent, in which case the good are the sufferers. On the 
other hand, whole districts are dismantled of their fairest 


| ornaménts, and neighbouring crops are left to starve from the 
In both instances, the ' 


destruction of their natural shelter. 
largest profit which can be derived from land by the judicious 


admixture of agricultural and timber crops is lost to the indi- ~ 


vidual proprietor, and, of course, through him Jost also 

the country. 
Farming and timber-growing are considered by some to be 

antagonistic interests; but, if common sense were allowed to 


to 


arbitrate between them, the two would be closely and firmly 


allied friends. This injurious war of interests is clearly appa- 
rent in the two systems to which we have already alluded. In 
one district, some large landed proprietor, devoted to farming 
only, cuts down every stick on his estate. The tree that is 
venerable from age, but useless as property, and the straight 
erowing sapling, which is yearly bringing the highest yalue 
the land is capable of, share the same fate. A clean sweep is 


, 


~ 


pda 13, 1872) ~ 


~ “THE. GARDEN. : 


169 


made—a cultivated desert created. Angry indeed is the neigh- 
bouring lord, who expresses himself not in words, but in trees. 

~ In this case, the noblest specimens stand inconspicuous in a 
crowd of the mean and the worthless. And thus the systems 

* act and react on each other, converting our pleasant England 
into a starved waste ora badly-regulated wilderness. “ We 
want more light.” A new system must be commenced, by 
which the annual value accruing from timber may be secured 
to individual proprietors as income, and through them to the 
country. nie ' ; 

The value of an estate well covered with timber is worth 
more by many thousands of pounds than one destitute, or 
nearly so, of trees; yet trees, for the most part, are allowed 
to grow haphazard. Though loved for their beauty, they are 

“treated with supreme neglect. I venture to assert—and I 
could furnish half-a-dozen examples of what I say in any one 
of the midland counties—that the mismanagement, or rather, 
non-management, of timber on the lands of many large and 
rich landed proprietors is such, that they would not dare to 
have their cereals or other crops cultivated in the same style. 
Such neglect would excite public attention. 


The cause of this state of things is not far to seek. I have* 


alluded to the high farming crotchet which sacrifices every- 
thing to agricultural produce. This is, however, not the only 
cause. Timber is nobody’s business. Sometimes it is looked 
_after by the proprictor himself, or itis left to a land agent, a 
‘bailiff, or a tenant. Of these, the first has too much on his 
hands to do the work; ‘the second considers agriculture to be 
the real interest concerned; the third at present is a foe 
“avowed and deadly. All three are generally indifferent 
foresters. What care they for the eulogiums of Evelyn, 
Loudon, or Brown ? 
‘Another fruitful source of evil is, that timber is generally 
' regarded as so much ready money, notas a regular income. It 
is felled on emergencies, not at stated periods or on a systematic 
plan. No regular succession of trees is kept up. Some 
landed proprietor gets into difficulties—there is a big cutting 
down. His successor is well-to-do, and loves trees—there is a 
big planting. How often do we find trees submitted to the 
axe at their most growing age, whilst on a neighbouring 
estate, the proprietor will preserve elms that, being past their 
prime, are yearly shattered by the winds ? 

Another result of the want of a recognised system is, that 
in all other businesses there is capital to fall back upon. No 
sort of property can be managed well unless the requisite 
amount of Jabour is expended upon it at the right time. 
There must be something beyond the profit of the ‘business 
itself, or profit itself will be the loser. Yhis principle is, how- 
ever, not applied to trees. 

We must not omit the evil that results from a want of 
uniformity in the views which govern this kind of property. 
There are certain rotations of crops both in horticulture and 
in agriculture, and tenants who succeed each other go on 
recognised principles, and seldom entertain theories widely 
different from each other. Their profession is land manage- 
ment, which is an understood thing; but, with timber the 
work is done all manner of ways, and the least profit which 
can be produced from the timber-growing soil may fairly be 
expected. Water Jones Wuirmore. 


EFFECT OF FROST ON CONIFERS. 


- Iv is known to those who have had much to do with the planting of 
the less hardy conifers, that many of them can be got up to form fine 
“specimens, if planted on sloping ground, avoiding either very high or 
very low situations. A west or northern aspect will be found most 
* suitable, while east or\south aspects should be avoided, because of the 
liability that the tender shoots may be killed through being suddenly 
thawed by the sun’s rays striking them while partially frozen. 
Many years ago I remember visiting an extensive provincial nursery, 
where large quantities of silver firs were grown beneath the shade of 
largefruit trees. The silver firs were remarkable for their fine leading 
shoots and general health. In a neighbouring open breakin the same 
nursery there were many silver firs of the same age to be seen with 
scarcely a leading shoot, stunted and unhealthy, and all but unsaleable. 
The difference arose from the protection of the fruit trees. This is 
no exception to a general rule; for, as is well known to nurserymen 
and foresters, the silver fir is liable to be damaged by late spring and 


, ‘ 


summer frosts till it reaches the height of two, three, or four feet ; 
after which, like many other conifers, it proves to be quite hardy, as 
many fine old trees scattered over the country amply prove. I believe 
the same results may justly be anticipated from some, if not many, of 
the spring-tender conifers which have of late years been so widely 
spread over the country, some succeeding in less, others in more 
favoured localities. No doubt there are numerous parts where it 
would be only labour lost to attempt their cultivation; but where 
they are likely to succeed, any trouble taken in nursing them is far 
more than compensated by the possession of well-grown examples of 
such interesting and beantifal trees. Anyone now visiting the pine- 
tum at Castle Kennedy would have an opportunity of seeing the 
effects of the late spring and early summer frosts on whole avenues, 
as well as on numerous specimens, planted throughout the pinetum, 
of what are generally considered spring-tender conifers, the plants 
varying from four to upwards of thirty-five feet in height. The 
young growths on the lower branches have generally been injured to 
the height of from two to upwards of three feet ; while those on the 
upper branches have, with few exceptions, escaped uninjured. The 
following species have suffered in this way: Picea Pindrow, 
P. Webbiana, P. cilicia, P. cephalonica, Abies Morinda, A. Brunoniana, 
&c. The Picea Webbiana avenue, perhaps better than any of the 
others, illustrates what J am desirous to explain, viz., the probability 
that many of the spring-tender conifers, if slightly protected for 
few years after being planted, will ultimately prove hardy in favour- 
able situations. This avenue stands in part on level, and in part on 
hanging ground. Those on the hanging ground have suffered the 
least—very little indeed, éxcept where the morning sun strikes them, 
and then very slightly, and only where the trees are tall, about half- 
way up from the ground, from their being suddenly thawed by the 
rays of the morning sun alighting on them. Those growing on the 
level ground have the young shoots only injured to the height of 
about three feet on the east and south side where partially exposed, 
and to the height of barely two feet all round the shaded sides. The 
treesin this avenue are from about fifteen to twenty-seven feet. 
height. The effect of the frostline is here so apparent, that it strikes 
the eye and attracts the attention of the most casual observer. 
Above the frost line the trees are in perfect health, many of 
them carrying a few of their lovely purple cones, and making 
leading ‘shoots of upwards of two feet in length. Itis well known 
that on still, calm, frosty nights, in low-lying or level situations, the 
cold air becomes the heaviest, and settles down above the surface of 
the earth, and probably, if properly tested, it would be found to carry 
a larger amount of aqueous vapour than does the stratum of atmo- 
spheric air a little above it ; otherwise, I can hardly suppose that the 
difference in temperature would be sufficient to kill the young growths 
to the height of two feet or three feet above the surface of the ground, 
while those a little higher all but escaped uninjured.—Archibald 
Fowler, Castle Kennedy, in “ Florist and Pomologist.” 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Trees, Shrubs, &c., for the Sea Coast.—What are the best 
shrubs, flowers, trees, &c., toplant near the seaside >—Oweca. { Tamarix, 
Pinus austriaca, P. pinaster, Cupressus macrocarpa, Evies in great variety, 
Enonymus, Laurustinus, Myrtles, Escallonias, Rosemary, Arbutus, Phillyrea 
Baccharis halimifolia, Lycium barbarum. As to flowers, nearly all hardy 
herbaceous and alpine plants will thrive. All the varieties of the carna- 
tion, picotee, pink, &c., are particularly happy near the sea. ] 

WNew England Elms.—Nobody knows New England who is not on 
ternis of intimacy with one of its elms. ‘The elm comes nearer to having 
a soul than any other vegetable creature among us. It loves man as man 
loves it.* It is modest and patient. It has a small flake of a seed which 
blows in everywhere and makes arrangements for coming up by-and-by. 
So, in spring, one finds a crop of baby-elms among his carrots and 
parsnips, very weak and small compared with those succulent vegetables. 
The baby-elms die, most of them, slain, unrecognized or unheeded, by 
hand or hoe, as meekly as Herod’sinnocents. One of them gets overlooked, 
perhaps, until it has established a kind of right to stay.. Three generations 
of carrot and parsnip-consumers have passed away, yourself among them, 
and now let your great-grandson look for the baby-elm. Twenty-two 
feet of clean girth, three hundred and sixty feet in the line that bounds 
its leafy circle, it covers the boy with such a canopy as neither glossy- 
leafed oak nor insect-haunted linden ever lifted into the summer skies.— 
Elsie Venner. : 


The Oaks of Europe.—<According toa recent return, oak timber 
is rapidly disappearing from Europe. In France, since 1669, no oak has 
been felled until full grown—that is, until within thirty years of its 
probable decay. The consumption of oak timber in France has doubled 
during the last fifty years. In 1866, £170,000,000 worth was consumed, | 
of which £500,000 worth was imported, against £5,000,000 worth consumed 
in 1820, of which £400,000 worth was imported. France requires every 
year 15,000,000 cubic feet of oak timber for wine casks, 600,000 for-her 
fleet, 150,000 for railway cars, and 750,000 for building purposes. In 1826 


170 


THE GARDEN. 


(Jan. 13, 1872. 


the total value of imported staves was £800,000; to-day the total yalue is 
£5,000,000. A similar increase .of the importation of oak for the next 
thirty years would probably double the price. France, after losing Alsace 
and Lorraine, contains 135,000,000 acres, of which 20, 000, 000 are covered 
with forest. In Norway, the Administration’ of Forests declares that it is 
necessary to stop the cutting down of timber. The same enormous con- 
sumption is going on all over Kurope. Holland and Belgium are nearly 
‘denuded of timber, and are large importers. North Germany is rich in 
forest, but within half -a century has begun to cut down young trees. 
‘Austria has sold her forests at auction since railways have been introduced. 
Spain and Greece are almost woodless. 

Extraordinary Root of a Tree.—An instance having just come 
under my notice of the length to which the root of a tree will grow under 
peculiar circumstances, it appears to me to deserve being recorded, so far 
exceeding as it does the generally supposed limit, viz., the height of its 
parent tree. The circumstances are these:—A long stone wall runs by the 
side of a road near here, behind which an old hedge ran parallel with it. 
The owner decided on stocking up the hedge, and while doing this the 
man employed found a root growing between that and the wall—some- 
times close to the surface, at others a foot or soin depth. It had started 
from a Worcestershire elm.in the hedge-row, and for some distance he 
kept hacking it to pieces as he proceeded, till at length, being struck with 
the strange distance it was running, he informed ‘his master of it, who 
desired him to get up the remainder entire, which he did, and the: piece 
measured 75 feet in length (which I now possess).. The rest of the distance 
it had run, when measured afterwards, amounted to 198 feet, making up 
273 feet altogether. I went myself to inspect the course of it, and found 
that, could the whole have been measured, it would have amounted to 
considerably more ; for, after it had proceeded as described, it had come 
to another tree, which, growing up against the wall, had arrested its 
course, and forced it to turn beneath the wall, and so under the road, 
which prevented it being measured any further. The diameter of the 
root throughout its whole course was about one and a half inch, causing 
it to have the appearance of a leaden pipe. At the extremity where it was 
lost it had tapered to about one inch, and it had scarcely a rootlet or fibre 
growing from it all the way. The tree from which it grew is not more 
than forty feet high, and one and a half foot im diameter; and the wall 
which (with the hedge) had confined it to its course, xoy have been built 
about fifty years.—J. Brooke, Haughton Hall, Shifnal, in ‘‘ Field.” 

Sermons in Trees.—I have brought down this slice of hemlock 
to show you. Tree blew down in my woods (that were) in 1852. 
Twelve feet and a half round, fair girth; nine feet, where I got my 
section, higher up. This is a wedge, going to the centre, of the 
general shape of a slice of apple-pie in a large and not opulent 
family. Length, about eighteen inches. I have studied the growth 
of this tree by its rings, and it is curious. Three hundred and forty- 
two rings. Started, therefore, about 1510. The thickness of the 
rings tells the rate at which it grew. For five or six years the rate 
was slow, then rapid for twenty years. A little before the year 
1550 it began to grow very slowly, and so continued for about seventy 
years. In 1620 it took a new start and grew fast until 1714, then for 
the most part slowly until 1786, when it started again and grew pretty 
well and uniformly until within the last dozen years, when it seems to 
haye got on sluggishly. Look/here. Here are some human lives laid_ 
down against the. periods of its growths to which they corresponded. 
This is Shakespeare’s: The tree was seyen inchesin diameter when he 
was born; ten inches when he died. A little less than ten inches 
when Milton ‘ was born; seyenteen when he died. Then comes a 
long interval, and this thread marks out Johnson’s life, during which 
the tree increased from twenty-two to twenty-nine inches in diameter. 
Here is the span of Napoleon’s career; the tree doesn’t seem to haye 
minded it. I neyer saw the man yet who was not startled at looking 
on this section. I have seen many wooden preachers—neyer one 
like this. How much more striking would be the calendar counted 
on the rings of one of those awful trees which were standing when 
Christ was on earth, and where that brief mortal life is chronicled 
with the stolid apathy of vegetable being, which remembers all 
human history as a thing of yesterday i in its own dateless existence ! 
—The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 

Trees for Seaside Towns.—We are about forming a com- 
mittee for the purpose of planting trees along our otherwise beau- 
tiful streets, promenade in front of the sea, and in other parts of 
our town. I should feel exceedingly obliged if you will kindly 
let me know what trees you consider the best for us. We can 
provide good soil for planting. Very high winds prevail at times; 
many of the places would be exposed, others sheltered and warm. 
There are roses and other flowers out in some of the gardens now.— 
T. W., Llandudno. I[Mr. Barron, of Sketty, near Swansea, who 
has much experience of tree growth on the coast of Wales says that 
“among the best trees for’ street planting are elms; and, indeed, 
for avenues and promenades generally there is no tree to be 
compared with the elm. There are the different varieties of elms, 
some with light variegated leaves, others again having purple foliage, 
some light green, with small leaves; others with large handsome 
foliage, and almost every variety a sure and steadfast grower in any 
situation. It willstand exposure better than most trees, because its 

S = 


roots take strong hold of the ground, and it will srow in our smoky 
streets, and make headway on our sea-shores. ‘No donbt there are 
many other varieties of trees suitable, to some extent, for ayenues, 
&c., such as the lime and horse-chestnut, &e.; and ‘where exposure 
is not so great, the Ailantus slandulosais a very handsome tree, with 
large and beautiful tropical-like foliage. Acer Negundo yariegatum is 
another loyely tree, and where sheltered it grows rapidly. ‘Populus 
alba is the best variety of poplar for street | planting, or ornamental 
planting in‘ general, becanse of its handsome foliage, and it grows as 
freely as the > Black Italian. Curiously enongh, the plane (P. orientalis). 
doesnot succeed well in Wales ; and London i is almost its special home. 
The great thing is to have *< seasoned” trees, making elms the 


mainstay, and balancing and selecting the varieties as the work — 


proceeds. It may be added, that whatever is undertaken in the 
way of town planting, whether by the sea or not, should be done 
well.—January 1, 1871.” ] : 


GARDEN. STRUCTURES. 


MR. BESSEMER’S CONSERVATORY. 


TH most remarkable conservatory erected of Jate near London is 
that in Mr. Bessemer’s garden at Denmark Hill, Camberwell. It is 


not remarkable for size, bu unrivalled for the elegance of oo 


and beauty of the materials used in its construction, 

But few iron structures have been hitherto attempted in Gisae 
the architectural effect has not been more or less marred by the 
prominence given to large bolted flanges, tie rods, cross braces, or 
other devices, which, however necessary in a structural point of 
view, certainly do not add to the beauty of the building. Im the 
design we now lay before our readers, however, there are no signs 
visible by means of which the whole is put together, not one flange, 
tie, or bolt of any description being shown in the whole of the 
building, externally or internally. 
executed with a degree of care and beauty of finish rarely seen in 
any large work. Many of the perforated castings employed in this 
structure are of extreme delicacy and beanty of finish. Among the 
heaviest are several from three to four tons.in weight each, while 
there are thousands of others not exceeding four to eight ounces. 

The conservatory has two floors or crypts, extending entirely 
beneath it. ) 
a perforated stone screen facing the grounds, and forms the cold 
air chamber. 
from the lower one by a stone floor. 
of ten pipes of fonr inches in diameter, the coil being about a 
hundred feet in circumference, and givihg over 1,000 square feet of 
heating surface. The ceiling of this upper or hot-air chamber is 
covered by five-inch York flags, laid on rolled iron beams. On 


the upper surface of these flags the tesselated floor of the conser- — 


vatory is laid. Ten large slide valves (all connected by a rack: and 
pinion) admit cold air from the chamber below at equidistant parts 
to the surface of the hot-water pipes. After passing over and 
among these pipes, the air enters the conseryatory through 
numerous perforated brass panels in such quantities as may be 


desired. Massive brick piers pass through these floors, and support 


the sixteen columns on which the upper ‘part of the structure rests. 
The conservatory is formed with a large square central area sur- 

mounted by a dome. On each side of the square there are bays or 

transepts, the entrance to which is beneath three arches; rising to 


a height of fourteen feet, and-resting on columns, of which there 


are sixteen. The dome is formed of rolled iron ribs, meeting 
together in the centre and united to a large pendant perforated boss ; 5 
the ribs (forty in number) are separated -by extremely light iron 


ornamental casting, forming a framework which is glazed with 


stained glass, wine encircles the dome in three distinct bands ; 
exterior to this stained glass is a plate-elass covering, each plate 


being curved to the true shape of the dome; the plates are each 


seyen feet lone, the joints so arranged as: to be rendered invisible 
behind the stained glass panels; the glass is ground on both sides, 
and embossed in a bold trellis pattern, giving ‘to the whole a most 
beantiful effect. The employment of ground glass for the dome 
gives it an apparent solidity when viewed externally from the 


terrace that surrounds the building, which much increases its’ archi- 


tectural beanty. The dome, which is forty feet im héight, rests’ on 
a series of bold trusses, springing from the sills of the upper windows, 


and forming a division between them’; these trusses are perforated — 
on all sides, and are highly ornamented. The ceiling of the central 


‘part surrounding the dome is formed into deep softits, each filled 
with elaborately designed perforated gilt ‘panels, with an azure 
background formed by the flat iron roof above them. In the upper 
part ‘of the central space there are six windows on each side, each 
‘one composed of a sheet of ground plate glass, engraved and painted 


a t s] 


“The castings have all been | 


The lower one receives a supply of fresh air through 


Above this is a second space of equal area, diyided — 
The upper space contains a ‘coil ~ 


mie 


Jan. 13, 1872. THE GARDEN. 


EN 


AT DENMARK HILL, CAMBERWELL- 


172 


THE GARDEN. 


{ 


(Jan. 18, 1872. 


in pale tints. These windows all open by an ingenious contrivance 
worked by an attendant from the cold-air chamber below, which is 
sufficiently lofty to admit of ready access. 

The iron columns haye a spiral groove running around them, in 
which small spheres are fitted by stringing them on a copper wire 
giving an effect which simple casting could 3 never accomplish; these 
spheres are all gilt, and give to the fresh grey tint of the columns 
a creat relief ; the ‘capitals are all built up with separate acanthus 
leaves of yery light and elegant form, and are also oilt. 

The arches, which rest on these columns, are all double castings, 
placed back to back, and are most exquisitely moulded in a per- 
forated pattern, through which the light falls im ever-varying 
clusters of rays as one walks about the conseryatory. There are 

Ahousands of rosettes on these perforated screens, all cast-separately, 
apd screwed in place, so as to get a bold relief, well undercut, an 
effect’ which founding in mass could not give. 

The external wails are pierced with large circular- headed windows, 
glazed with a single sheet of plate-glass Sowith a small Greek border 
etched around the edge, and narrow margins of coloured ground 
glass of a soft grey tint etched in patterns. The walls are entirely 
encased with polished marble, in pieces so large as to show no 
joints. A richly-monlded architrave of red Devonshire marble 
surrounds each window and door, and relieves by its warm colour 
the spaces between the windows, ‘which are of dark Bardillo marble, 
against which are placed three- quarter columns of white veined 
Sicilian marble. The shafts of all tw enty-four columns and the 
angle pilasters are ten feet in length, each in a single piece, and 
surmounted by capitals carved in white Carrara. marble. Above 
these is a rich entablature of veined Sicilian marble running oyer 
the Bardillo, which is ornamented over each window and door, with 
a rich incised pattern of Arabesque scroll work gilt in all the sunk 
part. One bay or transept forms the end of the adjoining drawing- 
room, haying two glass doors. The right-hand bay abuts on a billiard- 

room, having a ‘central door and two large windows looking into 
it; and opposite to this are two similar windows, anda central door 
leading on to a a raised terrace, ninety feet in length, paved with 
Squaresof black and white marble, and extending all along the garden 
front of the house. The fourth bay i is also divided by 1 three equal 
arches, in each of which there are mirrors of fourteen feet high by 
seven feet wide, passing down below the floor line, and thus continuing 
the pattern of the pavement. The mirrors are silyered by a deposit 
of pure silver, and are not easily injured like those coated with tinfoil 
~ and mercury. They are kept warm at the back by a_ hot-air 
chamber, which prevents any deposition of moisture on them; they 
thus, at all times, reflect clearly the whole interior of the building, 
giving it apparently double its real size. Around the sides of the 
building are raised spaces for the flowers, having a sort of dwarf 
screen of polished dove-coloured marble, in which are numerous gilt 
brass panels for the supply of warm air from the chamber below. 
In the central space beneath the dome is a large basin, richly 
moulded in beautifully veined Bardillo marble, with four pedestals of 
the same material at the angles, which serye to support vases of 
white marble, containing some numerous plants. 
marble pedestals are also formed in the dove marble screen before 
named, on which are some choice specimens of Majolica vases 
containing rare plants. Pendant from the ceiling are six Majolica 
flower-baskets containing choice ferns and other “drooping foliage. 
There are also eight suspended Roman lamps in bronze, with lotus 
Jeaves forming clusters of flowers in gas jets, and also four other 
suspended Roman lamps of classical design, giving in all eighty 
gas burners, by means of which the whole building may at night be 
brilliantly illuminated ;' there are also near the drawing-room door a 
pair of exquisitely chased bronzed candelabra, which on ordinary 
“occasions give sufficient light for walking’ in the evening. The floor 
is composed of encaustic tiles and tessera tastefully “arranged in 
panels of quiet colours (so as not to. interfere with the prilliant 
colours of the flowers). In this design are embodied mosaics repre- 
senting spring, autumn, summer, and winter, and a fifth near the 
entrance represents Ola Time with the date of the erection of the 
building on a tablet beneath him; at each of the four aneles of the 
central part are life-size figures of boys executed in biscuit china at 
Sevres. We are indebted to Engineering fee our illustration’ of 
this fine conseryatory. 

With reference to the plants with which this structure is shown 
to be furnished: they are not the most suitable kinds to show 
off its full beauty. Where arch and column seem to vie with the 


elegant tapering stems of a tropical forest a comparatively poor - 


effect is furnished by dwarf herbaceous vegetation. No such 
structures are worth erecting unless they shelter in abundance 
those superb tropical and sub-tropical plants which contrast so 
charmingly with the herbaceous and small-leayed OEE of cold and 
temperate countries, 


Hight similar | 


BYH-NOTES ON NILE TREES. 


_My last visit to Egypt was vid Brindisi. I travelled, in , 
November, through Belgium to Cologne, along the Rhine to 
Munich, over the Brenner Pass to Verona, and so to Venice ; 
there embarked in. an Austrian-Lombardy screw-steamer ; 
landed at Ancona—which, like the rest of Italy, was white 
with snow; by rail to Brindisi. They were shoyelling the 


| snow from the rails in Calabria, within thirty miles of that 


seaport. I don’t remember to haye ever felt the cold more 
than in that journey through sunny Italy. After four-and-a- 
half days from Brindisi, we disembarked at Alexandria, and 
droye to a country-house in a large garden in its vicinity. 
No contrast could be greater or more charming; it was like 
the enchantment of a fairy scene. A balcony, overshadowed 
by a large old banyan tree, looked down upon groves of 
bananas, clumps of date palms, their verdure_beme contrasted 


with scarlet summits of Poimsettias six and eight feet in 
height. Glorious purple Ipomeas were climbing and trailing 


_ over fence and arbour; roses and Pelargoniums i in rich bloom 


below. 

At Cairo Iwas most struck by the extended fences of huge 
cacti, and the fine shady over-arching avenues of the “ sont ” 
trees (Mimosa nilotica), with their Tong golden pods. There 
are some grand old Tamarisks, but the foliage is dull. The 
date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) gives the ‘chief and most 
characteristic vegetable Yeature to the banks ‘of the Nile, ° 
though I must own that, after days of voyaging up stream, it 
begins to weary with its sameness. 

The memory of the varied forms and tints of foliage, the 
shapes and sizes and branching of the trees, in dear old Rich- 
mond Park often came in favourable contrast with the tropical 
forms I had so much longed towitness. As we entered Upper 
Egypt, I looked out with a positive longing for the bifurcate 
stem and the more dwarfed cluster of fan-like terminations of 
the many dichotomous branches of the second genus of palm, 
the Dém, or Doum kind, Hyphzene, which marks the warmer. 
latitudes. This genus is diffused, with the exception of the Cape 
of Good Hope, over the whole of the continent of Africa and 
parts of Arabia. The trunk is about thirty feet m height, and 
ringed, and differs essentially from that of most palms in being 
branched. It is difficult to speak with any degree of certainty 
of the geographical limits of H. thebaica, the subject of our 
illustration, as its synonymy is somewhat confused ; but it is 

said to grow in Nubia and Abyssinia as well as in “Arabia. Tt 
is called the gingerbread tree of Egypt. Its stem is frequently 


* three and four” times forked or branched in old trees, though 


when young it is always simple. It is nowhere so abundant as 
the date palm; its hard, round fruit, with tough, smooth, — 
brownish or yellowish rind, hangs in clusters from the terminal 
branches. It forms part ‘of the food of the poorer classes in 
Upper Egypt, the part eaten being the fibrous, mealy husk, - 
which tastes exactly like gingerbread ; but its dry, husky 
character renders it unpalatable. The hard tough wood is 
used for making various domestic- utensils, and rosaries are 
cut out of the “horny seed; hats and mats are made of the 
leaves. The date palm, however, is unquestionably a grander 
and. more graceful tree; touching which, I may tell you 
that, after spendmg a long morning, by special favour, 
in the. gardens of the grand Nile Palace of the Khediye, 
in which. in Jannary all our bedding-out plants were in 
a blaze of beauty, with endless rare and tropical forms that 
flourish ‘here in the open air, carefully tended and watered — 
by an army of fellahs, I ventured to express to the head- 
gardener my. surprise that neither Dém nor date palm were 
admitted, and suggested the fine effect of a group of the latter 
reflected from the high (ar tificial) bank of one of the (artificial) — 
lakes. 

“Date paulm !” repled- my conductor, in an accent 
(northern) of contemptuous surprise ;* * Ye might as weel talk 
o’ planting cawbages !” 

Every cluster of mud huts alon g the Nile is over shaded by 
its groye of Phoenix dactylifera, and a tax is levied upon the 


R. 0. 


fellaheen for each tree. x 


There is so much in association of ideas. 


s 


THE DOUM PALM OF UPPER EGYPT. 


ne ae ta 


— honses for head gardeners. 


‘ 


_ that they might go further . 
_ and fare worse in regard to 
_ outward comfort. By and bye 


(Jan. 13, 1872. 


; UNDER-GARDENERS’ LODGINGS. 


_ SHow me the homes of a people, and I will define their character, 
is a broad way of putting a most important social truth. Man is 
oftener the victim than the master of circumstances. Cramped, foul 
unhealthy homes have their counterparts in the mind, character, and 
condition of those who live therein. Hence, not only the physical 
but intellectual and moral importance of better dwellings for all 
classes of the community. We are glad to note that at last the tide 
of improvement has risen high enough to threaten to sweep away one 
of the most detestable of all places called a house—the “‘ bothie”’ for 
young men, hidden away out of sight in the back-slums of so many 
gardens. We sometimes, hear complaints of want of intelligence, 
culture, and polish among young gardeners. Let anyone look into 
the hole of this pit, whence so many have been dug, and complain no 
more. Were it not foran inherent nobility in most young gardeners, 
and the humanising and ennobling influence of their pursuits, doubt- 
less the ‘‘ bothie”’ system would have trodden out every sparkof gentle- 
ness or goodness long ere now. An earthen or brick floor, a four-post 
bedstead—ranged sometimes three or four deep in one room—bare 
mattress, a table, and a few 3 
stools, the whole sufficiently 
lighted to make darkness 
visible from a sunless window, 
without a single convenience 
for decency, or the slightest 
attempt to clothe the rawness 
of its discomfort. Such was, 
and alas still is, the ‘‘bothie’”’ 
in too many gardens. Who can 
wonder that it is difficnlt— 
impossible—to keep young 
men at home in such places, 
or that the village or town 
public-house, or the street, 
with its glare of light and 
its equally glaring vices, draw 
men out of such dens to a 
deeper degradation? The_ 
most potent receipt for keep- 
ing lads or men at home is to © 
surround them with home 
comforts and conveniences. 
These are_among the most 
powerful aids to a virtuous 
life. Place young men in such 
a@ house as is here set forth, 
and the chances are that their 
conduct will be, or will be- 
come, worthy of it. If men 
accustomed to rove, they will 
stay in this home at first, 
probably for the simple reason 


E ES 
We rae on7 Ste 3 


Shanssee 


Da YA abinurers 


Coe rne 


higher aspirations will spring 
forth from the order, quiet, 
cleanliness, and comfort of 


THE GARDEN. 


175 


. Ventilation of Ice Houses.—Mr. Cunningham’s communication 
on this subject (p. 136) would have been more useful to us if he had been 
more definite in his details, a truism which all writerson gardening 
would do well to remember when they endeavour to impart instruc- 
tion to others. Mr. Cunningham says, ‘“‘I have never,” after the inci- 
dent which he records, ‘‘ used straw as a lining between the ice and 
walls of ice-houses.’’ But he does not say what he uses as a substitute, 
nor of what his walls are composed, whether of wood, brick, or cement. 
Oar ice-house here is ten feet deep from the ground level, and twelve 
feet in diameter. It has a conical roof, thatched with heath, The 
walls are of brick, cemented inside. The first time it was filled there 
was neither straw nor anything else put between the ice and the 
wall; and when it was opened, early in the summer, all the ice was 
gone. The following winter straw was used with a little better | 
success. Six years ago I asked my employer if I might put three 
iron pipes, two inches anda half in diameter, through the roof, in 
order to secure a thorough circulation of air, as I consider that to be 
essential to saccess—the rabbits at Pitchford Hall, the seat of the 
late Earl of Liverpool, haying taught me this lesson, There was an 
ic2-house there twelve feet cube, the walls of which were built partly 
of wood and partly of brick. 
The roof was thatched with 
straw, and the same material 
was used as lining between 
the ice and the walls, as well 
as to cover the ice with. The 
rabbits used to make holes 
through the roof, so that as 
soon as you got the doors 
open you could see daylight 
through them. By this means 
perfect ventilation was se- 
cured, and the house was 
never empty of ice for six 
years. The cause of its being 
‘empty then, was, because we 
could not get any ice during 
one winter with which to fill 
it. After we had put iron 
pipes through the roof of our 
present house, and had placed 
some fagpot-wood between 
the straw and wall, ice has . 
kept in it so well that, when 
we began: to fill the house on 
the 7th of December last, 
there were two cart-loads of 
it left. If the wet straw is 
removed from the top of the 
ice two or three times during 
the summer, it will be of 
advantage to its keeping.— 
Davip WALKER, ~ Dunorlan 
Gardens, Tunbridge Wells. 
Experiment with Glass 
of Various Colours.—It 
F has long been a question how 
~ ' far colour can influence, the 
growth of plants. On this sub- 
ject M. P: Bert has addressed 


7, 


Agi’ > E 
ike reng Agome- 


the place. A process of 
assimilation will goon. The 
man will imperceptibly par- 
take of the character of his home; a love of study will be born of its 
quiet, of culture and refinement of its simple comfort. The three 
great wants, of gardeners at the present day are deeper knowledge, 
higher worth, more polish; and few things would contribute so much 
to these*as comfortably-arranged rooms for young men, and good 
One of the most excellent houses for 
young gardeners we have seen is that in Mr. Peek’s gardens at 
Wimbledon, and of which we give a plan. DPT Re 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN STRUCTURES. 


Distance of Boiler from Vinery.—What is the greatest distance 
from the boiler at which I may place a late span-roofed vinery ?—CLERICUS. 
A late span-roofed yinery may be placed at any distance from the 
boiler, varying from ten to one hundréd and fifty feet.. You must, however, 
bear in mind that the greater the distance the larger and more powerful 
the boiler must be, and the more fuel will of course be consumed. If you 
can so arrange it, it would be much better to have a boiler of smaller size 
fixed near the vinery, with underground stoke-hole, and a brick arch 
turned over it ; the boiler to have a small iron chimney. | ba 


Plan of the Young, Gardeners’ House at Wimbledon Park, 


io 


20 p30. FEET 
; an interesting communication 
to the Academy of Sciences. 
f Having placed twenty-five kinds 
of plants in a greenhouse provided with glazed framés of various hues, he 
watched their progress under the influence of the different lights they 
received. Milfoil and mullen figured among the plants requiring 
much sun; violets, &c., among those wanting shade; cactuses and 
house-leeks represented the thick-leaved classes; there were hesides 
green acotyledons, plants strongly tinged with red, such as Perilla, 
and lastly, firs. The individuals of each species were of the same 
size, having been sown at the same time. ‘he glass of the frames 
was respectively transparent white, dulled white, black, red, yellow, 
green, and blue; and the whole greenhouse was shielded from the direct 
rays of the sun. The observations commenced on the 20th of June; 
on the 24th various seeds were sown, which all sprang up at the 
same time in all situations. On the 20th of August the acotyledons 
alone were still alive, though perishing, under the black and green: 
and as to the rest, the red had proved more hurtful to them than 
the yellow and blue. The stalks were much taller, but also much 
weaker under the red; blue seemed to be the colour least detrimental to 
the plants; their greenness had remained natural, and even deeper than 
under the yellow. The plants sown on the 24th of June had all died oft 
very quickly under the black and green, Jater under the red, and had 
thriven better under the blue than under the yellow. As for the plants 
under the white glass they all continued to live, though less luxuriantly 
under the dulled than under the transparent glass.— Galignani. 


176 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 13, 1872. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


TREATMENT OF WALL TREES. 


Some half a century back the wall trees of most of the 

leading gardens of Britain were superior to what they are 
at the present time. Where must we now go to find peach- 
trees with stems measuring from eighteen ‘inches to two feet 
in girth? True, there are some fine trees still to be found, as, 
for example, the grand old specimens at Chatsworth, the 
largest of which last year produced about 1,400 fruits, unsur- 
passable in quality, If a finely-flavoured peach or nectarine 
ig required—in fact, a superior-flayoured fruit of any kind 
commend us to an old tree; for, whatever may be the reason, 
the fact is incontestible, that old trees produce fruit of much 
finer quality than that which can be procured from youn 
ones. So well aware was the late Duke of Portland of this 
fact, that in his garden at Welbeck he would not have.an old 
fruit-tree of any kind destroyed until it was quite worn out. 
_ Forty years ago I transplanted at Welbeck dozens of these 
old trees Which, had then become barren through penetrating 
the subsoil; and upon a recent visit to Mr. Tillery, I was 
glad to see that many of these yeteran trees haye been 
removed to the new garden that since that time has been 
made there. It 18 astonishing how well large-sized fruit- 
trees will bear transplanting, and how grateful they are 
for a fresh supply of good loamy soil. Z 

Tf taken in time, nothing is so easily renovated as an old fruit- 
tree; but, as a rule, the pruning, or branch improvement, 
should precede interference with the roots—that is, we should 
rectify the branches this season, and transplant the tree, or 
lift the roots, amd add fresh soil, twelve months hence. By 
reducing the branch action, and concentrating that of the 
roots upon those retained, we should obtain additional strength 
of bud, so that when the roots were lifted, that would assist in 
promoting vigorous root action. From these veterans, of 
course, we must not expect trees of fine symmetrical propor- 


tions, more for sight than service; for though it is not to be’ 


denied that “eye sweet” trees do sometimes produce fine 
crops, we believe the rule will prevail, that those trees which 
have been the least restrained by training are in the most 
fruitful and healthy state. ; 

Do not let me be misunderstood—I want system in forming 
the tree; but I consider the restraint too frequently imposed 
uponthe branches not only unnecessary, but positively injurious. 
In stone fruits, apricots and peaches especially, the laceration 
consequent upon the straightening of a branch»may,in the 
first instance, be the parent of “gum,” and in future years 


the imexplicable cause of the sudden collapse of large and | 


healthy branches. This I think much more> probable than 
sunstroke ; though sunstroke, acting upon a diseased limb, 


may be more powerful for eyil than. if acting upon a perfectly 


healthy frame. 
To prune a tree so as to cover the entire surface of the 


wall at all times with healthy bearing wood is'the secret of 
correct management. Tested by this standard, half the 
trained trees in the country are ill managed; for even in pears, 
while the top of the tree and the ends of the branches may 
be full-of blossom, the centre will be entirely destitute of 
fruit. 3 
A few years back, a cottager, who had for a long time been 
the first wall man in a large establishment, had upon his 
cottage a splendidly-trained Marie Louise pear. The tree, as 
an example of training, was perfect to look at, but it bore no 
fruit. _ A change of tenants caused the tree to be neglected, 
and for two seasons it grew innocent of the pruning-knife. In 
the following spring every branch was found to be a wreath of 
blossom-buds. The strongest and the very weakest branches 
were thinned out, and those remaining were tied in in a 
pendant form, and ever since that tree has stood sponsor for 
the rent of the house, and for some pounds beyond that 
amount, : ' ; 
Excessive pruning is worse than no pruning at all, for 
nature, uncontrolled, will produce fruit; but the unrestrained 
pruning-knife is too frequently the parent of barrenness. 
Just the same is it with the peach and other stone fruits. A 
house or wall has to be replanted, and, to save time, we buy in, 


at a high price, two to three seasons’ trained trees; and what 

do we do in the majority of casesP We cut the fine healthy 

branches back to-within a foot or eighteen inches of the 

bottom—for what? toform what is called a good base to the 

tree; then, when the tree gets into growth, and the time 

comes for distending or thinning the young branches, the best 

shoots, or “robbers,” as custom calls them, are rubbed off, and 

only those of moderate growth are retained. In fact, weswant 

vigour; but we commence with mediocrity, and if the tree 

attempts the vigorous form, we directly thumb-screw it im 

some way or other. In this way, it takes something like five 

or seven years to cover a twelve-foot wall; while, with proper 

treatment, planting well-prepared trees, a wall of the height 

named may be covered in a superior manner in three to four 

ears. . : Ss 

A To secure healthy, well-rooted trees of moderate growth, 

plant them, if possible, directly the leaf has fallen, thin out 
the weak branches, and shorten the others no lower than 
to where the wood is fully ripe. In this way you will start 
with a tree covering from its base a radius of three to four 
feet, and if itis properly planted, and you have the courage 
to do it, you may increase the radius thereto four feet every 
season, untilthe wall is filled. And that is not all; for by 
such treatment you will insure such vigour as can neyer be 
secured by the restraining process... You will obtain, indeed, 
what our American cousins would term ‘a live tree,” an 
article very different from the common-place examples which 
the rule of thumb and pinching processes must give us. I 
can look upon such trees planted last season, to train which a 
man uses a ladder, and each tree is capable of bearing several 
dozens of fruit this season. This is what I call peach culture. 
To realise the fact that it is the gardener’s duty to direct, not 
to control, nature is the only way in which we can make an 

marked degree of progress in fruit culture. ~ - 


NEW PEARS. 


I am always glad to hear that additions haye been made to our 
stock of useful pears, and if the fonr new kinds described by — 
M. Baltet, viz., Clapp’s Favourite, Poire de l’Assomption, Fondante 
Thirriot, and Beurré Baltet Pére, can be relied upon to retain, at least in 
some degree, the excellent qualities astribed to them under the many 
circumstances of soil and position to which all our cultivated fruits 
are exposed, in spite of the already formidable list of varieties 
already in cultivation, we shall find room for them, and welcome them; 
but this ordeal of latitude, longitude, altitude, soil, and rain, is a 
trying one, and in my experience many pears with great names and 
high characters haye failed to pass it. It must be remembered that 
the climate ef Troyes presents more favourable circumstances for the 
full development of the pear than can be found generally in England, 
and varieties, whose.excellence would be admitted when, grown in 
good localities in France, too often fail to maintain the high 
character sent with them when grown under our cloudy skies. I 
find a good illustration of my remarks in the list of pears given by 
M. Baltet, who names, amongst others, several that he esteems 
unsurpassable in quality—Beurré Diel, Tromphe de Jodoigne, 
Duchesse d’Angouléme. These are large and handsome pears, but, even 
with the advantage of good wall culture are quite worthless grown 
at’ Belvoir. The determination of special soils and localities for: 
particular classes of pears is a work that can only be pursued slowly, 
as experiments must extend over many years, butit is one that merits 
attention and consideration. I have observed that fruits, both apples, 
pears, and plums, and, I mayadd, apricots, originated in a particular 
locality seem to have acquired a constitutional fitness for it, and to 
be less liable-to the ailments trees imported from another locality 
seem prone to. I think we are all bound in our time and generation 
to do as much as we can towards the increase of good and useful 
things, and wherever there is a chance of raising a few seedling 
fruits it should be done. The Rey. Mr. Kingsley’s views concerning 
the selection of the extreme point of a seedling pear, or those shoots 
that indicate fruitfulmess, are of great practical value, and will, if 
practised, help to shorten the term of watchfulness which, when it ~ 
lasts eight or nine years, leads to the heart sickness of-hope deferred. 

Belvoir. Wittiam IncRaM. 


Oranges.—The quantity of these which arrived in Paris for New 
Year’s Day amounted to 254,000 cases. The boxes contained from 320 to 
840; but taking the smallest number, we find 81,280,000 im all, or about 
forty for each inhabitant, . rte, 


Tan. 13, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


177 


NEW FRUITS OF 1871. 


A.D. 1871 was not a fruitful year, so that our acquisitions in this 
départment are not so numerous or important as usual. Still we 
have to record several noyelties of no mean meérit, and such as we 
may gladly welcome. Grapes, as usual, come most prominently 
before us. Our indefatigable friend, Mr. Pearson, of Chilwell, 
presents us with a batch of four, all of considerable promise. In 
Dr. Hoge we have an improved Duchess of Buccleuch—that is, 
improved as to size and constitution, the quality being the same, 
resembling that of the well-known Chasselas Musqué. Abram Bass 
is a fine, firm-fleshed, oval black grape, raised from Mrs. Pince’s 
Muscat. Chilwell Alicante resembles the Alicante or Black Tokay, 
and has a fine rich pleasant flavour which the older variety does not 
possess. Emperor of Morocco is also a fine-looking black grape, of 
very rich and pleasant flavour, raised from the Black Morocco. We 
must here also say just another word for Mr. W. Paul’s Waltham 
Cross, which is one of the noblest-looking of late white grapes yet 
produced. mae 

Of peaches, Mr. Rivers gives us a batch of novelties, some of 
which are of great merit. Especially we would note this of 
Goshawk, one of the richest mid-season peaches grown. Of others 
we may mention Albatross, Condor, Golden Eagle, Merlin, very rich. 
Of nectarines, Darwin and Humboldt are two fine acquisitions of the 
Stanwick class. We may also notice as a mid-season peach of 
remarkably fine quality the Markly Admirable of Mr. Knight. In 
apples we have no- addition of note; neither in pears is there any 
very remarkable novelty. We may, however, invite attention to one 
or two which during the past season have proved of great excellence, 
yiz., Beurré de ]’Assomption and Souvenir du Congrés, both haying 
the character of Williams’ Bon Chrétien. In cherries we have to 
add Bigarreau Noir de Schmidt, a fine black heart; and Early 
Rivers, a very fine, large, fleshy, richly-flavoured sort of greatrepute. 

’ Let us hope that in a propitious season we may haye more meritorious 
novelties to notice.—A. F. B., in “ Florist and Pomologist.” 


PUBLIC. GARDENS... 


THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 


Turnine down what is called fhe Albert Embankment stairs to 
the right, after crossing Westminster Bridge, pedestrians have 
before them the finest footway in London, but a footway only, and 
scarcely will they have descended the stairs when they will begin to 
wonder, and wonder the more because they will wonder in vain, why 
a high brick wall has been built along the whole front of the new 

hospital just built there, narrowing the embankment, cutting it, as 
it_seems to do, in half, and converting what might have been a high 
road into a footpath. Why, it may be asked, was not the ground left 
open to the hospital arcades? Such a concession would have blessed 
both those who gave it and those who took it. It would have made 

e embankment a wider way, it would haye given passengers some- 
thing to look at on the land side besides a blank brick wall, and it 
would have shown off the fine colonnades of the hospital. Were the 
latter a lunatic asylum there would be some apology for this exclusive 
wall, which has come so near the water that it has taken inside it 
the trees planted along the embankment. As it is, we can see no 
reason for such an arrangement, but that old dog-in:the-manger 
spirit which induced.a Shropshire nobleman of the last generation to 

spend untold sums in building a wall round his great park high 
enough to keep out the hunting field. The brick wall in question, 
however, serves a purpose, for along it are fastened the wooden posts 
and shabby lamps which light the embankment. Why it is not lit 
by the proper lanterns, which ought long ago to have been fixed on 
the handsome dolphin-wreathed pedestals which ornament the outer 
parapet, is more than we can say or excuse. Opposite Lambeth 
Palace isa bit of ‘‘ garden,” a work which often does not mean much 
in London, but which means more in the shabbiest square than it 
means here, upon a work the imperial magnificence of which was 
thonght worthy of a princely name. This garden is fenced by a vile 
hoarding covered with bill tatters, and by prying between its chinks 
we may read written in unconscious satire, ‘‘ Albert Embankment.” 
At another place, some iron railings, no doubt to be in due course 
coated with ‘‘ indestructible paint,” are in course of erection. Why 
each patch of garden here and on the Victoria Embankment should 
be securely fenced in with an unsightly fence, or any fence at all, is 
not apparent. Foot passengers are practically kept out of them, for 
who will delay to hunt for the gate? The embankment, which, 
despite the brick wall of St. Thomas’s, began in magnificence 
opposite Westminster, ends in mire opposite Millbank. A small 
muddy space is here being reserved for a garden, and another muddy 
space, which ought to have been so reserved,is “to be let for 80 


s 


years.’’ Less ornamental than this “notice board,” but quite as 
significant are the wretched rusty iron stands which protect the trees. 
One of the trees is badly broken at the top, and if we might make 
one petition it is that it be substituted by another this very winter. 
We would further beg that at this season when we hear so much of 
distress and want of work, a few men be hired to redeem the upper 
end of the embankment from the filth, the slovenliness, the wilful 
incompleteness which deface it. Something should, perhaps, be 
conceded to the genius loci of the Surrey side, but even that slatternly 
goddess must feel ashamed of herself as she flits over piles of paving 
stones and heaps of rubbish. Something we are ready to concede to 
her, but something we must demand from the Board of Works. Not 
that they should do their work; that were hopeless and too much to ~ 
expect, but that they should not take credit for having done it 
when they have left it so shamefully undone. If eyen this be too 
much to require of them, we can at least say with confidence that, 
whatever credit they may choose to give themselves, they will not 
get any from that portion of the public which walks along the Albert 
Embankment. That this work and its more than match on the other 
side of the river are noble-works, that they were boldly conceived, 
undertaken with spirit, and finished in their solid and costly parts 
with ease and success, only makes the present neglect of them the 
more inexplicable. 


SITUATION OF CITY PARKS. 


First of all, a public park should be as near as possible to the 
town; best of all, perhaps, if in the very centre of the town, or, as 
in the case of some of the old walled towns of Europe, girting it with 
a circle of green. I hardly think any public gardens of the world con. 
tribute more to the health and enjoyment of the adjacent population 
than those of Frankfort-on-the-Main, which lie all about their homes, 
and which are planted upon the line of the old fortifications. Even 
the ill-kept walks upon the ancient walls of Chester and York (in 
England), by their nearness to the homes of the people, and by the 
delightful out-look they offer, are among the most cherished prome- 
nades I know. But with us, who have no girting walls, and rarely 
yacant spaces about our commercial centres, these pleasant breathing- 
places must be pushed into the outskirts of our towns. I say—rarely 
vacant spaces; but while I write, there occur to me instances of 
beautiful opportunities neglected, one of which, at least, I will 
record. The thriving little city of Norwich, in eastern Connecticut, is 


| situated at the confluence of two rivers, which form the Thames. 


Along either shore of the Yantic and theShetucket, the houses of the 
town are picturesquely strewed with patches of white and grey; but 
between the rivers and the lines of houses, the land rises into a great 
promontory of hill—toward the east, forming a Salvator-Rosa cliff, 
shaggy with brush-wood and cedars—towards the south and west, a 
steep declivity on which the swiftly slanting sward-land is spotted 
with outcropping ledges; to the north a gradual slope falls easily 
away to the great plains where lie the bulk of the suburban resi- 
dences. Within twenty or thirty years the whole upper surface of this 
central hillock might have been secured for the merest bagatelle, and 
would have made one of the proudest public promenades imaginable, ~ 
accessible to all walkers from the south and east, and to all equipages 
from the north, and offering level plateau for drives that would have 
commanded the most enchanting of views; but the occasion has 
gone by; inferior houses hold their uneasy footing on the hill-side, 
and a gaunt gaol, which is the very apotheosis of ugliness, crowns 
this picturesque height. 

Another little city, that of Hartford, in the neighbour State of 
Connecticut, has made the most of its opportunities by converting 
into a charming public garden a weary waste of ground that lay 
between its railway station and the heart of the city. The oppor- 
tunity was not large, to besure, but it was one that needed a keen 
eye for its development, and the result has shown that commercial 
thrift may not unfrequently take its lesson with profit from the sug- 
gestions of a cultivated taste. There is manya growing town having 
somewherewithinits borders such unsuspected aptitude and capability, 
that only needs an eye to discern it, and the requsite enterprise to 
develop in the very heart of the population a garden and a public 
promenade that would becomeajoy for ever. It must beremembered, 
furthermore, that it is quite impossible to make such transmutation 
of waste and unsightly places into an attractive area of garden-land, 
without increasing enormously the taxable value of all surrounding 
property. I recall now, in one of our most thriving seaside cities, a 
great slough of oozy tide-mud of many acres in extent, shut off from 
the harbour front by alow railway embankment, showing here and 
there a riotous overgrowth of wild sedges, foul with heaps of garbage, 
uninviting in eyery possible way, and yet lying within stone’s throw 
ofthe centre of the city. Sandy highlands, almost totally unim- 
proved, flank it immediately upon the west—disposed there, as it 


178 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jax. 13, 1872+ 


would seem, for the very purpose of furnishing easy material for the 
filling in of the flat below. A few thousands would accomplish this, 
and judicious planting and outlay would in three years’ time establish 
a charming promenade or garden in the centre of the sea-front of the 
town, and there is not one of ‘the adjoining pieces of property but 
would be doubled in value by the operation. The neglect of such 
opportunities, whether due to miserable local jealousies or, as often 
happens, to the short-sightedness and indifference of municipal 
authorities, is surely not complimentary to our civilization —Rwral 
Studies. x 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PUBLIC GARDNES. 


The Colosseum in Regent’s Park.—This, we learn, is to be’ 
converted into a site for baths of all kinds. The surplus space of the 
plot of ground in which it stands:is to be laid out as a winter garden, and 
the block of buildings facing Albany Street will be partly rebuilt, and 
converted into club chambers. 


Enlargement of Victoria Park.—A public meeting, convened 
by the committee of the Victoria Park Preservation Society, in furtherance 
of the above-named object, was lately held in the New Town Hall, 
Hackney; Mr. C. Reed, M-P., im the chair. The chairman said since the 
vising of Parliament at the end of last session it had seemed to him as if 
everything they held dear in the way of recreation-grounds were im peril. 
Within a recent period they had had a struggle with regard to London 
Vields, Haclmey Common, Hackney Downs, and Epping Forest ; and only . 
last week it was his duty, as one of the representatives of that borough, 
to appear before the Conseryators of the river Lea to protest against the 
pollution of these once beautiful waters, to which so many of the mhabit- 
ants had been in the habit of resorting for recreation and sport. In the 
case of Epping Forest the Corporation of London had stepped in to 
support the cause of the people, and he trusted there would be speedy, 
redress. In the present instance there was no charge tomake against any 
one taking away property. Victoria Park was set apart under an Act of 
Parliament in the year 1842 for the benefit of the~people, only 290 acres 
being devoted to that purpose, and about 90 acres being reserved with a 
right of building. This right had been already exercised to a certain 
extent; a belt of about 30 acres was still left in the most interesting 
portion of the park, and it was the intention of the Government that that 
ground should be let on building leases. Well, the Government no doubt 
felt that it was performing its duty in the matter; but it would be a pity 
if, when the people of that district had laid thet case before the consti- 
tuted authorities, and,as would perhaps be done ultimately, before Parlia- 
ment, their voice in reference to their own park was disregarded. The 
rector of Bethnal Green moved the first resolution, viz., “That this 
meeting is of opinion that the area of Victoria Park should be enlarged 
. by the addition of the Crown lands reserved for building purposes.” . He 
thought the inhabitants of that district should not confine themselves 
to the present demand, but also ask for the 125 acres, on which were to 
have been erected the accumulated gasworks of London.—Mr. Holms, M.P, 
in supporting the resolution, said he was surprised that under all the 
circumstances they should have to conie there to protect only-29% acres of 
land. He believed that a very good case could be made out before Parlia- 
ment. The West-end parks and Battersea Park were all maintained at 
the public expense; and during the last ten years while £59,000 a year 
on the average had been spent upon them, only £6,600 a year had been 
spent on the Wast-end parks. He regretted the use by the Society of the. 
word “ enlargement,”’ the object being in reality simply to maintain what 
the district already possessed. The resolution was carried unanimously. 


‘ 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


THE PARASOL AGARIC. m 
(AGARICUS PROCERTS.) 


Ture are but two other agarics that at all resemble this, 
and both are edible. One about the same. size is Agaricus 
rachodes. Itis not generally considered so good in flavour as 
A. procerus. Mrs. Hussey, however, says plainly, “If Agaricus 
procerus is the king of edible funguses, Agaricus rachodes is 
an excellent viceroy.” The other is the Agaricus excoriatus, a 
very much smaller fungus, with a more slender habit, a shorter 
stem, and no true bulb at the base. This elegant little fungus 
is also-very good eating. P 

Whenever an agaric on a lone stalk, enlarged at the base, 
presents a dry cuticle more or less scaly, a darker coloured. 
umbonated top, a movable ring, and white gills, it must be 
Agaricus procerus—the parasol agaric, and it may be gathered 
and eaten without fear. When the whitish flesh of this agaric 
is bruised it shows a light reddish colour. This is one of the 
best of the edible fungi, so commonly passed by as useless. 

_The Pileus is fleshy ovate when young, then campanulate, and 
afterwards expanded and umbonate (blunt pointed), from three 
to seven inches across. Cuticle more or less brown, entire over 
the umbo, but torn into patches, or scales which become more 


with avery small piece-of fresh butter. 


and more separated as they approachthe margin. Flesh white. 
Gills unconnected with the stem, fixed to a collar on the pileus 
surrounding its top. Ring persistent, loose on the stem. 
Stem six or eight inches high, tapering upwards from a pear- 
like bulb at the root, hollow with a loose pith, whitish brown, 
but more or less variegated with small and close-pressed 
scales. : \ 
The parasol agaric has a very wide range of growth. Tbisa ~ 
common fungus, and is in high request all over the Continent. 
The following are the opinions of good judges on the merits 
of the Parasol Agaric as an edible fungus :— 
“A most excellent mushroom, of a delicate flavour, and it 
must be considered a most useful species.”—M. J. BERKELEY. 
“Were its excellent qualities better known here, they could not ~ 
fail to secure it a general reception into our best kitchens, and 
a frequent place among our side dishes at table."—Dr. BApHam. 
“Tf once tried, it must please the most fastidious.’— 
W.G. Swiru. ’ > 
There can be no question but that, when young and quickly 
grown, the parasol agaric is a delicious fungus. It has a light 
and delicate flavour without the heavy richness which belongs 
to the ordinary field mushroom. - The writer has-preyailed on 
many persons to try it; all without exception haye liked it, 
many have thought it quite equal, and some have proclaimed it 
superior to, the common mushroom. 
The following are the modes of cooking the Parasol Agaric :— 


Brommp Procerus.—Remoye the scales and stalks from the 


Agaric, or Scaly Mushroom (Agaricus procerus). Grows in pastures, 
in autumn ; colour, pale brownish buff; diameter, 5 to 12 inches. 


Larasol 


agarics, and broil lightly over a clear fire on both sides for a few 
minutes; arrange them on a dish over fresh-made, well-divided 
toast; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and put a small piece of 
butter on each; set before a brisk fire to melt the butter, and 
serve up quickly. If the cottager would toast his bacon over 
the broiled mushrooms, the butter would be saved. yaaa 
Agarics Drnicateny Srswep.—Remove the stalks and scales 
from young half-grown agarics, and throw each one as you do 
so into a basin of fresh water slightly acidulated with the juice 
of a lemon, or a little good vinegar. When all are prepared, 
remove them from the water, and put them into a stew-pan 
Sprinkle with white 
pepper and salt, and add a little lemon-juice; cover up closely, 
and stew for half an hour. Then adda spoonful of flour, with — 
sufficient cream, or cream and milk, until the whole has the 
thickness of cream. Season to taste, and stew again gently 
until the agaries are perfectly tender. Remove all the butter 
from the surface, and serve in a hot dish, garnished with slices 
of lemon. A little mace, nutmeg, or ketchup may be added; 
but there are those who think that spice spoils the mushroom 
ayvour. if elbats Ht 
CorracEr’s Procprus Pr.—Cut fresh agarics in small pieces, 
and coyer the bottom of a pie-dish. Pepper, salt, and place 


‘ 


eh) 


“Jan. 13, 1872.) - 


THE GARDEN. 


£79 


them on small shreds of fresh bacon, then put in a layer of 
mashed potatoes, and so fill the dish, layer by layer, with a 
cover of mashed potatoes for the crust. Bake well for half an 
hour, and brown before a quick fire. 
A 1a Provengate.—‘ Steep for two hours in some salt, 
Beans alittle garlic} then toss in a small stew-pan overa 
risk fire, with parsley chopped, and a little lemon-juice.”— 
Dr. Bapuam. 

_Acanric Knrcuvr.—Place agarics of as large a size as you 
can procure, but which are not worm-eaten, layer by layer, ina 
deep pan, sprinkling each layer as it is put in with a little salt. 
The next day stir them well up several times,.so as to mash 
and extract their juice. On the third day strain off the liquor, 
measure, and boil for ten minutes, and then to every pint ot the 
liquor add half an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce 
of bruised ginger-root, a blade of mace, a clove or two, and a 
teaspoonful of mustard-seed. Boil again for half an hour; 
put in two or three bay-leaves, and set aside till quite cold. 
Pass through a strainer, and bottle; cork well, and dip the ends 
in resin. A very little chili vinegar is an improvement, and 
some add a glass of port wine, or a glass of strong ale to every 
bottle. Care should be taken that the spice is not added so 
abundantly as to overpower the true flayour of the agaric. A 
careful cook will keep back a little of the simple boiled liquor 
to guard against this danger: a good one will always avoid it. 
“ Doctors weigh their things,” said a capital cook, “ but I go 
by taste.”” But then, like poets, good cooks of this order must 
be born so; they are not to be made. 


THE FORESTS OF INDIA. 


THESE are beginning to show the effects of the system of conser- 
yancy recently adopted. Formerly they were so much neglected 
that in some districts there were great difficulties in obtaining timber 
for the public departments; fires, too, did great damage; but in 
1863 the Government appointed Mr. Brandis and Dr. Cleghorn to 
organise a departmental system of conservancy for all India, and the 
condition of the forests has ever since been constantly and steadily 
improving. New species of trees are being introduced for acclima- 
tization. The gross revenue from the forests has increased from 
£304,443 in the financial year 1863-64 to the (estimated) amount of 
£573,220 for the year 1871-72. But the expenses have increased at 
a greater rate, and,are estimated at £451,000 for the year 1871-72, 
leaving a surplus of only £122,000, the expenditure absorbing four- 
fifths of the produce. But the object in view is not merely revenue. 
The forests must be preserved, even if it costs money to keep them 
in good condition. They are of the utmost importance for the 
production of timber and fuel, and also for climatic purposes. The 
‘systematic supervision of the forests is, however, still in its infancy, 
as the first set of trained European conservators, under Mr. Brandis, 
went ont only at the end of the year 1869. Nevertheless Parlia- 
mentary returns recently issued, show much progress made under the 
new system of administration. The three principal sorts of trees in 
the old forests are teak, sil, and deodar. The teak is of peculiar 
value for shipbuilding and other purposes from the power of the oil 
to conserve iron. Teak is by far the most valuable of Indian woods. 
First-class teak for shipbuilding takes seventy or eighty years in 
coming to maturity; for house buildmg and furniture there is a 
ready sale for the thinnings in twenty years. Sal wood is used for 
engineering purposes, for shipbuilding, and for house building. The 
trees grow very closely together. Planting is not required; the seeds 
fall viviparous into the ground. This wood takes a long time to 
season, and it is liable to the attacks of some insects. The best of 


the deodar timber comes from territory which is not British.. Deodar™ 


is, in fact, used for sleepers, but it is far too valuable a wood for*that 
purpose: Then there is black wood, of great value for ordnance 
purposes, for house building, and for carved furniture ; it is planted 
in the same situation as teak, and can be obtained of as large size 
as teak. Ebony is a wood of great value, and sold by weight. The 
cinchona cultivation has been a remarkable success on the Neilgherry 
hills. It is of extremely rapid growth, and the bark of commerce is 
obtained at an early age. There are at least 2,000 acres of cinchona 
on the Neilgherries. It is expected that the leaves may yield a 
febrifuge for the masses. Of bamboo there are several species ; 
next to the cocoa-nut, the bamboo is, perhaps, the most valuable wood 
in India for domestic purposes. It combines toughness and durability 
with extreme lightness. Rattans grow in great abundance in the 
forests of Malabar. The rattan is a species of palm, the stem of 
which runs along the ground for great lengths (eighty feet to hun- 
dred feet or more) ; it is a product of considerable value, and likely 


‘ 


to become a larger article of trade. Cassia lignea 4s an inferior 
variety of bark, resembling cinnamon in smell and appearance ; it is 
found, pretty extensively in Malabar, and some reyenue might be 
derived from it. Wild cinnamon is also found in the forests of 
Malabar ; for all such articles there is a coming demand. There are 
several woods that produce good bark for tanning. Caoutchoue and 
gums of similar properties are found largely in Assam. There are 
several species of gum to be obtained in the forests of India, and dye 
stuffs; and a very large production of honey and beeswax. The 
breadfruit tree is grown in gardens. The betel nut is a valuable 
tree. The casuarina, or beef-wood, is a very useful tree, of rapid 
growth, and the timber of great hardness. It is quite large enough 
for building purposes. The wood is very hard, and turns the edge 
of the axe. It has the peculiar property of durability under water. 
The satinwood is much used for picture frames and fancy purposes ; 
it resembles the American maple. The Indian dogwood, a small tree 
of abont fifteen feet, is considered remarkably suitable for charcoal 
for gunpowder purposes. Many other species of wood might be men. 
tioned which it will be useful to conserve and propagate—the red 
cedar and some species of the mahogany family ; ironwood, which is 
practically imperishable, and so forth. The cultivation of wood for 
fuel is of importance ; in the drier parts of India it is so deficient 
that manure is burnt, and consequently the land is starved and pro- 
duction diminished. é 

Reports from British Burmah show that, of the total area of 
60,000,000 acres, there are 1,534,000 acres of teak-producing forests, 
and 2,946,000 acres of forest void of teak, besides 26,000,000 acres 
of low-lying forest land and land occupied by 12,845 towns and 
villages, The Pegu division is the largest and most important. 
The average age of a first-class tree of six feet girth in this division 
is found to be 124 years. Besides teak there are valuable forests of 
ironwood, catechu, thingan, and other trees. The Oudh report de- 
scribes the forest establishment as beginning to work pretty fairly. 
Conservancy has been introduced very gradually into the province, 
regard being had to the requirements of the population, and their 
prescriptive rights. It is the minor forest produce that is chiefly 
affected by such claims. The whole of Coorg proper is stated tobe 
dotted with stately forests. The trees attain their greatest magni- 
tude on the declivities of the Ghits~-a stupendous ridge covered 
with a rich stratum of mould, in which trees grow to a prodigious 
size. Bamboos of great excellence are found everywhere. From 
the North-Western Provinces we have accounts of the plantations of 
Australian trees at Raneekhet, which are going on favourably. In 
some cases there has been wonderful progress; but some of the 
fruit-trees from England died from the heat on their-way up the 
country. The -successful introduction of the rapidly-growing 
Australian trees is regarded as a matter of the highest importance 
with a view to the supply of fuel. The Bengal report notices the 
importance of the Soom forests for the production of the Moogah 
silk, one of the most profitable occupations of the inhabitants of 
the Luckimpore district. A full account is given of the teak plan- 
tations at Nellamboor, in the Madras Presidency. The trees near 
the streams run to five feet in girth, with straight; cylindrical stems 
sixty feet to seventy feet in height. The Canara conservator dwells 
upon ‘the vast resources of the Bala Ghats of Canara, with its 
1,950 square miles of magnificent forests.’’ Measurements of trees 
in the Sherolie Forest, above Ghits, gave from eighty feet to 
eighty-four feet in height from the ground to the intervention of the 
first branch, with clear cylindrical stems, carrying a girth of nine 
feet from the ground upwards. In some districts in this province, 
where forest lands were made over to the Inamdars, effects of denu- 
dation are felt. The people say the rainfall gets less there every 
year; creeks are silting up, and shoals and bars forming at mouths 
of rivers. Since the forests were cleared along the ghits, nothing 
checks the rush of water down the hills; it no longer soaks into the 
ground. The Sindh forests comprise 317,245 acres; the two 
remaining districts—Berar and Mysore—are administered for native 
States. The conservator of Berar, referring to the importance of 
caring for the humbler trees of the coppice, states that it is certain 
that, from whatever cause, the rainfall of Berar is not so copious as 
it was a few generations ago. The Mysore conservator tells of the 
great forests of the Western Ghits, with trees of clear stem of 
eighty feet to one hundred feet to the first_branch. He gives some 
account of the sandalwood. The tree attains maturity in about 
twenty-five years, and its girth then varies from eighteen to forty 
inches. The best parts are used for ornamental articles. The roots 
and chips, which are richest in oils, go to the still, and are the basis 
of many scents. It is burnt by rich natives at the burial of rela- 
tives. The Province is divided into twenty-four sandal districts 
under managers, who mark and collect the wood. It may be 
added that the Forest Department in India covers an area greater 
than that of the British Isles.—Condensed from “ Times.” 


180 


THE GARDEN. si. 


[Jan. 13, 1872. 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER-* 


In-door Plant Department.—The conservatory will now be daily 
reeetving fresh floral life from the forcing pit, and to the latter constant 
' successional supplies must be introduced. Shelves edged gracefully with 
Isolepis or with Lycopodium denticulatum, will now be gay with early 
tulips, lily of the valley, cyclamens, poinsettias, primroses, and the earliest 
cinerarias ; while tastefully dispersed amongst the more permanent occu- 
pants of the house will be azaleas, kalmias, rhododendrons, heaths, and 
similar flowering shrubs. These with camellias, some of the earlier 
acacias, tea-scented roses, and the powerfully sweet-scented Luculia 
gratissima, will maintain an amount of enjoyment greater by far than that 
derivable from much more brilliant displays made later in the year. Keep 
up a night temperature of some 45 degrees, allowing a rise of ten degrees 
or more during the day. At this season, more than any other perhaps, 
the value of tree ferns, palms, the nobler types of succulent plants, 
dracenas, c&e., is felt. They give us in the midst of our dreary winter all 
the ravishing exuberance of lovely forms that are seen in the fairest parts 
of tropical countries. In a conservatory now filled with these plants a 
few kinds of flower and berry bearing subjects go as far as thrice the 
amount in one of the very commonly seen conservatories naked of all 
beauty of form. : 

In-door Fruit Department.—Snccession pine-apples must be kept 
growing steadily; they must therefore be supplied with sufficient heat and 
moisture to keep them in that condition, and the amount of air-circulation 
must be increased as the days lengthen. As they will soon require re- 
potting, have soil and pots im readiness for that purpose. Pines finishing off 
fruit should be keptail but dry; but such as have fruit still swelling should 
have a good soaking of tepid, clear manure waterat the root, as often as 
they appear to require it.—Vines in houses from which the fruit has been 
cut, should now be pruned and cleaned, preparatory to their being again 
started into growth. As light increases early vines may be indulged with 
a little more heat than would have been advisable a week or two back. 
—Cucumbers sow for early spring use in a hotbed or moist warm stove. 
Temperature from 65 degrees to 80 degrees.—Seakale, rhubarb, and 
asparagus, place in heat according to the succession required.—Potatoes 
started in pots or boxes plant out into frames or pits near the glass on a 
gentle bottom heat, always giving them abundance of air when there is no 
danger from frosts.—Radishes and small salads may be sown between the 
rows.—Mint, taragon, &c., may be easily supplied from pots placed on 
shelves along with French beans. 

Flower Garden and Shrubberies.—While the weather is favour- 
able all alterations in thé form of ground work should be finished with ag 
much expedition as possible. New rosaries may still be made and planted, 
care being taken to put stakes to standards so as to keep them from wind- 
waving. Tender sorts should be examined, and where the protection 
given them seems insufficient, or has been displaced, fresh, dry coverings 
must be supplied. Fern, laurel, or spruce fir branches make excellent 
protections, and these are in general plentiful enough about most gardens. 
In most places, however, this period is one of rest in this department. 
In-doors, nevertheless, much will have to be done in the selection and 
ordering of seeds, &e., for spring and summer sowing. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Pruning and nailing of 
wall trees must now .be pushed forward with activity, as must also the 
pruning of espaliers and pyramids and dwarfs in borders. Trees in 

. orchards should likewise have their generally overcrowded heads thinned 
out a little, removing in the operation all ill-placed branches, or such as 

' cross one another. Defer pruning gooseberries and currants until a little 
later in the season. 

In the kitchen garden, where cabbages have been loosened by frosts, go 
over them and make them firm with the foot, afterwards earthing them 
up a little with the draw hoe. <A row or two of early peas may be put in 
on a sheltered border, but care must be taken to keep them from being 
injure by mice. A few mazagan beans may also be put in, and a pinch 
of radishes and horn carrots may likewise be tried in some warm corner. 
Clear off crops now done with, and trench and dig the ground they occupy 

n order to be ready for other crops, 


Labels.—I want to give a little more information on the subject of 
labels than is given at page 156 of your last number. The cast-iron labels 
for herbaceous plants there recommended were largely introduced into 
the Botanic Garden, Regent’s Park, years ago by yourself, I believe, Mr. 
Conductor. I visited these gardens recently, and thought I would just 
look at the labels. I found some of the oldest, done seven or eight years 
ago, and noted their dark, dim colour, and general indistinctness. I 
rubbed them with my wet finger, and they brightened a little; I rubbed 
again and again, and they became as bright as new. I then looked out 
for the very dimmest I could find. This I rubbed, touched the soil with 
my finger, rubbed again, and it became bright and perfectly légible. 
Therefore, if, instead of painting afresh every six years, they are simply 
well serubbed, and newly varnished, they will want nothing else. A great 
point in regard to these labels is their comparative invisibility. A large 
bed may have two hundred of them on it, and yet at twenty yards 
distance you will scarcely suspect the presence of one. On the contrary, 
white ones with black letters are very conspicuous. I wish some good 
firm would set to work, and get up a stock of these labels; they ought to 
be obtainable at from ten to twelve shillings per hundredweight. Anyone 
interested in this matter may readily seo these labels just as I rubbed 
them in the herbaceous garden near the head of the lake in the Botanic 
Garden, Regent’s Park.—A. D. ; 

* Complete general calendars, written by some of the most able gardeners in 
the country, are published in Tux GarpeEn in the first issue in each month. 


Vegetation on Houses.—We inspected recently several hundreds 
of yillas and mansions that had cost from £2,000 to £10,000 each, 
and had been built within the last eight or ten years, near a growing 
city. The architecture of these houses was very varied; but our 
conclusion was that they were all staring and ugly until they were 
clothed with creepers and fringed by foliage, and that they.were 
pretty in proportion as they were well planted and covered with 
vegetation. If we invite the imagination to separate the picturesque 
old square-built cottage from its adornments, its patches of honse-~ 
leek and moss on the roof, its vine-covéred wall stained by age, its 
Jessamine and honeysuckle, and rustic porch with skeps of bees close 
by—what a very ugly building we behold: four plain walls, capped 
with a red-tiled roof, more frightful than a red nightcap. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—January 18th. 


__ Flowers.—These consist of Acacias;,Azaleas, both eut and in the 
form of small plants; Begonias; Callas; Camellias; Cimerarias; grand 
examples of Lily of the Valley; Coronilla; Cyclamens im pots m 
excellent condition; Deutzias; Heaths; Euphorbia jacquiniflora ; 
Hyacinths; Tulips; Genista; Geraniums, of various sorts, including 
those with scented leaves, a class now too much neglected; Christmas 
Roses; Mignonette; Poinsettias; Primroses, both wild and Chinese; 
afew cut Roses and berry-bearing plants, such as Ardisiaand Solanum. 


Prices of Fruit.—Apples, per half sieve, 2s. to 5s.—Cobs, per 100Ibs., ” 
60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.—Grapes, per Ib., 2s. 6d. to 63.— 
Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Spanish Water Melons, each, 2s. to 5s.— 
Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, per dozen, 3s. to 6s.—Pine-apples, 
per lb., 4s. to 8s.— Pomegranates, each, 4d. to 8d. 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 8d.—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. to 38.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 8d.—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s—Celery, 
per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. Gd. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 
1s. to 2s—French Beans, new, per 100, 8s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d.—Horse Radish, per bunch, 3s. to 5s.—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 
—Lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushrooms, per pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d. 
—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 94.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.— Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 1s. 6d. to 2s—Salsafy, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 8d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s. 3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d.—Shallots, per lb., 8d.—Spinach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s,— 
Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d. to 6d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d.to6d. - 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 


P. J. N.—1. Fernery at not less than from 55 degrees to 60 degrees, as it con- 
tains tender species; 2. The flower-forcing house at from 60 degrees to 65 
degrees, and from six to ten degrees higher with sun-heat. - rien 

R. W, Perry.—l. Better leave them till April; 2. Wilkie’s Composition; 3. 
being of general interest will be answered in our Fruit Department next week. ~ 

R, A. P.—We know of no remedy except presenting the dog to some of your 
friends. ‘ Ey . 

C. J, (Wales).—Mr. Baker has done much to clear up the nomenclature of — 
lilies in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, and in the Journal of the Linwan Society. 
There is no real difference between the varieties you name. — : 

Wasuineton, T.—Next week. - 

GrEat Matyrrn.—“ Mrs. Loudon’s Amateur Gardener’s Calendar,” — ‘ 

J. J. WHEEBLE.—The “ Grizzly Giant” is a specimen of Sequoia (Wellingtonia) 
gigantea, Your ‘Taxodium” is also a Sequoia, and old trees of both species 
have very thick bark. Se Nae hates z 

W. Srevens.—Where lies the difficulty ? The bridge is certainly made without 


Ot 


"nails. - 


C. C. (Bromley).—The American fruit-preserying jars are not, so far as we are 
aware, sold in this country. They might easily be imported. See ‘ 
P. B.—The Black Hamburgh. * y 
W. E. D.—The Primula blooms sent were large in size and richly coloured. — 
J. H. C.—The fullest account of the subject is in the book you mention ~ 
J. 8. Farrrrir.—‘ The Wild Garden,” published by John Murray. 
G. M. (Dublin).—Any respectable nurseryman. 


Part I. of THe GArpEN, containing 6 Numbers and upwards of 80 
Illustrations and Plans, is now ready, price 2s., and may be had 
from all booksellers and newsagents, and at the railway stalls. 
Post free from the Office, sent flat between boards, 2s. 6d. — 


Readers who may jimd it dificult to procure the numbers regularly 
through the newsagents or booksellers, may have them sent direct 
from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for six months, or 
5s. for a quarter, payable im advance. THE GARDEN is sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. All the nwmbers of THE 
GARDEN may be obtaimed from the office, and through all book- 
sellers and newsagents. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 


to WILLIAM Ropinson, “THE Garpen ” Orricz, 37, Southampton 

Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 

Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
- be addressed to THE PUBLISHER, : ; 


THE GARDEN. +! 


181 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr ITsEL¥ 1s Narure.”—Shakespeare. 


THE IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


CONSERVATORIES IN THE NATURAT STYLE. 
: BY EDOUARD ANDRE. 

AxtuoucH considerable progress has been made during the 
last few years in the art of grouping plants in the open air in 
harmony with their natural affinities, the same cannot be said of 
their disposition under glass. In England more especially, 
where amateur gardening is so highly developed, and where 
more attention is concentrated upon the béanty of individual 

lants than general effect, next to nothing has been done towards 
veloping a more picturesque style in conservatories. Even 


‘our largest establishments leave much to be desired in this 
_ respect. Of course, ina mercantile or a small private establish- 

~ment where the plants are either awaiting sale or where they 
are frequently removed, they will be arranged for convenience, 


like the bottles in a chemist’s shop. But it is surprising that, 
in planting the noble glass palaces of the rich, such as we 
find at Sion House, or spacious palm houses, like that of 
Kew, so little regard has been paid to general effect by their 
originators. 
* The cause is simply this, that practical cultivation alone has 
been considered in England, and in all other European 
countries. and that the knowledge of plants has hitherto been 
limited to experimental culture. Gardeners have ignored the 
teachings of plant distribution in so far as it relates to- their 
natural characteristics and the’ effects resulting therefrom. 
Information on this subject can only be gained by studying 
the narratives of travellers, and these unfortunately are often 
incomplete and uninstructive on this point. 
To supply in some measure this defect, we shall attempt to 
_ show how a winter garden in the picturesque style should be 
treated. Before doing so, however, we should mention that 
there are some notable exceptions to the monotonous repetitions 
which we so heartily deplore. In Mr. Llewellyn’s garden at 


Penllergare, in Wales, might have been seen a few years ago an’ 


orchid-house aquarium where these lovely denizens of the 
tropics were planted in the admirable disorder which they 
present in their native forests. “‘[rue, it was only on a small 
scale, but the effect produced was most pleasing. Again, at 
Paris, the Gardens of Acclimatisation in the Bois de Boulogne 
possess a large and beautiful house, which is designed and 
planted in the most attractive manner, representing a tropical 
scene, terminated by a background of rockwork with a cascade 
falling into a pool at the base and continued onwards in a 
rivulet meandering through a yalley of Selaginellas. 
There are also other places known to us, though too few 
in number, where there are plants of sufficient development to 
| ag ma of similar disposition, and which might form the main 
features of such a tropical semi-wild garden as we have in view. 
There would be little difficulty in thus beautifying the Palm 
House at Kew, the large Pavilion of the Museum at Paris, the 
Horticultural Society’s fine conservatory at South Kensington, 
a portion of the Crystal Palace at ‘Sydenham, the large houses 
at Sion and Chatsworth, &c. When in Belgium last year we 


visited the seat of M. Varocqué,at Mariemont, where anew winter | 


garden, between fifty and sixty feet high, had been erected on 
the site of an old orangery, in which a Belgian landscape 
architect of some note (M. Fuchs) had essayed to introduce the 
style that we advocate. Magnificent palms, tree ferns, cycads, 
&c., formed the principal features in this splendid building, 
with an undulating carpet of Selaginellas’ beneath them. 
Immediately facing the grand entrance door was an artistic 


=n 5 ‘ hee 


group of rockwork flanked by a water basin, and planted with - 
evident care. But, in our opinion, the result was not commen- 
surate with the pains bestowed. The walks are too winding, 
the surface too uneven; the rockery too imposing to appear 
natural, and the plantations confused, the sides being naked 
and the centre excessively dense. The artist aimed at the 
picturesque, but he has failed to produce it in consequence of 
too great profusion, to the detriment of the general effect and 
the loss of harmony in the details. We quote this example to 
show that itis easy to errin carrying out the best of plans, and 
that exaggeration in the intended natural style is more to be 
deprecated than crowding in the inevitable uniformity of houses 
with stages and benches. ; 

Eyen in winter gardens where the aim has been to produce 
picturesque effect, there is always something in the structure 
to remind us of the artificial surroundings. Thus, walks are 
indispensable, and they should be of sufficient breadth to admit 
of free and agreeable promenading. To try to imitate the 
forests of Brazil by compelling the spectator to scramble over 
the rotten remains of trunks of fallen trees, rough stones, and 
withered fern fronds, would be the height of absurdity. And 
those interminable winding tortuous walks are equally opposed 
to good taste, with the rectangular paths which remind us of 
the system and order of a purely botanic garden. . There is 
thus a mezzo-termine, a happy medium, to be studied; and the 
nil nimis of Horace, which neither admits of too much nor too 
little—the great rule that reigns supreme in all matters of taste 
and judgment—is equally applicable in the case of our ideal 
garden. 

An outer circular or slightly devious walk near the well- 
clothed side-walls or lights should surround the centtal area, 
where the eye rests upon choice specimens standing out dis- 
tinctly upon a carpeting of Selaginella denticulata, trailing 
Commelynacez, Lippia repens, Spergula pilifera, and other 
plants which readily form a close and compact verdure. 'T’o be 
brief, the space between the walks and the walls should 
be filled with dense masses of foliage effectually concealing the 
stems of the plants, and rising gradually from the walk out- 
wards; and the centre should show isolated trees and little 
groups upon an open lawn of creeping plants. : 

Such is the arrangement indicated upon the plan (see p. 184), 
though the detached specimens must not be planted indiscri- 
minately in the central area, which'is surrounded and intersected 
by the walks. They should be grouped in combinations or 
planted singly, according to size and foliage, and in such a 
way that the view between their trunks is uninterrupted; and 
at the same time their heads should harmonise together in 
colouring and outline. : 

Instead of undulating the surface in an infinity of insignifi- 
cant hillocks, as in M. Varocqué’s winter garden, we recommend 
limiting it to two intercepting dells. A longitudinal one 
from the rockery, terminated by a bower, under which are 
placed a table and seats, and ending, at the side entrance, in 
a single hollow, of which the pool or basin is the lowest point. 
From this pool to the flower-bed No. 94, the ground rises 
slightly, and the cross walk curves towards the middle in 
agreement with the lower ground. The boundary walk is 
of the same level throughout, except towards the rockery, 


where it rises and terminates in four or five rustic stone steps 


leading to the aleove. The beds Nos. 94, 128, and 167, should 
be elevated about two feet above the walk; and each of the 
isolated trees should be planted on a scarcely perceptible 
mound of earth, with the exception of the groups on either 
side of the rockwork, which are on an abrupt slope, and the , 
large clump on each side of the bed No. 94, which should be 
raised about nine inches aboye the walk and gradually 
sloped off. rh 

It now remains for us to enter into the planting, which is 
certainly the most important part of a winter garden. This 
may be considered from several points of view, according to the 
class of house, whether cold, temperate, or hot, or for orchids 
or an aquarium. For the present we will content ourselves 
with treating of a warm-temperate winter garden with a mean 
temperature of from 65° to 68° Fahr., in which we could place 
palms and similar house plants, that would thrive all the 
better for the increased warmth. : : 

We shall take it for granted that, previous to planting, due 


~ = 


182 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 20, 1872. 


care has been given to the drainage and the composition and 
preparation of the soil. As bottom heat is the main thing to 
produce luxuriant vegetation in plants, we will assume, that the 
hot-water pipes are properly arranged and covered over with 
flag-stones to prevent the plants on the walls from bemg 
scorched, instead of being around the outside, and exposed, 
as usually is the case. As we consider the question of foliage- 
clothed walls of paramount inportance we must be explicit. 
If uncovered pipes are considered absolutely éssential along 
the base of the walls, a brick or other partition of some 
sort should be placed between them and the plants, to prevent 
too great an accession of direct heat from the pipes. But a 
still better method is to conduct the heat through underground 
brick channels to points with open gratings in the walks to 
allow the heat to rise. The soil, well drained at the bottom, 
and crossed here and there by the pipes we have mentioned, 
will materially induce the luxuriant Vegetation we so much 
desire around the walls of the house. The middle will 
have less need of bottom heat. A good drainage of broken 
bricks and mortar rubbish will suffice for the subsoil, leaving 
a depth of about three feet from the mould intended for the 
plants. Two drains running below this through the house, 
‘with an outlet ‘outside, will carry off the surplus water. The 
composition of the soil may be varied according to the class of 
plants it is intended for. But, as a general rule, for strong 
growing plants and large palms it will be found advantageous 
to prepare the mass in the following manner :—Upon the layer 
of broken bricks and mortar rubbish a layer of reversed turfs 


about eighteen inches thick, should be placed, and upon that a 
second formed of— : 


Argillaceous earth - - - - 3 parts. 
Ordinary garden soil - - - Spish al soak ¢ 
River, or white sand = - = - =) toes 
Coarse pieces of earth and brickbat Be) vlan 
~Leaf mould - = - - - Sela 
ON 


Mix this well together and apply it about a foot thick. Then 
for the surface add a layer about five or six inches thick of 
peat, loam, and leaf-mould from hedgerows, or rotten willow, 


oak, or chestnut trunks, if attainable, withatenth part of sand- 


The peat should be but slightly broken up except just at the 
top, and the roots left in it. Prepared in this way, it will be 
ready to receive the Selaginella, which will thrive admirably in 
it and speedily clothe it with verdure. 

It will be understood that these three layers, forming a total 


thickness of three feet! will not be of uniform thickness all 


through the house, because the surface will be undulated. The 


measurement of one yard is merely given as a basis or unit, for 


the total depth of subsoil in different parts of the house will 
vary, having, for instance, a depth of only eighteen inches near 
the basin in the centre of the little lawn, and from four to 
five feet for the clumps abutting on the flower-bed No. 94. 
But the top-dressing will be equal all over. ] 
The majority of large tropical plants can be grown in such 
a compost. And those which may require special treatment 
may be potted in suitable soil and plunged; the pots being 


plunged deep enough to conceal them. Allow the Selaginella 


to spread over their surface. Liquid manure, if used in 
moderation and judgment, will accelerate the growth of most 
plants, including ferns. So much for the preparations for 
planting. But the key of the question, the» secret of success, 
depends above all upon the choice and grouping of the plants. 
This selection may vary to infinity, such are the riches of exotic 
flowers at our command. It is difficult to lay down rules on 
the mode of arranging plants according to the colour and cha- 
racter of their foliage. We may, however, remark that in 
houses, no matter how splendidly constructed, the effects of 
uniformity are bad, and that masses of one species or of one 
genus of plants should be avoided. The harmony and grandeur 
of unity in composition, attained with difficulty even in large 
parks, is here impossible. The object to be sought, then, is 
contrast in the foliage and habit of the plants employed. Two 
species of massive foliage, for example, should not stand side 
by side, such as a Musa and a Rayenala, or a Coccoloba pubes- 
cens anda Theophrasta. Buta large tuft of a Strelitzia beneath 
the shade of a Cocos plumosa is very effective, and a fine con- 


trast is presented to the eye by backing up the grand foliage 
and yellow spikes of Hedychium Gardnerianum with clumps - 
of ferns, bamboos, or feathery conifers. The rigid foliage of 
rhododendrons and camellias should be excluded, these beauti- 
ful plants being reserved for a separate house, where they will. 
better display their charms in a collection. ae ee a 

In dense masses of foliage, like those adjoining the rockery 
in our plan, the arrangement should beim gradual rising ranks, 
thick, heavy foliage forming the basis, surmounted by lighter 
and more graceful forms of palms and tree ferns, whose slender 
plumed columns break through the sombre undergrowth. 

Limit the use of “flowers” to the borders and special beds, 
with the exception of here and there one on the rockwork, 
beyond those belonging’ to the plants themselves. We mean , 
by “flowers” such plants as are grown in pots in special 
houses and taken to the winter garden for temporary decora- 
tion, as—primulas, cyclamens, Van Thol tulips, hyacinths, 
heaths, crocuses, &c. : 

The side walls, or sashes, should be provided with wire 
trellis-work, or wooden lattice-work against a dead wall; to | 
support climbing’ plants all round the house. For covering 
the surface of the soil nothing is better than Selaginella den- 
ticulata; and this should be planted or re-planted in autumn, 
or in spring, as the dry heat of summer is unfavourable to the 
success of this operation. Small fragments, about three inches 


_ long, planted four or fiyeinches apart, will soon cover the ground. 


For edging the walks use slight castings in imitation of rustic 


ae 
a NS 
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fr H ees —_= 
oe at. 


{ 
OAs Me 
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Aye i f, 


Section of w Conservatory arranged in the Natural Style. 


. woodwork or archlets such as may be found in the “squares of 


Paris. These will keep the border even, and prevent the feet 
of yisitors from straying upon them and the loose earth from 
crumbling away. Above all a good system. of shading must 
be ensured to protect the plants from the direct rays of the 
sun in summer. : AN 
' The paths may be formed of fine gravel, or, better still, 
asphalted or paved. The construction of the rockery should 
be of the simplest kind, composed of a few stones naturally 
disposed and projecting slightly from the earth so as to be 
discovered rather than seen. Monumental rockyork should 
be avoided, and, above all, reject the so-called pretty stones. 
Geological or mineralogical toys may be all very well in the 
cabinets of the learned, but they are altogether out of place in 
a garden where the object is to reproduce natural beauties in 
their native simplicity. If a small pond be added to the rock- 
work it should neither be absolutely round nor simuous. The ~ 
golden rule—simplicity without excess—should everywhere 
prevail. iY - ; 

In order to secure a warm, humid atmosphere, so essential 
to the well-being of plants, we recommend haying the pipe © 


_that feeds the cascade and replenishes the basins made so as to 


pass through the boiler, which will sufficiently heat the water 
in its transit to cause it to give off a portion by evaporation 
when discharged. In this way the ,atmosphere. will be 


thoroughly saturated with moisture, adding thereby greatly 


+ 
nel - F; 


Jay. 20, 1972.) 


THE GARDEN. 


183 


_to the healthy appearance of the plants. We would direct 
especial attention to this contrivance for ensuring a congenial 
atmosphere. 

As regards choice of plants, as has already been observed, 
it may be varied indefinitely. But instead of treating of this , 
subject under the numerous aspects it presents we prefer 
giving the arrangement we suggest for the house represented 
in the accompanying plan. THis arrangement is, of course, 
applicable to afar larger structure than the one under con- 
sideration. But we have selected this example because it 
comes within the means of a greater number_of amateurs. 
Furthermore our design is open to every conceivable modifica- 
tion. We may add, too, that the outlay may be reduced by 
substituting less costly plants for some to be enumerated. 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE PLANTS. 
Perennial climbing plants for placing alongside of walls, or 


for covering supporting columns, may consist of,— 
(1) Aristolochia cordifolia, which is very vigorous, and has large 


leaves and enormous flowers; (3) Thunbergia Harrisi, moderately 
vigorous, flowers numerous and delicate; (5) Argyreia argentea, 
leaves oval and silvery; (7) Ipomzea Horsfalliw; (9) Tecoma stans, 
which has pinnate leaves and.pretty flowers; (12 and 13) Plumbago 
capensis, a fine species, having numerous clusters of azure flowers ; 
(17) Hoya carnosa; (19) Smilax marmorea, leaves oblong and 
marbled with white; (21) S. macrophylla maculata; (23 and 25) 
S. marmorea; (27) Hoya imperialis, a vigorous kind, bearing 
corymbs of rich brown flowers; (28) Stephanotis floribunda; (30) 
_ Passiflora Decaisneana, a species with large foliage, and large rose 
and violet flowers; (31) Quisqualis indica, a free blooming scarlet- 
flowered plant; (33) Tacsonia Van Volxemii, a kind with long, pen- 
dulous, splendid rosy flowers; (36) Aristolochia leuconeura, cordate 
leaves "+h white veins; (37) Hexacentris mysorensis, flowers varie- 


gat 1 salmon; (41) Centrostemma multiflorum, a charming 
mel ous plant; (44) Passiflora carmesina; (45) Aristolochia 
elypa _ new species, with finely marked flowers; (49) Tacsonia 
molliss. flowers rose-colonred, long and tubular; (53) Quisqualis 


pubescens, magnificent orange-red flowers ; (54) Passiflora trifasciata, 
trilobate leaves, stained with red; (58) Meyenia erecta, charming 


m . 


blne flowers with yellow centre; (60) Thunbergia lanrifolia; (62) 
Passiflora Buchanani, and (63) P: marmorea, two pretty, vigorous 
species: (65) Bougainvillea lateritia, fine red bracts; (68) Aristo- 
lochia gigas, a very large striped flower, resembling a pilot’s cap; 
(71) Bignonia incarnata, flowers tubular and flesh-coloured; (72) 
Tropeolum Lobbianum ; (74) Allamanda nobilis ; (77) Clerodendron 
Thomson ; (80) Cissus discolor. - 


If we enter the principal doorway of the house and bear to 
the left, near No. 1, we shall come to the outer border of which 
we have spoken, which should be filled mainly with strong- 
growing foliage plants. Nothing will prevent these from being 
increased and renewed as often.as we please. These plants 
being grouped according to size, the larger ones behind may 
consist of the following species, viz. :— 


Amomum grana-paradisi, Andropogon squarrosum, Panicum pli- 
catum, Fuchsias, Aspidistra, Dracznas, Begonias, Coleuses, Cyperus, 
Engenia, various free growing tufted Ferns, Ficus elastica, F. rubi- 
ginosa, Aralia and Oreopanax, Hedychium coronarium, and Gard- 


nerianum, Hibiscus rosea-sinensis, Heterocentrum, Salvias (to be fre- 
quently renewed), Hmatoxylon campechianum, Imantophyllum 
Aitoni, Lantanas (various), Ageratum ccelestinum, Senecio platani- 
folia, Laurus Camphora, Melastgmacez (various), Plumbago coccinea, 
Pogostemon Patchouli, Poinsettia pulcherrima, Rogieras, Spar- 
mannia africana, Xylophylla latifolia, Abutilons, Allamanda nerii- 
folia, Pipers and Macropipers, Begonia Sedeni, Centradenia grandi- 
folia, Francisceas, Gardenias, Hebeclinium ianthinum, Siphocampylus 
(bicolor and fulgens), Iresine Herbsti, Amorphophallus, Hibiscus 


liliiflorus, and Marantas, &c. 


Above this groundwork 


of foliage and flowers the following — 


species, with taller stems and stronger habits, may rise :— 


2. Musa paradisiaca 35. 
4. Oreopanax dactylifo- 37. 
39, 


folium 


6, Alsophila australis 40. 
10. Stadmannia australis 42. 


15. Anthurium acaule 


16. Rhopala Organensis 43. 
46. Cibotium regale 
Castilloa elastica 73. 


20, Saurauja sarapi- 
gensis 47. 
22. Draceena arborea 48. 


Cyathea medullaris 69." 
Chamzrops excelsa_ 61. 
. Artocarpus incisa 

Musa violacea 64. 


Hedychium cocci- 


neum 66. 
Carludovica palmata 67. I 
70, Cereus mexicanus 


Anthurium cordatum 


Ficus Chanvieri 

Oreopanax platani- 
folium 

Sciadophyllum pul- 


hrum 
Astrapzea Wallichii 
Anthurium regale 


Theophrasta impe- 
rialis 


184 


THE GARDEN. cs 


ze 


[Jan. 20, 1872. 


. Rhopala Jonghei — 
26. Theophrasta regalis 
32. Musa sapientum 

34, Hedychium gard- 
nerianum 


50. Dracena fragrans 
51. Maranta Lindeni 
55, Musa paradisiaca 
56. Chamzerops stauza- 
cantha - 


75. Cyathea dealbata 
76. Cocos flexuosa 

78. Ficus macrophylla 
79. Areca lutescens 


The bed No. 94 will be decorated with dwarf, bright-coloured 
flowers, to be renewed as often as required, : 
The two groups encircling the portion of green near this bed 


2 5 


will be composed as follows :— 


‘Plants with tall stems, but varying in height. 


100. 
104. 
95. 


Areca sapida 


9 


101. Pteris argyrea 


102. 
107. Clivia miniata 
106, 


Balantium antarcticam 


Coccoloba pubescens 


Medinilla magnifica 


Anthurium leuconeurum 


97. Caryota sobolifera 


105, Ficus elastica 
109. Laurus Camphora 


Of medium size. 
103. Asplenium macro- 
phylum 


Of medium size. 


105. Cycas circimalis 
108. Draczena terminalis 


98. Attaccia cristata 


96. Crinum amabile 


99. Acalypha tricolor (Wilkesiana) 


81. Cyathea Beyrichiana 


85. Oreodoxa regia 
84, Phoenix reclhinata 


With tall stems. 


87. Theophrasta macrophylla 
90. Rhopala corcoyadensis 
\92. Seatorthia elegans 


Carludoyica atro- 


133. 161. Vallisneria spiralis 168. Cypripedium barba- 
virens 160. Nympheea dentata tum superbum 
144, Hoya bella 156. Musa Ensete 167, Attalea excelsa 
141. Acanthus latifolius 157. Crescentia regalis 170. Dion edule ~ 
142. Clivia miniata, 159. Disteganthus basi 171. Cyanophyllum mag- 
140. Clusia rosea - lateralis nificum 
136. Ficus Cooperi 158. Cycas reyoluta, 172. Dracena Guilfoylei — 
139, Musa paradisiaca 154, Carludoyica plicata 173. Sciadocalyx digi- 
143. Pteris cretica albo 155. Balantium culcita taliflora 
lineata 158. Lomaria gibba 174, Cordyline indiyisa 


175, Croton maximum, 
Such are the prominent distinctive features of this mode of 


erouping the principal furniture in this palace of flowers. As — 


we have already observed, these combinations are capable of — 


endless variations, and numerous small species may be inserted 
in empty spaces between the larger plants; and we may 
add baskets of ferns, Bromeliaces, orchids, &., suspended’ 
from the rafters on slender wire. ‘These maybe planted in the 
baskets or the pots placed in them, the interspaces being filled 
with growing moss. The rockery will be adorned with all 


sorts of plants that will flourish in the interstices between the 

stones, including a complete collection of Selaginellas creepme 

amongst innumerable ferns. 
Lastly, dead trunks of trees, 


fixed in the ground by means 


40 4g° 


Ae 


. ~ 
83. Amorphophallus 
niyosus 
82. Draczena australis 


ce 
Scale of feed 


Of medium size. 
89. Croton undulatum 
91. Colocasia macrorhiza 
yariegata 


Mat Lawn. 


110. Syagrus botryophora 111, Anthurium magni- 


112. Pandanus ornatus 

115. Latania rubra 

114, Rhapis flabelli- 
formis 

116, Areca sapida 


Plower-heds Nos. 123 and 167 refilled from 
flowerizig plants, bulbs, &c. 


122. 
124. 


Bambusa Thouarsi 
Philodendron pin- 
natifidum’ 
Phajus Wallichii 
Phoenicophorium 
Seychellarum 
Phormium tenax 
folius yariegatum 
Pandanus elegantis- 
simus 
Durio usibethinus 
Lomaria gibba 


128. 
129. 


130. 
121. 


135. 
184, 


ficum 

110. Blechnum prasili- 
ense 

113, Alpinia nutans 

117. Medinilla magnifica 


138. Platyloma falcata 

137. Vriesia gigantea 

132. Thalia dealbata 

147, Philodendron per- 
tusum 

127. Pontederia cordata 

126. Nympheea gigantea 


126, » Ortgiesiana 
rubra 
163. 35 cerulea 
162, Philodendron Lin« 
deni 


~ Ground Plan of Conservatory in the Natural Style. 


88. Asplenium nidus ayis 
93. Dracsena cannefolia 
86, Anthurium hybridum 


118, 
119. 


120. 
121, 


Cordyline indi- 
visa 

Cibotium princeps 

Pteris argyrea 

Agave Verschaf- 
felti 


time'to time with 


152. 


Biulbergia zebrina 
151. 


Theophrasta imperi- 
alis’s | * 

Musa sinensis 

Cocos coronata 

Pteris argyrea 

Platycerium grande 

Verschaffeltia splen- 
dida, 

Bambusa Fortunei~ 

Colocasia nymphise- 
folia 


149. 
148. 
146. 
145. 
166. 


165. 
164, 


of iron stakes to prevent them from falling in decomposition, | 
should be placed at the spots Nos. 8, 14, 18; 29, 52, 57, 69, and 
covered with tropical creepers and, epiphytes, and a whole col- 
lection of Bromeliaceze, especially Tillandsia usneoides and 
orchids. A short time will suffice for these to assume all the. 
picturesque appearance they present in the tropics. Here ends 
this rough sketch of our winter garden. That this rade model 
may be the means of bringing cleyerer minds to bear upon 
the subject is our most ardent wish. — i 


[In justice to M. André’s admirable suggestions for the 
carrying out of this most desirable improvement which he 
advocates, we may state that the “view ” ~prepared by 
our artist from the section kindly supplied by M. André 
fails to show the abundant vegetation by which our cor- 
respondent rightly wishes the walls to be hidden. His 
plan, however puts this clear. We have only to add that 
the greatest charm we can give to our large conservatories 
would be to plant them in the natural manner, after M. 
André’s fashion. ] 


. 


ti 


~ Jan. 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


185 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


ai HAMPSTEAD HEATH. 


Saruxpay last was the day appointed by the members of the 
Metropolitan Board of Works for taking formal possession of Hamp- 
stead Heath, and for dedicating the same to the public. Thus, 
‘after years of agitation, an arrangement has at last been effected 
by which the great bulk of the Heath—that is to say, land consisting 
of the upper and lower Heath proper, to the extent of some 225 
acres—has been secured to the public for ever at a total cost to the 
metropolis of £45,000. ‘The wet and unpropitious weather prevented 
anything like festivity; but Colonel Hogg, M.P., chairman of the 
Board of Works, and ‘other gentlemen, were invited by the Hamp- 
stead Vestry to a déjewner at “ Jack Straw’s Castle.” The Rey. 
Charlton Lane presided. It was stated that, by the liberality of the 
Lord of the Manor, the ‘‘ Lovers’ Walk” and other classic localities, 
supposed to haye been surrendered to bricks and mortar, were really 
given up to the public, which, it was said, was to have the Heath for 
enjoyment as it is, and not as a London park. Thus, bit by bit 
have we secured our famous, healthy, charming, and invigorating 
Heath. Let us, therefore, be grateful. We may build fine squares 
by the score; but we can never create such another landscape, in 
close view of London, as was looked over by the authorities on 
Saturday from the windows of ‘‘ Jack Straw’s Castle.” There are to 
be no more disputes concerning this Heath; its broad and breezy 
upland is safe henceforth as the playground of the metropolis, 
inspiring health into thousands upon thousands, offering pleasure 
upon every holiday, spreading its wide and unsophisticated landscapes 
up hill and down dale—at all events, from the railway-station to the 
famous flagstaff—and constituting to the whole north and north-west 

.of London, frightfully and hideously overbuilt as it is, what Epping 
Forest, which is the next of our relics to be saved, is to the denizens 
of the east. We are glad to learn that it is not contemplated to 
convert the Heath into an ordinary London park, with pathways of 
grayel, parterres of flowers, mazes, and, worse than all, fences ; it 
is to remain as open and as wild as a thousand years ago, unhedged 
and unpalisaded on any side, requiring no keepers to prevent 
bounding and buoyant youth from carrying home trophies of the 
golden furze, turning up little sods of moss, rolling, tumbling, and 
playing at its ownsweet will, and altogether enjoying the happiness 
of unlimited liberty. It willbe a satisfaction to the public to know 
that in the coming spring they will not glance down those pretty 

~ dells with the feeling that they may gather wild violets in them for 
the last time, or in the coming summer frisk along the finest road 
near London with a dread lest it should before they go again have 
its beauty blocked up by mansions. The Hampstead Vestry has, 
however, already appealed to the Board of Works against encroach- 
ments which are taking place round the Heath since it was bought by 
the Board. The following appeal was addressed to the Vestry by 
fifty-nine of the artists of London:—*‘ Jan. 11, 1872.—We the under- 
‘signed artists, having learnt that the Metropolitan Board of Works 
have omitted from their recent purchase of Hampstead Heath many 
very important pieces of ground, and that your Vestry are taking 
_ steps in the matter, would urgently represent the great loss to the 
picturesque beauty of the Heath if these pieces were enclosed or cut 
off from the public ground. We are intimately acquainted with the 
different beauties of the Heath, and feel strongly that these beauties 
would sustain great injury should any buildings be erected on the 
above-mentioned pieces of ground. We therefore most earnestly 
request you to use every means to secure them for the public. We 
would also add our great desire that the Heath should be left as 
nearly as possible in its present wild state, to alter which would in 
our opinion be a grievous mistake.” 


THE ESSENTIALS OF PUBLIC GARDENS. 


+ Ir is desirable that a town park should offer a charming drive; so 
far charming that every townsman will feel it incumbent on him to 
give each stranger guest a full view of its attractions. These latter 
must lie, either in commanding views of the town itself and its 
environs, or in landscape effects which have been wrought out by 
skill and attention in the park itself. Neither Hyde Park nor the 
Bois de Boulogne offer any commanding range of view; the delights 
all lie in the neatly-kept roadway, the flanking lakes and parterres, 
the bright, green slopes of shaven turf; at Richmond Hill or on the 
Pincian at Rome, on the other hand, you forget the roadway, you 
forget the bits of pretty turflet, you ignore the copses, you are care- 
less of the odour of flowers, for your eye, carrying all your perceptive 
faculties in its reach, leaps to the fair yision of flood and field and 
trees, which sweep away, in sun and in shadow, to the horizon. 
Undoubtedly if the surface of adjoining country will permit, it will 


be far less expensive to establish a park whose charm shall lie in 
exterior views than one whose attractions shall consist in what the 
professional men call (by use of an abominable word) its gardenesque 
features. Yet, with such economic purpose, it will never do to go 
too far in the country. It must never be forgotten with us that the 
“men of equipages are by no means the only class who are to participate 
in our zsthetical progress ; the town park, to have its best uses, must 
not only be within easy reach, but it must have, too, its spaces of 
level ground to allure the cricket or the base-ball players. Areas 
should be ample enough to prevent the possible interference of these 
sports (which every sensible township would do well to encourage) 
with the enjoyment of a quiet drive. 

While there is no need for making the wood of a public parka 
complete arboretum, I think that special care should be taken togive 
specimens of all the best known timber and shade trees, and that 
these should be definitely marked with their botanical as well as 
popular names, so that strollers might come to a pleasant lesson in 
their seasons of idleness. The particular habits of individual specimens 
and of forest growths might, I think, be safely and profitably noted 
as lending additional interest to them, and creating a sort of fellow- 
ship with the trees. Hyery forester knows that oaks and maples of 
the same species have yet idiosyncrasies of their own—one blooming 
a full fortnight before its neighbour, and another taking a tawny 
hue, while its companion is still in full array of green. In the 
garden of ‘the Tuileries there is a chestnut which enjoys the 
traditional repute of showing leaflets upon the twentieth of 
March (hence called Vingt de Mars), and the venerable old 
tree, well known to every frequenter of the garden, has come to 
have a character of sanctity by reason of this early welcome of the 
spring. In a field within sight of my own door, there is a sugar- 
maple which, by some fault in the planting, or some inherent defect 
in the tree, has made little or no growth these last six years, and 
which every August—a full month before the earliest of its com- 
panions—takes on a hectic flush of colour, which it carries, with the 
buoyancy of a consumptive, all through the autumn. This accident. 
of colouring gives an individuality and.interest to the tree which 
distinguishes it from all its stalwart and thrifty fellows. ... . 

It is a common mistake, I think, to imagine that anything like a 
finical nicety in.the arrangement of turf or walks or parterres is 
essential to the permanent and larger utilities of a town park. This, 
indeed involves great cost, and diverts from larger and more impor- 
tant ends. A flock or two of South Downs, confined by movable 
hurdles, and under charge of some custodian, who might have his 
rural cottage at the gate of entrance, would keep turf in very pre- 
sentable condition. After this good drainage, hard grayelled roads 
—subject to monthly rolling—and judiciously disposed clumps of 
shade are the main things; following upon which, as the town grows 
in taste or ability, the parterres of flowers and the arboretum and 
the observatory might be superadded. 

But quite above and beyond our present question of treatment 
is the larger one of gaining, in due time, possession of ayail- 
able space. No town that counts upon its thirty or forty thonsand 
inhabitants within the next score of years should neglect it. There 
can be no loss in its becoming a large landholder within its own 
territory. If the charming but costly disguisements of a park cannot 
be ventured upon at once, the land may at least be turned over 
into a town farm, where the town’s poor may be set to the 
work of combing down its roughness or preparing it by slow 
degrees, earning their own-support, meantime, for the richer 
ends in view. The scheme is by no means chimerical; scores 
of workers, through the less active months of the year, and 
who are dependent on the town for partial support, might 
thus be put to remunerative labour upon the town property. A 
judicious design of a park as a finality upon the land in question 
might underlie, ina measure, and qualify the regular farm labours. 
A well-appointed drive might gradually uncoil itself over the hills and 
through the cultivated flats, the wood crop out upon the cliffs, and 
the flowers unfold in their sequestered nooks. It seems to me that a 
park or garden, growing up in this way by degrees under the tutelage 
of the town, -not fairly throwing off its economic and food-providing 
aspect until the plantations have ripened into fulness, would haye a 
double charm. I commend the suggestions to such boroughs as keep 
their town’s poor festering in some ill-ventilated almshouse, with 
limited grounds in the foulest suburb of the place:—Rwral Studies. 


New Park for Warrington.—It is stated that the Corporation of 
Warrington have purchased of Colonel Wilson-Patten, M.P., his War- 
rington residence and eighteen acres of park and garden land, for a town- 
hall and public park, for £22,000. The residence, called Bank Hall, isa 
noble Italian-English building, having for its front a lawn of several 
acres, and gardens of considerable size. The whole is walled round, is 
in what will soon be the centre of the town, and has a prospect for 
miles, both back and front, which scarcely can be intercepted. 


_ the munificent gift which she contemplated making in the erection | 


eres ee ( THE GARDEN. | [Jax. 20, 1872. 


Epping Forest Fund.—A public meeting was recently held at the 
Agricultural Hall in support of this fund, which has been established for 
the purpose of preserving Epping Forest for the people. Mr. M‘Cullagh 
Torrens, M.P., presided. Captain Warner Dennis moved the first reso- 
lution as follows, viz.:—That this meeting recognises the paramount 
necessity of open spaces being preserved for the recreation and enjoyment 
of the dense population of the east of London, and is of opimion that her 
Majesty’s present Government utterly fails to appreciate the feelings of 
the people on the subject of Epping Forest.” He said, at present there 
were about three thousand acres left, and asit had been clearly shown 
that those who had the sale of the present land did not value it ab more 
than £5 per acre, it would at that computation only take £15,000 to 
purchase it, and secure it to the public at large in perpetuity. Whilst 
such large sums were laid out on West-end parks, the rule should 
be applied with the same liberality to Eppimg Forest, which was the 
favourite resort of the Wast-enders. The chairman suggested that a sub- 
scription of 6d. per head among the electors of the three eastern metro- 
politan boroughs would create a fund more than sufficient to answer all 
purposes. 4 


Improved Wooden Pavement.—By the sanction of the Com- 
missioners of Sewers a new principle, already successfully adopted in the 
United States, in Paris, St. Petersburg, and Vienna, has been lately intro- 


~ duced, and is now on trial at the south end of Bartholomew Lane. This 


pavement lays claim to the followmg advantages—absence of slip, noise- 
lessness, elasticity, durability, and an even surface at all times. ‘The con- 
‘struction of the payement varies according to traffic and other circum- 
stances. In Bartholomew Lane it is laid on a bed of sand, of sufficient 
depth to form a good grade, say from one to two inches’; on that a flooring 
is placed, which consists of two thicknesses, one laid horizontally, the 
other transversely, each thickness consisting of a three-quarter inch 
board prepared with tar. Upon these boards blocks of wood 
measuring nine by three by five inches, are placed, and between each row 
of blocks a strip of wood one by three-quarters of an inch, is nailed 
to the flooring, the object bemg to steady the blocks in their places during 
construction ; after being thus laid, the spaces or jomts are filled with hot 
gravel, upon which hot tar or pitchis poured. This isrammed tight home, 
and again. repeated until the spaces are filled up- Subsequently another 
application of tar is made over the surface, on which a dressing of fine 
gravel is thrown; when dried. the pavement is complete. Its success 
remains to be proved. - 


Swimming Baths for London.—It is to be hoped that the | 


death of Mrs. Browne, says the Lancet, will not deprive London of 


at her own cost of swimming baths somewhere in Hyde Park and 
Regent’s Park. It is to be hoped that her Majesty will direct that 
the well-known wishes of the deceased shall be carried out, notwith- 
standing the absence of a will. ask? 


City Mortality.—Dr. Liddle, the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel, 
in a report which he recently presented to the local sanitary authorities, remarks 
that the intimate relation between defective ventilation and the mortality from 
tubercular disdases, convulsions in children, teething, atrophy, debility, infantile 
diarrhea, and insanity, is not sufficiently understood; and until the public 
thoroughly comprehend the fact that these diseases are largely induced by the 
want of fresh ;air, sufficient attention will not be given to the danger arising 
from the crowded localities in large towns, so that these nuisances may be 
effectively dealt with. Hitherto the’ attention of local boards has been princi- 
pally directed to the number of deaths from epidemic diseases, many of which 
are supposed to be caused by filth and defective drainage, and hence the forma- 
tion of sewers and drains has been extensively carried out in the metropolis; 
but the numerous deaths which are caused annually by consumption. and its 
allied diseases haye not been duly considered. As the local rates, however, are 
continually increasing for the relief of sickness and the support of widows and 
orphans, the building of asylums for the insane, and the providing of work- 
house infirmaries for the debilitated and prematurely old, it is probable that 
local boards will direct more attention to the condition of the houses pf the poor 
than they have hitherto done. - 


INSECTS. BIRDS. © Te. 


INSECT POWDERS. iD 


Ws owe to Professor Karl Koch, of Berlin, the first introduction of 
insect powders into Europe, he having, in the course of his travels in the 
Hast, become acquainted with their valuable properties. His first” 
experience with them was at Tiflis, in 1836. Afterwards he found 
them used generally by the natives of the neighbouring countries, 
and on inquiry into the source from which the powders were obtained, 
he found that they were made from the pollen of certain species of 
Pyrethrum, more especially that of P. roseum and P. carneum. The 
specific property lies in the pollen, and it is according to the greater 
or lesser amount of it that may be in the powder that it is more or less 
effective. The manner of using it is to scatter the powder about the 
apartment, and it has the effect of causing the insects to fall down 
as if dead or asleep, even bees and wasps succumbing under its action. 
The larger insects, however, by-and-bye recover as if coming-out of 
a swoon; the smaller never come out of it. _It is as if they had 
taken an over-dose of chloroform. ; 

The way in which the powder ought to be made is to cut the 


‘ 


flowers and shake them over sheets. The pollen is in great quan- 
tities, and, like that of many conifers at the proper season, colours 
all the ground around; but it is difficult to get half-civilised nations 
to take the necessary precautions to secure it properly. It is easier 


“to pull the plants up by the root, and by threshing and breaking them 


a greatly larger quantity of dust or powder is got than by the proper 
way of taking nothing but the pollen. Another consequence follows 
from their mode of procedure, which is that notwithstanding the 
great natural abundance of the Pyrethrums in ‘their native countries, 
constant pulling up by the root before they seed, will, of course, 
sooner or later, exterminate the species altogether; and already 


-there are symptoms indicating that such a result is approaching. 


Koch’s discovery and proclamation of the virtues of this poden asan 
insecticide has given rise to a great demand for it—a demand much 
greater than can be supplied from the plants or the districts which 
first were had recourse to for the purpose. Consequently, in the 
first place, the fabrication of the powder instead of being restricted 
to Pyrethrum roseum and P. carneum, in Persia, Kurdistan, &c., has 
been extended to various allied plants in other districts; for all the 
‘Anthemide possess something of the same virtue in a greater or a 
lesser degree; and in t he next place, even of these inferior species, 
instead of nothing but the pollen being used, every part of the plant 
that can be beaten down into dust is sold as the true insect powder. 
A yery considerable trade is thus carried on in Dalmatia and other 


districts in the’ south and east of Europe in a powder manufactured — 


from the common Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), 
C. montanum, Pyrethrum cinerariefolium, &c. These possess the 
repellent virtues of the true Pyrethrum to a greater or less extent, 
and, doubtless, in a much stronger degree than the same plants 
possess when grown in a more northern latitude and colder climate. 
M. Cantraine (as quoted in a recent number of the Belgique Horticole) 
particularly notes the scarcity of fleas in Ragusa, and other parts of 
Dalmatia, and ascribes it to the use of these plants. The plant itself 
(mot the powder), it seems, is mixed among the litter of their cattle, 
and, by making this a persistent practice, the immunity of which 
he-speaks has been obtained. We know nothing as to this from 
personal experience, but if it be as M. Cantraine relates, all we 
can say is that it is a great pity that the cultivation and use of 
the Anthemidz has not been extended to the western side of the 
Adriatic Gulf. 2 
The insect powder that is sold in this country is, from the causes 
aboye mentioned, very rarely to be had unadultered. Indeed, the 
‘true—or perhaps it would be fitter to say the best—kind made from 
Pyrethrum roseum or P. carneum is rarely to be met with at all. It 
is not difficult to distinguish between powder made from these species 
and powder made of other Anthemidz, provided they are both 
genuine and composed of the pollen in which the virtue chiefly 
resides. Under the microscope the pollen spores of Pyrethrum 
‘roseum, for example, have needle-like projections, while those of the 
other Anthemidz have them rounded. But the factis, that, as [have 
Said, in the majority of samples no spores of pollen are to be seen at 


all. We haye examined a number for the purpose of endeavouring: — 


to determine from what species the powder has been manufactured, 
but we ended as wise as we began. In no instance have we found 
any pollen at all—nothing but broken frazments of epidermis, of leaf, 
flower, or branch. Another test is the smell. Good powder has no 


“smell, and the colour should be a dal, dirty drab. A. M 


Californian Dye-Weeds.—The gathering of Orchella, a lichen 
which yields a beamtiful purple dye, is, says the Christian Advocate, becom- 
ing a considerable business in lower California. This lichen is worth 


125 dollars per ton in London, and the supply is inexhaustible. That — 


which is used in commerce is gathered from the trunks and branches 
of trees. ener E: is 


The Last Years of Adanson.—Adanson, the French botanist, was 
about seventy years-old when the Revolution broke out, and amidst the 
shock he lost everything—his fortune, his places, and hisgardens. But his 
patience, courage, and resignation never forsook him. He became reduced 
to the greatest straits, and even wanted food and clothing; yet his ardour 
of investigation remained the same. Once, when the Institute invited 
him, as being one of its oldest members, to assist at a séance, his answer 
was that he regretted he could not attend for want of shoes. “ It wasa 
touching sight,” says Cuvier, “to see the poor old man, bent over the 
embers of a decaying fire, trying to trace characters with a feeble hand on 
the little bit of paper which he held, forgetting all the pains of life in some 
new idea in natural history, which came to him like some beneficent fairy 
to cheer him in his loneliness.” The Directory eventually gave him a 
small pension, which Napoleon doubled; and at length easeful death came 
to his relief in his seventy-ninth year. A clause in his will, as to the 
manner of his funeral, illustrates the character of the man. He directed 


“that a garland of flowers, provided by fifty-eight families whom he had 


established in life, should be the only decoration of his coffin—a slight 
but touching image of the more durable monument which he had erected 
for himself in his works, Mi : j 


Jan. 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


187 


PALM AVENUE IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN AT 
s RIO DE JANEIRO. 


Tu1s magnificent avenue, which for elegance and majesty of 


aspect is perhaps unsurpassed, makes onc long to possess such’ 
for, however we may ; 


a glorious feature in owr own country ; 
dislike formality, nobody can object to the striking and truly 
imposing effect thus. produced. The palm employed for this 
purpose is the Oreodoxa regia, a 
trunk and terminal 
head of noble foliage. 
The photograph from 


, 


kind distinguished by its lofty | 


been trimmed by hand. The colour of the stem is a whitish 
grey, like that of ight stone in dazzling sunshine, and although 
from top to bottom it is covered with lichens of all the colours 
of ihe rainbow, yet so small are they that you only perceive 
them by approaching the tree closely. 

In the same garden exists the parent of these palms, which 
was planted ‘during the last years of the last century, and is 
now above 120 feet in height. It is a noble tree, and, as it 
stands singly and at a 
considerable distance 
from other plants, its 


which the representa- 


tion here given was 

prepared only takes in 
half theavenue, which 

is cut in two by the 

fountain and basin in 

the foreground. 

For the following 
graphic account of 
this avenue, I am in- 
debted to Mr. Herbst, 
of Kew Nursery, 
Richmond Road. 

Strangers, he says, 
from northern coun- 
tries are invariably 

7 struck with the ap- 
pearance of this 
avenue, which is un- ,. 
rivalled for its regu- 
larity, extent, and 
beauty. It forms a 
colonnade of natural 
Corinthian columns, 
whose graceful bright 
green capitals seem 
to support an over- 
arching dome of 
bright bluesky. When 
T- saw it for the first 
time I felt sensations 
similar to those which: 
I experienced on en- 
tering the great dome 
of Cologne, or that of 
Notre Dame; and this 
feeling of reverence 
and admiration never 
wears off with time. 
The trees of which it 
consists, ten years ago 
were about sixty feet 
in height to the top of 
the fronds, and were 
then said to be be- 
tawveen forty and fifty 
years of age; I, how- 
ever, took them to be 
younger. They may 


beauty and height can 
be seen to the best 
advantage. 

J. CROUCHER. 


Herbaceous Plants 
for Exhibition. — I 
have carefully scanned 
Mr. Brown’slist of hardy 
perennials for this pur- 
pose at page 117, and 
am surprised to observe 
that hardy ornamental- 
foliaged plants are en- 
tirely excluded. The 
schedule quoted simply 
requires that ‘ hardy 


perennials” shall be 
‘furnished, but says 
nothing about their 


being in flower or other- 
wise. On seyeral occa- 
sions I have exhibited 
twelve hardy perennials 
in pots at a country 
show, where the rule 
was to have at least 
eight in flower, the 
other four being plants 
having variegated foli- 
age ; and were the same 
arrangement adopted by 
exhibitorsat South Ken- 
sington during the en- 
suing year, I am both 
sure that the collections 
would be improved, and 
that no reasonable 
judges would disqualify. 
~ Especially do I recom- ° 
mend for exhibition pur- 
poses the variegated 
variety of Polemonium 
ccerulenm, which is 
really one of the very 
handsomest of herba- 
ceous plants, and one 
so far hardy that it may 
be wintered safely in 
_ sheltered places. In ex- 
posed situations, how- 


ever, it is liable to 


now be about seventy- 
five or eighty feet in 
height. The trunk of 
each of them is about 
four feet in diameter 
at four fect from the 
ground, and it goes on 
tapering gradually to 
_a length of more than fifty fect, when it becomes united with 
another smooth thinner trunk from ten to twelve feet in 
height, formed of the bright green footstalks of the leaves, 
which again measure some twenty feet or more. : 

In young vigorous trees the leaves are considerably longer. 
The great beauty of this palm is its elegance and cleanliness of 
aspect; no ragged leaf beats about in the wind eyen at that 
great height; the over ripe yellow leaves unsheath themselves 
of their own accord, and the trees look as clean as if they had 


= 


Palm Avenue in the Botanic Garden at Rio de Janeiro. 


suffer, and in such a 
= case itis best to lift and 
plant in cold frames 
for the winter. As a 
bedding plant it is one 
of the most graceful 
and effective with which 
Tam acquainted ; its sil- 
very foliage being exceedingly pretty, and its habit of growth is 
so dense that it is certain to thoroughly cover the ground allotted 
to it. Anyone who may possess a few plants of this Polemoniam 
should at once pot them up, and grow them on in the greenhouse. 
Should flower stems show themselves, pinch them out, and when the 
plants are of sufficient size give them a shift into larger pots ; under 
such treatment they will soon become highly effective and handsome 
plants.—D. 


A Frortst’s Puritanism is always coloured by the petals of his fowers—and 
Nature never shows him a black corolla.—Oliver Wendeli Holmes. 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 20, 1872. 


ORCHARD HOUSES. 


Wuen Mr. Pearson (p. 105) stated that the future of British 
gardening would be “ more and more under glass,” he asserted 
what was quite correct; but when he added that a giyen area 
of ground could be as cheaply covered by a span-roofed house 
as a lean-to, he was as decidedly wrong. Given, for the sake of 
illustration, a space 12 feet wide to be covered with elass, 
6 feet high at the sides and 11 feet at the ridge would give 
from ground line to ground line a girth of 27 feet 6 inches. 
Given a corresponding space in front of a twelve-foot wall, 
running at the same angle, but with a short hipped roof at the 
back, the result will be 6 feet of vertical class, 12 feet of front, 
and 3 feet of back rafter, or in all 21 feet of girth, equal to just 
6 feet 6 inches less than the span-roofed house. Bring the lean- 
to at a flatter angle tothe top of thetwelve-foot wall,andthe girth 
will be 9 feet 6 inches, or 8 feet less than a span-roofed house. 
Take these measurements at the price of general orchard-honse 
builders, and the result will be, according to the angle of 
inclination, a saving from one-fifth to one-third in favour of the 
lean-to house. Of course, I am presuming upon the wall being 
built; but if it is not, a twelve-foot wall will be built for less than 
a corresponding area in glass. Therefore, where walls are 
already existing it will be cheaper to build against them than to 
erect span-roofed houses. So much for facts; but the propriety 
of the arrangement is another matter, and a very difficult one 
to solve. If we again appeal to facts we shall possibly be con- 
fronted with the almost unquestionable truism, that the best 
fruits of past and present times, anda large proportion of the 
best plants, have been grown in lean-to houses. Still, this is no 
proof that equally good, and possibly superior, fruit, could not 
have been grown in houses with light onall sides. The grapes 
in Mr. Pearson’s large vinery last season (1871) were of un- 
doubted excellence. If there is any mistake in Mr. Pearson’s 
houses, it is their extreme size. Foran unheatedorchard house 
there is some reason in haying it large, inasmuch as the frost- 
resisting power will be in proportion to the cubic contents of 
the warm atmosphere enclosed; but when we go to fire-heated 
houses, then, unless they are to contain large plants, there is no 
sense in building them disproportionately large. Fruit-houses 
twelve to twenty feet wide will be more economically managed 
than those twenty to thirty feet wide. For orchard houses, 
inconyeniently large ones are certainly a mistake, as the fruit is 
so far from the glass as to render it quite impossible that it can 
attain the perfect colour and maturity necessary to fine quality. 
Hence we rarely see first-class peaches and nectarines from 
orchard houses; and if a market-gardener commences to grow 
stone fruit it is a rare exception to find him abandoning the 
trained trellis system of cultivation. With the excessive prim- 
ness that would lay each branch in its alloted space with almost 
mathematical precision we haye no more sympathy than with 
the arbitrary rule which would confine every tree to its particular 
space, saying, So far shalt thou go, and no further. On the 
contrary, we believe nature cannot be curbed without injury, 
and that much of the gumming and canker, the dying off of 
branches and the plague of mildew, that often takes place, may 
be traced to those straights and stays which are used to strain 
a branch into exact position. That free and easy mode of 
training which allows a plant to fill a house, or two houses if it 
is disposed todo so, and which guides the branches without 
putting them in leading strings, is the proper system of manage- 
ment, and should not be confined to one variety of tree, but 
be extended to all trees alike. The future of orchard-house 
treatment is certainly in this direction, and when we begin to 
speak of the crop by pecks or bushels, rather than by dozens or 
scores, orchard houses will have attained their true position of 
usefulness. 

What Mr. Pearson says of the uncertainty of the peachcrop, 
and we might add the life of the tree, is very true; still, there 


’ 


are ways and meaus by which, even north of the Trent, they are 
grown with great success. The finest peach trees I have ever 
met with in England were in Derbyshire; and no one can look 
upon the magnificent trees at Chatsworth without being struck 
with the fact that a cool, if not cold bottom, is best for them. 
At Chatsworth the roots during nearly the whole of the winter, 
forcing season included, must be under water, and yet such 
crops, size, and quality are rarely to be met with elsewhere. 
The success here and in some other places in Derbyshire 


‘certainly point out the advantage of having a cool bottom, 


calcareous soil, and an abundant supply of water. At the same 
time, in the interest of truth, the fact must not be ignored, 
that the peach has been, and we believe is still, very success- 
fully grown with its roots in chambered and hot water heated 
borders, as, for example, at Ringwood, near Chesterfield, almost 
as cold a place as could be found in the Peak of Derbyshire. 
The success in this casemay be regardedas one of those anomalies 
which sometimes crop out in garden experiences, and which 
puts our philosophy to a strange test. 
the accumulating glass erections of the country is not so much 
the production of peaches, as securing a good supply of those 
superior pears, plums, and apples that we should have fronr 
October through the winter months. Fine as a weil matured 
peach may be in its season, a house-grown pear, apple, or 


‘ Jeffersonplum atthe present time—Christmas-day—is infinitely 


finer. A few days back a friend sent us from Ireland, as a fill- 
up, among other seasonable fare, a peck or two of large but 
rather untayourable-looking apples. As they were evidently of 
foreign origin they were relegated to the culinary department. 
Peeling some of them for a tart the odour of pine-apple became 
so manifest that the temptation to taste was irresistible. Well, 
out of a green, bruised, and battered skin, a little amber on the 
sunny side, came, when peeled, a fruit that for exquisite delicacy 
of flesh, juicynessand flavour wouldalmost bear comparison with 
any pine-apple in Covent Garden. Upon closer examination— 
for up to this time we had bestowed nothing beyond a passing 
glance uponthefruit—we recognised our old friendthe American 
Newtown Pippin, which had beén purchased in thetown of Derry 
at the price ot half-a-crown for the stone of fourteen pounds ; and 
nothing more truly delicious haye we tasted for years. Much 
has been said of the Calville Blanc when grown as an orchard- ~ 
house fruit,and though we know the Newtown Pippin possesses 
no speciality when grown in the open air in this country, we 
have written to America for established fruiting plants, and if 
upon trial under glass they prove as goodas we anticipate, they 
~shall have devoted to their cultivation as gooda house as can 
be built. To bring these and similar really delicious fruits to 
perfection should be the mission of orchardists for the future. 


Erect good houses, prepare sound and healthy borders, and 


plant your trees so that they can attain something like proper 
size with full breathing space, and sufficient heating power to 
repel spring frosts,and then you may congratulate yourself that 
you have conquered the British climate, and rendered fruit 
cultivation a certainty. Wes 


The true work of ~ 


A NEGLECTED FRUIT. : 


(THE ALPINE STRAWBERRY.) , 

THE yvalne of this strawberry is better appreciated in France 
than in this country; this is not because it cannot be grown as 
successfully on this as on the other side of the Channel, but because 
it has been so neglected with us that nine out of every ten who 
grow it do not know what it is capable of producing under good 
cultivation. The general custom has been to make an edging plant 
of it, or to plant it in some out-of-the-way corner, where it remains 
year after year on the same spot, until it degenerates so much as 
to assume the character of the wild strawberry found in our 
woods. : 

Very different is the result when it is treated with that generosity 
as regards culture which we bestow on the British Queen or Keens’ 
Seedling. I do not hesitate to say that a greater weight of fruit 
can be grown on a given space planted with Alpines than with any 
other variety. The Alpine begins bearing early in July, and yields a 
constant succession of fruit till the frosty nights come on in October, 
thus extending the strawberry season nearly three months. All 
through the hot weather they are exceedingly useful for ices, jellies, 
&c., and a nice basket of fresh-picked Alpines is not to be despised 
at any time. Some people may say they are small, but I have 


Jan. 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


189 


_ frequently gathered them as large as Black Prince. Don’t grow 
them under walls, or hedges, or on narrow borders, where they are 
half killed by heat and drought; make your Alpine beds across one 
of the open quarters, where the ground has been trenched up and 
well manured two or three feet deep, but don’t use rank manure. If 
the trenching and manuring have been done some time previously, 
So as to give the ground time to settle, so much the better. The 
best time to plant new beds is about the first or second week in 
August. I make my beds six feet wide; on a six-feet- bed I plant 
five rows one foot apart, and about eight inches plant from plant in 
the rows. Before planting let the ground be made tolerably firm, 
and afterwards give a good soaking of water. Alpines are hardier 
than other strawberries, therefore no winter weather ever hurts them. 
In February I give them a good top dressing of rotten manure, and 
in May, I muich them heavily and carefully with long litter or similar 
material, to save watering. , 

_ Anybody who has not yet grown the Alpine strawberry, and who 
may desire to give it a trial, may commence now in the following 
manner: Prepare the beds at once, so far as the trenching and 
manuring are concerned, and let the ground lie rough through the 
winter. About the first week in February procure a packet of seed 
of the French Alpine, red or white, or both if you prefer to grow 
both kinds. Sow in seed-pans, the same as you would do tomatoes 
or ordinary half-hardy annuals; place them in any house, pit, or 
frame, that will furnish .a nice gentle heat ; and as soon as the seed- 
lings are large enough to handle, prick them off into other pans, 
boxes, &c. In April they ought to be strong enough to plant into 
‘the They will begin bearing in August, and a good late crop 
may be anticipated, but not equal to that from August-planted beds. 
Don’t forget the mulching, for this is most important in dry summers 
—it saves much labour in watering. Never let the beds stand more 
than two years in the same place if you can avoid it. A good plan is 
to destroy half the beds every year, and to replant in a fresh place. 
- —E. Hobday, Ramsey Abbey, Hunts, in “ Field.”* 


MINIATURE APPLE-GARDENS. 
T aw an old country resident, says “T. R.,” in the Tinies, living in 
Hertfordshire, in a district celebrated for its cottage gardens, in 
which roses and apple trees are equally abundant. In other districts 


_of England Iam often grieved at seeing gardens neglected, or at best” 


devoted only to potatoesand cabbages. Knowing, as I do, the comfort 
afforded to families by our best known and easily grown fruit, the apple, 
I am tempted to assist in spreading the knowledge of its culture, so 
that every cottager may grow his own apples. Before, however, I 
endeavour to describe the method of forming a cottaget’s apple 
garden, I must give a description—all gardeners know it—of the 
‘stock to be employed to bring in the fruitfulness required in a 
small garden. There is a stock used to graft apples on with an 
almost fabulous name and origin. It is said to have been imported 
from Armenia, from the real site of Paradise. French gardeners in 
old times christened this tree the “‘pommier’du Paradis’’—the apple 
tree of Paradise, and we, as humble imitators, named it the Paradise 
stock. Soon, however, the name was applied to other apple stocks 
the same dwarfing nature, so that we have several varieties of this 
_ dwarf stock, which are called English Paradise stocks—kinds suited 
to our climate. and likely to be very valuable to our cottage 
gardeners. 

The first business of the cottager with the garden is to find a 
corner or square portion of it in which to form his plantation. This 
space he should mark out so as to hold trees in proportion to his 

_ground. These he may plant in rows round the edges’of his garden 
at a distance of four feet apart, or he may form a square, say twenty 
feet in extent, which at four feet apart will hold twenty trees. If a 
Square piece of ground is selected it should be ph. “~7 with apple trees 
grafted on the English Paradise stock, in the form of bushes, four 
feet apart row from row, and the same distance tree from tree in the 
rows. The centre of the space, four feet between each row, eighteen 
to twenty inches in width, may be cultivated for three or four years, 
till the trees have grown to the size of a fair-sized gooseberry bush, 

and in this space may be grown onions and dwarf potatoes, &c., so as 
to give a paying crop. This portion of the soil may be dug or forked, 
So as to loosen it, while the space on each side next the rows may be 
left solid, and_be kept clean from weeds with the hoe. We havethus 
formed an apple garden—say of twenty trees. The sorts may be as 
follows :—Four trees of winter Hawthornden, four Duchess of Olden- 
burg, four Lord Suffield,four Dumelows seedling or Wellington, and four 
Cox’s Pomona. These are large apples, all great bearers, will be in 
season from August to March, and will pay the cottager well for the 
slight trouble of their cultivation. My bush apple trees, now four 
years old, of the above kinds, bore last season half a peck each. 
My plantation consists of 160 trees, and, in addition to the sorts 


‘from warehouses or ship’s sid 


enumerated aboye, I have the Jolly Beggar, Betty Geeson, Mére de 
Ménage, Small’s Admirable, and Warner’s King. I mention the 
names of these prolific trees to assist the cottager’s selection; the 
common Hawthornden and Keswick Codlin may also be included. 
Some kinds of dessert apples, too, are equally prolific, and may be 
cultivated by the cottager with advantage. I may mention one sort, 
Cox’s Orange Pippin, which bears well and sells well, and would in 
itself be a fortune to a cottager. 

And now as to their planting and management. The trees, as I 
have mentioned, shonld be planted four feet apart; the ground, after 
being dug, should have holes opened two feet in diameter and one 
foot deep; in a hole of this size the tree should be placed, and its 
roots covered with the earth taken from the hole ; this should be 
gently trodden, and the planting is complete: The first season after 
planting no pruning will be required, as the growth of the trees will 
be very moderate; the second season, and every year afterwards, 
about the middle of June, every young shoot should be shortened to 
half its length with a sharp knife or pruning scissors, and in August 
the young shoots that have broken forth since the June pruning 
should be shortened to two or three inches. _This is all the pruning 
required, and under this simple culture, the trees, if grafted on the 
Paradise stock, become sturdy fruitful bushes about the size of the 
gooseberry bush, and will give a supply of fine fruit all through the 
winter. Trees, may, I believe, be bought at 6d. and 9d. each, so as 
to be within reach of the labourer’s pocket ; or if a man is ingenious 
he may buy his Paradise stocks—say at 8s. per 100. The second 
year after planting he may graft them with the proper sorts. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 


Grapes in Bottles Filled with Water.—Has recent experience 
confirmed the good opinions that were advanced somefew years ago in refer- 
ence to this mode of preserving grapes after they had been cut ?>—Viris. 
——[M*r. Tillery, of Welbeck, says :—At the present time I have between 
400 and 500 bunches of grapes in bottles of water, and I find they have 
kept as well as if they had been on the vines: the yarieties are Black 
Tripoli, Museats, Burchardt’s Prince, West’s St. Peter's, Prebbiano, and 
the Raisin de Calabre. They have been bottled about six weeks, and will 
keep up the supply till the end of February. After that, the grapes in 
the latest vinery will be cut off and bottled, the sorts being principally 
Alieantes, West’s St. Peter’s, Lady Downes’ Seedling, and Royal Vine- 
yard. I have found no difficultyin keeping Lady Downes in good condition 
till the end of May in bottles of water, and there is the advantage of 
getting the vines in the late vinery properly pruned and dressed for the 
next year’s crop. The main thing to be observed in keeping grapes well 
in bottles is looking over the bunches frequently, and clippimg out all 
decaying berries, attending to the temperature so as only to keep out frost 
and , and this can be best done by having a room fitted up for the 
purpose, as has been done here. } 

Notes Concerning Pot Vines.—In the middle of October my 
pot vines had ripened and shed their leaves in a natural manner, they had 
never been allowed to remain dry during any time of their existence, 
their laterals had been removed, and the canes shortened to the required 


-length as soon as they showed signs of ceasing to grow. On the 30th of 


October they were placed in a temperature averaging 55°, with a close 
moist atmosphere; they are still kept no warmer than this during cold 
weather, but are allowed a higher temperature during sunshine. As soon 
as the buds were seen to be swelling, air was given, and has never been 
taken off since. Treatment very similar to this will continue till the 
flowers are set. My object in writing this is to introduce some notes con- 
eerning root action. I have more than once stated very positively, in oppo- 
sition to several eminent gardeners, that root action in the vine is never 
visible till a considerable amount of foliage has been made. Well, about 
a month after these vines had been placed in the above-named tempera- 
ture, and the buds were swelling perceptibly, I examined the roots and 
found to my surprise that they appeared in full vigour, and the feeders, in 
myriads, were plump and of a greenish-white colour. Now, thought I, I 
have pobnnitied a mistake in contradicting men of half a century’s experi- 
ence, and after all finding that they were right, and that I was wrong. 
Meanwhile the buds continued to swell, and in a few days I examined the 
roots again, and found to my relief that the fibres were fast decaying, and 
that, although the roots were plump and healthy, there was no sign of 
extension ; the rootlets I had seen on the first examination were late and 
not early ones. My former observations were confirmed, and I was spared 
umiliation. The canes have now broken regularly and seroma the 
way up, quite as strong at the lower as at the upper end, and I have no 
doubt new root action will soon commence, if it has not already done so. 
Is it the habit of other plants besides vines to make upper growth before 
the roots move ?—W. TayLor, Longleat. g 
Our Trade in Dried Fruit.—The arrivals of currants in December 
consisted of 3,380 tons, and we have had a total, since the 23rd of August— 
the first day of the season—of 30,300 tons imported into London. This, 
with the old stock, has made 32,300 tons to work upon, and as the London 
stock is reported by dock companies and wharfingers to be 11,660 tons, it 
may be calculated that for all p ses 20,637 tons have been delivered 
e. Of Valencia raisins, the December arri- 
vals of 544 tons bring the total réteipts of the season to 9,062- tons, 
against 7,660 tons in 1870. 


¢ 


190 


THE GARDEN. : 


(Jan. 20, 1872. 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION. 
SCENE IN A BRAZILIAN FOREST. 


To those who are not privileged to travel in tropical climes, 
it is interesting to witness pictorial evidence of the beauties 
of tropical scenery. This is particularly true of the gardener 
whose pleasure and duty it is to develop the highest beanty-of 
the vegetation in his charge; for he will do this effectually, or 
otherwise, just in proportion to his familiarity with the 
abounding beauty and variety exhibited by vegetation in its 
more favoured haunts in countries from which the different 
objects of his care come. We lately illustrated the giant 
herbaceous vegetation of Siberia, and now go south to the 
magnificent forests of Bra7l, letting Mr. Darwin and our 
illustration describe them for us. ; 

After delineating the elements of the scenery, “it is hope- 
less,” says Mr. Darwin, “to paint the general effect. Learned 
naturalists describe these scenes of the tropics by naming a 
multitude of objects, and mentioning some characteristic 
feature of each. To a learned traveller this possibly may 
communicate some definite ideas; but who else, from seeing a 
plant in an herbarium can imagine #ts appearance when 
growing in its native soil? Who, from seeing choice plants 
in a hothouse, can magnify some into the dimensions of forest 
trees, and crowd others into an entangled jungle? Who, 
when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist the 
gay exotic butterflies and singular cicadas, will associate 
with these lifeless objects the ceaseless harsh music of the 
latter and the lazy flight of the former—the sure accompani- 
ments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics? It is 
when the sun has attained its greatest height that such scenes 
should be viewed ; then the dense splendid foliage of the 
mango hides the ground with its darkest shade, whilst the 
upper branches are rendered, from the profusion of light, of 
the most brilliant green. In the temperate zones the case is 
different—the vegetation there is not so dark or so rich, and 
henée the rays of the declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, 
or bright yellow colour, add most to the beauties of those 
climes. When quietly walking along the shady pathways, 
and admiring each successive view, I wished to find language 
to express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too 
weak to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical 
regions the sensation of delight which the mind experiences. 
I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to communicate 
a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The land 
is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by Nature 
for herself, but taken possession of by man, who has studded 
it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great would be 
the desire in every admirer of nature to behold, if such were 
possible, the scenery of another planet! yet to every person in 
Europe it may be truly said, that, at the distance of only a few 
degrees from his native soil, the glories of another world are 
opened to him. In my last walk t stopped again and again to 
gaze on these beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my mind for 
ever an impression which at the time I knew sooner or later 
must fail. The form of the orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the 
palm, the mango, the tree-fern, the banana, will remain clear 


and separate; but the thousand beauties which unite these } 


into one perfect scene must fade away; yet they will leave, 
like a tale heard in childhood, a picture full of indistinct, but 
most beautiful figures.” 


TREE, SHRUB AND PLANT LABELS. 


(Continued from p. 156.) 

For fruit trees, roses, &c., perhaps the simplest and best kind of 
label is a common wooden one, three inches long or so, and with a 
hole bored through at one end, through which a copper wire may be 
passed to attach it to the tree, the name being written on while the 
paint is moist, and the copper rather loosely though securely bound 
round the branch, so as to allow for its expansion. In some places 
where large collections are kept it is usual to put numbers to the 
plants, and enter the names with those numbers in a book. In such 
cases all that has to be done is to provide suitable numbering 
material, and the best known are little narrow strips of lead, on 
which the number is impressed with type for the purpose, and then 
the strip is wrapped round a small branch rather loosely but 
securely, 


For all common bedding and similar plants, ordinary wooden 
labels are at once the most convenient and the simplest. If you 
require them of a somewhat lasting character, dip the ends in tar or 
pitch. In most gardens it is the practice in writing those wooden 
labels to write the name from the part that goes in the ground to the 
top—a bad way, inasmuch as the label always begins to decay af the 
base, and thus the beginning of the generic and specific name gets 
obliterated, while the end of it may be quite legible. Always begin 


‘to write it at the top, and then, if it does decay at the bottom, the 


commencement of the names will, in most cases, lead to their recogni-_ 
tion. This may seem a small matter, but really is of much importance 
where there are many plants named with common wooden labels. It 
becomes as easy to write from the top after a little practice as the 
other way. In writing the names always begin as near the top as 
possible. The wooden labels are most readily made from laths if 
they he not bought by the bundle, in which way they are now 
frequently sold. They are also generally used for pot plants, 
and are the best for general purposes. When we have nice 
specimen plants it is often desirable to furnish them with more 
permanent and horizontally written labels. The readiest and 
best way, however, we have found of doing so is as follows:— 
There are little zinc labels of several shapes sold by seedsmen, 
and usually written upon with some acid, but they are generally 
unsatisfactory when so written, and not sufficiently legible. By 
painting these with a little white paint made withont oil, you may 
write upon the surface with common ink, and by placing over the 
lettering and general surface of the label when dry a touch of the best 
copal varnish, a neat, effective, and most conyenient label for pot 
plants is the result. The labels can be written by anybody, and are 
as quickly and conyeniently done as any. It is best to write each 
letter distinctly—to ‘print’ it after a fashion, in fact. Of course 
there are others equally suitable, but one may obtain a dozen of these 
for the price of one of the impressed labels, and they may be used 
again and again, like the cast-iron labels recommended for trees. We 
are the more desirous of recommending these economical! and efficient 
articles from having frequently scen the labelling of trees, &c., 
given up in disgust in consequence of the failure of expensive glazed 
and other labels. Where large collections of camellias or any other’ 
hard-wooded plants are grown, the small strips of lead, with the 
number impressed on one end and the strip folded on so that the 
numbered end shall be presented to the eye, are excellent, as well as 
for roses, fruit trees, &c., in the open air. ot Bg » 

With regard to the way of writing a label, it is generally a good 
plan to give a place to what is called the ‘‘common name,” if that ” 
name has any basis, not otherwise. The Columbian maple, the dove® 
plant, the maiden-hair—these and such as these that are really 
‘‘common,”’ or hayesome recognition, or some meaning, or association, 
should be given; but to merely translate the Latin name, to give us” 
something like the ‘‘acuminate-leaved Sarcoglottis,” or the “long- 
tubed brain-bane,” as they do in Kensington Gardens and St. James’s 
Park, is not desirable. Therefore we neyer put a ‘“‘common name” 
upon a label unless it be really such, and if the plant has any . 
peculiar use or association that is not expressed by this common 
name, it is sometimes desirable to record it. Never omit the generic 
name in full, as they frequently do at Kew. The native country, in 
addition to the scientific name, should always be giyen; to put the 
date of introduction or natural order is’ unnecessary. One may see 
labels in some botanic gardens so much covered with authorities and 
one thing or the other as to scare away the visitor whom they onght 
to attract. Of course this refers to large and important subjects ; 
for small ordinary plants the single name only should be used. e 

After trying every way we are quite satisfied that the best way of 
all is to have a stock of strong but neat iron labels, and have some 
person to rewrite them occasionally in winter. The most suitable 
size for general purposes of labelling young trees, &c., is, about nine 
or ten inches high, one inch wide in the shank, the head four or five 
inches across, and one and a half or two inchesdeep. Of course these 
cast-iron labels will only be obtained by those who really wish to ~ 
name their choicer trees, shrubs, &c. In the first instange we made a 
model in wood of the desired kind of label, and, sending it to Glasgow, 
had a number cast at a cheap rate per hundredweight—getting 
somewhat more than a hundred labels per hundredweight., In 
writing the labels it is best to first write the outlines, and then fill in 
rather thickly ; the paint to be finely strained, of course. — 

The following description of a new garden label, contributed to the 
Journal of Botany, by Professor A. Church, of the Royal Agricultural 
College, Cirencester, will be of interest. The Professor says :—‘ The 
indestructibility of solid paraflin suggested to me its use for the 
preservation of printed plant labels. The plan having proved 
successful, and the ‘ paraffined’ labels having resisted the adverse 
atmospheric influences of two seasons, I cannot but hope that more 
extended trials will confirm my conviction that a permanent garden 


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ASPECTS OF VEGETATION.—A BRAZILIAN FOREST. 


Jay. 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


193 


label, legible and inexpensive, has been attained. The following is a 
brief.deseription of the mode of preparing the labels:—Print the 
names, &c., of the plants on stout, smooth, white paper of suitable 
dimensions and form. Prepare cast-iron label-holders with a flattened 
spike to keep them straight in the ground, and with the upper 
expanded portion so contrived as to have a sunk flat space about a 
quarter of an inch deep, and the right size for the reception of the 
printed label and its protective .glass cover: Paint this sunk space 
with several coats of good white paint, and allow it to dry thoroughly. 
The next step is to unite the label to the glass plate with paraffin. 
The paper-label and glass being eut to the same size, the latter is 
cleaned and kept hot—about as hot as boiling water—while the label 
is being dipped into a bath of melted paraffin. The label is then 
quickly pressed on to the hot glass, a board and a weight being put 
upon both. When cold, the glass with its adherent label is placed in 
the sunk space-of the label holder, and secured with good putty. 
Subsequently, a coat or two of paint on this putty will keep all 
secure. The above directions are much easier to carry out than they 
appear to be at first sight, while several contrivances and precautions 
will suggest themselves to anyone who carries them out on a large 
scale. For instance, the glass plates may be kept hot in an oven, 
and removed with a pair of crucible tongs as wanted, while another 
pair of tongs or pincers will be useful to hold the labels during their 
immersion in the melted paraffin. Here it should be stated that the 
best paraffin is that which is freest from any kind of fat or grease, 
and melts at a temperature at least above 56° centigrade. It might 
be found advisable to imbed the label and glass in paraffin, or to 
modify the plan of fixing the label to the glass by putting it, soaked 
in paraffin, between two sheets, but the principle of all these modifi- 
cations is identical. 
rise to the discoloration of the label.” 

On the above attempt of the able Professor we have only to remark 
again that no label deserves general adoption in a large garden which 
will not permit of being used again and again, if from any cause the 
plant it was originally used for disappears from the garden or 
perhaps receives another name ; and.as to permanence, that question 
is already settled. Iron labels, painted black, and with white lettering, 
covered with a coat of copal varnish, done eight, seven, and six years 
ago in the herbaceous department of the Botanic Gardens in the 
Regent’s Park, are how as legible as ever. This is permanent enough 
for all ordinary purposes. Grand old oaks or other objects no more 
liable to suffer from vicissitudes than granite rocks, may require as 
permanent labels as can be devised. 


TREES FOR CITIES AND TOWNS. 


Many think that it is difficult or impossible to grow many 

kinds of trees in London. This is an erroneous notion. The 

-after-mentioned trees are such as I know will grow in 
London, and, consequently, in our other large cities :— 

Tre Horse-Crustnut.—This thrives in London where it is 
well planted, and the trees retain their leaves longer than 
they do in Paris; therefore, they are much fresher, and more 
agreeable to look upon in autumn. The most conspicuous 
antation, perhaps, is the avenue in Regent’s Park, where, 
owever, the trees are crowded, and the soil is very inferior 
compared with much that may be found in other London 
parks. It should be borne in mind that when street trees are 
planted on the Continent they receive proper soil, and are 
otherwise treated so as to ensure good specimens. With us 
the rule has been the reverse of this. It is by mere accident 

that most of the fine trees seen in London have got their 
heads above the crowd of young trees and shrubs among 
which they haye .been carelessly stuck into the ground. In 
the squares and in the open roads of London, such as that of 
the new Thames Embankment, the horse-chestnut, if properly 


planted, would in due course become—what it is already in our’ 


parks—the noblest in flower of all our stately forest trees, and 
we may add that the double variety lasts much longer in 
fiower than the common form. The red kind would also 
thrive well, as indeed would all other sorts of chestnut. 


The air and rain are excluded, and cannot give | 


Ropinta (Pause Acacta).—This thrives in all parts of 
London; but it is rarely so planted as to ensure more than 
half its full development. It retains its verdure till late in 
autumn, then sheds its leaves quickly, and goes to rest for the 
winter. It has, in this respect, an immense advantage over 
the lime, which occupies half the summer in shedding its 
rusty leaves. The round-headed yariety, which forms such 
compact and glorious masses of verdure in various cities in 
Italy, is well worthy of attention; and so is the pyramidal 
one, which has a habit like that of the Lombardy poplar. It 
is a peculiarly graceful tree, and especially adapted for posi- 
tions in towns and cities where a tree with wide-spreading 
branches might be objectionable. Its columns of graceful 
verdure may rise in the narrowest streets, or from the smallest 
enclosures round public buildings, &c., without shutting oub 
light, or giving rise to any objectionable drip. This variety 
may be seen in pretty good condition along the flower-walk in 
Kensington Gardens. There are other varieties of this 
elegant tree equally important, such as sophoreefolia, macro- 
phylla, microphylla, and Decaisneana. 

Gurpitscu1a.—This-is much less known as a town tree than 
the Robinia, but is even more valuable, retaining, as it does, 
its leaves in a perfectly green condition till late in autumn, 
and attaining, under favourable circumstances, a height’ of 
nearly eighty feet. A tall and well-developed Gleditschia is 
more beautiful than the finest Robinia; indeed, taking stateli- 
ness and grace into consideration, I know of no tree to 
‘surpass such specimens as that of the Gleditschia in Professor 
Owen's garden in Richmond Park. I have observed these 
Gleditschias thriving in small gardens in London, where 
they haye been most carelessly planted; therefore, there 
would be no difficulty in growing good specimens of them in 
our streets and squares. 

Mar.rs.—Nearly all the species of this noble family may be 
grown well in London, andany of half-a-dozen distinct species 
of maple are better worthy of a place in town than the com- 
mon lime. Among sorts to be recommended may be mentioned 
the Great Columbian, the Neapolitan, the Hungarian, the 
Siberian, and the Norway maples. : 

Axprrs.—Of the cut-leayed kind there is a fine old tree in 
the Duke of Buccleuch’s garden at Montague House. This 
variety, which forms sucha distinct-looking tree, attains as 
great a height as the common kind, and there are other sorts 
that thrive equally well in towns. 

Bircn.—The weeping birch is quite at home in London, and 
the nobler species, such as Betula nigra, will also succeed, and 
may be seen in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. 

CErLTIs occIDENTALIS.—OFf this there is a fine tree at Fulham, 
overhanging the King’s Road. 

Tue Common Asu.—This and its allies, some of which 
differ greatly from one another in appearance, make excellent 
town trees. A good collection of them may be seen in perfect 
health in Kensington Gardens, near the pretty little cottage on 
the south bank of the Serpentine. They are, however, too 
much crowded, and begin to want relief in the way of thinning. 

Tue Turie-Tree.—This is quite at home in London, and is 


- one of the most Valuable of city trees. 


Tue Frowrertse Asn (OrNus EvROP#A).—This thrives per- 


fectly, and is very ornamental in early summer. 


Pyrammat Pranr.—This is a close-growing variety of the 
common London plane, and would, doubtless, make an equally 
good town tree. 

Poritar.—Of the many species and varieties that exist of 
this, the Abele poplar is, perhaps, one of the finest which we 
have for towns. 

Prerocarya caucasica.—This has noble compound leaves, 


and will do well as a town tree. 


AILANTUS GLANDULOSA.—This thrives famously in towns, both 
in America and in Europe. Good examples of it may be seen 
both in Oxford and in Cambridge terraces, Edgware Road. 

Among the preceding are some of our largest town trees. 
There is, however, a host of trees smaller in stature, but more 
beautiful in bloom, and well calculated to relieve the monotony 
resulting from planting any of the larger kinds in quantity, 
which thrive equally well in towns as in the open country, 
These are the thorns in splendid variety, the snowy Mespilus, 
the almond, the apricot tree, the cherries, double and single, 


194: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jay. 20, 1872. 


the Judas. tree, the deciduous cotoneasters, thé quince, the 
laburnums, Gymnocladus canadensis, Koelreuteria paniculata, 
Salisburia adiantifolia, such vigorous and hardy magnolias as 
acuminata; the Dutch medlar, the double-blossomed peaches, the 
cherry plum, Pyrus in great variety, Weeping Sophora, the 
lilac, and the Weeping Wych clm. Many others might be 
named; but these will suffice to show that if we lack variety 
in city plantings, it is not for want of materials. G. 


WEEPING TREES. 


As yet we do not know the full value of weeping trees. It 
is a peculiarity of most weeping trees not to show their full 
beauty of character till 
they have attamed a - 
considerable age. Who 


BEECH TREES AND LIGHTNING. 


WHILE travelling through some of the extensive forests of North 
America, in the summer and autumn of 1834, I was astonished to 
find that during a thunder-storm many of the inhabitants took 
shelter under the nearest beech tree, believing that such trees are 
never struck by lightning. Wishing to investigate the truth of this 
opinion, I made inquiry in various districts through which I passed, 
but in none could I hear of a single instance of a: beach tree haying 
been struck by the electric fluid, although I had seen elms, oaks, 
chestnuts, and ash trees more or less disfigured by it, both in the 
United States and the Canadas. The stems of elms and oaks were 
generally torn into long narrow strips, while the ash was in elongated 
detached masses of various sizes. On returning to Edinburgh, I 
made inguiry in various parts of Britain to ascertain if such was 

the case in regard to the 
beeches in this country. 
Although I have seen and 


heard of many species of 


Imows anything of a 


weeping beech who has 


trees being more or less 


seen only a young speci- 
men recently planted ? 
Why, it is passed by as 
a mere curiosity. But 
give it a generation, and 
it becomes as pictu- 
resque asa gale-tossed 
ship. So it is with the 
weeping mountain elm, 
of which there is such 
a noble specimen on the 
lawn of the Botanic 
Gardens in the Regent’s 
‘Park. Some species, it 
is true,show their beauty 
from an early age; but 
the above-named mark- 
ed examples poimt to 
the probability that we 
cannot judge of the 
effect that will finally be 
produced by kinds ob- 


injured, not one proved to 
be the beech. From this 
seeming exemption, I was 
inclined to think that there 
must be something in the 
constitution of the beech 
different from other trees, 
rendering it less suscep- 
tible to the electric fluid. 
- I may here mention one 
circumstance which is 
pretty well known to all 
proprietors of beech 
forests, that is, the scarcity 
of vegetation in such 
places; and in close beech 
woods nothing is seen but 
the brown decaying leaves 
_ of many successive years. 
In the American beech 
woods, as well as some 
of those in Britain, we do 
find a few herbaceous 
plants peculiar to such 


tained in recent years. 


One of the most beau- 


places, totally different in 
appearance fromthe plants 


tiful of all weeping 


found growing under any 
other species of timber 


trees is the weeping 


form of that fine tree 


trees. Under the beech 


trees in American forests 


the Japanese Sophora 
(Sophora japonica pen- 
dula). When well de- 
veloped, it is attractive 
in winter or summer. 
It is more picturesque 


we find the different species 
of “Indian Pipe” (Mono- 
tropa uniflora and M. Janu- 
ginosa), also the ‘‘ Cancer 
Root” (Epiphegus virgin- 
janus), while the Mono- 


in outline than the weep- 
ing willow, while the 
shoots hang most grace- 
fully. Itis rather a slow 
grower, its only fault; 
like the normal form, 
it would thrive well on 
dry soils. This tree is 
more esteemed on the 
Continent than in this 
country, and there are 
better specimens of it 
there. It probably re- 
quires the climate of the 
south of England to give 
ita fair chance of attain- 
ing perfection. 

As tothe position suited for this tree, there is no fairer 
object, for isolation in scme quiet green bay of the pleasure- 
ground or lawn. It should neyer be crowded up in a planta- 
tion or shrubbery with a number of ordinary trees, which, if 
they do not rob it at the root, or shade it at the top, will 
prevent its beanty from being seen. We should be glad to 
learn the sizeof the best specimens of this tree now in this 
country. 


The Weeping Sophora. 


tropa Hypopitys is imdi-~ 
genous in some beech 
woods in England. These 
plants have, more or less, 
a waxy appearance, of a 
peculiar whitish-brown ~ 
colour, devoid of leaves, - 
but covered with stale-like 
bodies. During a recent 
tour through England, I 
was interested to see at_ 
Mx. Smith’s, at Worcester, 
a large weeping beech, 
which was struck by light- 
ning during the month 
of June 1857. This tree 
is twenty-five feet high, 
‘ y with a stem six feet in 
circumference at base, and branches off horizontally at top. The 
spread of the branches varies from thirty-five feet to forty feet in 
diameter. This beech, instead of being riven in pieces like the 
generality of lightning-struck trees, has the bark on the upper hori- 
zontal portions of the branches injured, just looking as if they had 
been seared with a hot iron. ‘The health of this tree does not appear 
to have suffered, as the points of the branches then struck, as well 
as the secondary ones immediately below the seared portions of the 
large branches, haye grown quite as freely, and continue as healthy 


van. 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


19 


cre 


as those which were untouched by the electric fluid. The three 
main branches injured vary from twenty-one inches to twenty-seven 
inches in circumference, and the portion of bark riven along their upper 
surface varies from four to five inches in breadth, in small, irregular 
flakes, standing quite upright. The electric fluid must have passed off 
by means of the pendent branches, as no trace is observable on the 
surface of the horizontal ones beyond ten, thirteen, and sixteen inches 
in circumference, nor is there the slightest appearance on the stem of 
any electric fluid having passed down it, which is not unfrequently 
the case with some lightning-strack trees. Owing to the peculiar 
effect produced by lightning on this weeping beech, I am still inclined 
to think that there must be something in the constitution of the 
beech tree which ought to be investigated, and which renders it 
incapable of being injured to the extent of other forest trees. Still, 


large beech trees may occasionally be strack, and show no more- 


injury than the weeping beech at Worcester—J.McNab in Pro. 
ceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh.” 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Extinet Sequoia (Wellingtonia) Forests in England.— 
Inthe December number of the Geological Magazine, Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., 
of the British Museum, has figured and described two new species of fossil 
coniferous fruits from the Gaultbeds of Folkestone. He states one species 
to be allied to the existing Sequoia (Wellingtonia), and shows that they 

t to the existence of a coniferous vegetation on the high lands of the 
pper Cretaceous period, which had a facies similar to that now existing 
on the mouatains on the west of North America, between the thirtieth 
and fortieth parallels of latitude. No fossil referable to Sequoia has 
hitherto been found in strata older than the Gault, and here, on the first 
appearance of the genus, we find it is associated with pines of the same 
group that now flourish by its side in the New World. 
The Hemlock Spruce (Abies canadensis).—The grandest and 
most solemn of all the forest-trees in the mountain regions. Up toa 
certain period of growth they are eminently beautiful, their boughs 
sed in the most graceful pagoda-like series of close terraces, thick 
dark with green crysfalline leaflets. In spring the tender shoots come 


“ani 


out of a paler green, finger-like, as if they were pointing to the violets at 


their feet. But when the trees have grown old, and their rough boles 
measure a yard and more through their diameter, they are no longer 
beantiful, but they have a sad solemnity all their own, too full of meaning 
to require the heart’s comment to be framed in words. Below, all their 
earthward-looking branches are sapless and shattered, splintered by the 
weight of many winters’ snows; above, they are still green and full of life, 
but their summits overtop all the deciduous trees around them, and in 
their companionship with heaven they are alone.—Elsie Venner. © 

A Tale about Cedar Trees.—Once upon a time, in a certain 
private park on the south side of London, there stood some cedar trees, 
both tall and handsome, lending a sweet and beautiful air to the swelling 
ground on which they grew. But on an evil day the park was given over 
to the tender mercies of builders and surveyors. ‘‘'These trees,’’ said one 
master builder, “are very precious; they would make innumerable cedar 
pencils, and would in that way realise a great deal of money.” He 


therefore gave orders to his men to cut them down and make them into - 


square logs. Then he said to a timber dealer, ‘* Come, see my timber, and 
buy it.” So the timber dealer came, but he did not buy; on the contrary, 
_ he said, “Foolish man! you have destroyed these beautiful trees, and now 
they are of no use except to burn; these are not the cedar trees of which 
pencils are made, and their wood is good for nothing else. These trees 
were worth a hundred guineas eaclras objects for park embellishment as 
they stood, and now they are scarcely worth carting away.’’ Moral:—Don’t 
eut cedar trees down, especially with the view of making cedar pencils or 
much money out of them.—ALFrEeD Dawson. _ 


Poplars 4s Town Trees.—I have a very beautiful poplar on my - 


lawn which I received from Simon-Louis Fréres, of Metz, now some 
seven or eight years since, under the name of Populus Eugenei, said 
to be a hybrid between P. canadensis and some other species. My 
tree is about thirty feet high, and differs from all others; it is grace- 
ful, and most rapid in its growth, having some resemblance to the 
Black Italian poplar; but is far less spreading in its growth, and 
seems well worthy of propagation as a town tree—for anyone who 
will look at the groups of poplars behind Whitehall will’see that the 
poplar is a town tree. The poplars I allude to (Populus canescens, I 
believe) in summer are slightly pendulous, and on the whole form the 
most graceful groups of trees I ever saw. That variety of P. alba 
called P. acerifolia is also well worthy of a place in our parks. Its 
leaves when turned up by a slight wind are of silvery whiteness and 
= plentiful ; both this and P. Eugenei strike freely from cuttings. 
—Syrva. 


Trees.—There is a mother-idea in each particular kind of tree, 


which, if well-marked, is probably embodied in the poetry of every _ 


language. Take the oak, for instance, and we find it always standing 
_ as a type of strength and endurance. I wonder if you ever thought 
_ of the single mark of supremacy which distinguishes this tree from 
all onr other forest-trees? All the rest of them shirk the work of 


x 


resisting gravity ; the oak alone defies it. 
direction for its limbs, so that their whole weight may tell—and 
then stretches them ont fifty or sixty feet, so thatthe strain may be 
mighty enough to be worth resisting. 
from the extreme downward droop of the branches of the weeping- 


sweep nearly half a circle. 


It chooses the horizontal 


You will find that, in passing 


willow to the extreme upward inclination of those of the poplar, they 
At 90° the oak stops short; to slant 
upward another degree would mark infirmity of purpose; to bend 
downwards, weakness of organization. The American elm betrays 


something of both; yet sometimes, as we shall see, puts on a 


It won’t do to be 
There is hardly one of them 


certain resemblance to its sturdier neighbour. 
exclusive in our taste about trees. 


which has not peculiar beauty in some fitting place for it. I 


remember a tall poplar of monumental proportions and aspect, a vast 


pillar ef glossy green, placed on the summit of a lofty hill, and a 


beacon to all the country round. A native of that region saw fit to 
build his house very near it, and, having a fancy that it might blow 
down some time or other, and exterminate himself and any incidental 
relatives who might be “stopping” or “‘taryying ” with him—also 
labouring under the delusion that human life is under all cireum- 
stances to ke preferred to vegetable existence—had the great poplar 
cut down. It is so easy to say, ‘“ It is only a poplar!” and so much 
harder to replace its living cone than to build a granite obelisk !— 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 


Killing Tree-Stumps.—Within these last few years I have re- 
modelled my plantations and shrubberies, and rooted-out cart-loads of ill- 
grown trees, replacing them with curiously grafted trees more suitable for 
garden decoration than the common material so-persistently planted even 
yet by those whose knowledge of arboriculture extends no further than 
that of time-honoured timber trees. Not to make too great an opening 
at once, a large tree was left at intervals, until the new ones get up a 
little, and these I wish to destroy by degrees as may seem desirable. ‘Lhe 
question is, therefore, how can this best be done, as the roots cannot be 
dug out, and to cut them off at or above ground would only result in the 
production of ugly stumps, bristling with strong shoots. The only 
effective way I can think of is to remove entirely a ring of bark in the 
early autumu before the descent of the sap, and this I purpose trying next 
autumn, if no one can, from experience or inductive reasoning, suggest a 
better plan. The trees are from twenty-five to thirty years planted. 1 
thought at first to head them down and cover them with ivy, but a 
vigorous young oak upon which the experiment was tried threatens (for 
a time at least) to out-grow the ivy. In order to better understand the 
case on which [ seek advice, it may be well to explain that the south 
plantation, specially intended to block out a row of houses, is about four 
hundred feet long, and was originally planted on the level, but having 
now adopted the raised and undulating style, I have raised the ground 
from three to four feet with rich soil throughout the entire length. This 
affords excellent material for the new trees to root and become established 
in. And to prevent injury to those old trees which for a time it is 
desirable to retain, a ring of loose stones has been built round the trunks. 
This raising of the soil, as well as the -planting of new trees at a higher 
level, of course, precludes the digging out and eradiction of the older ones 
when it is wished to get rid of them—W. T.——/As you have rather 
deeply covered the roots of the older trees, it is likely some ef them will 
perish from thiscause. Your best course is to plant ivy and other vigorous 
climbers against any tall stumps you may have, cutting in the top where 
that is interfering with the younger and rarer trees. Trees, like weeds, 
may be destroyed by persisting in cutting off their leaves. | 


SEASIDE TREES AND SHruBs.—Mr. Barnes recommends Cupressus 
macrocarpa as the best conifer for planting in exposed situations near 
the sea, but I venture to advise the use of it in that way with caution. 
Twenty years ago this very beautiful tree had so fairly taken posses- 
sion of my better affections that I was in raptures with it, recom- 
mending it and planting it in all directions. In one instance I 
induced a gentleman to allow me to plant him a full thousand in one 
plantation near the sea; but, alas! of that large group few now 
remain to tell their tale of hardships; all except a few solitary 
unhappy objects have disappeared, so that Cupressus macrocarpa, 
however handsome in some situations, is not the tree to plant to “ any 
required extent.” Far from it—it will not stand direct exposure to 
the sea in most cases; in some quiet snug spot nothing can be more 
handsome than this fine cypress ; but as a conifer there is no pine to 
equal Pinus austriaca: it will stand exposure anywhere and every- 
where. I reside, as it were, on the sea-beach, and I could point to 
some fine examples of Cupressus macrocarpa planted by myself in 
1850-51; but I could also point to many failures——W™m. Barron, 
Sketty, Swansea.—[From the situation in which the Monterey 
Cypress grows on the Pacific slope, we should be inclined to say that, 
unless the climate be a peculiarly. harsh one, it is likely to prove 
a noble seaside tree. At Monterey it stands on the sea-shore, con- 
tinually tossed by the cool Pacific breezes and storms, and the 


-trees attain such size and character, that they almost remind one 


of tall Cedars of Lebanon. We hope shortly to engrave a drawing, 
by Mr. E. Vischer, of San Francisco, in which the trees and their 
storm-tossed home are beautifully shown,—ConDucror.] 


/ 


THE GARDEN. 


(Jax. 20, 1872. 


IVY-LEAVED PELARGONIUMS. 


In many localities great difficulty has been experienced 
during these last few years in satisfactorily cultivating the 
various varieties of bedding verbenas and calceolarias, and the 
result is that_in some establishments their. cultivation has 
been nearly if not altogether discontinued. The useful Pyre- 
thrum “Golden Feather” has, in some degree, supplied the loss 
of the yellow calceolaria, and im the various varieties of ivy- 
leaved pelargoniums may, I think, in some instances at least, 


be found substitutes for the verbena; and this will possibly be - 


admitted to be the case when itis remembered that this section 
of the pelargonium family has of late years been much 
enriched by what may be termed an infusion of zonal blood, 
and that many of the hybrid varieties thus obtained are found 
to be exceedingly graceful and really useful bedding plants. 
In dry seasons, too, on light land, they will be found to succeed 
admirably, while under similar circumstances verbenas and 
calceolarias would probably perish. In fact, in their cultiya- 
_ tion as bedding plants, neither arich soil nor an abundant 
supply of water is necessary or desirable. 

Most of the older varieties of ivy-leaved pelargoniums have 
been long appreciated as useful plants on account of their 
graceful drooping habit, which renders them well adapted for 
suspending’ in baskets and as marginal plants for large or 
rustic vases, &c. But it is possibly among the hybrid varieties 
that really useful sorts for the purpose of bedding are to be 
found, and the ornamental and rich wax-like foliage of these 
plants compensates for an admitted paucity of bloom which 
characterises some of the kinds. 

I may remark, ew passant, that it is very interesting to~ 
observe the extraordinary vigorous growth of some hybrids 
between the ivy-leaved and zonal sections. One of these has 
covered a large portion of the back wall of a greenhouse here 
in afew months. Indeed, Iam unacquaimted with any other 
variety of plant which could have covered a like space in so 
short a time, and it does not appear to lose any of its vigour 
by being increased from cuttings. At a short distance it 
might well be mistaken for the Irish ivy. Its flowers are large 
and of a soft rose colour, but few and far between. - 

Very little difficulty is experienced in increasing these plants, 
which are usually struck here early in August in the open air. . 
Four cuttings are placed im a four-inch pot of light, sandy 
soil, and in these pots they usually remain until the bedding- 
out season arrives, when they are merely shaken out of the 
pots with little or no soil adhering to their roots, and atonce 
planted thickly in the beds, watering well as the work proceeds. 
This waterimg is occasionally repeated, if the weather proves 
dry, until the plants have fairly established themselves. 

Nearly all varieties of Ivy-leayed Pelargoniumsmay be said 
to be good bedding plants; but I will name a few sorts which 
I have proved to be remarkably useful in that way, viz. :— 
Crimson Ivy-leayed, an old variety and an excellent bedder; 
Delicatum, a good bedder, with blush or light-rose coloured 
flowers; Duke of Hdinburgh, fine variegated foliage, trailing 
habit, of robust growth; L’Elegante, leaves with neat white 
margins, which frequently become crimson, and when seen in 
a bed have a most striking effect, which is most telling when 
the flowers are picked off; Silver Gem, with foliage margined 
white and flowers lilac-coloured, makes a fine bed or margin to 
one of large dimensions; Bridal Wreath, this is a hybrid variety, 
with well-formed pure-white flowers, and very pretty foliage, 
the young leaves at first being nearly white, changing to 
bright green when fully developed. To form a white bed I 
know of no plant that surpasses this yariety. Lady Ndith, 
Willsii, and Willsii roseum, are exceedingly beautiful hybrid 
varieties, and very effective and beautiful bedding plants when 
grown in a comparatively light soil. For these, I believe, we 
are indebted to Mx, J. Wills, of South Kensington. 

Culford. i “ P, Grinye. 


~ VEGETATION IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 


PropaBiy there are few spots of similar extent where there are _ 
more gardens and a more general taste for gardening than in the 
Chamnel Islands.: The colours of the flowers appear to be intensified 
by some peculiarity of soil and climate. The blue conyolyulus and 
blue lobelia, and the scarlet geraniums, are several shades deere 
colour than they are on our coast. The Hydrangea, which generally 
has a pink blossom here, is usually blue in these,islands, but the colour 
is nob constant, and the plant may sometimes-he observed changing 
its hues, one colour apparently struggling with the other. _ 

Among sub-tropical plants we noticed several tender varieties 
of acacia, the Australian gum tree (Hucalyptus), the orange and the 
olive (both fruiting in the open ground), Cestrum aurantiacum, the 
Veronica Andersonii and other varieties of the same pretty flowerig 
shrub, and myrtles, which grow to.a large sizeand blossom freely. The 
fig overtops the cottage roofs, amd its fruit is the earliest that reaches 
the London market. The geranium and heliotrope stand the winter 
unprotected, and old plants of these flowers sometimes almost coyer 
the cottage walls. The Magnolia grandiflora grows into a small 
timber tree; one in the garden of Mr. Carey, of Woodlands, in 
Guernsey, is 45 feet in height, and is said to be the largest in Europe. 
In the same garden is a cork tree with the trunk as big as the body 
of a large man, producing cork in thick layers, which has been freely ~ 
sliced off by numerous visitors. The single red and white camellia’ 
grows everywhere; we saw one covering a wall 30 feet by 16 feet, 
One of the prettiest of evergreen shrubs, the Escallonia macrantha, 
ornaments almost every garden with its bright green shining leayes, 
and blossoms until Christmas. Anevergreen Huonymous (H. japonicus) 
is also common; and the evergreen oak is a remarkable feature in 
the arboriculture of Jersey and Guernsey. 

Inmany gardens the magnificent clumps of aloes decorating the 
lawn or grounds would fill a large conseryatory. They blossom at 
the age of twenty or thirty years. At St. Peter's we saw an aloe 
(Agave americana), growing in the front garden of one of the houses, _ 
which had produced a magnificent stem, loaded with blossoms. The 
following year the stem stood erect, measpring about 35 feet in 
height, and the plant, fated to die after the effort of blossoming, was 
then apparently withering. The aloes are among the plants that 
help to give the little islands a southern aspect. - H. NEWLANDs. 


LAW NOTES. 


Poisoning Cats.—The Birmingham Post says:—‘A gentleman eyi- 
dently of strong feline antipathies, residing in Edgbaston, was summoned 
by his next-door neighbour to the Birmimgham Police-court for having 
exposed poisoned foog in his garden for the destruction of life, contrary 
to the statute. The particular offence-alleged was that the defendant 
hhad- placed upon his lawn two pieces of fish covered with strychnine, 
which had been the cause of death of two favourite cats of the plaintiff. 
Defendant's answer was, in substance, an acknowledgment of the © 
poisoning, but a denial of its illegality on the ground that the land upon ~ 
which the poisoned fish was laid was inclosed. It seems that, although 
the statute is very severe upon persons who sow or expose poisoned grain 
or seed, or place poisoned meat, in fields and open lands, the prohibition _ 
does not extend to inclosed gardens. The bench had no alternative but to 
decide in favour of the defendant and dismiss the summons,’ s 

Damaging a Crop by Chemical Fumes.—Hndspeth v. Pattin-~ 
son & Co.—This wasan action brought to recover £39. 18s., the amount of 
damage alleged to have been done to crops on the plaintiff’s land by 
poisonous fumes from the defendants’ works. The plaintiff saw the fumes 
settle upon and damage the crops on several days during May. The ~ 
deficiency in quantity was estimated at £25. 11s. 6d.,and the deterioration 
in quality at £14. 7s. 8d.; total damage, £39. 18s. 9d. The defendants 
said that damage was sometimes done to crops by vapours bpm 
works, and the tenants properly got compensation ; but in this ease they 
denied that any damage was done. Test papers did not change colour, 
showing that no acid vapours were present, a fact which was also corroho- 
rated by others. The jury nevertheless returned a verdict for the plaintiff— 
damages, £20. : 

The Law in Reference to Fruitmen’s Baskets.—Mr. Shrub- 


sole, a fruit-grower at Sittingbourne, Kent, sued Messrs. Slanner, salesmen _ 


in Covent Garden, in the Westminster County Court, the other day, for 
compensation for baskets that had not been returned to him. Messrs. 
Skinner stated that their expenses for baskets were nearly £1,000 a year, 
that their losses were annually about half that : sum, and that it was not 
the custom for growers to charge for baskets not returned, as they were 
frequently lost and mixed with others, as in the present instance. . It was, 
in short, proved that the custom of the market was, that baskets were 
trusted to the buyers without money being left upon them. The judge’ 
considered Messrs. Skinner clearly entitled to a verdict, as the baskets 
appeared to him to be nothing more in relative value than the paper bags 
or fancy boxes used by confectioners, haberdashers, or others, to send 
their goods home in. He, therefore, gave judgment for the defendants, ~ 
and, on application, allowed the full costs of their solicitor and of five ~ 
witnesses. i > : 
. 


4 


<< - Z ~\9 


Jan. 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


197 


’ The Law as to Landowners and Footpaths.—In the Court of 
Queen’s Bench a case (The Vestry of St. Mary, Newington, v. James) of 
some importance to owners of property was lately decided. ‘The defend- 
ant had applied to the vestry for permission to remove some flag pave- 
ment in front of his premises, and replace it by pebbles suited to bear 
heavy burdens. This having been refused, his waggons were driven over 
the footway, and broke the flags. Proceedings were thereupon taken 
against him under the Highway Act, and the magistrate having refused to 
convict, the vestry carried the case to the Queen’s, Bench. Their appeal 
‘was rejected, however, Mr. Justice Mellor, who delivered the judgment of 
the court, saying :—‘‘At common law—or under the statutes—an owner who 
dedicated the soil to the public use as a footway parted with no other 
right than the right of traffic for the public. If this were not so, the 
owner of an estate having dedicated a portion of it to the purpose of a 
-roadway, raised on both sides for the purpose of a footway, would, by lapse 
of time, be precluded from opening a new gateway into his land from the 
voadway, and thus would be prevented from putting the premises to any 
new use. But such was not the law. No doubt the owner could not so 
derogate from his grant as to obstruct or interfere with the full and free 
right of passage; but that was all that he was bound to allow; and, subject 
to the public right of passage, the rights of the owner were left un- 
imy a ; 
- New Entrances into Old Thoroughfares.—In the case of Bean 
v. Thomas, lately tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Westminster, a 
question of great importance to the owners of land abutting ona public way 
was raised, namely, whether they have a right to open doors or gates 
into it. The parties to the action are neighbours, and the place in dispute 
is a narrow lane running between their land. The lane had been used by 
the public for half a century, people going up and down it, though rarely, 
as the place was in a rural district. The defendant had lately opened a 
gate from his land into the lane, and the plaintiff, as the owner of the soil, 
complained of this as an unlawful encroachment. The case was tried at 
the last Surrey Assizes, before Baron Bramwell, and it Was found that the 
plaintiff was the owner of the soil in the lane, and that the lane was a 
ublic highway. On this the learned baron directed a verdict for the 
Hatentlant holding that anyone whose land abuts on a highway has aright 
to open gates or doors into it at pleasure. Mr. J. Brown, Q.C., moved, on 
the part of the plaintiff, to set aside this verdict, arguing at some length 
that the public were limited in their right to use the lane, and could only 
go up and down from end to end, and that the defendant had no ‘greater 
right than anyone else. The court, however, were from the first quite 
clear that this view could not be sustained. Suppose, said the Lord Chief 
- Justice, that I dropped in the lane from a balloon, or took my horse over 
it in hunting, should I be a trespasser? It was manifest, and, indeed it 
was admitted, that this would be so, according tothe contention of the 
plaintiff ; and surely, said the Lord Chief Justice, this would be contrary 
to common sense. Isa gentleman a trespasser who jumps over his park 
wall into the road? There was no trace here of any limitation of the 
ordinary right of the public on a highway, and that was to go over it in 
any direction, and to open gates into it at pleasure. This was too clear to 
os ated. The rest of the court concurred, and the application was 
Yr * “ f 


E THE HOUSEHOLD. 


ve SALADS AND SALAD-MAKING. 


_ TxeEre are few subjects upon which more nonsense is customarily 
written than these of salads and salad-making, and ‘it arises princi- 
y from a slavish imitation of our great cooks, and, to a great extent, 

rom the improper selection of materials. Taking lettuce as the staple 
article, where, in point of flavour, is there one that is fit to compare 
with the varieties of the old Brown or Bath Cos, and next to them 
the Paris White and Green Cos? Yo those who like soft lettuces, Tom 
Thumb, Tennis Ball, Neapolitan, and the like are good enough, but 
not one of them has the true lettuce flavour. I like them occasionally 
fora change ; but not one of them can be compared with a well-grown 
‘Cos Lettuce. 
‘vulgar; but oil, though it be the best Lucca, is distasteful to me, and 
or a delicate salad I would rather have a tablespoonful or two of 
gure sweet cream than oil. Give me this: a dessert-spoonful of 
perfectly mashed potato, salt, sugar, mustard, and vinegar 'to taste ; 
add to these, if you like them, a drop or two of chilli or eschallot 
vinegar, and you have a salad mixture fitfor a queen. Salads I like 
pure and simple, and would suit them to thejoint with which they 
are to, be* eaten. If it is lamb, chop a sprig or two of mint quite 
_ fine; and if for cold beef-or veal,a few young onions treated in the 
Same manner will not be objectionable. 
~ blanched endive, the broad-leaved Batavian being the best, a stick or 
_ two of celery, some beet, and two or three well-boiled mild onions. Try 
o ‘ the same mixture, and you will have little cause for com- 

2no sympathy with a great variety of articles ina salad, 

dgon, chervil, lambs lettuce, radishes, &c. The nutty 

ampion is a great improvement ; but radishes and cucumber 

- place in salads. I do not even admire ‘lobster salad’”’—at 

ot the -vile compound which one gets served up at public 

» and many private ones, and which in many cases is an 


For such a heterodox assertion I fear I shall be voted © 


At this season gét perfectly — 


pepper and salt to taste. 


indigestible mess. Give me the-tail or claws of a nice fresh lobster, 
with a spoonful or so of the spawn: let me have the ingredients before 
noted, some well-blanched lettuce or endive, and the preparation of 
a salad to eat with lobster will not be a work of many seconds, though 
infinitely superior to the kind which some compound. As a great 
admirer of vegetables of all kinds, I like them in their pristine and 
siinple purity, and I would rather have a salad in its simple form, 
than the best mixture which Francatelli himself could invent. 1 like 
these things as sauce to viands, not as viands themselves. As Be 

[We fear our correspondent belongs to the gourmand rather than 
the gourmet section of salad-eaters. | 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE HOUSEHOLD. 


‘ 

“Cole Slaw.”’—The German population here (United States), as 
in the great Fatherland, are fond of what they call “sour krout,” 
which is no doubt wholesome, but it would not be appreciated by 
English people. In another form, however, viz., that of “‘ cole slaw,” 
cabbage is very relishing; this is simply the nice white hearts 
of cabbage sliced fine by machinery, seasoned with oil and vinegar, 
and eaten as a salad. Some may exclaim, What taste! I say try 
it, either alone or mixed with other winter salading ; it is not amiss, 
too, mixed with sliced raw tomato; but in America “cole slaw?’ 
always accompanies raw oysters—an excellent combination. Oysters 
are cheap here, and the quantity of cabbages consumed in New 
York along with them, and in other ways, would be a matter of 
surprise to Englishmen.—James Tarriy, South Amboy, New Jersey, 
United States. [We have never tasted in any country a more 
agreeable salad than “‘ cole slaw ”’ in America, when properly made. ] 


Carrot Pudding.—Half-pound each of plums and currants picked 
and stoned, half-pound finely-chopped beef suet, three-quarters of a pound 
of bread crumbs, half-pound each of carrots and potatoes (raw) when 
scraped and grated, quarter-pound of fine moist sugar, a little finely-cut 
lemon-peel (or if preferred, two ounces of candied peel), spice to taste, a 
teaspoonful of salt. Very little liquid is required to form the right 
consistency, as the moisture from the vegetables is nearly sufficient. 
What more is wanted should be milk. Boil in a basin or mould from four 
to five hours. Serve with or without brandy sauce. This is a very nice 
and inexpensive pudding, no eggs being used. 

White Winter Radishes.—A Russian prince, last October, after ~ 
complimenting me with referente to the salads supplied to my employer’s 
table, remarked, “Only one thing you require to make your salads per- 
fection.”” I naturally inquired what that was, when he replied, “The 
Russian white winter radish.” Of this he promised to send me a packet 
of seed, and if he does, I will grow it and let you know the results —R. 
GILBER?, Burghley. > 

Poisoned by Rhubarb.—Mrs. Lucy Snook, aged fifty, wife of Isaac 
Snook, residing between Oneida and Durhamville, died from the effects of 
eating for greens the leaves of rhubarb or pie plant, of which she was very 
fond, and from the poisonous effects of which she suffered for nearly three 
weeks previous to her death. - The stalk of the pie plant, when peeled of 
its outer covering, is not injurious when used for food; but the leaves are 
poisonous, and should never be eaten.—American Paper: 


Nettles for Food—One of the most neglected, and certainly one of the 
most common of our British plants, is the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). 
Three species are known in this country, but the one mentioned is perhaps 
the most common. Many country people believe im nettle tea as a useful 
spring medicine, and not a few boil and-eat them as a green vegetable. 
They were in former times grown in Scotland as a pot-herb, and if forced 
and blanched by earthing up in a similar manner to asparagus and seakale, 
the young tops make a very good dish. In Belgium, Germany, and other 
parts of continental Europe, nettles are much more generally used as food 
than they are with us.— Food Journal. 


MODES OF COOKING: BRUSSELS SPROUTS. 

Savures au Brurre.—Trim them neatly, and wash them in several 
waters; put them to boil in plenty of salted water, and, when almost 
done, strain them, and dry them in a cloth; put them in a saucepan 
with a large piece of butter, pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste. 
Toss them gently on the fire until they are quite cooked. 

A tA Cremr.—Boil them as above. Melt a piece of butter in a 
saucepan with a pinch of flour; add pepper, salt, gratéd nutmeg, and a 
small quantity of cream or milk; put in the sprouts, and keep them sim- 
mering till they are ready. 3 

Av Jus.—Parboil them only in salted water; then, having drained 
and dried them, put them to finish cooking in @ saucepan with some 
well-flavoured clear gravy, adding pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to 
taste. 

A ta Marrre pb’ Horen.—Having nearly boiled the sprouts, melt a 
piece of butter in a saucepan, toss them in this until done, ad” 
some minced parsley, a sprinkling of pepper and salt, and the jv* 
lemon. ‘ 

A x. Lyonnaisn.—Mince a small quantity of onions or 
them‘. light brown in butter, then add-the sprouts r- 


198 - 


(Jan. 20, 1872. 


SAMUEL BROOME’S MEMORIAL. - 


Aut lovers of flowers who live in London, or who haye been_}- 


frequent visitors to the central part of our great metropolis, 
will have heard of the work, if not of the name, of Samuel 
Broome. For thirty-eight years, as gardener to the Honourable 
Society of the Inner Temple, ib was his living task to contribute 
to the pleasure and innocent enjoyment of thousands of those 
who made the Temple Gardens their frequent resort, and 
especially to the delight of the children of this great city, who 
found in that ancient pleasaunce, not only a playground, but a 
charming retreat from the crowded streets. 
Samuel Broome, though a famous grower of the chrysanthe- 
_mum, was much more estimable as aman, from his great natural 
kindness and good-natured frankness of disposition. We have 
therefore great pleasure in recording the fact that some of his 
many friends haye subscribed to erecbh a monument to his 
memory above his last resting-place in Nunhead Cemetery. 
Of this monument we now furnish an illustration. It consists 
of a column of Aberdeen granite eleven feet in height, standing 
ona double platform, and is embellished by a wreath of chry- 
santhemums in white marble. 


xy 
ve 


A 


Sanme] Broome’s Monument in Nunhead Cemetery. 


No man in his sphere was more deservedly popular or better 
known than Sam Broome, as might be gleaned from the nume- 
rous regretful notices of his death in the press of all rank 
We may conclude in the words of Punch :— 


« Neyer was simple man more glad than thou, 
Neyer were gentler pride and joy than thine— ~ 
Pleased to see pleas’d crowds round thy pompons bow, 
Children, maids, barristers of parchment brow, 
Who rarely noticed sun’s or blossom’s shine. 


N 
« Along Thames bank thy blooms stood brave and bold, 
_ The brighter for the brick and mortar round : 
And if thy flowers were flowers of gold, 
So innocent none grew from Temple mould, 
None so enriched, yet cumbered not, the ground. 
© How oft, when Autumn daylight in the West 
Was blended with the City’s lurid flare, 
Pale cheeks and aching brows thy flowers have blest, 
That breathed a breath of Nature and her rest, 
+g o’er-wearied with law’s cark and care. | 


to thee, kind, honest, old Sax Broomn.” 


THE GARDEN. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from p. 128.) 2 


Tin taskis more difficult, when, along witha suitablearrange- 
ment for culture, the decoration of the apartment is also aimed. 
at. The usual positions selected for-this purpose are the cor- 
ners of the room, and the parts of the walls between the 
windows. ‘These last positions are generally those which, from 
considerations of space, people devote to plants when there is. 
not sufficient room for them in the rest of the apartment, but 
for the culture of plants they are most unsuitable positions, 
because they are either too far from the light, or the light from 
the windows cannot fall directly on them. Corners which are 
opposite the windows receive, at least, the licht directly, and 
so are far more favourabe for the culture of plants than, for 
example, the corners of the wall in which the windows are 
placed, or the parts of the wall between the windows, which” 
although nearer to the light, do not receive it directly. There-— 
fore, when the culture of plants is confined to the room itself, 
and the specimens cannot trom time to time be removed to the 
plant-house, these positions should either not be furnished with 
plants, or a selection should only bemade from the few kinds ~ 


Plan of Room with Plants. 


which succeed in rooms even when they receive but little direct © 
light, as, for example, Plectogyne variegata (which cannot be 
surpassed in this respect), some of the taller kinds of Anthu 
rium, with long and broad leaves, and many varieties of ivy. 
‘In theimmediatevicinity of the fire-place,noplants will lastlong, 
Where it is desired to decorate a room permanently with 

handsome hot-house foliage-plants, the arrangement must be, 
such that all the plants may be exposed to the direct light from | 
the windows and yet be placed not too far from the fire-place. 
A few ereepers that will thrive in the shade, as the ivies and 
Cissus antarctica, the plants before-mentioned, with a judicious © 
selection and arrangement of the furniture must then help to — 
fill up the plan. On festive occasions, when a greater number 
of persons than usual crowd one’s rooms, any plants“ ~~ 

in the way can be remoyed for twenty-four he 
‘injury to the unoccupied corners of the room,” 

serve to decorate for the occasion. But let nc 

seduced into making the experiment in winter 

cold staircases with plants placed around hes 

for a short time. If he does so he will lose, D 


Jan. 20, 1872.] 


— 


THE GARDEN. 


199 


* the labour and trouble of many years. Plants which occupy 


rather unfavourable positions should not be allowed to remain 
there always, but should change places from time to time with 
the specimens which are better placed. 


In order to illustrate the foregoing general principles of 
arrangement for permanent decoration, I will cite a special 
case, namely, that of my own dwelling-house, in which I have 
cultivated most kinds of ornamental plants without removing 
them into the open air for about eight years. The only favour- 
able positions in my house are the rooms which face the south. 

‘Moreover, the double windows are kept fast closed during the 


whole winter, and the ventilation is not very perfect; the 


\ 


rooms are heated by sheet-iron Stoyes,and dust, unfortunately, 
always abounds in immense quantities, so that when the long, 
cold winter of St.Petersburg, with its short, dark days, is 
added to the foregoing conditions, they cannot be spoken of 
as very favourable to the culture of plants in rooms. 


The room which, by preference, has by the ornamental 


arrangement of the plants grown in it been converted, so far 
as aroom can be, into a winter garden, is a corner room with 
two windows to the south andtwo to the east. One of the east 
windows, on account of a balcony in front, is too dark for the 
culture of plants. 

The preceding figure shows the ground-plan of this room, 
the positions of the plants being indicated by the dark, round 
marks; a ware the doors; b f the south windows; ¢ the one 
east window which is suited for plants; de two sofas placed 


Sofa Arbour: 


across the south corners of the room. Of these, d is so placed 
that its back is in a line with the outer corners of the two 
windows f and ¢, so as to obtain a good deal of room for 
plants between the two windows; q qg are two boxes beside 
the sofa, in which ivy is planted and trained on a trellis, so as 
to form a canopy over the sofa. In the windows and around 
the sofas stand the ornamental plants which have been grown 
‘in the room, and which are pleasingly reflected in the mirrors 
at i 7. 5 
The south-west corner, although only lighted by one window 
b, nevertheless contributes its share to the general effect. 
The sofa here is placed just so far from the corner that the 
space between them may be sufficiently lighted from the 
window B, and ornamental plants are arranged around it. 
Immediately behind this sofa, and near the doors a a, it was 
necessary to place those plants which have greatest powers of 
endurance, as these are rather unfavourable positions. 


As for the rest of the room, the corner J is embellished with 
a flower-stand containing hardy plants, and both sides of tlie 
doors aa are adorned with festoons of ivy. No plants are 
placed near the stove m, and the position of the tables in front 
of betas of the chairs, and other furniture, has not been 
noticed. ee ; 


To these instructions on the arrangement of ornamental plants 
for permanent decoration, as exemplified in this special case, we 
shall add a few remarks. The flower-stand-~which now occupies 
the corner /, was at first placed in the south-east corner, between 
the windows f andc. Here, although standing between two 
windows, it received no direct light, so that all the plants had 
to be very soon removed to a more favourable position. In 
the corner 1, the flower-stand was for some years adorned by 
a large specimen of Anthurium Luschnathianum, in front of 
which stood some Plectogynes. On the outside are placed 
Begonias with variegated leaves, and, during the winter. 
Marantas, which are brought in from the plant-house. For 
the permanent decoration of the front edge, the best subject 
is ivy,.allowed to grow with its shoots hanging down. In 
the corner behind the sofa a, before the present arrange- 
ment, some specimens of Musa were at first placed; these, 
however, had always to be removed after a few months. After 
this a large specimen of Cinnamomum Reinwardtii (a plant 
particularly adapted for room culture), was placed there. This 
stood for more than a year, but by degrees all the shoots which 
got into’ the dark corner died off, while the rest struggled 
towards the window and flourished lnxuriantly for a long time. 
The arrangement shown above in was then fixed upon. At p 
stands a strong specimen of Monstera deliciosa (M. Lennea or 
Philodendron pertusum), which, in this position, has thriven 
and grown well for several years. At 0-0 are two Plecto- 
gynes, on stands. At 7, next to the window, there has 
stood for six years a fine specimen of the coffee tree which 
never grows so well in the plant-house as it does here. This 
plant was covered from top to bottom with dark green leaves, 
nine inches long by three inches broad, but at last had, unfor- 
tunately, to be removed, as it grew too large and made the 
room too dark. 7 

When the interior of the room was not likely to be much 
crowded by company the plants behind the sofas were moved 
close up against the wall, and the sofas, together with the ivy 
canopy, moved back within easy reach. It will be understood 
that the foregoing account is not given to restrict the amateur 
to an imitation of this arrangement. The modes of ornamental 
arrangement are as manifold as are individual tastes. It is 
rather intended to show on what principles successful culture 
may be combined with tasteful arrangement.—From the 
German of Dr. Regel. 

(To be continued.) 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN STRUCTURES: 


Boilers.—I was looking at Mr. Weeks’s advertisement, about his 
new boiler, ia your second number, in which he says that the boiler is 
indestructible, and that either half of this boiler may be worked 
independent of the other, and I was wondering what he meant, 
because I remember that the iron cement that these boilers are joined 
withalways comes outif the boiler gets red-hot. Well, then, if either 
half be worked by itself, what must become of the other half? If 
the water is turned off from that half, and it is drained dry, then the 
fire will make it red-hot, and so spoil it. But if the water is left in 
it, without going round the pipes, it will soon burst and destroy 
everything near it, including the other half of the boiler.—A.LrrepD 
Dawson, The Cedars, Chiswick. 


How to Make an Ice Stack.—I am anxious as soon as we have 
a return of frost to make an ®e stack, or ice house, on a very cheap scale. 
Tf any of your readers have had experience in making them, | will be much 
obliged by getting any hints as to how it ought to be done.—A. H. M.— 
[A correspondent, having asked some time since for instructions on making 
an ice house, was thus answered by another subscriber :—‘‘ [f he will adopt 
the following plan for a ‘stack,’ he may save himself the expense and 
trouble of a house. Ona slope of ground (turf, and facing the north if 
possible), sufficient for water to run off, make a cone-shaped heap of ice 
broken into pieces ; over this put two or three inches of sawdust, cover 
that with a’ layer of dead leaves, and over these put some loose straw (not 
thatch) to prevent the leaves from blowing about. I had one made last 
winter as above; it was thirty feet diameter at the base, about twelve feet 
high, and took seventy one-horse cartloads of ice. I have at this date 
(Aug. 27th) enough ice left for six weeks’ or two months’ consumption, not- 
withstanding the intense and continued heat of the summer, and the stack 
having been in constant use since July 24th. There must be no artificial 
drainage nor foundation.” In reply to a question, he added that he found 
no trouble from the straw being blown about if attended to now-and then; 
but that small boughs might be laid on the straw, or anything which 
would not prevent the covering falling as the ice decreases.— ED, Field.] 


¢ 


} 


200 


‘THE GARDEN. 


[Jaw. 20, 1872. 


Heating a Small Greenhouse.—l have found Walker's the best 
stove for cheapness in its consumption of fuel, &e.; it is easily managed, 
will keep in ten or twelve hours without difficulty—a great desideratum. 
The chief points to be observed are: To see the cylinder is full the last 
thing before you retire to rest; to have the coke small and dry, not too 
small. The draught is regulated by the drawer underneath, assisted by a 
damper in the pipe which acts as a chimney. All my plants were kept 
Jast severe winter in a good state of preservation—I lost none—and this 
year everything seems promising. I never use the fire or artificial heat 
when I can avoid it, which saves the stove. Gardeners do not recommend 
stoves; but for amateurs, whose means and accommodation are limited, 
I know of no heating apparatus so cheap or successful as the one men- 
tioned above.—An-~Amateur Gardener in the “* Field,” ; 

Site for a House.—Abundant access of fresh air is of great import- 
ance to health in a residence; unnecessary exposure to wind being at the 
same time to be avoided. Hence to place a residence in the centre of a 
close array of trees is not desirable; not only is the access of air, light, 
and heat prevented, but there is always a tendency induced to dampness 
in the house. In an open, airy, and well drained situation, the effects of 
even long-continued wet are soon dispelled ; but when all sides of a house 
are surrounded closely by trees, an opposite result is induced, and in com- 
paratively dry situations many evils of a damp one ultimately ensue. One 
of our earliest Hnglish writers on building, Thomas Fuller (1638), speaking 
of the choice of situation for a new structure, says: ‘“Chiefly choose a 
wholesome air, for air is a dish one feeds on every minute, and therefore 
it need be good. Wherefore, great men (who may build where they 
please, as poor men where they can) if herein they prefer their profit 
aboye their health, I refer them to their physicians to make them pay 
for it accordingly.” —The Bnglishman’s House. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, ETC. 


Horticultural Club.—The annual meeting of this club took place 
on Wednesday evening last, at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street. The Rev. 
Mr. Reynolds Hole was im the chair, and the proceedings were of the most 
pleasing and congenial Jand. _ ; 

Royal Horticultural Society, Jan. 17th.—The British gardener 
and British glass-houses have conquered, to some extent, our fierce old 
British winter. Shows are beginning now to look almost as attractive in 
winter asin summer. Indeed, more so, for those lovely Cyclamens, which, 
skilful gardeners are rapidly making the most beautiful of all winter 
flowers, seem far loyelier now than when spring comes with her numerous 
floral train, and the Orchids, Lilies of the Valley, Primroses, and numerous 
other flowers of the season (in gardens), look at their hest under a gloomy 
sky. Last Wednesday was most inclement—a wet gale blowing all day— 
yet the little exposition at Kensington was full of interest and beanty. 
A number of new varieties of Chinese Primroses, mostly double sorts, 

“flaked and spotted, were shown by Messrs. HW. G. Henderson, long known 
for their success with these most interesting plants. These were deservedly 
awarded certificates, beg quite a novel deviation from the old colours. 
Their names were, Princess of Wales, very double, white; Hxquisite, 
delicate peach; Magenta King, rose? and Emperor, one of the Fern- 
leaved class, with very double, lilac flowers. Ivies in pots were a 
conspicuous feature of the meeting, Messrs. Lane obtaining first prize. 
Their specimens were trained im a narrowly-pyramidal fashion, which 
seemed to suit the Ivies better than amy other form of support. 
We, however, think that Ivies should not be trained over a trim trellis 
of any Jdnd, but shown in baskets, and allowed -to trail gracefully 
down. We were particularly pleased with Hedera argentea rubra in 
Messrs. Lane’s collection. Among Conifers in pots, one of the loveliest 
and most graceful objects we have ever seen was a noble specimen 
belonging to Mr. Standish, of Retinospora filifera. It was like a green 
fountain, but the general surface was broken up in the most picturesque 
manner. Most remarkable, too, was a specimen of Retinospora obtusa 
pendula, almost a weeping subject, of great and peculiar beauty when 


well developed. What gains for our gardens are these lovely dwarf trees 


with a more elegant form than that of ferns themselves, hardy as British 
oaks, and in the full flush of verduré in mid-winter! Some Cyclamens 
with wide silvered bands round the leaves were shown by Mr. Wiggins. 
We shall soon haye quite a number of forms of the Persian Cyclamen. 
There were many Orchids shown, the most remarkable being Odonto- 
glossum Denisons, a large and yery beautiful species, and the exquisite 
lilac and ivory Phalsnopsis Porteana. Many plants of Bouvardia jasmini- 
cides, in fine bloom, were shown by Mr. Standish. It is a lovely flower 
for winter cutting. To bloom well now it is planted out in shallow cold 
pits in summer, the plants being pinched to keep them dwarf and 
flowerless. In autumn they are potted. In winter and early spring they 
are introduced to the forcing-house or warm pit, quite near the glass. 
Among vegetables, the most remarkable things were some giant garlic, 
“Naples Giant,” the clusters of bulbs of which were as large asa pair 
of big clenched fists. Prizes were offered for the best three dishes of 
litchen Apples, also for the best three dishes of kitchen Pears. For 
Apples My. Parsons, gardener to R. Attenborough, Wsq., Acton Green, 
was first with excellent fruit of Blenheim Pippin, Golden Noble, and 
Dumelow’s Seedling. For Pears Mr. Miles was first with Uvedale’s St. 
Germain, Catillac, and Vicar of Winkkfield. My, Wilson, gardener to 
Harl Fortesene, Castle Hill, South Molton, sent two remarkably handsome 
an@ large specimens of Charlotte Rothschild Pines, weighing 183 Ibs., 
from plants seventeen months old. They were awarded a cultural com- 
mendation. A report on the system of keeping Grapes in bottles was 
read by Mr, Moore, gardener to Harl Brownlow, at Belton, Lincolnshire. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 157.) ar ae 
_ Tum Saw.—Hand-saws, with either a fixed or closing blade, 
are used for cutting strong branches and thick stocks for 
crown grafting with a tall or a short stem, and for cutting off 
the heels of grafts made on the branches of the stock when 
they are dry or too thick for the pruning-knife or the secateur, 
When a strong branch is to be sawn, the heavy branchlets 
above the place of incision should first be removed; this will 
render it easier to work the say, and the bark of the trunk 
will not be so likely to be injured. Moreoyer, the operator 


slackens the movement of his arm when the branch is nearly 


Pruning-Saw. 


sawn through; it is often even prudent to cease sawing alto- 
gether then, and finish the amputation with the pruning-knife, 
holding with the other hand the part which is being ent off. 
Cutlers manufacture saws with a single or a double row of 
teeth, and with the back of the blade (A) thinner {than the 
toothed part (B). 
‘blades, with one row. of teeth, and set im the handle at an 
angle. The saw should never be used on a lying tree without 
_ dressing and smoothing its marks with the pruning-knife, 
otherwise the furrows left by the saw will retam moisture on 
the surface of the wound and retard its healing. | 
~ Tur Prouyine-Kaire consists of a handle of wood or horn, 
either straight or slightly curved, and a blade curved at the 
end. The point of the blade is more or less prominent. The 


French Pruning-Knife' (Serpette). 


workman becomes so accustomed to a particular shape that he 


often prefers an old, almost worn-out, knife to a new one of £ 
more even form. The pruning-knife is necessary for dressing 


the wounds caused by the saw or the secateur, for trimming 
bruised or torn tissues, and for smoothing down a cut so that it 
may present a level surface, without inequalities, bruises, or 
splinters. In order to smooth properly, the hand which holds 


95 ett R 
FICO! op lpr verte ig otha ee ee ee 5 


Pnglish Pruning-Knife (Straight-bladed form). 


the handle of the tool should haye the thumb supported 
against the branch or stem, while the other hand directs the 
blade. In the case of a stock of moderate thickness, the 
shortening of the stem is effected by means of the priining- 
knife without having recourse to the saw. The pruning-knife 
is also employed for cutting wp the scions into suitable lengths. 


If it is preferred to employ a pruning-knife, in cutting and — 


Grafters use excellent saws made of scythe — 


5 


Jan. 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


201 


dressing them finally it will be advisable to have in reserve 
another finer edged one, and keep the first for heading down 
_ cutting off old stems, and such rough work. Grafters who use 
_ the pruning-knife for every operation of grafting should choose 
_ a blade not much curved, which will be found very handy when 
it is required to ‘split the stock. The pruning-knife is also 
used, after grafting, in shortening those stocks which have not 

_ been previously cut, and also for removing the heel of the 
graft after a year’sgrowth. The handleis held with both hands, 

_ and thus the heel is ent off with greater ease. This implement 
is also useful in trimming thorny trees. ; 


Tire Bupprie-Knire is a tool with a narrow blade, widening 
towards the end, and with the pomt curving’ backwards. At 
the end of the handle is a spatula, or small, thin blade of ivory 


English Budding-Knife, . 


which is used for raising the bark. his spatula should not 
be made of metal, as that would soon be rusted by the sap. 
The budding-knife is indispensable for bud-grafting, for cut- 


French Budding-Knife (Greffvir). 


ting the scions in branch-grafting, for raising the bark, for 

_gratting under-glass, or cutting ligatures when too tight for 
the graft, &e. ‘ 

Tue Grarrine-Kyire.—The handle of this implement is 

_ slightly curved in order to facilitate grafting at the surface of 

the ground; the blade, in form of a comma, or drop, is useful 

for splitting stocks intended for cleft-grafting when a partial 


Grafting-Knif. 5 


cleft is required. <A.cleft from side to side is obtained by means 
of a knife with a straight blade, like a table-knife in shape. 

The handle and back of such a knife should be strong enough 
to support the blows of the mallet which the operator 
is sometimes obliged to use in cleaving yery thick or hard- 
wooded stocks. 


Tae Grartive Cuset has the blade and the handle all in 
one piece, iron and steel. It has every advantage of solidity 
and resistance when it is required to cleave strong stems 


Grafting Chisel and Mallet. 


out the hel of the mallet. When the cleft 
is made, we can, by half withdrawing the chisel, use it as a 
lever or-wedge to keep the cleft partially open, and facilitate 


either with or without 


the introduction of the graft. The chisel used by the vine- 
growers of the south of France measures fourteen inches in 
length. The blade is about two and three-quarter inches long. 

Tue Grartine-Goucr here represented comprises a handle 
about four inches long, and an iron stem nearly eight inches 
in length, the upper part of which for about two inches is 


Grafting Gouge. 


¢ 
curved inwards, and terminates in a curved gougé, with which 
the groove to receive the graft is cut. This implement, which 
is recommended by M. Rose-Charmeux, of Thomery, is useful 
in grafting by approach. 

CompinepD Grarrer.—M. Auguste Riviére, head gardener at 
the Luxembourg, Paris, is the inventor of this implement, the 
special use of which is in grafting by incrustation, which will 
be alluded to further on. The blade has a double purpose: the 
gouge (B) at the upper end is angular, so as to produce in the 
stock a wedge-shaped incision. At the bottom of the blade is a 
similar angular gouge (C),-with which the scion is cut into a 


Combined Grafter, 


triangular wedge, which will fit perfectly into the incision made 
in the stock, as the two gouges (B and C) are made with the 
same angle. That at C may be, turned the other way, so as to 
suit a left-handed workman. Between these two parts, the 
_blade is sharp-edgéd at A,andjserves for cutting the scion from 
its parent tree, or for smoothing the angles, if they have been 
jmperfectly cut by the gouge at C. 


Tue Merro-Grerre.—This tool is composed of a double 
spatula, which is fitted into the handle of an ordinary grafting- 
knife. Its use is to measure the scion and stock, so as to 
make them fit exactly in those modes of grafting, in which 
the two parts are placed in juxtaposition by simple veneering. 
The handle (D) bears at one end the blade of the grafting- 


The Metro-Greffe. 


-knife which cuts the scion; and at the other end the 
double spatula, the two parts of which (A and B) are joined 
by a serew (C). The metro-greffe answers the purpose of a 
pair of compasses for measuring the back of the bevel of the 
graft, and then tracing on the stock a corresponding width for 
the groove which is to receive it. 

All these tools are not indispensable in the practice. of 
grafting; but they have each a special use, The last three are 
intended to facilitate nice and complicated operations in 
grafting —Charles Baltet. 

- (To be continued.) 


Propagation of Sarracenias.—How is this to be done ?—A. D., 
Cambridge. {All Sarracenias thay be reedily propagated by division of 
the crowns by means of a sharp knife. Be careful, however, to mutilate 
as few of the small feeding roots as possible. Pot the crowns thus divided 
in four or six inch pots, according to their size, using similar material to 
that recommended for larger plants, and treating them in every way the 
same—T. Baines. ] . 


Cy 


Dopwee 


THE GARDEN. 


(Jan. 20, 1872. 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER.* 


Flower Garden.—While the weather is comparatively mild and opew 
finish all lands of ornamental planting, and bring alterations in the way 
of groundwork to a close. Prune and tie in hardy wall plants; but not in 
such a way as to render them stiff or unnecessarily formal. Bedding-out 
plants, of which there may be a short stock, place near the glass, ina 
moderately moist, warm house, to encourage growth for early cuttings : 
but such lands as there are plenty of, excite as little as possible; on the 
contrary, give air liberally while the weather is favourable. ‘The season 
being mild at present, some of the spring flowers are: beginning to peep 
forth. Where such is the case many will like ta make the neighbourhood 
of the beds as neat as possible. Beyond this in well-ordered gardens there 
is really little or nothing to do in this department, unless ordering ‘seeds 
and mule various preparations for the busy season that will soon be at 

and, 


In-door Plant Department.—Conservatories keep about 45° 


at night, allowing a rise of ten or fifteen degrees during the daytime ; 
this wilh suit both camellias and azaleas, as well as such flowering plants 


as may have been introduced from the forcing-pit. Tie out and otherwise 


regulate the shoots of such plants as require that attention, and see that 
none suffers from want of water. Take care, too, while our light supply is 
somewhat deficient, that there is no unnecessary crowding. Keep insects 
in check by means of fumigation and washings with tobacco water. 
Orange trees, a tribe of plants not well treated about many places, may 
now have what little pruning they require, giving a shift to such as want 


-it, and then well washing them with soap and warm water, syringing them 


well with clean water afterwards. Sce that the drainage of plants of this 
land is in good condition, and when the days are longer, and they have 
fairly started into growth, feed them occasionally with Clear weak manure 
water. ‘Those who wish for bushy, well-furnished camellia plants should 
pinch or rub off the terminal bud-of each main shoot. The next beautiful 
conservatory plant now in bloom is the old Calla xethiopica. Specimens of 


.it in the warm greenhouse or conservatory should have abundance of 


water. They will also enjoy weak, clear liquid manure in abundance. The 
same may be said of the Chinese primulas, of which we have now so many 
pretty varieties, and which are now coming strongly into bloom. In large 
establishments, where there is no lack of means or appliances, the following 


flowers, among others, are now in bloom, or may very soon be looked — 


for:—Camellias, Heaths, Epacris, Azaleas (Indian), Geraniums, Euphor- 
bias, Poinsettias, Justicias, Aphelandras, Epiphyllums, Amaryllis, Bletias, 
Dendrobium, Hyacinths, Narcissus, Cyclamens, Tulips, Zygopetalum, 
Rhododendrons, Odontoglossum in var., Azaleas (American), Mienonettes, 
Violets, Lilacs, Roses, Pinks, Lily of the Valley, zonal Pelargoniums, 
Cinerarias. Fuchsias, if now beginning to break, should receive what 
little pruning they need and be re-potted; use loamy, moderately rich soil 
for the purpose, with surface-dressings and manure waterings. After 
growth commences they must have the benefit of the light. 


‘ : 

In-door Fruit and Vegetable Department.—Pines ripening 
fruit keep on the side of dryness, and near the glass. Successions keep 
growing slowly.—Vines started, grow on steadily, syringing the rods and 
young leaves, in order to assist them to break regularly.—In early peach 
houses maintain a temperature of from 50° to 55°, with a rise of five or 
ten degrees during the day, and shut up another house where required to 
succeed that just referred to, giving the roots a good soaking with-tepid 
water.—Figs in pots, if any, may now be pruned back; also tie in and 
regulate shoots of figs on back walls or trellises, previously washing them 
with Fowler’s Insecticide. Get dung.and leaves mixed and turned once 
or twice preparatory to putting up beds for early cucumbers.—If not 
already done, re-pot orchard house treés, and, if exposed, plunge the pots 
in dry fern or leaves.—Strawherries keep at all times close to the glass, 
and remember that they dislike much heat; let 60° or so be the maximum, 
with a free circulation of air. Until they begin to throw up their blossom 
spikes, nothing suits them better than a pit or mild dung-bed.—Bring on 
asparagus in pits in a temperature varying from 50° to 60°—Kidney beans 
sow in pots, to be set on shelves near the glass.—Potatoes start in boxes, 
and bring on rhubarb and’seakale in the dark gently, so as to prevent its 
being weakly and drawn.—To endive in frames give as much air as 
possible, while the weather keeps mild.—Make up a bed for mushrooms 
with stable dung and soil previously prepared. Beat firmly and spawn 
when about lukewarm, afterwards cover with soil, hay, and mats. 


Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Here, except in places 
where the autumnal work was neglected, there is as yet little to do; 
alterations of all kinds, however, the experienced and intelligent gardener 
will not fear to commence at any time, though he will be much influenced 
by the state of the ground. Proceed still further with pruning, and 
where young fruit trees have lately been planted, mulch with rough stable 
dung. Root-prune dwarf standard apple and pear trees, if they are 
unfruitful or growing too strongly. ‘This is done by digging a trench 
round the tree, two or three feet from the stem, according to size, and 
cutting in the large roots. It is also in some cases found to bea good 
plan to lift small bush trees every alternate year, to keep them dwarf, and 
in a fruitful condition. Mxamine labels on fruit trees, and renew such as 
are becoming illegible. Rough dig or trench all ground free from crops. 
To cauliflowers under handlights, give as much air as possible while the 


weather is mild. Stir the surface soil among growing crops, and make 


vacancies good where such occur. 


* Complete general calendars, written by some of the most able gardeners in 
- country, are published in Taz GarpeEn in the first issue in each month, 


/ 


‘ 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET —January 20th. 


Flowers.—These still consist of Acacias; Azaleas, both eut and in the 
shape of small plants; Begonias; Callas; Camellias; Cinerarias; grand 
examples of Lily of the Valley; Coronilla; Cyclamens in pots m 
excellent condition; Deutzias; Heaths; Euphorbia jacquiniflora ; 
‘Hyacinths; Tulips; Genista; Geraniums, of various sorts, including 
those with scented leaves, a class now too much neglected ; Christmas. 
Roses; Mignonette; Poinsettias; Primroses, both wild and Chinese; 
a few cut Roses and berry-bearing plants, such as Ardisiaand Solanum. 


Prices of Fruit.—Apples, per half sieve, 2s. to 5s.—Cobs, per 100 Ibs., 
60s. to 65s—Tilberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.—Grapes, perlb., 3s. to 8s — 
Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Spanish Water Melons, each, 2s. to 5s.— 
Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, per dozen, 3s. to 6s—Pine-apples, 
per Ib., 4s. to 8s.— Pomegranates, each, 4d. to 8d. 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- - 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 8d4—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. to 38.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 3d4—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— ~ 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s—Celery, : 
per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—C@ucumbers, each, 
1s. to 2s.— French Beans, new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d.— Horse Radish, per bunch, 8s. to 5s—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 


—Lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushroomsg, per pottle, Is. to 28. 6d. . 


— Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 94.— Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 44.— Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.—Rhukarb, per bundle, Is. 6d. to 2s.—Salsafy, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 3d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s. 3d.— Sealkale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d.—Shallots, per Ib., Sd.cSpinach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s.— 
Tomatoes, per small pumnet, 3d. to 6d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d. to Gd. 

P § 


\ 


The Wholesale Price of Vegetables.—_Some little idea may 
he formed of the necessity of a reform in our greengroce1y arrangements 
by the following passage, which occurs inthe report of Mx. H. J. Morgan, 
on the cultivation by means of sewage irrigation of the Lodge Earm, 
Barling, for the year ending August 31st last, which has just been'published. 
“The average price,” says Mr. Morgan, ‘‘which our best potatoes last 

“year realized was from £6 to £7 per ton: "This year we have obtained no 
more than £2 to £2 10s. Onions, which sold last year for £43 per acre — 
in the ground, and realized a great deal more by marketing, haye this year 
been sold by us at £28, the highest price I have heard of being £30 per 
acre. In the autumn of lastyyear cut cabbages (Collards’) fetched from 


1s. to 1s. 3d. per dozen, while this year there ‘has been a difficulty to — 


obtain 3d. and 4d. per dozen, some haying even been sold, I hear, as low 
as 6d: for five dozen. Scarlet-runners, which made 8s., 10s., and 11s. a 
sieve last year, only reached _3d. and 6d. and 1s., until lately, when they 
have made 2s. and 2s. 6d. a sieve. Bunching greens have not paid us to — 


market, and we have hitherto fed cattle on them. I have been told by © 


several farmers that they have ploughed im their crops, as it would pay 
them better to-use them as manure than to market them. ‘These differ- 
ences in price have not at all arisen from differences in quality, as our 
produce has been, in most cases, as fine and as abundant this year as last. 
Strange to say,” adds Mr. Morgan, with refreshing naiveté, “that im the 
face of all this the retail prices are as high as ever,a cut cabbage ordinarily 
costing 13d., and a small dish of beans 4d. and 6d. with everything else in ~ 
proportion.” re, ’ : 


2 


" Novelties.—We cut the followmg from the letter of a French ~ 


gentleman, a member of a well-known firm, respecting the shoals of so- 


called novelties that are now being sent out. “Some of your English 
novelty-mongers are making the question a perfect maze. It takes, for 
example, six months to know all the new peas of the season, and as much 
to go through the potatoes and cauliflowers, and then nothing is left for 
the cucumbers. What if one wishes to know also the new flowers into 


the bargain? German asters, &c.? Are vegetable shows often held in ~ 


London? It would, I think, be a better plan, and scarcely more expensive 
to attend them once or twice in the year than to orderand grow fifty new 
kinds of vegetables every season.” _ ¢ A a Saf 


— ——— ee eee Ne 


Part T. of THE ‘Ganpen, containing 6 Numbers_and upwards of 80 
Illustrations and Plans, is now ready, price 2s., and may be had 


from all booksellers and newsagents, and at the railway stalls. — 


Post free from the Office, sent flat between boards, 2s. 6d. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure the numbers regularly ‘4 


through the newsagents or booksellers, may have them sent direct 
From the office, at 19s. 6d. per annwm, 9s. 9d. for six months, ov 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. THE GARDEN ts sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. “All the nwmbers of Tur 
GarpDEN may be obtained from the office, and through all book- 
sellers and newsagents. I : , , vs 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Wiri1AM Rosinson, ‘THE Garven ” Orricn, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 


be addressed to Tur PUBLISHER. ® 


Tax. 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


203 


“This is an art \ 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr ITsELF 1s NaturE.”—Shakespeare. 


THE PLROWERCARDEN 


ROSES AND ROSE CULTURE. 
BY 8. REYNOLDS HOLE. 


I resume, while the weather is still propitious for the plant- 
ing of rose trees, my selection of those varieties which cannot 
disappoint, always providing that they are placed where the 
rose will grow, that is, in garden soil, which, naturally or arti- 
ficially, deserves the name, and which is not affected by 
smoking chimneys, nor “ undertheshade of melancholy boughs.” 
Soot as a substance isa good manure and a good medicine 
(for mildew) to roses, but soot in solution is a-fatal foe; and, 
as to shadow, why her majesty the Queen of the Flowers 
naturally takes umbrage if any inferior denizen of the garden 
is pat over her royal head. ; 

__I have already commended Gloire de Dijon and Maréchal 
Niel, from the T'ea-scented-or rather Noisette roses; Blairii 
No.2, from the Summer roses; Souvenir de la Malinaison, from 
the Bourbon; and Aljred Colomb and the Baroness Rothschild, 
from the hybrid perpetual class. My next choice from the 
latter family is Bavonne Prevost, and I justify my selection by 
a little incident which occurred to me at the beginning of 
the last summer. I was leaving home one morning to transact 
some business in London, when a parishioner, aware of my 
moyements (in a small village the outgoings, the incomings, 
and it may be the shortcomings, of the priest are quickly and 
generally known), asked me to take charge of a few roses 
which she wished to send toa friend. The petitioner was the 
wife of onr Village Blacksmith. It was meet that, like Venus, 
wife of Vulcan, she should be associated with roses, and I 
knew, moreover, of a luxuriant rose tree growing upon the 
wall of her house, but I was greatly surprised to see the 
beantiful blooms, some ten or twelve of them, which I was 
asked to convey to town. Something more than surprised— 
& soupcow sore and subdued—seeing that I had just gone over 
my large collection and only found some half-dozen Gloire de 
Dijons and two or three Charles Lawsons on a southern wall. 
And here was a single rose tree holding its own victoriously. 
Athanasius contra mundwm! Something more even than sur- 
prised and subdued—ashamed, because I had expelled the same 
rose tree which produced these flowers from my own garden 
as not being quite good enough for exhibition. And lo! it 
took precedence of them all—as I haye seen a young farmer, 
on a rough four-year-old or a bad-tempered screw, lead a field 
of “pinks” on two-hundred-guinea hunters. The rose in 
question was the Baroness Prevost. It had,it is true, the great 
advantage of a wall, but it is reliable everywhere for an abund- 
ance of its large, fresh, blushing roses. The teacher of my 
youth, the friend of my manhood, Mr. Rivers, advises that 
a bed of this variety should be grown wherever it may; at all 
events, let the young rosarian include in his first order 
Baronne Prevost. Tt grows best upon its own roots, or on the 
Manetti stock. : 
_ Caroline de Sansal is another old favourite which, though, 
like the Baroness, not quite perfect enough for the rose shows, 
excels a great number of more symmetrical roses in one most 


. 3 * 


important quality, i.e., in constitution. There is, indeed, so 
much of the more delicate “ China’? blood in our new roses, 
and they are propagated so rapidly under the forcing system, 
that we have lost to some extent in vigour what we have gained 
in beauty. Caroline, long acclimatised to our English air, is 
always bonnie, always bountiful, and thrives on standard or on 
dwarf with equal excellence. 

Comte de Nantewil is another of the ancient noblesse, which 
may say with Tennyson's ‘‘ Brook,’— 

“« New roses come—new roses go, 
But I go on for ever,” 

for it has seen hundreds of rose trees bloom and die in my 
garden. Grown upon its own roots or worked low upon a 
stock, which is tantamount in the end, because all roses planted 
below the bud or the graft will send out roots of their own, 
this variety is a true perpetual, blooming continually from the 
end of June until rude, pitiless Jack Frost, with icy breath. 
issues his stern command, “Shut up!’ The flowers are as 
full and as faultless in form as the best, but they lose their 
colour too rapidly for transmission to our public shows. 

General Jacqueminot, again, has far more vitality and power 
of endurance than most of his more showy but less robust 
descendants, and never fails, if due consideration be shown, to 
yield an abundance of those soft, crimson, velvety roses, which 
on their first appearance in England impressed us rosarians 
with the firm conviction that at last we had obtained perfection. 
It thrives best on the Manetti stock. 

Two plants of John Hopper, which the raiser, Mr. Ward, of 
Ipswich, kindly sent to me on its introduction, are still flour- 
ishing in my rosarium. One of the few grand roses veritably 
of English birth (the others being Duke of Edinburgh and Miss 
Ingram, for I do not believe that Devoniensis was of Anglican 
origin), if is a trustworthy garden rose, and one of the best for 
exhibition also, although for the latter purpose, as in most other 
instances, its glories are developed in their full integrity when 
first it blooms upon the budded briar or Manetti stock. 

(To be continued.) 


WILL our champion rose-grower, the Rey. Mr. Reynolds Hole, tell 
us why that very uncertain beauty, Souvenir de la Malmaison, has, 
as a rule, such an awfully hard heart, and how that is to be softened ? 
A rose might as well not be a rose, if its heart is all “ eye’’—green 
or otherwise. I agree that perfect flowers of this variety may be 
worth a crown apiece. But they are very seldom perfect in many 
localties. No rose of my acquaintance promises more than this one 
does and performs less. The outer petals begin to unfold, when—oh ! 
grievous disappointment—there is a riven, a distorted, and, not 
unfrequently, positively a rotten heart. Under glass it seldom serves 
us so badly, but out of doors the heart of this variety is so unsatis- 
factory that we have almost given up growing it. My next question 
relates to the two forms of Devoniensis. I cannot think how Mr. 
Hole could give the climbing sort precedence over the older variety, 
and even linger fondly over the rampant runner, dismissing our old 
Devoniensis, with others, in a single line as too tender. Tender, 
Deyoniensis assuredly is, but only a little more so than Gloire de 
Dijon, and the only one that has stood by it through many winters 
while other teas perished. As to beauty, it was and is a libel to call 
this climber by the same name or mention it in the same breath as 
the queen of all tea roses—yes, and I will add, of all other sorts 
whatsover ; the true Devoniensis is perfectly unique in form, in colour, 
and in sweetness, for no other rose has the same scent. We often 
hear the remark made that “we may go further and fare worse,” an 
observation most assuredly true in the case of the climbing Devoni- 
ensis. It runs farther than the old kind, yielding us shoots some- 
times six feet long—food for the first frost—for it is the tenderest of 
all tea roses. Devoniensis lives here asa standard, with a handful 
of fern fronds thrust into its crown, but its climbing variety dies on 
a wall unless thatched over. One more question, and Ih ve done. 
Ts asoftsoil good for roses? Asarule, I have notfound itso. Mr. Hole 
tells us that the best soil is a mellow loam in which a walking stick 
disappears to the handle, Is this a figure of speech merely, or is the 
statement meant to be serious? The roots of the dog rosehave been 
accustomed to endure hardness, and it is doubtful if they will know 
what to make of a soft root-rnn a yard deep enriched with pig 
manure. The enrichment may be all right, but the softness seems 
questionable. Fieally, I must heartily endorse all Mr. Hole says of 


the Baroness Rothschild ; she ‘is lovely” beyond agent a 


204: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jaw. 27, 1872. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 


Alpines.—! with many others have some difficulty in understanding 
what is actually meant by this term as applied to plants in cultivation; 
botanically I apprehend its application to wild plants natural to elevated 
situations, but very few of them are capable of or worth cultivation. 
Would you kindly give me a list of some twenty or more of such 
plants suited for a sandy soil and. exposed position on the northern 
outskirts of Liverpool >—A SUBSCRIBER FROM THE FIRST.—[The term 
alpine is applied in gardens to those plants, mostly very small, that we 
obtain from high mountain regions. With them, however, in gardens are 
associated a good many plants, not strictly alpine subjects, that grow in 
lowland meadows on rocks and on walls. It should, however, be remem- 
bered that many plants that inhabit the lowlands of our latitudes are 
mountain plants further south. Hundreds of alpine plants are “capable 
of and well worth cultivation.” The following is a list of forty, but there 
are 300 quite as good that would grow “on a sandy soil and in an exposed 
position,’’ anywhere in the United Kingdom, withont the aid of “rock- 
work,” or any attention, beyond planting in the level ground :— 


Acantholimon gluma- D.neglectus Primula denticulata 
ceum D. petreeus P. vulgaris and vars. 
ANthionema saxatile Dryas octopetala Ranunculus montanus 
Anthyllis montana Erysimum ochroleucum Saponaria oeymoides 
Arabis albida Gentiana acaulis _ Saxifraga in var. 
Avenaria montana Gypsophila prostrata Sedum in yar. 
Aubrietia in yar. Hautchinsia alpina Sempervivum in yar. 
Campanula cxspitosa § [beris corresfolia Silene alpestris 
C. carpatica I. saxatilis 2 8. Schatta 
C. fragilis Omphalodes verna Veronica prostrata 
C. turbinata Pentstemon procerus _V. saxatils 
Cerastium in yar. Phlox reptans Viola cornuta 
Cyclamen P. subulata and its white VY. lutea 
Dianthus deltoides var. 


Cheap Roses.—I am surprised that roses on their own roots should 
not have been long ere this offered at much lower prices than those 
generally quoted by our great growers, with a view to induce amateurs to 
cultivate them as bedding plants. I know that under certain treatment 
roses can be struck as readily as willows. I have myself for several 
successive years put in some thousands, and can reckon always on ninety- 
five out of eyery hundred “taking.” I calewlate that, with the assistance 
of two boys, a propagator could in twelve months strike 100,000, and 
pot them in three-inch pots, so as to be ready for sale, with a medium 
proportion of glass frames and a propagating house. Let us say £50 
annually for glass rent, £100 for propagator and £30 for boys, £100 for 
pots, £30 for coal, soil, and sundries £24 for new kinds, in all £334. 
Conld not these be offered at three shillings a dozen? that would amount 
to £1,245 ; allowing a fourth to remain unsold would leave £934 worth 
sold, ora profit of £600. Will this induce anyone to take up the matter ? 
Packing and baskets, of course, as usual at the expense of the purchaser. 
Tn 1853, when bedding plants became first offered at 2s. 6d. per dozen, 
many expressed their opinion that the trade would be ruined; but what has 
been the result ? While 1,000 used to be sold, 100,000 are now got rid of. 
Might the same thing not happen in the case of roses ? We 


Aquatie Flower Blooming in January.—I send you a speci- 
men of an aquatic flower found blowing ina pond in South Devon this 
week, and, as we cannot find it described in Sowerby, we should be 
glad if you could help us to its name.—adugusta M.-Morris, Courtlands, 
Newton Abbott, South Devon, Jan. 17. {The charming and singular flower 
you send is that of Aponogeton distachyon, a native of the Cape of 
Good Hope, but hardy im many parts of these islands. It is, however, 
but very little known or planted. A small pond in the Royal Botanic 
Gardens at Edinburgh is covered with its graceful leaves. About London 
we have noticed it beginning to bloom in March in severe seasons; that 
it flowers even in January is very remarkable. A Cape aquatic, flowering 
when all the British species are flowerless and at rest, is a curiosity. In 
a tank or fountain basin, in the conservatory or greenhouse, it is a comely 
object in winter, flowering abundantly, and filling the house with its 
fragrance.—Ep. “ Field.’ 


Transplanting Sweet Peas.—Rather late last spring we sowed a row of a 
particular mixture of Sweet Peas across our garden to serve as a screen between 
the florieultural and horticultural departments, and on the Second morning after 
they had been sown we found that the earth had been much disturbed about 
them, and that scarcely a seed was left. The following morning, as early as 
three o'clock, we fonnd wood-pigeons diligently at work unearthing and deyouring 
amy seeds that had been left on the day previous. No time was to be lost, the 
season being so far advanced, in re-sowing, and this time we took the precantion 
to cover them with a herring-net, hoping that they would be allowed to grow 
unflisturbed, Vain thonght! No sooner had they begun to make their appear- 
ance above ground than sparrows took advantage of the dilapidated state of our 
nel, and hopping in at various holes picked, pulled up, and destroyed dozens, 
aye, hundreds, of the young plants. An attempt was made to make the net 
sparrow-proof, but somehow or other they managed to get in, notwithstand- 
ing all our efforts, and it was only by means of scarecrowing that we succeeded 
in getting a thin plant beyond the reach of our winged enemies. At various 
points the plants were so thin, indeed, that no hopes were entertained of our ever 
having a creditable hedge. What was to be done? Could we transplant Sweet 
Peas? We had abont half a yard or more of first-rate plants from the first 
sowing that had eseaped the pigeons, and these we forthwith transplanted 
into the blanks and thin parts of the second sown line, watering them copiously, 
and shading them from the sun for a few days with a mat, supported on sticks : 
they throve well, nor did their younger brethren get up to them till all had 
attained their full growth,—B. and E., Coldstream. 


TREATMENT OF WALL TREES. — 


I quitn'agree with your correspondent “ W.” (p. 176), that 
the treatment of wall trees generally throughout the country 


is not equal to what it was in years past. This, however, 
more especially applies to the cultivation of peaches and 
nectarines, and may in some measure be connected with cheap 
glass, which affords greater certainty of securing crops than 
open walls. Indeed, it has now become a question whether 
the cultivation of these frnits ought not to be wholly given 
up on open walls. It is, however, for open walls which I 


plead; and Lalways maintain that if trees on these received ~ 


anything like the attention bestowed on those grown under 
glass, the results would be a great deal more satisfactory than 
they frequently are. What, for example, arethefacts? Every 
attention is bestowed upon the occupants of the peach house; 
-insects are kept in check; the trees are regularly syringed 
overhead, and have copious waterings at the roots throughout 
the growing season. In fact, every attention they require is 
paid them; whilst with their less fortunate neighbours outside 
the case is just reversed. ‘They are either not half pro- 
tected from spring frosts, or are half smothered; numbers of 
their first leaves are allowed to curl and turn yellow before 
any attempt is made to free them from insects; their fruit is 
not thinned until it has grown to double the size it ought to 
have attained before removal, or it is insufficiently thinned. 
Even \where all these matters are properly attended to, one 
fatal error is not unfrequently committed, and that is, insuf- 


ficiency of water at the roots during the growing season. No- 


matter what attention is given in other ways, if this is not 
attended to, failure is certain to follow in the shape of imma- 
ture wood bearing flowers imperfectly formed, and destitute of 
-strength to resist the slightest frost, large branches continually 
dying off, &e. 

In short, after years of attentive observation, I have come 
to the conclusion that, to an insufficiency of water more than 
to all other causes put together is attributable the failure im 
peach and nectarine crops, and premature decay of large 
quantities of trees throughout the country. The principal 
wall devoted here to peach culture is not more than eighty 
yards long; yet, during dry weather in summer, I give the 
border not less than five hundred gallons of water a week, 
keeping the roots well mulched. The result is, the trees 
mature very heavy crops of fine fruit; and although many of 
them are old, their general condition keeps improying. As to 
the large frnit-trees of other kinds that ‘* W.” appears to like, 
they are all very well for cider orchards or fruit-growers for 
market ; but they are a mistake in private establishments. 
What is wanted is larger numbers of moderate-sized trees of 
such kinds as are found to do best in each locality, with a 
reduction in most places in the number of varieties grown, and 
a better selection of sorts early and late, so as to prolong the 
fruit season as far as possible. In the majority of places we 
find a glut during part of the season, and an insufficiency 
during the rest of the year, a state of things anything but 
satisfactory. T. Barus. 
Southgate. 


Figs in Mid-Winter.—Commencing with a namber of fruiting 
plants in pots, as soon as the leaves are off, cut the shoots hard back to 
the old wood, leaving none of the young fruit on to form a first crop— 
protect the roots from frost, and leave the plants outside till the end of 
July, by which time they will have made a few inches of growth, and 
will again show fruit. They must now be taken into a warm, moist house, 
and if treated liberally will give a succession of fruit from October to 
February of much better quality than ean be obtained from forced plants 
in spring. IT have practised this plan three years with the Pees ants, 
and it has exceeded my most sanguine hopes. The sorts which I have 
proved to be well adapted for this mode of culture are Brown Turkey 
and White Marseilles.—Wm. 'TayLor, Longleat. Be 


Jan. 27, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. ; : 


205 


NOTES ON NEW PEARS. 


I mAve read M. Baltet’s account (p. 123) of Clapp’s Favourite, 
Poire de l’Assomption, Fondante Thirriot, and Beurré Baltet Pare. 
My Somersetshire experience with these four pears may, therefore, 
not be without interest. 

The second has been grown by me during these last four years, and 
has frnited once. All my young trees of it are this season covered 


"with blossom buds. As an addition to very early pears, nothing has 


appeared to equal it for many years. Besidesits earliness, too, it is 
most prolific, and the tree is robust, hardy, and easily distinguished 
from any other sort, by its strong upright habit. On the quince it 
forms beautiful trees, which show fruit the second year from the 
graft. In this it resembles the Pitmaston Duchesse d’Angouléme, 
which fruits the second year on the quince ; and, infact, some of the 
fruits of both sorts resemble one another very much; as does that 
fine pear the Brockworth Park, which also does well upon the 
quince. 


No. 1. Beurré de l’Assomption. 


No. 2. Clapp’s Favourite. 


As M. Baltet has so well described the Beurré de ]’Assomption, I 
stall not venture to farther add to his remarks, but will pass on to 
Clapp’s Favourite. I have cultivated this for about six or seven years, 
and have found it excellent; it is highly deservimg of a place in 


every garden where early fruitis a desideratum. On open pyramids 


the fruit is middle-sized ; but upon a wall it would doubtless come as 
large as M. Baltet mentions. It must, however, be large indeed if 
it at all approaches the size of Souvenir de Leopold I., which here 
attains three times the size of Clapp’s Favonrite. 

As regards Benrré Baltet Pére : although I have trees of it, they are 
yet tog young to bear.” I, however, saw specimens of the fruit at the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s show on the 4th of October, and 
liked its appearance very much. If it turns out to be as good in 
quality as it looks, it will be a desirable variety. 

Fondante Thirriot seems tobe a promising tree; but with me it is 


a 


flavour that we possess-in Winter WNelis. 


yet too young to yield fruit. I have these two last worked upon the 
quince, and will soon be able to prove them. 

Whilst upon this subject permit me to add a dozen of delicious 
but little known winter pears to M. Baltet’s list, and which are well 
worth a trial, even in small collections ; viz., Angelique Leclerc, a 
fine Christmas pear, delicate and savoury ; ripe here December 23rd. 
Angustine Leliéur, ripe March 26th, rich and excellent. Belle et 
Bonne de la Pierre, ripe December 15th ; very rich, melting and 
savoury,.with a nice sweet scent. Belle du Figuier, ripe January ' 
16th; a fine new pear of honeyed sweetness and fine aroma. Belle 
Moulinoise, ripe March 6th; this variety is quite new, and is a 
delicions, rich, melting and jnicy fruit, with a nice scent when cut. 
Beurré de Bollwiller, ripe here April 18th; juice most abundant, 
savoury and delicate, deserves a wall. Beurré Defays, ripe here 
February 24th; has a fine, delicate vinous flavour, and abundant 
juice. Beurré Delannoy, November 20th; an exquisite, rich and 
melting pear. Beurré Fideline, ripe Christmas, 1870 ; melting, rich, 
and deliciously perfumed. Choisnard, ripe here March 4th; flesh 
breaking with a rich, musky juice, and delicate flavour, deserves a 
wall. Comte de Flanders, ripe this Christmas, and kept till the 15th 
instant; very juicy, rich and perfumed with an exquisite flavour. 
Doyenné Flon Ainé, ripe here February 16th; flesh melting, juice most 
abundant, and deliciously perfumed. : 

Even to our old and well tried varieties, the above will, I am sure, 
be found to be welcome additions. J. Scorr. 


PEARS AND THEIR SELECTION. 


THE possession of a large number of pears of undoubted 
excellence need not necessarily preclude the desire to secure 
other varieties approaching to the fullest extent the good 
qualities that characterise a fair proportion of the two 
thousand sorts now named and cultivated. TI still venture to 
think we haye yet much to do in fashioning our pears as 
florists’ have done their flowers, into finer form, more enduring 
properties, and habits of growth that tend to annual fruitful- 
ness, and greater beauty in the fruit. Our early pears are 
especially prone to pass away like fragile and fragrant flowers, 
that exhale their sweetness and perish. We want more 
enduring types amongst early pears than Doyenné d’Eté and 
Citron des Carmes. We want a Marie Louise that will keep 
its treasured sweetness for us a few weeks longer than the 
exquisite, but transient, pear we still value so much. We 
want a Beurré Clairgeau, to keep until January, and to possess, 
with its great beauty, the qualities of sweetness, juiciness, and 
We want a 
Josephine de Malines less coy in rendering its sweet gifts; for, 
after tasting its glorious fruit, we begrudge waiting two years 
for a second feast. We want more English pears, like British 
Queen, Monarch, and the fine pears of Huyshe. We want 
more pears of the character of the old Crassane, that may 
be kept ripe and fit for use for six weeks; and seeing that so 
much remains to be effected, and that so much may be done in 
perfecting the pear, let me urge all who have the means of 
raising a few seedling pears to-do so, and in time we may 
achieve the results I have faintly shadowed forth as still 
desirable. The selection of a good parent, and the determi- 
nation of the character of the union that is to be consummated, 
will render success more probable. 

‘The accompanying list may be useful to some of your 
amateur readers who are about to plant pears. Our subsoil is 
clay; average rainfall, twenty-four inches; altitude, 237 feet 
above the sea level; locality, North Leicestershire :— 

Very early. 


Citron des Carmes Doyenné d’Eté- Poire Péche Jargonelle 
Grown generally on south-east and west walls. _ 


Antumn and Early Winter. 
Van Mons Leon le Clere, Beurré Superfin 
largehandsome,unequal Beurré d’Anjow 
in quality Prince Consort(Huyshe’s) 
Beurré Clairgeau, very Prince of Wales 


Beurré d’Amanilis 

Louise Bonne of Jersey, 
better on standards than 
on walls x 

Williams’ Bon Chrétien 


handsome; its beanty Victoria 
Marie Lonise is its dower Vande Weyer 
British Queen Suffolk Thorn Orpheline d’Enghien 
Doyenné Bussoch Crassane Doyenné du Comice 
Winter. 
Josephine de Malines Winter Nelis Knight’s Monarch 
Glout Morcean Easter Beurré Bergamotte de Esperen 


Beurré Rance. 


Belvoir. W. Incram. 


206 


THE GARDEN, 


(Jan. 27, 1872. 


RAILWAY-SIDE FRUIT CULTURE. 


THosE who have travelled by day from Brussels to Louvain, from 
Gretz to Colomiers on the Chémin de Fer de l'Est, or from Leopolds- 
dorf to Soleman, on the Belgrad, Gratz, and Vienna line, cannot fail 
to have remarked that the railway is flanked at interval s on both sides 
by apple and pear trees, either growing naturally or trained as 
espaliers. 

According to Dr. Morren’s report in the Belgique Horticole of Feb- 
ruary 1869, the trees planted three years previously between the 
first-named towns had so far thriven exceedingly well, their branches 
already reaching up so as to form a third and fourth stage, and in 
the spring of 1868 the majority of them blossomed. They are placed 
seven feet apart, and trained on a fence of posts, thin horizontal iron 
bars, and cross rails, the posts being five fect in height by three 
inches or four inches in diameter, and the wooden rails one inch broad 
by two-fifths of an inch tin thickness. The fence costs about 
threepence the running foot, and the wear and tear is estimated at 
one penny. When iron wire is used—and old telegraph wires come 
inmost usefully for the purpose—it may be attached every ten feet 
to a four feet hieh oaken post, the lowest wire being one foot and a 
half, the second two feet and three quarters, and the third nearly 
four fect above the ground. By means of an iron tightener or 
raidisseur, consisting of a screw and nut, the wires can be drawn 
tighter in spring and allowed greater play im winter; the chances: of 
their snapping will thus be greatly diminished. One tree may be 
planted close to a post, and one midway between post and post—the 
trees will in that case be five feet apart ; and if the plan of alternating 
an horizontal espalier with the columnar pyramidal form be adopted, 
the fence will in a few years assume the appearance indicated by the 
accompanying sketch, for which, as well as for much of what follows, 
the writer is indebted to Dr. Lucas, of Reutlingen. 


Fruit Trees along a Belgian Railway. 


If preferred, smaller intermediate posts may be used as supports 
for the espalier trees, and the wires extending from them to the 
large posts, to facilitate training of the branches, be made to slope up- 
wards. As regards the method of training and managing an horizontal 
espalier fence, the following details may be of service :—A strong, 


well-rooted pear or apple tree, one year from the graft, is planted. 


without being cut, at the place intended for it in the row, and about 
the middle of the ensuing May, when the sap is in full movement, 
will require to be bent down and fastened in a horizontal position to 
the lowest wire. To encourage the putting forth of fruitful side 
shoots along its whole length, incisions are made before all the 
dormant eyes, whilst too vigorous buds are pinched in. A good even 
growth of fruit wood will shortly be the result. 
mulation of sap at the point where the young tree is tied down, the 
shoot there thrown out will be stronger than any of the others; it 
must be allowed to grow freely, and be attached in an almost upright 
direction, In the following year it will require to be bent down and 
fastened in the opposite direction to the stem from which it sprung, 
and it then forms the second arm of the tree. To form the second 
stage of branches, which is the next operation, a shoot must be 
taken from arm No. 2, and, after being carried up as far as the second 
wire, be bent down and fixed horizontally. From this third branch, 
by repeating the operations of the stage below, a fourth leading 
branch is formed, and the second stage is thencomplete. Asregards 
the upper or third stage, it may either be formed in the same or in a 
slightly different manner from the first and second, and in the sixth 
year the extremities of the two lowest branches will require to be 
drawn up, and either grafted by approach or otherwise attached to 
the two uppermost, If the tree push forth very vigorously at first, 


Owing to the accn-~ 


its two leading shoots may be allowed to grow in an upright 
direction in the same year, and afterwards be attached horizontally 
to the wire. 

Respecting the cultivation of columnar-pyramidal trees—a form to 
be preferred where, on account of the corn crops, much shade is 
undesirable—a good plan is to put in strong, healthy plants two 
years from the graft, and the first operation will consist in pruning 
away all side branches above the union of scions and stock. Incisions 
are afterwards made above the eyes, with a view to cause them to 
break out strongly, and in the following spring, the lateral shoots 
thus developed must be cut short back. During the second year, the 


. 


Section of Railway Embankment and Terraces for Fruit Trees. 
< x 


same mode of proceeding as regards incisions and cutting back of 
sideshoots (to about one inch in length) should be continued, and the 
point of the main stem will require to be somewhat shortened. Later 
on, as the tree shoots upwards—and it will, if permitted, attain a 
height of fifteen, twenty, and even twenty-five feet—the topmost 
lateral branches must be pinched, whilst the lower ones are regularly 
cut back and not allowed to extend beyond one foot from the main 
stem. If incisions have been made in the latter as above directed, 
and successive prunings properly attended to, the tree will be clothed 
from summit to base with short fruiting branches, and in five to seven 
years from the time of planting will begin to yield. . 

When it is proposed to utilise the slopes and embankments of rail- 
ways for fruit-growing, the system of planting the trees, whether 
espalier or free-growing, on terraces some two or three feet in width, 
will be found in many cases a very advantageous one; and not only 
apples and pears, but cherries, plums, gooseberries, currants, straw- 
berries, filberts, walnuts, and other kinds of fruit and wood snitable 
to the locality, may also be successfully cultivated. 

“* Already in France and Belgium,” wrote, in the spring of 1870, the 
correspondent of a contemporary (considering M. Baltet’s report), 
“some companies have handed over their lines to a company which 
undertakes to clothe them with fruit trees. The results obtained are 
calculated to confound the incredulous, and there is reason to expect 
that, with {the support of the Society of Agriculturists of France, 
all further hesitation on the subject will quickly disappear. Messrs. 
Place and Tricotel have published some, elaborate calculations on the 
subject. They estimate that the extent of line brought into opera- 
tion in France will soon attain a total of 15,000 or 16,000 miles, and 
that the maintenance and renewal.of all this amount of permanent 
way, coupled with the plantation and maintenance of fruit trees by 
the sides of the lines, would involve an aggregate outlay during the 
next fifty years of £40,000,000. On the other hand, the produce of 
the fruit trees would, they calculate, be worth £90,000,000, beme a 
net profit of £50,000,000, in addition to the maintenance of the way 
being secured during the long period of fifty years. Hyen making 
allowance for bad years and’ unforeseen losses, we still arrive at an 
undoubted profit.’” On some of the State railways of Sweden the 
plan is found to work well of engaging a competent man to super- 
intend the cultivation of a certain number of station orchards and 
gardens, and perhaps it might answer to make some similar arrange- 
ment in connection with the planting, pruning, training, &ec., of 
fruit trees grown on the sides of the line. Railway employés in those 
localities where the traffic is small, would thus be enabled to make a 
profitable use of their spare time, and, under the direction of an 
efficient staff of pomologists, be the meaus of turning to good account 
thousands of acres of what is now waste, unproductive land.—S., 
in © Field.” 


Fruit in Oregon.—Apples grow so big in Oregon that sixteen of 
them are said to have measured a bushel. f 

Peach Culture in America.—William C. Curry, says the Chester 
County (Pa.) Record, of West Bradford, set out on his farm an orchard 
of eleven hundred peach trees last fall. ~ 


Jan, 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 207 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


MINIATURE MUSHROOM BEDS. 


No grapes, peaches, or plums fill the eye or satisfy the 
palate like those men grow themselves. On the other hand, 


everybody eats, but none but professional gardeners grow, 
mushrooms. The idea has got abroad that they are ditticult 
to cultivate. This is, however, quite a mistake. They are 


capricious at times, but that only whets the appetite the more 
for their possession. Hitherto it has been thought by many 
that elaborate preparations were needed in the way of buildings, 
heating, &c., for mushroom culture, but I have mostly found 
that where the preparations were the most elaborate, there 
were the fewest mushrooms. In any place—back shed, floor of 
hothouse, cellar, stable, garret—where a temperature of 50° or 
56° can be maintained, mushrooms may be grown. But it is 
not of such modes of culture that I would now write. We 
have heard of a Belgian cook who grew them in his old shoes, 
and assuredly they can be grown very well in four or six inch 
pots, pans, boxes, or even ina cracked tea-pot. The accom- 
panying is an illustration of how they can be grown in the 
tops and bottoms of old casks. A barrel is sawn cross-ways 
into two pieces, each forming a tub. Holes are made in the 
bottoms of each, and a thin layer of good soil is spread over 
them inside. They are then filled with good, well-prepared 
stable-manure, just like that used in ordinary mushroom-beds, 
the different layers of dung in each tub being well pressed 
down. When the tub is half filled, six or seven good pieces of 
spawn are placed on the surface, and the remainder is filled up 
with manure, which is well pressed down, the operation being 


Mushroom Tub. 


completed by giving to the heap the form of adome. The tubs 
thus prepared are placed in a perfectly dark part of a cellar, 
and eight or ten days afterwards the dung is taken off until 
the spawn is visible, in order to see whether it has commencéd 
to vegetate and develop little filaments. If the spawn has 
spread, the surface must be covered with soil, care being taken 
- to use only that which is fresh and properly prepared. In 
this or any similar way, there should be no difficulty in growing 
mushrooms; the boxes or tubs could be filled anywhere, and 
then carried into spare cellars, &c. In this manner objections 
against steaming manure might in many cases be got over. 
There is one immense advantage in growing mushrooms in 
portable and small pots, boxes, tubs, or cask bottoms. When 
the manure gets cooled down, and the crop gets checked for 
lack of warmth, these portable contrivances, with their freight 
of young mushrooms, may be plunged bodily into warmer 
media, such as a sweet bed of fermenting dung. Crops can 
likewise be safely hastened or retarded by ranges of tempera- 
ture from 65° to 45°. Thus they may be brought forth from 
the cellars and placed in forcjng-houses at work or plant stoves, 
in cases of emergency. Even the cook might grow his own 
mushrooms in pots on his kitchen shelves or under his table, 
and when they come in with too great a rush, remove them to 
the cold meat larder to take a quiet nap till wanted. By 
plunging the pots or pans in a genial medium I have 
found that the fermenting material inside the pots may be 
almost dispensed with. The spawn runs best in a little sweet 
horse dung, that is, manure that has had its grossness sweated 
out of it by ten days’ or a fortnight’s gentle fermentation and 
four or six turnings upside down and inside ont. Place a 
handful of this ina pot or pan, with one or more pieces of 


- 


spawn, according to the size of the pot; fill with soil, and. 
plunge in a bottom heat of, say 55° or 60°, and in five or six 
weeks a crop of mushrooms will be gathered. Should the 
heat fail, renew it with fresh dung and re-plunge. By this 
method, a uniform temperature may be provided for the 
mushrooms through the whole period of growth. 

Finally, I never could discover any difference between 
mushrooms grown in the dark and those grown in the light, 
and therefore the latter is by no means essential. Indeed, dry, 
warm cellars are among the best situations for mushrooms. 
Good spawn is the one thing essential, and whether it is 
purchased by the bushel or the single brick only, buy it of 
nurserymen whose characters will guarantee its freshness and 
growing properties. D. T. Fisu. 

{ 
HOW TO FIGHT THE WEEDS. 

Ir is a comforting fact that a garden may be kept thoroughly 
clean at much less expense than is required to maintain It in 
a weedy condition. A very little labour judiciously applied 
does more towards perfect cleanliness than a great deal 
brought to bear at the wrong time. Where weeds are allowed 
to grow large, they require ten times the amount of trouble to 
exterminate them than when attacked in a tiny seedling state. 
Some people never take notice of weeds till they begin to 
rival the plants in size, and perhaps illustrate the arrange- 
ments of nature for the dispersion of seeds by floating their 
feathery parachutes through theair. Toallow them to seed is, 
of course, gross mismanagement; but to prevent them is not 
enough. They should never be allowed to get so large, that 
when they are cut off, it is necessary to removethem from the 
spot in which they grew. It is the raking and removing after 
the hoeing which causes the waste of labour. Once let them 
get up, and then it is not a mere hoeing that is required, but 
a “clearing” on a small scale. When cut down, it becomes 
necessary to remove the untidy swath from the ground, and 
to rake it; and in doing this ina large garden we have seen 
as much labour thrown away as would be sufficient to keep 
one of twice the size in a creditable state. If ground is 
systematically and frequently hoed, no raking is required, 
and the young plants perish, and leave no trace after the first 
hour’s sun they are exposed to. The Dutch hoe should be 
passed over the garden once a fortnight. An ordinary work- 
man will cover a great deal of ground in one day, provided the 
weeds are not strong enough to impede his hoe. It should be 
done in fine or dry weather, to prevent the rooting of the 
weeds. Never mind if the ground “looks clean” a fortnight 
after it has received a thorough hoeing. Start the hoe again 
the second Monday morning; and by pursuing that system 
through the growing season the garden will always look clean. 
A good workman may hoe the garden over, and cut off all the 
weeds in the bud during a single summer’s day; whereas, 
when they are fully or even half developed, a fortnight may 
be required to remove them; and through the season some 
part of the place is pretty sure to be “up to the eyes in 
weeds.” 

While many admit all this as regards annual weeds, they 
apply a different doctrine to bindweed, dandelion, docks, and 
the like, and take a roundabout way of exterminating them. 
But no weed can live if you persist in destroying its leafy or 
above-ground portion before it has had time to become well 
developed. This is indisputable. The obvious inference is 
that all weeds whatever may be destroyed in this way. By 
making it a rule to have infested plots or crops visited once a 
week or fortnight, and the weeds carefully eut off, you will 
get rid of every particle of noxious vegetation. Who has not 
seen the’endless huntings and diggings afterthe roots of con- 
volvulus? No amount of winter digging can exterminate 
this pest; but a very trifling but regular attention in summer 
will do so. We once knew, an “experienced practical horti- 
culturalist’? who made a brave but expensive attempt to get 
rid of it. A plot of strawberries was infested by it, and very 
unproductive in consequence of its tortuous wrappings. 
Being a man of resolution, he determined to cart out the 
whole plot on to the farm, and he did it to the depth of two feet 
anda half! That cost a good deal of labour; but horses and 
men were plentiful, and soon carted in a lot of loam to fill up 


208 


the vacancy. Convolvulus sepium was exterminated from the 
plot for a time; but its remoyal required as much exertion as 
would suffice to clean a dozen acres. What was the best and 
cheapest remedy? Why, simply to “dig in” or throw out 
the strawberries, and plant a crop of, say, Brussels sprouts, or 
any thinly-planted crop, among which a boy could easily pass 
ouce in ten days during the growing season, and cut off at the 
ground the rising bindweed, which would probably attempt to 
twine itself round the stems, and thereby be the more readily 
cut off at the bottom. By persisting m that as long as a 
leaf showed itself, it is not difficult to divine what would 
become of the roots, pertinacious as they are when allowed 
breathing space. In hoeing the garden, seed beds and other 
such closely planted surfaces must of course be passed by; 
but they should be hand-picked nearly as frequently as the 
general surface is tickled with the hoe. Where box edgings 
are employed, they should, as a matter of course, be regularly 
hand-picked. 


NOTES; AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 


The Tomato in Southern California.—The Ventura Signal 
says that the tomato in Southern California is a perennial plant, which 
blooms and bears fruit during the entire year, when «properly cared for. 
Near the seashore, where there are no frosts, the editor has seen them of 
five years’ growth, looking-as fresh and vigorous as at any time of their 
existence. He adds:—“‘ There are many classes of the vegetable kind 
perennial here that are elsewhere annual.” 


Guano.—The anchors of ships moored in the vicinity of the Chincha 
Islands frequently bring up guano from the bottom of ‘the ocean, which is 
rather contrary to the doctrine that these marvellous deposits are the 
excreta of birds. The recent researches of Dr. Habel go far to corroborate 
Professor Hdward’s view that guano is really a stratified deposit. When 
the portions of guano which are insoluble in acids are examined, they are 

-found to consist entirely of skeletons of diatomacs, polycystina, and 
sponges, all of which are invariably of marine origin, and sometimes 
identical with those still living in the adjacent ocean. These forms are 
also found im patches exactly as they occur in nature. From these and 
other facts recently obtained by chemical and microscopical investigation, 
there appears to be but little doubt that guano is an accumulation of the 
bodies of animals and plants ; which, either by heat, by chemical action, 
or both combined, has had its organic matter converted into bitumen, 
while the mineral constituents have been preserved in those beautiful 
forms which make up the infusorial strata in various part of the world.— 
Mechanics’ Magazine. 

Early Tomatoes.—There is no doubt that cuttings taken from the 
plants in the autumn, just before freezing up time, stuck in damp soil, and 
when well rooted removed to six-inch pots, kept in an atmosphere of 40° 
to 50°, and watered just sufficiently to keep them alive during winter, and 
by keeping the shoots, as they appear properly pinched, and a part of the 
larger leaves, so as to retard growth as much as possible, is the true way of 
obtaining the earliest fruit. It will be found that if the plants are well 
attended to, by the spring they will be thick and strong at the base, and 
as woody almost as a wallflower. Growing tomatoes, as almost all 
gardeners do, in hotbeds is decidedly the wrong method, as no doubt 
many of them have found out. The hotbed plants are weak and spindling. 
Many put down seeds in this way so carly that the plants fun up to the 
glass before the weather becomes sufficiently warm to put them out in the 
open ground, and the leaves either scorch or become frost-bitten. I have 
seen many a frame of tomatoes for which I would not give five cents for 
the best five hundred plants in them.— Canada Farmer. 


Mushroom Culture.—Last summer I spawned my small cucumber | 


frame and my marrow bed, but, although the spawn worked freely, I did 
not gather one dozen mushrooms, a few tiny ones, rather larger than 
peas, being the only result. In August last I had two champagne cases 
filled with good horse-manure, and when they were spawned and covered 
with ordinary garden mould, they were placed in a shed in the garden, 
open in front, but not much exposed. When the weather became cold 
‘ they were covered with litter and mats; but, alas! at present no mush- 
rooms. Can you suggest anything that would be likely to bring them on ? 
T ought to say that my gardener ascertained that the spawn worked freely, 
and is still alive, for the manure has a strong odour of mushrooms. Last 
year I tried to cultivate mushrooms on the asparagus beds, during the 
winter—spawned the manure when they were covered for the autumn, and 
then carefully covered them with litter. The winter was unusually cold, 
but we never had one mushroom, and I fear we shall be equally unfortu- 
nate with those in the shed this year. If you can offer any suggestions I 
shall feel obliged.—A Lover or Musarooms.—T[You deserve success, 
though you clearly made a mistake in spawning the asparagus beds in 
winter. Mushrooms are grown in abundance in the open air in winter, as 
may be seen in the market gardens at the west end of London and in 
those round Paris, but they are always grown on well-prepared beds, 
thickly covered. As to your other mishaps, no one can help you who does 
not know all the circumstances of the case. In your cucumber frames, 
&e., they ought to have succeeded, but as they are plants notoriously 


THE GARDEN. -- 


[Tan. 27, 1872. 


variable as to their appearance or non-appearance in a wild state, we must 
expect them to be equally capricious in gardens, except when grown in © 
structures in which we can almost exactly regulate the temperature and 
conditions. Perseyere, and, if possible, have several beds always at work 
in the same structure. ere mushroom culture is tried on a very small 
scale, failure is very apt to result from the neglect of some trifling attention, 
or from mere forgetfulness. | 3 

Preserving Cabbages.—Many Americans grow cabbages by the 
hundred acres; itis not, however, of their culture Iam about to speak, 
but of the system of preserving them when full grown during winter, 
together with some of the uses to which Americans put them during 
that season. Here everything except the very hardiest of the kales — 
is usually wholly destroyed before Christmas. North-west winds 
and sharp frosts dry up all moisture, and a sudden change of tempe- 
rature afterwards finishes what escapes the ravages of the ice king. 
The thermometer on the Wednesday and Thursday nights preceeding 
Christmas, indicated 6° and 7° below zero, accompanied by quite a 
gale of wind. On Friday we had about five inches of snow; rain 
then fell, and the thermometer gradually rose to 32°, then on Saturday 
evening it ran up to 56°; the increase of temperature clearing-all 
the snow off in about three hours, and this state of things with 
slight variations will be continued throughout the winter. The way 
in which we keep cabbages good until May under such circumstances 
is to choose a piece of dug ground where water will not stand, and 
as Soon as the ground is abont to freeze up, to fork up the full-grown 
cabbages, and place them roots upwards in a row close together, 
banking up the earth round them like a celery ridge, and leaying the 
roots exposed. A portion of the ground is covered over with leaves, 
hay, or other covering, to keep it from freezing so hard as to prevent 
getting the cabbages out while frost lasts. Some use leaves only as 
a covering ; and no doubt they keep the cabbages ‘safe, but they are 
apt to give them a bad taste. In England I have seen waste 
cabbages come out of a rubbish heap quite fresh in spring; therefore 
this plan of preserving them during very severe winters might 
perhaps be worth attentive consideration—JamEs TApPLIN, South 
Amboy, New Jersey, United States. ; qn . 


Value of some of our Vegetable Imports.—The official returns 
of the imports of foreign and colonial merchandise into the United — 
Kingdom in 1871 show, in regard to many articles, a material difference in 
computed real value from that of the preceding year. Taking the great 
article of raw cotton, our largest import, we find the quantity imported — 
in 1871°15,843,890 ewt., being an increase of above 82 per cent. over the 
quantity in the preceding year, but the computed value of the total 
import, viz., £55,767,545—shows an increase of not much more than 4 per 
cent., over thatof the preceding year. The computed value of a hundred- 
weight averaged nearly £4. 10s. in 1870, and a little more than £38. 10s. in 
1871. The import of flax (dressed and undressed) and tow advanced from 
2,378,528 ewt. in 1870 to 2,597,915 ewt. in 1871; but the value of the 
import declined from £5,979,127 to £5,791,188. Indigo imported increased 
from 79,255 ewt. to 135,901 ewt., but the value only from £2,721,208 to 
£2,932,238. The items of food also show various differences from those of 
the preceding year. In 1870 we imported 35,705,138 cwt. of wheat and 
wheat-meal and flour, of the value of £19,647,778; in 1871 we imported 
43,392,284 cwt., but the value rose at a greater rate than the quantity, and 
amounted to £26,783,914. In 1870, 771,854 ewt. of potatoes imported were 
priced at £245,252; in 1871 the 852,125 ewt. imported at only £225,782. 
The import of tea shows an increase in quantity from 141,020,767 ewt. to 
170,716,140 cwt.; but in price only from £10,097,619 to £11,657,684. On 
the other hand, while the quantity of currants imported increased from 
813,763 cwt. to 1,068,887 cwt., the value rose from £920,928 to no less 
than £1,483,841. The import of wine presents remarkable figures; the 
quantity shows the slight increase from 17,774,782 gallons in 1870 to 
17,870,078 gallons in 1871; but the value of the import shows a rise from 
£4,817,294 to £7,069,557. The import in 1871 of red wine from France 
cost us £1,064,690, and of white wine, 1,272,972; white wine from 


“ Spain, £2,367,571, and wine from Portugal, £1,303,693. at 


The Jute Trade.—The Dundee Advertiser says that a noteworthy fact 
in connection with the staple trade of Dundee during the past year is the 
immense increase that has taken place in the quantity of jute imported to 
the town. In no former year has the importation direct from India 
attained to anything like the magnitude which it has reached during the 
year just closed. Statistics, carefully compe, show the number of bales 
that have been landed at Dundee from Caleutta direct during the past 
year to be 468,692, which, compared with the quantity imported in the 
previous year—213,875 bales—shows an increase of 254,817, being 40,942 
bales more than double the quantity imported in 1870. On the other 
hand, however, the coasting trade—i.e., by vessels reloading at London 
and elsewhere for Dundee—has fallen off to a considerable extent: Last 
year the importations coastwise amounted to 210,038 bales, as against 
317,691 for the previous year, showing a deficiency of 107,653 bales. The 
traffic in jute by rail to Dundee shows an advance in favour of last year 
of about 1,982 bales. As regards the total importations to the town, the 
figures exhibit largely to the advantage of the past over the previous year, 
there being 789,498 bales for 1871, as against 590,352 for 1870, or an 
increase of 149,146 bales. 


Jax, 27, 1872.] 


e T : 1 1D) Gi L 


MaIN. 209 


NEW PLANTS OF 1871. 

_ ComMencine with the hardier «series, we propose here to pass in 
review some of the more important acquisitions of the year which 
has just passed away. The number of the new plants which annually 
come to the front is really astonishing, and we can do no more than 
briefly indicate those which in our opinion are the most desirable 
amongst them. - P 

In the group of hardy evergreen trees and shrubs we find Quercus 
striata, a Japanese tree, half-hardy, or possibly hardy in sheltered 
places. This is pyramidal in habit, and its ovate lanceolate, toothed 
leaves are distinctly banded with oblique lines of green and gold. 
The, French gardens haye Wellingtonia gigantea pendula, a drooping- 
branched variety, said to be well-marked and ornamental. The 
Juniperus chinensis “aurea is probably one of the finest of recent 
evergreens, being hardy and free-growing as the type, and well- 
marked with a thoroughly fixed golden variegation. Amongst 
deciduous trees Maackia amurensis is the most decided novelty. It 
comes from the valley of the Amoor, bears pinnate leaves, and 
produces long, dense, spike-like racemes of white papilionaceous 
flowers. The ever-blooming Robinia Pseud-Acacia semperflorens of 
French gardens, which is said to continue flowering on from April 
till autumn, must be a fine ornamental tree. . Albizzia rosea, a North 
American tree, hardy in Paris, is very floriferous, and its heads of 
long crimson stamens are very showy. Then we have two more of 
the pretty Japanese Maples in Acer palmatum ornatum and A, 
* palmatum crispum. Passing on to deciduous shrubs, we find Cerasus 
Sieboldii roseo-plena, a beantiful shrub with pendent branches, and 
double rose-coloured flowers; and Cerasus pendula rosea, slender 
and drooping, the branches profusely laden with blossoms of a 
delicate pink, both Japanese; Rhus Osbeckii, also Japanese, with 
handsome pinnate leaves haying winged rachides; two Mock Oranges 
—Philadelphus rubricaulis and P. parviflorus, both Chinese, and said 
to be of ornamental character; Rhododendron (Azalea) molle, a fine 
Japanese shrub, with bold deep orange-yellow flowers, and likely to 
‘be the parent of a numerous progeny of garden varieties like the 
hardy Azaleas of America; Rosa rugosa, at first called R. Regeliana, 
a dwarf and very distinct Japanese species, with large crimson 
flowers like single Ponies; and Lonicera Periclymenum aureum, 
with golden variegated leaves. 

The hardy perennial group has yielded the following subjects of 
merit:—Primula japonica, with its tall, whorled scapes of rich 
magenta blossoms: Linum campanulatum, a very much improved 
L. flavum, from the south of Europe; Lithospermum petroeum and 
L. Gastoni, also europewum, two dwarf plants, with charming blue 
flowers ; Androsace carnea eximia, in which the umbellate flowers 
are rosy-purple ; Baptisia lewtcophcea, with trifoliate leaves, and long 
reclinate racemes of white papilionaceous flowers ; Saxifraga Maw- 
eana, a Moroceo plant, with large white flowers, and proliferous 
bulbils; Saxifraga valdensis, a little alpine gem, of minute growth, 
with large white blossoms; and Thymus citriodorus aureo-marginatus, 
a beautiful yellow-edged dwarf Thyme, suitable for bedding-out. 

Annuals are few in number. The most remarkable is Amaran- 
tus salicifolius, a half-hardy species, adapted both for in-door and 
ont-door decoration, of pyramidal habit, with pendent, narrow, 
charmingly multicoloured leaves, and certainly one of the best plants 
of the year. To this may be added the hardy Collinsia violacea, 
with white and violet flowers, and compact habit; and Gilia liniflora, 
like a white-flowered flax. 

New ferns are not numerous. Dicksonfa Selldwiana, a noble 
Brazilian tree fern, has been introduced to the Belgian gardens. 
Humata, or Davallia Tyermanii, is a charming evergreen stove fern, 
from West Africa, and has a freely-creeping silvery-scaled rhizome, 
and small, deltoid, tripinnate fronds. Elaphoglossum Herminieri, 
the Eel-fern, though haying only simple fronds, forms a good new 
stove fern for baskets. Pleopeltis irioides cristata is a well-crested 
form of a well-known species. Trichomanes auriculatum is one of 
the lovely creeping-stemmed Javanese Film-ferns, with long} narrow, 
transparent fronds. Lycopodium dichotomum, L. mandioccanum, 
‘and L. taxifolium, are three interesting species of club-moss; while 
Selaginella rubella is a creeping-stemmed species of the samo order, 
with reddish-tinted leaves. 

Sucenlents have been chiefly confined to Agaves, of which very 
ornamental genus, many new, or at least unfamiliar species, have 
been brought forward. The best of these were Agave Celsiana albida, 
dealbada compacta, imbricata, ixtlioides, Simsii, elegantissima, 
Mescal, and some of its varieties, Regelii macrodonta, rotundifolia, 
and Verschaffeltii variegata. 


Amongst bulbs are some new Lilies, a family now happily engaging 
the attention of cultivators. Lilium Washingtonianum is one of the 
finest of them, growing 3 feet to 5feet high, with many large purple- 
tinted, white, sweet-scented flowers. The Eastern Asiatic L. Maxi- 
mowiczii tigrinum has loyely orange-red flowers, spotted with purple ; 
and, L. Roezlii, from the Rocky Mountains, is an ally of the beautiful 
superbum. In Gastronema sanguineum flammeum we have a lovely 
dwarf greenhouse bulb, with large funnel-shaped rosy-crimsou 
flowers. Nerine pudica, of Habranthus-like aspect, also a greenhouse 
plant, has white flowers streaked with red. Gladiolus Saundersii is 
a very handsome South African species allied to G. psittacinus, but 
with the decurved flowers scarlet and white. Finally, Xiphion fili- 
folium and X. junceum are two bulbous Irises of showy character, 
the first with rich, violet-purple, the last with golden-yellow flowers. 

Two white-flowered Bouvardias, B. Davisoni and B. Vreelandii, 
both apparently sports from the variety called Hogarth, are choice 
acquisitions in this useful decorative genus, which requires warm 
greenhonse treatment. Encephalartos Vroomii, in the way of 
E. villosus, is a fine greenhouse cycad. Tacsonia speciosa, with 
carnation-coloured flowers, is a remarkably handsome greenhouse 
climber. These are the more important acquisitions in the green- 
house section. 

New stove plants are, as usual, very abundant, and we can only 
glance at a few of them. In the flowering section we find tlic 
following specially worthy of note :—Dipladenia insignis, the finest 
of all the Dipladenias, with very high-coloured rosy-carmine flowers. 
Gloneria jasminiflora, a Brazilian evergreen shrub, with corymbose 
panicles of long-tubed freely-produced white flowers. Ixora Colei, 
a splendid exhibition plant, with immense heads of pure white 
flowers. Ixora amabilis,a remarkably free, deep orange-coloured 
variety. Begonia Chelsoni, a hybrid from Boliviensis, with bright 
orange-tinted red-flowers. Bomarea chontalensis, a grand stove 
climber from Nicaragua, with waxy rose-coloured and yellow flowers 
blotched with brown, one of the last contributions of the lamented 
Seemann. Aristolochia cordiflora, another stove climber, from 
Mexico, with creamy purple-blotched flowers, haying an immense 
cordiform limb. Aichmea Marie Regine, Vriesia corallina, and 
Bromelia Fernandiw, three grand Bromeliacem, the first with great» 
rosy-pink bracts, and blue flowers, the second with green flowers in 
the axils of distichous purplish-red bracts, the third with a great 
globose head of numerous recurved cinnabar-red bracts, subtending 
greenish-white flowers. 

Stove foliage-plants again are very numerous, the best being :— 
Paullinia thalictrifolia, a woody sapindaceous climber, with triter- 
nately pinnate leaves, like fronds of some elegant Adiantum. 
Sphzerogyne imperialis, a noble Melastomad from Peru. Nepenthes 
Sedeni, a pretty hybrid pitcher plant. Maranta Mazellii, a handsome 
species, with broad rotundate leaves, marked by two grey bands. 
Several Dracsenas, as D. amabilis, with green leayes and pink and 
white variegations, far superior to Guilfoylei; D. Wisemannii with 
bronzy, red-margined leaves breaking out into white; D. splendens, 
a dwarf, dense-growing form, with short, broad, recurved bronzy 
leaves breaking into rosy carmine; and D. magnifica, a very handsome 
sort, with erect broad bronzy leaves, margined with red, and having 
a pinkish bloom. Several Arads, as Dieffenbachia imperialis, bold- 
leaved, dark green, with grey rib and distinct yellow spots; D. 
Bausei and D. Bowmanni, both of stocky habit, yellowish green 
blotched with dark green, the former also spotted with white; 
Alocasia Marshallii, like Jenningsii, but with a central silvery band 
added; and Xanthosoma Lindeni, with erect sagittate-hastate, deep 
green leaves, the ribs and veins of which are ivory-white. 

Amongst exotic Orchids, we can only mention these :—Phaius 
Marshalliz, a charming terrestrial species, with large white flowers 
having a lemon-tinted lip. Sobralia macrantha albida, a variety 
with creamy-white flowers and rosy lip. Oncidium aurosum, with a 
crowded erect panicle of golden-yellow flowers, spotted with rich 
brown, Epidendrum Frederici-Guilielmi, a tall species, with short 
broad racemes of deep crimson flowers. The curious Hpidendrum 
Pseudepidendrum, with bright green flowers, haying a_ bright 
yermilion-orange lip. Masdevallia Lindeni, M. Harryana, and M. 
ignea, three beantiful dwarf cool-house species, the first with the 
flowers brilliant violet-rose, the second rich magenta, and the third 
bright cinnabar. Finally we may record Cypripedium Ashburtoni, 
a handsome hybrid form of Lady’s Slipper, exactly intermediate 
between its parents, C. barbatum and C. insigne—Florist and 
Pomologist. 


Condurango Root.—This reputed specific for cancer is becoming a 
subject of speculation in Ecuador and the United States. In Heuador it 
has reached £17 a ton, but in New York it has been selling for fabulous 
prices, though its virtues are contested. The Government of Ecuador 
has imposed an export duty. 


THE GARDEN, 


[Jan. 27, 1872. 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


CROPPED TREES AND ARCHITECTURAL 
LINES. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


WHEN it is considered how exquisitely the natural forms of 
trees contrast with the rigid lines of architectural structures, 
it becomes difficult to conceive how the “artist in foliage” 
could, by any process of esthetic reasoning, ever have brought 
himself to forego the picturesque advantages of the forms he 
was called upon to deal with, and wilfully enter into a disad- 
vantageous rivalry with the rule and plumb-line of the archi- 
tect, That the irregular symmetry of tree form, with its 


softly rounded outlines, produces the most agreeable impres- 
sion on the eye when placed in direct contrast with the reeular 
lines of architecture, both horizontal and vertical, admits of 
no dispute; and yet, insome of the most remarkable instances 


‘His contemporary, Le Notre, an artist of still greater and 
more general artistic accomplishment, fell into the same errors 
as regards the distortion of the natural forms of trees, with 
the mistaken idea, as it would seem, of making them accord 
with those of architecture, instead of making use of them as a 
natural and delightful contrast. The embellishments which 
| he created in the splendid gardens attached to the Chateau of 
' Veau-le-Viscompte for the celebrated Foucquet resulted in 

such a striking success, as it was then deemed, that contem- 

porary writers did not hesitate to callit ‘a scene of enchant- 
ment.’ ‘The Great King pronounced ib a spectacle merveilleun, 
and appointed the triumphant artist controller-general of 
royal buildings and designer of gardens, with the privilege of 
incurring outlays of fabulous amount. While in the employ 
of the king he also constructed the ornamental (?) canals and 
designed the avenues of cropped limes which disfigure the 
noble architecture of the grand old Chateau of Fontainebleau, 


and entirely conceal some of its finest limes in the lower storeys. 


Cropped Trees in the Gardens at Fontainebleau. 


in Hurope in which the combined effects of architecture and 
foliage haye been sought, and that, too, upon a magnificent 
scale, the destruction, and not the adoption, of the charming 
contrasts that naturally exist between trees and architecture 
Seems to have been the one thing specially sought after. 
Le Pautre, who in the middle of the seventeenth century was 
one of the most eminent of the great garden decorators of 
Prance, and without whose grottoes, fountains, terraces, and 
other embellishments, no palace or chateau was then considered 
au grand complet, persisted in creating “walls of foliage” as 
well as walls of stone, and so flung away one of the greatest 
elements of beauty in the various important works confided to 
his skill; for the well-squared forms. of. his cropped trees 
injured the effect of his architectural lines, and the more 
perfect accuracy of the last glaringly exposed the futile 
attempt to rival them in shaven foliage. He was, nevertheless, 
a man of genius and of infinite artistic resource ; his works in 
architecture, and also in sculpture and painting, haying secured 
a Seen to the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture in 


The above illustration serves to show how that ill-conceived _ 
| line of straightened tree-tops (in which careful shearing still 
preserves the unfortunate device of Le Notre) cuts the archi- 
tectural composition in two, and utterly conceals its lower half. 
From this example of the effect produced by a continuous line 
of trees running parallel with an architectural ee may be 
seen the fatal effect (minus the cropping) which will eventually 
be produced by the uninterrupted line of trees planted along the 
Thames Embankment, which willat no very distant period con- 
ceal both from the river and the roadway the greater portion of 
the stately facade of Somerset House, and the other noble 
buildings destined to rise along other portions of that 
noble site. - ; 
The following illustration. is intended to exhibit the effect of 
a mode of treatment in which the naturally irregular, but yet 
- symmetrical, forms of trees are made to form a striking and 
most agreeable contrast with the rigid lines of architecture, 
rather than distorting and clipping them, in order to produce 
a false and ineffective attempt at an impossible concord. The 
example is by no means one of the best that might have been 


Jan. 27, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


selected, either architecturally or arboretically considered, but it 
possesses the great advantage of being well known. It is a 
view of Buckingham Palace, as obtained from the Suspension 
Bridge in St. James’s Park. Neither the planting nor the 
architecture are of the highest kind, and our artist has not 
even made the most of them, such as they are, being only 
asked for a rough sketch, by way of diagram. In that sense, 
the sketch serves its purpose sufficiently well, and shows 
plainly enough the pleasing contrast which the natural forms 
of trees present to the well-marked lines of architecture, both 
vertical and horizontal. The view itse’f, slightly shadowed 
forth in our hasty sketch, is indeed a very pleasing one, the 
relative proportions of architecture, foliage, and water, being, 
as a whole, judiciously preserved. Enough is seen of the 
building, as the chief object, to display its importance and 
general character to advantage, the termination of its main 
facade being shreuded in uncertainty by a veil of foliage, and 
its lines boldly intercepted at one point by the dense mass of 
trees on the island, from which interruption the resumption of 
their accurate course on either side produces a very satisfactory 
and pleasing effect. An increase of height in the building 
itself, and a greater amount of rich and varied detail, would, 
perhaps, have rendered this example more conclusive as 
against “formalism in foliage;” but, as an illustration of the 
abstract principles advocated, it is an all-sufficient example. 


on 


7 HESRDEN DECREE 


APHIDES: THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR FOES. 
BY EDWARD NEWMAN. 


Tar aphides live on the sap of plants is susceptible of ocular 
demonstration, and equally so is the fact that ladybirds and 
aphislions live on aphides. The plant louse, or aphis, is familiar 
to every gardener, although the particular species may not be known 
to him. They are so numerous, and so closely packed together, that 
they seem to form a garment, a top-coat, to many of our common 
plants, for instance the rose and the broad bean. 

Plants afflicted by aphis exhibit the most extraordinary vagaries, 
bearing blossoms where they ought to bear leaves, leaves where they 
ought to bear blossom—twisting into corkscrew-forms stems that 
ought to be straight, and making straight as sticks those which ought 
to be bent ; sometimes, as in the peach and nectarine, they make the 
leaves hump up in the middle, and produce a sort of make-believe 
nectarine ; making roots blossom, as we often sce in that ornamental 
shrub, Pyrus japonica. This-is a phenomenon that is sure to attract 


Buckingham Palace, from the Suspension Bridge in St. James’s Park. 


The Gardens at Warwick Castie.—The unfortunate fire at | 


Warwick Castle has been the means of bringing to light many inte- 
resting associations connected with this fine old monument of times 
gone by. We haye had the remarks of Nathaniel Hawthorne and 


Emmerson’s impressions of English scenes and scenery reproduced | 
under different phases, and, lastly, a very interesting scrap from one _ 
of the lively epistles of Horace Walpole, the very emperor of English | 


letter-writers, has found its way into the papers. It is a nice little 
bit of criticism concerning gardens and landscape gardeners, for 
which we are glad to find room. It appears that Walpole visited 
Warwick in the summer of 1741, and writing of his visit, to his 
friend George Montague, he says:—‘On my return from (Umber- 
slade) Lord Archer’s, an odious place,*I saw Warwick, a pretty old 
town in the form of a cross, small and thinly inhabited. The castle 
is enchanting; the view pleased me more than I can express. The 
river Avon tumbles down a cascade at its foot. .It is well laid out 
by one Brown, who has set up on a few ideas of Kent and Mr. South- 
cote. One sees what the prevalence of taste does. 
who would have chuckled to have been born in an age of clipped 
hedges and cockleshell avenues, has submitted to let his garden and 
park be natural. Where he has attempted Gothics in the castle he 
has failed, and has indulged himself with an apartment which is 
paltry. The chapel is very pretty and smugged up with tiny pews.” 
Walpole, however, though he often preaches so wittily about 
‘‘ naturalness” in park and garden scenery, did not always practise 
it—for in his gardens at Strawberry Hill were worked up nearly all 
the vagaries of the worst formalism of his time.—-H. N. H. 


Little Brooke, — 


the attention of the most unobservant; the roots of the Pyrus are 
very near the surface, and of course liable to be uncovered by every 
operation of the gardener. So sure as this uncovering takes place, 
a colony of aphides take up their abode on the exposed part, and 
soon compel the roots to make this strange exhibition. 

One or two other effects of the attacks of aphides are also very 
peculiar. Aphis bursaria, by the influence of its sap-sucking pro- 
pensity, causes the leaf-stalk of the Lombardy poplar to expand into 
a bladder-like swelling, which constitutes a home for its pregeny. 
These bladders or purses I find very commonly on the poplars on 
Nun Green and Peckham Rye, and I am still in doubt how the species 
is preserved ; for, the purse falling with the leaf, one would suppose 
its inhabitants would perish. It is probable that a few of the winged 
females eseape, and lay their eggs on the twigs of poplar, to remain 
there during the winter, and in the spring the young ones probably 
find their way to the newly-formed leaf-stalks, puncture them, and 
thus originate the purses, which are such conspicuous objects when 
the summer is advanced. <A second species—I think it is Bursocrypta 


| Ulmi—produces on the common elms strange hollow cysts, which £o 


| 


exactly resemble figs in size and shape that they may easily deceive 
the superficial examiner. Of these figs I have had a good supply 
from young elms near Cambridge; on being opened they were found 
to contain a good deal of saccharine fluid and a great many earwigs, 
in addition to numbers of aphides and larye of Syrphi. A third 
species produces a most beautiful green gall on the spruce fir, very 
closely resembling the conés of that tree, but much smaller. The 
insect which produces these galls was called Chermes Abietis by 


ny 


212 


THE GARDEN. 


[dan. 27, 1872. 


Linnzus, but Ratzebourg, the author of a beautiful work on Forest 
Insects, thinks there are two species engaged in this manufacture of 
artificial fir cones, in one of which the cone is formed in the middle of 
a twig, and the other at the very tip. A fourth species invariably 
fixes its residence on the roots of the creeping plume thistle (Carduus 
arvensis), and, so far as I am aware, never ventures above ground, 
but resides continuously on the subterranean stolons of this trouble- 
some weed. In this situation it lives in perpetual darkness, in 
company with the ants, which appear to take special interest in its 
welfare. This connection of ants and aphides has long been known 
to naturalists, and has given rise to very diverse opinions as to the 
nature and object of the connection; but it has been clearly shown by 
competent obseryers that the sap of a plant extracted by means of the 
rostrum or sucker of the aphis passes through its system, and is 
discharged through two minute tubes, one situated on each side of 
the aphis near the extremity-of the body. ‘‘ When no ants attend 
them,” say Kirby and Spence, “by a certain jerk of the body, 
which takes place at regular intervals, they ejaculate this honey to 
a distance ; but when ants are at hand, watching the moment when 
the aphides emit their fiuid, they seize and suck it down immediately. 
This, however, is the least of their talents, for they absolutely 
possess the art of making them yield the honey at pleasure, or, in 
other words, of milking them. On this occasion their antennz are 
their fingers; with these they pat the abdomen of the aphis on 
each side alternately, moving them yery briskly: a little drop of 
fluid immediately appears which the ant takes into its mouth, one 
species (Myrmica rubra) conducting it with its antennz, which are 
somewhat swollen at the tips. When it has thus milked one it 
proceeds to another, and so on, until being satisfied it returns to its 
nest.” The illustrious Linnzus, a century earlier, was equally 
acquainted with this astonishing fact, for he says, ‘‘ The ant ascends 
the tree that it may milk the aphides, not killthem.” 


- This connection between ants and aphides comes nearer to our idea 
of personal property among mankind than any other phenomenon 
exhibited in the animal kingdom. All aphides seem to be the 
property of certain ants, or rather colonies of ants—not of individual 
ants, but certain companies or establishtnents of ants; they possess 
a prescriptive right, as the late Sir Robert Peel would have called it, 
to the aphides settled on a branch, or a tree, or a rose bush; and, 
when once this right or interest in these miniature cattle, so to speak, 
is obtained, by what process I know not, it is maintained with the 
utmost jealousy, and no ants from a neighbouring colony are allowed 
to interfere or infringe on the manorial rights of those in possession. 
It will, however, occasionally happen that there is a stronger colony 
of ants in the neighbourhood than those actually in possession ; then 
the same process takes place as in Christian nations—the stronger 
and more numerous inyade the weaker, and possess themselves of the 
twigs or trees laden with these lilliputian cattle, and a curious process 
is to be observed. After the possession of the disputed territory has 
been obtained by the invaders, the conquered miay be seen carrying 
off their cattle, each ant with an aphis in its mouth, to some place of 
fancied security ; the unresisting aphis submits to this process with 
the most perfect nonchalance, takes it as a matter of course, and 
forcibly reminds one of a puppy or a kitten being conyeyed by its 
parent to a place of greater safety. Sometimes when the ants think 
that their treasures, these herds of kine, are in too close proximity to 
stronger colonies or settlements of ants, they resort to a really 
wonderful expedient for their protection; they bring grains of earth 
from a distance, and construct a casing or sheath of earth-works, a 
kind of tubular casemate or rampart, round a twig or branch on 
which a peculiarly valuable and productive herd of aphides are 
grazing. I haye never seen the robber ants invade these casemates; 
probably this is a kind of property which they hold sacred. 

We may conclude that ants are the best if not the only friends of 
the aphides; they never forsake them; they are equally attentive 
and unremitting in their attention day and night; I have often 
visited my colonies with candle and lantern, and always found the 
aphides constant to their task of sap-sucking, and the ants equally 
constant in theirs of milking them.—Field. 


Bean aphis (Aphis Fabse).—The following remedy for this pest 
is said to be practised with success on the Continent :—As soon as the 
young heads are seen to be affected, they are cut off, and of course 
destroyed, and the effect of the amputation is to harden the plant, so that 
the aphis cannot pierce the skin. 


English Sparrows in New York Squares.—For some unac- 
countable reason, the little English sparrows which have filled the parks 
and trees for several years have disappeared this season by thousands. It 
is suggested that, inasmuch as they were regarded as city property, they 
entertained fears of being stolen by the ‘ Ring,” and so flew off to some 
honest region. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 201.) 


Kerrrinc tur Toous.—They should always be im a seryice- 


able and clean condition. Inthe course of repeated operations, 
especially when the sap is flowing freely, it thickens and accu- 
mulates on the blade. It should be constantly removed by 
the application of water or moist earth. The dirt interferes 
with the proper management of the tool, and injures the 
internal layers of the bark and wood which come into contact 
with the blade. Frequent sharpening of the cutting imple- 
ments should not be neglected, as wounds heal much more 
readily when the cuts are clean. When the tool gets blunt, it 
should be ground down on a grindstone, and afterwards rubbed 
on a finer stone to remove the wire-edge. In long-continued 
operations the tool should be rubbed on the fine stone frequently 


during the day. The Turkey, or any other fine-grained stone, © 


is the best for sharpening pruning-knives. ‘The slate- 
stone is suitable for the grafting-knife and the sécateur_ 
There is also the fine stone used for razors and penkknives , 
on this, with a drop or two of oil, fine blades for delicate 
operations are sharpened. In nurseries, after passmg the 
tools over the stone, they are stropped on the leather of the 
boot or shoe, or on the palm of the hand. The mode of 


sharpening depends on the skill or the practice of the. 
The object should be to sharpen the cutting parts” 


operator. 
without weakening them; otherwise, in rough work, the 
edge will soon become blunt, andis easily notched. The saw 
is sharpened with a file made for the purpose. Delicate tools, 
and eyen the sécateur, should be sent to the cutler. 


Licatures.—Almost all the modes of graftmg require a 
ligature to fasten up separated tissues or raised bark, to tie 
clefts together, and to keep the graft firmly on the stock. If 
any considerable mterval should be allowed to occur between 
the insertion of the scion and the application of the ligature, 
the action of the atmosphere would not fail to have an injurious 
effect on the graft. The best ligatures are those which can 
neither expand nor contract under hygrometric influences, and 
which possess a certain amount of elasticity permitting 
them to accommodate themselyes to the increasing diameter 
of the stock without cramping it. The thicker the stock is, 
the firmer should the ligature be; for in this case the healing 
of the wound is naturally more tedious, and everything should 
be done to accelerate it. In cases of grafting where the bark 
only has been raised, it is sufficient to bring the cortical layers 
together, and to tie up the graft without compressing it. 
The ligature is applied with both hands. It is rolled in a 
spiral manner around the grafted part, drawing it tight at every 
turn, especially at the beginning and the end, where it is most 
liable to become loose. It does not matter whether the 
turns are made very close to each other or not, the 
essential point is that the ligature should keep the graft 
firm. Should it yield on passing the finger over if, it 
is not sufficiently tight, and must be done over again. 
Woollen thread combines all the qualities to be wished for in 


a good ligature; it adapts itself to the growth of the tree, and ~ 


is not affected by moisture, as it has been passed through oil 
in its manufacture. It is very much used in bud-grafting on 
small branches and medium-sized fruit-trees and shrubs, 


conifers, and rose-trees, or small stocks grafted in the open air | 


or. under glass. ‘Two or three threads of it are put together, 
(without twisting them) in lengths proportioned to the thick- 
ness of the stocks, and the depth of the clefts to be covered. 
For large stocks this thread would not be sufficiently strong. 
Cotton-thread is not affected by hygrometric changes, but it 
does not possess the elasticity of the woollen material. We 
recommend it for bud-grafting on strong stems, or such 
as are of slow increase in bulk, and also for grafts under 
glass. In applying it as a ligature it is best to fasten 
it with a knot so that it can be easily untied; when it 


Tax. 27, 1972.) 


THE GARDEN. 


213 


becomes too tight, as cotton is difficult to cut across, 
and the same ligature can then be used another season. 
The éxpense of purchasing cotton and woollen materials for 
ligatures in nurseries has led to an inquiry for cheaper substi- 
tutes. After trying various species of carex and bulrushes, 
two aquatic plants were found which supply an excellent 
material for ligatures. ‘These are the Reed Mace (‘Cypha lati- 
folia) and the Bur Reed (Sparganium ramogum), both of which 
grow in abundance on the hanks of rivers and ditches, in ponds 
and marshes and belong to the natural family of Typhacee. 
The plants are gathered when full-grown, either about the 
end of summer for the following season’s use, or in spring to 
be used the same year. ‘The leaves, which are thickly crowded 
at the base, are separated, and put to dry in the shade or in a 
loft, where they are hung up in bundles formed by tying the ends 
together. When the time for using them arrives they are cut 
into the lengths required, usually from one foot to twenty inches. 
A short time before grafting, these ligatures tied in a bundle 
are plunged into water, where they are left for a few hours; 
they are then taken out and wrung dry in the same way that 
linen is wrung. Very often they are merely put into a cellar 
to keep them cool and moist, and in places where water cannot 
be conveniently employed, they are placed under the soil with 
the same object. This kind of ligature requires a proper 
medium of dryness and moisture. If too dry, the leaf of the 
Reed Mace or of the Bur Reed will not have sufficient resisting 
power, and will break; if too moist, it will cause the graft to 


Reed Mace. 


Bur Reed. 


rot, in addition to being just as brittle as in the other case. 
The leaf is generally broad enough to be divided lengthways, 
and fastens better when it is put on edgeways, and not laid 
flat, and when it is slightly twisted in winding it round the 
graft. With the exception of those modes of grafting which 
require the woody tissues of the stock to be cleft, and for 
which the leaf of the Reed Mace or the Bur Reed is not 
sufficiently tough, we recommend this ligature for the 
greater number of grafting processes. The soft leaves 
-of the common flag (Iris pseud-acorus), which do not cut 
like the leaves of the carex, will furnish a pliant and 
firm ligature, but not so strong as the preceding. The 
bark of the lime-tree, as it is prepared for the manufacture 
of well-ropes, furnishes a good ligature for cleft-grafting 
or crown-grafting, or grafting by approach, and in all cases 
where it is necessary to oppose a certain amount of resistance 
to large stocks or broken tissues. Dipped in water, then 
dried and divided, this kind of ligature possesses a suitable 
amount of elasticity, and does not tighten on the stock, as 
pack-thread or hamper-twine would. Packing-mats, which 
come as coverings of colonial imports, offer the same 


adyantages, and the ligatures which they furnish will not injure 
the tender bark of the young wood in various kinds of grafts. 


‘Pack-thread, single or doubled, or old twine unravelled, are 


very often used because they are easily procured. They 
should, however, not be twisted, and must be carefully looked 
after when the graft begins to swell. Split osiers are hardly 
ever used except in country places, where anything better 1s 
not always to be had. They may be employed as ligatures 
for old trees, whose diameter does not increase so rapidly as to 
cause injury in any form to result from over-tight compression. 
The bark of the elm and the willow, dried and afterwards 
moistened, are neither better nor worse than the split osiers. 
Their defect is that they contract too speedily, unless they 
have been prepared a year before-hand. The office of the 
ligature is a temporary one; it ceases when the union of the 
parts is sufficiently advanced for the development of the graft. 
We shall see further on, when we come to discuss the subject 
more at length, what additional attention is required by the 
ligature, and at what time it is considered to be proper to 
dispense with it. 

Grartinc-wax.—In grafting it is necessary to cover the 
wounds and euts with an unctuous composition, which will 
not have the defect of drying-up or burnitig the wound, nor 
of running or cracking under the action of the air or from 
being badly made. This must ‘be applied copiously and with- 
out stint to the wounds and clefts of both stock and scion 
when the graft is fixed in position. A well-executed graft may 
fail in consequence of the bad quality of the wax. Those 
modes of grafting in which no cut surface is exposed to the 
air, bud-grafting for instance, do not require any application 
of this kind. In spite of numerous new inventions, good 
compositions are still few, but those which we possess are 
sufficient. 

Grarrine-CLAY, oR UNGUENT DE Samnt-Fiacre or THE FreNcu. 
This primitive composition consists of two parts of clay and 
one part of cow-dung. It is held on the graft by means of pack- 
thread or a piece of rag, and presents the form of an oblong 
ball. Some persons puta strip of bark between the cut and 
the composition, to prevent the latter from penetrating into 
the clefts. Others mix finely-chopped hay or grass with it, to 
give it more consistency. ‘Two thousand years ago, authors 
recommended the covering of the “kneaded luting and glue 
of the graft” either with a borage leaf or with moss. Grafting 
clay is much used in many country places, and is an econo- 
mical composition, especially for the grafting of all sorts of 
old trees. 

Warw Mastic.—For a long time, nurserymen have manu- 
factured their own mastic. The composition of it varies; the 
base being usually Burgundy pitch, black pitch, bees-wax, suet, 
and resin. ‘To these ingredients some add ochre, hog’s lard, 
flowers of sulphur, Venice turpentine, or sifted cinders: All 
are melted together over the fire in an iron pot, and the com- 
position should be allowed to cool before it is used. Practice 
makes it easy to judge of the proper proportions of the 
ingredients; the pitch tends to thicken the composition, 
the suet to make it lighter, the resin imparts dryness to 
it, and the bees-wax gives it oiliness. The following mixture 
is in high repute at the establishments of MM. André Leroy, 
of Angers,and Baltet Fréres, of Troyes:—First, melt together, 
resin 2 lbs. 12 ounces, Burgundy pitch 11b. 11 ounces; at the 
same time melt separately, suet 9 ounces. Pour the suet, when 
thoroughly melted, into the first mixture, stirring it well while 
doing so. Then add 18 ounces of red ochre, dropping it in 
gradually in small portions, and stirring the whole up fora good 
while. Whatever composition may be used, it should always be 
unctuous, easily worked, and free from acridity, and is best 
applied lukewarm, rather cool than hot, and when of a con- 
sistency approaching the liquid rather than the solid. It is 
brought into this condition with the help of a small portable 
stove, heated like a warm bath, or with a spirit-lamp, or by 
any of the common methods. It is applied with a small paint- 
brush, or a stick with a rag wrapped round the end, or, better 
still, with a wooden spatula. The warm mastic is an economical 
kind for large operations, and is preferable to the cold mastic 
for autumn grafting, as the frost has been found to have less 
effect upon it—Charles Baltet, Troyes, France. 

(To be continued.) 


214 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 27, 1872. 


THE PROVIDENT WOODPECKER. 
(MELANERPES FORMICIVORUS.—BONAP.) 


THE accompanying woodcut represents a feature which may 
occasionally be seen in the bark of the Yellow Pine (Pinus 
ponderosa) in California. It is pitted with holes, and if the 
observer takes the trouble to inquire what has caused them, 
he will learn that they are the work of a bird—a woodpecker, 
which makes the holes and stores up acorns in them for future 
food. The following particulars regarding this bird are taken 
from a communication made to the Royal Physical Society in 
1854 by Mr. Andrew Murray, who was the first to direct 
attention to this peculiar habit, he having received specimens 
of the perforated bark and an account of the proceedings of 
these birds from his brother in California, who had seen them 
bore the holes, store the 


acorns, and hammer van 
them ix so tightly that es 
you can hardly pick I 
them out. He had also 
seen the birds take them 
out again in spring, and 
then eat either them or 
something that was 
within the shell. He 
had seen six or eight of 
them at work on a tree, 
in which there was a 
squirrel which hadmade 
its house in a hollow at 
the root of a branch. 
This squirrel seemed to 
take great interest in 
these storing opera-_ 
tions. He would pop 
out his head, and the 
moment the coast was 
clear he would run out 
and scratch away at the 
bark to get at the acorns 
deposited.. As soon as 
the birds saw him, they 
would all attack him, 
and he would run like 
lightning down one side 
of the tree and up the 
other, and into his hole 
again; then peep out 
and watch another 
chance to do the same. 


When these facts 
were first communi- 
cated, nothing more 


was known of the bird 
than that it was a black 
woodpecker with a red 
head and yellow throat, 
and Sir W. Jardine 
provisionally proposed 


for it the very appro- $$ +, 
priate name of Picus . 


providus. Untortu- 
nately, when specimens came (which they did soon afterwards), 
it was found that the species was known, haying already been 


described by Prince Bonaparte under the name of Melanerpes | 


formicivorus, in ignorance of its most remarkable distin- 
guishing character. 

Subsequently, Mr. C. J. Jackson, in the Proceedings of the 
Boston Natural History Society (vol. x., p. 227), states that it 
selects in the autumn, for stowing away, acorns only which are 
infested with maggots to serve as food for its young next spring, 
and that the acorns are driven into the holes prepared for them, 
so as to prevent the escape of the maggot when it comes to 
maturity and imprison it until wanted in the following spring, 
Mr. J. K. Lord, on the other hand (The Naturalist in 
Vancouver's Island” (vol. i., p. 289), doubts its provident 
habits. 


The method in which it stows its store of acorns is illus- 
trated by Mr. Sumichrast by a figure in the Memoirs of the 
Boston Natural History Society (vol. i., p. 562), and the Tbis, in 
1868 (p. 106), gives an account of the matter; but the whole 
seems to stand very much where it was put by Mr. Murray in 
1854. Although it may be that the woodpecker makes the 
store for future food either as acorn or enclosed grub (for 
there are plenty of woodpeckers that are vegetable feeders as 
well as insect feeders), its doing so cannot be regarded as 
providence on its own behalf, either for itself or its offspring ; 
for it is impossible that it can recognize which acorns it stowed 
away and which its neighbour stowed. However this may be, 
acorns keep better so stowed than they usually do if they are 
still sound, either for the woodpecker’s eating or the grub’s 

- eating next spring after 
laying up. We should 
imagine, however, that 
they would be in fine 
condition for new grubs, 


broken a little in ham- 
mering them in, which 
seems to us a more 
reasonable supposition 
than Mr. Jackson’s, that 
only acorns already 
stricken are selected. 
A sight of the grubs, if 
there be grubs, would 
soon settle that point; 
but until some qualified 
entomologist has re- 
ported on them, wemust 
be content with the 
information which we 
now possess in the 
matter, 2G, 


THE 
GREAT GARDENS 
OF EUROPE. 


_ VWERSAILLES.. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 
Tux gardens and park 
of Versailles are so cele- 
brated and, from a cer- 
tain stand-point of art, 
so magnificent, that a 
critical observer at once 
sets himself to inquire 
how it was that such a 
* vast outlay of money, 
and so huge an amount 
of labour, should have 
been lavished upon a 
site so entirely unpro- 
pitious. The explana- 
tion is simple enough, 
for the fact is, the spot 
was not a specially selected one. It was partly fromaccident,and 
partly from the influence of conflicting circumstances, that 
the nearly flat, and in every way uninteresting, country about 


Versailles became the site of by far the most splendid of . 


European palaces. The land was so poor, that the scanty 
crops formerly raised upon it were scarcely worth harvesting ; 
and they were so exposed to cold and violent currents of wind 
blowing up the two great damp valleys in summer, that the 
grain was often ver'sé, that is, laid, even before it attained its 


full growth; and so the crops, if gathered at all, were gathered ~ 


as laid crops, or versailles—from which, it is said, that the 
place took its uninviting name. 
The only attractions it held out to royalty were the woods 


with which it was surrounded, parts of which were fragments 


of very ancient forests. It is on record that some of the 


especially if the shell is: 


_  ? — 


Jan. 27, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


21 


cir 


ancient Frankish kings had a manorial residence near the 
site of the present vast chateau, at a spot still known as 
Franconville; but Louis XIII. was the first of the Bourbon 
kings who established a hunting seat in that neighbourhood, 
where he generally resided during the autumnal months. 
He purchased the site from the Archbishop of Paris (into 
whose hands the land had passed) in 1627, and the erection 


to become beautiful. The first sculptors of the day were 
employed, not only upon detached statues, groups, and the 
crowds of allegorical figures attached to fountains, but the 
chisels of men of great eminence were engaged even upon the 
marble vases to ornament the more salient points of the Perrons 


| and balustraded parapets of the grand terraces. In 1682, the 


of the rendezvous de chasse, which still forms that portion ~ 


of the grand palace that faces the Avenue de Paris, was 
commenced in that year. 

The sites of most of the great chateaux of the French 
kings, like that at Versailles, were, indeed, selected on account, 
of the immediate proximity of woods and forests which afforded 
good hunting ground, as St. Germain, Compiegne, Fontaine- 


bleau, Amboise, Chambord, and others; none of them, except | 
St. | 
ossibly from the magnificence of its site, became | 


St. Germain, having any other attractions of situation. 
Germain, 
the more fayourite of the royal residences after the time of 
Francis I. Henry IV. took up his permanent residence there ; 
and Louis XIII. was born within its walls, and a great pile 


designs of the king and his architects being nearly complete, 
the Court was established at Versailles, and the renown of the 
great palace of the Great King spread far and wide all over 
the world, ranking as an eighth wonder. 

Le Notre had been the presiding genius, not only of the 
gardens, but of the principal features of the palace itself, as 
director-in-chief of all the royal buildings. He laboured inces- 
santly, and, with the full command of various arts, of which he 
possessed both an instinctive and cultivated knowledge ina very 
high degree, achieved a brilliant conquest over'the seemingly 
impracticable nature of the site. In the estimation of his 
contemporaries, his triumph was complete. 

He opened spacious and stately avenues through the ex- 
tensive woods, and in these openings caused the gleaming waters 


Aye 


‘I 


View of the Chateau and Garden Terrace of Versailles, 


of new buildings was added to the more ancient part of the 
castle during his reign. 


Anne of Austria, with her young | 


son, Louis XIV., disgusted with the troubles of the Fronde, 


_quitted Paris to take up their residence there; and, as the story 
goes, eventually abandoned it in consequence of one of its 
greatest charms, namely, its noble terrace, which commands a 
far-stretching view over the whole of Paris, and enables the 


of vast canals to sparkle in the far perspective; and broad 
expanses of turf were made to extend as tar as the eye could 
reach, even from the commanding position of the, terrace, 


_ which was made some fifty feet higher than the general 


spectator to see even the distant spires of St. Denis pointing © 


heavenward above the ancient sepulchre of the kings of 
France. The vainglorious king, it was whispered, could not 
bear the daily view of an object which continually reminded 
him that he was not immortal; and, actuated by that 
fesling, caused great additions to be mide to his father’s 
rendezvous de chasse at Versailles, and in 1661 went to 
reside there, though the vast plans were not at that time 
half completed. ; f 
Further additions were continuously made during the next 


twenty years with a lavish outlay, which was thought all- | 


sufficient to overcome even the stubborness of the unsuggestive 
natural features that had to be dealt with, and force them 


level of the gardens and park, being the only rising ground 
ayailable, and previously known by the name of the Butte de 
Versailles. 

The engraving above shows a bird's-eye view of the Cour 
Royale, which extends in front of the two detached buildings 
forming the chateau of Louis XIIL., and which were eventually 
joied together by the vast body of the newer palace, the 
facade of which looks upon the gardens. Over the back of 
the parapet of that facade, the gardens are seen, with the 
fountains playing, the commencement of the long turf plot 
known as the Tapis Vert being visible beyond, This glimpse, 
however, can convey but a slight idea of the splendour of the 
fountains, with their crowds of marble or bronze statuary and 
costly decorations of every conceivable kind; and cannot for a 
moment suggest to the imagination the immense profusion of 
glistening water which is being tumbled wildly into the 


(San. 27, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


216 


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Jan. 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


217 


marble-bound basins, or cast into the air to extraordinary 
heights from countless single jets. Nor is it possible, on so 
small a scale, to convey any just idea of the quaint devices of the 
more complicated fountain-work. Neither can any represent- 

_ation whatever, let it be as picturesque and artistic as it may, 
suggest and explain the marvels of engineering skill with 
which that vast water supply was procured from such 
an unfavourable country as the district which surrounds 
Versailles. The celebrated Labyrinth is but a minor feature in 
this enormous horticultural and picturesque composition (for 
picturesque it is, with all its formalism), but it is very remark- 
able for the amount of invention and labour displayed in its 
decoration; the results being at that time deemed so interesting 
that a special volume, entitled “‘ Le Labyrinthe de Versailles,” 
was published in French, English, and German, describing the 
endless variety of the inventions lavished upon it; many of 
which most certainly require that their absurdity should at all 
events be explained. At the entrance, for instance, is seen, on 
one side Cupid holding the guiding-thread of the maze; while 
on the other side is Alsop, the fabulist, the moral of whose 
fables is intended to suggest the idea of wisdom; while Cupid 
is supposed to be declaring to those whom he has led into the 
Labyrinth of Love that he will, if they are wise (that is if they 
study Alsop’s fables), help them out of the scrape he has led 
them into. The fountains in this famous Labyrinth illustrate 
the fables in question. There are the singing birds attacking 
the owl for the harshness of his nightly screech, each and all 
squirting water upon him with fury. Next come “the monkey, 
the cat, and the chestnuts’; cat, monkey, and chestnuts 
squirting water fiercely at each other; and so on with a 
score of other illustrative devices of singular puerility; so low 
could the genius of the Siecle de Louis XIV. sink in the 
midst of all its grandeur. 


The costly residence in the park known as the Greater 
Trianon, and built by the Great King for his celebrated mis- 
tress, was called Trianon from a village of that name which 
was swept away when that portion of the park was enclosed. 
This “Trianon” had but little to distinguish it in style from 
the vast neighbouring palace except its smaller scale. To 
the Lesser Trianon, built in the time of Louis XV., who wished 
oceasionally for still greater retirement than the Greater 
Trianon afforded, a botanic garden was attached, on the sug- 

. gestion of the Due d’Ayen; an addition which would scarcely 
have called fora passing remark but that the admirable Jussieu 
became the curator, and there worked out the theories of his 
new system of botany, now so well known as “the natural 
system,” which has nearly superseded the more artificial one 
of Linneeus. 


In the early and tranquil portion of the reign of Louis XVI 
the Petit Trianon was assigned as a private residence to Marie 
Antoinette, and under her directions the grounds were con- 
verted (as we now see them) into a jardin paysage, which 
included in its features a rustic village, with its farm, its mill, 
its dairy, its streamlet, its rustic bridge, and even its old castle. 
Here it was that those triflers, the Comte de Provence and the 
Comte d Artois, with the beautiful young queen and others, 
pleased themselves sometimes in performing the rustic oceupa- 
tions of shepherds, millers, or dairymaids. Thetoy jardin paysage 
proved a fascinating one; and rivais were soon created in many 
other places than the Petit Trianon. It was thought delightfully 

natural and picturesque ; and those who admired it as a natural 
garden, with its winding stream and rustic bridge, natural 
cottages and imitation mill, did not guess that it was almost 
as unnatural as the formalism of 'the straight avenues and 
marble basins and sculptured fountains of the great palace 
garden itself. 


The annexed plan will show the situations of the principal 
features of the gardens and woods of Versailles; of the 
crossing canals, called Le Petit Venise, with its village of 
gondoliers, spoken of by Rosseau; of the great basin, ex- 
cavated by a regiment of Swiss Guards, and known as the 
Piéce des Suisses; and also of the orangery, the pheasantry, 
the menagerie, the aviary, the Fountains of the Dragon, of the 
Falls of Apollo, of Diana, of Latona, and a number of other 
points of interest. ; : 
(To be continued.) 


- will imagine three Lime trees placed like these dots , 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 

I Ave been a frequent visitor to these gardens for more than 
forty years, and I must certainly say that, taking them as a whole, I 
have always admired them ; it is, therefore, with reluctance that I put 
myself in the position of a fault-finder. But I should like to ask 
why the Deodar vista, between the Great Palm House and the 
Pagoda, has been blocked up—a yista in which, I know personally, 
the late Sir W. Hooker took much interest. In this the rows of 
Deodars stand about 150 feet apart, and about 50 feet asunder in 
the row ; and to create interest and present effect, a row of scarlet 
thorns was planted inside the avenue on each side, which, as a tempo- 
rary matter, was well enough. Now, however, within the Deodar 
lines, about 25 feet apart from them and about 45 feet asunder, in 
the row, are planted in threes, four to five feet apart, oaks, beech, 
birch, ash, elms, chestnuts, hornbeams, maples, hickory, willows, 
alders, elders. If allowed to grow, they will ultimately destroy 
the effect of the groups of Deodars; and if not allowed to grow, 
why plant them at all? Can any reason be given for planting trees 
in such a manner? If the reader who has not seen what I allude to 
° ¥s with four 
feet between each tree, he will understand me. It is hardly neces- 
sary to say that the Deodar is second to none as a foreground tree, 
when its graceful and weeping habit is not interfered with. Again, 
Cedars of Lebanon are planted within twenty-five feet of the 
Pagoda! Look at those at Chiswick House, and see what shifts 
Mr. Edmonds has to make to save the mansion, and then judge 
whether it is advisable to plant cedars within twenty-five feet of a 
temple such as is the Pagoda at Kew. Near here, also, may be 
seen hedges of common laurels surrounding fine clumps of rhodo- 
dendrons, the branches of which are sweeping the grass. Deodars 
have been planted in the Sion vista alternately with limes. The 
Deodars are about 160 feet apart, by 100 feet in the row, 
which is an excellent distance, permitting their distinguishing 
characteristics to be seen to full advantage; for though it is 
not tobe expected that they will reach 200 feet in height, still 
they may 100 feet. It is, therefore, high time the limes were 
removed; they have already done their duty, having been, of 
course, planted at the time only for present effect. But, in place 
of this, the authorities have planted a row of Abies Douglasii 
within the line of Deodars on each side, about twenty-five feet from 
the broad walk, and 150 feet apart in the row, introducing two ever- 
green oaks betwixt. Now, a clump of silver or Douglas firs, 
flanked with evergreen oaks, has a good effect in large places; but, 
in this case, if these trees are allowed to grow and assume their 
natural habits, they will assuredly close up this fine vista altogether. 
Had these Douglas firs been planted 100 feet back from where the 
limes are now, they would haye formed fine background to the 
Deodars. Surely, it is wrong to plant Abies Douglasii in front of 
the Deodars, even had there been room, which there is not. But, 
strange to say, the planters in question are not even satisfied with 
blocking up this vista with oaks and firs—they have planted a part 
of the distance with Cupressus Lawsoniana within from four to five 
feet of the broad walk, and about twenty feet asunder in the row. 
Where there is so much capability, and so much power, as there 
is at Kew, one cannot help feeling sorry to see any misdirection of 
them. As far as sweeping, cleaning, &c., are concerned, the place, 
is well enough; but it is here one ought to have an example of 
tree planting and of landscape gardening worthy of the country. 

Hounslow. D. Fercuson. 

{The influence of our public gardens is so great that it would be 
unwise to repress discussion on their merits and arrangements in 
this, a journal in which the subject of public gardens is regularly 
treated of for the first time in gardening literature. Therefore, 
reasonable and inoffensive expression of opinion, having for its 
manifest object the improvement of our public gardens, will be 
permitted in.our pages. No communication, however, criticising the 
management, will be inserted without the writer’s name in full. 
We are not responsible for the opinions of our correspondents.— 
Conpvucror. | 


New Cemetery at Bdinburgh.—Arrangements are in progress for 
providing a new cemetery for Edinburgh. We trust it may prove as well 
arranged and as beautiful as a garden as the Dean Cemetery, than which 
we know none more creditable. 


218 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 27, 1872. 


IN-DOOR GARDEN. 


Dei 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 134.) 

CanypTRocALYx sPicatus (Monucca);—A noble palm, with the habit 
of an Areca, but denser. Not a fast grower. Where a large plant is 
required to stand over a tank this would be very useful. When it is 
eight feet high it spreads from ten to fourteen feet, the points of the 
fronds nearly reaching the ground. 

CALYPIROGYNE SARAPIGENSIS (TRoricat AweERiIcA).—Fronds spread- 
ing ; pinne regular, from two to four inches wide; stem smooth, two 
inches thick ; stoloniferous. 

A distinct palm, but not one + 
of the most ornamental, be- a 
ing rather coarse and formal. a 

CATOBLASTUS PRUMORSUS 
(VunEzUELA).—Fronds 
spreading; pinne flat, three 
inches wide, abrupt. A tall- 
growing plant, with lax 
habit; foliage dark-green ; 
stem three inches thick ; not 
a good decorative plant. - 

CaryoTA CUMMINGHII 
(PuiirrinEs).— The leaf 
stalks clothed with dark 
scales; they have theappear- 
ance of gigantic Adiantums, 
and contrastwell with other 
palms or fine-foliaged plants. 
They are very ornamental 
plants at allstages. Fronds 
spreading; underside of 
petiole round ; pinnz in- 
creasing in width from base 
upwards, producing the ap- 
pearance of haying been 
bitten off at the end; grows 
from sixteen to twenty feet 
high, whenit begins toflower 
from the top downwards. 
When the last flowers have 
faded, it dies, and one of the 
suckers takesits place. The 
whole of this genus are bi- 
pinnate. 

C. saris (Cocuin CuinA). 
—A dwarf plant, with tri- 
angular pinnee ; frondssome- 
what lax. 

C. FURFURACEA (JAvA).— 
Fronds pendent, ten to four- 
teen feet in fully-developed 
plant; pinne triangular; 
top cut irregular; where 
they join the petiolethey are 
swollen. Young plants good 
for yase decoration or as 
table plants. Young shoots epslill 


produced from base. SS 
C. Caupata.—A very ele- ’ 7 

gant variety of furfuracea, | The Wine Palm of India. 

having the half of the ter- he 

minal pinne of each set : i 

lengthened, which gives | 


grace to the plant. 

C. ruMPHIANA (CELEBES).—Fronds spreading, six fect long and four 
feet wide in developed plants; pinnae rhomboid, regular. A noble 
plant, differing from the others in density and compactness of growth. 

C. sononirERA (Maracca).—Fronds erect; pinna irregular. A 
smooth-looking plant of dwarf habit, producing shoots from base 
when quite young. A good table plant. 

©. urens (THE WiNe Pam or InpDIA).—A tall-growing plant with 
clear stem; the best of all the species for a Jarge house, and the 
gem of the Palm House at Kew. Fronds spreading ; pinnw, wedge- 
shaped, pendent. The lower side deeply gaged, giving it an elegant 
and airy aspect. Inayoung stateitisa good table plant. In general 
appearance Caryotas resemble one another very much, and where one 
is vequired for a dwarf plant, Cumminghii is the best, but where 
space is no object, urens should be selected. 


CEROXYLON ANDICOLA (syN., Niveuw: Wax Pata or Brazin).— 
Fronds, erect, fourteen to sixteen feet; pinnz, channeled on under 
side, white ; upper side, bright green. An elegant palm tree for 
the central position in a conservatory; not good, however, even 
in a young state for house decoration. Might be mistaken for 
Diplothemium when not fully developed ; but it is more erect, and 
not so dense. 

CHAMEDOREAS.—These are the most elegant of palms, for small 
houses, as, indeed, for any situation. They may be grown under the 
shade of other plants, or used as canopies for ferns, so as to furnish 
diversity and contrast. Having so slight a stem, crowned with an 
elegant head of foliage, they make fine table plants, and, not being 

l fast growers, they remain 
suitable for such purposes 
for a considerable length of 
time. They enjoy a moist 
atmosphere, and as regards 
arrangement, their foliage 
should always stand clear of 
anything with which it may 
be associated, not only on 
account of effect, but be- 
cause some of the species 
have a beautiful flower 
spathe, which, when de- 
veloped, is scarlet and 
orange, and exceedingly 
beautiful, forming a fine 
contrast with the dark-green 
foliage. 

C. Lunata (Mrxico).— 
Fronds, irregularly pinnate, 
two feet long; pinnz, in 
sets of from two to three, 


eight inches long, three 
inches wide; acuminate, 
point bent downwards, 


caused by the undulation of 


appearance. } 

C. MIcRopHYLLA (BRAzin). 
—fronds, irregularly pin- 
nate; pinne, convex. A 
dwarf and not very elegant 
plant. 

C. Manri1ana (S. Amerie) 
y - Fronds, regularly pinnate, 
| four feet long; pinna, 

acuminate, one inch wide. 

| The most charming of the 

group; on account of the 

fronds overarching the pot, 

and also on account of the 

- . plant itself being dwarf, it 

is very useful as under- 

growth, or for the decor- 

| ation of vases, or as a speci- 
j men on a pedestal. 

C. pyemMazA (Mexico),— 
A dwarf species, with pin- 
nate fronds. Rather stiff in 
habit, and requires a large 
pot. 

C. Sartori (Mrxico).— 

Tay Fronds, pinnate; pinnae, 

+ oblique, ten to twelve inches 

F long, twoinches wide, rather 

dense ; allied to Brnesti-Augusti, but not so stiff; fronds, slightly 
recurved, two feet long. A very goud palm for mixing with ferns. 

C. Wenpranpit (Mexico).—Fronds, regularly pinnate. A fine 
plant, but very like Lindeniana, from which it differs in the pinnae 
being slightly broader. ; 

C, Amazonica (Tror. AMentcA).—Fronds, four feet ; one foot to first 
set of pinne, short and oblique. A good plant for mixing with ferns. 

C. ARENBERGIANA (GUATEMALA).—Fronds, regularly pinnate ; pinnae, 
long, acuminate. A fine, bold looking species, and a free grower. 

C. Ernesti-Aucust1 (NEw GRANADA).—Fronds, simple twenty-two 
inches long, bifid; veins prominent, petiole short; white line, on the 
under side ; female flower-spike, coral red, and very handsome ; plant, ~ 
rather stiff in habit, but worth growing for the sake of contrast. 


(To be continued.) J: Croucemn. 


(Caryota urens.) 


the margin. A plant of good 


Jan. 27, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


219 


CONSERVATORIES IN THE NATURAL STYLE. 


No ene can be more alive than I am to the absence of taste in the 
generality cf conservatories in this country, but I am sure that they 
are infinitely more satisfactory than they possibly could be made by 
' M. André’s arrangement, which, if carried ont, would, in some two 

years or so, reduce them to a much worse plight than the Palm Honse 
at Kew, to which he alludes by way of illustration. Let anyone 

ing a moderate knowledge of vegetable physiology, and fair 
cultural skill, go to see the Palm House at Kew, and after studying 
it fairly the conclusion he will inevitably come to, must be, that for 
the object for which Kew is intended—namely, the bringing together 
of as many members of the vegetable kingdom as possible, more 
with a view to their individual well-being than for general effect— 
more could not have been done: Kew must be looked upon as an 
educational establishment where all who take an interest in the 
vegetable kingdom can make an acquaintance with thousands of 
plants they would not otherwise haye an opportunity of seeing. 
Consequently, the first consideration has been to make the collection 
as comprehensive as possible, €vhereas if the plants had been arranged 
for effect, space would haye been sacrificed that could not possibly 
have been spared. 

In a south-westerly direction from the Palm House is another 
house, of far less imposing appearance externally, containing a selec- 
tion of plants, which for individual interest and general effect as a 
whole—in fact, seen from every point of view that it is possible to 
judge them from—leave little room for complaint. 

M. André’s scheme resolves itself into three propositions: the 
preparation of the ground, the selection of the plants, and the 
planting. Bottom heat is unnecessary for any plant’ he named, 
and worse than useless in such a sitnation, as it would entail 
no end of annoyance in upsetting the ground to get at leakages, 
which are certain tooccur in the pipes. The temperature he proposes, 
65° to 68°, is nearly twenty degrees too high ; he must have a reduc- 
tion of ten degrees in the night, necessitating a day temperature of 
nearly 80°, which would kill two-thirds of the plants the first winter. 
But it is the selection of the plants which renders the whole thing 
impracticable. Plants in all respects so different from one another 
as those he proposes to plant can never thrive in the same tempera- 
ture. If M. André will reduce his mean temperature to 50°, and 
ascend the Chilian Andes a few thousand feet, go to the temperate 
regions of China, and the warmer parts of Japan, he will find abund- 
ance of plants in every way suited for the situation he proposes. 
For the roof, care should be taken to select such climbers as will not, by 
their rampant growth, effectually smother everything under them, or 
necessitate their being made continually unsightly by cutting-in. 
The plants that are intended to occupy the body of the honse should 
be such as will rather receive benefit from the shade of those over- 
head than otherwise. From the countries I haye just named and 
others, a selection can be made which will not only satisfy the 
requirements of good gardening from a cultural point of view, but 
will also please the eye of good taste. T. Barings, Southgate. 


[Im justice to M. André it may be necessary to remind the reader 
that he did not find fault with the arrangements at Kew, but simply 
mentioned the large house there incidentally with others of a similar 
class, as suitable for such dispositions as he proposed. Whether the 
natural system of arrangement would be desirable for a botanic, as 
distinguished from a private, collection, isa question entirely apart 
from the general one. Our own opinion is that it is not a mere 
question of taste between conservatories ‘arranged in the ordinary 
way-and in the natural manner; one is right and the other 
wrong. It matters little whether the natural manner be carried 
out after M. André’s or Mr. Baines’s fashion. The natural method 
is the true and satisfying one, and moreover, the one best suited 
to the gardener, inasmuch as it saves much time, and enables 
him to produce a ravishing effect in winter, and indeed at all 
Seasons, witha comparatively small number of flowering plants. The 
common way of exhibiting red pots, stages, and comparatively small 
plants in conservatories, simply makes the mfinite grace of vegeta- 
tion impossible therein. And this in the very house which we place 
near the mansion to show the choicest treasures of our collections! 
Surely, it is no wonder that many persons refuse to have any kind of 
conservatory near the house, so long as there is a chance of its pre- 
senting the paltry aspect so commonly seen. Happily, however, the 
decided improvement made in many of our ferneries, is making 
numerous conyerts to the cause of true gardening among us. These 

_will soon carry the same principle to our conservatories, and we shall, 
at no distant day,’see these as satisfactory from the point of view of 

arrangement, as they are at present for rich collections of admirably 
grown plants. It is, of course, quite possible to arrange a hot as 
well as a cool house on this principle; and, on the whole, the cool 
house would be most desirable for us. ] 


‘ 


&c. 


FOOD FOR THE GARDEN. 


Tuis is the season to get a stock of land food together. Hungry 
land—and most of it, whether garden or farm, is hungry—will eat 
almost anything. Cannibal-like, it would not refuse even a slice of 
other land, if nothing better came to hand, and sometimes a change 
or mixture of fresh earth is as stimulating as a coat of the best 
manure; in fact, it is manure, that is, it adds to the hungry ground 
what it lacked before, and it is by such additions that the strength 
or productive force of the earth is preserved intact. Our crops have, 
as it were, two strings to their bow. One points skyward, and draws 
in elements of nutrition from the atmosphere ; another draws up 
from the deep cellars of the earth’the mineral or inorganic constitu- 
ents of plants. But these are not sufficiently abundant in earth 
that has been exhausted by hard cropping. Hence the necessity of 
manuring. Where most has been taken, more must be given back. 
As reasonably expect a profitable day’s work from a starving man 
as a good crop from hungry ground. 

If you would reap bountifully, sow plentifully of manure. An 
obvious truism, some will say, but it is one which is forgotten every 
day nevertheless. Certain it is that almost every garden or field is 
cruelly underfed. But where is the food to come from? Wherever 
there is a road to clean, a ditch to scour, a farmyard or closet to 
empty, leaves or stems to gather together; these are the natural 
food of the earth. When we waste them, we rob the ground, and 
consequently lighten its produce. Treasured and wisely applied, 
they keep it in training for full fertility. Very much, however, 
depends on their application. Like ourselves, the earth thrives best 
on mixed diet, and needs bulk to fill it, as much as quality to enrich 
it. Hence the immense value of such omniwm gatherwms in the form 
of manure as can now be collected. As water forms the bulk of 
nearly all liquid me licines, so earth of various kinds forms the fittest 
foundations for all manures. It is the mixing medium and more, 
for turfy loam, in so far as it is turfy, is the sweetest food for plants. 
Every cultivator should instantly set to work to concoct a season’s 
supply of food for the earth, if he has not got it ready before. 
Choose an out-of-the-way place for a huge heap of rubbish of all 
kinds. If possible, pnt enough hot dung and leaves with it to cause 
a gentle warmth. This is the cooking process which kills weeds, 
stews down the grossness of solids, and mellows the entire mass. If 
any sticks or stems are too hard for this mode of cooking, put fire 
through them, not to consume but to char them. This is easily 
done by smothering the fire with turves and a layer of earth. These 
charred remains form capital food for the earth, either given neat or 
mixed with other condiments. When, the cooking is completed, 
saturate the whole mass with house sewage or liquid-manure either 
from stable or cow-house. Thus treated, a heap of manure of the 
most nutritious kind may soon be provided and of sufficient size to 
satisfy the wants of most gardens. D. T. Fisu. 


SOILS, MANURES, 


LIQUID-MANURE SUPPLY FOR THE GARDEN. 


A SMALL but regular supply of liquid-manure is indispensable to 
the well-managed garden, and though its use is often recommended 
for many things that good culture, soil, and water grow as well as 
we could desire, and its over-use is often a nuisance in the garden, 
yet, for all soft-wooded pot plants and for many a little crop or speci- 
men in the open garden, the cultivator finds it agreat aid. Toinduce 
a flowering habit in some plants, notably Pelargoniums, it is requisite 
that they should be grown with contracted pot room and a not over 
rich soil; then you induce that firm, stubby, and flowery habit so 
much the characteristic of good plant culture; whereas if you give 


a Pelargonium for “show” geranium, as it is commonly called) free 


pot room in a rich soil it “runs to leaf”? and ragged coarseness of 
habit instead of flowering abundantly. But when we keep our show 
geraniums oyer the winter in that ripe and concise condition, so to 
speak, and the flower buds are all ‘set’? and made sure of, then, if 
we have a clear supply of mild liquid-manure at hand, we add a 
deeper verdure to the foliage, and furnish a fund of acceptable 
nutriment to the flowers, by giving them a diluted dose of it twice 
a week. It is unwise and unusual to disroot, re-pot, or disturb 
plants shortly before their flowering ; but very often just before they 
arrive at that stage the pots get full of hungry roots, and the supply 
of food is curtailed just when it is much wanted. The Cineraria, 
Fuchsia, Calceolaria, and soft-wooded plants generally illustrate this 
every year. Left to the well-nigh exhausted supply of their pots 
the flowering is free enough, but very often too short; whereas a 
few good soakings of liquid-manure, given when the soil is not too 
dry, strengthens the flowering in a very perceptible degree. Without 
doubt sheep droppings form the best material from which to draw 


220 


our supply of liquid-manure ; they are also convenient, and may be 
had at hand in most country places. Liqnid-manure so made we 
have always noticed to be the mildest, safest, and most grateful to 
the plants. Itis generally procured by throwing a lot of manure at 
the bottom of a small tank, sunken barrel, or similar article, and 
filling it with water. When made and settled it is fit for use for a 
little while,’ but then the supply falls towards the dregs at the 
bottom, and the dregs are accordingly fished up; and thus itis that 
you so often see the pots where liquid-manure is used covered with 
a sediment alike nasty and detrimental to the health of the plants. 
This, and the fact that the tank requires to be cleaned ont frequently 
and waited for till it is settled again, throw a few little awkward- 
nesses in the way of its use which renders liqnid-manure an aid rarely 
resorted to even in many gardens which haye been specially prepared 
for its use. All this would be obviated by making a little tank 
proper for it in the following way :—Let the tank be of slate—it is 
the best, most lasting, and neatest material—oblong in outline, and 
divided into two equal parts with a partition of slatealso. Of course 


Garden Liquid Manure Tank. © 


it may be made of other material if you choose. The lower foot or 
so of this partition should be perforated with holes a few inches 
apart, and eighteen inches of rough gravel thrown in on one side. 
On that place an inch or two of fine gravel, and then the couple of 
barrowfuls of sheep’s droppings, or whatever manure you may use, 
and finally over that pour the water. Thus the liquid will be nicely 
filtered at all times. The supply need not be cut shorb when you 
are putting in fresh droppings; it will be always free from sediment 
and clear. Place the tank in some handy position near the houses, 
or in the frames and pits; surround it with a slight brick wall, and 
cover it with a hinged wooden shutter, to keep out falling leaves, 
&e. ; and liquid-manure will ever afterwards be at your convenience 
at all times. 

One word more: always dilute it well. We once saw a fine batch 
of Chrysanthentums killed by getting a dose of strong -and but 
slightly diluted liquid from the farmyard. The leaves were black 
next day, and the plants dead the following. Let it act as a 
caution. The manure should be as near the colour and clearness of 
bitter ale as possible.—Field. 


SEES ARBOR SUM 


THE MONTEREY CYPRESS. 
(CUPRESSUS MACROCARPA.) 


IT oxserve that Mr. Barron, of Sketty, criticises my remarks 
respecting this lovely evergreen tree, and cautions planters, because 
he himself had induced a gentleman to plant a thousand of it, of 
‘which 999 died, and one only is left, which is doing pretty well. 
This, however, is no reason why others should not be induced to try 
again, as something might be learnt from so great a failure in an 
exposed situation. Mr. Barron does not inform us whether or not 
they were young, free-growing plants from the seed bed, or plants 
transplanted and well hardened, or plants that had been in pots a 
year; or if they had been well staked, mulched, and well protected 
by thickly-planted nurses; or whether or not they had the protection 
of a rough cage with a few stakes and evergreen boughs surrounding 
them till well established, or any other kind of simple defence against 
ae cold blast, without which failure would be pretty sure to take 
place. 

Mr. Barron states that there are some fine specimens of this cypress 
near the sea, which he himself planted. I have observed some fine 
plants of it myself not far from Sketty. That this cypress will 


THE GARDEN. ° 


(Jan, 27, 1872. . 


thrive in an exposed situation I could adduce proofs by the hundred. 
A gentleman who built a nice house near the sea a few years ago in 


“a most exposed situation, said I wish you could give me a list of 


plants which I could place about my house that would withstand the 
driving and cutting winds to which we are subjected. Imadeouta . 
list of such things as I had observed would live and get established, — 
at the same time I cautioned him not to planta tree or shrub, with- 
out well securing them immediately with stakes, mulching them, and 
sheltering them with plenty of common things planted thickly all 
round them as nurses, to be pruned in at first, to give room for the 
principal plants. Then I recommended him from year to year to 
thin gradually till all the nurses could be dispensed with. In such 
situations if people would stick in round about and between such 
plants ag they wish to stand, plenty of large branches of furze, eyer- — 
green boughs, or any comatable materials, using thatched hurdles 
or open rough scantling nailed together as protections, they would 
succeed. Do not attempt to plant without some such defences, and 
do not choose luxuriant, free-growing plants, but rather such as have 
been a good deal exposed, once or twice transplanted, and from poor 
soil. My instructions in the case just alluded to were fully carried 
out, and complete success was the result, so much so that a brother 
of the gentleman just adverted to built a house and asked me to give 
him a list, as he wished to establish some good things, and, as much 
as possible, of an evergreen character. I gave him the names of 
all the things, and more, that [ mentioned in my little statement on 
seaside planting, which Mr. Barron criticises, and amongst them 
Cupressus macrocarpa, a great favourite with most people; this 
succeeded perfectly, but without protection for a time ib would 
not have thriyen. My motto has always been—what you do, do well; 
you then get satisfaction. Indeed, without much care in the way of 
early protection, it is of little use planting good things near the sea. 
In November last, a gentleman, conversing with me, said he was 
pretty nearly tired of planting. He possessed a large extent of 
rough, uncultivated land, and wished to plant a portion yearly, but 
his losses were so extensive in dead plants that out of 100,000 of 
Scotch firs, many thousands of larch, chestnut, ash, and oak, which he 
planted last year, not a thousand were then alive, and those were 
stunted and made no growth. Surely, there must be something 
radically wrong somewhere in such a disastrous case as this. But there 
is besides, I have observed, a large extent of what may be termed 
sticking in of plants, not planting them; how can it be wondered at, 
therefore, that failures take place? JAMES Barnus. 


THE PINE. Z 


Or the many marked adaptations of nature to the mind of man, 
it seems one of the most singular, that trees intended especially for 
the adornment of the wildest mountains should be, in broad outline, 
the most formal of trees. The vine, which is to be the companion 
of man, is waywardly docile in its growth, falling into festoons 
beside his cornfields, or roofing his garden walks, or casting its 
shadow all summer upon his door. Associated always with the trim- 
ness of cultivation, it introduces all possible elements of sweet wild- 
ness. The pine, placed nearly always among scenes disordered and 
desolate, brings into them all possible elements of order and pre- 
cision. Lowland trees may lean to this side and that, though it is 
but a meadow breeze that bends them, ora bank of cowslips from 
which their trunks lean aslope. But let storm and ayalanche do 
their worst, and let the pine find only a ledge of vertical precipice 
to cling to, it will nevertheless grow straight. Thrust a rod from its 
last shoot down the stem; it shall point to the centre of the earth as 
long asthe tree lives. -...  . E 

I wish the reader to fix his attention for a moment on these two 
great characters of the pine, its straightness and rounded perfect- 
ness; both wonderful, and in their issue lovely, though they have 
hitherto prevented the tree from being @vawn. I say, first, its 
straightness. Because we constantly see it in the wildest scenery, 
we are apt to remember only as characteristic examples of it those 
which have been disturbed by violent accident or disease. Of course, 
such instances are frequent. The soil of the pine is subject to con- 
tinual change ; perhaps the rock in which it is rooted splits in frost 
and falls forward, throwing the young stems aslope, or the whole 
mass of earth round it is undermined by rain, or a huge boulder falls 
on its stem from above, and forces it for twenty years to grow with 
weight of a couple of tons growing on its side. Hence, especially 
at edges of loose cliffs, about waterfalls, or at glacier banks, and in 
other places liable to disturbance, the pine may be seen distortedand 
oblique. J 

Other trees, tufting crag or hill, yield to the form and sway of 
the ground, clothe it with soft compliance, are partly its subjects, 
partly its flatterers, partly its comforters. But the pine rises in 
serene resistance, self-contained; nor can I ever without awe stay 
long under a great Alpine cliff, far from all house or work of men, 


Taw, 27, 1872.] ; 


THE GARDEN, 


221 


looking up to its companies of pine, as they stand on the inaccessible 
juts and perilous ledges of the enormous wall, in quiet multitudes, 
each like the shadow of the one beside it—upright, fixed, spectral, 
as troops of zhosts standing on the walls of Hades, not knowing each 
other—dumb for ever. You cannot reach them, cannot cry to them ; 
those trees never heard human voice; they are far above all sound 
but of the winds. No foot ever stirred fallen leaf of theirs. All 
comfortless they stand, between the two eternities of the Vacancy 
and the Rock: yet with such iron will, that the rock itself looks 
bent and shattered beside them—fragile, weak, inconsistent, com- 
pared with their dark energy of delicate life, and monotony of 
enchanted pride :—unnumbered, unconqterable. 

Then note, farther, their perfectness. The impression on most 
people’s minds must haye been received more from pictures than 
reality, so far as I can judge; so ragged they think the pine; whereas 
its chief character in health is green and full roundness. It stands 
compact, like one of its own cones, slightly curved on its sides, 
finished and quaint as a carved tree in some Elizabethan garden; 
and instead of being wild in expression, forms the softest of all 
forest scenery; for other trees show their trunks and twisting 
boughs; but the pine, growing either in luxuriant mass or in happy 
isolation, allows no branch to be seen. Summit behind summit rise 
its pyramidal ranges, or down to the very grass sweep the circlets of 
its boughs ; so that there is nothing but green cone and green carpet. 
Nor is it only softer, but in one sense more cheerful than other 
foliage ; for it casts only a pyramidal shadow. Lowland forest arches 
overhead, and chequers the ground with darkness; but the pine, 
growing in scattered groups, leaves the glades between emerald- 
bright. Its gloom is all its own; narrowing into the sky, it lets the 
sunshine strike down to the dew... . . 
~ And then the third character which I want you to notice in the 
pine is its exquisite fineness. Other trees rise against the sky in dots 
and knots, but this in fringes. . You never see the edges of it, so 
subtle are they; and for this reason—it alone of trees, as far as I 
know, is capable of the fiery change which we saw before had been 
noticed by Shakspeare. When the’sun rises behind a ridge crested 
with pine, provided the ridge be at a distance of about two miles, and 
seen clear, all the trees, for about three or four degrees on each side 
of the sun, become trees of light, seen in clear flame against the 

_ darker sky, and dazzling as the sun itself. I thought at first this 
was owing to the actual lustre of the leaves; but I believe now it is 

- caused by the cloud-dew upon them,—every minutest leaf carrying 
its diamond. It seems as if these trees, living almost among the 
clouds, had caught part of their glory from them; and themselves 
the darkest of vegetation, could yet add splendonr to the sun itself. 
—John Ruskin. 


_ NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Replanting Forest Trees.—I have this winter cut down a planta- 
tion of about ten acres, which I want to replant as soon as possible, and I 
should be obliged if you would inform me what trees would be most suit- 
able. The plantation originally consisted of Scotch and larch firs, with a 
few spruce and oak. All the Scotch and spruce and most of the oaks have 
at different periods been thinned out; of the remainder, the oak is 
decidedly healthier than the larch. The land is about 600 feet above the 
sea, north of the Forth, and the soil is light and not very deep. Shelter 
is much needed, and I am fond of game._ Will the ground be sick of firs, 
and will it be necessary to wait some years before replanting, or can I do 
so next autumn ?—J. M—[The ten acres of ground alluded to, which 
has been cleared of trees, should, if possible, be pastured during the 
coming summer. All loose branches, roots, and long herbage, now upon 
the surface should be burnt during dry weather in March or April, taking 
care to keep the fire away from the existing oaks or othertrees worth 
being preserved. The ground may be planted next fall or winter ; allowing 
the trees to be four feet apart, including the present trees, 2,500 plants will 
be required for each acre :—500 Scotch fir, 250 Austrian pine, 250 Corsican 
pine, 300 larch, 100 spruce, 100 silver fir, 250 sycamore, 100 Norway maple, 
100 beech, 50 elm, 50 ash, 100 Italian poplar—total, 2,150. And for under- 
wood and cover for game :—100 Pinus montana, 50 bay laurels, 50 privets, 
50 red dogwood, 50 Rhamnus Frangula, 50 snowberry—Total, 350. As the 
surface of the ten acres will in all probability be somewhat undulated, 
and portions being more or less dry or damp, it will therefore be necessary 
that the planter use his discretion in fixing on suitable places for each 
variety. the firs may be what is termed “slit” planted, the plants vary- 
ing from ten to fourteen inches in height. The hardwood and cover plants 
should all be “pitted,” and to be three and a half to four feet in height 
when planted, as shelter and cover is speedily required. The land must be 
pretty good, judging from the fact stated that oaks thrive so well upon it.] 

The Woods Alive.—The woods are all alive to one who walks 
through them with his mind in an excited state, and his eyes and ears 
wideopen. The treesare always talking, not merely whispering with 
their leaves (for every tree talks to itself in that way, even when it 
stands alone in the middle of a pasture), but grating their boughs 
against each other, as old horny-handed farmers press thei dry, | 


rustling palms together, dropping a nut or a leaf or a twig, clicking 
to the tap of a woodpecker, or rustling as a squirrel flashes along a 
branch. It was now the season of singing-birds, and the woods were 
haunted with mysterious, tender music. The voices of the birds 
which love the deeper shades of the forest are sadder than those of 
the open fields: these are the nts who have taken the veil, the 
hermits that have hidden themselves away from the world and tell 
their griefs to the infinite listening Silences of the wilderness—for 
the one deep inner silence that Nature breaks with her fitful 
superficial sounds becomes multiplied as the image of a star in 
ruffed waters. Strange! The woods at first convey the impression 
of profound repose, and yet, if yon watch their ways with open 
ear, you find the life which is in them is restless and nervous as that 
of a woman : the little twigs are crossing and twining and separating 
like slender fingers that cannot be still; the stray leaf is to be 
flattened into its place like a truant curl; the limbs sway and twist, 
impatient of their constrained attitude; and the rounded masses of 
foliage swell upward and subside from time to time with long soft 
sighs, and, it may be, the falling of a few rain-drops which had lain 
hidden among the deeper shadows. I pray you, notice, in the sweet 
summer days which will soon see you among the mountains, this 
inward tranquillity that belongs to the heart of the woodland, with 
this nervousness, for I do not know what else to call it, of outer 
movement. One would say, that Nature, like untrained persons, 
could not sit still without nestling about or doing something with her 
limbs or features, and that high breeding was only to be looked for 
in trim gardens, where the soul of the trees is ill at ease perhaps, but 
their manners are unexceptionable, and a rustling branch or leaf 
falling out of season is an indecorum. The real forest is hardly still 
except in the Indian summer; then there is death in the house, and 
they are waiting for the sharp shrunken months to come with white 
raiment for the summer’s burial. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, ETC. 


GARDENERS’ ROYAL BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 


We have great pleasure in announcing that the Rev. Mr. Hole will 
take the chair at the next anniversary dinner of this institution. 
Mr. Hole is the very best-man that could be selected, and we are 
glad to record that the* managers of the Institution have for once 
thought fit to select a chairman who is not a stranger to the art, and 
who has his whole heart in the cause. We think the result will 
prove the wisdom of the course pursued, and look forward for one 
of ‘the most successful anniversaries ever held by the Gardener's 
Royal Benevolent Institution. 


Av the*general meeting of this excellent charity, on the 11th 
inst., six new pensioners were added to the list, one polling the 
extraordinary number of 1,106 votes. The managing committee 
recommended the alteration of the objectionable figure £20 to £30, in 
rule 10, which was agreed to, and seems a step in the right direction. 
Tt would have delighted many if an alteration had taken place in 
rule 8. During the evening it, howeyer, transpired that when the 
funded property amounted to £10,000 (it is now upwards of £8,000) 
the present managers will be ready to recommend that £20, instead 
of as at present £16, a-year should be given to each male pensioner. 
I was agreeably surprised to sce a much greater number of gardeners 
at this meeting than on former occasions; and, from remarks that 
came from a good source, gardeners from certain parts of Middlesex 
and Herts show great interest in, and warm sympathy towards the 
association, the best evidence of which is, that many of them have 
joined it. This indicates a healthy, social tone, and I would say to 
gardeners generally who are not members of this charity, “ Go and 
do likewise ”’—take part in alleviating the distress of indigent gar- 
deners and their widows. I ask you, on behalf of such as are 
unable to help themselves, and if you are in a position to spare a 
guinea a-year, I am sure it will be well bestowed. Those, too, who, 
by the favour of a kind Providence, are in easy or affluent cireum- 
stances, I would remind that for all which they derive in the way of 
enjoyment in their gardens, that ‘which is beautiful to the sight, 
fragrant to the smell—in short, whatever ministers to their luxury, 
their comfort, or their pleasure, they are, in a great measure, 
indebted'to the skill and industry of the gardener. But the result 
of this is often a shattered constitution; therefore, I would say, 
give out of your abundance a donation to this deserving charity. In 
the words of the poet, let me say,— 


Grudge not, ye rich, ye little know the cares, 
The vigilance, the labour, and the skill, 
That day and nigh) are exercised, and hang 
. Upon the ticklish balance of suspense, 
That ye may garnish your profuse regales 
With summer fruits, brought forth by winter suns.” 
A Memeer or top Garpeners’ Roya BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 


222 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 27, 1872, 


THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S SHOW AT 
BIRMINGHAM, 


A PUBLIC MEETING was held in the committee room of the Birmingham 
Town Hall the other day, for the appointment of a local committee, and 
for making other arrangements for 
Royal Horticultural Society in Birmingham in June next. Mr. Alderman 
G. B. Lloyd 


by the Society. 
been held, a large sum had to be raised, in order to put the grounds 
in proper order. ing i 1 i 
instance, for that would he undertaken by Mr. Quilter, and he hoped the 


Society. He trusted that a leading prize of £50/or £100, which had a 
and which would bea novelty, might be 
for successfully carrying out great exhi- 
the town and neigh- 
bourhood acceded to the proposal contained in the resolution they would 
meeting.—Mr. BE. W. 
ought at least to raise in Birmingham as much ag 
sham people. There £700 was raised. 
—Mr. Marshall, one of the deputation from London, said himself and 
Ma. Richards had attended that day, in order to hear the views ef those 
He said, the local prize fund should not be given, if possible, 
for any particular object, as that would interfere with the arrangements of 
the show. If a certain sum of money was placed in the hands of a 
responsible committee, they would be better able to 
prizes than i i 
—Mr. Ri 
South Kensington, to decide upon the question of admission to the show, 


have three single tickets for the first day, and four for the second day; 
would have to discuss that hereafter, as the privilege 
ion of 10s. 6d. a 
I l but not transferable, 
Tickets for the third and fourth days should be sold to 
manufacturers for their work people, in packets of not less than fifty, atva 
reduction of thirty per cent.—In reply toa question, Mr. Richards said 
which he had 
present in embryo only.—Mr. 


had not always been successful.— All the above resolutions were unani- 
of the London and North-Western Rail. 
Witton Bridge for 
At the close of the meeting it was stated 
that upwards of £130 had been subseribed towards the special prize fund 
ee ae Seen 


Not all at once.—tIt is a 
pletion of a country home in 
attractiveness lies, or should 
city home—when once the architect, and plumber, and upholsterer have done 
their work—is in a Sense complete, and the added charms must lie in the genial 


home, the fields, the flowers, the paths, the hundred rural embellishments, may 
be made to develop a constantly E 


This year, a new thicket of shrubbery, or ® new gateway on some foot-path ; 


has advanced one-third. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, 


ROSE-BUDS IN AMERICA. 

FLoweErs, or designs in flowers, says Mr. Peter Henderson, like 
numerous other articles of luxury, unmistakably haye their fashions, 
which originate in large cities, and haye their run there for a year or 
two until the particular desien or particular flower is supplanted by 
others. Ten years ago graceful hanging-baskets were the fashion in 
New York, but after a year or two they were as common in the 
tenement of the mechanic as in the palaces on Fifth Avenue, the 
difference only being in the expense of the materials. Under these 
circumstances they could no longer be fashionable, and rapidly gave 
way to the more expensive rustic stand or Wardian* case, which, 


being less readily imitated by people of limited means, is likely to 


continue longer fashionable. But the yagaries of fashion as to 
particular kinds of flowers are more singular. ‘Twenty years ago 
camellia flowers were retailed at from fifty cents to a dollar each, 
and no piece of flower-work was thought complete without them. 
Now they are at a discount, and donot throughout the season average 
half the just named price. Now, Rose-buds, that then were not 
worth as much by the dozen as ‘a single camellia, are now nearly of 
equal value, and some particular kinds even more so. One of tha 
leading florists in the Broadway informed me that in the week 
ending December 2nd he sold one hundred buds of Maréchal Niel for 
as many dollars, for which he paid the grower fifty dollars. Tea 
Roses are required this season in every basket or bunch of flowers, 
and the bouquet-makers are nearly driven to their wits’ end to get 
them. The fashion for Tea Roses has already spread to the country 
towns, and hardly a day passes that orders are not sent to us that we 
cannot fulfil. Church fairs, which did not formerly inyest in expensive 
and perishable commodities, now find that the Tea Rose-bud for the 
button-hole is sought after by hundreds of purchasers. I was waited 
on, the other day, by the “ flower committee ? for a church fair in 
one of our suburban towns. The first item on their list was three 
hundred Tea Rose-buds. The wholesale price was twelve dollars per 
hundred, yet they were much disappointed that only one hundred, 
instead of three hundred, could be spared. The number of glass 


structures for growing rose-buds in the vicinity of Boston and New 


York, has probably been doubled during the past year, yet the price 
The kinds mainly grown are Céleno 
(carmine-purple) and Safranot (orange-yellow). The Maréchal Niel 
(golden-yellow) and Lamarque (white) are grown, but not so 
extensively as the Tea varieties, 
before they begin to flower, and, being climbers, flower best when 
trained to trellis-work. The large price paid for the buds of the 
former, however, will no doubt stimulate to itsmore general cultiva- 
tion. ; . 
————— eee 

Watural Wreaths for Ladies? Hair.—Those who recommend 
the old but useful Euphorbia jacquiniflora for dressing hair are quite 
right, for it is one of the best subjects that could be grown for that 
purpose, provided a brilliant scarlet is required. We grow it by the 
dozen, especially for furnishing cut flowers for the dinner table, and 
so suitable is it for such purposes that it is really a matter for 
wonder it is not grown yery extensively, instead of being met with 
in a few places only. There is another plant to which attention may 
be profitably directed in common with natural wreaths, and that is 
Astilbe japonica, more commonly known as Spirzea or Hoteia japonica, 
The feathery spikes of flowers of this, notwithstanding their light 
fragile appearance, stand well, and remain fresh for a very consider. 
able period when placed under the most adverse influences, such as a, 
gas-lighted and overheated room. They may, at all events, be 
depended upon for remaining perfectly fresh during the continuance 
of any ordinary ball or entertainment. The colour and character of 
the flowers admit of their being employed in conjunction with those 
of a large number of winter-flowering subjects. The flowers of the 
Euphorbia and Astilbe form most effective combinations either in the 
hair or upon the dinner-table. The two combined, with the addition 
of a few double Russian violets, are most popular here for the little 
glasses placed by the side of each guest. To make the most of the 
Euphorbia, the spike is cut up into lengths of about an inch each, 
and secured to thin strips of wood to keep them steady in the glasses. 
By this means one good spike will serve for filling five or six glasses. 
We of course contrive to place the bottom of the stem so that it 
touches the water; but if it does not the leaves should be removed 
and replaced with a fern-frond or aleaf or two of the Astilbe, as they 
show signs of exhaustion first—A Mead Gardener, in “ Gardeners’ 
Magazine.” , 


as they require greater age 


Jan. 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 993 


~ 


yt 


THE TOWN GARDEN. 


z WALLS VERSUS WIRE FENCES. 

Tue backs and fronts of third-rate houses in many of our 
recently-built streets generally present several kinds of 
objectionable excrescences which need not be. There is, it is 
true, no necessity for introducing at the back the stucco 


balustrading and plaster porticoes, which in the fronts specu- , 


lative builders consider absolutely necessary in order to make 


RB RRBEESH 
gE RBBREE UI 


Back Gardens-as they are. - 

the rapidly run-up structures attractive to the kind of tenants 
they expect to secure. But, on the other hand, there can be 
no necessity whatever for making the backs hideously ugly, 
and, for want of a little architectural skill and discretion, 
thrusting into prominence certain features which ought to be 

as inconspicuous as possible. Neither can there be any 
justifiable pretence for converting the little back gardens into 
a series of wells, by closing them in with nine-inch brick walls 
six or seyen feet high, as is shown in the annexed repre- 
sentation, which embraces a view of the back of one row of 
houses and the front of another row just like it. These 


exhibit want of taste far more than did ever our old- 


fashioned houses, which were at least as good at the back as 
in front, and which pretended to be nothing more than plain 
houses. Times have, however, changed, and now crowded, 
unhealthy piles of- bricks and mortar, covered with plaster, 
are made to assume the character of rows of palaces, and 
have to do duty for the beloved old structures; but what 
shall we say when we see that just as the new times call 
for stucco and balustrading on the front, they also call for, 
or, at least, allow, and that without protest or murmur, 
proportionate degradation of the backs? This must be evident 
to anyone approaching London by rail, from which untidy 
little yards and tottering walls, zigzag roofs, and accumulated 
absurdities are everywhere apparent. People don’t care for 
back gardens, it is said; and why not ? simply because, do 
What one will with them, it_is impossible to make them 
interesting while their surroundings are so uninviting. 

Now, “look on that: picture and on this.” What is the differ- 
ence? In the first place, the latter shows back premises some- 


we 
Back Gardens as they ought to be. 


thing like what they ought to be, with gardens which no one 
need be ashamed to enter. The stifling walls which hemmed 
them in have been removed, and light wire fences put 
-up in their place, admitting of a better circulation of air, 
and, consequently, of better plant-growth. Occupants 
seeing that’ Nature steps in to their aid, take courage, and 


thus, instead of flooded water-barrels and similar drawbacks, 
we get trim beds edged with tiles and with flowers, issuing from 
among a warm, fresh-looking mulching of cocoa-nut refuse. 
The withered shrub from the room-window has grown bright 
again when stuck into the ground. In Victoria-street, West- 
minster, last spring, were two patches of ground, each des- 
tined to bear half-a-dozen houses ; they were wild and open, as 
such plots generally are, and were covered with a vegétation that 
astonished me, being much more robust than that usually met 
With in London gardens. It is evident, therefore, that if air 
and sunlight are freely admitted, good results will speedily 
follow. Even Cupressus Lawsoniana grows up like that in ° 
our illustration, and the tuft of New Zealand flax, which 
was wintered in the entrance hall, now attracts more eyes 
than those of the unlucky wight who once looked” into his 
garden for fresh air. Presently up springs a little portable 
greenhouse, more trees and shrubs are planted, ivy begins to 
creep over the houses, and in time the whole character 
of the place becomes changed for the better. Here we haye a 
chance of inspecting some twenty gardens on each side of us, 
all furnishing matter for emulation, which the close-wall system 
never could haye done. 

Backs of houses, treated in this way, would soon become as 
interesting as the fronts, and even more so—but when will 
builders help us in this matter? ‘They ought to understand 
that making houses more healthy, by being more open at the 
back, will not only attract tenants, but will save the cost of 
the ugly walls, which do harm instead of good. They will find 
that open iron fences between the gardens will be much more 
ornamental than brick walls, and that at a mere fraction of 
the cost. A. Dawson. 


MEMORIAL TO OUR GARDEN-LOVING POET. 


Tue eyer charming and genuine poetry of Cowper teems with 
delightful passages that always seem freshly perfumed with the 
delicate odours of the garden, and rich with the various hues of its 
flowers. We have only to turn to the immortal “Task” to find 
floral portraits touched off with an ease and trath that has never 
been surpassed, if indeed equalled. Who ever painted the spring 
glories of our favourite garden with such accurate and yet poctic 
touches as those in which he describes the laburnum, the syringa, 
the Guelder rose, the lilac? ‘ake first the labuarnum,— 

ag Laburnum, rich 
“ In streaming gold—Syringa, ivory pure.” 
Then comes the Guelder rose, an exquisite picture, dashed off with a 
few touches brilliant as the pen-strokes of Byron. He is contem- 
plating with loving rapture its flower-charged upper branches,— 
Li throwing up into the darkest gloom 

Of neighbouring Cypress, or more sable yew 

Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf 

That the wind severs from the broken wave.” 
Assuredly the true spirit of the nature painter is there. 
genuine poetry of the garden. 

Such happy dashes of the poet’s brush oocur continually in “ The 
Task,” and are ever redolent of the rich shapes and perfumes they 
describe. Southey says, in his admirable life of the poet, “ the best 
didactic poems, when compared with ‘The Task,’ are like forma 1 
garcens in comparison with woodland scenery.” Lovers of gardens 
ouglt to take an especial interest in Cowper, to whose memory 
it is intended to erect a memorial in his native place, Berk- 
hampstead. It is to take the form of a noble stained glass window, 
which, if appropriately designed, will be a suitable tribute to his 
worth and genius, and could not be better placed than in the fine old 
church of the parish of which his father was for many years the 
worthy rector. Cowper himself was born at the Rectory House, 
Berkhampstead, and both his father and mother are buried in 
the chancel of the church. The cost of the memorial is estimated 
at about. £300. Earl Brownlow, the Rev. J. W. Cobb, rector of 
Berkhampstead, and Mr. William Longman, of Ashlynsand Pater- 
noster Row, have formed themselves into a committee for carrying 
ont this proposal, and they trust that public generosity will enable 
them to erect a memorial worthy of its position in the east window of 
the newly-restored church. Contributions will be received by any of 
the committee, or may be paid to the account of the treasurer of the 
Cowper Memorial Fund, at Messrs. Praed’s, 189, Fleet Street, London. 
The following amounts are already promised :— 


Earl Brownlow, £10; Earl Cowper, £10; J. Robinson, Esq., £10; Rey. J. W. 
Cobb, £5; W. Cooper, Esq., £5; Hon. Mrs. Finch, £5; Admiral G. Gambier, 
£5; Miss Gambier, £5; J. Havers, Esq., £5; W. Longman, Esq., £5; Capt. 
Robinson, £5; Miss Robinson, £5; Dean of Westminster, £2. 2s.; Rey. J. and 
Mrs. Hutchinson, £2; Mr. Catherall, £1; Miss Halsey, £1. 


It is the 


224 - 


THE GARDEN. 


(Jan. 27, 1872. - 


THE SIX OF SPADES: 


[We exhume the following charming but, unhappily, unfinished 
story by Mr. Reynolds Hole, from the pages of+the old Ilorist: as a 
tale of gardening and gardeners it is unique, and well deserves to be 
more widely known than it is. | 


My Lord Dufferin, in his “ Letters from High Latitudes,” 
tells the affecting story of a conscientious cock, who, per- 
plexed by the perpetual sunshine, and unable to discharge the 
vocal duties which seemed to ensue therefrom, eventually 
crowed himself mad, and put an end to his existence with his 
own wings, by abruptly flymg into the sea. “As we proceeded 
north,” he writes (the nobleman, not the fowl), “and the nights 
became shorter, the cock we had shipped at Stornaway became 
quite bewildered on the subject of that meteorological pheno- 
menon, the dawn of day. In fact, 1 doubt whether he eyer 
slept for more than five minutes at a stretch, without waking 
up im a state of nervous excitement lest it should be cockcrow. 
At last, when night ceased altogether, his constitution could 
no longer stand the shock. He crowed once or twice sar- 
castically ; then went melancholy mad; finally, taking a 
calenture, he cackled lowly (probably of green fields), and 
leaping overboard, drowned himself!” : 

It is, I say, a sorrowful story, especially when we reflect 
that under happier circumstances, this cock might haye 
reached a good old age, and seen his daughters laying peace- 
fully around him, and his sons a fighing one another like 
anything. : 

Analogously, I go on to consider whatever would becomé of 
us gardeners and florists if we were sentenced to an ever- 
lasting summer, if our conservatories within and our gardens 
without were, day after day, and week upon week, to glow 
with undiminished spendour, and make the air heavy with 
exhaustless odours. Would not our eyes be dazzled into 
weariness, aching and winking, as when in our early youth we 
overdid them with our new kaleidoscope? Would not our 
nostrils finally be enforced to entreat the intervention of our 
forefingers and thumbs, to supplicate the presence of our 
pocket-handkerchief, lest we should die of aromatic pain ? 

Our powers of appreciating the beautiful are finite, soon 
tire, and need repose. What appetites we bring home from 
the loveliest scenery! How thirsty we were at Tintern! 
How we rush from the pre-Raphaelite glories of the exhibition 
to our strawberries and iced cream at Grange’s! How palat- 
able the oysters, how creamy the stout, how delightfully 
appropriate the bread and butter, when we have attended a 
spectacle at the Princess’s ! 

Hence, horticulturally, I can welcome winter with gladness, 
and can thoroughly enjoy its calm repose. TI can, with perfect 
equanimity, bid farewell to my chrysanthemums (though they 
are four feet in diameter), and can pleasantly drink to our 
next merry meeting in the silver cup which they haye won. 
I want no conservatory, gay with camellias, with the Epacris, 
the primula, and the rose; I desire to rest and think. I can 
bide my time, patiently and thankfully, until the spring-light 


wakes my cinerarias to bloom, and bids my hyacinths yield their - 


poesy of fragrance. My appetite craves for no stimulants, and 
asks no artificial food. It desires to say grace, and to rest, 
that it may be hungry again and healthful, when nature shall 
prepare the feast. ; 

Tt ever I grow aweary, aweary of my leaflessness and 
clayitude, good winter hath two ministers, hope and memory, 
who never fail to cheer. I have but to close my eyes, and 
memory displays once more before me those brilliant banks 
of azaleas and rhododendrons which glowed last spring at 
Sydenham and “the Park;” I gaze again upon the grand 
geraniums of Slough; I scent the roses which brightened up 
the square of Hanover, and made the admiring Londoner 
forget his Thames. Or hope speaks musically of the future ; 
points to those dear little cuttings, so bravely upright in their 


tiny thumb pots, so charmingly conceited at having roots of 


their own, and tells of their growth and glory. 

And I never realise more pleasantly, or appreciate more 
gratefully, this welcome rest and happy thoughtfulness of 
winter, than at the meetings of our little society, which we 
call “The Six of Spades.” Come with me, reader, into our 
club-room, and let me introduce you to the members. 


7 


That club-room on this occasion (for we vary our place of 
meeting) is my garden-house, a warm and cosy chamber, I can 
tell you, or what would happen to those seed-bags hanging 
around, or to those tubers of the dahlia, piled, dry and dormant, 
in the background? The adjuncts of the apartment might not, 
perhaps, impress any but a floral mind with an idea of beauty. 
There is a potting-bench beneath the closely-shuttered window, 
with a trowel protruding from such vwell-matured and mellow 


soil, that I have heard my gardener declare it to be “as rich 


as a plum-pudding.” Hard by, two bulky bags of sand from 
Reigate lean lazily against each other, like two aldermen of 
extra corpulence going home after a Lord Mayor’s feast. 


Beyond is a pyramid of boxes, with many a railway label on — ‘ 


their green exteriors, to tell of the anxious miles they have 
travelled with pansies, and carnations, and cut verbenas, and 
roses, and dahlias, in the sunny days that are past. Then 
comes a solid quadrupedal desk, full of catalogues and secre- 
taries’ letters, and “Chronicles” and “ Florists*’ good store. 


Next to it the painter’s studio—a table with pots of green and ~ 


white paint, and neat “tallies,” and slim training sticks, and 
circular wirework, balloons, and baskets of a dozen fanciful 
designs. Upon the whitewashed walls a pair of bellows appear 
to be discoursing with a “ Brown’s fumigator’’ on the 
method of getting rid of aphides. A wrathful canary, roused 
from its slumbers, twitters expostulations from its cage, and 
wishes “The Six of Spades” at Jericho. Above the fireplace is 
a piece of broken looking-glass, before which I once saw an 
under-gardener attempting to shave himself with a new budding- 
kmife, and making such grimaces of direful but unconscious 


est — 


ugliness, as would have established the reputation of a clown — 


for life! On either side of this mirror, but deserving a better 
place, are some of Mr. Andrews’s charming delineations of 
flowers and fruit—amonge the latter a bunch of grapes, once so 
lifelike and luscious ‘to look upon, that they might have beer 
the identical bunch which the American artist painted for his 
mother with such extraordinary power, that the old lady was 
enabled to manufacture from it three bottles and a half of 
most delicious wine; but now sadly disfigured by dust and 


smoke, and rapidly changine their complexion from pale _ 


Musceadines to Black Hamburghs. : 

And now all is in readiness for our conclave, and the 
members of our small society arrive. Before our blazing fire, 
which roars a hearty bass to the mirthful tenor of the kettle, is 
a table for our pipe and glass, behind that table a roomy garden 
seat, which will accommodate four of our party, and on either 
side the fireplace a spacious comfortable chair, the one allotted 
to myself as president, and the other to Mr. Oldacres. 

Mr. Oldacres is the gardener at the castle, and a “ grand old 
gardener,” too, you will admit, as he takes off his overcoat (he 
has walked two miles through the park this winter’s eyening), 
and shows you six feet of humanity, so handsome and so hale 
that you feel proud of belonging to the genus man generally, 
and to the species Englishman particularly. Six feet high 
and straight as a Guardsman, though he has seen the chestnut 
trees of his great avenue in flower for seventy springs, 
Mr. Oldacres is a model of manly beauty, from his neat drab 
gaiters (our ancestors had calves to their legs, and knew it) to 
the crown of his “frosty pow.” Was ever hair so silvery ? 
Was ever neckerchief so snowy white? Was ever face (what 


a razor must he have!) so bright, so smooth, so roseate? Tf — 


the French should ever take possession of this country, and 
compel us to adopt their unpleasant custom of osculating our 
male friends, I should first endeavour to overcome my repug- 
nance by kissing Mr. Oldacres on both cheeks. There is a 
perpetual smile and sunshine on them, and in his clear blue 
eyes, as though he had lived always among things beantiful, 
and their exceeding loveliness had made his heart glad. What 
pyramids of pine-apples, what tons of grapes and figs and 
peaches, what acres of flowers, tender and hardy, those hands 
have tended! The duke, his master, denies him nothing, and 
horticultural novelties and floral rarities (things which you 
and I, my friends, sigh for, and save up for, and speak of with 


“ bated breath,” and possess only in our Midsummer Nights’ ~ 


Dreams), these come to the castle by the boat-load, or travel 
by the rail on trucks! When you see his soil-yard you 
imagine that sappers and miners have been at work for weeks, 
and that an army is about to entrench itself within those 


“ 


Peete ie 2 tee 


/ 


walks. 


- 


Jan. 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


225 


multitudinous earthworks. As for his “ houses ;” houses with 
enormous tanks, wherein the Royal Lily, Victoria, is waited on 


by the beautiful Nympheas; houses for orchids, for New 


Holland plants, for ferns, for fruit, and forcing; his houses of 
every size and style, from the dingy old lean-to, with its 
heavy timbers and its tiny, discoloured panes, to the grand 
conservatory, with its spacious dome, transepts, aisles, broad 
walks, and sparkling fountain; of these there is no time to 
tell. Less need, inasmuch as he, whom I now introduce to 
you, derives not his happiness from his vast material, his 
unlimited privileges and rare resources, but from his own 
good and eratefui heart, which recognizes God’s love and 
power in all the glorious works around him, and sings 
> “Non nobis, Domine, sed Nomini tuo,” 

for all the sweetnesses and joys of life. 

Give the worthy gentleman, for gentleman he is in mind 
and mien, one of those long clean Brosely pipes. ‘“ My dear 
young Marquis,’ he remarks, as he fills and lights it, and the 
pretty little rings of, silvery smoke rise upwards from the 
ample bowl, *‘ My dear young Marquis brought me years ago, 
from Germany, a meerschaum, beautifully carved, in which 
you might almost boil an egg; and my lord in the Guards, and 
my lord at Oxford make me presents from time to time of 
such cigars as I don’t suppose are to be bought for money; 
but my meerschaum goes out, when [ begin to talk, unless I 
suck at its amber mouthpiece like a greedy child at a piece of 
barley-sugar; and the fire of those huge regalias draws so 
near to my nose, that I grow quite afraid of it; and, in short, 
I never enjoy tobacco so muck as when it comes to my lips, 
coolly yet quickly, through these long cleanly tubes, and waits 
for me patiently, as now, through my tedious old man’s 
sentences,” 

You would like to hear him respond, I am sure, when we 


- drink his health as our “ King of Spades,” rapping the table 


with such strong and sudden earnestness as to bring, the 
canary, just hoping to renew his slumbers, very summarily 
off his perch. “ Sixty years ago,” he said in the course of his 
little speech at our last meeting, “I was weeding the castle 
Many and pleasant and prosperous have been my days 
since then; and if I were constrained to begin life anew I 
would ask that it might pass as heretofore. But I have no 
yearnings, though much thankfulness, for the past. There is 
mildew among our roses here, my friends, and bitter frosts, 
and dreary sorrowful storms. I hope that I-do not deceive 
myself in thinking” (and here he spoke with such a sweet 
humility as filled mine eyes with tears) “T trust that I cannot 
be wrong in believing that, year by year, as I grow older, I 
draw nearer to a garden of perfect beauty and eternal rest, a 
garden more glorious than that which Adam lost, the Eden 
and the Paradise of God.” 

There was an interval of thoughtful, healthful silence, after 
Mr. Oldacres had spoken; and we too, my readers, will pause 
here, if you please, before I introduce to you another member 
of our club, whom I hope you may like as much as I do,—my 

R. H. 


_ young friend, Mr. Chiswick, from the hall. Ss. 


(To be continued.) 


French Peasant Fund.—M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in reference to our aid 
to the French Peasants, says: “I mention England first. Her neighbour- 
hood, her many relations with us, her liberal and intelligent practice of 
collective assistance, all mark her place in the first rank. ‘Two great 
societies formed in London took the direction of this propaganda, which 


soon extended over the three kingdoms. Numerous meetings resounded - 


with the warmest expressions, which found an echo in the whole Press. 


How greatly I regret, gentlemen, that I cannot here enter into the details 
of all the genious combinations and persevering efforts of which I was 
the witness or the confidant. Suhscriptions flowed in from all parts, and 
testified both to the wealth and to the munificence of this opulent country. 
What was to be done with these abundant resources ?_ An equitable dis- 
tribution must be made, and personal services completed the work of 
liberality. Delegates offered themselves to visit the ruins of our villages, 
and to distribute assistance to our impoverished agricultural population. 
Brave as soldiers, zealous as missionaries, punctual as accountants, on their 
return they drew up with wonderful accuracy the balance-sheet of this 
new class of commercial transactions, which consists in always giving and 
never receiving back. You all unite with me, gentlemen, in the solemn 
expression of gratitude which I offer in the name of French agriculture 
to so much and sueh generous devotion. As our husbandmen and our 
fields have been its principal object, it is for us to act as the interpreters 
of their gratitude.” 7 


HIDDEN WEALTH. 


WHILE many go to great expense in allowing certain artists 
in plaster to embellish their grounds with huge masses of 
artificial rock, made of old bricks and cement, and while many 
more are satisfied with the old bricks themselves, accompanied 
by clinkers and a great variety of offensive rubbish, very few 
trouble themselves about the rock treasures that often lie 
beneath the sod. Considering the large sums that are spent 
in sham rocks, &c., and the vast superiority in every way of 
natural rock, masses of it are as valuable as golden treasures 
to those who care for the picturesque in garden or park 
scenery. The accompanying illustration gives a feeble notion 
of one of the rocks that a friend of ours has succeeded in 
unearthing. The place originally was somewhat liberally 
embellished with rock on the surface; but our friend is not 
easily satisfied with rocks; in fact, he is like those “boys” 
out West who hunt for gold mines for years at atime. What 
tool he does his “ prospecting’ with, we are not certain; but 
by some means he ascertains the presence of ten feet of sand 
by the side of one huge mass of treasure. Then, by digging 


Unearthed Rocks in a Sussex Garden. 


out a mass of earth, he can form a beautiful gorge between two 
flanks of rock that would reduce the cement-rock artist to 
despair. And by clearing away the earth from the flanks of 
that nose of rock that just projects above a grassy knoll, he 
will discover beautiful wrinkles and other charms in it. Thus 
by a little persevering poking and digging has been produced 
a scene as striking and interesting as many in an alpine 
country, and one which offers such a variety of aspects and 
positions that every kind of hardy plant may be grown on it 
in the best manner, and arranged on it with the happiest effect. 
The subject is of the highest importance to the many who 
have places on a rocky base, who should be glad that this 
most precious stonework may be brought to light, unlike the 


treasures , 
“The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.” 


Soluble Sulphur and Gishurst Compound.—In a recent- 


-number of the Illustration Horticole, it is stated that M. Diricq, 


conductor of the mannfactory of jet, at St. Pierre, near Brussels, is 
offering for sale a new product of special interest to horticulturists, 
namely, sulphur rendered soluble in water ; a solution which is said 
to have been hitherto thought an impossibility. In this shape it is 
recommended as a sovereign application for the destruction of 


| moulds, Oidium, Puccinia, Aicidium, and the whole host of micro- 


scopic fungi; nor are insects and their larve less subject to its 
power; and it is truly added that if its effect is at all equal to that 
of sulphur in powder, it must be regarded as a valuable discovery. 
Tt has been said, “things that are impossible rarely come to pass. 
Here we are fortunate enough to have the exception, not once but 
twice—once, the product M. Diricq has discovered ; and already 
years ago, by the compound with which all horticulturists are now 
familiar under the name of Gishurst Compound, tke discover 
own talented countryman, Mr. Wilson, which is neither more 
than sulphur-soav,—A. M 


y of our 
nor less 


226 


THE GARDEN. 


[Jan. 27, 1872. 


See Eee 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER&* 


Flower Garden and Shrubberies.— While the weather continues 
open and mild, commence pruning and thinning roses, such as the different 
varieties of Provence, moss, hybrid Chinas, and others, leaving perpetuals 
till later in the season. Climbing roses on poles, or against the walls of 
buildings, may also have their shoots thinned out, and if the poles are in 
any way decayed let them be replaced by fresh ones. Get all hardy roses 
planted as soon now as possible, taking care that the situations in which 
they are to be placed, are in good condition to receive them. Standards, 
as soon as planted, should be tied to neat stakes, and their roots should 
be well mulched with rough stable manure. ‘ 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Wall trees, prune and 
nail and free standards from moss, by scraping it off their stems, after- 
wards painting them with thick lime-wash, the unsightly colour of which 
may be toned down by means of soot mixed with it. Where apple trees 
are infested with American blight, the limbs and trunk should be care- 
fully divested of their loose bark, and all places where the insects have 
formed excrescences round Imots, or where they have otherwise secreted 
themselves, should be pared off smooth with a sharp Imife, and dressed 
with a wash, consisting of quicklime, flour of sulphur, and lamp-black. 
It should be applied with a strong painters’ brush.—Fruit trees of all 
kinds still plant where necessary, keeping the roots near the surface and 
mulching with rough dung. Let the pits in which the trees are placed be 
sufficiently large to allow the roots to be spread out in all directions to 
their fullest extent—Currants and gooseberries prune now, and dig, or 
rather fork, the ground over between the rows, giving it a good dressing 
of well-rotted manure, and drawing a little of the surface soil from under 
the bushes, and burying it in the middle.—Raspberries prune and tie.— 
When the weather is wet, prepare pea-sticks, and other litchen garden 
requisites. Dig up or trench all ground, as % gets free from crops. Stir 
the surface between cabbage plants and other winter and spzing greens.— 
Forward a few ash-leaved kidney potatoes in boxes to be planted out here- 
after in borders, and, where there is convenience, a few peas might also 
now be sown on strips of turf, under glass, to be hereafter placed in a row 
along the bottom of some south wall, protecting them a little at first by 
means of spruce fir branches. j 

In-door Plant Department.—Climbers in conservatories, prune, 
cutting back freely all that obstructs light—Plants in bloom must be well 
attended to with water ; use fire-heat as sparmgly as possible, but do not 
allow the temperature to fall below 40°. In-door plants generally, except 
such as are in flower, should be kept rather on the side of dryness at the 
root; but when water is really required, give sufficient to thoroughly 
moisten the ball, applying it in a tepid state, and at this season always in 
the morning.—Introduce into the forcing pit at intervals of about three 
weeks or so, successions of hyacinths and other bulbs, Azaleas, Deutzia 
gracilis, Daphnes, roses, and other things of which there may be a stock. 


—If aphides attack cinerarias or calceolarias, fumigate with tobacco ; and ~ 
examine heaths and similar plants to see that they are not suffering from | 


mildew ; if so, dust immediately with flour of sulphur.—Pelargoniums, 
tie out, and give them a‘r on all favourable occasions. Re-pot such as 
require it in a compost consisting of good, friable, turfy loam, two parts, 
and thoroughly rotted manure and leaf soil one part each, adding silver 
sand, and well draining the pots——Plants in cold pits should be kept.as 
dry as possible, as wet and damp are even more injurious to them than 
frost. Air should be given them by tilting or drawing off the lights every 
mild day, between, say, ten and three o'clock; but they should not be open 
later than the last-named hour, and they should be covered with mats or 
something of a similar character every evening between four and five 
o'clock, if there are any symptoms of freezing. Frequently examine the 
plants, and keep them free from decayed leaves; the surface of the soil 
in the pots should also be kept clear of moss. Watering is a very impor- 
tant point ; at this season scarcely any is required, as the moisture of the 
pit is generally sufficient. What is absolutely needed must be given in the 
SC EnE such pots as show indications of damping, surface with dry 
earth. 

In-door Fruit Department..—Pine-apples intended for starting 
next month, should be kept rather dry, and in a temperature of 65° to 
70°. Keep successions growing on without check.— Peaches and nectarines 
in bloom must have air whenever it can be given, and the temperature 
should not exceed 55°. Disbud sparingly, and fumigate on the first appear- 
ance of green fly—Strawherries, keep near the glass, and endeavour to 
have their flower-stalks a little in advance of the foliage by keeping the 


plants at first starting rather on the side of dryness; let them have air 


on all favourable opportunities.—Harly vinery, keep about 60°, with a 
moist atmosphere, until the vines come into flower, when syringing should 
cease for a time, and the temperature should he increased some ten degrees 
or so. Ventilate every day when the weather will allow the sashes to be 
opened. Pot vines should be liberally supplied with clear manure water 
as soon as the fruit is set. 


The Danger of Gas.—George Johnson, gardener to Mr. Hermitage, 
of West Hill, Wandsworth, has died from the effects of a gas explosion 
which took place in his employer’s house. It was suspected that there 
was a leakage of gas somewhere in one of the rooms, and, in order 
to discover it, Johnson applied a lighted candle to the gaselier, when 
a terriffic explosion took place, rendering him insensible, and burning 
him so much that lris case from the first was pronounced hopeless. 
He died on Thursday week in St. George’s Hospital. ; 


* Complete monthly calendars, written by some of our ablest gardeners are 
published in Taz GaRrpEn in the first issue for each month. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—January 27th. 


Flowers.—Prominent among these Azaleas may be named, both in 
pots and as cut blooms; Acacias; Astilbe (Spireea) japonica ; Begonias; 
Calla zethiopica, cut and in pots; Camellias, cut blooms and in pots; 
Christmas Roses; Cinerarias; Hyacinths; Tulips; Narcissus; Snow- 
drops; and Crocuses ; charming examples of Cyclamen ; Deutzia gracilis, 
one of the best of our little shrubs for forcing; Hcheveria retusa; Hranthis 
hyemalis; several kinds of Heaths; Lily of the Valley; Mignonette ; 
Pelargoniums, both zonale and show varieties im pots and cut; Pomsettias, 
with wonderfully fine scarlet bracts; Primroses, both common and 
Chinese ; cut Roses; eut flowers of Tropolum ; Violets ; and Wallflower. 
Among berry-bearing plants we noticed Solanum and Ardisia, both in 
excellent condition. f i 


Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 1s. to 8s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 100 
Ibs., 60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.— Grapes, per lb., 3s. to $s.— 
Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Spanish Water Melons, each, 2s. to 5s.— 
Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, per dozen, 3s. to 6s.—Pine-apples, 
per lb., 4s. to 8s.— Pomegranates, each, 4d. to 8d. 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Brussels Sprouts, per, half sieve, 2s. to 3s.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, 
per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucambers, each, 
1s. to 2s.—French Beans, new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d.—Horse Radish, per bunch, 3s. to 5s.—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 
—lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushrooms, per pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d. 
—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 9d.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Salsaty, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 3d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s. 3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s. 64.—Shallots, per Ib., 8d.—Spinach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s.— 
Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d. to 6d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d. to 6d. 


Honolulu.—Thisis one of the most charming spots in the world, and 
seems destined by nature for a watering-place. Itis not big enough for 
great mountains, broad rivers, or waterfalls. But the curious volcamic 
craters that partly girdle it give it a weirdness of aspect that males the 
outline of the coast very striking; the thickly-wooded hills of the mterior 
throw out green spurs toward the sea or descend upon dark gorges, and 
the level land is in part a garden already, and only wants culture to become 
one everywhere. Nowhere except in Ceylon have I seen such luxumant 
vegetation, and thé skill of the gardener has done more here than in the 
Indian islands. Every fruit that grows in the warmer parts of Asia finds 
a home in Honolulu; and many glorious Japanese flowers, waxen-leaved 
lies of every hue, and delicate-textured ferns, have already been 
naturalized. Then the climate is delicious. I had expected a moist, 
stifling atmosphere, like that of a hot-house; but the prevailing wind gets 
dried in blowing over the hot volcanic rocks, and the air is as buoyant 
and bracing as in the hill-ranges of Australia. I can imagine Anglo- 
Indians coming here to recruit, though the thermometer never falls below 
65°, and is at times twenty degrees higher. ~ 


Ivy Edgings.—The walls in the kitchen garden here are edged with 
dwart ivy, which is yery much admired by people who come to see our 
place. When first planted, the edgings were only nine inches wide, hut 
now they are from twelve inches to eighteen inches. Twice a year they 
require “ clipping’ with a pair of shears, just as we do grass edgings, and 
the top should be kept level, sometimes with a pair of shears, and some- 
times with a pocket-knife. Iam of opinion that ivy stands the tear and 
wear of a large garden better than box; at any rate, I have found it so. 
Neither do I find that it harbours anything like the amount of slugs which 
pox does; and, added to that, it requires much less labour to keep it im 
order when once it is fairly established. Wor garden walks I have w 
great abhorrence of dead edgings, no matter of what design or material 
they aremade. They might possibly be tolerated in: neighbourhoods like 
that of Wolverhampton, or other “black countries,’ where it is diffieult 
to get vegetation of any sort to thrive; but dead edgings in a garden, 
where there is a pleasant atmosphere, are really too bad.—W, Milles 
Coombe Abbey. » 


Part I. of Taw Garpnn, containing 6 Numbers and wowards of 80 
Illustrations and Plans, is now ready, price 2s., and may be had 
through all booksellers and newsagents, and at the railway stalls. 
Post free from the Office, sent flat between boards, 2s. Gd. 

Readers who may find it dificult to procure the numbers regularly 
through the newsagents or booksellers, ntay have them sent direct 
from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annwm, 9s. 9d. for six months, o7 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. THE GARDEN is sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. All the back numbers of 
Tun Garpen may be obtained from the office, and through all 
booksellers and newsagents. 

AU communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Winiram Ropinson, “Tre GArpen ” Orricr, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring -to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tur PusrisuEr, at the same Address. 


— 


~ 


a 


_ new variety, which otherwise 


-and the blank occasioned by 


-wick in the spring of 1870. 


Fes. 3, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


227 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tre Arr irseELF 1s NaturE.’’—Shakespeare. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


RE-GRAFTING WORTHLESS FRUIT TREES. 


Tue accompanying woodcut clearly illustrates a very excel- 
lent practice which we would highly recommend. Fruits— 
ears in particular—are strangely affected by different soils, 
ocalities, aspects, &e. A f 
fruit may be found to be i 
extremely good in one locality, 
and worthless in others. 
Thus, sometimes after taking 
great care in planting fruit 
frees, and after growing them 
and training them for many 
years, until they have become 
good specimen trees, so far as 
fruit is concerned, they have 
turned out to be but vile cum- 
berers of the ground. Many, 
doubtless, have proved the 
truth of this assertion, and 
yet have hesitated to destroy 
their trees because of the 
beauty of their appearance 


so doing, years being required 
to again refill the space thus 
left bare. The plan now re- 
commended, however, obviates 
all disappointment; and all 
that is necessary to be done is 
to re-graft as our illustration 
indicates. Nothing is simpler 
or more easily accomplished, 
and it is astonishing how 
soon a tree is thus refurnished 
and in full bearing condition 
after being grafted. Some 
forty or fifty handsome pyra- 
midal pear trees about twelve 
feet high were thus cleverly 
manipulated by Mr. Barron, 
in the gardens of the Royal 
Horticultural Society at Chis- 


RRL AL AAA 


The success attending the 
pee has been so great, 
that in two years many of 
these trees presented as hand- 
some an appearance as they 
did before they were grafted. 

The advantages of the pro- 
cess may therefore be summed 
up thus :— : 

1. It enables us within two 
years, or little more, to obtain 
a full sized fruitful tree of a 


Pyramida] Pear 


mene 


could only have been done at the expense of planting and | 
training a young one for ten or twelve years. - 
2. Double grafting on a well-seasoned stock assists the 
fruiting properties of many. shy bearers. 
The method of procedure is simple, and now is the time to 
set_about it. First select sufficient grafts—say, one three 
nches long for each branch of the tree to be operated npon— 


¢ 


Ne 


OO Oe 


and lay them in, in gardening phrase, “by the heels” in some 
border until required. Selecting the scions now will retard 
them and allow the stock to get a little in advance of the graft, 
which is desirable. The stock itself may now be cut back, 7.e., 
-the branches to where it is intended to re-graft them, as shown 
in the representation—the bottom branches—at, say, one foot 
from the stem, and the top ones shorter, so as to gradually 
taper:to two or three inches. Cut off all spurs in the ordinary 
way, to prevent confusion. 


In the beginning of March the grafting may be commenced; 
common cleft or whip grafting being the best. Tie the grafts 
and clay up in the ordinary way. As soon as they seem to 
have fairly “taken,” pay particular attention to their ties, in 
order to see that they do not compress the graft too tightly. 
Furnish each shoot with a firm stake to prevent its being blown 
off, for being exposed to so muchwwind it is apt to be displaced. 
If the scions push away very vigorously it is advisable to 
stop them, so as to enable them to gain strength at the point 
of union. Train and prune 
afterwards as on ordinary 
occasions. - 

We will, inafuture number, 
give a list of pears yery com- 
monly to be found which 
ought in this country to be 
re-grafted. In numerous gar- 
dens much good may be 
effected by re-grafting old 
trees. In fact, there is no 
process more needed in our 
frnit gardens. Pyrvs. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN 
FOR FEBRUARY. 
By WILLIAM TILLERY, Wexpeck. 


Outdoor Fruits.—The pru- 
ning and nailing of wall-trees 
should now be attended to, and 
finished as soon as possible, as 
the blossom-buds of apricots, 
; peaches, and nectarines will be 
; swelling fast, should the present 
open weather continue. The re- 
2 tarding system, where it can be 
3 carried out on these varieties 
} of fruits, often saves the blossoms 
; 

5 
5 


in severe frosts in February or 
March, and from the open nature 
of the winter up till this date 
(January 30) we can hardly expect 
a genial spring. After the very 
intense frosts in December 1860, 
the winter following was very 
open and wet, but sharp frosts 
occurred in the spring months, 
and the fruit-tree blossoms were 
much injured. Weather in sea- 
son will, therefore, always be 
found the best in our climate, 
for there is generally a reaction 
from all temporary excesses in 
temperature or moisture. All 
protecting materials should now 
be got ready for covering apri- 
cots, peaches, and nectarines on 
the walls, as soon as the blossom- 
buds of these trees are in danger. 
The crops of these fruits on the 
open walls were generally light 
last year, the trees will therefore 
be stronger in the wood, bat I 
am afraid not ripened well, owing to the cold, wet autumn. Finish 
the pruning and tying of raspberries, if not already done; the ground 


Tree Re-grafted. 


| should only be lightly dug between the rows, but they will flourish 


with a good amount of rotten manure as a top-dressing. 


Early Vinery.—As soon as the grapes in the early-house are set, 
| thinning must commence before the berries get to the size of small 
> eas. A night temperature from 60° to 65°, with an increase in the 


228 


daytime by sunhem to 75°, will haye to be maintained. The giving 
air to early yineries in February is an operation that must be 
carefully performed, for in frosty, windy weather, the sun often 
comes out hot, and the foliage gets scorched, or injured by cold 
draughts if the air is not given with discrimination. Other late 
vineries must now be prepared for starting to keep up the rotation. 
The late grapes, such as Alicantes, West St. Peter’s, Trebbiano, 
and Lady Downes’s Seedling, will, if cut off and put into bottles of 
water, keep nearly as well as on the vines. The best way to keep 
them is in a room fitted up for the purpose, with wooden racks to 
place the bottoms of the bottles on. Iron rods are stretched on the 
racks, with a small bend every ten inches, in this way, ———-_—, 
for the necks of the bottles to rest in, and the angle must be enough 
for all the bunches to hang clear when they are put in the bottles. 
The Harly Peach House.—The fruit will now be set in the 
earliest house, and syringings morning and evening will be required in 
favourable weather. Attention should likewise be bestowed on the 
thinning of the fruit where they are set thickly, but this rarely 
happens when forcing commences so early. The dis-budding of the 
shoots is a process best performed by taking off only a few of the 
strongest at different times, so as not to give a check to the roots. 
The temperature at night may be maintained at about 60°, witha 
rise to 70° by-day, and by sunheat 6° or 8° higher, Green-fly will 
begin to make its appearance, and the infected shoots must be 
picked off; ut fumigation with tobacco will have to be resorted to 
at the last. The old system of fumigating hot-houses with the 
operator inside the house is now exploded, and it was a cruel 
infliction on young gardeners and others, who could not stand tobacco 
smoke. When a youngster, I was myself, on one particular occasion, 
engaged in the operation, and having stood the smoke as long as 
nature would permit, I shut the door and “bolted,” but was sent back 


again by my master with the consoling remark, that I might ‘‘ gang 


yet to a waur place.” Some of the new patented fumigators are 
very efficient for the purpose, for by making a hole in each door of 
the house for introducing their nozzles in from the outside, the house 
can be soon quite filled with smoke, and kept so for any time 
required. a : 

Fig House.—Figs should be kept well watered and syringed, with 
the night temperature at about 60°. When the young shoots have 
grown to the length of four or five joints, the terminal buds must be 
picked out, to encourage the foymation of a second crop. 

Cherry House.—The temperature must be kept low, from 40° 
to 50°, with plenty of air given on favourable occasions, until the 
fruit is set. After that they will bear more heat, with frequent 
syringings overhead till the fruit colours. 

Strawberries.—Occasional batches will want to be introduced 
into the pits or forcing-houses according to the consumption required. 
When sufficient fruit has been set on a truss, the rest of the blossoms 
should be picked off to strengthen the fruit left on. Liquid manure, 
if used twice a week, will help the fruit to swell, but it must be 
discontinued before the fruit begins to colour. 

Cucumber and Melon House or Pit.—The sun will now be 
more powerful, and therefore more favourable for forcing cucumbers 
and melons. A night temperature of from 60° to 65° is not too much, 
and the day temperature, by sunheat, may range to 80°. Maintain 
plenty of moisture on the pathways and plants, but beware of 
scalding draughts of steam by dashing water on the pipes or flues. 
Another sowing of seed may be made to supply the general stoek 
of plants, for gardeners always find a good’ many friends begeing 
cucumber plants in March and April to plant in their frames: 

Tomatoes.—This excellent fruit, if sown in the beginning of 
February and pushed on in heat, will ripen good crops in pats as 
early as May or June. I find the dwarf Orangefield the best for 
this purpose. The new sorts, the Trophy or General Grant, do not 
fruit so freely, and are later in bearing. 


THE PINERY FOR FEBRUARY. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

At no time throughout the -year must there be any standstill’ 
work in the cultivation and production of this noble frnit, if 
it is intended to have it well finished and in perfection. Suc- 
cession plants should have a little more heat as light inereases. 
A portion of the finest plants should be shifted into the pots in 
which they are intended to be frnited; the bottom heat should be 
seen to, turned, and new materials added, in order to maintain a 
kindly growing root-temperature from 80° to 90°, and the atmo- 
spheri¢ heat should be raised to 65° by the middle of this month, 
still gradually increasing the temperature as March approaches; 
syringe moderately only on very fine, mild, quiet days; and shut up 
soon in the afternoon, charging the atmosphere moderately with 
humidity. Suckers should be taken off old fruiting stools with a 


THE GARDEN. 


. pine grower. 


[Fes. 3, 1872. . 


piece of the old stem attached to them, and potted at once, This 
keeps them firm in the pot, and affords some nourishment. Never 
allow suckers to lie about to dry and harden for weeks, a practice 
which gives a six months’ check in their progress. If succession 
plants are well cultivated, a few months’ luxuriant growth “will 
produce large-and strong suckers, which should be cut off, and 
potted directly the frnit is cut, no matter what time of the season 
that may be. Old and long-producing plants will never ripen off 
good, well-swelled fruit. Of course, suckers taken off throughout 
the winter months do not make so luxuriant, quick growth as those 
taken off from June till October. As to potting or shifting, pines do 
not require such operations being performed so often as old growers 
used to recommend. Large, strong suckers, of course, require to be 
placed in pretty good-sized pots—say, from severto nine inches— 
and then they only need one more shift, and that at once, into their 
fruiting pots. The best fruiting plants should at no season of the 
year be more than from ten to fourteen months of age, or they will 
not produce noble fruit, or swell it to perfection. If any favourite 
variety jis wanted to be much increased, pot the old stools, place 
them in a yery strong heat, and they will afford abundance of 
suckers; at the same time, when the old stalk or stem is pretty 
ripe and firm, as there is at the base of every leaf a bud, those buds 
may be scooped out with a piece of the stem attached, and placed 
in pans, in the}'same way as potatoe sets are treated, covering 
lightly with loamy, sandy soil, and charcoal dust. Set them on a 
kindly bottom heat, and any quantity of plants may be thus 
obtained. Fruiting pine plants require more attention the first three 
months of the year than during the whole year afterwards. Fruit 
now finishing swelling should have water entirely withheld at top, and, 
if possible, be lifted out into a light, airy situation, close to the glass, 
on to a dry shelf or end pipes, &e. They should not be allowed to 
get dry; neither must they be permitted to get in the least degree 
soddened. Systematically apply tepid, clear manure water to the 
roots, and syringe gently the pots and base of the plants; and 


charge the atmosphere with genial humidity, increasing it as the 


days and light get longer and stronger at night to 70°, or a little 
more. Of course, by sunlight and on light daysthe temperature may 
be allowed to run up to from 80° to 90°, admitting air, but by 
all means avoiding draughts. Pine-apples now in bloom require 


particular care in‘maintaining a kindly and rather dry, warm atmo- — 


sphere; but they must, not be allowed to get dry at the roots, or else 
abortion in some shape or other will be the result. After the blossom 
is set—a process which takes but a few days—treat in all respects as 
for fruit swelling, as stated above. Fruiting plants just started, or 
about starting, require nice attention. They should not be allowed 
to get dry at the root, or diminutive growth will take place; syringe 


their base moderately on fine days, charge the atmosphere with a — 


reasonable jamount of humidity ; use a moderate amounu of heat, 
and they will show up, bold, strong, and perfect in shape, and in 
their turn will require the treatment recommended for plants swelling 


fruit, as before described. The next batch of fruiting plants should ~ 


now be collected together, if not already done; the bottom heat 


should be renewed, and other requirements attended to, with an 
increase of heat and humidity ; giving air freely, to give them time 


to start into fruit strongly and boldly. A man who can produce 
good and desirable fruit from January to June in abundance is a real 
As is well known, strict, persevering attention must 
be fully carried out without check or lack, in order to achieve that 


_desideratum. Marly spring and early summer production is always 


of greater value than that of autumn and winter, when pines should 


_be produced only in moderate quantities. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Madresfield Court Grape.—I have to-day cut my last bunch of 
this variety, and from what I now see it has fully borne out the character 
given to it by the Royal Horticultural Society. Mr. 8. Simpson, of Man- 
chester, a very good judge of grapes, assured me a few days ago that a 


_ buneh of this sort, which I gave him, after hanging in a dry place, but 


still moderate in temperature, kept for five or six weeks amongst other 
thin-skinned varieties, and at the end could not be surpassed in flavour. 
T have it very fine in colour and large in the berry. Iam sorry I have 
not more of it, onaccount of its excellent quality. I am devoting a house 
about forty feet by eighteen feet to its cultivation. It has a good consti- 
tution, and I have no hesitation in stating it to be a very desirable variety 
to grow.—JosnrH Mprepitn, Lhe Vineyard, Garston, Liverpool, ‘ 

A New Way to “Make” Fruit-Trees,—A passage in Darwin’s 
“ Naturalist’s Voyage ” (1831), which we met with the other evening, 
shows that the practice for which Mr. Hutchinson, of New Hampton, 


U.S., has lately taken out a patent, or asystem very near it, is common ~ 


in some parts of South America :—‘‘In Chiloe,” says Mr. Darwin, ‘ the 
inhabitants possess a maryellously short method of making an 


~_. pounds.—E7d. André, in L’ Illustration Horticole. 


Fes. 3, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


229 


orchard. At the‘lower part of almost every branch, small, conical, 
brown, wrinkled points project: these are always ready to change 
into roots, as may sometimes be seen, where any mud has been acci- 
dentally splashed against a tree. A branchas thick as aman’s thigh 
is chosen in the early spring, and is cut off just beneath a group of 
these points; all the smaller branches are lopped off, and it is then 
placed about two feet deep in the ground. During the ensuing 
summer the stump throws out long shoots, and sometimes even bears 
fruit. I was shown one which had produced as many as twenty- 
three apples, but this was thought very unusual. In the third 
season the stump is changed (asI have myself seen) into a well- 
wooded tree, loaded with fruit. Anold man near Valdivia illustrated 
his motto, ‘Nesesidad es la mandre del invencion,’ by giving an’ 
account of the several useful things he manufactured from his 
apples. After making cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from 
the refuse a white and finely-flavoured spirit ; by another process he 
procured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. His children 
and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of the year, in his 
orchard.” 


The Inepuisable Strawberry.—M. Mabille, of Limoges (Haute- 
Vienne), has just made a discovery which we consider very important, if 
its results at all correspond to its promises. He has obtained from the 
seed of the strawberry, Ananas du Chili, crossed with the fine English 
variety, Victoria (Trollop’s), a large continuously-bearing strawberry, 
which produces fruit as large as the English or American kinds, and con- 
tinues to bear up to the first frosts. A large variety, said to be con- 
tinuously-bearing, had been already raised (by M. Gloede, I think) but of 
this the leaves alone were “ continuously’? produced. That of M. Mabille, 
which we have ourselves seen and tasted, is quite a different thing. We_ 
‘do not hesitate to strongly recommend it, not only for its intrinsic value, 
but becanse it will, without doubt, prove the parent of large fruited and 
really continuously-bearing yariecties, superior to itself. The general con- 
‘sumption of this excellent fruit is so desirable that we must commend 
every effort to increase it, and render it accessible to all. In connection 
with this subject we have just read the following in the Echo du Parlement 
Belge :—“ Within the last few days an exhibition of strawberries has been 
opened at Boskoop (Holland). One lot, containing fourteen strawberries, 
weighed over a pound.’ This comes very near the “twelve to the 
pound” of M. Mabille. We hope that it may become as excellent and 
productive as the Caprons of the marshes of St. Land, at Angers, which 
we used to purchase at the rate-of twopence halfpenny the basket of five 


Apples and Pears in Orchard Houses.—What does your 
correspondent “ W.” (see p. 188) grow apples for ? Does he do so simply 
for their appearance in the orchard house ? or are they cultivated there 
for what they are worth? If for pleasure only, I have nothing to say to 
those who choose to spend their money in that way; if for profit, does 
not “ W.” very lamely support his advice, to grow them in orchard houses 
when telling us that such delicious apples as the Newtown Pippin may be 
bought for half-a-crown the stone of fourteen pounds? In short, I feel 
certain that if his orchard house apples even exceeded his most 
Sanguine expectations, and he was able to sell them at four times that 
BO, he would be a loser, after deducting interest for outlay, repairs, and 

eterioration, to say nothing about labour. I am, however, ready to 
admit that the larger trees which “ W.’’ proposes are a step in the right 
direction. As regards the culture of pears and apples under glass, may 
I recommend your correspondent who advises us gardeners to grow them 

in that way to pay a little attention to the stupid and benighted market 
gardeners and fruit growers who supply our markets. They are not per- 
plexed with a hundred duties, like the gardener in a private place; 
working on a large scale, and with perhaps not more than half-a-dozen 
subjects to deal with, they can at once test the merit ofa system. Yet, we , 
see no sign of them adopting the wonderful orchard-house plan fer the 
produetion of our commonest hardy fruits. Nevertheless, gentlemen 
are sometimes led by such statements as those of “W.” to adopt these 
fanciful systems of culture, which, however successfully carried out, fall 
short of their sanguine expectations. Then, unlessthe gardener happens 
to be a man.whose abilities are known to be equal to anything that it is 
possible to attain, he is at once set down as incompetent. The fact is, it 
would be absurd to devote any of our precious glass-house space to these 
fruits while other tenderer ones are badly in want of it. So long as 
apples are grown to perfection in many parts of this country, and so long 
as the superb apples of the orchards of the vast American continent can 
besafely and cheaply brought here, it will never pay anybody to grow 
these fruits under glass.—T. BainEs, Southgate. 


Why not cut Grapes when Ripe, and “ Bottle” Them ?— 
Having suffered this last damp autumn through not cutting all our 
grapes when they were ripe, I intend to show your readers how a good 
house of museats was nearly all lost. We have two fine muscat houses 
standing ona very high hill, two hundred yards away from the main 
range of honses.° On one very wet day the men were sent to give the 
vines in these two houses a few cans of water, but, instead of giving the 
quantity ordered, they poured water on the inside border for six hours ; 
and owig to the long level length to which the flue runs, the fire does 
not draw at times. © consequence was, with two or three wet days in 
succession, and the fire almost out, nearly 200 bunches of finely-coloured 

- muscats were almost all spoiled. I am glad to say, the border was not 
watered with my consent; but, nevertheless, the water was applied, and 


tion of our villagers. 


the house was filled with cold, damp moisture. Now, if I had cut eve 
bunch from the vines the first week in October, with “about eight snchiee 
of the stem attached to each bunch, carried them into a dry room, had a 
number of bottles ready filled with clean spring water, and with a little 
charcoal in each bottle to receive the bunches, I feel certain we should 
have had fine muscat grapes until March, and thus have saved all the 
trouble and expense of firing and air giving. Last year we cut the last 
bunch of Mrs. Pince in fine condition on Good Friday, and the last bunch 
of Lady Downes the last week in March. If these two kinds of grapes 
were cut at Christmas, and the stems put in bottles of water, as just 
described, T have no doubt that a great deal of trouble would be saved, 
and the vineries could be filled with plants. The inside border might then 
receive some water, instead of being kept dry all through the winter, as 
most of the inside borders are kept until the soil in two or three years 
time loses all its strength. If, however, such growers as Messrs. Fowler 
and Meredith would give us their experience as to the best way of keeping 
late grapes, it would be a boon to many. But, until I hear of a better 
plan, we shall in future cut all grapes when ripe, put their stems in 
bottles of water, and place them on a shelf in a dry room.—. S. 

_ Fruit Trees for Cottagers.—Many who have the means delight to 
improve the gardens belonging to labourers’ cottages. Iamaboutto build 
several cottages for my workmen, and to give half an acre to cach; can 
you, therefore, kindly tell me where fruit trees, dwarf and suitable for such 


~ gardens, can be obtained at a cheap rate ? [Are the dwarf trees which I see 


advertised in pots, such as apples, pears, peaches, plums, &c., suitable to 
transplant in open gardens for cottagers’ use ?—Jas. Sprorr. [Dwarf 
apples on the paradise stock, and dwarf trées suited for forming neat 
pyramids of almost every kind of hardy fruit, may now be had in most 
nurseries throughout Europe. Those raised in pots are too expensive for 
any but indoor work. ] : 

Reverting to the Original Form.—Those who believe wheat 
will turn into “chess,” have had much to aid them of late. A wonderful 
instance of vegetable transmutation is mentioned by a correspondent of 
the Towa Homestead. A farmer purchased of a tree pedlar fifty different 
varieties of apples for alarge orchard. Ina few years these apples resolved 
themselves into a single kind, neither rare nor of good repute. 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER II. 

Wuen young Mr. Chiswick, the gardener at the Hall, made 
his first appearance in our village, he was generally supposed 
to be an officer of cavalry on leave, or a foreigner of distinction 
on his travels. Great was the surprise accordingly, when, 
coming to church the Sunday after his arrival, he took his place 
with the domestics,and not with the Squire. Nevertheless, 
though he fell in the social scale, he rose in the estima- 
Here was a handsome young fellow, 
with the neatest of moustaches and the trimmest of beards, 
not come to marry Squire Granville’s daughter, and, there- 
fore, no longer a fascinating impossibility to the more humble 
maidens around. Mademoiselle, Lady Constance’s maid, at the 
Castle, immediately traced in Mr. Chiswick’s lineaments a 
striking resemblance to the old French noblesse ; the damsel 
who assisted at Lady Isabel’s toilette, was sure that he had 
been accustomed to the best society; Miss Granville’s atten- 
dant was forcibly reminded of Lord Byron’s “ delightful 
Corsair; ” and all our umarried beauties expressed their true 
commiseration, “that such a pleasant young man should be 
buried alive in that lonely cottage, belonging to the gardens at 
the Hall.” ; 

Thére were dissentient voices, of course. Our young men 
spoke slightingly of “Jews” and “barbers’ blocks.” Mrs. 
Verjuice, the housekeeper at the Grange, declared his “ manners 
was ‘igh, and his appearance ’airy.” And even the mild, kind- 
hearted Mr. Oldacres was reported to have murmured some- 
thing about “a Pomological Puppy,” to have spoken disparag- 
ingly of Mr. Chiswick’s “foliage,” to wit, his moustaches and 
beard, and to have told the Duke’s huntsman, that “he would 
find some excellent covert at the Hall, when he wanted a fox, 
next season.” I think that a little breeze of apprehensive 
jealousy stirred the tranquil waters of that grand old heart. 
Mr. Chiswick had won medals at the London shows; there was 
to be a new orchard house at the Hall (poor Mr. Oldacres had 
only four, well-stocked with fruit-bearing trees); and our King 
of Spades looked sternly (it was but for a moment) from his 
palace upon the modest vinery of Naboth. f 

Now what doyou think that the King’s daughter, at this 
crisis of our history, the Princess Mary of Oldacres, went and 
did? Exactly so; for I know that you have guessed it; she 
did, indeed. “As you, my subtle reader, have well inferred, she 
did not wear her second best bonnet, much less did she distort 


230 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fes. 3, 1872. 


her very lovely. face with unnecessary sniffs and sneers when 
she met the bearded knight, whom the King her father was 
disinclined to honour. The knight fell head over beard (his 
cars were planted out by extensive shrubberies, and so I vary 
the old expression that they may preserve their position of 
retirement)—head over beard in love with the Princess, and 
“Jill” Gf I may apply such a term to royalty)—“ Jill came 
tumbling after.” When Mr. Chiswick got sixty-eight runs 
from his own bat in our annual match with the Slawmey 
Slashers (it is only fair towards our neighbours at Slawmey to 
remark that their best bowler was unable to attend, in con- 
sequence of a very pressing engagement at the treadmill of 
our county jail), and was carried from the wickets upon the 
shoulders of his rejoicing and victorious friends, I saw the 
bright colour rise on Mary’s cheek as yivid as the Poinsettia ; 
and again, when in our contest with the picked eleven from 
Moughboro’ some clumsy ruffian, shying in widely, hit our pet 
batsman on the head, and 
3 “round he spun, and down he fell,” 

I saw poor Mary—indeed I went to tell her that there was no 
serious hurt, having an earnest sympathy with lovers—vainly 
endeavouring to conceal her sore distress, and as white as 
Azalea candidissima, And so it came to pass, on a moonlit 
January night, when, in spite of the Under-whip’s protesta- 
tions, that ‘he never could see the use of them frosses,” the 


Castle Lake had been covered with skaters and spectators ;_ 


it came to pass that Mr. Chiswick, after astonishing every one 
with his “eagles,” and figures, and “ outside edge,” and turning 
about and wheeling about on his skates, as comfortably as the 
celebrated Mr..Crow without them, walked home with Mary 
Oldacres. And he told her, as they walked, his Winter’s Tale. 
He spoke of his loneliness in his cottage-home with so much 
bitter plaint, that you would imagine the Moated Grange of 
Mariana, or the Haunted House, so wondrously described by 
Hood, to have been quite festive residences, halls of dazzling 
light, and abodes of the fairies, when compared with his Den 
of Despair. He described in harrowing terms “the fearful 
sense of desolation which oppressed him, and would, he knew, 
oppress him that very evening, when, alone and dolorous in his 
dreary cave’—(Oh fie, Mr. Chiswick, Mr. Chiswick! how can 
you thus defame your cozy parlour, with its cheerful fire and 
singing kettle? how can you thus ignore your horticultural 
books, your cornet-a-piston, upon which I heard you playing 
but two nights ago, in your divine despair, the melancholy air 
of “Old Dan Tucker’’?)—“ where no sound was to be heard save 
the sorrowful sighing of the wind” (he said nothing about 
the snoring of his small seryant asleep in the contiguous 
kitchen) “and the dismal drip of the rain ” (here Miss Oldacres 
looked up into the cloudless shining heayens, as if wondering 
wherever the rain was to come from), “he should sit, like 
patience on a monument, smiling at grief”’—the monument 
consisting of a very easy chair, and grief being represented by 
a plump little pipe of Bristol bird’s-eye, and a glass of sin and 
water, “hot with.” Finally, this unhappy plaintiff, whom you 
could not have identified with the smiling skater shooting over 
the lake only half-an-hour ago as though hehad backed himself 
to catch an express train, after glancing briefly at the delightful 
privileges of self-destruction, the repose to be found in Yellow 
Fever, and the unspeakable consolation of being killed in 
battle, in cases of severe disappointment, asked Mary Oldacres 
to be his wife; and I am quite sure that the’ bright moon, in 
all her great experience, never looked upon a happier couple as 
they came home, hand in hand, and heart in heart, that 
night, through the silvered grass. Mr. Chiswick returned to 
his “dreary cave,” and evoked unjust suspicions of his 
sobriety in the small seryant by informing her that “life 
was ecstasy, and he should raise her wages;’’ and subse- 
quently proceeded to evoke the sparrows resident in the 
creeping roses outside, with “ Loye’s Young Dream” from 
the cornet. 

You ask, perhaps, at this crisis, with the fast Oxonian in 
the song, “but what will the Old Governor say?” and IT 


must tell you, in answer, that the primary chilliness to which: 


I alluded, soon thawed in the warm bosom of Mr. Oldacres, 
that he made an acquaintance, and then a friendship with Mr. 
Chiswick, and that Romeo knew, when he astonished the 
sparrows, that he had little to fear from Capulct. And this 


unity. 


was so, because the younger man eyer tendered to his senior 
that due respect and deference which is not quite so common 
in these days as it certainly is just and seemly. Mr. Oldacres 
had expected to meet a supercilious dandy, who would sneer at 
his superannuated notions, and would expatiate, in a lansuage 
half Latin and half science, upon the Metaphysics of Botany, 
or some pleasant little theme of that sort. He found, on the 
contrary, a quiet, unassuming, well-informed man, clever, and 
highly educated in his art, but more anxious to listen than to 
speak, as one to whom knowledge was teaching her noblest 
lesson to be awarehow little he knew. ‘Mr. Oldacres,” he - 
thought, “had not the great advantages which were given to 
me in those dear old gardens of the Horticultural Society 
under the wise supervision of ‘the Doctor,’ and yet how much 
have I to learn from one who has spent a long life at work, at 
work upon the best material, and with the most costly tools.” 
And the old man, seeing himself appreciated, was prompt on 
his part to acknowledge the acquirements of his new neighbour, 
to exchange information, and to compare old things with new. 
I met him one morning returning from the Hall gardens, and 
he informed me that ‘Chiswick was a regular conjuror.” 
He had just seen him “tie out” a young Pimelea, recently 
received from the nurseries, and he had made it look worth a 
guinea! And the best of it was;’ he went on to say, “that 
the fellow had no more pride about him than a Dahlia after a 
hard frost,” and when he praised his handiwork, he only said, 
“JT wish you saw William May’s.” teayes 

And thus there arose between these two men, so dissimilar 
in aspect yet so congenial in mind, a sincere regard and amity, 
which deepened into a most true affection, when “the Gar- 
dener’s daughter,” quite as loveable as Mr. Tennyson's, went 
over from the Castle to the Hall, and precocious Chiswicks, as 
time went on, began to drive miniature wheelbarrows between 
Mr. Oldacre’s legs. For the clergyman who made the true 
lovers one was a true prophet when he said, “Thy wife shall 
be the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house;” and who- 
eyer enters that pleasant home, once called the Den of Despair, 
and sees the bright young mother among her laughing little 
ones, beholds the realization of those other gracious words, 
preceding the words which I have quoted, “ O, well is thee, and 
happy shalt thou be!” 

And while the pretty Mrs. Chiswick conducts the nursery 
department, and every year some “ striking novelty” is added 
to her “hardy annuals,” “quite distinct,” and a “decided 
acquisition” in the happy mother’s eyes, her husband is 
making admirable improvements in the spacious gardens of 
the Hall. His predecessor, old Mr. Woodhead, had been a 
hard-working man, and a good gardener as far as he went, but 
‘he was, metaphorically, a slow horse, more adapted for harness 
than for hunting, and when he had reached a certain point in 
horticulture, there he stopped in hopeless immobility, and 
no spurs could induce him to charge another fence. I remem- 
ber, year after year, the same plants in the conseryatory (ah, 
those were merry times for the aphis, “days of strength and 
glory’ for the red spider!) the same designs in the flower 
garden, the same bouquets in the drawing-room, and the same ~ 
fruits and flowers upon the table. I think I see his Cimerarias 
now, with their pointed petals (number unknown) widely 
separated, as though they hated one another. The ladies of 
the Hall were delighted indeed when such flowers as “ Lord 
Stamford” and the “ Scottish Chieftain” (I am speaking of 
favourites in request some sixteen years ago) displaced these 
dingy specimens; and yet more gratified were they, when the 
summer came, and, sitting upon the pretty garden chairs of ~ 
Mr. Chiswick’s design, they saw the beautiful contrasts of ~ 
modern taste, Flora’s bright jewels set in gold and silver 
(* Golden Chain” and ‘‘ Mangle’s Silver”), and set so skilfully 
that, while each separate gem shone in its distinct and glowing 
beauty, the collective whole charmed the eye with a perfect 
“Scarlet and goold, scarlet and goold, Tom Thumb 
and Rugosa Calcy,” had been old Mr. Woodhead’s motto; and 
of those he “bedded out” many thousands, making his 
garden so gorgeous that strange carriage horses, emerging 
from the sombre shrubberies through which you approach 
the house, would actually shy at their sudden splendour ; and 
the vivid brilliancy was so painfully unre lieved and monotonous 
that it seemed almost to burn one’s eyes, ; > 


Fes. 3, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


231 


Mr. Chiswick made a hundred other improvements, of 
which I have no time to tell. That damp shaded corner, 
under the trees of the “ Long Walk,” where nothing seemed 
to flourish but obnoxious fungi (they may have been delicious 
esculents according to the discoveries of modern mycology, 
but they had not an appetizing aspect), became a picturesque 
fernery; the banks ‘of the lake, which had always looked so 
drear and reedy, are now planted with rhododendrons, which 
reflect their glories in the admiring waters when the time of 
flowering comes, and are always beautiful in their glossy sheen ; 
a few trees were felled, and from all the front rooms you can 

_ see through the opening our village church in the distance, 
most striking upon a summer’s eye, when its fine old western 
window blazes and bickers in the setting sun; here is a 
statue of ‘“‘ Contemplation’’ admirably posed, with some dark 
Yews, high and dense, for a background, and giving you at 
once the idea of a place “where ever-musing Melancholy 
dwells; ” there, passing through an arched stone doorway, you 
find yourself suddenly in Switzerland, where you may spend 
a day in admiring those charming little alpine plants nestling 
in the crevices and crannies of the rockwork, and may taste 
the alpine strawberries, if you beers though 1 warn you 
that this Arbutus is “ Unedo,” and that you will not desire to 
repeat the experiment; and, in brief, you will find, wherever 
you go, some pleasant proof of a refined taste and an untiring 

uaindustry. 

our fernemst mention just one more instance, perhaps the most 
Lily ofl, of his improvements—the transformation which he 

lily of the \d in “the stove.” Jt was an awful place, that stove, 

of your rea-eion of King Woodhead: and Mr. Chiswick pretended, 

* recomm merry mood, that, on his first visit, “a mealy bug, of 

presuming. E 3 Z 3 . 
about Cheic stature and ferocious dimensions, had lashed out at 
froma fdike a horse.” Certainly there was more to interest the 


being romologist than the florist in this remarkable collection. I 
ls pose that the Orchids must have flowered at night, for I 


ver saw them emerge by day from their residences of rotten 
ood and moss, where they seemed to exercise unbounded 
ospitality, and to keep open house for the lower orders of 
vermin. ‘There were creepers which declined to creep; sticks 
trained to enormous globes, but-showing no inclination to 
start upon their travels round them; and plants, on the other 
hand, which grew like the fairy’s bean-stalk, Allamandas, for 
instance, stretching their arms all over the place, but of flowers 
“ divil a taste;” there were tall thorny Euphorbias about as 
full of bloom as a hedgehog; there were Begonias with 
great cracks in their giant “ ears,” and places which looked as 
though bitten out by “elephants;” there were Hoyas and 
Stephanotis, whose every leaf called out, in dying pain, for 
“ Gishurst;’’ and all the time these helpless, hopeless invalids 
were insulted and mocked by dirty little “tallies,” who per- 
sisted with bitter irony in calling them “ Bellas,” and “ Splendi- 
dissimas,” “ Magnificas,” “Grandifloras” and “Elegantissimas.” 
When T see the place now, I cannot recall its former appear- 
ance. The Orchids bloom, the Allamandas, the Tpomceas, the 
Dipladenias, the Gloxinias bloom, in all their delicate loveliness ; 
the Hibiscus and Passifloras flower, as they rise in profusion; 
and the plants of variegated foliage, the Alocasia, the Cissus, 
the Croton, are models, both in the healthfulness of their 
growth, and in the symmetrical arrangement thereof. Here 
let us leave, Mr. Chiswick, happily admiring a beautiful 
Caladium argyrites, and pass on to another member of our 
brotherhood. 
_ Ah, mine old acquaintance, the terror of my childhood, the 
enemy of my boyhood, the friend and faithful servant of my 
manhood, are you the next to sit for your portrait? I must 
have a new piece of canvas, and grind some fresh paints, for 
you. : : S. R. H. 
5 (To be continued.) 


To THe Eprror or “THe Garpey.”—I want to tellyou how much 
obliged I am by your exhnmation of “The Six of Spades.” I read 
portions of it when it came out in the old Florist, and often have I 
wondered how and when I might be able to read all the papers 
entire. I felt a peculiar interest in them, because I have been in the 
garden-house at Caunton, the place of meeting of the Six of Spades; 
nay, I have been at one of their meetings, and I can say that the 
heartiness and good fellowship described by Mr. Reynolds Hole was 


‘ 


not in imagination but in living reality. The description of the 
garden-house is literal, and the good cheer provided and dispensed 
so freely by the host was not so in name only, but in solid and enjoy- 
able reality. His old gardener (Mr. Evan Hirst), whom he describes 
so well under the name of Mr. Evan, was a friend of mine. I 
showed chrysanthemums against him at the Nottingham exhibition 
in the same year in which these papers were written, and the silver 
cup that Mr. Reynolds Hole describes that his chrysanthemun® had 
won was the cup he and I anda few others tried for at that exhibition, 
but which he most honourably and honestly won fromus. All things 
considered, you may understand my joy to see that you have deter- 
mined to give us these charming papers again through the medium of 
THE GARDEN.—N. H. Pownat, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Notts. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN FOR FEBRUARY. 
BY T. BAINES, SOUTHGATE, 

Conservatory.—Keep up a succession of blooming plants for 
this structure, by regularly introducing to the forcing-pit or stove 
such plants as are required. Nothing is more useful than the better 
kinds of Ghent Azaleas and hybrid Rhododendrons ; but as regards 
the latter, cave should be taken to select the earliest kinds, such as 
Cancasicum pictum, Cunningham’s White, and similar varieties. A 
few bushy Laurustinus will be found useful. Some also of the 
greenhouse Azaleas ought now to be brought in, using the smaller 
sized plants, or such as it is desirable to grow on to a larger size, 
which, by being started now, will have a much longer season of 
growth than if allowed to come later. Genistas and Acacias, 
especially the old A. armata and Drummondii, are most useful 
flowering plsnts for spring, for they stand cutting well. For scarlet 
flowers during winter and early spring, nothing is more useful than 
the bedding Geranium Vesuvius; it is one of the few that will 
produce its flowers freely in heat, if the plants have been properly 
prepared in autumn. Re-arrange the plants in conseryatories or - 
other show-honses occasionally ; a great deal may be done even with 
the same materials, to avoid that monotony which exists if plants 
similar in size and otherways alike are always to be found in the 
same positions. Place the plants so as to break that regular 
graduating surface which is so objectionable in stages of the old 
construction. There is no plant that stands heading down better 
than the Camellia ; where, therefore, the plants are at all leggy,a 
portion should be headed down each year. The operation should be 
done at once, and the plants allowed to stand in a cool house for a 
month afterwards. If deferred until later in the season, or placed 
at once in heat, they will bleed so as to injure them very much. 
Herbaceous Calceolarias will require potting on. Sow now a little 
seed of Primula and Cineraria for autumn and winter blooming. 

Stoves.—Most of the plants here that have not already been 
potted will require a shift at the end of the month. If the different 
potting materials required for the operation have been got under 
cover as previously advised, they will now be in good order for use, 
but on no account employ any of them—peat, loam, rotten dung, 
or sand—cold from the shed. Let all be placed before using them 
near the hot pipes, or in some other place where they will get 
thoroughly warmed through so as to be of the same temperature 
as that of the house in which the plants to be potted are grown. 
Let such peat, and loam as are used be of the best description, con- 
taining plenty of fibre and not too much decomposed ; if it has been 
stacked sufficiently long to allow the vegetable matter which it 
contains to become dead, that is enongh. I would much rather use 
soil in which the vegetable matter which it contains is not more 
than half dead than employ it when too far gone. It happens 
sometimes that the peat and loam procurable in certain neigh. 
bourhoods are deficient in fibre, in which case it is advisable to 
sift a portion of the earthy matter out of them before using 
them. Large plants of Allamandas, Clerodendrons, Bougainvilleas, 
and Dipladenias, and other occupants of the stove that were dried 
off in the autumn, so as to lose all or the greater portion of their 
leaves, should have half the old soil removed and be replaced in the 
same pots. The plants I havejust enumerated, except the Dipladenias, 
do best in loam well enriched with rotten dung. All the varieties 
of Dipladenia require good peat and sufficient sand to insure porosity. 
Ixoras, Combretums, Gardenias, and other evergreen plants of similar 
character, succeed best in peat, and should not have their roots too 
much disturbed in potting; on the contrary, simply remove a few 
inches of the surface soil and replace it with new material, and in the 
case of young, growing plants it is not advisable to remove any of 
the soil, but to pot on into larger pots. In all cases let the condition 
and quantity of roots that a plant has got determine the size of pot 


232 


THE GARDEN.. 


[Fes. 3, 1872. 


that shall be used; where the roots are healthy and plentiful give a 
liberal shift ; where the reverse is the case it is advisable to return 
the plant to the same or only a very little larger pot. This holds 
good in the case of all plants. Crotons, Dracznas, Palms, and Theo- 
phrastas do best in good strong loam, using plenty of drain- 
age, as these are water-loving plants.. Marantas, Diffenbachias, and 
the larger growing Anthuriums, succeed best in peat. All plants 
(orchids excepted), previous to potting, should receive sufficient 
water to moisten the whole of the ball, so as to obviate the necessity 
of applying water for a short time after potting; this gives any 
roots that have been injured time to heal. Continue to introduce 
into heat such plants as are likely to be required for succession- 
flowering, being careful not to use more warmth than is necessary, 
or weak, flimsy flowers will be the result. : 
Fern House.—The first or second week in this month isa good 
- time to go over ferns, re-potting such as require it and top-dressing 
others, using good peat with a liberal admixture of coal cinders 
broken to (the size of acorns; these are more effectual in keeping 
the soil open than potshreds. All tree ferns grow quickest when 
their stems are syringed once or twice a day during their season of 
growth, but if they are required for the decoration of halls or for 
exhibition at times, it is better not to syringe, as the roots that are 
_ encouraged by syringing receive a check, in which case they had 
better not have existed. Large Gleichenias may be divided, but not 
into small pieces; plants, say in eighteen or twenty inch pots, may 
be divided into two or four. Of all ferns for mixing with flowers, 
either in yases or in bouquets, Gleichenia Spelunce stands pre-eminent. 
Tt will Jast for a week in water. It is not advisable to cut small 
plants; but, when well managed, all the varieties are quick growers, 
and when the plants get large they will bear cutting in moderation 
‘with impunity. In large ferneries, where most things are planted 
out, the selection and planting require judgment, in order that suit- 
able varieties may occupy the positions for which they are best 
_ adapted, studying well what proportions each individual plant is 
likely to attain, quite as much as present effect, otherwise, instead of 
a satisfactory arrangement of these most elegant of vegetable forms, 
a confused jumble will be the result. Another important considera- 
tion is to haye the plants free from insects, such as mealy bug or 
scale, otherwise endless labour will be entailed. Such kinds as 
Adiantum Farleyense and the Gymnogrammas require more heat 
during the winter than the majority of the occupants of the fern 
house, and it is better to remove such kinds for the winter to a little 
warmer house. The fern house during winter ought not to be kept 
at more than 50° night temperature, with a rise of 5° during the day. 
It is a mistake to use too much heat inthe fern house, as it makes its 
inmates so tender that such as are required for cutting flag so as to 
be almost useless, and if the plants are required for decoration else- 
where they suffer as well as become unsightly. As soon as growth 
commences supply them liberally with water. 


Orchids.—Let sufficient of the best fibrous peat, sphagnum, and 
clean crocks of different sizes be prepared for the general potting of 
these plants towards the end of the month. It is-bad practice to 
allow Orchids to remain too long in the same material, for eyen if it 
appears sweet on the surface, it may be sour underneath; in which 
cease the roots will rot as soon as they enter it. At the same time 
Orchids, more than most plants, dislike moving, on account of the 
impossibility of doing it without breaking many of their roots; 
consequently the greatest care ought to be exercised to reduce the 
breakage as much as possible. Do not apply much water for a week 
or two after potting, but increase the temperature 6° or 8°, which 
will help root-action. Use also more atmospheric moisture. For 


Vandas, Saccolabiums, Aecrides, Phalaenopsis, and Angraecums, use . 


sphagnum only, with a liberal admixture of crocks. Cattleyas, 
Leelias, Oncidiums, Hpidendrums, and Odontogiots, thrive best in a 
mixture of peat and sphagnum in equal parts, using for these 
sufficient, say one-sixth, potshreds, broken moderately small. In 
potting, employ sufficient sticks to secure every plant firmly in its 
place; for if left loosely in the pots the young roots emitted suffer 
every time the plants are stirred in cleaning or on other occasions, 
which may necessitate their being moved. Finish every plant off 
by using about half an inch of the surface material considerably 
wetter than the rest; press this down evenly with the hand, and it 
will form a sort of crust to the whole which will not be so easily 
removed with the syringe, and will in some measure prevent insects, 
such as beetles or woodlice, from harbouring in the pots. : 
Hard-wooded Plants,—Bring all tying and training to a close 
as Soon as possible, and prepare for potting all plants that require 
a shift towards the end of the month. Commence first with hord- 
wooded Heaths; half specimens and full-grown plants that require 


more root-room ought to be moved into pots four inches larger than — 


those they at present occupy, for it is not desirable to re-pot these 


plants oftener than can be helped. See that the ball in all cases is 
sufficiently moistened before potting, so that watering may be 


avoided as long as possible after re-potting. Allnewly-potted plants — 


should, therefore, be set at one end of the house, and do not admit 
more air at that end than can be avoided for three weeks or a month, 
keeping, at the same time, the stage damped with the syringe. 
Where there is not the convenience of separate houses for Heaths 
and for other kinds of hard-wooded plants, but where all hayeé to be 
grown together, the Heaths ought as far as possible to be kept at 
one end; at which, except after recent potting, admit more air. 
After the potting of the Heaths is finished, commence with the other 
hard-wooded stock, using peat a little more fibrous, or what is known 
amongst plant-growers as softer, than that which is used for the 
Heaths; operating, in other respects, as recommended for the 
Heaths. Any additions that are intended to be made to the young 
stock of hard-wooded plants ought to be made forthwith, and all 
that require it potted on, giving to such two or three inch larger 
pots, according to the condition of the roots of each individual plant. 
All the plants, young and old, ought to have the potting completed 
as expeditiously as possible after it-is once commenced; as then the 
whole can have what extra attention they require. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Harly Flowers.—lt may interest seme to learn that I haye had 
Triteleia uniflora in full bloom in my conservatory since the middle 
of December: It is extremely delicate and pretty, and des’ 
be better known than it is. It has been figured by the* 

Joseph Paxton, in his Botanical Magazine, yol. xi., * 
under the name of Leucocoryne aliacea, but I consider, 
simply a pale-blue form of the hardy bulb just named. - 
however, altogether a slighter and more delicate habit o1, 
than the common form of Triteleia, and. comes into bloom , 
month earlier than it, as pots of the latter which haye bee 
undisturbed since last season’s flowering are now just coming 
flower. Another most beantiful early blooming bulb for greenh) 
pot culture, but whichis likewise, I believe, perfectly hardy, is ’ 
lovely purple Iris, with a bright golden lip, known to horticnlturi: 
as I. reticulata.—W. H. G., Belgrove, Queenstown, Cork. 

Solomon’s Seal for Forcing.—This is nearly related to the 
lily of the valley, and is also a native of Britain. It used to be 


common in old-fashioned gardens in shrubbery and herbaceous beds; - 


but I am afraid the present bedding system has reduced the stock of this 
as well as of many other useful old plants. Whoever has plenty of it has 
a grand plant for forcing in masses for the conservatory. It does best in 
not less than ten or twelve inch pots. It grows about two feet high, and 
as it has large fleshy roots, care must be taken not to break or bruise them 
in potting.—E. Hoppay, Ramsay Abbey. - 

Plants on Stairecases.—In the subdued light of ordinary staircases 
it is only plants of bold and massive foliage that produce a suitable effect. 
Plants in such situations are generally, on entering the hall, seen with the 
light behind them streaming down from the window on the first landing ; 
in which case, all the foliage, as seen from the hall, appears dark, and the 
form of the foliage, if of a bold character, defines very strilingly against 
the light I have seen very fine artistic effects produced by fine plants 
judiciously placed about staircases and landings, where there is room, 
especially if the space admits of the distribution of the large plants of 
American aloe being so distributed during the winter months, when they 
are taken in for protection, after having done duty during the summer 
months about the lawns and terraces. The stiff and finely formed leaves 
of plants of this, and some other classes which might be named, harmonise 
well with the architectural features, which, in ordinary houses are generally 
somewhat more developed in the hall and staircase than in the other 
parts.—H. N. H. ‘ ; ; ; 


Rose Rendatler Pelargonium.—lt may not be generally known 


what a useful plant this is for winter flowering; its bright pink flowers —- 


are brighter now and of a better shape than they are in summer, and 
‘they are also produced very abundantly. I have a house half full of it, 
that has been a mass of flowers for the last three. months. The cuttings 
were struck late in spring, and grown in the open air in six and eight inch 
pots; not plunged, but placed on bricks, and in September were removed 
to a light, airy house, where the temperature is not allowed to fall below 
40°. ‘The plants are now many of them perfect little specimens, fit fora 
dinner-table, with five or six fully developed trusses on each. I have 
given many other kinds a trial for winter flowering, but never found 
another half so good as Rose Rendatler. ‘This I have grown and watehed 
five or six winters, and it has never failed.— Vm, Taylor. ; 

Lime a Foe to the Camellia.—Ono fact connected with the cultivation of the 
camellia must not be omitted, and it is this: it will not grow in soil from the 
limestone formation; like the rhododendron and othér American plants, it seems 
to abhor lime. In tough fibrous loam from the sandstone formation, taking the 
fine soil out, using it rough and making it as firm as possible in the pots, it will 
grow like a willow; and the same may be said of it in such pplend payor 
as it is—as may be procured upon most parts of Sherwood Forest. This laid w 
for a few months to rot, and then broken up to the size of pigeons’ eggs, an 
the fine soil taken away, isas good a soil as need be used for the plant.—Wotte. 


’ 


Fes. 3, 1872.] 


Dielytra spectabilis.—This beautiful hardy plant, introduced by Mr. 
Fortune some twenty-five years ago, is not only one of the most brilliant 
zens for the herbaceous or mixed border, but it is a grand subject for 
‘oreing for conservatory decoration. All plants that are forced early are 
better for being established in pots some time before they are subjected 
to heat ; therefore, if not potted till late in the autumn, do not push them 
on too eagerly the first season, and after they have done flowering place 
them in a cold pit to finish and mature their growth. The following 
winter they may be had in bloom easily by Christmas. After two or three 
years’ forcing, if any of the plants look weak or spindling, divide the 
roots and plant them out in the reserve border to increase stock, and to 
gain strength for future use. It is a good plan to divide and plant out 
half the stock every year, reserving the strongest for the earliest bloom 
the following season, and potting a like number from the reserve bed to 
force in succession. When blooming is over let them have the same atten- 
tion with watering, &e., till the growth is‘matured; then plunge them ina 
coal-ash bed for the summer; neglect in this particular may injure their 
blooming capabilities for the following winter.—E. Hoxpay, Ramsay Abbey. 

Climbers for a Cool Fernery.—Will you kindly give me the 
names of free-crowing evergreen climbers, to plant in a fernery not arti- 
ficially heated ?>—C. P.——{Tf the fernery be not much shaded, and there 
is no reason why it should be, any admired 4ind of greenhonse climber 
would do in it, from the splendid Tacsonia Van Volxemii to the Lapagerias. 
The hardiest of the passion flowers would do well; so would fuchsias 
trained against the roof, and allowed to hang down. Indeed, a good plan 
would be to use no shading material except that afforded by the climbers, 
which might be allowed to cover the whole of the roof. The climbing 
ferns Lygodiums shoul not be forgotten, nor the creeping fig, so useful 
in the fernery. A very small Japanese form of the creeping fig—a_gem- 
like miniature of the eommon Ficus repens—will prove a great addition to 
our ferneries. We saw it in Mr. Hoge’s gardenat New York last year. | 

Lily of the Valley.—Having rzad the article on the treatment of 
lily of the valley in pots, at page 168’ of Tue Garvey, I beg to ask any 
~of your readers whether they experience any difficulty with plants treated 
as recommended there coming into bloom im autumn? My reason for 
presuming to inquire is because I have seen plants that had been forced 
about Christmas, and treated in a similar manner, throw up flower spikes 
from a few of the plumpest crowns in each pot during autumn, without 
being removed from their summer quarters. Now, without saying whether 
the flowers so thrown up are useful or not, I may just remark, what is no 
doubt well known, that it renders them more or less unsuitable for winter 
flowering.— An Inquirer. ‘ 


—._Plants for a Greenhouse with a North Aspect.—I am very 


desirous to grow a few plants to make a small greenhouse gay during the 
year. The drawback is the aspect—it faces the north. Would you 
kindly favour me with a list of plants which will thrive in the shade na 
greenhouse ?—F’, S.——{ Aspect alone should not defeat you, if the light is 
not much shut out from other causes. Perhaps some of our correspon- 
dents will kindly help you.]  ~ 


\ 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from p. 213.) 

GrartinG under glass requires certain accessories, such as 
pots, composts, mats, screens, canvas, coverings, &c., 
although the stocks grafted are intended for future culture 
in the open air. When the young grafts begin to vege- 
tate, stakes, osiers, and rushes, are indispensable auxiliaries. 
The stakes are made of small branches or twigs of resinous 

trees, or of willow, poplar, chestnut, &e., cut in different 
lengths. These are more manageable than stakes made of 
split wood. ‘They will last for a long time if plunged, when 
fresh cut and prepared, into a bath of dissolved sulphate of 
copper (bluestone), made in the proportion of about one pound 
of the sulphate to four gallons of water. Saplings more or 
less branched will answer for staking young grafts on strong, 
well-grown stocks. ‘These should be treated with sulphate of 
copper like the others. The solution may also be applied 
with advantage to mats, canvas, hot-bed frames, &c., as any- 
thing so treated will be secured from the attacks of insects, 
snails, or other yermin. 

Osters (Salix purpurea or 8. vitellina) are cut in winter 
from pollards. Whey are used, either fresh or dried, for 
fastening stocks or branches to the stakes. They are sorted 
in sizes, tied in bundles, and put ina shady, dry place. They 
should be soaked in water for at least twenty-four hours 
before using. * A 

Rusues (Juncus diffusus and J. glomeratus) are used for 
tying up young herbaceous scions to the stakes. When the 
scion becomes woody, the rushes will not be sufficiently strong, 
and must be replaced by osier twigs, strips of lime bark or 
willow, bast mat, or the leaves of the reed mace and bur 


THE GARDEN. 233 


reed. Rushes are gathered in summer, dried moderately, and 
laid by in a loft. They require to be steeped in water for 
only a few hours before using. 
STOCKS AND SCIONS. 
RAISING THE STOCK. 

First Srace.—The plants intended for stocks are obtained 
cither from seed, layering, or grafting. A sucker does not 
answer so well, as the operation of grafting and its conse- 
quences have a tendency to excite it to produce suckers. 

Sow1ne.—Seeds should be sown as soon as they are ripe :— 
Ist, from April to June; 2nd, from August to October. ‘If it 
is not convenient to sow them immediately, they should be 
placed in a shallow vessel, in alternate layers of seed and 
sandy soil, and laid by in a cellar. When they begin to ger- 
minate, they may be sown in the open air. The soil of the 
seed-bed should be well pulverised and carefully cleaned. 
The seed may be sown either broadcast or in rows, or in holes 
When it is small in size, or near germinating, or when the 
season and the soil are cold, it should be but slightly covered. 
If sown too thickly, the seedlings will be puny; if too thinly, 
they will remain short and sprawling. The vigour of the 
plant and its ultimate destination, Should be taken into 
account. If the sowing has been too thick, it should be judi- 
ciously thinned out insummer. LEarthing up, watering, weed- 
ing, destroying insects, and keeping off birds, are matters 
requiring some attention. 


Layerwe.—This is performed in spring, summer, or autumn, 
with woody or herbaceous branches not separated from the 
parent stem, around which a small trench is dug at a short 
distance. Into this the strong and healthy branches are 
pegged down, then bent abruptly, and the end turned up ver- 
tically, and cut off, so as to leavea couple of eyes above ground. 
The trench is then filled up with good soil. In multiple 
layering, x branch is laid down from the parent stem horizon- 
tally in a trench. This branch should form a number of 
young herbaceous branchlets about three or four inches long. 
Each of these will take root, and in autumn may be cut away 
as a separate plant. Kinds that are slow in sending out roots ° 
should have an ingision made either lengthways or across, 
immediately under an eye on the part that is put under the 
soil. Tender kinds and evergreens should be layered in pots. 
In all modes of layering, the layer should be separated from 
the parent plant as soon as it is well rooted. It is then taken 
up, and planted permanently in the nursery. 


Hittock Layerinc is used for the quince, the Paradise 
and Doucin apples, the plum, the fig, the hazel, &ec. 
The stock is cut down level with the ground; in summer, a 
small mound is raised about it, and the ends of the young 
shoots are pinched, which excites them to throw out a number 
of rootlets. In autumn the mound is cleared away, and the 
young stems which have taken root are separated from the 
stump, and planted out. If a shoot should be badly rooted, it 
should be earthed up again until the following year. Stumps 
may be thus layered every year, or eyery second year. 


Curtixes.—Pieces of branches or of roots, when placed in 
the soil, take root, grow, and form a new plant. These 
pieces, if of branches, should be from ten to sixteen inches 
long, and have one or more eyes, If of roots, they may be 
from two inches to six inches in length. Cuttings of branches 
are planted in spring or in autumn, and at this last season 
should be planted at once, as soon as they are prepared. If 
planted in spring, they should be prepared during the previous 
winter, when they should be cut, andeburied vertically, upside 
down, in a trench deep enough to cover them completely. 
When spring arrives, they are planted out in their natural posi- 
tion, and so as to haye one or two eyes above ground. Kinds 
that are inclined to throw out underground shoots, like the 
Manetti stock, should haye all the eyes removed from the 
part of the cuttings which is buried. A cutting with two 
eyes should be completely buried in the earth in a: vertical 
position. This isa good plan for subjects of a tender kind, 
which do not bear frost well, as the vine and the fig. Instead 
of a shoot, a thick branch or a stem may, in some cases, be 
planted as cuttings, and will take root. The poplar and 
willow succeed in this way. Root cuttings consist of pieces of 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fez. 8, 1872. » 


root from two inches to six inches long. ‘They are planted in 
trenches in a shady place,in such a way thata very small 
portion of each cutting is exposed to the air. Short cuttmegs 
which have not more than a single bud are planted under glass 
in a cool place. Cuttings of evergreens succeed best in this 
way. Transplanting consists in taking up young plants, and 
replanting them in another place for a time, with the view of 
developing the fibrous roots and strengthening the neck of the 
plant. It is chiefly practised with plants raised from seed, 
which are transplanted after the first year’s growth. Seed- 
lings of resmous trees and evergreen shrubs should be trans- 
planted between the middle of August and the end of 
September, or between, March and May. Seedlings of deci- 
duous trees should not be removed until the sap has gone to 
rest, and in their case only cam the stems and roots be cut too 
long. Transplanting is done with a dibble, in rows of about 
eight inches apart, with a distance of four inches at least 
between the plants. After a couple of years, the plant will be 
sufficiently grown to be removed to the nursery or to a per- 
manent position. By planting it at once where it is intended 
to remain, we avoid both the cost and labour of a future 
transplanting and the delay, as well as the chance of failure. 
Careful nursery treatment is almost indispensable for very 
youne subjects, which require continual attention in culture 
and pruning. ; 

Tue Nursery.—This should be in a favourable position, well 
aired, well drained, and having good, easily worked soil. 
Porous soils, which are liable to be always too dry, should be 
avoided if possible, as also should those that are too compact, 
as they retain the water on the surface. As regards the im- 
provement of the soil in a nursery, a mixture of vegetable 
mould is preferable to manure off the dung heap. A tree 
raised in soil richly manured is better than one grown in bad 
soil, but inferior to one grown in good natural soil, composed 
of various elements. The ground is broken up before winter, 
and the soiland compost mixed together in the trench, and 
not deposited in layers. Stones, roots, and weeds are removed. 
When the season for planting arrives, all that has to be done 
is to level down the soil, giving it a second and final turning. 
Although we are not partial to the use of dung-heap manure 
in nurseries, neyertheless, soils of inferior quality must be 
improved by the addition of slowly-decomposing materials, 
which will impart to them the elements im which they are 
deficient, and secure a vigorous growth to the plants. Such 
are road scrapings, deposits of streams, stable refuse, old 
mortar or plaster, garden rubbish, old bones and horns, 
cinders, parings off meadows, sand, &c., all which are to be 
mixed and spread long before the time of plantmg.—Chales 
Baltet. 

(To be continued.) 


AURICULAS FROM SEED. 


_ One frequently hears of want of success in raising’ Auriculas from 
seed, the fault, as a matter of course, being usually laid to the seed. 
It is, perhaps, not generally known, that more than ordinary care is 
necessary to insure success ; and this being the case, a few practical 
hints may be useful to those who take an interest in raising seed- 
lings. _As already stated, Auricula seed is a very presarious crop 
to raise, and much depends on the time of sowing and the treatment 
given. About the middle of January is the best time for sowing. 
The seed should be sown in well-drained pans, using rather a light 
soil, making the surface quite smooth, and distributing the seed very 
regularly ; then pass a little of the soil through a very fine sieve, but 
only just sufficient to cover the seed. The pans should be placed on 
a very gentle bottom-heat, and the soil should be kept moderately 
moist, taking care never to allow it to get either too wet or too 
dry. In about four or five weeks most of the young plants will have 
made their appearance. The pans should then be removed, and the 
young plants hardened off by degrees, very gradually, but still 
keeping them in rather a warm situation till the end of March. 
It will then be necessary to remove them into a cold frame. 
Whenever the weather is favourable, plenty of air should be given, 
and they must be kept shaded from the sun. As soon as the 
plants are large enough, which will be about the end of April, 
the largest of them should be taken and pricked ont into other 
pans, at about twe inches apart. During the summer months they 
should be placed in some shady situation, and kept well watered, 
so as to maintain them in a growing state. By the end of August 


the plants will have made great progress, and many of them, 
especially of the alpine varieties, will again require to be removed ; 
these should now be potted singly into middle sixty-sized pots, and most 
of the stronger ones will flower the following spring, a result which 
plainly shows the great advantage to be derived from this mode of 
raising the seed, which forces every live grain into yegetation in a 
few weeks, whereas by the method generally adopted, without the aid 
of bottom-heat, a great; portion of the seed does not even yegetate 
till the second year, and the weaker seeds seldom vegetate at all.— 
J. Ball, Slough, in “ Florist and Pomologist.” ’ 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE BOTANIC GARDENS IN THE REGENTS PARK. 


Few public gardens were ever made on less favourable ground 
than that of the eighteén acres, the site of the Botanic Gardens 
in the Regent’s Park; and no public garden of the same size has, 
notwithstanding very obvious defects, been more admired for 
the excellence of its design. If we cannot include it im the 
series of articles on the “ Great Gardens of Europe,” commenced 
in our last number, we should find it difficult to name one so 
efficient in preserving the taste for the true art of garden 
designamongus. We have often before spoken of the deceiving 
nature of plans; but we never felt it more than on looking at 
this. The most charming feature of the place is its full, easy 
breadth, notwithstandmg the numerous divisions into which, 
for various purposes, it is cut up; yet no sufficient idea 
of this is to be got from the plan. ‘There is another feature in 
which this garden excels: one, however, of no importance 
to any but public gardens—we mean its fitness for flower 
shows and the reception of crowds. As many as 17,000 
persons have endeavoured to find room on its pleasant little 
lawn; and even now, notwithstanding the many counter attrac- 
tions at Kensington, the Crystal Palace, and elsewhere, it is 
universally admitted that, for arrangement and for securing 
the enjoyment of both visitors and exhibitors, no place as yet 
equals “The Park.” It will be the Society’s own fault if it. 
loses this pre-eminence. Other gardens laid out with the 
same aim are models of what to avoid. ' : 

The central part of the Botanic is a eracetul, free, and 
natural looking scene, the boundary of which is more like 
that of a sweet little vale than of what was once a flat circle 
a little larger than the round pond in Kensington Gardens, and 
now inclosed by a ring fence and wide road. This and other 
parts of these gardens help to teach what would appear to be 
known to but tew—probably because a contrary doctrine is 
practically illustrated by numbers of landscape gardeners—that 
simplicity of treatment, ease of gradation, and a quiet green 
foreground, are the soul of an art on which the beauty of the 
country seats of England so much depends. Such sweeps of 
ground require only the details of the picture to be properly 
worked in, the planting to be as free and varied as the scene, - 
to be delightful to everyone who seeks repose or amusement 
im a garden. x 

The broad walk down the centre of the garden, and which 
might, be avoided in a private place, rather cuts up the scene; 
if the whole surface were green, we know.no spot in a public 
garden which would so well illustrate the wisdom of preserving 
near the house, or chief point of view, an open verdant fore- 
ground, and working in the more ornamental details some little 
distance off, instead of crowding beds and colours all under the 
windows. ee ‘ 

If we next turn to the east side of the gardens, where the 
artificial water is, equally agreeable glimpses are obtained. The 
water itself is well managed. The surrounding slopes and 
banks do not seem to be hybrids between railway banks and 
ditches, as is very often the case, but fall and dip into the 
water as they usually do in nature. The well-planted mound, 
which presents such an agreeable appearance from any part of 
the garden, but particularly from the water side, has been 
formed out of the soil dug from the lake, and is a good example 
of the best course to pursue in the not uncommon case of 
trying {to obtain diversity of surface by using the soil from 
excavations. Muchimprovement might be made in the details 
of the planting, but as a whole the effect is excellent, except 
when the eye takes in the botanical department. ; 


* ‘ - 


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Wem 


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ao" ay 


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ANU AN 


1. South or principal entrance, Diinking Fountain. 
2. Covered seat. 
3. Museum and Lecture Rocm. 
4. Secretary’s Office. 
6. Secretary’s House. 
6. American Garden. 
7. Italian Garden. 
8. Ladies’ Cloak Room. 
9. Retiring Room for Gentlemen. 
9a. Rose Garden. 
10, Napoleon’s Willow. 
11. Exhibition Ground for Fruit. 
12. Exhibition Ground for Plants and Flowers. 
13. Rockwork. 


_ 14. Conservatory. 


15. Flagstaff. 
16. Workshops. 


17. Centre of Garden, 117 ft. above Thames high water. 
18. Victoria House and Propagating Houses. 


_ 19. Refreshment Room. 


20, Reservoir of Water. 
21. Vane. 


THE GARDEN. 


235 


ROYAL BGOTANIC SOCIETY'S GARDENS, REGENT'S PARK. 
REFERENCES TO PLAN. © 


22. Gardener's Office, &e. 
23. Gardener’s Cottage and Workmen's Gate. 


24. British Plants, arranged according to the Linnean Systcm. 


25. Medicinal and Economic plants, arranged according to the Natural 


System. 
26. House for Economic Plants. 


27a. Dicotyledonous Herbaceous Plants, arranged according to the 


Natural System. 

27b. Monocotyledonous Plants, 
System. 

27c. Meteorological Instruments. 


. 28. Hardy Ferns. 


29. Choice Evergreens. 
30. Larger Mound and Ancmometer, 


_ 31. East Gate. 


32. Road leading to Chester Terrace. 

33. Road Leading to York Gate and St. Marylebone Church. 
34. Footpath to Hanover Gate and St. John’s Wood. 

35. North Entrance, under cover, to Conservatory. 

36. Limestone and Fossil Wood from Portland. 

37. Lake. 

38. Orchestra. 


arranged according to the Natural 


236 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fes. 3, 1872. 


= 


This, as usual with botanical departments, is not lovely, and 
there is a considerable portion of ground devoted to it. Such 
arrangements are usually supported by the State or by univer- 
sities; in this case considerable expense and precious space are 
devoted to it by a society. There is probably no garden in 
existence which supplies so many specimens for lecture 
purposes. The greater number of botanical lecturers in London 
Sweep down upon it for specimens. From not one of the insti- 
tutions to which these belong does the Society derive afarthing 
of support; yet such an institution as Trinity College, Dublin, 
maintains at very considerable expense a botanic garden to do 
that for itself which the gardens in the Regent’s Park do 
for the lecturers and students of a number of different bodies. 
The Society, though nominally botanical, exists solely from its 
horticultural attractions ; and, while it is well to do as much as 
possible for science, the wisdom of keeping such a large area 
of the gardens covered with uninviting formal arrangements 
may well be doubted. The specimens for lecturers could be 
grown anywhere; and considering the large space of ground 
at Kew, and the fact that that great institution is supported by 
the State, it surely is the place to furnish the many thousand 
examples required for such purposes in London, and not the 
very small gardens of a society the finances of which are far 
from being in a flourishing, condition. It would, without 
doing away with the hardy plants, be very easy to improve this 
part of the gardens by laying it down in turf, and in a compara- 
tively small group of beds, preserving the finest and most 


. characteristic only of the herbaceous plants. 


The conservatory here is a type of what a conservatory ina 
public garden should be—curyvilinear, with abundant light on all 
sides, and permanently and well constructed. It is on the 
whole much better for growing and showing plants than any 
large conservatory erected near or in London of late years. 
The plan of growing nearly all the important plants for this 
and hke structures in pots and large tubs is a very expensive 
and mistaken one. The best plan is that seen occasionally on the 
Continent—that is, of throwing the whole surface into a minia- 
ture garden of the picturesque style. This can be done with 
perfect success by concealing pillars, roof, and sides with snit- 
able climbers, and by planting out only things of graceful 
habit, like Palms and Dracenas. The planting-out system for 
the conservatory has in this country generally fallen into dis- 
credit, because Acacias and rapid-growing New Holland plants 
were the subjects usually tried. ‘These soon ran up to the top 
of the house, sometimes lifted out the panes of glass, became 
very scrubby underneath, and even less graceful than the 
exhibition of small plants in pots which have supplanted them. 
If the planting-out system were well carried out here, and as 
far as possible in the addition that is now being made, it would 


prove a very beautiful winter garden. At present it, like nearly ' 


all the other great structures in the country, shows that 
we have not yet reached the stage in which we see the 
necessity of studying general effect as well as securing good 
plants. In connection with this subject we may refer to the 
remarks of Mr, Baines and M. André, and we hope soon to 
sate a view showing the effects of a fine house in this 
style. ‘ 

As to the other houses here, little can be said in their favour. 
They are entirely unworthy of a society which should, if any- 
thing, set a good example in plant cultivation and arrangement. 
Tn London some of our most important branches of gardening 
are pursued under such difficulties, that it is far wiser to give 
them upas hopeless. But there is one branch that can be done 
as well in London as anywhere else—the culture of hot- 
house plants of every. type. Our best collections of these 
plants are in London. This is the type of vegetation which 
the Society should take pains to develop. A dozen first-class 
roomy and well filled houses would do much to increase the 


popularity of the gardens. It is the more to be regretted that . 
‘this branch is not attended to, when it is considered that the 


great nurserymen of London are always willing to present 
public gardens with their new plants, so that there would be no 
cost for these. 

Building a number of roomy houses is, however, a mode of 
improvement depending entirely on monetary, not artistic, con- 
siderations, and therefore it is not fair to blame the Society 
for this want. But asmuch improvement is sometimes effected 


by the removal of puerilities, eyesores, and absurdities, as by 
the creation of costly works. Hxamples of. this truth could 
be pointed out in several of our public gardens. Here, for 
example, the small Italian garden, marked 7 in the plan, lying 
between the admirably designed show tent and American 
garden, the “ rockwork” in the British garden, and a peculiar 
variety of succulent house in the medical garden, are among 
the flaws which it would be wise to put out of sight. It is 
almost needless to add what everybody knows that the design’ 
of the gardens is the work of Mr. Robert Marnock. He also 
designed the beautifully-arranged show tent which has enabled 
us all to see and enjoy the delightful assemblage called a 
‘flower show” to the best advantage. The first of its kind, the 
influence of this admirable tent-garden is now everywhere 
extending, and no doubt all our great shows will one day be 
arranged on the same principle. There can beno question that 
it would be very difficult to make more of, or to vary more, such 
a very small space of groundas the site of the Botanic Gardens 
in the Regent’s Park. - 


The Society has recently effected a very desirable improye-~ 


ment in making a new covered entrance to the winter garden 
(see 35 in plan) ; we trust that it may be enabled to effect every 
other change necessary for the continued well-being of the 
gardens, and that it may long remain the most charming and 
popular oasis in our great desert of brick. 


A GOSSIP ABOUT GARDENING.* 
BY ALFRED SMEE, F.R.S. 

Axour two thousand years ago, the great poet Horace said that 
the height of his ambition was to have a garden with a crystal 
stream running through it, and also a small wood. That also is my 
case; and my wish, as I suppose his was, has been gratified. Every 
plant, as most people know, requires light and heat, more or less; 
and unless it has these it will not grow. ‘It would be in vain to try 
to grow the sugar-cane in this climate; it would be equally vain to 
try to grow the geranium in Jamaica. The sugar-cane would not 
have enough heat here, and the geranium would have too much im 
Jamaica, so that in either case the plant would perish. The right 
temperature under which plants will grow must therefore be deter- 
mined. When I was at Florence, I was told Alpine plants would 
not grow there, the climate was too hot. Heat and light mn :tnot only 
be applied to every plant, but the plant must rest, and ther grow, and 
then rest again. Rest is as necessary toa plant as it is to man, 
and many of our plants are not able to be successfully grown because 
we are not able to give them their precise intervals of rest and 
growth as in their native homes. Alpine plants i summer are 
exposed to the full heat of the sun, and in winter they are kept 
warm by a thick covering of snow. But besides’ light and heat, 
there must be at certain times moisture in the a‘r, and unless you 
are acquainted with the proper time to appl: moisture and to 
withhold it, your indoor garden will be a fa.lure. In the case 
of the vine, for example, when the leaves ar expanding a damp 
atmosphere is necessary; as its fruit approaches maturity, the 
atmosphere is gradually dried; and when yerfection is attained, 
we give all the air and light we can, and a much drier atmosphere 
than before. 

Electricity was once thought to exercise considerable influence on 
vegetation, and experiments haye been instituted to ascertain, if 
possible, its effects on growing crops. We see what it will do in the 
violent discharge which takes place ina thunderstorm ; if a tree is 
struck, the lightning goes downit just under the bark, and then 
jumps to the ground where it is wet or damp so that the bark of the 
tree is peeled off ; and this is one of the common effects of an electric 
discharge on a growing tree. I have the figure of one which was 
struck in the grounds of a friend of mine. It stood in a field where 
some hurdles were placed, and the electric discharge could be traced_ 
from the tree to a point where these hurdles entered the ground. 
This may be taken as the effect of lightning upon a tree. Those 
stories which we hear of trees dying because struck by lightning are 
merely fables; and as far as_I have seen, in many instances, the 
effect which is produced is that the bark is thrown off and torn 
and loosened all round the tree. 
effects produced by electricity on the growth of plants, nothing 
is known, and in my opinion it has no important effect on vegetation 
at all. ‘ . 

We know how to grow our plants; but how are we to obtain 
them? In the first place, from seeds. But what do we thus obtain 2 
A plant of a like species to that from which the seed came. Of a 


* Abstract of a Lecture delivered impromptu at the London Institution. 


With regard to the immediate © 


Fes. 3, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


237 


like species, but likely to vary somewhat. There are certain limits 

to variation, but those limits are marked. Take the wild crab, 
which is so acrid that you cannot eat it, compare that with the 
ribston pippin. There is a wide difference between them, ‘but 
within the limit of variation. Take a wild pear, compare that with 
the delicious pear of the present day, and the variation is enormous, 
yet it is within the limit of variation, and horticulturists have 
never found that one species transforms itself into another. But 
how shall we propagate such improyed varieties as turn up by acci- 
dent or by means of high cultivation? In the first place, it may be 
done by layering, by which we get a part of the original plant with 
roots of its own, or by grafting, in which, to be successful, you 
must bring the new wood of the one against the new wood of the 
other. By this process we multiply any trees that we like upon 
another stock. 

Again, the same individual may be propagated by cuttings, by divi- 
sion of bulbs, or by that of roots. In short, the point is this: When 
we want to preserve any particular variety, we must not resort to seed, 
which may give us a plant different from the parent. Now, haying 
considered the chief points upon which horticultural operations are 
based, I should like, in imagination, to take you round my garden ; 
and first, as to vegetables. You know it has been said that more 
people have perished from want of vegetablefood than have ever perished 
in battle. Therefore, what vegetables should we grow? To my 
mind, the king of vegetables is the watercress. To have it at its 
best, it must be grown in a pure stream, which ought to come from 
the depths of the earth at the temperature of 52°, and then ought 
to run over a clean pebbly bed. To start, you take a handful of 
watercresses and put a stone upon them, then another, and so on, until 
yon haye covered the space on which you want them to grow; and 
then, if you pick them fresh from the brook, they are one of the 
most wholesome vegetables which the country can afford. But you 
often see them grown upon the verge of sewage beds; and then con- 
sequences may arise from eating them which are too serious to 
contemplate. You have heard of the terrors of the tape-worm ; you 
know that it may consist of two or three hundred joints, and that 
each of these may contain about thirty thousandova. If you consider 
that these are common in the sewage beds, and that they are so 
distributed to the watercress plant, and if you consider that they 
are thus taken into the animal.economy, you may judge the danger 
there is in using watercresses, and the necessity for preventing their 
sale undersuch circumstances. Whenthey aresoldinthe neighbourhoods 
of large towns, the danger is much greater than those who eat them 
are aware of. We cannot all, perhaps, get perfectly pure and fresh 
watercresses, but I can. My crystal brook comes to my aid. How- 
ever, mustard is always at hand. In the shops we buy what is called 
mustard; but we get rape. These are much alike; but there is a 
difference in their quality. I will not, however, detain you with 
salad plants; but I wish to say a word about absinthe, which is a 
dangerous plant. Absinthe is now drunk enormously in Paris, and 
I have consulted medical practitioners in France, who say that many 
brain diseases and epileptic fits are produced by taking this pernicious 
herb. Therefore, if you have it, have it merely to show persons, 
that they may not introduce it into this country. 

From vegetables let us pass to fruit-trees. I have already told 
you that apples are mere yarieties of the wild crab. But these 
varieties are very numerous; I have myself more than three 

. hundred kinds. Now, with good management, we ought to have an 
apple for every day in the year. You begin with a little apple that 
ripens in July. You go on step by step until you have apples 
ripening at Christmas. You go on again until March, and then youstill 
have apples—for there are some which do not become ripe until 
March—and we finish off with the French crab in June, which is not 
only in perfection then, but will last over a second year; and so, by 
a little careful adjustment we may have not only culinary, but also 
eating apples all the year round. About from thirty to forty kinds 
are amply sufficient for this purpose. Then we come to the pear; 
but pears are either very fine or very bad, and we must make a much 
more careful selection. If we begin by the end of July with a small 
early pear, and go on from one to another, we can have fruit well 
into the winter. ‘‘ He who grows pears grows for his heirs,” is an 
old saying. Virgil says, “ Plant pears and thy posterity shall gather 
the fruit.” But we know now how to get them much sooner. We 
cut off the shoot of a pear,and “plant” it uponaquince. By grafting 
in this way we render the pear tree fertile, and then in a year or 
two we get fruit which we might have had to wait twenty years for 
if the tree had been grown in the ordinary way. It is to be observed 
that the quince stock should be cut off close to the ground, not 
under the ground, or else the pear will throw out roots, and you will 
be no better off thanif you had planted the pear treeitself. Having 
planted our pear trees, we must train them in a particular way. 
We therefore cut the branches into the form of a pyramid, as near 


as may be, to look like a Jack-in-the-Green. Every branch is thus 
exposed to the sun and light, and upon every branch there we get 
pears. We pass now from pears to plums, and from those to grape 
vines, and on to nut trees, where you must notice the two blossoms, 
one, the catkins, being the male, which comes ont early in January 
and February. The female is a little red flower, which is overlooked 
by most people; but I need scarcely say that both males and females 
must be present in our plantations, or there will be few nuts. 

As for plants, Iam, like everbody else, a lover of ferns. Fern roots 
do not like to be soddened in water and do not like to be dry ; now 
you must find the happy medium. They should be never dry, ever 
moist, and yet neither too dry nor too moist. The best way to 
manage that is to plant them upona bank. And what happens ? 
There is always moisture draining through the earth, and the wet is 
always running away from the roots, and if you plant them in that 
way you will have as luxuriant specimens as are to be seen any- 
where. Now ferns, you know, as a rule like a little shade, not too 
much however. There are some which will bear the full blaze of the 
sun. The Osmunda regalis and several other ferns bear well 
the light of the sun, but next in order we come to those delicate 
ferns which will not bear so much light, and these we must put in 
another situation. I have never succeeded in growing the fern of 
Tunbridge Wells, out of doors. It is most delicate, and is altogether 
a most charming plant. But the way I can manage, with most 
perfect success, is to bury in the ground a little square box, put in 
the fern, and then put a piece of glass over it; that is sufficient to 
protect it from the wind and to keep up a continual moisture, and it 
never gets materially frozen, and so, many of these tender ferns may 
be grown in perfection. I have grown in this way that wonderful 
fern which was discovered by Captain Cook in New Zealand, the 
Todea superba; so you will see what may be done by a simple protec- 
tion of glass. Sometimes we adopt other plans, we make a little 
pocket for the plant by putting two or three stones round it in a little 
hole, and so it has the advantage of full light and air and yet is 
protected. There are many exotic ferns, however, which will grow 
out of doors as well as the English ferns, but we carry their outward 
growth to a greater extent by housing some of the delicate ones in 
the winter and putting them out of doors in the summer. In this 
way the large tree ferns will grow, and show their forms remarkably 
well. To go into my fernery in winter when all there is beautiful 
and green, and then to come out and regard the snow and ice, and 
naked trees, is an effect which is as remarkable as it is beautiful. 
Of alpine flowers I have many hundreds. They can be grown with 
perfect success on one condition, that you allow no one to dig amongst 
them, and that you leave them carefully alone as soon as they are 
established. I know of no greater pleasure than to select your 
flowers on the mountain and bring them home to plant in your 
garden, and then to see them as reminiscences of the beautiful 
scenes you haye before seen. My alpinery is a very delightful place 
tome. I always go there to see what flower is out; the last was the 
Lily of the Field of the Bible. Then there are the Saxifrages, and 
the Grass of Parnassus, which was thought so beautiful as to be dedi- 
cated to the Muses. Then there is another plant in the alpinery 
which I must*notice, the Linnza borealis. It is the smallest of all 
the honeysuckles, and that great naturalist, Linnaus, chose it as a 
type of himself, because it had so lowly an origin. He obtained per- 
mission to use it as his coat of arms. It is a very scarce plant, and 
I can hardly describe the pleasure I have found in secing it in a 
wood in Aberdeenshire. We are not restricted to foreign plants, 
our very woods and fields are beautiful with flowers. There is no 
more beautiful plant than the marsh marigold; to see it growing in 
spring, is a sight not to.be forgotten. Its perfection of form renders 
it a plant which is one of the beauties of our streams. The purple 
loose-strife which grows by the banks of the Thames renders them a 
perfect flower garden. When we find the wild digitalis, the wild 
violet, the wild honeysuckle, and. many other plants, we may say there 
is a beautiful flower garden in our woods. I was never more struck 
than when I saw some drawings of some wild flowers; I found that 
we had pnt aside for our garden flowers others which had higher 
claims. The time has nearly run out, but am I not to speak of my 
orchids, my bees, and my flies? Am I not to speak of the man 
orchid, which looks as though a little man were dangling from the 
flower? This is to be found within a few miles of London. The 
curious fly orchid is not far off and must not be forgotten. The dove 
orchid has in its flower a figure of a dove, spotless as ivory. It is 
looked upon with considerable superstition by the Spaniards in 
Central America where it grows. I cannot describe the many 
beauties we grow, and it would take much longer to describe the 
plants. A garden must ever be a source of pleasure to a man : it 
helps him over his troubles, soothes his nervous system, and carries 
his mind from the beautiful things which grow there to the Author 
and Designer of them all. . 


938 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 3, 1872. 


TWH SLOWERCRRDEN 


ROSES AND ROSE CULTURE. 


Burorz I continue my catalogue of those roses which I - 
have proved to be the most vigorous in constitution, and which 
I specially commend to the young rosarian as most likely, from 
their “ staying qualities,’ to encourage and extend his ambition, 
T must reply to the in- 
quiries and observations 
of my friend Mr. Fish 


the daughter to the mother (an infirmity common to man), 
but, in his enthusiastic admiration of the older variety, he decries 
and disparages the new. Let me say, that I only passed over 
Devoniensis senior because the list which I am giving in 
Tur GarpeEn is restricted to roses which are perfectly hardy ; 
that I quite agree with him that there is nothing lovelier than 
this variety in its most perfect phase; and that if any eminent 
composer will prepare a duet im its praise for myself and 
Mr. Fish, to sing at the next congress or conversazione of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, I will endeavour to learn my 
part. 
But he is mistaken about the daughter. He can never have 
seen it, as I and others have grown it, upon the hybrid Bourbon 
(Céline) stock sixteen feet 
in height, and bearing an 
- abundance of roses, quite 
as beautiful as the paren- 


(p. 203), concerning cer- 


tain varieties already 
noticed and commended. 

To hold conyerse with 
-such a congenial spirit 
must always be to mea 
happy employment, and 

it is so more particularly 

on the present occasion, 
because I venture to 

hope that some readers 

of Tur GARDEN may be 
interested in the discus- 

sion of two veteran flo- 
rists,— 

Arcades ambo, 
Bt cantare pares et respondere 
parati,— 

may perhaps learn sonte- 

thing from our experi- 
ence, and be induced to 
communicate their own. 

With regard, in the 

first place, to Souvenir 

de la Malmaison, of which 

Mr. Fish complains that, 

out of doors it is so hard- 
hearted and unsatisfac- 

tory, that he has almost 
given up growing it, I | 
most earnestly say to 

him, as Punch to persons 
about to marry, ‘ Don’t.” 
Because, although it 
rarely succeeds at all, 

and is short-lived at best, 

upon the briar, and al- 
though in a cold or wet 
summer its first buds are ee 
deformed and decayed, it 
rarely fails when once 
thoroughly established - 
upon its own roots (in 


» 
Yueca pendula, 


tal flower. It is, as he 
says, too delicate for out- 
door cultivation; and yet — 
I still possess upon a 
_ wall one of the original 
_ trees sent to me by Mr. 
~ Curtis, of the Deyon 
Nursery, Torquay. The 
proper place for Climbing 
Devyoniensis is in a rose 
house, and then, carefull 
treated, it is, in April, 
exquisite. Why they who 
grow flowers for the Lon- 
don market have not cul- 
tivated this rose more 
extensively I am ata loss 
to know, unless its blooms 
are too large for the but- 
ton-hole. 
On the the third count 
I must plead guilty. I 
did not express myself 
adequatelyas tosoil. The 
sentence should have 
been, “ A mellow loam in 
which, when it has been 
double dug, a walking- 
stick may he readily 
pushed into it up to the 
handle.” His comments 
are perfectly just upon 
the remark as it stood, 
and I correct my error 
with apologies and 
thanks. Z 
And now I must con- 
clude my list of weather- 
proof roses, too few in 
number, ere the time of 
planting be past. 
S. Ruynoxps Hote. 


no other form will it pros- 
per continuously) to pro- 
duce in the later summer, 
and especially in the : 
autumn, its lovely roses. Being, like all Bourbons, of tender 
constitution, it must have a good warm overcoat of farmyard 
manure put on towards the end of November, and then, though 
the upper shoots may be blackened by frost, it will come out in 
force from the rootsin spring, Again and again I have cut away 
in Marchthe dead wood from this ancient stump, until nothing 
was to be seen above ground ; but soon the new growth began to 
break, like heads of asparagus, around; and, as I stated before, 
plants purchased and planted in 1846 still continue to yield 
beautiful roses in our cold Nottinghamshire clay. And I ihe 
but three more words to say on this subject to my friend, or 
to any other brother rosarian,—* Come and see.” 

In the next place, and with reference to the two Devoniensis, 
mere et fille, my good brother not only accuses me of prefering 


YUCCA PENDULA. 


THis is one of the very 
best species of the genus, considering its graceful and noble habit 
simply invaluable in every garden. It grows about six and a 
half feet high, the leayes being at first erect, and of sea-sreen 
colour, afterwards becoming reflexed, and changing to a deep 
green. Old and well-established plants of it standing alone on 
the grass are pictures of grace and symmetry, from the lower 
leayes which sweep the ground to the central ones that point 
up as straight as a needle. It is amusing to think of people 
putting tender plants in the open air, and running with sheets 
to protect them from the cold and rain of carly summer and 
autumn, while perhaps not a good specimen of this fine thing is to 
be seen in the place. There is no plant more suited for planting 
between and associating with flower-beds, for isolation or cold 
groups, on the turf of the pleasure ground, for large vases, and for 
bold rocky banks, 


Fes. 3, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 239 


DESERTED FAVOURITES. 
THE WHITE LILY. 

Amone our grandest “old-fashioned” flowers, no garden 
favourite ever held higher rank than the White Lily. It has 
formed the theme of poets, the model of painters, and has 
been the symbol of spotless purity, and of youth and beauty, 
from time immemorial. Among garden flowers it is fairest 
among the beautiful. Matchless in its snowy whiteness and 
exquisite form, it seems loftily to disdain the aid of the 
fairest hues. It would, indeed, be as futile “to gild refined 
gold,” as Shakespeare has said, as to “paint the lily’; for, 
in fact, colour would but detract from the proud chasteness of 
this stately flower. It is : 


of the “white-plumed” lilies, as Keats called them; but the 
lines of Ben Jonson, in which he turns the fair image of 
the Lily to exceeding good account, must not be passed 
over,— 


‘Tt is not growing like a tree 
In bulk : doth make men better be ; 
Or standing long as oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear : 
A Lily of the day 
Is fairer far in May ; 
Altho’ it fall and die that night, 
It was the flower of light.” 


Nor can Cowper's happily-conceived characteristics of the 
Lily be omitted; they are so extremely apt, and so like, that 


they may be taken as an accurate portrait, though by the 
hand of an accomplished 


— " painter, who always knew 


how to seize upon the best 


points of his sitters. It is 


in his short poem describ- 


one of those fine old —— 
case with which we ae 
ave been associated from ——————— 

our youth, and there- = 

fore must not be dis- — 


ing the rivalry of the Lily 


and the Rose that the 


carded, even to give place 


to the golden-rayed Lily 


following lines occur :— 


itself. 

How grandly the tall 
groups of White Lilies 
used to rise in early sum- 
mer among the fine old 
border flowers, before 
they were all uprooted 
and banished to make 
way for the monotonous, 
“mbbon system,” or geo- 
metric masses of less 
worthy flowers! How 
much more interesting 
than such plants, or 
such a system of  cul- 
ture, were those great 
clumps of aspiring Lilies 
thit appeared every suc- 
cessive spring on a well- 
known «spot, and with 
their upright growth con- 
trasted so finely with 
the horizontal -lines of 
our old, old terrace walls, 
relieving their monotony 
by rising above their 
upper lines, whose course 
they interrupt with a 
mass of floral beauty 
that made the cold sculp- 
ture of the marble vases 
and their pedestals look 
poor and pale in com- 
parison with the living 
forms and dazzling white- 
ness of the sculpture-like 
flowers ! 

One cannot wonder 
that the Lily became long 
ago an emblem of purity 
and beauty; nor that, 
as Chaucer tells us, 
St. Cecilia’s name was derived from Cceli lilium, the Lily 
of Heayen,— 

“First I will to you the name of St. Cecilie 
Expound, as men may in her story see: 
It is to say, in English, Heaven's Lily, 
For pure chastenesse of virginity.” 

Shakespeare, as is well known, took many of his happiest 
similes from flowers; and in the following might almost 
appear to have foreseen the neglect and banishment of the 
Lily from our gardens, when he makes a stranger in his. own 
land exclaim,— = 


‘ ** Like the Lily, 
That once was mistress of the field and flourished, 
I'll hang my head and perish.” 


There would be no end to quoting all that poets haye said 


The White Lily. 


“ The Lily’s height bespoke 
command, 
A fair imperial flower ; 
She seemed designed for 
Flora’s hand, 

The sceptre of her power.” 

Seeing how the most 
gifted of our flower lovers, 
our greatest poets them- 
selyes, have admired the 
beauty of the White Lily, 
we may fairly hope that 
we will not persist in 
perversely refusing due 
court, as of old, to the 
undoubted queen of border 
flowers; neither neglecting 
her culture for weedy 
novelties nor gaudy masses 
of glaring pelargoniums 
(which yet have high value 
in their proper place). Let, 
then, the lily once more 
reign supreme in our flower 
borders, among many other 
deserted beauties, who must 
be recalled from banish- 
ment to form her court. 
Let not the shortness of 
her summer career be 
deemedadefect—her single 
month of glory is worth a 
whole summer’s bloom of 
meaner flowers. There is 
the month of lilacs and 
laburnums to precede her 
reign, and the months of 
roses to follow, and the 
noble autumn flowers after- 
wards. There is something 
more attaching and_ in- 
teresting in the visits of 
these’ plants, that come 
and lavish their beauty upon us for a golden month, and 
then bid us adieu till another summer, than in those flowers 
that bloom on monotonously month after month, lingering with 
us till their yery presence is unnoticed; while the advent of the 
first lilacs, the first lilies, the first roses, for their brief stay, 
mark so delightfully the growth and progress of each garden 
year, from early spring-tide into the midst of high summer, 
and on to golden autumn. F Los, 


Sweet Peas (see p. 162).—It has been our practice for a good many years to 
sow sweet peas in the open ground in November, at the same time as we put in 
the first crop of edible peas. It is astonishing how much better they flower; and 
they are quite as hardy as the hardiest of the edible sorts. To keep up asuc- 
cession, it is as well to sow again in February and the end of March. In this 
way, flowers of sweet peas may be had from June to November.—D. T. F, 


24.0 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fus. 3, 1872. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN FOR FEBRUARY. 
BY GEORGE WESTLAND, WITLEY COURT. 


In re-arranging flower gardens, hardy evergreen shrubs may be 
~ employed with the best results; for in the working out of parterre 


patterns, judiciously disposed groups with graceful outlines, associated | 


with bedding plants, are more effective and desirable than many of 
the tender subjects now so freely used for such purposes, necessi- 
tating as they do the employment of unusual care and fertility of 
expedients on the part of the cultivator, and often, after all, pro- 
ducing but a small amount of success. One of the most important 
points in connection with flower garden operations at this season is 
preparation of the beds and the securing of proper composts ; where 
beds are not planted with spring-flowering things, advantage should 
be taken of the fallow, so to speak, to which they are subjected to 
have them deeply worked up and prepared for planting. Upon poor 
soils, too little attention is often paid to our flower beds, which are 
kept under crop year after year without taking into consideration 
that the ground is becoming annually poorer. Flower-beds to be 
perfectly successful must be treated according to the crop which 
they are intended to carry. Some things, as for example, Abuti- 
lons, Aralias, Cannas, Ferdinandas, Ricinus, Solanums, Wigandias, 
&e., require a large amount of manure to give them nobility of aspect 
and perfect leaf development. In preparing beds for these, especi- 
ally in cold, wet localities, it will be advantageous to place the soil 
on brick rubble, which will sceure good drainage and tend to raise 
the temperature of the soil a few degrees higher than it otherwise 
would be. The compost should be used in rather a rough state in 
order to premote healthy development by gradual decomposition. 
Hardy Clematises grown as bedding plants should now have atten- 
tion; their blooming season may be considerably prolonged by 
pruning them at three different periods, viz., in autumn, mid-winter, 
and early in spring. Cut back to the ground, and surface-dress with 
rich rotten manure. This is especially necessary in order to insure 
continuity of bloom. Fill up all vacancies which may now occur 
among spring-blooming plants, and pay every attention to securing 
neatness and order. If the plan for the bedding out of the flower- 
garden has not yet been determined upon it should now receive 
immediate attention, in order that some idea may be formed as to 
what quantities of different subjects must be secured by means of 
propagation. 

Shrubberies.—This is a good time to re-plant and re-arrange 
masses of the better kinds of rhododendrons, which, when grouped 
with taste, are gorgeous inthe extreme. Their hardiness and Inxuri- 
ant deep green foliage render them desirable at all seasons ; but many, 
nevertheless, are deterred from growing them from an impres8ion 
that they do not succeed without peat. No doubt sandy peat is the 
best soil for them when procurable, but where it cannot be had they 
will not only grow but luxuriate in a sandy, fibry loam. The most 
satisfactory plantation of rhododendrons I ever made was one in a 
sandy loam skimmed from an old wood six inches deep: In this the 
plants grew and flowered with the greatest freedom; and in the 
absence of good peat I can recommend this as the best material that 
can be substituted for it, not only for rhododendrons but for all 
kinds of American plants; it should, however, be rich im decayed 
vegetable matter, In preparing positions for rhododendrons resting 
upon calcareous matter it is imperative to success that the whole of 
the soil in the beds should be above the ground level, otherwise the 
drainage from the surrounding grounds will penetrate the beds and 
destroy the plants. In planting, hardy Azaleas must not be over- 
looked, their brilliancy of flower and delightful fragrance rendering 
them most desirable. They may be grown in masses ky themselves 
or interspersed with rhododrendrons, or used promiscuously in mixed 
shrubberies. Kalmias are not so much planted as they deserye to be, 
for they are amongst the most elegant of plants grown, their charm- 
ingly delicate blossoms and dark glossy foliage contrasting admirably 
with most kinds of vegetation with which they may be associated. 
They grow freely in low situations, and, moreover, the Kalmia is 
one of the few plants that game will not molest, Attend to previous 
directions as to planting and pruning. Common Laurels should be 
cut down, but under no circumstances should specimen Portugal 
Laurels be pruned now, as the searing winds we often experience 
after this time, disfigure the foliage to such an extent as to render 
it unsightly for months, which late pruning will, in a great measure, 
obyiate. 

Pits and Frames.—As soon as plants in these are in a state to 
furnish cuttings, propagation may be proceeded with in a bottom 
heat of from 80° to 85°, and a growing temperature at about from 
70° to 75°.. Shade only to prevent flagging, and give ventilation as 
the state of the cuttings and other circumstances will admit. 
Accelerate, too,-the growth of such plants as are required to produce 
cuttings,.by placing them in heat. A sure and ready way of 


securing a stock of Centaureas is to break out their growing crowns 
and to lighten the plants of foliage, placing them afterwards in a 


«growing temperature, where free ventilation can be given to prevent 


“fogging oft.” Under such circumstances they make shoots quickly 
which, when fit for handling, should be slipped off with a heel and 
potted singly in the smallest sized pots ; if plunged in bottom heat, 
they will speedily root and establish themselves. The variegated 
Polemonium should not be overlooked, and if cuttings are required, 
bring forward a few plants in heat, which will produce side shoots in 
abundance that will root freely. Abutilons, Cineraria acanthifolia, 
Ferdinandas, and Wigandias, &e., should now be incited to grow, 
pinching out their crowns so as to induce the production of side 
shoots for propagation- Variegated and flowering Pelargoniums, 
brought forward in heat, may now be propagated in soil consisting 
of loam, leaf-mould, and sand, in about equal parts. In the ease of 
scarce sorts, of which the most should be made, take the cuttings 
progressively, choosing the strongest first. Where the stock of 
Alternantheras is insufficient, it should have timely attention as 
to propagation, as they are charming subjects for carpet bed- 
ding. The finest varieties are A. amabilis, A amabilis magnifica, 
A. ameena, and A. paronychioides. A good companion plant for this 
style of bedding is the trailing Mesembryanthemum cordifolium 
variegatum, which strikes freely and makes a lovely edging. 
Seeds should now be sown of Acacia lophantha, Acanthus latifolius, 
Centaureas, Cineraria acanthifolia, Lobelias, and Cannas. The last, 
however, do not reproduce themselves true from seed, and therefore 
cannot be depended upon for anything but mixed arrangements. 
Keep up the heat in dung-frames by hot linings of stable-manure 
and leaves, and- let out damp and steam by slightly raising the 
sashes. In cold frames, Calceolarias should be gone oyer, and stopped 
back; give air freely to such structures according to the state of 
the weather. ; 


FAMOUS TREES. 


THE MONKEEY’S BREAD, OR BAOBAB TREE. 
(ADANSONIL DIGITATA.) E 


“Wii HE Baobab is so gigantic in its growth, 
and appears to live to so great an age, that it 
has been justly considered one of the greatest 
marvels of the vegetable world. It was un- 
_ known to science till the French botanical 
traveller, Adanson, discovered it in Senegal, 
in the year 1749. Michael Adanson (of Scot- 
tish descent) was born at Aix, in Provence, 
in 1727, and was educated for the clerical 
KS profession. He had, indeed, already entered holy 
orders and obtained a Cure, when his original pre- 
dilections for natural science, which had displayed 
themselves while he was yet a child, broke forth with 
such force that he quitted the Church as a vocation 
unsuited to what he felt to be his ruling instinets. 

After studying the principles of botany with enthusiasm, 


.and attending the lectures of Jussieu, Reaumur, and other 


great naturalists of the day, he set about preparing himself 
for an energetic career in the profound study of nature in all 
her various forms; and, as the first step, after the completion 
of his book studies, he determined to travel. Europe haying 
been, as it were, thoroughly ransacked by the researches of 
former naturalists, he made up his mind to plunge boldly into 
Africa as an untrodden field of scientific discovery; and having 
finally resolved upon this course of action, he confided his 
project to his father, and to their friend the Chevalier David, 
who was at that time chief governor of the French Compagnie 
des Indes. From this gentleman he obtained an appointment 
at the French factory (comptotir) on the Senegal, and, after 
having stayed some time on his route at the Canaries, Tene- 
riffe, and Goree, he arrived in the Senegal River in December 
1749, and found himself in reach of some of those vast districts 
of tropical Africa which had filled his imagination with 
enthusiastic longings. » 

He describes, in his “ Voyage au Senégal,” his first impres- 
sions of tropical scenery with graphic power. ‘I experi- 
enced,” he says, “an entirely new set of emotions, such 
as I had never felt before, at the new and strange appearances 
of nature which were presented to me. Earth, sky, plants, 
animals, the human race—all bore a strikingly novel aspect 
which at once riveted my attention and excited my utmost 


_ 


241 


THE GARDEN 


J 


Fes. 3, 1872. 


TREE. 


THE BAOBASB 


242 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 3, 1872. 


curiosity.” In fact, he remained spell-bound durimg five 
years, discovering and collecting specimens of an almost 
endless series of wonderful natural products, entirely new to 
-him as the first explorer of that region, and utterly unknown 
to modern science. It is true that vague reports had reached 
France, through ordinary and generally ignorant travellers, of 
vegetable wonders of an extraordinary character which were 
said to exist in the prolific region of the French possessions 
on the Senegal, especially rumours of enormous trees bearing 
gigantic fruit. But such stories were disbelieved in the 
scientific world, and contemptuously relegated to the domain 
of fable, from which it was supposed they had sprung. 

Adanson was the first to verify some of the most extra- 
ordinary of these -floating rumours, more especially that 
concerning the giant trees and their singular fruit. His 
description of this discovery is well worth repeating. At the 
village of Sor, not very distant from the mouth of the great 
river, he requested the natives, whose language he had made 
himself partially acquainted with, to conduct him to some part 
of the neighbouring forest where there was a good supply of 
game. After being taken some distance through the jungle, 
by a narrow path which in places passed through matted 
underwood, beneath which he was obliged to crawl on all fours, 
he came at last toa more open space, where he was delighted 
to behold a herd of beautiful antelopes; but he saw at the same 
moment another object which at once attracted all his atten- 
tion, and in an instant the antelopes were forgotten. The 
object was one of the giant monkey-bread trees, an enormous 
Baobab. It was not the thing of fable which science had 
hastily supposed it to be, but a living, growing, wonderful 
entity. ‘Je ne crois pas,” he exclaims, “ qu’on ait rien yu de 
pareil dans aucune autre partie du monde.” ‘“ How is it 
possible,” he continues, “ that it could remain undescribed 
by all those who have pretended to give us accounts of Sene- 
gal? The more especially,” says the writer, “as I found it to 
be one of the commonest trees of that region.” In his enthu- 
siasm, he tells us, he at once attempted to measure the girth 
of the vegetable colossus by means of his fully extended arms. 
(“‘J’en fis le tour etendent les bras autant qu'il n’etait possible.”) 
He found that it required thirteen times their length to span 
the great trunk, and calculating the length of the measure thus 
used at five feet—he being a small man—the girth of the trunk 
proved to be, at a part as high as he could reach, sixty-five 
feet, ziving a diameter of. about twenty-two feet; dimensions 
which he afterwards found to be correct by means of a string 
which he borrowed from the negroes. The height of the tree 
was by no means extraordinary—he estimated it at not more 
than sixty feet; but its breadth was enormous. He found 
that the branches, which commenced at a height of about 
eighteen fect, extended each way full sixty feet before they 
touched the ground, giving a total breadth of one hundred and 
twenty feet; and each of these branches, with its lesser ramifi- 
cations, would have formed, he says, a monstrous tree in.any 
European forest. He afterwards found trees of seventy-six 
feet in girth and over twenty-five feet in diameter, apparently 
at the limit of their growth, which he believed to be extremely 
slow. The leaves of this vegetable giant are five-lobed, very 
large, and of a fine deep green. The flowers, which measure 
about eight inches across, are white, and crumpled at the edge, 
and somewhat resemble a large Hibiscus flower. The fruit is 
of gourd-like aspect, and about the size of a man’s head. It 
consists of from ten to forty cells, containing several kidney- 
shaped seeds embedded in pulp. _ It is eatable, and has a sweet 
and not disagreeable flavour. The juice is used as a cooling 
drink in marsh fever, and is found generally useful in allaying 
feverish symptoms. The ashes of the wood are used by 
the natives, in conjunction with palm oil, to make a coarse kind 
of soap. 

Nene afterwards found, near Cape Verd many smaller 
Baobabs of about six feet in diameter, which, though still in 
the growing vigour of early youth, must be of great age, as 
measured by years; for he found carved deeply in their bark 
the names of some of the earliest explorers of the West Coast 
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This fact will give 
to these youthful Baobabs an age of about four centuries since 
the names were inscribed, at which time they must have been 
already trees of considerable size. From these data Adanson 


reasonably enough assigns an age to the full-grown trees 
which stretches back far beyond the dim ages of our earliest 
historic records. 

After his return to Europe the great botanical discoverer 
read to the Academie des Sciences a detailed description and 
character of the Baobab, which Cuvier has pronounced a 
masterpiece. In ingeniously arranged and minute detail the 
essay is exhaustive, and leaves nothing to desire. But one 
portion of the essay is hotly disputed by botanists, namely 
that referring to the age which he assigns to the largest trees 
(as calculated by the concentric rings), which he estimates at 
over 6,000 years,* a period of time so stupendous, that the 
hesitation of the world of science to accept the calculation may 
be easily conceived. Yet, if the age of other less wonderful 
trees is calculated by the number of the concentric rings, and 
the result is not disputed, why may not the age of the Baobab 
be calculated, at all events approximately, on the same prin- 
ciple? But this is one of those discrepancies of science which’ 
may form the ground of many a good learned fight in the 
future. IN, 


THe Monrerey Cypress (CUpRESsUS MACROCARPA).—I did not say, 
as Mr. Barnes makes it appear (see page 220), that ont of one 
thousand of this cypress planted near the sea, 999 died, and that one 
only was left. What I said was, that of the thousand referred to, 
“few now remained.” The group of Cupressus macrocarpa to which 
Lallnded was planted about fifteen years ago in well-prepared ground. 
The plants were about from two to threg feet high, and were inter- 
mixed with a good assortment of other trees and shrubs, such as 
Pinus austriaca—which is still doing well—rhododendrons, Jaurus- 
tinus, sweet bays, laurels, &c., all of which acted as nurses. Thus 
situated, Cupressus macrocarpa grew away splendidly for a few 
years, until 1860-61; they were then about ten or twelve feet high, 
and the cold, cutting winds of that winter told upon them; they 
were swept and tossed about till the remnants Jook like so many 
broom sticks with the broom uppermost. Of the thousamd planted, 
not a tree died in the first instance, because of the good ground in 
which they were planted and the good shelter which the other trees 


and shrubs afforded them. But directly they got beyond thisshelter 


and outgrew it the seyere winds were too much forthem. For many 
years past I have been laying out private grounds and public parks, 
and the Monterey Cypress will always be found therein planted in 
considerable quantities, but not to “‘any required extent for shelter,” 
and I repeat my caution as to the use of this cypress for that pur- 
pose. Mr. Barnes adds that he could “adduce proofs by the hun- 
dred” that Cupressus macrocarpa will thrive in an exposed situation. 
I should feel obliged if he will kindly point out some such localities, 
giving the number of trees planted, and when. That they will grow 
nicely for a few years I am well assured; but I am anxious above all 
things to ascertain where this cypress can be found in any quantity — 
‘in this country of, say, fifteen or twenty years’ growth, and still 
showing the characteristics of a tree that we can plant with con- 
fidence for ‘‘shelter to any required extent.’’—Ww. Barron, Sketty. 


THE ARBORETUM FOR FEBRUARY. 
: BY JAMES BARNES. ‘ 

Make all possible progress with trenching, planting, fencing, and 
draining. See to plants already planted ; if blown on one side by the 
late winds, place them in an upright position: such as require stakes ~ 
should be furnished with them when planted. Single trees in parks, 
paddocks, &e., not grown out of the reach of cattle, should haye 
their guards repaired, if necessary, and new ones supplied where 
required. Pruning, thinning, faggoting, and clearing away of all 
wood, should be attended to for the next six weeks, where game is 
preserved, in order that there may be no interference or disturbance 
during the breeding season. It is often said that it is best to plant 
larch where pheasants are preserved, as they select that tree to roost 
on, which is true; but, in my opinion, larches are the worst of all 
trees for that purpose, as on them the birds are so fully exposed as to 
be readily seen, either by moon or starlight. Spruce firs are much 
safer trees, and have a nice appearance in the landscape. Seedling 
conifers and forest trees should now be transplanted on trenched 
land, and the seeds of last year prepared for sowing. Picea nobilis, 
which is one of the most lovely of coniferous trees at all seasons of 
the year, I have raised thousands from seed, and planted them out in 
various plantations and aspects, and a glorious appearance they are 
now making, and will continue to make, in the landscape, as they 


* On the appearance of Adanson’s paper, which is to be found in vol. 61 of the 
Mémoires de V Academie des Sciences, attempts were made to calculate the age of 
the world by that of the Baobab, 


- 


, ~ 


Fes. 8, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. | 


243 


attain age and size. Male catkins make their appearance in March, 
and female cones in May, the latter of a greyish blue colour. They 
increase in size quickly, and are full grown by midsummer, when 
they measure from eight to eleven or twelve inches in length, 
weighing down the branches. In September the seed gets ripe, 
which is indicated by extensive swelling, and a portion of a cone 
here and there bulging and cracking. If not then looked sharply 
after, they will very soon fall to pieces, and the seeds will get car- 
ried away by the wind. The seeds, which are the size of two 
barleycorns, are very full of turpentine. They should be sown the 
end of February or beginning of March on a healthy prepared 
border or quarter, patted firmly down, and covered with open sandy 
soil three-quarters of an inch deep. If a portion of charcoal is 
applied, so much the better. The same remarks with regard to the 
saving and sowing seeds of all Piceas hold good; for they all 
produce their cones in spring, and ripen their seed the same 
summer, 


GARDEN OESTROVERS. 


APHIDES: THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR FOES. 
BY EDWARD NEWMAN, 
(Continued from page 212.) } 

THE enemies of aphides are quite as numerous as their friends, 
and quite as constant in their attentions. The principal—or I might 
say with greater precision, the better-ascertained—of these belong to 
four different classes : Aphidius Rosse, a minute Ichneumon belonging 
to the class Hymenoptera ; Syrphus Pyrastri, a hovering two-winged 
fly belonging to the class Diptera; Chrysopa perla, the golden-eye, a 
» lace-winged fly belonging to the class Stegoptera; and, lastly, 
ladybirds, Coccinella septem-punctata and Coccinella bipunctata— 
these ladybirds belonging to the class Coleoptera. 

The first of these, Aphidius Rose, lays its eggs under the skin of 
the aphis, and out of the egg proceeds a grub which inhabits the body 
of the aphis and feeds on its living flesh, consuming the whole until 
the skin is left a dry husk. This insect parasitism is one of the 
most distressing phenomena in natural history: only meditate an the 
state of a living body being devoured, bit by bit, day by day, hour by 
hour, by a voracious indweller whenever hunger prompts him: only 
meditate on the fact of this horrible process being purposely and 
instinctively prolonged by the parasite’s avoiding the vital parts, 
because the living flesh is the only food adapted to its requirings, and 
because if life once departed decomposition would set in, and the 
nutritive property of the flesh would be lost: so the victim drags on 
an enfeebled existence as long as its body has a particle of flesh for 
its ruthless destroyer to devour. This revolting history is familiar to 
entomologists ; they know that thousands of these indwelling species 
exist, as if purposely to prevent the too rapid increase of the 
thousands of species that support them. It has been said that every 
vegetable-feeding species has a flesh-feeding species to hold it in 
check, and almost every vegetable-feeding individual contains in the 
recesses of its body, concealed from all observers, a -flesh-feeding 
individual destined to take its life. The details of this particular 
instance of parasitism have been carefully observed and ably 
recorded by the late Mr. Haliday. 

The male Aphidius may be seen throughout the summer, creeping 
about the rose leaves or running rapidly over the backs of a thickly 
packed phalanx of aphides, as if for amusement ; his partner is of a 
less roving disposition, and confines her excursions to the straight 
path of maternal duty. Finding herself at birth amid the myriads of 
plant lice which encircle almost every shoot of the rose bush, she is 
content to remain there; she has no honse to build, no stores of food 
to provide for her future offspring, no care to take of their education— 
if I may use that term for the exertions so constantly exhibited by 
mothers in the world of animals. She has only to lay her egg and 
leave it. With- extended antenne and iridescent wings shivering 
with desire, she walks sedately and leisurely over the aphis herd, 
and feels and fondles each with her antenn until she finds one 
exactly suited to her purpose; then she stops short at about the 
length of her own body from the selected victim, and, standing erect 
on stiffened legs, she bends her abdomen under her breast until its 
extremity projects beyond her mouth; then, erecting her thorax by 
depressing the hinder part, she simultaneously makes a lunge forward 
with her abdomen, which is lengthened out in a most remarkable 
manner, and then by an instantaneous touch on the under-side of the 
aphis deposits a single egg. The victim of this treacherous and 
always fatal stab in the stomach will sometimes kick and plunge like 
a restive herse trying to throw its rider, but escape is impossible ; 
the aphis is anchored to the rind of the twig or to the surface of the 
leaf by its sucker, which when once inserted is seldom withdrawn 
prior to the attack of the Aphidius. I advisedly use the word seldom, 


admitting the possibility of withdrawing the sucker, for I have seen— 
who has not ?—solitary aphides wandering slowly over leaves and 
flowers like sheep that have gone astray. Should the Aphidius meet 
with a luckless aphis thus nomadising, she will walk round and round 
it until a favourable opportunity occurs of taking it in flank, when 
the deed is done, the fatal stab given. 

Mr. Haliday notices the extremely delicate sense of touch vested 
in the antenna, which are always used by the Aphidius to obtain 
information whether an/egg had previously been laid in an aphis, 
for one aphis could not support two Aphidii, and if two eggs were 
by accident laid in one aphis both the grubs must perish. There is 
therefore never more than a single egg laid in a single victim; the 
Aphidius ascertains by a touch how the case stands. We may call 
such knowledge instinctive, or intuitive, or empirical, just ‘as we 
please—all that we know is, it is infallible; two eggs are never laid 
in the same individual. ’ 

When the parasite has consumed all the interior of its aphis,it may 
be found full and fat, a white maggot doubled up inside and filling 
out the skin of its victim, its head being placed nearest the tail of 
the aphis. When this period has arrived, the aphis withdraws its 
sucker, and, “ like the stricken deer,’’ leaves the herd, and retires 
to die in solitude. It will then fasten itself by means of some gummy 
secretion to the upper surface of a leaf, and there remain, a helpless 
and hopeless picture of misery. The hardened skin of the aphis forms 
the only protection of thé Aphidius, which spins no cocoon or other 
covering. A few days are sufficient for all its parts to acquire 
firmness and consistency; and, while the newly-risen sun is yet 
glittering in the early dewdrops, the now-perfected fly, by a gentle 
push, detaches two or three terminal segments of the aphis in the 
form of a lid, and comes out into open day, the separated segments 
springing back into place after the parasite has departed to make the 
first essay of his powers of flight,-and to"renew the circle of his exist- 
ence. Sometimes a slight variation takes place in the programme, 
the detached and hardened case, instead of springing back to its place, 
hangs down like the lid of a tankard ; and sometimes a cirenlar hole 
in the back of the aphis shows where the life-robber has escaped. 

The second enemy of the aphis is the hovering fly to which 
entomologists have given the name of Syrphus. These will remain 
stationary, but not motionless, for many minutes, as though let down 
from heaven by an invisible thread, suspended like Mahomet’s—buat 
I forbear the comparison; it is worn threadbare. They appear 
motionless, but are not; their wings move with a rapidity that 
renders them invisible. Approach them or attempt to catch them, 
and they disappear, but return almost immediately, to hover again 
exactly in the same place, or perhaps a yard to the right or a yard to 
the left. This creature, while thus apparently doing nothing, is 
surveying the twigs and the leaves in search of a herd of aphides 
engaged in their life’s business of sap-sucking. Having discovered a 
promising flock, she forthwith descends from her aerial perch and 
deposits an egg in their midst, leaving chance or nature to provide 
for its future. In fulness of time this egg becomes a grub of leech- 
like appearance, and wolf-like disposition. Hyen while still a baby, 
he exhibits his murderous propensities; he slays the lambs of the 
flock, and a rapid digestion enables him to dispose of these with 
great expedition. He soon attains his full stature, and all the while 
he is growing he lies lazily among his victims, who never exhibit the 
slightest fear of their dangerous companion, but continue sap-sucking 
with the most stolid indifference ; or if they have occasion to move— 
and this is no common occurrence—they walk over his body without 
betraying the least symptom of distrust, and will even caress him 
with their antennze. I believe these aphislions, for so they have 
been called, are totally blind. Kirby and Spence compare them to 
the Cyclops groping about for Ulysses and his companions ; an apt 
comparison, for so does this creature, after fixing himself by the tail, 
feel about with his anterior extremity for his unresisting prey. His 
mouth is armed with a three-pronged fork, which he thrusts into the 
aphis up to the hilt, and then lifts high in air, the transfixed victim 
feebly and unavailingly struggling to escape; in this strange position 
all its juices are extracted, and the empty skin falls on the surface of 
the leaf or drops to the ground. And these empty skins may be seen 
by dozens strewed around the scene of slaughter, and attesting in the 
most unmistakable manner the service which this strange-looking 
creature renders to the gardener, especially to the rose grower. 

When this aphislion is full grown he glues himself to a rose leaf, 
or the leaf of any tree or shrub where he has been feasting on the 
plant lice; his body shortens and thickens, his skin beeomes hard and 
firm, and after awhile he turns to a chrysalis, his own skin answering 


_the purpose of a cocoon. A few days suffice for preparing him for 


the next and last transformation; the new parts—legs, wings, eyes— 
gradually assume consistency and form, his case-like skin bursts open, 
and he comes out more completely transformed than any of the 
subjects of Ovid’s ‘‘ Metamorphoses.”’—Field. 


244, 1 


THE GARDEN. 


(Prs. 3, 1872. 


GARDEN DESTROYERS IN FEBRUARY. 


At this season of the year insect life is dormant or in abeyance, 
but a good deal may, notwithstanding, be done to prevent future 
mischief, and the gardener has the assurance that anything he does 
now is like nipping a disease in the bud, and probably is of many 
times the value of what he can do at a later period when his 
enemies, if more apparent, are more numerous and more rampant. 
In digging, he will meet occasionally with brown, long, barrel- 
shaped chrysalids in the earth from half an inch to an inch in length. 
These he may safely treat as enemies. His friends do not assume 
this form in passing through the chrysalis stage, and he may find it 
worth his while to turn up withafork the earth and mogs at the roots 
of any trees in the neighbourhood of the garden in quest of chrysa- 
lids. Let him also search in outhouses and sheltered corners for 
those chrysalids which are-not in the ground. We strongly advise 
the young gardener to put any he may find aside im a place where he 
can see them come out, not to make him an adept in entomology, 
although it would do him no harm to learn a little of that too, but 
that he may learn at least the principal forms that come ont of the 
different chrysalids. If he pins a sample or two neatly and puts them 
away in a box or drawer it will do him no harm, and he may rest 
assured that the knowledge he thus acquires will not be thrown 
away. There are always plenty of entomolgists in towns who haye 
not the gardener’s opportunities, who would be only too glad to 
exchange information for specimens, and there is really no excuse 
nowadays for every gardener not being a bit of an entomologist. 
There is not a gardening periodical which has not entomologists of 
every kind and every degree-upon its staff or among its supporters, 
who are always happy to give information to every one who seeks it 
—and itis a kind of knowledge that pays the trouble of acquiring it 
by the wonderful ingenuity of the Gontrivances it discloses and 
beauty it displays. 
~ Inthe chinks of trees—especially fruit trees—many nascent evils 
now lie hid in the form of eggs, and in orchards where fruit suffers 
much from that kind of vermin this is the time to go over the 
branches with a nail-brush and Gishurst soap and water. There is a 
capital kind of nail-brusk now made of fibres of palm (8d. each), 
strong and durable, which the gardener would do well to patronise, 
if not for his own at least for what we may call the skin and nails 
of his trees, yiz., the chinks in which the dust gets and the insects 
lay their eges. This is the season in which, too, he ought to look 
over his fruit and other trees for indications of the various blights, 
and many a hidden foe may now be disclosed by cutting across a. sus- 
Picious-looking twig or branchlet, when such disclosures as the 
beautiful yellow spotted caterpillar of the leopard moth, the large 
claret-coloured caterpillar of the goat moth, &c., may be met with 
resting in comfort in their wonderful tunnels. Ay Mi. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


Soluble Sulphur.—I use this in spring in large quantities for the 
destruction of red spider on gooseberry and currant bushes, and prepare 
it as follows :—I slake some quicklime, and mix it with about half its 
weight of common flour of sulphur ina heap, with a little water, as in 
making mortar. After lying a few hours, I boil it for twenty minutes in 
a large boiler of water, in about the proportion of one gallon to onepound 
of the mixture. This produces a sulphurous liquid, about the colour of 
porter, two or three pints of ayhich to a two-galion bucket of water is 
strong enough for syringing; but we test the strength, by dipping a 
spray into the bucket, and get the liquor just strong enough not to 
Gamage the leaf. If too strong, the leaf withers in arhour or two.— 
R. VARDEN, Seaford Grange, Pershore. 

Chickens versus Insects.—We quote the following as conveying 
a hint which may be useful for other cases of insect damage, besides that of 
the Plum Cureulio of America, to which it individually refers :— Mor many 
years past,” says an American paper, “the curculio has so sadly damaged 
our plum trees that they have had to be cut down as cumberers of the 
ground, no fruit being-obtained from them.’’ A writer in the Ohio Farmer 
says :—‘‘T have a few nice trees still left standing for ornament and shade, 
and year after year these trees have bloomed and set full, but in spite of 
every effort until the present season not a quart of fruit was received. 
While the trees were in full bloom last spring, my wife determined to try 
an experiment upon one of them, which™she did, and it resulted more 
favourably than could have been expected. Early every morning, while 
mm bloom, corn-meal was strewn over the ground beneath the branches, and 
the whole flock from the poultry-yard at once set to work to gather up 
the particles of grain. The ground was daily thoroughly scratched over, 
and meal, insects, and everything to the fowls edible, gathered up. Later 
in the season, a brood of chicks were cooped beneath the tree, and the 
operation of strewing meal continued. This operation was not omitted for 
a day, from the time of the putting forth of the bloom until the plums 
were beyond the reach’ of the little pests. The result was that this tree, 
and this alone, was loaded with fruit as perfect as could be desired. So 
heavily, indeed, were the limbs laden, that props had to be usedall around 


the tree to keep them up. Nota plum matured on any other tree, and 
allare of the same variety as the one saved.” The following from the 
American Entomologist, vol. ii., p. 53, is to the same effect :—* Having occa- 
sion to build a new house where a plum tree stood, instead of removing 
the tree, I enclosed the trunk, and trimmed off the branches to the root. 
Result—I have for two years past gathered perfect fruit from the tree, 
and have not found one specimen stung by any insect. A temporary 
hen eoop constructed under another plum tree the past season partially 
succeeded, while the trees not so protected lost all their fruit by the 
eurculio.” A-very noteworthy circumstance to be kept in mind im regard 
to such experiences as this is, that the plum curculio-is winged in its 
perfect state, and both can and does fly, and yet there is no reason to 
doubt the accuracy of the facts above stated. 


Wireworm.—I have had some experience on three-quarters of an 
acre of garden ground made from old turt land, and I feel sure the remedy 
which I adopted will answer the end on any land. The first and second 
years I was dreadfully pestered with wireworm; my potatoes, turnips, 
carrots, and other roots were pierced through and through with this pest. 
A thought struck me that the application of spent gas lime would settle 
my enemies; so I sent for two cartloads'from the Denby Gas Works, and 
I had it mixed with six times as much good soil and manure, equal 
quantities ; the manure was chiefly sawdust upon which pigs had run. 
This was spread gn the ground in November, and dug in a spade deep ; 
then in the spring I put early and other potatoes and the general crop, 
with some light stable manure. I had excellent crops that year and atter- 
wards, but not a single wireworm could I detect after that dressing. It is 
very important not to overdose with the gas lime; dilute it well with soil 
and manure, and it will destroy grubs as well.—7. W,, in “‘ Field.” 


Insects in Winter.—One might suppose that by the end of winter 
little birds which are solely supported by insect food would find some 
difficulty in providing for their wants, but I have found the stomachs of 
the tree’ creeper and the small titmouse, even in February, quite filled 
with parts of coleopterous insects, which, by their activity and perse- 
verance, they had been enabled to procure beneath the mosses, on the 
branches, and from the chinks in the bark of trees, where they had retired 
in autumn. Small slugs and some insects may be consumed by the 
severity of winter, but many of them -are so constituted as to suffer no 
injury from the inclemency of the season, but afford during many months 
provender to other creatures.— Journal of a Naturalist. i 

Destruction of the Woolly, or American, Bug.—Among 
all the methods recommended for the destruction of the Woolly Bug, 
brushing, washing with essence of mint, turpentine, alcohol, soft soap, 


tobacco, potash, various oils, &c., we have found none to be perfectly _— 


effectual. We hasten, therefore, to communicate an “ infallible remedy,” 
which has been forwarded to us from several quarters. This is simply 
petroleum or paraffin oil. It is sufficient to brush the trees infested 
once with a paint-brush dipped in this oil (pure), applying it to all the 
parts attacked by the insect. 


‘NORTH AND SOUTH. . —, 


THe charts of.the world which haye been drawn up by modern 
science have thrown into a narrow space the expression of a yast ~ 
amount of knowledge, but I have never yet seen any one pictorial 
enough to enable the spectator to imagine the kind of contrast in 
physical character which exists between Northern and Southern 
countries. We know the differences in detail, but we have not that 
broad glance and grasp which would enable us to feel them in their 
fulness. We know that gentians grow on the- Alps, and clives on the 
Apennines; but we do not enough conceive for ourselyes that 
variegated mosaic of the world’s surface which a bird sees in its 
migration, that difference between the district of the gentian and of 
the olive which the stork and the swallow see far off, as they lean 
upon the siroccowind. Let us, for a moment, try to raise ourselves 
eyen above the level of their flight, and imagine the Mediterranean 
lying beneath us like an irregular Jake, and all its ancient promon- 
tories sleeping in the sun: here and there an angry spot of thunder, 
a grey stain of storm, moving upon the burning field; and here and 
there a fixed wreath of white voleano smoke, surrounded by its 
circle of ashes; but for the most part a great peacefulness of light, 
Syria and Greece, Italy and Spain, laid like pieces of a golden 
pavement into the sea-blue, chased, as we stoop nearer to them, with 
bossy beaten work of mountain chains, and glowing softly with ter- 


-raced gardens, and flowers heavy with frankincense, mixed among 


masses of laurel and orange, and plumy palm, that abate with their 
grey-green shadows the burning of the marble rocks, and of the 
ledges of porphyry sloping under lucent sand. Then let us pass 


-farther towards the north, until we see the orient colours change 


gradually into a vast belt of rainy green, where the pastures of 
Switzerland, and poplar valleys of France, and dark forests of the 
Danube and Carpathians stretch from the mouths of the Loire to 
those of the Volga, seen through clefts in grey swirls of rain-cloud 
and flaky yeils of the mist of the brooks, spreading. low along the 
pasture lands ; and then, farther north still, to see the earth heave 
into mighty masses of leaden rock and heathy moor, bordering with 
a broad waste of gloomy purple that belt of field and wood, and 


* 


. his own rest in the statutes of the land that gave him birth. 


Fes. 3, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


245, 


splintering into irregular and grisly islands amidst the northern seas 
beaten by storm, and chilled by ice-drift, and tormented by furious 
pulses of contending tide, until the roots of the last forests fail from 
among che hill ravines, and the hunger of the north wind bites their 
peaks into barrenness ; and, at last, the wall of ice, durable like iron, 
sets, deathlike, its white teeth against us out of the poplar twilight. 
And, having once traversed in thought this gradation of the zoned 
iris of the earth in all its material vastness, let us go down nearer to 
it, and watch the parallel change in the belt of animal life: the 
multitudes of swift and brilliant creatures that glance in the air and 
sea, or tread the sands. of the southern zone; striped zebras and 
spotted leopards, glistening serpents, and birds arrayed in purple 
and scarlet. Let us contrast their delicacy and brilliancy of colour, 
and swiftness of motion, with the frost-cramped strength, and shaggy 
covering, and dusky plumage of the northern tribes; contrast the 
Arabian horse with the Shetland, the tiger and leopard with the 
wolf and bear, the antelope with the elk, the bird of paradise with 
the osprey ; and then, submissively acknowledging the great laws by 
which the earth and all that if bears are ruled throughout their 
being, let us not condemn, but rejoice in the expression by man of 
Let us 
watch him with reverence as he sets side by side the burning gems, 
and smooths with soft sculpture the jasper pillars, that are to reflect 
a ceaseless sunshine, and rise into a cloudless sky ; but not with less 
reverence let us stand by him, when, with rough strength and hur- 
ried stroke, he smites an uncouth animation out of the rocks which 
he has torn from among the moss of the moorland, and heaves into 
the darkened air the pile of iron buttress and rugged wall, instinct 
with work of an imagination as wild and wayward as the northern 
sea; creations of ungainly shape and rigid limb, but full of wolfish 
life; fierce as the winds that beat, and changeful as the clouds that 
shade them.—John Ruskin. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. | 


THE KITOHEN GARDEN FOR FEBRUARY. 
A BY JAMES BARNES. 
KIvcHEN GARDENING is now becoming interesting and, if well 


~~ —earried out, profitable. Everything should be planned and executed 


with foresight and method. Peas should now be sown on open 
quarters, ten, twelve, or fourteen feet apart, thus inducing them to 
produce as much again as thickly-sown crops. Planted or sown 
between the rows may be drills of early Turnips, Spinach, and 
Radishes, spring-sown young Cabbage, Canliflowers, early Potatoes, 
&e., all of which will be off and out of the way by midsummer or 
sooner, rendering the ground -ayailable for Celery. After the Peas 
are cleared off, the space will be available for successions of Lettuce 
and Endive, young Coleworts,- &c., all of which will be again off 
before the soil is required for earthing the Celery. : 

Asparagus.—Continue to get into moderate heat in succession, 


strong plants of this; let the bottom-heat be moderate and genial, | 


in order to give it plenty of time to put forth strong, robust .buds 
and shoots. Regulate the interior of the frame or pit by methodical 
airing. If the Asparagus is intended to be of a good flavour and 
eatable, allow it to colour well, by means of sun and air. Cover the 
roots lightly at first, then put on three or four inches, or from that 
to six inches, of well-decayed tan, leaf-mould, or light earth. Water 
early in the afternoon with tepid water, and shut up if intended to 
be bleached white. No glass need be used; shutters will do for 
cover, or it may be placed in a cellar or mushroom shed. 

Broccoli coming on, keep a sharp eye on, and protect against frost 
by doubling the leaves down. Put a wisp of short straw over the 
heads. : 

Of Beans, plant this month a full general crop, such as Dwarf 
Gem, Early Long-pod, Broad Windsor, or any other good variety. 
Surface-stir on fine days, and dredge with dry dust against severe 
frosty nights. ; 

Cabbage.—Surface-stir and make up all gaps and deficiencies. 
Make another planting from reserved transplanted beds, and sow a 
small quantity in pans or on a warm border. Prick out those sown 
last month into shallow boxes as soon as they can be handled. Place 
in shelter, harden off gradually, and prick on warm borders as soon 
as the season permits. For real usefulness, the small sweet kinds 
are the most profitable and best appreciated, large, coarse kinds 
being only fit for cattle. = 

Cauliflowers——When well cultivated, this is one of the most 
valuable of our early spring and summer vegetables, requiring a 
little care and good culture. 
out those up in boxes and pans, and surface-stir. Plant out now 
some of the strongest autumn-sown plants that have been nursed 
and hardened in pots or frames on to warm borders. Surface-stir, 


Sow small portions in succession, prick 


clear dead leaves, and harden off succession plants. Those nursed 
under hand-lights, encourage by surface-stirrings, drawing up all 
round a little earth in order to raise the glasses and form a basm in 
the centre for the application of manure-water. 

Carrots.—Early varieties, such as Horn and Dutch, sow on well- 
prepared, healthy, warm, borders, in drills; and drill Radishes 
thinly between them for the last time this season. Shelter with 
straw or evergreen boughs for a time. 

Celery —Choose dry weather for applying earth to bleach late 
crops. Sow a pinch in gentle heat, and prick out early into shallow 
boxes or pans that sown last month to grow on in succession in 
frames, for early spring use. 

Capsicums and Chilies sow in strong heat, and prick off as soon 
as up an inch apart in pots. 

Chervil, curled, sow in smail quantities in warm corners. 

Lettuce——Make good all winter crop blanks, and plant out in 
succession strong plants. Prick off and protect with dry dust small 
seedlings. Sow in gentle heat, and put a pinch on a healthy warm 
border, of summer Cos and Cabbage kinds. Beware of birds 
and mice. 

Onions, autumn sown, transplant on well-prepared ground, a foot 
apart row from row, and six inches in the row, in order to have 
every other one pulled for early use. Sow in a box or frame, on a 
slight heat, Spanish, Tripoli, or any favourite variety, in order to 
have strong plants ready to put out the end of March or beginning 
of April. Sow thickly on a warm border and protect with a little 
straw the two-bladed union, for early drawing and “ bulbing”’; 
what is left, will be of a beautiful size, shape, and colour for 
pickling. Plant ont Potato onions on firm ground; if on loose soil 
they are apt to canker, mildew, and rot, This also holds good in 
the case of Shallots, which should now also be planted above ground, 
that is, just pressed into firm soil. Garlic also plant now. Remove 
all old keeping onions into the coldest, draughty, dry place that can 
be found, in order to subdue growth and prevent exhaustion. 

Parsley.—Sow the best curled in drills, one foot apart. Weed out 
from old beds or rows intended for seed every plant that is not fully 
up to the mark as regards curled quality. 

Peas.—Sow now some of the best varieties of second crop kinds, 
both dwarf and tall, such as Advancer, Auvergne, Green Marrow,_ 
Climax, Harrison’s Glory, Perfection, Napoleon, Nonpareil, Veitch’s 
Perfection, Champion of England, the Prince, &c. Shelter with sticks 
and a few green boughs in the cold windward side, and dredge with 
dry dust on dry evenings against frost those now up and growing. 

Tomatoes.—Sow now ; prick out, pot off into stiffish, poor soil, and 
harden off in due season those intended for outdoors. 

Brussels Sprouts, Borecole, Budakale.—Sow the first portion after 
the middle of the month, in order to have some strong and fit to 
produce a heayy autumn and winter crop. 

Turnips.—Early varieties, such as American Pink, Stone, Dutch, 
&c., sow on well-prepared warm borders. F 

Spinach.—Sow in single drills between peas, stir the surface soil 
about winter Spinach, which must be kept in a growing condition. 

Place in gentle heat or shelter, successions of Tarragon, Mint, 
Sorrel, &e. 

Seakale.—Keep up a good succession of this most appreciated 
vegetable by placing some on a gentle heat and covering with pots 
and fermenting materials crowns outdoors. 

To Cucumbers in a bearing state keep up a kindly, uniform heat 
from 72° to 75°, charged with humidity, allowing, on nice, light, 
sunny days, a rise of 10°. Stop the shoots at every fruit joint. 
Put in cuttings of favourite kinds shy in the way of seeding. Sow 
in succe8sion; make a kindly preparation of fermenting materials 
for thgse intended for outdoor frames. Do not allow those in fruit- 
producing order to carry too many at a time, to impoverish, weaken, 
and disease the vine; thin methodically. 

Melons.—Plant out in succession on good holding, healthy soil, 
Sow now for full crop. Keep a good stock of healthy, sturdy plants 
in readiness for turning out.as pits and frames become vacant. Do 
not allow overcrowding of the vines; stop seedlings first at third 
joint, after that at every joint showing fruit. 

Potatoes now growing in pits, frames, or houses, under hoops, or 
other shelter, should have plenty of air to maintain sturdiness. 
Surface-stir those lately planted. Earth with moderately moist, 
lightish, healthy soil. Be careful about the application of water ; 
never apply it overhead, but only to the soit. Never water early 
potatoes in the afternoon and shut them up directly, except you 
wish to produce disease; if by any accident they are caught ma 
shower when exposed to the air, leave them night air on and a space 
back and front of the lights for the moisture to have room to evaporate 
withont settling on the foilage. A full crop of Potatoes should now 
be planted. Let them consist of early and middle early kinds, 
which have a better chance of escaping disease than late sorts. 


246 


[Fxx. 3, 1872. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


Miniature Mushroom Beds (see p. 207).—I was much inte- 
rested by Mr. Fish’s bold little mushroom-bed propositions im last weel’s 
GarpEN. The suggestion for the cook to grow his own mushrooms, by 
placing his sweet little beds on the Iitchen-shelves and under the tables 
isadmirable. It is cheerful, too, to contemplate Mr. or Madame Cook 
turning from the manipulation of pastry to that of the materials of 
which mushroom-beds are made, and vice versd. Permit me to add a 
thought or two to those of your correspondent: a few dozen minia- 
ture mushroom-beds would, for example, do nicely in quiet nooks, 
under our sofas, &e., and two might adorn the sides of each step in our 
broad staircases. Indeed, it would require a short catalogue to nameall the 
places suitable for this fascinatmg land of fungus culture. Why not fillsome 
of the more roomy epergnes in the sitting-room with the desired matrix, 
and have the pleasure of seemg the mushrooms grow under onr yery eyes ? 
Best of all modes, however, for an imaginative horticultural writer would 
be to stuff his holster with 4 miniature mushroom-bed, and allow the 
crop to grow forth .at the ends. Vigorous mushrooms, however, would 
poke their heads through the lien. Will your talented correspondent 
try this, and let us know the result? and then some spring morning, 
when he opens his eyes, and finds the first half-dozen “buttons” 
inviting him to cut them for breakfast, I hope the spirit will again 


THE GARDEN. 


GARDEN DE Seine 


GARDEN ROCKWORK GOOD AND BAD. 


GARDEN RocKWoRK, if of a high and artistic kind, must be 
founded on natural models. The forms, the distribution of the 


-masses, the accidental and divergent levels of the fractured 


face, as well as the forms, directions, and general character of 
the fissures, and every other feature of natural rocks, must be 
carefully studied before artificial garden rockwork, worthy of 
the name, can be attempted. A well-constructed piece of garden 
rockwork should be like the rockwork of a first-rate scene- 
painter—so excellent a device, that a young dranghtsman 
might feel happy to. transfer » memorandum of it to his 
sketch-book as a piece of art worth recollecting. 

One of the most curious, and at the same time excellent 


-pieces of artificial rockwork which I remember to have seen, 


is the work of medieval artists, the massive and yet highly- 
wrought work of Gothic chisels; and it has been sketched and 
painted and etched, oyer and over again, by trayellmg artists 


; Out-Cropping Rocks. : on eal’ 


move him to encourage us to fresh attempts in this ever-interesting phase 
of gardening.—AGaric.~ ; ‘ 
Spawning Mushroom Beds.—Mushroom beds or boxes may be 
formed and spawned at any season, but decidedly the best times are 
in the months of September and February ; for instance, a bed spawned 


in September will last through the winter months, and will be succeeded | 


by the February or March bed, which will in its turn 
through the summer and early autumn.—B. W. 

House Sewage.—Anyone who has a garden, and who wastes the 
slop-water and sewage from house and stables, wastes manure in a valu- 
able form—this is certain. If to any country house there is a garden and 
land, all refuse, liquid and solid, should be used either on the garden or 
onthe land. he distribution of sewage, or of any ‘liquid manure, how- 
ever, should not be by hose and jet; there are other special modes and 
means of delivering sewage and liquid manures for garden uses; the 
plants should know nothing of sewage but through the soil by their root- 
lets; the leaves should not be touched. I would not even hose and jet 
grass-land.—Rogsrrr RAwiinson. 

Broccoli.—London is now receiving large supplies of broccoli from 
Cornwall—last week about eighty tons ; price from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. per 
dozen heads. The crop is expected to prove avery good one. Bristol, 
Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and two or three other large 
markets are each receiving many tons weekly 


give a supply 
f , 


~ wrought, 
f=] 


who haye been wonder-struck on coming unexpectedly across 
this curiously elaborate piece of work. Branches of bramble, 
laden with berries, trail over it, and stems of ivy cling closely 
both to face and crevice; while small herbaceous plants fill 
the interstices with delicate leaf and blossom; and the wonder 
is that, the plant-work, like the rock itself, is entirely of 
stone; the whole, rock and plant, being equally the production 
of the ancient sculptor. These plants of stone are so truly 
distributed with such natural grace, thrown 
athwart the angular masses of rock (equally the work of the 
chisel) with such artistic boldness, that were they artificially 
coloured, like the exquisitely moulded plants of Della Robbia 
ware, they might be mistaken for the living originals, situated 
as they are in the open air, and first scen from a moderate 
distance. This singular piece of sculptured rocks and 
plants forms the entrance to the ancient tombs of the Emperors ~ 
of Germany at the side of the Cathedral of Spires. It is 
well worthy the pilgrimage of every loyer of art to look 
upon, and still more especially worthy the study of every 
would-be maker of artistic rockwork; as it shows plainly _ 


Fes. 3, 1872.] 


_with what patient labour every truly artistic result is attained, 
and at the same time that, without loving labour and loving 
- thovght, nothing great in art can be achieved. 

Garden rockwork, however, even of the good kind, is a 
much more simple matter than the great sculptured mass at 
Spires. Yet, nevertheless, it cannot be effected without a 
good deal of trouble and considerable expense, if it is 


’ 
Face of judicionsly-coyered, built-up Rockwork. 


really intended to be of high character and on a large 

seale, Without a few bold masses of natural rock of consider- 

able size, for instance, little can be done that is really grand, 
——simple, and effective, and wearing that certain aspect of 
crispness and breadth which is always present in natural 
rocks. When such natural masses are not attainable, it is 
true that smaller pieces may be so built together as to present 


Cayern. 


the aspect of a continuous face with tolerable success; especially 
if the top line be well designed. But in such cases a careful 
design must first be made, and then carefully adhered to; the 
joints, when not natural-looking, being concealed as in the upper- 
most engraving. Some of them may he left as open crevices, 
in which great stars of sedum or masses of golden moss may 


cling; which, at certain points, may entirely conceal the 


THE GARDEN, — 247 


offensive joints. A mass of built-up rockwork may, after 
this manner, be managed with striking effect, if constructed 
after some good natural model, such. as portions of the real 
rock scene at the commencement of these remarks. 

Such isthe best that can be done with built-up rockwork ; 
but where large masses can be obtained, or where such crop 
up naturally out of the soil, the task is much easier, and almost 
invariably more successful. For instance, by breaking away 
certain portions, or by piling on others which may be broken 
off for that purpose, it is easy to produce a cavern, which, to a 
certain extent, is a purely natural one, and to all appearance 
entirely so. For instance, an effect similar to the cavern repre- 
sented might be very easily contrived, and by the establishment 
of afew ferns and masses of wall Linaria in the erevices, a 
bold and entirely natural effect would be produced with little 
labour; the breadth of the naked unbroken surfaces imparting 
anair of unwrought simplicity analogous to the broad and bold 
workings of Nature’s own hand. 

In other somewhat siniilar cases, where natural rocks 
oceur cropping out of the soil here and there, in suitable 
parts of the grounds for the creation of a display of rock- 
work, much may be done by excavation. In all probability, 
where one or tio masses of rock project above the surface, 
other portions of the same formation occur at a short 
distance below it, and by judicious digging, following the 
sinuosities or suddenly irregular turns of the openings 


Passage in Rock-garden. 


between the masses, and, in some cases, by eutting a way 
through the stone itself, either in the form of a rude arch, or 
clear opening at the top,a rocky pass of very, real and imposing 
character may be constructed. In one place it may be light and 
open, and in another dark and narrow, as shown in the woodcut. 
In rockwork of this nearly natural kind, itis sometimes difficult 
to arrange positions in which to establish plants of any consider- 
able size just where they are desirable, and yet cannot be planted. 
In such cases seeds may be inserted into the smallest crevices 
with almost certain success; for plants coming up from seed 
will eventually take better care of themselves, and get a 
tighter and healthier hold, than things that have been trans- 
planted, however skilfully. 

Such are the best methods of producing really good rock- 
work, That which may emphatically be called bad, is gencrally 
formed by a heap of flints or glass-house clinker, which under 
the most favourable circumstances, and even when pretty well 
covered with creeping plants, produces no more satisfactory 
effect than that of a rubbish-heap which has been rather 
dexterously concealed. But when oyster-shells,fancifully dis- 
disposed, or big lobster claws, or crab-shells, are used as 
adjuncts, it becomes at once evident that the constructor has 
not intended to conceal his rubbish-heap, but rather to make 
it very conspicuous, and we are compelled to wonder at his 
taste without being able to admire it. yn 

The art of making really picturesque masses of artificial 


- 248 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fex. 3, 1872. 


rock is now so far advanced, as just described, that broad 
and good effects are produced in places devoid of a particle 
of natural rock. In numbers of places, however, there are 
grand rocks hidden or half hidden beneath the surface, which 
will with less trouble make more effective embellishments. 
The most remarkable results haye been effected in this way in 
Mr. EH. W. Cooke’s peculiarly beautiful and interesting garden 
at Glen Andred, in Sussex. Cie Ni pete 


BLUE-FLOWERED HYDRANGEAS. 


Dunive a trip to Jersey last June we observed some mag- 
nificent blue Hydrangeas in the terrace gardens of the Royal 
Hotel: The colour of these was of the finest ultramarine, and 
wonderfully uniform. We remarked that among the blue- 
flowered plants there were others with rose-coloured flowers, 
but the plants which bore these were far less vigorous. The 
blue colour was always in direct proportion to the strength 
of the plant. The natural conclusion, therefore, was that the 
colouring agent also acted as a stimulating manure. 

Tn 1857 Mr. Luscombe exhibited in London some splendid 
blue Hydrangeas. These had merely been planted in a.small 
pine-wood, in the soil formed by the decomposed leaves of 
conifers. Now, up to that time,no one had thought that blue 
flowers could be produced in Hydrangeas, except by means of 
the following substances, and that, too, in different degrees :— 
Lime-water, water naturally impregnated with irou, common 
red sand, free Norwood soil, water mm which hot iron had been 
dipped, alum in solution, iron filings mixed with the soil. To 


the presence of the iron in solution, of the lime, and of the. 


alum, was attributed the effect of the various substances which 
we have just named. Now, Professor Solly proved by experi- 
ment that lime, alum, or iron, rendered more soluble by the 
use of hydrochloric acid, or less soluble by means of carbonate 
of soda, exercised only a moderate influence in the colouration 
of plants of the genus Hydraiigea. On the other hand, Mr. 
Fortune, who could not produce blue Hydrangeas by the 
application of irén alone. succeeded in doing so by watering 
them with a solution of alum, or by applying this substance 
in powder. And yet neither peat soil nor leaf-mould contain 
any alum. We can only seek for the explanation of the effect 
of these soils in the tannin which they contain, and which is 
acted upon by the peroxide of iron which exists in the tissues 
of the shrub. This might be proved by making the experi- 
ment (which Dr. Lindley formerly suggested) of watering the 
plants first with water mixed with the peroxide of iron, and 
afterwards with a weak infusion of tannin. This is only one 
side of the question. In 1861 another Englishman brought 
forward the fact that blue-flowered Hydrangeas might be 
obtained by planting them in any soil which had never been 
previously tilled. He made several experiments with garden 
soil and virgin peat alternately, and obtained the same results 
for five consecutive years. Further, a specimen planted in 
cultivated garden soil, and producing rose-coloured flowers, 
began to bear blue flowers as soon as its roots reached the 
virgin soil which had been placed underneath the plant. 

On the other hand, it is well known that in granitic, schistose, 
mica-schistose soils, and generally in soils of igneous forma- 
' tion, Hydrangeas bear blue flowers abundantly. Here the 
question rested; and the fresh experiments of M. Gri had 
thrown but little additional light upon it, when M. Eug. 
Fournier commenced some further investigations, after a dis- 
cussion on the subject which had taken place before the 
Botanical Society of France. He watered some Hydrangeas 
with the following solutions daily, and in equal quantities, from 
the 1st of May :— 

1st. 316 grains of ammoniacal alum to 1 7-10ths pint 
of distilled water (as recommended by Dr. Boisduval). 
2nd. 316 grains of sulphate of iron’ (the common 
recipe). j z 
3rd. 316 grains of carbonate of copper (suggested by 
M. Crochard). f 
4th. Ammonia (in no definite proportion). x 
By the 15th of June, the plants watered with the solutions of 
ammonia and the carbonate of copper had perished. Those 
which had been treated with the sulphate of iron exhibited a 
moderate degree of yigour and red sepals. The solution of 


A 


ammoniacal alum, on the contrary, had produced a luxuriant 
growth and large flowers of a violet-blue colour. From other 
experiments of M. Hug. Fournier, which we have not space to 
report here, the conclusion is that, if iron colours the flowers 
of Hydrangeas blue under certain conditions, it is because it 
excites a more active growth in the same way as does ammoni- 
acalalum. Beyond all doubt, the blue colour in the flowers of 
Hydrangeas is the result of an excess of vegetation artificially 
produced. 

To these experiments we shall only add one observation, 
which is that, although we have seen in Jersey, and also in 
Guernsey, that the most vigorous Hydrangeas bore blue flowers, 
while the rest produced rose-coloured ones, we have also often 
found an exuberant growth of this plant coincident with the ~ 
production of flowers purely rose-coloured. We need only 
mention, as an example, the Hydrangea Otaksa, which has 


‘been not many years introduced, and which is merely a 


Japanese variety of the common kind. At Versailles we have 
measured corymbs of it which were more than sixteen inches 
across, and which were exhibited by M. Duval. in May 1870.— 
LD Tlustration Horticole. 


Vegetation.— What infinite wonderfulness there is in this 
vegetation, considered, as indeed it is, the means by which the 
earth becomes the companion of man—his friend and his teacher! 
In the conditions which we have traced in its roeks, there could only - 
be seen preparation for his existence ; the characters which enable 
him to live on it safely, and to work with it easily—in all these it 
has been inanimate and passive; but vegetation is to it as an im- 
perfect soul, given to meet the soul of man. The earth in its— 
depths must remain dead and cold, incapable except of slow erystal- 
line change ; but at its surface, which human beings look upon and »« 
deal with, it ministers to them through a veil of strange intermediate 
being ;/which breathes, but has no voice ; moyes, but cannot leave 
its appointed place ; passes through life without consciousness, to 
death without bitterness; wears the beauty of youth, without its 
passion ; and declines to the weakness cf age, without its regret. 
And in this mystery of intermediate being, entirely subordinate to 
us, with which we can deal as we choose, having just the greater 
power as we have the less responsibility for our treatment of the 
unsuffering creature, most of the pleasures which we need from the 
external world are gathered, and most of the lessons we need are 
written, all kinds of precious grace and teaching being united in this 
link between the Earth and Man; wonderful in universal adaptation 
to his need, desire, and discipline; God’s daily preparation of the 
earth for him, with beautiful means of life. First, a carpet to make 
it soft for him; then, a coloured fantasy of embroidery thereon ;. 
then, tall spreading of foliage to shade him from sun-heat, and 
shade also the fallen rain, that it may not dry quickly back into the 
clouds, but stay to nourish the springs among the moss. Stout 
wood to bear this leafage: easily to be ent, yet tough and light, to 
make houses for him, or instruments (lanee-shaft, or plough-handle, 
according to his temper) ; useless it had been, if harder; useless, 
if less fibrous; useless, if less elastic. Winter comes, and the shade 
of Jeafage falls away, to let the sun warm the earth; the strong 
boughs remain, breaking the strength of winter winds. The seeds 
which are to prolong the race, innumerable according to the need, 
are made beantiful and palatable, varied into infinitude of appeal to 
the fancy of man, or provision for his service: cold juice, or glowing 
spice, or balm, or incense, softening oil, preserving resin, medicine of 
styptic, febrifuge, or Iulling charm; and all these presented in 
forms of endless change. Fragility or force, softness and strength, 
in all degtees and aspects; wnerring uprightness, as of temple 
pillars, or undivided wandering of feeble tendrils on the ground ; 
mighty resistances of rigid arm and limb to the storms of ages, or 
wayings to and fro with faintest pulse of summer strexmlet. Roots 
cleaving the strength of rock, or binding the transience of the sand ; 
exests basking in sunshine of the desert, or hiding by dvipping 
spring and lightless cave; foliage far tossing in entangled fields 
beneath every wave of ocean—clothing with variegated, everlasting 
films, the peaks of the trackless mountains, or ministering at 
cottage doors to every gentlest passion and simplest joy of humanity. 
Being *thns prepared for ns in all ways, and made beautiful, and 
good for food, and for building, and for instruments of our hands, 
this race of plants, deserving boundless affection and admiration 
from us, become, in proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly perfect 
test of our being in right temper of mind and way of life; so that 
no one can be far wrong in either who loves the trees enough, and 
every one is assuredly wrong in both, who does not love them, if his 
life has brought them in his way.—Modern Painters. 


» 


Fes. 3, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN, 


249 


MOLE HUNTING IN GARDENS. 


Ar a happy period of my life when I came into possession of the 
charming abode assigned to me, by the gracious favour of the Queen, 
in Richmond Park, I was discussing with the gardener, one fine 
evening in May, some horticultural operations, when a functionary 
of the Park was announced and made his appearance. He was the 
“mole-catcher,” and had plied his vocation there, he told me, man 
and boy for upwards of fifty years. He respectfully intimated to 
me that my predecessor had found it necessary to avail himself of 
his services in keeping down what would otherwise be a grievous 
pest to both lawn and flower-bed. I expressed my surprise at the 


» intimation. Rats, I knew, were plentiful about, but moles I had 


thought were a scarce article in a garden. However, I inquired 
the “terms,” as it was “no part of his regular business to look after 
the gentlemen’s gardens belonging to the Park.” My predecessor, 
it appeared, had subsidised the old expert at a guinea a-year, and 
I was warranted ‘never to see a mole twice” in the garden on 
these terms. The difficulty, it struck me, was as to getting any 
glimpse at all of the interesting burrower: but it was the mole- 
heaps old Warps meant ; once levelled after the upturner had been 
trapped, they would not reappear. I hesitated, and pondered on 
the capabilities of my then limited salary from the Royal College 
of Surgeons, and its contrast with the probable fortune of my 
gallant predecessor at Sheen Lodge, and concluded that I must 
forego the luxury of keeping a mole-catcher. 

Next morning I was disturbed at breakfast by my gardener, with 
the announcement that the moles had been at work; and, by a most 
curious coincidence in the very part of the kitchen garden where 
the conference with the mole-catcher had been held on the previous 
evening. There, sure enough, no fewer than six mole-hills had been 
raised in that very night, most of them breaking up the rows of the 
brightly-sprouting peas, on which I had been building flattering 
hopes of a rarely enjoyed luxury. 

dt seemed plain to me that moles and fresh-gathered peas were 
incompatible. I struck my flag: sent for the mole-trapper, and 
paid him his guinea in advance. I never regretted it. I got 
more mole-lore out of that old gentleman than I had ever before 
heard or read of. He always reminded me of a mole himself—a 
thin, prognathic visage, the nose longer than it was deep, and 


-ending in a.red point; the smallest, keenest eyes that ever peered 


out of sockets. 

If at home on the evenings of his professional inspection, I 
usually ordered a jug of Mortlake ale into the arbour, and wert in 
for mole-gossip. I owe to Warps my first evidence of the vocal 
powers of Mustela vulgaris. ‘“ You know, sir, them parts of the 
Park as the servant-galls and people won’t go near to, after dark, 
coz of the screams of the murdered babby as was heard thereabout 
half the night.’ ‘‘ Well, it must have taken a long time to kill,” I 
interposed. ‘‘ Now I tell you what that was, sir, it were a weasel 
as got trapped in one of my mole-traps, and I never heard a beast 
squeal so loud afore. I couldn’t ’a thought such a little critter 
could ’a, made such a row.” 

After a long pull at the jug, old Warps grew confidental. ‘‘ Now, 
I don’t mind showing you, sir, what a mole can do.’ And he pulled 


' a live one out of the depths of a capacious pocket in his fustian 


jacket. ‘‘ You'd never think to look at him he could run go quick.” 
And I own I was surprised the first time I witnessed the rate the 
little short-limbed animal sped along the hard ground till he came 
to the nearest bed, then with snout and the fore-shoyels up flew the 
soft mould, and he was ont of sight in a few seconds. “But, 
Warps,” I exclaimed, “he’s got into the carnation-bed, and will 
haye them all up!” “Oh, never fear, sir! I’ll have him again to- 
morrow ;”’ and so he did. Whenever I wanted a mole for anatomical 
purposes, I had only to send to old Warps and it was forthcoming. 
No matter at what season, or of what sex, or in what stage of the 
“interesting condition” of the female. When other monographs 
now in hand are finished off, | may have leisure to work up my 
materials, so obtained, for an embryogeny of Talpa europwa. 

I own to a voluntary blindness to one weakness of Warps, which 
Thad not at first suspected, and to which some of my neighbours 
were less indulgent. I was making a call on the resident of one of 
those beantiful villas at Roehampton, jnst outside the Park wall, 
and was ushered into my friend’s garden. We paced along the noble 
gravel-walk separated by a well-grown evergreen hedge from the 
pathway to the offices. Our chat ‘happened to turn upon. moles. 

“Do you know,” I asked, “how quickly they will run on hard 


~ gravel like this?” ‘Oh yes,” said*he; “I have seen it, and I can 


tell you more than that. Did you know, Professor, that a mole can 
leap?” “No,” said I, ‘‘that it can’t do; its organisation is quite 
unfitted for that mode of motion.” “Tt can, though,” replied my 


neighbour; ‘‘I have seen a mole take a flying leap over that very 
Portugal laurel” (it was at least eight feet high), ‘‘ and come down 
on this very walk. It was then I first saw how fast a mole could 
run. Mr. So-and-So” (a common acquaintance) ‘happened to be 
here with me, and if he had not been quick enough to give the little 
beast a kick on the ribs before it had buried itself in the flower-bed, 
Ishould have believed it to have beenarat. Fancying I heard a 
footstep in the back walk just before the mole flew over the fence, I 
called my servant aud asked if any one had been that way to the 
kitchen? ‘Only old Warps,’ he said, ‘the mole-catcher.’ ‘ Ah,’ 
rejoined my neighbour, ‘I suspected so. Tell that old rogue when 
next you see him, that if ever I catch him within fifty yards of my 
pee? I'll make him remember it the longest day he has got to 
jive!’ 

Poor old Warps was not far from his longest and Jast when he sent 
the live mole flying over the laurel bushes. About a month after he 
was laid in mother earth, where he rests quieter than his subjects.— 
Richard Owen, in “ Blackwood,” for February. 


A WINTER GARDEN FOR LONDON. 


“When we reflect,” says a correspondent of the Times of Thursday 
last, ‘fon the Siberian winter with which we were last year afflicted, 
and are led necessarily to anticipate something of the same sort for 
future seasons, we are lost in astonishment that in the whole enceinte 
of this great and magnificent metropolis there should not exist one 
establishment in which wholesome air and exercise, at a properly 
regulated temperature, can be obtained. Such a resource would be 
invaluable during the cruel winter months to those who fear to 
expose themselves to the chilling blasts of Aolus and Boreas. 

“‘Tt was for a long time a question whether the transept of the 
beantiful Exhibition building of 1851, with its lovely fountains and 
gigantic trees, should not have been allowed to remain permanently 
on the spot where it stood, for the purpose of forming what is now 
so much desired, a winter garden. The clamour of a few interested 


‘inviduals was allowed to overcome the desire of a numerous but 


unobtrusive public, to many of whom such a resort in the winter 
months would haye been as life to death when compared with the 
confinement to the heated rooms of their own houses or an expatria- 
tion among the expensive inconveniences of a foreign sanitarium. 
It is really inconceivable that in rich and great London, where 
hundreds of thousands of pounds are constantly waiting for a profit- 
able investment, no speculator should have thought of employing it 
in a manner sure to pay so enormously. 

‘Everybody knows that there was in Paris a few years ago a 
charming winter garden in the Champs Elysées, which was always 
kept ata temperature of 63° of Fahr., where hundreds took their 
daily walk who were afraid of exposure to the open air, for an 
entrance fee of one franc. It was a beautiful resort, filled with 
tropical plants, fountains, and all the little amusements for which 
the French are so famous—bagateHe tables, Chinese shows, shooting 
galleries, &e., affording pleasure as well as health. 

“The writer of these remarks being subject to bronchitis, passed 
seyen years in the immediate vicinity of that garden without having 
had one attack during that period, as he always had the resource on 
bad days of taking his exercise in its balmy walks, and he has 
frequently walked_five miles on such occasions. This winter garden 
ceased to exist only because the demand for building ground became 
so great in that locality that it was sold at fabulous prices for erecting 
those palaces which border the Champs Elysées. 

“Hundreds of ladies condemned to seclusion at home would drive 
to such a building eyery day to take their walks, and it would, with- 
ont doubt, soon become a place of fashionable resort, as will be 
evident to everyone who remembers the familiar saying so much in 
vogue in 1851, ‘ Meet me at the fountain at five.’ In order to ensure 
the success of the speculation, two points must be kept in view :— 
First, the situation, which must be one of easy access to those who 
are best able to support the undertaking—namely, the inhabitants of 
the West End. The best site would be a small portion of Hyde Park, 
which her Majesty would not, lam persuaded, refuse. Next to the 
invalids themselves, the persons most interested in procuring and 
supporting such a building as this are the physicians of this metro- 
polis, who, instead of finding their best patients deserting them in 
the month of October, to transfer their fees to foreign M.D.’s, would 
be enabled conscientiously to permit them to stay at home, and reap 
the benefit of their fees for their own pockets. 

‘* At Pau during the late severe weather the thermometer stood as 
low as 17° of Fahr.; and at Arcachon the deluded hunters after 
southern, sunny climes were shivering in their wooden hnts in a 
temperature of fifteen degrees below the freezing point.” 


250 


THE GARDEN. 


‘[Fxs. 3, 1872. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, ETC. 


Royal Horticultural Society’s Show at Birmingham.— 
The first meeting of the local committee was held on Thursday, the 25th 
of January, at the Great Western Hotel, under the presidency of the 
Marquis of Hertford. The hon. secretary (Mr. EK. W. Badger), read the 
resolutions passed at the meeting on the 18th inst. He also read a letter 
from the Earl of Bradford, accepting the office of President of the com- 
mittee, and requesting his name to be added to the list of contributors to 
thespecial prize fund forthesum of £25. Itisintended, we believe, thatthere 
shall be a congress during the show week, the details of which will be 
published as soon as they have been decided upon. In the meantime, all 
who are willing to read papers, and take part in it, should at once com- 
municate with the hon. secretary, Midland Counties Herald office, Birming- 
ham, in order that arrangements may be made accordingly. In the case 
of those who wish to read papers, it is desirable that they should state 
the subject of them, and length of time they desire to occupy. ? 


PRINCIPAL FLOWER SHOWS OF THE YEAR. 


February.—14th.— Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 
eee ae Botanical and Hortitultural Society (monthly meet- 
ing). if 

March.—6th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 
13th. — Royal Botanic Society (spring flowers). 19th.— Manchester 
Botanical and Horticultural Society (monthly meeting). 20th.—Royal 
Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 


April.—srd.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 9th. 
Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (monthly meeting). 
10th.—Royal Botanic Society (spring flowers). 17th.—Royal Horticultural 
Society (fortnightly meeting). 18th.—Royal Horticultural Society of Ire- 
lind (spring flowers). 25th. — Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society 
(spring flowers). = 


May.—1st.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 8th.— 
Royal Botanic Society (spring flowers). 11th.—Crystal Palace (greatflower 
show). 15th and 16th—Royal Horticultural Society (May show). 18th 
to 27th.—Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (grand national 
exhibition). 22nd and 23rd.—Royal Botanic Society (great summer 
exhibition). 23rd.— Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society (summer show). 
23rd.—Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland (May show). 27th, to June 
15th.—Royal Botanic Society (exhibition of American plants). 


June.—aoth, 6th, and 7th.—Royal Horticultural Society (great summer 
exhibition at South Kensington). 19th—Ditto (fortnightly meeting). 
19th and 20th.—Royal Botanic Society (great summer exhibition). 22nd. 
Crystal Palace (annual rose show). 2oth to 29th—Royal Horticultural 
Society (great exhibition at Birmingham). 26th.—Bishop Stortford and 
Hertfordshire Horticultural Society (great summer show). 27th.—Royal 
Horticultural Society of Ireland (summer show). 


July.—3rd.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 5th 
and 6th.—Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (roses and 
fruit). 10th and 11th.—Royal Botanic Society (great summer show). 
17th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 


August._4th.—Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland (autumn 
show). 7th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 21st. 
Ditto (fortnightly meeting). C 
_ September.—4th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meet- 
ing). 10th.—Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (monthly 
meeting). 18th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 
19th.—Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society (first autumn show). 


October.—2nd.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 
Sth.—Manchester Botanicaland Horticultural Society (monthly meeting). 
10th—Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland (great fruit show). 


_ November.—6th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meet- 
ing). 14th—Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society (second autumn 


show). 19th.—Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (monthly: 


meeting). 
December.—4th.—Royal Horticultural Society (fortnightly meeting). 


Cocoa-aut Groves.—The peninsula of Manabique presents the 
aspect of one vast grove of cocoa-palms, and affords the traveller 
an opportunity of sceing these trees in all their majestic beauty ; 
rearing their tufted heads high into the air, while their roots are 
washed and often undermined by the rolling waves. No other tree 
ventures so near the water’s edge, and dreary beyond description 
would this uninhabited coast appear, were it not for these littoral 
plants. ''The air is filled with a sort of music, produced by the 
wind, while shaking to and fro the long, sharp-edged leayes, and 
the wailing, doleful sounds thus brought forth cannot fail to impress 
the lonely traveller with melancholy thoughts or soothe his restless 
spirit. Thousands of cocoa-nuts annually fall into the sea; these, 
like the apples falling by the road-side, belong to the poor, or to 
those who take the trouble of picking them up. The cocoa-nut crop 
of the whole peninsula is annually sold by the authorities to some 
trading ship-eaptain, or to the highest bidder.—Owr Ocean Highways. 


OBITUARY. 


MR. THOMAS OSBORN. 


THE horticultural and botanical community has lost many of its 
prominent men of late—some, like Lindley, Hooker, and Paxton, 
ripe in years; others, like James Veitch and Berthold Seemann, in 
the prime of life; but not one that will be more regretted by all 
who knew him than Mr. Thomas Osborn, of Fulham, whose com- 
paratively early and too sudden death it, is now our painful duty to 
record. A principal of one of the oldest and most interesting of 
London nurseries, in him the commercial spirit was entirely sub- 
ordinate to the love of plants for their own sake, and his knowled&e 
of botany and - horticulture was very great. What are called 
business qualities were, however, developed in him in the highest 
sense, and led to his being appointed trustee of the Gardeners’ 
Royal Benevolent Institution in the room of the late Mr. James 
Veitch, and to his co-operation being sought in the chief movements 
of the horticultural world, as, for example, the great exhibition of 
1866. Possessed of wide and accurate knowledge of trees and — 
plants of all kinds, and particularly of the hardier and nobler 
subjects, the pleasure of a visit to the ever-interesting Fulham 
Nursery was always heightened by his cheerful guidance and great 
plant lore. He died at Fulham, of quinsy, on Sunday last. A day 
or two before his death, we had a communication from him respecting — 
the weeping Sophora figured in THE GARDEN of January 20th, and of 
which there are two very old specimens in the Fulham Nursery, so 
rich in rare trees. To us, therefore, his loss has seemed peculiarly 
sudden, as he always seemed in robust health. Few men have 
adorned their profession more. No loss can be greater to the gar- 
dening community, and especially to London horticulturists. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—February 3rd. 


Flowers.—These are now sufficiently numerous to give to the western 
entrance of the central avenue quite the appearance of a spring flower 
show. Little groups of lovely Tulips meet the eye on every side, supported 
by charming potfuls of Crocuses and Hyacinths. Then there are Callas, 
with their great trumpet-shaped white flowers; Spring Heaths; and 
Chinese Primroses, with blossoms large and richly-coloured. Cyclamens, 
too, with which everybody is delighted; Camellias and Azaleas; and - 
last, but not least, pretty little bushes of Deutzia gracilis, loaded with 
blossoms that vie in purity with those of the Snowdrop itself. Among 
sweet-scented flowers are Lily of the Valley, Violets, Mignonette, and 
Wallflowers; and among berry-bearing plants, are different sorts of 
Solanum capsicastrum, thickly covered with orange-red fruit, each as 
large as a good-sized marble. Other things consist of Acacias; Astilbe 

Spirea) japonica; Begonias; Christmas Roses; Cinerarias; Narcissus; 
mowdrops; Hranthis hyemalis; Pelargoniums; Poinsettias; and Roses. 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 1s. to 8s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 100 
Ibs., 60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.— Grapes, per lb., 4s. to 10s.— 
Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Spanish Water Melons, each, 3s. to 5s.— 
Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, per dozen, 3s. to 8s.—Pine-apples, ~ 
per lb., 6s. to 10s—Pomegranates, each, 4d. to 8d. 

Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 8d—Brussels Spronts, per half sieve, 2s. to 3s.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s— 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.-—Celery, 
per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 
1s. to 2s.—French Beans, new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d.—Horse Radish, per bunch, 3s. to 5s.—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 
—Lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushrooms, per pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d. 
—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 94.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Salsafy, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 8d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s.8d.— Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d.—Shallots, per |b., 8d.— Spinach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s.— 
Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d. to 6d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d. to 6d. 


Part I. of Tut GarpEN, containing 6 Numbers and upwards of 80 
Illustrations and Plans, may now be had, price 2s. Part II. is 
also now ready, price 1s. 5d., and may be had through all book- 
sellers and newsagents, and at the railway stalls. 

Readers who may find it difficult to procure the numbers regularly 
through the newsagents or booksellers, may have them sent direct 
from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for siw months, 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. THE GARDEN ts sent 
to subscribers by Friday evening’s post. All the back numbers of 
THe GARDEN may be obtained from the office, and through all 
booksellers and newsagents. ; 

All commimications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WinL1As Rosrnson, “THe Garpen ” Orricx, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to The Puprisner, at the same Addvess, 


ae ae, 


Fes. 10, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


251 


This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITSELF 1s NaturE.”—Shakespeare. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents or booksellers, may have the numbers sent 
‘direct from the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for six months, or 
5s. for a quarter, payable in advance. THE GARDEN is sent to 
subscribers by Friday evening's post, to secure delivery in all parts 
of the country on Saturday. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all booksellers and newsagents, and direct from the office. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


ROSES AND ROSE CULTURE. 
BY 8. REYNOLDS HOLE. 


SS. ELECTING for beginners in rose growing 

DS. a few varieties which are really winter 
proof, I find myself engaged in an enterprise 
which requires great nerve. I almost shut 
my eyes, and shiver at my own hardihood, 
as I pass over roses exquisite in beauty, 
but more or less delicate in constitution. 
I almost believe (for I am very supersti- 
tious about the sentient powers of plants) 
that they feel a strong resentment, ard that they 

go as far in opprobious epithets as delicate ladies 
s can with reference to my wretched taste. “I was 

“in his forty-eight at Kensington;” “and I in his 

thirty-six at the Palace; ” “and he made no end of a fuss 
about me at Birmingham,’ methinks I hear them say; “and 
now we must give place to these coarse, vulgar wenches, just 
because, like tramps and gipsies, they’ve acquired the habit of 
living out-o’-doors in the winter.” 

And all this is harder to bear, because I am loyal and loving 
as ever to those who thus upbraid, and am only suggesting the 
hardier varieties as harbingers and pioneers, knowing well 
that if the young rosarian is not discouraged and disappointed 
at first, he must have all roses beautiful, be they robust or 
sickly. But it’s no good offering explanations, you know, to 
the feminine mind in a fume; and, therefore, let us on with 
our list. 

From the son to the father, from John Hopper to his_sire, 
Jules Margottin; the mamma being Madame Vidot. And as I 
write the name Jules Margottin, Iam reminded to give a hint, 
en passant, not so much to-new rose purchasers as to pur- 
chasers of new roses, always to buy the article which bears the 
maker’s name—the rose called after its raiser. 

As Mr. Ward named his glorious seedling after his friend 
(I have seen it referred to by the reporter to a London dail 
newspaper as “the John Hopper,’ under the impression, Bt 
suppose, that it took its tithe from some insect of the grass- 
hopper family), so the French rosarians append to their best 
roses the appellation of persons or places dear to them (I 


will mention as examples, Jules Margottin, Victor Verdier, |. 


Mdlle. Eugenie Verdier, Francois Lacharme, Marie Beaumann, 
&c.), and have given to second-rate roses the names of first-rate 
English -rosists, such as Thomas Rivers, Charles Turner, 
me W. Paul, John Keynes, &c., the only exception which 
occurs to my memory being the lovely Mrs. ‘Rivers ee 
Jules cae oe should be one of the first roses ordered by 
the novice, dy as handsome, and of the few perpetuals 


which deserve the name, as being sure to bloom again in 
autumn. 

La Ville de St. Denis is another constant and beautiful rose 
(quite good enough for exhibition in its best form), which, 
upon its own roots, has been in my garden for some twenty 
years. It withstood the fiercest ordeal through which roses 
ave passed in my experience—the winter of 1860-61. 

If Madame Boutin in the flesh resembles Madame Boutin in 
the flower, I offer my hearty congratulation to Monsieur as 
being of Benedicts Benedictissimus; for age cannot wither 
her; and be the seasons sunny or clouded, damp or dry, she is 
faithful and beautiful for ever. 

To Mesdames Boll, and Caillat, and Clemence Joyneaux, 
and Domage, and Rivers, I must hurriedly pay a similar com- 
pliment, and then fly. for my life, lest those inconstant 
beauties, Mesdames Furtado, Vidot, and many others, fasci- 
nating but frail, should fasten their thorns in my check. 
Whither shall I fly? From the boudoir to the barracks, to 
Maréchal Vaillant, the hero of a hundred rose fights? I 
know of no rose, unless it be Gloire de Dijon, which is more 
reliable than this. It never fails in my garden to produce 
abundantly its symmetrical rich crimson flowers. 

And Marquise de Castellane will, I believe, prove to be 
hereafter as laudable for her generosity and endurance as she 
has already shown herself for her beauty. 

Paul Neron is handsome, and strong as Hercules, and looks 
as though, in time, he could grow a stem which might make 
that demigod a club. : 

I have the pleasure of knowing a goodly number of mem~ 
bers of Parliament, but the one whom I most admire and 
believe in is pre-eminently Senateur Vaisse. His rooted 
attachment to the land of his adoption, his faithful adhesion to 
his colours (his beautiful colours of crimson and scarlet !), his 
upright habit, his sweet benificence in beautifying the homes 
of the poor, while he is equally welcome and gracious in his 
visits to the peer—all these good qualities are his; and I 
counsel those who do not know him to cultivate his friendship 
at once. 

May they be more successful in cultivating the friendship 
of the rose than I was some years ago in an attempt to culti- 
yate the friendship of a rosarian, whose name is borne by my 
last selection, Victor Verdier. I called upon him in the year 
1861, and, supposing that he knew a little English, and that I 
knew a little French, I anticipated a gush of fraternal sym- 
pathy and sweet communion of kindred spirits. 'The gush 
did not take place. We could not understand each other in 
the least; and I do not suppose that two large men ever 
looked, or felt themselves to be, so small. I fled to my wife 
(I was on my wedding tour), and the Frenchman, I doubt not, 
betook himself to Madame Victor Verdier (her namesake is 
one of the most beautiful, but not one of the most hardy, of 
roses), and told her of his interview with a strange English- 
man, gigantic in stature, but weak in intellect. 

The Englishman has, nevertheless, sufficient intellect to 
admire the rose, though he failed to make himself intelligible 
to the rosarian; and he advises all young amateurs to include 
it in their first order. It is one of the grandest and most 
constant of roses. 

I have only to append, in its completion, the little list of 
very hardy roses for beginners, to be planted immediately in 
soil well drained, and dry, and manured, away from trees, but 
not in a bleak, exposed position :— ; 


Madame Clemence Joign- 
eaux, do. 

Madame Rivers, do. 

Maréchal Vaillant, do. 

Senateur Vaisse, do. 

Victor Verdier, do. 

Blairii No. 2,Hybrid China 

Charles Lawson, Hybrid 
China. 


Gloire de Dijon, Noisette Comte de Nanteuil, do. 

Souvenir dela Malmaison, General Jacqueminot, do. 
Bourbon John Hopper, do. 

Alfred Colomb, Hybrid Jules Margottin, do. 
Perpetual La Ville de St. Denis, do. 

Baroness Rothschild, do. Madame Boutin, do. 

Baronne Préyost, do. Madame Boll, do. 

Caroline de Sansales, do. Madame Caillat, do. 


I omitted the last rose, when speaking of those which bloom 
only once; but he has pleaded with me for admission every 
time I have passed through my rose garden, reminding me 
how many years he has faithfully served me with large and 
beautiful roses, and at last convincing me that I should do an 
injustice to him, to myself, and to the young amateur, if I did 
not include him in my list. 


CLIMBING DEVONIENSIS ROSE. 


Your correspondent ‘‘D. T. F.” says this is the tenderest of all 


tea roses; he also says it will not do upon a wall without being 


thatched over. Four years ago we planted, against a twelve-feet 


wall facing due east, a plant of the Climbing Devoniensis, budded 


upon a dwarf briar. ‘The first season, owing to its having been 


cut rather closely for buds, it did not flower much 3; but the following 
spring it threw out one shoot eighteen fect long, with thickness in 
That season we 
had a few blooms which were very fine, but there were not many of 
them. Last season, however, the display was magnificent, as many 
as thirty beantifully-formed, half-open buds, with a quantity of 
others in yarious stages of development, being all visible at one 
time—the admiration of all who saw them, This tree withstood the 
severity of the winter of 1870-1871 withont being in any way 
r Tt was neither thatched nor protected in any shape. ~ 
Against the same wall we haye, on three successive seasons, lost 
on the Manetti stock. We have also 


proportion, and several others of less dimensions. 


injured. 


plants of Maréchal Niel, 
standards of Climbing Devoniensis, which did well last ‘winter, 


planted upon a piece of ground facing due north; but we cannot 


Say as much for several other teas planted in the same situation, 

such as Madame Falcot, Madame Margottin, Madame Willermoz, 

and others, all of which: have been cut down to the buds. Cc. W. 
White Cross Nurseries, Hereford. 


A HEREFORDSHIRE COTTAGE GARDEN. 


A PLEASANT garden, with plenty of large and fine pansies, some 
Toses, and great promise of more. It is extremely neat, clean and 
finely Kept, and it is the pride of the mistress that she takes the 
entire care of it herself ; as we walk, she has her scissors in her 
hand, and cuts flowers 3 and when we are seated in a curions little 
arbour of clipped yew, where she had left her “work” when she 
came in to see us, she arranges nosegays and presents them to us. 
The house is small; the walls are of plain red brick; the roof of 
slate, with but moderate pitch ; the chimneys and windows of the 
usual simple American country-house form and size. There is no 
porch, verandah, gable or dormer, upon the garden side, yet the 
house has a, very pleasing and tasteful aspect, and does not at all 
disfigure the lovely landscape of distant woody hills, against which 
We see it. Five shillings’ worth of material from a nursery, half- 
a-day’s labour of a man, and some recreative work of our fair and 
healthy hostess’ own hands, have done it vastly better than a 
carpenter or mason could at a thousand times the cost. Three large 
evergreen trees haye grown near the end of the house, so that, instead 
of the plain, straight, ugly red corner, you see a beautiful, irreeular, 
natural, tufty tower of verdure; myrtle and jessamine clamber 
- gracefully upon a slight trellis of laths over the door ; roses are 
trained up about one of ‘the lower windows, honeysuckle about 
another, while all the others, above and below, are deeply draped 
and festooned with the ivy, which, starting from a few slips thrust 
one day into the soil by the mistress, near the corner opposite the 
evergreens, has already covered two-thirds of the bare brick wall on 
this side, found its way over the top of the tall yew-hedge, round 
the corner, climbed the gable-end, and is now creeping along the 
ridge-pole and up the kitchen chimney—which, before speaking only 
of boiled bacon and potatoes, now suggests happy holly-hangings of 
the fireside and grateful harvest’s home, hides all the formal lines and 
angles, breaks all the stiff rules of art, dances lightly over the grave 
precision of human handiwork, softens, shades, and shelters all 
under a gorgeous vesture of Heayven’s own weaying.—Olmsted’s 
Walks of an American Farmer in England. 


A NEW GRASS (ERIANTHUS MOUSTIERII). 


a Tre plant to which we have given this name, inremembrance of its 
introducer, M. le Comte A. de Moustier, is not only new, but probably 
unknown in Europe. It is a native of Mount Olympus, near the town 
of Broussa, where M. de Moustier met with it growing amongst 
shrubs, in a perfectly wild locality, during his journey through Asia 
Minor about the year 1861. These details are authentic, having 
been furnished by M. Vilcot, gardener to M. le Comte de Moustier, 
at La Chapelle-sur-Crecy (Seine-et-Marne), in a letter which he 
wrote to us November 22, 1871, and from which we extract the 
following :— jm 

“This species grows much taller than our tallest Gyneriums. M. 
de Moustier, when gathering the seeds, was obliged to stand upright 
in his stirrups, being on horseback at the time. The stems which 
he sent me were almost as white as those of the Gynerium, but not 
nearly so strong; they wore very silky and flexible. 


THE GARDEN. 


- .  [Fep. 10, 1872, 


“T sowed the seeds in March 1868 in a seed-pan, which I placed 
in a temperate house; they began to vegetate in about a month’s 
time. At this stage of their growth the plants were so like 
Gyneriums that, but for their label, I should hardly haye been 
able to know the difference. About May I potted them off into 
three-inch pots, and then successively into six-inch and ten-inch — 
pots. During the winter of 1863-64 I put them in a temperate 
house, where they remained until May 1864, when I planted them 
out in the open air. It was only then that I perceived that the 
leaves had a white stripe running down the centre, At the present 
date the only two plants which I have left stand on a shady knoll; 
they have as yet given no signs of flowering.” Y 

Having ourselves possessed this plant for two years (M. le Comte 
de Moustier having had the kindness to send us a strong specimen in 
the spring of 1869), we are enabled to describe it :—It is a cxspitose — 
plant, not running at the root, but with a very stout rhizome, from 
which issue numerous closely-set shoots. The leaves are very long, 
comparatively narrow (almost rushlike), very flexible, arching 
forwards im a graceful curve, and haying in the centre a prominent 
rounded midrib, the top of which is concave and marked with a 
white line; the edges of the leaves are very finely toothed, but do — 
not cut like those of Gynerium; the underside (and particularly 
the leaf-stalk) is covered with white silky hairs. Hrom the centre 
of the principal leaf-stalks issues a jointed flower-stem, sheathed 
for a great part of its length by the enveloping and yvillose base of 
the leayes. This flower-stem attains a height of nearly ten feet or 
even more, and bears the inflorescence at its summit. 


We are not certain that this plant belongs to the genus Erianthus, 
Tf we have placed it there, it is because of its resemblance to that 
genus, of which it appears to possess all the characteristics. But 
eyen if it should hereafter have to be transferred to the allied genus 
Saccharum, it should still’ be allowed to retain the appellative 
Moustierii, in memory of its introducer the Count de Monstier.—Hd. 
Carviére, in “ Revue Horticole,” : 


NOTES ON BEDDING PLANTS. 


._ LOBPLIA sPECIosA.—Many raise their stock of this from seed sown 
in heat in spring; but a much better plan is to sow it in October. Our 
seedlings of it, sown last October, and placed on a shelf near the glass in 
a cool house, are now strong and healthy, and ready to prick off; when 
established, they will be moved toa cold pit. There is no comparison 
between dwarf, bushy, autumn-sown plants of this Lobelia and those 
raised in heat in sprmg. When the stock is kept true, and carefully 
selected, seedlings will generally hold their own against cuttings. Never- 
theless, with particular kinds, and for certain positions, we always raise 
a part of our stock from cuttings. , 

LoBetiA PUMILA GRANDIFLORA.—This has a dense dwarf habit and 
bright blue colour. Planted rather closely, have no hesitation in saying 
that it makes avery beautiful bed. 

Srorrep Drav-Nerrue (Lamium MacuLaTuM).— Without seeing 
this in a mass, it is impossible to form an opinion as to its beauty 
and usefulness in the flower-garden. Hither for winter, spring, or 
summer decoration, it always looks fresh. It does beautifully for 
covering the edges of raised beds, or for forming undergrowth in beds of 


Dracznas and similar plants. Itis, also, especially useful for softening 


and toning down bright colours. 


Azvurmon THompsoni.—This beautiful variegated greenhouse plant 
is a great acquisition in the flower garden, either for massing, or aS 
single specimens, or in mixed beds of foliage plants, or as a front: plant 
in an ornymental shrubbery. Tt will bear several degrees of frost without: 
injury, and, if carefully lifted in autumn, and potted, it will be found 
useful in the conservatory. We have several plants of it which were 
potted up from the borders last autumn that have been in flower ever 
since, and that will continue in that condition through the winter. 
Young shoots strike freely in spring in a hot-bed. : 

ACER NEGUNDO YVARIEGATUM.—All who have seen this beautiful 
Maple in Battersea Park will require no further inducement to plant it. 
Dwarf plants of it make a striking bed; standards or half standards 
succeed beautifully, and look wellin the centres of large beds. They 
have, also, a fine appearance in shrubberies, brightening up, as they do, in 
an astonishing degree dark masses of evergreens in summer. 


CENTAUREA RAGUSINA.—This, I need scarcely say, is one of the 
best and most useful white-leaved plants for the flower garden yet 
introduced, and it is easily propagated in a cold pit in September. Last 
autumn, after our September stock was in, we found that we required 
nearly a thousand more cuttings. These were put in the first week in 
November, and from them we shall obtain, at least, nine hundred plants. 
Anyone, too, who has a few old plants may easily increase them in the — 
spring in this Way: cut off the soft growth down to where the shoots are 
rather firm; place the plants near the glass, in a temperature of 55°; 
plenty of young shoots willsoon push from the stems; and when an inch 
or an inch and half long, will strike ina hot-bed as easily as verbenas, 
and make nice plants by May. E, Hospay, Ramsey Abbey. 


Fer. 10, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Perpetual Red or Pink Climbing Roses.—May I ask Mr. 

Reynolds Hole to be kind enough to furnish me with the names of eight 
or ten good red or pink climbing roses, for either the wall of a house or 
fora verandah? 1 have twelve columns of a verandah, on which I wish 
to plant alternate colours of roses. Of the yellow, white, &e., there can 
be no want; but the difficulty is in finding good sorts of perpetual red 
roses for either pillars or walls. I may mention that it is for a place in 
Kent, with a dry, sandy soil—Consranr Sunscriser——(To the 
above Mr. Hole has kindly furnished the following reply:—“ I grieve 

_ to inform your cerrespondent that climbing roses, in bloom perpetual, 
and in colour red or pink, are hopes, but not realities, to us rosarians. 
They are visions of beauty which we see through our rose-coloured 
spectacles, to be verified hereafter, as I firmly believe, to those organs 
which Mr. Weller has described as ‘our werry eyes. In kindly 
soil General Jacqueminot and Climbing Geant des Batailles would, 
I think, satisfy your correspondent’s requirements, and there is a Climbing 

Victor Verdier, raised by Mr. George Paul, of Cheshunt, hich seemed to 
me full of promise; but I know of no other red or pink eA ppm climber, 
which can enlarge this trio into a quartet. There are reliable varieties 
which flower but once, such as the Crimson Boursault and several of the 
Hybrid Bourbon and Hybrid China families; but these are not what 
your correspondent wants. } > 


The Rose-Tree of Hildesheim.—The oldest rose-tree known is 
- said to be that which covers a wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, in 


Germany. It isa thousand years old. From the main stem, which is a- 


foot in diameter, extend six branches, fifteen feet high. In the Middle 
a was afforded a shed roof, as a protection from the vicissitudes of the 
weather. 


_ Cheap Roses.—* Y.” (p. 204) says we can have roses at threepence 
each. One can hardly manage them for that at home—I mean standards— 
‘though we have learnéd the art of buying the briars in the cheapest market, 
and-growing and working them in a wholesale way in out-of-the-way 
. I confess I have never been very successful, except with Teas, 
inas, &c., and it is rather galling to one who likes dwart roses best of 
all on their own roots to throw away thousands of shoots of Perpetuals 
every winter, if they really can be made to strike like willows, under 
certain treatment. Will “ Y.”’ kindly inform us what this treatment is ? for 
T see no prospect of roses at 3s. per dozen, unless we: strike and grow our 
own. Neither will this hurt the growers, for all must go to them for new 
varieties, and new rose growers by the thousand are cropping up afresh 
-- every year. It is, too,a most extraordinary fact that the more roses we 
work, the more we buy.—D. T. F.—[Other correspondents write for 
elation on this subject. ‘“ Y.’’ says he does not like to part with his 
secre > - 


Verbenas for Beddi oses.—Will you kindly name a few 
d varieties suitable for beds ?—K. J—[ Mr. Westland says the best 
edding verbenas, taking habit and continuity of bloom into consideration, 
are Ariosto Improved, rich mulberry ; Crimson King, a compact and good 
bedder ; La Grande Boule de Neige, a fine white; Purple King, the best 
purple ; Perfection, pink ; Venosa, a hardy variety, producing a charmin 
“effect when planted in masses or grouped, coming true from seed; Celestia 
Blue, a and distinct sort; Firefly, very bright scarlet; Melindris 
splendens, vivid scarlet, well adapted to form a ground work for other 
ts, very desirable; Snowflake, white; Annie, rosy pink, striped with 
white ; and Blondin, magenta, very compact. } 7 


Santolina incana.—This has proved a good acquisition to our flower 

‘ ens in summer; it is perfectly hardy, forms a neat edging plant for 
or borders, and is equally valuable for carpet-bedding purposes. It 

never exceeds nine inches in height ; if required it can be pinched down to 
within one inch of the ground ; it will stand three or four years. As soon 
as the flowers appear in spring, clip it down to the required height ; it 
will soon recover and assume its beautiful silvery appearance. The best 
method of propagating the Santolina is to lift a few plants in autumn, cut 
them close down and pot them; store away in a cold pit or frame, and 
remove them, say about the beginning of February, to a propagating pit 
or house. As soon as the young growths have attained an inch im length, 

_ take the cuttings off; guard against injuring the cuttings, a sharp knife 
being essential to prepare them; insert them im pots or pans, prepared in 
precisely the same manner as for verbena cuttings. It is a waste of labour 
to attempt to strike the Santolina in pots in autumn; then they will 
strike inserted in a shady situation in the open ground. They ought to 
_ be hardened off by the beginning of May, when they may be taken from 
the store pots, and planted out about four inches apart; they will form a 
tiful , and amply reward the cultivator for any trouble bestowed 


Pe on them. ‘This Santolina is also a neat and attractive rock-plant.— 
| H, W., Bury St. Edmunds. , 

Bambusa edulis.—Of the numerous species of bamboos which are 
hardy in our gardens, and which have been introduced within the last ten 
years from China, Cochin China, and other regions of the distant East, 
none has exhibited a more vigorous growth than Bambusa edulis. We 
have seen it produce in a few weeks shoots over nine feet long, and as 
thick as a man’s wrist at the base. These giant pseudo-asparaguses did 

not begin to branch until had reached their full length. One might 
“see them grow,” as the ga say. We have not yet tried to eat the 
young shoots, which are said to be nutritious, and we are now only urging 
the ornamental value of this fine plant in moist soils and on the margin of 
pieces of water.—Ed, André, in L’Ilustration Horticole. 


o, — i” eel ha 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


APHIDES: THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR FOES. 
BY EDWARD NEWMAN. 
(Continued from page 2438.) 

A worp must be said about the “ golden-eyes,” the ‘“ lace-winged 
flies,” whose lary are also called aphislions, and well deserve the 
name, for they spend the whole of their existence—I mean the whole 
of the larval portion of their existence—in gorging themselves with 
aphides. In many particilars of their lives the two kinds of aphis- 
lions resemble each other, but in others they are decidedly different. 
The golden-eyes fly in the evening only, unless disturbed; the 
Syrphi fly only in the sunshine, or at any rate in the hottest and 
brightest hours of the day. Then the mode of flight is different ; 


athe golden-eyes have a very uniform fluttering, and feeble flight, 


and never suspend themselves seemingly motionless in mid air, or 
dart off with lightning speed, as do the Syrphi. Their mode of egg- 
laying is essentially different ; seven or eight eggs constitute the 
whole of one laying. I have seen ten in one instance, but this is very 
unusual. Almost every entomologist with whom I am acquainted 
has described these eggs as attached to the disk or surface of the 
leaf, but I have commonly found them attached to the edges. The 
female stands on the edge of the leaf, and with the tip of her body 
just touches it, emitting at the same time a small quantity of liquid 
glue. Then, still holding the leaf with her legs, she draws her body 
away from the leaf, at the same time discharging this liquid glue in 
the form of a hair, which almost immediately hardens, assuming 
the appearance of a real hair; at the extremity of thisseeming hair, 
which does not usually exceed half an inch in length, she leaves a 
long oval egg; she repeats the same process with a second, a third, 
and so on, up to seven or eight. ,The eggs thus deposited have a 
most singular appearance. When the inclosed larva is ready for 
exclusion, he pushes off the top of the egg, and pops out his head like 
Jack-in-the-Box. He then comes deliberately down the seeming hair 
which supports the egg, and at once finds himself surrounded by his 
living food. But I must dwell for a moment on the empty egg-shell, 
which isa most beautiful object. It resembles a hair-bell on its tong 
footstalk, or still more nearly those pretty campanulate aquatic 
zoophytes which our microscopists delight to contemplate, and our 
natural history artists to portray. 

When full fed, the larva leayes the scene of slaughter, and retires 
to a neighbouring crack or other place of concealment, and there 
spins a little round cocoon, so very small that it is diffienlt to con- 
ceive how it can hold the large lace-winged fly which has to come 
out of it. There is so great a discrepancy between the size of the 
cocoon and the fly that I could not for along while trust the evidence 


| of my own eyes, and thought I must have made some mistake, but 


repeated observation convinced me I was right. There is something 
equally strange about the fabrication of this cocoon. It is spun not 
from a silken thread proceeding from the mouth, but from silk pro- 
duced at the other end of the body. This strange creature is fur- 
nished with little nipple-like warts, very small, and quite invisible 
to the naked eye, situated just where we observe the spinnerets of a 
spider, and from these issues the silk necessary for constructing the 
pea-like cocoon in which the creature chooses to imprison itself. And 
here I cannot resist the temptation to invite the attention of 
naturalists to the almost exact accordance of these spider-like larvie 
of aphislions, and antlions as well, with the true spiders in their 
full grown and adult condition. The food is exactly the same, the 
mode of seizing it with the jaws the same, the mode ‘of extracting 
its juices for nutriment the same, the absence of all mastication the 
same, the consequent rejection of all the solid parts the same, the 
mode of producing silk from the extremity of its body the same, and 
finally the cocoon of the golden-eye so exactly resembles the egg bag 
of a spider that, with fifty years’ experience, I am even now unable 
to distinguish some of them without opening; but then the resem- 
blance is at an end—the spider’s cocoon contains eggs; that of the 
aphislion contains itself, and nothing more. 

With regard'to the perfect golden-eye, a few words may suffice to 
describe it. It has two eyes of the most glorious gold-colour— 
indeed, more golden than the precious metal itself—no burnished 
gold can compare with the beauty and lustre of these eyes. Several 
entomologists have tried to account for the extraordinary beauty of 
these eyes by the presence of a peculiar varnish which is spread all 
over them, and say that this varnish catches the light in some 
peculiar manner, and thus acquires its intense brilliancy; but this 
is purely imaginary, and we can only admire without explaining. 
The wings are four in number, beautifully reticulated and exactly 
alike, and the body and legs are green. Altogether it is one of the 
most attractive-looking insects that our gardens produce; but the 
attraction lessens when you handle it. Catch it, and hold it for 


. 


204 


examination between your finger and thumb, and it will emit a 
stench so intolerable that you are glad to release it instantly, and 
wash your hands to rid yourself of the contamination. 

What shall I say of the ladybirds? We know that they are the 
favourites of children, who delight to pick them off the leaves by 
the wayside, to let them crawl up to the tips of their fingers, to 
watch them open their coral wing-cases, spread their ganzy wings, 
and launch themselves on the summer air. The little ones will then 
adyise their pets to return to their homes, on account of a domestic 
calamity, a conflagration, to which it is necessary they should attend 
at once, because their children are still under the paternal roof, 
which is becoming a prey to the deyouring element. We know also 
that they are the most serviceable of insects, and seem, like the 
Aphidii and the aphislions, to haye been expressly created by an 
Allwise Ruler to hold in check the aphides, those scourges of farm 
and garden against which man, with all his power and. all his 
experience, is utterly defenceless. i 
more. I will relate a little, a very little, of their life-history. 

The female, wandering over the aphides, and making a meal of two 
or three, as her inclination prompts—hunger is out of the question 
with such an abunélant table spread before her as the succulent shoot 
of arose bush smothered with a serried phalanx of aphides—will 
now and then pause from a feeling of repletion, and lay a few yellow 
eggs wherever she can introduce her oyipositor among: her victims. 


These hatch, and produce little hexapod, lizard-like larvzo, and these, 


being born amidst their food, begin killing and eating in their very 
babyhood, and continue killing and eating until arrived at their full 
stature, when they fix themselves by the tail end of their body to the 
surface of the leaf; and, after a time, sundry moyements show that, 
although thus securely moored, a locomotive instinct is at work 
within. This exhibits itself more and more decidedly until the skin 
parts at the head end, is gradually shuffled downwards towards the 
other extremity, and remains just round the tail, puckered and folded 
like a stocking pushed down to the ankle and left there, the foot still 
remaining covered. The object that has thus wriggled itself out of 
its skin, or almost out of its skin, is a chrysalis of very curious form ; 

_ its head is bent under its breast, its back is rounded or humped, and 
notched like a saw, and the two wing cases, or what are destined 
to become the wing cases, hang down beneath the body like the 
flippers of a seal. They do not touch any part of the back, which 
in a few days they are destined completely to cover and protect, as 
a thatched roof covers and protects a cottage, overhanging it all 
round. This chrysalis exhibits an impatient, angry disposition if 
you touch it, and jerks itself from side to side in futile efforts to 
escape, which is rendered impossible by the secure manner in which 
the creature has fastened itself by the tail. The chrysalis state 
lasts ten or twelve days, and then the perfected ladybird emerges, 
clothed in black-spotted scarlet. In this state, like the golden-eye, 
it has the power of emitting a fetid fluid which communicates its 
disagreeable odour to everything it touches. This seems the inherent 
property of all aphidivorous insects, and it may possibly be a wise 
provision for their safety, for neither bird, beast, nor insect would 
be likely to enjoy so disgusting a morsel. : 

There has been considerable discussion on the question whether 
ladybirds, confine themselves strictly to an aphis diet; but I tan 
assert positively that they donot. A ladybird may often be found 
secreted in the hollow of a plum or pear when thoroughly ripe— 
indeed, these fruits rarely exhibit cavities until they are thoroughly 
ripe—and the fact of the insect being taken in the act, as it were, 
has often been regarded as positive evidence that it was the exca- 
vator ; but truth is on the other side. The cavity was made by a 
wasp, or a slug, or a snail, and, being made, the ladybird crept into 
it, and while in has actually so far departed from its usual custom 
as to nibble at the luscious pulp. The fact makes itself manifest, by 
watching a ladybird when engaged ona plum. Its mandibles may 
be seen in motion under a lens of moderate power, and the diminu- 
tion of the pulp after a time becomes very evident. But eyen inthis 
matter the ladybird is guiltless of doing us an injury, for it only 
takes the leavyings of others—fallen or decaying fruit, which we 
leave on the ground as useless. ‘ 

Let me conclude by entreating my readers to spare and to pro- 
tect these aphis-eaters wherever they may be found, and not to 


condemn the aphides, their friends and their foes, to indiscriminate 


slaughter.—Field, 


CATERPILLARS AND CAULIFLOWERS. 


Dvrine an excursion last September, near the town of Meaux, I 
observed in a bed of cauliflowers several rows of elder branches, 
planted about three feet from each other, and still retaining their 
faded leaves. On making inquiry as to the use and purpose of these, 


’ 


THE GARDEN. 


All this we know, but very little” 


' mercury, showed itself. 


[Frz. 10, 1872. 


the owner replied, ‘‘ Some years since, one of my neighbours had 
several rows of canliflowers planted near a hedge of young elders, 
and further on—in the same field and on the same day—he had 
planted another lot. These last, which were as carefully attended to 
as the others, and from which the caterpillars were constantly 
picked, were very much injured by them, and the crop was scanty, 
and, from its wretched appearance, hardly fit to offer for sale. The 
most careful picking could not dislodge the caterpillars from the 
hearts of the plants. On the other hand, the few rows which had 
been planted near the elder hedge were perfectly uninjured—not a 
caterpillar had touched them. The explanation of this eurions fact 


_ is that the butterflies preferred layimg their eggs on the leayes of the 


elders, which were completely deyoured by their caterpillars. Eyer 
since that time, the people of this neighbourhood stick branches of 


young elders among their cauliflowers, and, later on, when the cater. 


pillars on these haye reached a certain stage of growth, some cool 
morning before sunrise they pluck up the elder branches, throw 
them in a heap, which they cover with straw or dry grass, and set 
them on fire. As the cauliflowers are not yet fully grown, fresh 
elder branches are placed amongst them.”’ ‘ 

As it is natural to conclude that other cruciferous plants might be 
protected from caterpillars in this way, a supply of elder branches 
will be a desideratum. This might be supplied by planting a piece 
of waste ground with elder, at a distance of a yard apart, heading 
them down close to the ground like osiers. The result would largely 
repay the trouble in the saving of time which is lost in caterpillar 
picking, a process which cannot, moreover, always be relied upon 
from the difficulty of performing the operation thoroughly and 
efficiently.—Correspondent of ‘‘ Revue Horticole.” 


EFFECTS OF A ROOKERY ON VEGETATION. 


Ir there were not some compensating influence at work, it is quite 
plain that trees would show far greater evidence of suffering from 
the friction of the feet of such a multitude of birds of no small size 
than is observable in most of our rookeries. But the excrement 
dropped by the birds, and washed into the earth by rain or drawn in 
by worms at night, does in fact greatly stimulate vegetation, and 
not least that of the lofty trees themselves. 

Of the effect on the humbler growth, the following instance seems 
worth recording. I have a grove of tall horse-chestnuts, sycamiores, 
and Spanish chestnuts, with here and there an oak. The upper soil 
is a light, dry, and weakly humus, of a blackish colour, and no great 
thickness ; whilst beneath lies a yellow ferruginous rubble of sand 
and clay, intermixed with carboniferous freestone.' Neither soil nor 
subsoil are such as can be described of even average fertility ; and 
were it not that the trees had the benefit of two very favourable 
conditions, they could not have reached their present timber-like 
stature, though more than one hundred and fifty years old. They 
stand on a hillside, always a friendly site for timber, and the 
aspect is cool and northerly, another great aid where the soil is light” 
and hungry. } < 

Some twenty years ago, before the rooks had established them- 
selves, so exceedingly poor and hungry was the ground, that no one 
native plant, save a little struggling and almost invisible dog’s 
Nothing but dead leaves lay on the surface, 
and repeated attempts fo establish periwinkle, London pride, and 
common bramble (growing luxuriantly close by) altogether failed. 
I should add that no cattle or sheep had access to fertilise the 
surface. } 

At the present time, after twenty years of a moderately stocked 
rookery overhead (but no admission of more air by thinning of the 
timber), the ground is covered knee-deep by brambles, intermingled 
with periwinkle, grasses, stachys, nettles, &c., and the old trees are 
quite as thriving, if not more so. In another quarter an avenue of 
tall beeches is the scene of clamorous nidification. The soil and 
subsoil are here deep and good, but the site high, exposed to every 
wind, and very dry. Formerly the grass was poor and scanty under 
these beeches. Though the nests have never been numerous here, 
the airy ayenue is a favourite trysting place of swarthy hosts from 


neighbouring localities on a fine morning, which come to sun them- 


selves. . 

Under these trees there was last summer the finest growth of 
coltsfoot and foxtail grass that I ever saw under beeches anywhere, — 
and the tall summits overhead show no signs of harm or scathe from 
being the scene of so many loquacious parliaments. : : 

By the way, on these tall beeches a curious approximation and 
fraternisation of rooks and guinea fowls used to take place; for it- 
pleased the latter birds, at roosting time on mild eyenings of April ~ 
and May, to mount aloft very high, quite near to the rook nests; and 
there sat the twoincongruous European and African groups, within a 


Fen. 10, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


255 


yard or two of each other, vying with each other in discordant clamour, 
yet evidently recognising a certain mutual allegiance and respectful 
good neighbourhood. So they passed the nights for many weeks in 
spring, and it was very stormy weather indeed that would compel 
the guinea fowls to sit lower than their friends,—R. Carr Ellison, 
Dunstan Hill, Durham, in “ Field.” - 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


Hairy Caterpillars.—These, almost without exception, are free 
from the attacks of birds, and, what may perhaps be an indirect conse- 
quence of their instinctive knowledge of this immunity, there are no 
caterpillars that so freely expose themselves to view. The cuckoo is 
almost the only bird that takes them. And even it does not feed upon 
all indifferently ; for M. Grette de Palleul states that he has never found, 
in all his examinations, any caterpillars of Liparis chrysorrhea in the 
stomach of any bird. ; 

‘Lymexylon navale.—This is common in oak forests in the north 
of Europe, where it does much injury, by perforating the solid timber, 
and is occasionally so abundant in the dockyards there as to do much 
mischief. Linnzeus, who studied the life history of the insect, ascer- 
tained the period at which it made its appearance in the perfect state and 
when it laid its eggs, and recommended that the oak timber in the 
doc’ ds in Sweden should be sunk under water at that period. This 
was done with perfect success. The insect, therefore, has always had a 
certain interest of its own for the entomelogist, which is not diminished 
by its being rarer in other districts than in those infested. It is rare in this 
country, and used to be rare in the neighbourhood of Paris; but it is 
enrious, as showing how rapidly an insect scourge may be invited by pro- 
ducing abundance of pabulum, that this year it has ceased to be so, it 
having been taken in great quantities in the dead ogk left lying in the 
forests, which had been cut down by the Prussians. The dead oak 
timber has apparently served as an attraction to bring it from distant 
quarters. : 


Worms on Lawns.—Will some of your readers kindly inform 
me what are the best means of destroying worms on lawns? I have 
a bowling-green, consisting of 3,000 square yards, which is infested with 

them; I have killéd thousands with corrosive sublimate, but thousands 
more seem to come to the funeral of those that are dead. At 
the Boece time, while the ground is damp, the worms form innu- 
merable little mounds of earth on the surface of the green, which, when 
the roller goes over them, are flattened on the grass, completely spoiling 
the green. Last season, being a wet one, I had great trouble from these 
worms, and used a large quantity of sublimate. Can anyone give me a 
better remedy ?—J.B.. : 


GARDEN STRUCTURES. 


A WARM FRAME. 

I rntyxk all interested in horticulture would be pleased to see 
two new frames which I have built, one hundred feet long by eight 

. feet wide. Bya simple piece of machinery the ridges are lifted, 
though so long, with the greatest ease, thus giving air withont the 
trouble of opening the lights. A four-inch pipe goes round each 
frame, connected with a hothouse, and fitted with a valve. Each 
light is hung on pegs of iron dropping into a hook, so that they can 
be lifted off to paint. The lights open as if connected by hinges; 
their being movable is a great advantage. The bottom of the frame 


for its, or rather their, advantage, for I was so pleased with the first, 
built in 1868, that I built another in 1869. They are ventilated in a 
few seconds, without a cold wind playing on the plants. There are 
no hinges to get fast, with rust orto break. They are safe from frost. 
The plants are near the glass. There is room for a man on his knees 
to work inside plunging plants when the lights are down. The pots 
being plunged in cocoa fibre refuse (which is clean, pleasant to handle, 
and free from insects and snails), there is little or no evaporation 
from the sides of the pots, and the plants seldom want watering. 
These frames are filled with seedling geraniums and tricolor 


geraniums ; and all who have seen them are pleased and surprised at 
their appearance. They look as if growing in an open bed in summer 
weather. Now, if these plants had been kept in greenhouses, they 
would have required watering every few days; but the frames have 
only been looked over once a week, and the plants have not been 
watered once a fortnight, except the row nearest the pipes. In 
watering, say, 5,000 plants, the difference between the labour 
required to do it once a fortnight and six times is something con- 
siderable. But this is not all; the plants are not chilled, the good- 
ness of the soil is not washed out by such frequent waterings ; and 
again, the cocoa fibre refuse being so perfect a non-conductor, the roots 
are kept in a more equable temperature than by any means with 
which I am acquainted. I shall be glad to show these frames to 
anyone.—J. R. Pearson, Notts, in “‘ Field.” 


A GOOD AND SIMPLE HEATED PLANT CASE. 


We have much pleasure in calling attention toa plant case invented 
by Mr. Peter Barr, which is most effective in raising seedlings and 
growing plants which require a genial warmth. Our illustration 
saves us the necessity of describing it. Below the “ fibre’’ and the 
“‘water’’ the section shows a hollow chamber, and below that a little 
stand supports a lamp, the heat from which enters the chamber and 
escapes through small perforations in its sides. This lamp works 


very well, simply requiring trimming night and morning, and 
replenishing with oil; the best colza oil is used. There are two pat- 
terns of this case—one rather deep, in which small stove plants, &e., 
may be grown; the other shallow, and more suitable for seedlings, 
cuttings, and other dwarf subjects, which are thus brought much 
nearer the glass. They are manufactured in several sizes. These 
cases will be found very useful by persons who wish to raise seed- 
lings or grow tender plants in a dwelling-house, or in a cool green- 
house, orchard-house, or conservatory. This is a modification of an 
improvement on the Waltonian case. 


LAE PROPAGATOR. 
RAISING SEEDS OF HARDY AND TENDER PLANTS. 


Goop seeds are of great importance towards the success and 
enjoyment of a garden, but to have a clear idea of the best and 
simplest way of raising them is very much more so. The seedsmen 
may have a good deal to answer for, but in the great majority of 
cases the blame is wrongly laid on their shoulders. The “ bad seed ” 
of the amateur very often means mismanaged seed. 

The first thing the sower should do is to classify his seeds—at 
least, in all cases where there is a variety of tender and hardy plants 
to be sown. They should be classified according to the positions in 
which it is intended to raise them—in the hotbed, frame, open air, 
oras the case may be. Then each packet should have a wooden label 
written for it, and affixed to the packet by a kind of matting. This 
will save a good deal of trouble when a favourable time for sowing 
comes, as the sower will not have to cease his sowing every moment 
to write a label. Mistakes are also less likely to occur when the 
proper writing of the labels forms an operation by itself. 

The following rules may prove useful to the inexperienced in 
the sowing of seeds in pots :— 

1, All pots and pans used for seed sowing should be well drained in 
the ordinary way ; and, as fine soil is much employed in seed sowing, a 
layer of dry moss or of roughish soil should separate the drainage 
from the fine soil above. 

2. The soil on the top surface of all pans, pots, &c., used for seed 
sowing should be finely pulverised by sifting, not only to allow the 
seeds a medium in which to root readily and freely, but also one in 
which they may be divided with little injury to the roots. 

8. Good sandy loam may be taken as the base of most soils used 
for seed sowing, but it should always have nearly half its bulk of 
finely pulverised leaf-monld, peat, or some vegetable soil in it, and 


tae : 


256 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fes. 10, 1872. ‘ 


Se ee eee eee ee ee ee 


fully one-fourth of the whole should he of sand. Where vegetable 
soil is abundant, it may be employed almost exclusively, always 
however with the addition of fine sand. ; . 

4. The soil should be made perfectly firm and level in the pots, 
particularly in the case of small seeds. This is most important? 

5. Allsmall seeds should be sown very much thinner than is cus- 
tomary. Very. often they are sown so thickly that the poor little 
plants can do nothing but illustrate the “ struggle for life,” and, 

“when drawn up and etiolated in this way, the whole batch often 
perish from mould. Sow thin enough to permit of every plant having 
room to unfold its leayes when it peeps above the ground. In nine 
cases out of ten one thousand seeds are sown where one hundred 
would have sufficed. - 5 

6. It is ausual plan to cover all seeds with a covering of soil about 
equal to their own size; but in the case of large seeds, like those of 
the castor-oil plant, for example, little nicety as to covering need be 
observed, as they will push up through a much greater depth of soil 
than we can give them in pots or pans. It is with the small seeds 
that the care is required. In their case a perfectly level firm surface 


is, above all things, necessary, and very finely sifted sandy soil ; for 


~ yery small seeds it may be nearly all sand. In the case of the most 
minute class of seeds,-ef which the calceolaria is an example, it is 
better not to cover at all, but, having made the soil perfectly firm 
and level with the bottom of a smooth pot, or circular piece of wood 
with handle attached, water it with a fine rose; and, as soon as the 
water has disappeared, sow the seeds on the surface. Many very 
small seeds do not start from being too deeply covered, and even 
some not very small ones often fail to vegetate from the same cause— 
the Chinese primula, for example. 

7. All seeds sown in pits, frames, or houses require shading during 
sunshine; and it is particularly necessary in the case of the finer 
kinds of seeds sown on the surface. As these must first put forth 
their delicate little rootlets on the surface, an hour’s strong sun 
would completely sap the life out of them. For frames, tiffany, thin 
canvas, or mats will serve. For a few dozen pots of seeds sown in a 
hothouse, there is nothing better than a newspaper spread over the 
pots, and supported by their labels. Where a number of different 
kinds of seeds are sown together in a frame, many kinds will be an 
inch above the surface, and with perfectly developed leaves, before 
others have shown at all. 
harden off those that are well up, as by doing so we are enabled to 
leave the frame, or pit, or handlight, in the darkened condition that 
is desirable for the seeds not up. 2 

8. Do not water seeds immediately after being sown, but when 
they begin to come freely they will be very thankful for a good 
watering of a fine morning when dry. As a rule, water them with 
tepid water from a fine rose. Of course, this applies to indoor seeds 
only. ” : 

Next let us take the various classes of flower seeds, hardy, 

. half-hardy, perennial, biennial, stove, and greenhouse seeds. 

Hardy annuals usually flourish in any ordinary garden soil, and 
merely require a sliglit covering, according to their size. Half an 
inch suffices for the largest kinds, such as the Iupins—that is, half 
an inch over the seeds; whereas the smaller kinds, such as viscarias, 
&c., require but a mere sprinkling. We usually have « barrowful of 
sifted potting refuse, or some other not over precious, fine, free, and 
sandy earth at hand for covering them; though, if carefully and 
neatly covered with a little of the ordinary earth, they are quite 
safe. But the quickest, simplest, and best way is to have some sifted 

~ .earth at hand, and then the depth of covering required by each may 
be regulated with ease. It is best to take this fine earth up in hand- 
fuls, and scatter it broadcast over the seeds, or toput some in a con- 
venient sized flower-pot, and then scatter it with the hand. Of 
course, a nice mild day should be chosen for this and all similar 
operations, and the soil should {be dry and friable, that the sowing 
may be made with comfort and facility. These and all seeds should 
be sown in lines or rings, not in broadeast patches, because when 
sown in line the difference between the plants and weeds can be seen 
in a moment, when both come up thick after a few weeks; whereas, 
. if sown broadcast, all come up together, and unless an experienced 
hand familiar with the youngest aspects of the plants, you may not 
be able-to distinguish them from the weeds. Garden ground is 
generally full of the seeds of weeds, and these usually come up 
freely among flower seeds sown in the openair. ‘They should be 
removed from among the annuals as soon as obseryed. When once 
the annuals get a little start of the weeds, the rudest garden works 
man may distinguish them. Hardy annuals are like grass. They 
may be sown in the open ground at any time without fear of 
failure. It is, however, needless to sow them at any other time 
than in antumn or spring—chiefly in September and March—and early 
or late in spring or autumn, as the bloom may be required, Hardy 
annuals are in most instances, however, improved by being sown in 


Z 


It is desirable to frequently remove and — 


autumn. For example, there is as much difference between a bed 
of the bluebottle or eorn-flower (Centaurea Cyanus) sown in autumn 
and one sown in spring, as if they were two different plants, the 
alvantage being all in favour of the autumn sown subjects. The 
same is true of the sweet pea and many other plants. 


Biennials, among which are some of the prettiest plants used for 


spring gardening, generally are best sown in June and July, but par- 


‘ticular requirements or soils may make it desirable to modify this. 


They should be sown in some spare spots in the kitchen garden, and 
in autumn transplanted to the places in which they are to bloom the 
following spring or summer. It is a class worthy of much more 
attention than it usually receives, and includes not a few fine old 
garden flowers, like the Sweet William, This, however, and a good 
many others of the class, may be sown in nursery beds in spring. 
Half-hardy annuals form an important class, and with them may 
be sown such bedding plants as are usually raised from seed. A 
gentle hotbed is the best place for the generality of these, and if 
the bed be covered with fine soil, and the seeds sown directly upon 
it, so much the better. The greater number of half-hardy annuals 
will succeed perfectly if sown in pots ina cold frame or pit, with 
the lights kept close and shaded till the seeds germinate. No matter 


how they are raised, they should be gradually exposed to the open ~ 


air, soas to be-quite inured to it before the end of May, or, in the 
case of the quickest growing and hardiest things, long before that 
time. 
hotbed, the lights may be removed. Some of this class may be sown 
in the open air when the earth becomes sufficiently warm—say 


about the beginning of May—but many people lose them by sowing 


earlier. -3 

Tender annuals are a small class which require to be sown in a 
warm frame; a melon or cucumber frame, or nice warm stove, will 
do admirably. Give them and all other indoor seeds plenty of light 
when once up; in other words, keep them near the glass to prevent 
their being drawn. 

Hardy perennials.—Some of the finer and rarer sorts, slow-growing 


| alpine plants, &c., should be sown in pots or pans, and carefully 


looked after till strong. The month of March is, generally speaking, 
the best time for sowing these. The gentians, many North American 
plants, some anemones, ponies, cyclamens, and various other 
perennials are slow to germinate, and should be waited for, keeping 
the pots clear of weeds and in a cold frame during summer. The 


hardiest kinds may be raised abundantly on a bed of fine earth in’ ; 


the open air—say, on a favourably situated border. Sow in Apvil, 
or, indeed, at any time that the seeds come to hand or become 
ripe. By having a little nursery of young plants of this kind, 
vacancies may be filled up or new plantings made at any time. 


Many of the finer spring flowers come into this class, as well as the 


showy summer border flowers. Hardy perennials may be sown in 
autumn with great advantage, or, indeed, at any time during the 
summer, when the seed is ripe. Cover, as usual, in proportion to 
size, and sow in little drills—say half an inch deep—made by laying 
the straight handle of a rake or hoe across the bed, and then gently 
and equally pressing it down. Do not sow perennials in the place in 
which they are destined to flower, but plant them from the seed beds 
into such positions. ; 

The taste for sub-tropical plants, palms, &c., that is now arising is 
likely to cause many to take an interest in the raising of plants 
requiring a warm temperature. Their name is legion, and they 
differ much in size, from palm seeds as big as eggs to minute 
ones requiring scarcely any covering. All stove seeds should 
be sown in spring, at any time from January to the end of April, 


In the case of those sown directly on the soil of a gentle 


but if obtained in early summer it will be better to sow them at 


once than lose another season. They should rarely be sown in 
autumn, except where there are very good appliances, as otherwise 
they are apt to die off in winter. One of the most important 


points in the raising of seeds of stove plants is keeping them — 


near the glass from the moment they have appeared above the 
earth, and they should be potted off when very young. A few day’s 
neglect of these points may spoilthem. There is not, nor is there 
ever likely to be, a better position for raising seedlings of stove plants 
than the old-fashioned hotbed or pit heated by stable manure or 
leaves. The stove witha tan bed is also excellent, and they may 
also be raised in the ordinary plant stove. In it, however, we have 
always found ants great enemies to seeds, eating every grain of 
some kinds in a, single night. 


Greenhouse seeds are at present required by a larger class than — 


the preceding, and are, as a rule, much better started in the places 
recommended for the stove seeds than in the greenhouse; and, 
failing a stove, a good hotbed suits them to perfection. If they 
must be sown in the greenhouse proper, it would be wise to plunge 


the pots in moss or cocoa fibre, so as to counteract the effect of the — 
dry air common to greenhouses. There are palms for the greenhouse 


Fes, 10, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


257 


as well as the stove. We have just seen a list of twenty-cight kinds 

of palm seeds in a seedsman’s catalogue, but everyone of these we 
should place in a brisk hotbed, and give them a vigorous start. A 
gentle hotbed will prove an agreeable starting-place for seedlings of 
pelargoniums and plants of that type. Cinerarias should be sown 
towards the end of summer in a cool frame or pit, and with them the 
handsome herbaceous calceolarias. 

With stove and greenhouse, as well as many other seeds, it is often 
necessary to have a good deal of patience. Nothing is commoner 
than for people to throw away pots of seeds; under the impression 
that they are dead because they have not come up as soon, or nearly 
as soon, as soft and vigorous kinds, while all the time the seeds are 
as sound as can be. Some subjects take a long time to germinate; 

and some, that naturally start immediately after they fall from their 
pods in autumn, seem to become hardened by being kept over the 
winter in drawers, as our convenience requires. Therefore, we should 
always satisfy ourselves that seeds are dead before throwing them 
away. R. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
< (Continued from p. 234.) 


Prantinc.—A young, compact, well-rooted plant should be 
selected. If more than. one year old, it should have been 
transplanted. Before planting it is dressed, that is, its roots 
and branches are pruned and cleaned. The stem should be 
cut down to about ten inches from the collar, if the graft is to 
be low down, and about four inches in eases of cleft and 
crown grafting. The side branches should be cut away, or 

“rather shortened. Evergreens and certain kinds with hollow 
wood, as the sweet and horse chestnuts, the walnut, and the 
tulip tree, should not be topped. The trees should be planted 
in rows, so that those of each successive row may be opposite 
the spaces of the preceding one, and at distances calculated 
according to the future size of the subjects. A space of 
twenty inches between the plants, and thitty inches between 

_the rows, is the average in well-kept nurseries. This may be 
increased or diminished as the plant is likely to branch much 
or not, and in proportion to the length of time it is to remain 
in the nursery. The planting is done with a dibble or spade. 
Tf it is carried on slowly, or in a time of great heat, the roots 
of all the plants should be dipped in mud, or in a mixture of 
soft clay and cow-dung; which will prevent them from suffering 
by being kept out of the ground. The soil should be well 

_ pressed down after planting. Watering will generally be 
necessary the first year only, and then chiefly at the com- 
mencement of vegetation. 


Curtine Down tur Stem.—During the first year we confine 
ourselves to the culture and care of the plant. We will 
suppose that it is intended for a standard tor a tall. stock: 
we shall speak further on of low stocks. After the first year 
of growth, or before the second commences, the plant intended 
for a standard is cut down to within two inches from the 
surface of the soil. This operation should not be performed 
until the month of February or March, when the sap is at 
rest and the winter frosts are no longer to be feared. During 
the summer we select the finest shoot which has sprung from 
the stump, and bend and tie it up to the stump so as to give 
it a vertical position. All the other shoots are cut away; and 
in autumn the stump itself is cut away. Should it be found 
difficult to fasten the shoot properly to the stump, a stake may 
be used instead. The following year the young tree will be 
allowed to grow on. If it should turn ont badly, it must be 
cut down a second time, or else grafted at the base with a 
vigorous kind, which, when it has grown sufficiently, will 
furnish a suitable stock. This cutting down is, of course, 
unnecessary in the case of fine, stout, vigorous, and straight 
stocks; but with doubtful\subjects it is better to practice it. 


TRIMMING THE Youne Stock.—This consists in cutting off the 
useless branches. In general, the strong ones are removed 
altogether, being cut close to the stem; the medium-sized are 
shortened, and the weak ones left as they are. The shortened 
branches may be left from two to ten inches long, always 
retaining some of the eyes. It should not be forgotten that 
cutting the branches weakens a tree, and that retaining them 
has the opposite effect. In this operation therefore, the 


_ healthy growth,as well as the form of the stock, should be 


> 


considered. When the stem is strong, it will not suffer from 
the removal of the lateral branches from the neck up to the 
place intended for the graft. In short, strong stems should 
be cut closely, weakly ones only partially, and poor ones as 
little as possible. ‘In cutting away a branch entirely, it is 
well to leave a small portion with a bud on it at the base. In 
making the cut, the direction of the pruning-knife should be 
from below upwards, as if requires very great skill to make a 
clean cut in the other direction, and avoid tearing the wood. 
To prevent the growth of useless thick branches near the - 
terminal shoot, the buds on that part shonld be pinched off 
in the spring. The young leading shoot should be trimmed 
moderately ; its branches being shortened where they are too 
long, and the others left as they are. It should not be topped 
until it has grown at least a foot beyond the height intended 
for the graft. 

Preparation oF THE Stock For Grarrinc.—Whether the 
stock shall be headed down or not will depend on the mode 
of grafting employed. The removal of the head, indispensable 
in crown-grafting, is effected at the moment of commencing 
the operation, as the wound is then not likely to become 
inflamed, being covered immediately with the grafting-wax 
as soon as the graft is in position. However, when large trees 
are grafted, they should be cut some weeks beforehand; and 
the same may be said of all kinds of grafting which are done 
at the time when the sap begins to flow, and which require the 
stock to be cut inthis way. During the dead season, after 

_the heavy frosts have passed, the head of the stock should be 
cut down to within about four inches above the place where 
it is intended to insert the graft. At the time of grafting it 
is cut finally, or else the wound is simply trimmed by slightly 
reducing the length of the stock, so that the gratt may be 
pos in contact with a living and healthy part. Side-grafting 

oes not require the removal of the head of the stock. It is 
sufficient that the part which is to receive the graft should be 
clear, and that the shoots for four inches above and below it 
be cut away. The upper branches will then continue to draw 
up the sap, and the lower ones will promote the growth of the 
stock. In summer graftings, the stocks should be trimmed 
a month beforehand. The flow of the sap, which is diminished 
by this operation, will then have had time to recover its, 
activity, and will contribute to the success of the graft. But 
cutting off superfluous branches a week or so before grafting, 
would be followed by a check in the flow of the sap at that 
time, which would be very detrimental to the uniting of the 
parts of the graft. It would be better not to cut them till 
the moment of grafting, as the junction would be complete 
before the vegetation had suffered much abatement. These 
operations should be performed with keen-edged tools, and by 
a skilful workman, who would neither bruise the stock nor 
leave stumps full of supplemental buds. Resinous trees do 
not require this preparatory treatment. With the exception 
of bushy kinds, stocks gratted low down the first year of 
their planting have seldom any branches to be removed. It 
is sufficient to wipe with the hand or a rag the place which 
is to receive the graft. Usually grafting is performed on the 
low stem, which has been shortened down to ten inches at 
the time of planting. In grafting briars, any prickles that 
are in the way should be removed, as well as any buds of 
the stock that might come under the bandage. This is done 
at the time of grafting. If, from any cause, the flow of the 
sap is arrested in mid-summer, vegetation should be excited 
by liquid-manure waterings, moving the soil about the roots, 
‘and a mulching of old hot-bed manure. 

Sretection or THE Scion.—The tree, branch, or shoot which 
is grafted on the stock, and which it is desired to propagate, is 
termed the scion or a graft. The plant from which it is taken 
is called the parent plant or tree. The scion should be of good 
quality, healthy, hardy, and of sound constitution. An unsound 
scion propagates whatever defect it possesses, and a bad selec- 
tion repeated for several-generations leads to a degeneration 
of the variety, which is, however, local and not general. The 
proof of this is furnished by the sub-varieties of trees with 
variegated leaves. The variegation is propagated by grafting, 
yet the type remains none the less exempt from the disease 
which produces it. Though the defect is not always visible as 
in the case of variegation,- propagation with inferior scions is 


Oasis e. . THE GARDEN. 


[Fxs. 10, 1872. 


sure to lead to degeneration; one should be very cautious 
about taking scions from a tree of unknown quality. In 
nurseries great importance is very properly attached to the 
vigorous condition and true name of the parent trees. These, 
while supplying scions, are also carefully trained. They 
are pruned in order to obtain a greater number of branches, 
but care is taken to reserve, from one year to another, some 
branches uncut, if it is desired to have scions that will arrive 
at maturity more speedily, The shoots which are developed 
on the upper part of an uncut branch ripen their wood sooner 
than any others. Whenagrow- - 
ing tree is to be grafted into 


THE INDOOR \GARDEN: 


THE ELEPHANT’S FOOT PLANT. 
(TESTUDINARIA DLEPIANTIPES.) 


Tuts curious plant is a natiye of the Cape of Good Hope, 
where it is locally known by the name of “ Hlephant’s Foot,” 
owing to the fancied resemblance of its singular root-stock to 
the foot of that animal. It is known also in this country as 
the tortoise plant, the shell-plated covering of that animal 

having suggested its generic 
name, Testudinaria.  Root- 


another, it should be planted for 
at least a year beforehand, near 
the subject on which it is pro- 
posed to graft it. The scion 
should be cut from the parent 
tree just before it is used. For 
grafting during the dead season, 
the scions may be cut some time 
beforehand, but not until the 
sap has gone torest. They may 
be kept in good condition until . 
they are wanted by burying the 
ends about four inches in the 
ground, in the shade of a 
house or evergreen tree. Long 
branches should be buried 
deeper and laid in a slanting 
position in the trench. They 
will keep much longer if placed 
in an ice cellar, buried horizon- 
tally in fine sandy gravel such 
as is used for walks. Graft 
buds should be taken from 
the branch which produces them 
just before they are used. A 
scion should never be allowed to 
suffer by long exposure to the 
air or dampness. The cactus 
family furnishes individuals 
from which scions may be de- 
tached and exposed to the sun 
for several months without the - 
least injury; but we are now — 
occupied with woody plants, and 
~ not with hothouse or herbaceous 
kinds. Scions with the leaves 
removed may easily be sent con- 
siderable distances during the 
repose of the sap, provided they 
are kept cool. ‘’hey should be 
wrapped in moss, and the end 
of each stuck into a potato, 
artichoke, &c. When they 
arrive at the end of their 
journey, they should be put into 
water tor afew hours, and then 
laid in a shady place. If the 
bark is wrinkled, they should be | 


The Elephant’s Foot Plant. 


times brought to this country, 
feet in diameter, the exterior 
gular protuberences, as shown 
a good plan is to place them on 


them free from water until 
the stems begin to grow, 
after which they may be freely 
watered while the growth of 
stem continues. It sometimes 
happens that they begin to 
grow at once after being placed 
in the greenhouse, but they 
oftener remain from one to 
three years before they push 
forth stems. The stem is of 
annual growth, and, after 
flowering, it dies down like the 


plants. When this takes place, 

the root-stock should be kept 

dry until it again begins to 
produce a fresh growth the fol- 
lowing season. An ordinary 

| warm greenhouse or conserya- 
. ‘tory is the proper place for 
i growing it, and also for keeping 
_the plants during their resting 
period. When put in a dry stove 
the growth is generally weak, 
and the root-stock soon gets 
covered over with 
insects. If trained as repre- 
sented in our woodcut, large 
plants produce a very pretty 
effect during the summer 
months. The flowers are in- 
\. conspicuous, of a greenish 
colour, and hang in short 
racemes. Very light, sandy 

_ soil should be used to grow the 
plant in. : M. 


Eucharis grandiflora.—This 
- is one of the most useful of stove 


entirely covered with soil in a ne 
trench and left thus buried for —?¥% 
two or three weeks. The same | 
precautions should be taken 


—s%ei<— plants, and particularly easy of 
Bi cultivation. nder the following 
management, it may be had in flower 

ix or eight times in one year:— 


~ . “a. 8 . . 
with shoots sent, during the time of vegetation, either by | Pot the plants in any rich light sandy loam, and drain well, placing them 


\ post or other mode of speedy transport. 
C. Bavrer's “ V Art de Greffer.” 
(To be continued.) 


Beauty of Mountains.—The best image which the world can give 


of Paradise is in the slope of the meadows, orchards, and corn-fields on 
the sides of a great Alp, with its purple rocks and eternal snows above 5 
this excellence not being in any wise a matter referable to feeling, or 
individual preferences, but demonstrable by calm enumeration of the 


number of lovely colours on the rocks, the varied grouping of the trees, © 


and quantity of noble incidents in stream, erag, or cloud, presented to the 
eye at any given moment.—Ruskin, 


in bottom heat, if possible, close to the glass, and expose them to the 
sun well when out of flower, in a temperature of from 65° to 85°, 
syringing them three or four times a day in bright weather, and giving a 
good supply of water at all times, and liquid mamure occasionally. Mr. 
James 'l'apling, of New Jersey, has flowered some plants nine times this 
last year in ten months. The flowers may be kept ina cut state for a 
fortnight in water im a cold place. hey are rather large for hand 
bouquets, but particularly useful for table decoration, head flowers, 
wreaths, churches, &e. Nucharis candida is very similar, but smaller— 
W. Howanrp, Balham. } 
Lily of the Valley.—I have grown this as recommended at page 
168, and my plants never show any symptoms of blooming in the autumn. 
I have some comimg into blossom now which have been treated exactly 
as stated in the article to which reference has been made.—C. P. — f 


ranging from onetothree orfour 


| 
mec ‘ ,_ Stocks of a large size are some-— 
| 


portion being cracked into an-— 
in the figure. After they arrive 
charcoal, broken small, and keep 


stems of ordinary herbaceous ~ 


lant scale 


Fv, 10, 1872. 


VANILLA CULTURE. 
BY E, BENNETT, ENVILLE HALL, STOURBRIDGE. 


Asa stove climber the vanilla may safely be asserted to be 
one of the most interesting; its green, fleshy leaves, singular 
Cattleya-like flowers, delightfully fragrant fruit, and great 
length of roots, make it particularly well worth attention. 
When properly treated it is a plant of very rapid growth. A 
cutting placed in one of the pine pits here in August 1870, 
has made upwards of 240 feet of growth, and I look forward 
to its producing fruit this season. It grows freely in a mixture 
of peat, charcoal, and . 
mortar rubbish. It 
may be trained inany 
form, and will attach 
itself to rough walls, 
wood, oriron. Hay- 
ing naturally little 
tendency tobranch, I 
frequently stop my 
plants in order to 
make themthrow out 


sideshoots, and in 
that way secure a 


greater amount of 
fruit-bearing wood. 
When at Osberton I 
tried several experi- 
ments with the va- 
nilla, in order to find 
out the different tem- 
peratures in which 
the plants would 
fruit,and I came to 
the conclusion that 
for this purpose it is 
not requisite to keep 
up a high tempera- 
ture. ‘The largest 
plant at Osberton 
was planted out at 
the back of a succes- 
sion pine stove, the 
temperature of 
which ranged from 
50° to 65°, and some- 
times much lower: 
this plant fruited 
freely every year. 
Indeed, one season I 
gathered off it up- 
wards of 300 ripe 
pods, for which I 
obtained five first- 
class prizes. A 
second plant was 
planted in a fruiting 
pine stove, the tem- 
perature of which 
ranged from 60° to 
85°; this also grew 
vigorously, and 
fruited well. A third 
was planted out in 
a house used for mis- 
cellaneous _ plants, 
the temperature of 
which ranged from 45° to 55°. This did not grow freely, but 
nevertheless bore fruit. I have therefore come to the con- 
clusion that a temperature ranging from 60° to 70° is most 
suitable for the vanilla. 

Major Trevor Clark has stated that the vanilla is a difficult 
plant to fruit; but failure doubtless occurs in many cases 
through want of knowledge of the art of fertilising the stigma, 
an operation requiring both care and skill. In the flowers of 
vanilla three sepals, and a8 many petals, surround the column 
which bears the anther and stigma. The first of these is 


Well-Grow1 


THE GARDEN. : 259 


Vanilla in Large Plant Steve. 


attached to the summit of the column by a narrow curved neck, 
and contains, within a cavity on its lower surface, the pollen 
masses, The curved neck just alluded to bends towards the 
lower surface of the column, where it rests upon an organ 
called the retinaculum, which interposes between the anther 
andthe stigmatic surface of the column ; this latter, projecting 
from the column, lies immediately under the retinaculum, and 
terminates a bearded glandular process, which covers the lower 
surface of the column. The retinaculum, which is concave 
towards the stiema, effectually prevents all contact between 
that and the anther; it is therefore necessary to remove 
the retinaculum in 
order that the anther 
and stigma may 
be brought together, 
and this is best 
effected by means of 
a pair of narrow- 
pointed forceps. 
‘These should be care- 
fully introduced side- 
ways between the 
anther and stigma, 
seizing the retinacu- 
lum and tearing it off 
in the direction of 


the anther. The 
pollen masses are 
then drawn out, 


pressed down on the 
stigmatic surface of 
the column, and the 
operation is com- 
pleted. If this is 
properly performed, 
the setting is cer- 
tain; if not, the 
flowers will drop. 
Where, however, fer- 
tilisation has been 
effected, the flowers 
remain for a con- 
siderable time, or 
continue fixed to the 
fruit, which in 
twenty - four hours 
will be perceptibly 
elongated and in 
about twelve months 
will be ripe. It is 
requisite, therefore, 
that the vanilla 
should be planted 
and trained, so that 
when the flowers ex- 
pand they may be 
easily got at. They 
generally open dur- 
ing the night or early 
in the morning; 
therefore the best 
time to fertilise them 
is in the morning, 
and this must be 
daily attended to as 
long as the plant is 
in bloom, The opera- 
tion is so familiar to me now that I could venture to rely upon 
nearly every pod coming to maturity, although I must contess 
that [ found artificial fertilisation difficult to accomplish at first. 

I am of opinion that it would be a good speculation to grow 
vanilla in this country for commercial purposes, the price 
charged for imported produce being very high. English- 
erown pods are yery highly flavoured, much more so than 
those which we receive from Mexico; a large pine stove, where 
the plants could be removed during the few weeks when the 
vanilla flowers are setting, would be all that would be needed. 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fer. 10, 1872. 


I may mention that I generally keep the temperature rather 
high during the time the plant is in flower, and I use the syringe 
freely on it during the summer months. Insects neyer trouble 
me, anda little shade during hot weather is all that is required. 
Considering the length.of time the vanilla has been in 
this country (over seventy years), it is surprising that more 
fruiting plants of it are not to be met with. Indeed, I have 
_seen many plants of it that do not produce even a flower, a 
| circumstance which J attribute to not getting the wood well 
‘matured, for, if not well ripened and hardened, it will not bear 
flowers. ‘To aid my plants in maturing their wood, I at times 
allow them to get almost dry and parched. 
/ Theaccompanying illustration is a good representation of the 
yanilla ina large stove when in good health and growing freely. 


THE SHRUBBY CALCEOLARIA. 


I am an old gardener, too old for garden work, but I still 
take a deep interest in all that is connected with that happy 
employment, in which I have passed my life. Although I can 
dig no more, I rejoice to read in THE \GarpuEn the sayings and 
doings of those who are youngand strong; andthough lcannever 
again march to battle, I can still shoulder my crutch and show 
how fields were won when I contended for victory at our horticul- 
tural exhibitions. And, with your leave, I should like to say a 
few words about a plant which I grew with great success, and 
for which I took many a first prize—the Shrubby Calceolaria. 
Perhaps I may first be allowed to say where I commenced 
the cultivation of this beantiful flower. It was at Caunton 
Manor, where I lived for more than forty years as gardener to 
Mr. Hole, the father of the gentleman well known to your 
readers as a writer about roses. I hope his reverence will 
forgive me if I say that, having known him from a child, I can 
well remember how he first showed his great liking for horti- 
cultural pursuits. It was in gooseberries. I grew them for 
exhibition, and the trouble I had in preventing him from judging 
them (by flayour) before the show, I am not likely to forget. 

And now about the caiceolaria, The best kinds I ever saw 
—and I have seen those shown in London, and those sent out 
by Ma. Thomson, of Dalkeith, and Mr. Henderson—were 
raised by Mr. Major, of Knosthorpe, near Leeds. There was 
more quality about them, both in shape and colour, than I have 
seen in any others. 

They may be struck from cuttings at almost any time except 
in the winter months. _ If struck in spring, they will flower in 
the autumn; if struck in the autumn, they will flower in the 
following spring. These cuttings, about three inches in 
length, should be inserted about one inch in small pots filled 
with a light, sandy compost, and placed under a bell glass in a 
gentle heat. In a month or five weeks this glass should be 
gradually raised for a few days before potting the rooted cut- 
tings, when they should be again placed in heat until they 
are established, when they should be removed to a frame 
or greenhouse. They must be repotted two or three times, as 

“they require it, with plenty of drainage; their last shift being 
into pots seyen inches in diameter. The soil should be a mixture 
of turfy loam, which has been taken from old pasture land and 
lain for a year, leaf-mould, peat, cowdung, silver sand, withasmall 
quantity of charcoal intermixed. They must be well watered 
when ina growing state, syringed in the evening once or twice 
a week before they come into bloom, with manure water occa- 
sionally given to the roots. ‘They must have all the air you 
can give when the weather is favourable, and when they begin 
to flower they must be shaded from the scorching sun. ‘hey 
must be tied out as they require it, and, if carefully cultivated, 
may be grown to be three feet in diameter. Evan Hirsz. 


PERPETUAL CARNATIONS. 


Tus is the time to look up the old plants and get them in a 
little heat, so as to procure some small grass for cuttings, which 
should be put in as soon as possible. They will strike as easy as 
fuchsias in bottom heat during February, March, April, and May. 
Pot off as soon as rooted, and re-place ina warm dung bed or pit 
until well established. Gradually harden off in cool frames until 
May ; then plant out in some open place or keep potting on as the 
pots get filled with roots, stopping the plants as they may require it. 


‘day. 


The plants must be lifted from the open ground in September and 
put in pots, staked, watered well, and placed in a shady place for a 
few days ; then exposed to the sun again; place them under glass 
before they get saturated with the autumnal rains. When the pots 
get full of roots, give weak liquid manure once a week. In case the 
green fly appears, apply tobacco powder or a solution of quassia. 
Do not let any weeds get among them, or mildew will make its 
appearance; if it does, then apply flowers of sulphur. In the 


spring plant the old plants against a wall or in a row across the 


kitchen garden, and strain a few wires across to tie them to, and 


they will continue to flower the whole of the summer. Strike a 
fresh lot of plants every year, as old plants are unprofitable in every 
form. Some leaf-mould, dung, and sand in equal parts, make a good 
compost for them. With very little trouble, they may be had in 


flower all the year round in any ordinary greenhouse, with a little 


heat during the winter months. The following are the best kinds :— 


WHITE. SCARLET. . YELLOW. 
Avalanche Boule de Feu Ascot Yellow 
Vestal Covent Garden Prince of Orange 
Bride Dragon STRIPED. 
Flatbush Henshaw Ainé 
President Dayren Hubert Gloire de Lyons 
Ninon de l’Enclos Zebra ‘Miniature 

: Jean Bart Defiance 
nN -Vulean 
Balham. = W. Howard. 


CONSERVATORIES IN .THE NATURAL STYLE. 

I HAVE read with interest Ms André’s remarks on this subject; and 
I think that, on the whole, he has shown considerable skill in 
grouping and working out the details of his plan. 5 

Taking the temperature given as the right amount of heat in 
winter, I think the house in the daytime would be too hot to be 
enjoyable. Ladies, if at all delicate, do not care about entering a 
very warm house, highly charged with moisture, on a cold winter's 


ciously applied, when easily accessible and under control. And, as 
far as any experiments I have been able to carry out go, I have found 


that plants from warm countries, if treated to a moderate amount of ~ 


bottom heat, will thrive in a lower atmospheric temperature than is 
generally considered safe; in fact, I should think in a house of that 
kind it would not be desirable to encourage rapid growth, but, on 
the contrary, a temperature just sufficient to keep the plants in 
vigorous health would be more suitable. 
encouraged, many valuable plants, such as palms, &c., would soon 
get too large for the house, and would have to be removed. Many 
orchids and winter flowering stove plants might be introduced in 
groups. Ferns and orchids might also be suspended from the roof, 
and changed when necessary. Altogether, such a house might be 
made very enjoyable, and the work in connection with it reduced to 
a minimum. However, it is only in very large establishments where 


‘the tropical conservatory will find a place at present ; but I cer- 


tainly should like to see M. André’s idea, or some modified form of 
it, carried out in many of the large, dark, dismal conservatories still 
to be met with in many country establishments. All architects, I 
think, ought to possess a little knowledge of plant growing, just 


sufficient to convince them that plants are endowed with life, and 


that, in the winter, light is absolutely necessary to their well-doing. 
Nothing is more calculated to try the patience of a man than to 
place him in charge of one of our highly-finished architectural 
conservatories, and tell him it must be kept gay through the winter. 
Ihave seen hundreds of plants carried almost weekly into a house 
of this kind, and nearly ruined when brought out again. Therefore, 
I should like to see M. André’s plan tried first in this direction ; and 
we have abundant materials at command, as suggested by Mr. 
Baines, from China, Japan, and the higher ranges of the Andes, 
Several of the Australian tree ferns and palms, acacias, &c., would 
also do well, keeping the lightest spots for the groups of flowering 
plants. Many things from the Cape of Good Hope and the higher 
latitudes of the East Indies would also be available ; in fact, there 
is no lack of materials, and I believe it would not only be more 
satisfactory to the owners of such houses, but would relieve the hard- 
worked gardener from some of his responsibilities. 
must protest against the use of white stone for paths in conserva- 
tories, especially if they are kept white by pipeclay. I know some- 
thing about the labour required to keep a collection of plants clean 
when the dust from such a source settles on them. Minton tiles, or 


cast-iron of a neat pattern, would be much better. ; 


| E. Howpay, Ramsey Abbey. 
[Conservatories on M. André’s plan have been repeatedly formed 
with the most perfect success by him and others; he did not write 
suggestions only, but simply described what he had done, and what 
is perfectly practicable with the materials he indicated ]. 


If rapid growth were _ 


I must confess, however, to a weakness for bottom heat, judi- — 


In conclusion, I _ 


THE GARDEN. 


261 


Fes. 10, 1872.) 


THE CHINESE PRIMROSE. | . 
{Tits, though not difficult to grow, is one of those not 


~ numerous plants that are seen in much fresher and better 


* 


« 


condition in Covent Garden Market than in private gardens. 
We have, therefore, much pleasure in publishing the following 
article on its culture, by Messrs. Hayes, of Edmonton, who 
are the best of all cultivators of this charming plant. Messrs. 
Hayes have been cultivating Chinese primroses for the last 
twenty-five years, and have had considerable influence in 
popularising them. They supply Covent Garden and other 
London markets with some ten thousand of these beautiful 
primroses annually. ] : 


We generally make two or three sowings of these, the 
first early in March, the second at the end of April, and the 
third at the end of May. Any time in May will be early 
enough if they are not wanted in bloom “until Christmas, but 
if required in October and early in November, they must be 
‘sown in March, in order to secure good strong plants. To 
get the seed up successfully we adopt the following plan :— 
We sow in boxés instead of in pans, as is usually done, as we 
find from experience that the seed hardly ever comes up round 
the edges of the pans. The reason is simply this, the pan 
absorbs the moisture from the soil, and consequently the seed 
gets dry, and if once it gets thoroughly dry after it has been 
soaked through, it will never vegetate afterwards; a result 
which we have noticed over and over again. Gardeners, who 
have in general only a small quantity of seed, are very apt to 
sow it ina small pan; the result of which is, in many cases, 
failure in getting up the seed. If sown in a box you do not 
run so much risk, as the box does not absorb moisture so 
readily as pans. We sow on very old rotten -dung, at least 
three or four years old, and we sow on the top of the mould, 
for the dung has now got into that condition, moistening it 
before the seed is sown. And when sown, we sprinkle a little 

ver sand over it—barely enough to cover it. We place a 
piece of brown paper over the box and keep it moist, never 
letting the paper get dry if possible, until the seed vegetates, 
when we remove the paper. Any shady place where there is 
gentle heat will suit them very well. Our reason for so fully 
entering into the matter of sowing is, we have repeated com- 
plaints of Primula seed not growing, while, at the same time, 
if grows with us well enough. 

As soon as the young plants can be handled, we prick them 
off, putting four into a sixty-sized pot and keeping them close 
for a week or two, until they get hold of the pots, sprinkling 
them two or three times a day. As soon as the plants have 
become strong enough, we divide them and pot them off into 


small sixty-sized pots, and still keep them close in a frame,. 


sp: g as before two or three times a day, and when we 
find them getting established, we give them more air. When 
it is found that they require it we give them a shift into forty- 
eight or thirty-two sized pots, according to the size which it 
may be desired ultimately to have the plants. If they should 
indicate symptoms of blooming in August or September, we 
generally pick the flowers off, an operation which gives the 
plants strength. 

The soil which we prefer for Primulas is well! rotted leaf- 

‘mould or dung, and mellow loam, mixed in equal parts, with a 
little silver sand. We keep them in a shady situation during 
sunny weather, but we do not shade them if that can be 
avoided, that is we do not cover them oyer with mats, as that 
tends to “draw,” and make them weakly instead of short, stocky, 
strong plants. ‘ 

The situation to keep them in during the summer 
months would be a north house, or a frame under a north 
wall, or the north side of a plantation, but not under trees. 
We would recommend leaving the lights open at night when 
the weather can be trusted, but sby no means if there is any 
chance of a storm, as that would prove disastrous to them. 
For winter flowering you cannot give them too light a situa- 
tion, the lighter the house the better, with as little fire heat as 
possible, just sufficient to keep off damp. A little liquid 
manure, very weak, will be found beneficial when the plants 
are pot-bound, ; 

-§ _ . J. ann J. Hayes, Lower Edmonton. 


FLOWERS FOR GRAVES. 


Iv dealing with the planting of cemeteries in a former 
number (p. 146), no allusion is made to the planting of 
flowers round the graves: a custom of which let none think 
lightly, for it has its origin in the holiest of feelings—respect 
for the temple from which the indwelling spirit has gone 
forth.. Graves are generally surrounded by a kind of external 
border for flowers, with a narrow stone coping, the centre 
being either left as a grassy mound or covered over with a 
stone. If any iron-work surrounds the graye, no prettier 
climber can be used than the Aimée Vibert rose; its snowy- 
white flowers and perennial dark green leaves render it the 
best kind for grave adornment. The Maurandias, both lilac 
and white, are delicate climbers. Ivy, of course, is always at 
hand. Spring is especially rich in flowers for the grave. 
Snowdrops may be planted in the grassy mound; but prettier 
still, are the lovely blue flowers of Scilla sibirica, either as an 
edging or dotted promiscuously on the turf. 

In the border, Crocuses of every colour may be planted; the 
single red and white Tulips are very effective, and Hyacinths, 
red, white, and blue, or other shades. ‘Then there is the 
Narcissus, the Poet’s and double, and the pretty silver-paper- 
looking flowers of St. Bruno's Lily (Anthericum liliastrum)— 
all of which are desiderata, as are also the double Daisy, white 
and red; Primroses, single arfd double; Heartsease, and the Lily 
of the Valley. The new varieties of Forget-me-Not flower freely; 
and we may also have the snowy blossoms of the Saxifrage 
(S. granulata). Nor should Anemones, both garden and the 
blue wild (A. apennina), be omitted; the latter is a most desirable 
flower. Periwinkles, blue and white, carpet the ground. 
Where there is room for small shrubs, the golden Arborvite 
should be introduced. As summer advances, the choice of 
flowers is more vayied. In Edensor churchyard, near Chats- 
worth, under a simple gravestone surmounted by a floriated 
cross, repose the remains of the late Duke of Devonshire, the 
great patron of gardening. Sir Joseph Paxton lies in the 
same churchyard. Though ill-kept and unprotected, the 
Duke’s graye looks yery pretty, planted with the brilliant 
white flowers of Viola cornuta. This plant flowers so freely, 
that each kind, white or blue, is a great addition to grave 
flowers. Gentiana acaulis flowers well if not disturbed. The 
Mule Pink is an abundant flowerer; and the stately White Lily 
may be raised in pots and sunk in the border. 

The tin troughs now made as crosses, cireles, and in other 
forms, and filled with water, greatly extend the decoration of 
graves by means of cut flowers. The Germans make wreaths 
of ivy, in painted tin, which they hang upon their tombs. In 
the cemeteries at Paris, large sculptured marble vases are placed 
upon the grave slabs, filled with the choicest exotics. BoE 


HOME LANDSCAPES.—HARDY FLOWERS. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 

As a substitute for the fashionable geometric masses of 
geraniums or calceolarias how agreeable and _ picturesque 
would be the effect of a slightly-inclining border such as 
that represented in the accompanying illustration, from — 
which spring forth fair flowers of many kinds, just as in some 
highly-favoured natural yalley, which the disturbing hand of 
man had never cramped into formal patches. Improved taste 
in all branches of art is rapidly carrying us in the direction of 
principles which admit of nature being alfered, and even 
improved, by art, but not subverted. Even themost advanced in 
horticultural art do not at present fully apprehend the best 
means of effecting the inevitable reform that is impending. 

I well recollect, during a dinner-table discussion at the 
hospitable house ef the late Mr. Loudon, suggesting a system 
of flower culture after Nature’s own method—eyen making 
the plants grow among the turf, and leaving the surrounding 
expanse of green to softenand harmonise the colours. Loudon, 
with all his advanced taste, and with a fine mind, which, upon 
almost eyery other subject was entirely free from the slightest 
tinge of prejudice, could not, as a “gardener” carefully educated 
in the principles of the time, free himself entirely from the 
shackles of his art, and from existing custom, and he replied, 
“Such an attempt, even if the under treatment _of soils and 
_other conditions could render it successful, would only be a 


~ 


262 


poor and flimsy imitation of some small district peculiarly rich, 
in a botanical sense, and would not be gardening at all.’ There 
are still equally sturdy opponents to flower landscapes, whose 
opposition to all innovations, as they call them, are far more 
obstinate than that of Loudon, without a tithe of his well- 
earned right to express an adyerse opinion upon the subject. 

In the rage for uniformity, not only are flowers planted in 
set ovals, circles, squares, or other figures, with no touch of 
or speck of different colour from some other plant to break the 
monotonous mass of red, blue, oryellow ; but the very grass of our 
lawns is to be equally monotonous, unbroken eyen by the sweet 
sparkling blossom of a single daisy, which would be, im fact, 
deemed an unpardonable blemish. And yet, what is the 
smoothest lawn—the most speckless, the most monotonously 
green—in comparison with the old manor-house lawns I recol- 
lect as a boy, softly freckled, ere the snows were well off the 
ground, with masses and isolated flowers of the pearly snow- 
drop and, a little later, with a gay sheet of daisy bloom; while 
late-flowering crocus, in twos or threes, struggled up among the 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 10, 1872. 


mass of Dielytra spectabilis, with its gracefully bending 
racemes of flowers, is nearly as hardy as the lily or the fox- 
glove; and close at hand the elegant Dog’s-tooth violet, the 
red oxalis, and a deep-purple pansy, are plants that positively 
enjoy our cold, uncertain climate; while masses of Hemerocallis, 
Yuccas,;and Iris, all so carefully outlined by the artist as to 
be recognizable at a glance, are obstinately hardy eyen in our 
northern counties. Note, too, how beautiful is the perfectly 
hardy Cypripedium, and how distinct and pleasing are the 
hardy little succulent plants till recently souncommon! == 

The only difficulty in producing a lovely floral landscape 
such as the one represented, would be the careful selection of 
such a series of plants as would, one after another, preduce a 
succession of bloom during the whole of the spring, summer, 
and autumn: but this difficulty, with a little management and 
consideration, might easily be got over. An impediment, 
however, which might require more skill to surmount, would 
perhaps, be the one touched upon by Loudon, as narrated 
already, when he alluded to the wider treatment as regards 


blades of green, and expanded their delicate lilae petals to the 
autumn sun? Portions of our lawns, in suitable situations, 
may safely and advantageously be allowed to run wild. ; 


But it is time to analyse the pretty floral landscape illus- 
trated above. If as a mere engraving it is very pleasing, 
which cannot be denied, what must be its increased charm in 


reality, invested with all the beauties of colour and the eyer- ~ 


varying fascinations of sunlight and shadow? The greater 
number of the flowers introduced to produce the effect are per- 
tectly hardy—some are even called weeds—not even excepting 
the'regal foxglove, which French landscape-gardeners treat as 
a “flower,” using it profusely with the richest and most happy 
effect. How grandly its acuminating spikes of flowers tell 
out against a mass of dark-green foliage in our engraved 
picture, and how happily the character of the drooping flowers 
contrast with the aspiring boldness of the great white lily 
blossoms, the very queens of a tribe that Linnaeus unhesitatingly 
designated “the aristocracy of the floral kingdom”! 


| es ee 


A great | 


soils specially suited to each individual plant. Even here 
however, we should find little difficulty with our mixed border 
of noble hardy flowers, if we thoroughly prepared the ground 
at first. 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION. 

- - MEXICAN CACTI. . 

Amone the many wonders to be found in the vegetable — 
kingdom, few have attracted more attention than the Mexi- 
can cacti. Some of the species are so small as to be scarcely 
noticed as they grow in the sand or crevices of rocks, while 
others assume the giant proportions of our largest forest trees, 
rising perpendicularly to the height of fifty or sixty feet. 
Truly, nature seems fond of contrasts, or why should we get 
such gigantic productions as the great leafless cacti of Mexico ? 
one of the most grotesque of which—the Cereus giganteus— 
is represented in the accompanying illustration. There they 
ine having more the appearance of fossil ,trees than the 


CEREUS GIGANTEUS.) 


(THE 


THE GARDEN. 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION,—\TREE CACTI IN NEW MEXICO. 


Fen. 10, 1872.] 


264: 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fen. 10; 1872. 


living vegetation of a district. Widely different is the scene we 
now represent from that of the Brazilian forest which we gave 
the other day. There the yegetation abounds in graceful 
beauty. Here we have it stiff and formal, though still rich in 
interest. The Cereus giganteus, the most prominent figure 
in our sketch, was discoyered by Dr. Engelmann a few years 
ago, who speaks of it as follows:—‘ As far as the eye can 
reach, in the valleys or on the mountains, little else put rocky 
boulders and the stately yet awfully sombre aspect of the 
Cereus giganteus can be seen.” This Cereus grows very high, 
“branching at intervals; the spmes are nearly white and very 
sharp. When the plants reach a certain age, which is said to 


be between two and three hundred years, they die and are 


dried. up by thesun, when they split and fall to pieces. Many 
sorts of dwarf cacti also grow im the same district, as 
Hehinocactus californicus, a plant with very strong hooked 
spines, said to be eaten by the inhabitants; and many Mammi- 
larias and Opuntias. These dwarf varieties, though not so 
conspicuous as the larger kinds, nevertheless make their pre- 
sence known quickly when one comes in contact with them. 
The giant Cereus is the most striking of the genus. Itisa 
native of the hot, arid, and almost desert regions of New 
Mexico, extending from Sonora, in lat. 30° N., to Williams’ 
River, in lat. 35° N., and is found growing in rocky valleys 
and upon mountain sides, often springing out from mere 
crevices in the hard rock, and imparting a singular aspect 
to the scenery of the country, its tall stems with upright 
branches looking not unlike telegraph posts. While young the 
stems are globular, becoming gradually club-shaped, and 
ultimately cylindrical. They are most frequently unbranched, 
but some of the older ones have branches which issue at right 
angles from the stem and then curve upwards and grow 
parallel with it. The stems are gradually ribbed or fluted, the 
ribs varying in number from twelve to twenty, and haye, at 
intervals of about an inch, thick yellow cushions bearing five or 
six large and many smaller spines. The flowers are produced 
near the summit of the stemsand branches, and are about four 
or fiye inches long by three or four inches in diameter, haying 
ight cream-coloured petals. The fruits are about two or three 
inches long, of a green colour, slightly reddish at the upper 
end, and oyal in form, haying a broad scar at the top caused-by 
the flowers falling off; when ripe they burst into three or four 
pieces, which curve back so as to resemble a flower. Inside 
they contain numerous little black seeds embedded in a crim- 
son-coloured pulp of a sweet but rather insipid flavour. The 
Pimos and Papagos Indians, who eat the ripe fruit, gather it by 
means of a forked stick tied to the end of a long pole. This 
species of cactus is of very slow growth, judging from the 
progress made by young plamts raised from seed brought from 
Mexico. ‘i J. CROUCHER. 


THE ARBORETUM. 
PRUNING CONIFERS.* 


DEODAR PRUNING. 


Tne» are but few species of coniferous plants on which I would 
recommend the knife to be used. The Deodar is the one on which I 
most frequently operate. Other species, however, that have been 
subjected to knife-pruning will hereafter be given. Many indivi- 
duals are: still sceptical about the pruning of the Deodar or any 
other coniferous tree; one thing, however, is certain, that in not one 
instance out of the many thousand Deodars pruned in the various 
parts of the country have I seen any bad effects produced. Pruning 
no doubt alters the appearance of the trees; but seedlings, when 
left to themselves, often produce numerous branches, and many of 
them have a tendency to become leaders, and this often to such an 
extent that plants six feet in height frequently measure sixteen feet 
in circumference, and are furnished with twenty or thirty leaders. 
I generally shorten the branches of such plants so as to give them a 
pyramidal shape, leaving the strongest or most direct leader, and 
cutting off all the minor ones. When this is done it will be found 
that the leader left will go on elongating, and the cut branches will 
begin to ramify. 

Previous to the time when seeds of Deodar wore sent to this 
country in abundance, young plants. were extensively propagated 

| by means of cuttings; such cutting-made trees are easily recognized 


\ * A paper read before the Edinburgh Botanical Society hy Mr, McNab. 
, : 


ae 


eyen at the present time, although twenty to twenty-five feet in 
height, by their horizontal and somewhat sparse branches, more 
resembling those of the cedar of Lebanon than the Deodar, and 
many botanists allege that they are one and the same species. 
Nearly all the cutting-made Deodar trees suffered from the seyerity 
of the winter 1860-61, although the tree from whence the cuttings. 
were taken was not in the least injured. This tree, in the Hdin- 
burgh Botanic Garden, is now above thirty-five feet in height. 
It was of necessity severely branch-pruned during the year 1856, 
from the circumstances of the branches interfering with the walks 
on each side. The tree, after being operated on, was made to assume 
a pyramidal shape, and most of the lower branches cut were fully 
six inches in circumference. This tree is now in a healthy condition, — 
haying a fine symmetrical appearance, and covered with young 
pendent branches all round, and with a good growing leader. Since 
1856, it has been three times slightly dressed all oyer with a knife. 
Had this tree not been branch-pruned preyious to the snow and 
frost of 1860-61, it probably would have suffered like all those trees 
produced by cuttings taken from it, and not previously branch- 
pruned. Three of the cutting-made trees now exist in the garden, 
averaging twenty-eight feet in height. They had their branches 
shortened at the same time with several seedling raised trees, after — 
the large tree just alluded to was found to have sustained no injury. 
The Deodars raised from cuttings had their horizontal branches ~ 
shortened from two to four feet off the main stem, beginning ab — 
the bottom and tapering upwards. This pruning, no doubt, reduced 
the strain while the snow was resting on the stump portions of the 
branches, which, no doubt, proved the means of saying them when 
all the other cutting-made trees were more or less destroyed. 

[The Deodar here seems to be treated as a shrub only ; how about- 
the Deodar as a tall and noble tree, beyond the reach of the shears 
or knife? This was.our hope of it.—Hp. | 
é SLEM-PRUNING. 

A methed practised here with many branch-pruned Deodars, but 
done chiefly for the sake of variety, is the stem-pruning of branch- 
cut specimens, that is, the removal of some of the lower branches, - 
cutting them off in such a way as to leave fully half an inch of 
wood close-to the stem: such cut points should be smoothed oyer 
and darkened with clay. The effect of such stem-pruned Deodars 
standing on grass lawns is graceful, and where seyeral specimens 
exist, I would strongly recommend one or more of them to be so 
treated, as it greatly assists In encouraging an upward growth, 
besides adding variety to the landscape, and is not in the least _ 
injurious to the health of the plant. i 

Stem-pruning need not be practised on the Deodars till they 
become eight or ten feet. in height, and when of such a size the 
stem should be divested of its lower branches, ten to eighteen inches 
from the ground, according to the height of the tree; as the upward 
erowth of- the tree increases, the stem-pruning may be carried to 
the height of twenty-four or thirty inches. The effect. of the 
pendent points of the branches round the central stem, is in some 
circumstances infinitely more pleasing than seeing the lower branches 
lying flat on the ground and destroying the grass below. 

After pruning the stem of Deodars, as well as all other coniferous 
trees, where the branches to be removed are in close contact with 
the ground, it will be necessary to lay down soil, so as to cover any 
roots which may be near the surface, in order to protect them from 
the sun or frost. Unless this simple treatment is adopted, suelr 
stem-pruned trees are liable to sustain injury, and blame given to 
the pruning, and not to the want of this after-treatment which is 


& 


absolutely necessary, not only with conifers, but with all evergreen 


shrubs requiring to be cut down. : 

The remarks here given with reference to the Deodar all bear upon 
it as an ornamental tree. Some years ago, seeds were introduced in 
very large quantities for planting it extensively as a forest tree. 
This proceeding cannot be answering the end proposed, or we would 
have heard of it before now. If not succeeding, it cannot be from cold, 
as we know that the Deodar, under certain circumstances, will 
endure a great amount of frost. } 

With stem-pruned specimens of coniferous plants, I consider that — 
the bark on the Jower part of the stem, when allowed to mature and 
harden from exposure, is better able to resist cold, and the tree more 


"likely to stand uninjured than it does when completely surrounded 


with branches ; besides, from the greatest cold being on the surface 
of the ground, it is more apt to injure those lying on the surface 
than those higher up, as happened with some plants of Cupressus 
M‘Nabiana during the winter of 1860-61, when stem-pruned speci- 
mens were not in the least injured, while the unpruned ones suffered 
severely. 

Another circumstance which I haye frequently found to affect tho 
health of certain coniferous plants is the alternate frosts and thaws 
which we often experience, and which was particularly noticeable in 


¥ 


Fes. 10, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


265 


many places during last winter, when the ground was frozen hard, 
and sometimes partially covered with snow. A slight thaw took 
place, which caused the moisture to rest round the base of the 
stems, as it conld not penetrate the frozen mass. The return of 
frost at night caused this water to freeze again, and permanently 
injured the bark on the surface of the ground, ‘and which affected 
the whole plant. When the bark is thoroughly hardened from free 
exposure, such injury is less liable to happen. To prevent as far as 
possible the occurrence of such accidents, conifers should be planted 
on somewhat raised mounds if on level ground, while on naturally 
sloping ground an excess of moisture is less liable to rest round the 
stems. ith ‘ 

_ The Atlantic cedar (Cedrus atlantica) is another coniferous tree 
which I have branch and stem pruned with success, and it is difficult 
otherwise to forma well-outlined specimen. With this plant, branch- 
pruning should be carried on till such time as the top assumes a fair 
upright growth. When this takes place, commence to stem-prune as’ 


_ recommended for the Deodar, taking care not to cut too close ; this 


stem-pruning to be continued as the tree gets up. Like the Deodar, 
the Atlantic cedar has a tendency to form several leaders. The 
superfluous ones ought to be remoyed when young; but if this has 
been neglected, several leaders will not be objectionable if they all 
take an equal and upright tendency—one, however, is preferable. 


PRUNING PICEAS. 


Of the Picea tribe, I have only operated thoroughly on a few 
Species, such as P. Nordmanniana, P. cephalonica, P. pinsapo, and P. 
Webbiana. The first of these is inclined to produce strong side- 
shoots, frequently stinting the growth of the leader to one and a 
half inch in height per annum. In some plants, ten years old, 
now growing in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the diameter of the 
branches is three feet ten inches, while the height of the plant is 
only one foot ten inches. I have specimens of the P. Nordmanniana 
raised from seed at the same time, and which have been regularly 
branch-pruned, which are now four feet in height, showing the pro- 
priety of branch-pruning this species at anvearly stage. Seedling 
plants of P. Nordmanniana rarely put up more than one leader, and 
it is wrong to allow this leader to be robbed by the superabundant 

- growth of the side branches, now that it is shown that no harm will 
acerue from a judicious use of the knife. During the period when 


the P. Nordmanniana was scarce, the plants were generally increased 


by cuttings, grafts, and Jayers. This pruning was unintentionally 
the means of causing the leaders of the original plants to assume an 


. upward growth. It is surprising to see many of the early produced 


plants from cuttings, grafts, and layers, although eighteen or twenty 
years old, growing procumbent, and, if upright, somewhat fan- 
shaped. The only way to induce a leader on such plants is to cut off 
all the branches and peg the stump firmly to the ground. By this 
means, one, two, or more ledlers will be produced from the lower 
~part of the stem. By the remoyal of all but one, it will in time 
become a well set leader, and ultimately make a vigorous tree. The 
leading shoots removed will make excellent cuttings or grafts, 
by retaining their leaders, which is not the ease with the points of 
side branches. The same remarks are, I find by experience, appli- 
cable to many other species of the Picea tribe when produced by 


- cuttings and layers, such as P. nobilis, P. robusta, P. amabilis, P. 


grandis, P. pichta, &e. : 
THE DOUGLAS FIR. 

With the Douglas fir (Abies Donglasii) the: case is totally 
different. Previous to the time when seedlings of this tree were 
freely produced from the early imported specimens, the Douglas 
firs were all struck from cuttings, generally taking the leaders from 
sid2 or secondary branches. ‘This propagation by cuttings was 
carried on with vigour for many years, indeed till such time as some 
of the original imported ‘trees produced cones, and from that period 
few or no cuttings have been made, Cutting-struck plants from the 
original trees were very extensively spread over the country, and 

many of them are now handsome and well-shaped trees. Some of 
these are at times unwittingly passed Off for early seedlings of 
British grown trees, and from this circumstance a good deal of 
discussion about the deterioration of British produced seedlings, as 
compared with imported ones, has arisen. I am still of opinion that 
seedlings taken from the earliest cone-producing trees are very 


inferior to seedlings raised from cones received from their native . 


habitats. All British produced seedlings are easily known from the 
‘profusion of resinous blisters all over the surface of the bark, and 
the naturally light coloured tint of the foliage. The blisters alluded 
to are not confined to British scedlings but are also found on some 
delicate foreign seedlings ; which is perhaps the cause of their early 
stinting and the coning of some trees. For my own part, I would 
not give one cutting-made plant taken from the Belwood A. Douglasii 
at Perth (and from which many thousand enttings must at one time 


- 


—_ 


* ing Si 32> 
wee we a eae ee 


have been taken and struck) for any amount of plants produced 
from the early coning trees. The case, however, is different with 
seedlings taken from cones produced now for the first time by any 
of the original imported plants. One of these original trees known 
to me produced its first cones two years ago. ‘These seedlings are 
totally different from those produced by the early coning trees, being 
darker in foliage and of slower growth. To my certain knowledge, 
many of the original seedlings produced by Lynedoch and Raith 
trees, where planted in open exposed places, have entirely passed 
away, while of those planted in close shady woods, many still exis 
and appear to thrive. ; 
. PRUNING FOR LEADING SHOOT. 

A common occurrence with some species of Picea is the tendency 
to produce double leaders; when this is the case the weaker one can 
be removed without injury to the plant. I have frequently noticed 
the destruction of the main leading shoot, caused either by birds, 
wind, accident, or mischief, and the result has been that the upper 
whorl of horizontal shoots all gradually assumed an upright habit. 
It will be necessary to remove all but one, fixing on the strongest, 
which will be found to have more of an upright tendency than the 
others. This shoot will gradually bend over the point where the 
original leader grew, and although slightly curved in the middle, 
the top will finally assume an upright position, and this, without 
any necessity for tying. From this branch-made leader the whorls 
will be produced year by year, with perfect regularity. In the caso 
of the crown of the leader only being injured, all the incipient side 
buds on the portion left should be picked out except the one nearest 
the top; but if the top one is not strong, remove a portion of the 
injured leader till a vigorous one is reached (judging of this before 
the incipient buds are picked out). The upper one left will soon 
form an upright leader, and in a few years will completely obliterate 
all traces of injury. Picea lowii, P. cephalonica, and P. pinsapo are 
also wonderfully improved by branch pruning, particularly when 
growing in soils and situations different from what they are 
accustomed to in their native homes. Growing on limestone rock, 


' which is the case in their native country, it will be found that, in all 


similar situations in Britain, these trees generally become vigorous 
and fine shaped. 
TAXODIUM, WELLINGTONIA, CYPRESS, AND PINE. 

Taxodium sempervirens is another conifer which stands the knife 
well; its outline will be greatly improved both by branch and stem 
pruning. The Taxodium is not so extensively cultivated as it ought 
to be. If properly attended to by judicious pruning it will become 
in many parts of England an excellent avenue tree, but the condition 
in which it is generally seen, renders it rather forbidding than 
otherwise. 

Wellingtonia gigantea, whether produced from seeds or cuttings, 
if growing on good soil, naturally assumes a pyramidal shape. 
Branch pruning is not therefore necessary except in the case of a 
stinted specimen or a wayward branch, as occasionally happens. 
Wellingtonias, however, may be stem-pruned with impunity. Where 
many specimens exist, it will be noticed that the upward tendency 
will be greatly improved by such treatment. 

The Cupressus Lawsoniana is another plant which I have no 
hesitation in freely stem-pruning, but not side branch-pruning. In 
its natural state it grows to the height of 100 feet, but when culti- 
vated in this country it has often a tendency to assume the habit of 
the Chinese Arborvitew, by putting out numerous upright stems from 
the surface of the ground, which in many cases finally stint what is 
intended to be the leading shoot. I first commenced the stem- 
pruning of the ©. Lawsoniana during the year 1865, and the progress 
the stem-pruned plants have made over the unpruned is quite 
remarkable, and, like the Deodar, totally altering the character of 
the plant. ‘ 

Of the genus Pinus, with the exception of P. excelsa, no other 
species up to this time has been pruned by me, except the removing 
of any unsightly branch when interfering with a neighbouring 
specimen. The Pinus excelsa when left to itself has rather a 
sprawling habit of growing, the branches in most cases being wide- 
spread, to the detriment of the leading shoot. ‘Trees of Pinus 
excelsa, have been branch pruned here, more or less, for the last 
twenty-five years. Such plants so treated have now assumed the 
habit of Pinus cembra. The Pinus excelsa is rarely asked for by 
cultivators; but if planted and treated as recommended, it will 
proye an ornament to the pinetum or shrubbery, its long light- 
coloured leayes contrasting admirably with the foliage of the 
generality of the dark leayed pines. r 
' When pruning coniferous trees, I generally commence during the 
month of August, and continue the operation till the middle or end 
of October. Some haye been pruned as late as December and 
January without any apparent injury, but this may depend on the 


266 


THH GARDEN, 


(Fen. 10, 1872. 


effect of the weather, particularly frost, on the new cut extremities. 
As a general rule, I prefer the earlier months stated. 

Conifers in a state of nature are rarely seen as we are accustomed 
to look upon them in gardens and pleasure grounds. They are 
generally in large forests, where, from their proximity, the lower 
branches generally get destroyed, and from this circumstance the 
trees must of necessity assame an upright habit. It is therefore 
incumbent on us to take steps in order to imitate nature, and thus 
induce in some plants a tree growth, instead of a bush form, which ig 
not their natural condition, ; 

THE ARAUCARTA. 

Certain coniferous plants are not in the least injured by a free use 
of the knife, while with others, it is well known that they will not 
stand it in the slightest degree. The Araucaria is very susceptible 
of injury if its juices are interfered with, either by cutting or 
bending, and I feel almost persuaded that the excessive injury done 
to the Araucaria during the seyere winter of 1860-61, was in a great 
measure due to the excessive bending of the points’ of the branches 
under the weight of snow which prevailed at the time, thus rupturing 
the upper tissues close to the stem, and thereby exposing them to the 
severe frost which at that time prevailed, aided, no doubt, by the 
long continued moist autumn which preceded. Injury is often 
wrecklessly done to the tops of Araucarias by breaking them off, as 
is well known to the cost of some nurserymen. With sueh mutilated 
plants, one of the side shoots composing the upper whorl is not 
unfrequently tied upright so as to forma leader. Instead of tying 
up one of these side branches, a slisht bending down of the upper 
whorl of branches is preferable; by doing so, two or more leaders 
will be produced from the centre. The superfluous ones are to be 
removed, not by direct cutting off, but-by twisting a piece of very 
fine wire tightly round them, leaving the strongest one untouched. 
This wire will cut them through in a short time; they can then be 
removed without injuring the plant. The shoot unwired will soon 
become a good leader. Tf a leader is ever formed by the tying up of 
a side branch, it will be difficult for such a plant ever to assume a 
uniform shape. dna 


THE SHAWDON HOLLIES. 


‘TuusE deserved to be associated with the big and beautiful 
trees to which you have lately directed attention. Shawdon 
Hall lies about seven miles north-west of the ancient town of 
Alnwicls, in the lovely Vale of Whittingham, and owing to its 
somewhat secluded situation, these beautiful hollies are little 
known beyond the neighbourhood in which they grow. They 
stand in two parallel rows, running north and south, about 
eighty yards in length, and about twelve fect apart, the trees 
originally, apparently, having been planted about ten feet 
asunder in the rows. Several of them are now wanting, 
having been blown down at different times by high winds. ~ 

The row facing the west is composed principally of the 
golden-edged holly. One of the largest of this variety mea-- 
sures six feet two inches round the bole at four feet from the 
ground. The height of this tree is forty-five feet; all the 
others of this sort are about the same height. The row facing 
eastward consists wholly of the common green holly, and has 
the advantage over the variegated trees of a few feet in 
height, and of possessing more bulk of timber in the boles, 
which are bare of branches to a considerable height. ‘Their 
great, heavy tops are swayed in all directions, and amongst 
them are several specimens of natural inarching, Two of the 
trees, at thirteen feet from the ground, are joined together in 
most perfect union, the stem of each being free from branches 
below the point of junction. This intimate union and callusing 
together lasts for about two fect, then they branch out into a 
fine head. In the top of another large tree there is a perfect 
union between two large limbs, the only thing remarkable 
about which is, that a third branch has become imprisoned, 
and so fixed into the point of union as to lie across the two 
principals, somewhat like the transverse beam of a cross. 

I may remark that the last tree, at the northern end of each 
row, is a fine yew. The southern end of both rows is occupied 
by a noble pine (a real Abernethy, a local variety of Pinus 
sylvestris), which, at two fect from the ground, measures nine 
feet three inches in girth, and at five feet, eight feet four 
inches. As near as can be calculated, there is about seyenty- 
ae feet or eighty feet of saleable timber in the bole of this 

ree, 


My first impression with regard to these fine hollies was, 


that they had been’ planted with the intention of forming a 
walk or ayenue to an old keep; but, the fact of the pine-tree 
to which I have referred beimg planted right im the centre of 
both rows, makes this supposition untenable, for, had the pine 
been planted there after the walk was no longer wanted, the 
hollies must be of very great age mdeed. Upon the whole, I 
am inclined to think that both pime and hollies are coeyal. 


“The row of green hollies has probably been planted as pro- 


tection from the east winds, and as shelter for the golden- 
edged ones. The yews at the northern end serve as a shelter 
from the northern blasts. The pime may haye been a rarity, 


‘as we have only four trees of this variety in the park, all 


planted, seemingly, at the same time. 4 : 

There may be many larger holly trees dispersed over this 
country than the Shawdon Hollies, but I question if there is 
‘so striking a group to be found anywhere else. When the 
lawn is covered with snow, the variegated trees form quite a 
picture, that, once beheld, is not soon forgotten. Their 
pendulous branches of green and gold are set off in what 
appears, ata little distance off, to be a framework of dark 
olive green; for the branches of the common hollies, laden 
with crimson berries, overtop them by a few feet. ; 

Lam unable to form any conjecture regarding the age of 
these fine hollies; but, judging from the appearance of the 
golden-leaved variety, they are destined to be trees of beauty 
when the green trees are no longer to be seen. Seat 

I have thus minutely described these lovely trees, im the 
hope that planters may be induced to use them more exten- 
sively than has hitherto been done; for, if planted with care 
and judgment, they will leave behind them a monument of 
beauty “that will be a joy to generations yet unborn.” 

5 Jas. THomson, 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


THH GARDENS AT HAFFIELD, LEDBURY. 


Tue garden, a portion of which we this week engrave a 


plan of, is chiefly distinguished by the presence of the nobler — 
It is the reverse of the system 


members of our garden flora. 


now so often seen, of placing the beds for summer flowers in ~ 


crowds near the house. By this plan, we usually get formal 
masses of wet mould in winter, and very little else. 
course, the presence of such a noble series of plants and trees 
as those shown in our plan does not prevent the fullest 
Justice being done to the Hower garden. In a larger place, it 
would be desirable to preserve a little more breadth around 


Otay 


the house; but this is a point which must beregulated entirely 


by the size of the place and local circumstances. 


The drive from the principal entrance on the Gloucester 


Road leads through a well-timbered park to the mansion; the 


_latter is situated in a valley, with gently sloping banks rising 


gradually on the north and north-east side, clothed with 
forest trees in great variety, which afford good shelter. The 
aspect of the house is nearly south, and from some of the 
principal rooms a good view of the neighbouring hills is 
obtained. The pleasure-ground is about ten uecres in extent. On 
the east side of the house is the entrance, in front of which, 
at some little distance, the sloping bank has been cleared of 
soil and débris, so as to form a rock-garden, clothed with 
suitable plants and shrubs, such as Yucecas, Araucarias, alpine 
plants, ferns, and ereepers. 
garden cannot be well given in a bird’s-eye view. It rises 
to a height of thirty-five feet, and forms a good contrast to the 
other parts of the grounds. On the south side of the house 
is a nice piece of sloping lawn, kept entirely free from geome- 
trical disfigurement in the way of flower-beds. On this 


The peculiar beauty of this 


stands a fine Araucaria that was planted in 1842, and which — 


now measures thirty-two feet in height, and bears cones every 
year. The girth of the trunk of this tree at a foot from the 
ground is four feet two inches. A fine deodar may also be 
found here that was planted in 1852, and which is now forty- 


five feet high, with a trunk six feet in circumference at afoot — 


from the ground; likewise two Cryptomerias, planted at the 


same time, thirty feet high, with stems four feet in girth; an 
Abies pinsapo, Thuja aurea, and other fine coniferous plants. 


THE GARDEN. 267 


‘Fes. 10, 1872.) 


4 


PARK» 


SUNK FENCE = \ \ 


DiI) Y WH | ! AURA ih Husa AUREA SB 


= HOLLIES 7 === 
—— E 
= — \ ‘ SS 
s THUIA AUREA— MAONILIA » Sie : 
= S=—— m = 


CATALPA Be SPANISH FIR- 
E : | 


FLOWER Bens. 


ACACIA 
— HOLLIES. 


CROQUET GROUND 


—= LEAVED B£4CH— 


SPANISH _& 


= 


JAPAN CEDAR 


te 


Kil 


a 


en GD covers <(R- = 
,° BEECH. Ey 


= 
THUM LOBBt A 
AMERICAN OAK N 
PICEA NOBILIS $B : 
‘ — 


AWSONS CYPRETS— 


AMERICAN OAR 


‘ 


SAVER Fi 


= = ; p Y MONTEREY PINE» REO "02D 2 
: , : = GeDAR- 


= xa 
“| 
! 
! 


eB CEDAR. Pre : : 


PLAN OF THE ELNASURE-GROPNDE “AT HAFFIELD HOUSE, LEDBURY. 


q 


\ Sy) ae 


268 


THE GARDEN. 2 


[Fus. 10, 1872. 


Between the house and conservatory stands a remarkably fine 
Douglas fir, seventy feet in height. 

The followimg were lost during the severe winter of 1860-61, 
viz., Pmus insignis, forty-five feet in height; P. macrocarpa; 
P. patula, twenty feet in height; P. Sabiniana, Cupressus 
Lambertiana, and many others. 

A group of Magnolias, consisting of the following kinds, 
viz., acuminata, conspicua, macrophylla, tripetala, Thomp- 
soniana, and others, is an object of interest to visitors ; who 
also find much to admire in the way of hardy trees and shrubs 
of different kinds, growing singly and in masses, as notified 


in the plan, in which the names of the fine specimens of 


Araucaria have been omitted by our draughtsman. 


THE BOTANIC GARDEN, REGENT’S PARK. 

I aw glad you have given a plan of this really tastefully laid-out 
garden—so far as essentials are concerned. If any person doubt 
what may be done by tasteful planting, I know of no place where 

he can haye his doubts removed so soon as in these gardens. 
' Originally a flat, this ring of ground has been made to look as 
sweetly diversified as any rural spot; but it is not its diversity I 
so much wish to call attention to, as the artistic way in which the 
slender belt of boundary plantation is managed; so that the sarden 
merges into the surrounding scenery imperceptibly, and looks far 
more extensive and refreshing than if planted after any fashion of 
formal planting whatever, What a pity it is that in nearly all our 
great public gardens there is scarcely any trace of good design! 

: H. VINER. 


THE FRU GARDEN. 


s WALL TREE PROTECTION. 

We place trees against walls that they may derive more 
heat, and to do so we incur a great deal of expense and trouble ; 
but after all this is done, we very often fail to give them the 
most necessary of all attention—protection when in flower. 
Hence fruitless walls and empty fruit rooms. Depend upon 
it, the chief of the evils from which our fruit trees suffer is 
lack of temporary protection in spring, when leaves and 
flowers and fruits are young, tender, and perishable. Frost is 
almost as antagonistic to these as is the rising sun to the dew 
drops. A few mild and sunny days occur in spring; the 
flowers open, and the. little leaves “put forth their hands into 
the ray,” when suddenly a sharp frost comes and takes all parts 
inits grip; the risine sun throws its rays right against the 
frozen tree before it has had time to thaw, and then farewell to 

the flowers and fruit for one year, or perhaps the health of the 
~ tree for lifes You may drain as well as it is possible to drain; 
you may choose the best soil, the best kinds, the most suitable 
stock, and prune at all times on the best methods; and yet 
little but disappointment and disaster will occur unless effectual 
means are adopted to protect the trees from their chief enemy 
in our changeable climate—seyvere frostsinspring. Doubtless 
the process is the cause of some little trouble as a rule; but 
as it 1s frequently a matter of crop or no crop, a little con- 
sideration should convince us of the necessity of perfect pro- 
tection to the flowers in spring. It is true protection is often 
so badly given that no better result is attained than by leaving 
the trees fully exposed on the walls; but if they are well pro- 
tected there can be no doubt that we may gather as full crops 
and as fine fruit as could be desired. 

When the changeableness and severity of our climate are 
considered, it is astonishing how few and insignificant are the 
means taken to protect the trees. One of the first considera- 
tions in growing fruit’ trees out of doors should be the pro- 
viding of an efficient coping or projection of from six inches to 
ten inches, at the very top of the wall, to throw off cold rains, 
sleet, and toa considerable extent protect from frost itself. 
This copmg may be made of bricks, though not very effectively, 
of cement or conerete, of, slate, tiles, thin stone, or any like 
materials. If it were merely to throw off to some extent the 
destructive rains of hail and sleet, it will be generally admitted 
that this is a good and simple protective agent; and yet we 
see peach culture attempted without a particle of coping in 
many gardens abundantly supplied with means and labour. 


In such cases the tree is really as much exposed to danger as 
it would be away from the wall: it gets more heat afterwards, 
but the main point is to secure the setting of the crop. However, 
many take care of their walls, as regards the short permanent 
coping, but in very few gardens do we see an attempt ata much 
more desirable kind of protection—a wide, temporary coping 
throughout the time when the trees are in tender blossom, or 
likely to incur the least danger. This would effectually throw 
off frozen rains, prevent radiation, and, except on walls facing 
the east, suffice to guarantee a crop and the health of the trees. 
This temporary coping should be about eighteen mches wide, 
and made of light wooden frames coyered with tarpaulin. 


Wooden shutters may also beused; but the light, cheapframes ~ 


covered with tarpaulin are undoubtedly the neatest, lightest, 
and, after all, the cheapest, things that can be used for this 
purpose. They should be placed under the permanent coping. 
By placing iron rods under the permanent coping, with a slight 
turned up catch at the end, at about five or six feet apart, these 
temporary copings may be slipped into their places and firmly 
fastened there till all danger is past. This may seem a good 
deal of trouble to take with wall trees; but when it is con- 


sidered that efficient protection of walls would save us from 


building houses for hardy fruit, nobody should begrudge the 
attention. When once you bitild houses for growimg hardy 
fruit, there is no knowing where the expense may 
heat, repairs, daily care, both for ventilation, watering, and the 


numerous attentions that houses require, soon run up a bill to 


which any expense devoted to outdoor fruit-growing is insig- 
nificant. The reason why the temporary coping advocated is 
so desirable is that it protects the trees efficiently when they 
most require it, and does them no injury at any other time. If 
a too deep permanent coping be adopted, it has some disadyan- 
tages; it preyents the trees being washed by the refreshing 
rains of summer, and, by depriving the upper portion of light, 
prevents growth—unless that copmg were of glass fixed in a 


light and cheap iron frame; and why should it not be so isd ; 


Under a very deep permanent coping the trees refuse to gro 
to the top of the wall, but keep a respectable distance from it; 
but the moment the temporary coping is removed, the foliage 
more immediately under gets full hight and air, and perfect 
development over all parts of the wall is the result. 

In cases where this wide and excellent temporary coping is 


not adopted; and, indeed, sometimes where it is adopted, it is” 


desirable to screen the face with cheap canyas or woollen 
netting, hung so that it may be moved to and fro at pleasure. 
A temporary coping of glass is perhaps better than any, but 
it should be removed when danger of frost is past. When 
danger is past, canyas or netting and their appurtenances 
should be carefully dried, and stored for another year, as should 
the tarpaulins before alluded to. In cases where none of these 
protecting agents can be spared, some good may be done by 
merely placing the boughs of any evergreens to be easily 
spared among the flowering spray of the wall tree. These will 
protect from the cutting blast, and even from frost, to a much 


greater degree than might be supposed. But let it not be 


supposed than any protection is really efficient which does not 
protect from rain during the period of flowering. His not 
that rain itself laills, but if tender young leaves and flowers are 


end. Fire 


saturated with rain they are then thoroughly prepared to be 


quickly encased in ice. : : 

There is another sort of protection on which I should like 
to say a few words—guarding the trees against the effects of 
very severe frosts before the flowers open, and when they are 
generally supposed to be perfectly safe. It*used to be a prac- 
tice, and indeed it still is here and there, to expose both vines, 
peaches, nectarines, é&c., in houses to the action of the frost in 
winter. 
have lived a long time in gardens, and more than once have 


seen much mischief done in this way. After the severe frosts 


of 1813-14, 1821, and 1837, I witnessed much destruction from 
the killing effects of frost on the wood. The trees perished 
altogether, or only existed ina ghostly state. The vine succumbs 
to a milder degree of cold than the peach or nectarine, but we 
now and then have frosts which destroy even these, and in my 
opinion these very severe frosts ought to be guarded against. 


Of course nobody would now willingly expose house trees to 


the frost, but those on walls are invariably exposed. Now it 


a) 
-, 
- 


The houses used to be stripped for that purpose. I ~ 


‘s some outlandish wild where evergreen trees will not grow. 


: 


i 


Fes. 10, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


269 


occurs to me that if some efficient covering were placed against _ 
them, when once the wood is well ripened, it would entirely pre- 
vent frost from injuring them during the severest seasons, and 
might in all prove useful in retarding the bloom. The kind of 
covering is not soeasy to-determine. Nothing should be used 
that would encourage yermin near the trees. I would remove 
it when the opening flowers imperatively demanded it, and not 
before. Rough wooden shutters woul 
things, and they might be utilised for other purposes once the 
- trees began to flower. .Of course I would not recommend this 
in districts where the peaches and nectarines were never liable 
to be injured by frost; but, as I have several times seen fine 
peach walls utterly ruined by a hard winter, T trust I shall 
not be considered fastidious or unpractical for recommending 
that they should be saved from sucha disaster, as well as from 
loss of crop and health by spring frosts. Protection given to 
guard the trees themselves against severe frosts, would have 
the good effect of keeping them dormant till « later period, an 
advantage of course. Our illustration shows the careful way 
a skilful market-grower at Montreuil protects his peaches in 


early spring by means of temporary and wide wooden copings. . 


The form of tree may seem strange to many, and the wall may 


seem yery bare; but in early summer the whole will be well | 
covered by the numerous shoots sent out by the rather closely | 
If these walls were deprived | 


pruned shoots of the past year. 
of this simple and capital temporary protection the crops 
would be invariably lost. J. B. 


probably be the best | 


Oh, but,” exclaims Mr. Straightedge, ‘‘ who could have a lot of 
nasty straw littering about his garden ?—it would be an intolerable 
nuisance.” Well, just so; but, so far as the future is concerned, that 
sword has two edges. With those who have thought upon the 
subject, the opinion yery generally prevails that the union which has 
so long existed between the fruit and the vegetable garden should 
be dissolved. The proper growth of, the latter is certainly inimical 
to the cultivation of the former, the deep digging and rich manuring 
necessary for vegetables being decidedly injurious to the cultivation 
of a large proportion of fruit trees; therefore, I say, have your 
cabbage garden in any sheltered and convenient place where the 
deep and highly enriched cultivation so necessary for perfect success 
may be carried on. without injury to anything, and place your fruit 
garden so that it shall form an integral and important element of 
the ornamental grounds. Here concentrate your glass erections, 
forming them, if need be, so that they may afford.a continuous 
promenade, whereby in the coldest day in winter the “tour round 
my garden’? may be made with ease and delight. Instead of sup- 
plicating for the questionable shelter of a dreary quadrangle of 
perpendicular walls for your fruit trees, place them under glass, 
through the transparent walls of which the adjacent garden may be 
surveyed. Of course, I shall be told the fruit crops even in glass 
houses fail sometimes. Yes, and so do all mundane things; but, 
properly understood and managed, the climate of Madeira or the 
South of France under glass will be more likely to ensure regular 
crops of fruit than the exposure of a tree to the pitiless pelting of 
the storm upon a wall outside. Upon this I think there cannot be a 
second opinion. W. 

[We quite disagree with our correspondent, one of the best prac- 


Peach Tree at Montreuil, under a Wide Temporary Wooden Coping. 


ta 


mor AN ENEMY TO WALLS. 

cas’ GARDEN WALLS are things of the past—ugly and needless incum- 
Morances of the ground, which ought not to be tolerated except in 
In such 
a place there may be an excuse for walls; but, associated with a 
modern mansion, I can only regard walls as a relic of the barbarous 
ages in horticulture, when glass, if not unknown, was little used. 
Tf you talk of early crops, I point you to those gardeners who 
supply the markets of London and other centres of population; 
they get tittle id from bricks and mortar, and yet their crops are 
ready for the market, and early peas are down to 9d. and ls. per 
peck almost as soon as the walled garden begins to afford the first 
dish. Of course, I am aware that only special and favoured localities 


' ean do this early work.; but they do it by the acre and by the field, 


_ while we “lesser men” are raising a-single row or two. The aids to 
_ cultivation which the market gardener brings to bear upon his pro- 
: duce, quite independently of wall protection, are quite worthy of 
serious study, and, attentively examined and described, would form 
& most interesting handbook on the production of early crops. Look 
at the manner in which he throws his ground into narrow ridges, 
sloping to the south or south-west, planting or sowing on the sunny 
side, where the crop is of course protected from those prosecuting 
“north-easters.” See again the acres of radishes, rhubarb, early 
potatoes, &e., that are nightly sprinkled over with clean litter, to be 
cleared away the next morning. Observe the almost perpendicular 
ridges upon the top of which tomatoes are planted and trained 
downwards, and produce splendid crops, when the operator in a 
walled garden is complaining of the unfayourable season and his 
tomatoes not ripening. 3 * 


| tical gardeners in England, as to the value of garden walls. Even 


if all lovers of a garden could erect orchard houses by merely 
wishing for them, garden walls would yet have their important uses 
in all parts of these islands. } 


INFLUENCE OF VIOLET LIGHT ON VINES. 

In April 1861, cuttings of vines of some twenty varieties, eaca 
one year old, of the thickness of a pipe-stem, and cut close to the 
spots containing them, were planted by General Pleasonton, of 
Philadelphia, in the borders inside and outside of a grapery, on the 
roof of which every eighth row of glass was violet-coloured, alter- 
nating the rows on the opposite side, Very soon the vines began to 

_attract notice from the rapid growth they were making. Every day 
the gardener was kept busy in tying up new wood whigh the day 
before had not been observed. In a few weeks after the vines had 
been planted, the walls and inside of the roof were closely covered 
with the most Imxurious and healthy development of foliage and 
wood. In September of the same year Mr. Robert Buist, from 
whom the General had procured the vines, visited the grapery. 
After examining it very carefully, he said:—‘‘I have been cul- 
tivating plants and vines of various kinds for the last forty years ; 
T have seen some of the best vineries and conservatories in England 
and Scotland; but I have never seen anything like this growth.” 
He then measnred some of the vines, and found them forty-five feet 
in length, and an inch in diameter at the distance of one foot above 
the ground. And these dimensions were the growth of only five 
months ! 

,in March 1862 they were started to grow, having been pruned 
and cleaned in January of that year. The growth in this second 


270 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fux. 10, 1872. 


= 


season was, if anything, more remarkable than it had been in the 
previous year. Besides the formation of new wood and the display 
of most luxuriant foliage, there was a wonderful number of bunches 
of grapes, which soon assumed the most remarkable proportions— 
the bunches being of extraordinary magnitude, and the grapes of 
unusual size and deyelopment. Im September, when the grapes 
were beginning to colour and to ripen rapidly, Mr. Buist visited the 
erapery again, and estimated that there were 1,200 pounds of grapes. 

During the next season (1863) the vines again fruited, and 
matured a crop of grapes, estimated, by comparison with the yield 
of the preyious year, to weigh about two tons; the vines were 
perfectly healthy, and free from the usual maladies which affect 
the grape. Many cultivators said that such excessive crops would 
exhaust the vines, and that the followmg year there would be no 
fruit: as it was well known that all plants required rest after 
yielding large crops. Notwithstanding, new wood was formed this 
year for the next year’s crop, which turned out to be quite as large 
as it had been in the season of 1863; aid so on, year by year, the 
vines have continued to bear large crops of fine fruit without 
intermission for the last nine years. They are now healthy and 
strong, and as yet show no signs of decrepitude or exhaustion.— 
André Poéy, Paris, im ** Nature.” 2 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Select Pears.—Will you kindly give me the names of afew really 
good pears suited for our climate, a choice selection from the many score 
iinds grown ?—H. §.——[The following are best calculated to suit the 
London district ; they are arranged in the order of their vipening. Mr. 
Ingram’s selection, in a recent number of Tum GARDEN, will suit 
more northerly and cooler districts. Other situations may have other 
wants :— E 
*Doyenné du Comice, 


1. Doyenné @’Eté, July 10. Flemish Beanty, Sept. 18. 
2. Jargonelle, Aug. 11. *Marie Louise, Sept., Oct., Nov. 
3, William’s Bon Chré- Oct. 19. *Glout Morceau, 
tien, Aug., Sept. 12, Thompson’s, Oct. s Noy. 
4, Louise Bonne of 13. Beurré Bose, Oct. 20. Winter Nelis, Nov., 
Jersey, Sept. 14. *Duchesse d’ Angou- ec. 
5. Jersey Gratioli, Sept. léme, Oct. 21. *Beurré Rance, Dec., 
6. Fondante d’Automne, 15. Beurré Diel, Oct., an. 
Sept., Oct. Noy. 4 22. *Josephine de Malines, 
7. Suffolk Thorn, Sept., 16. Beurré Hardy, Oct., Jan., Feb, 
Oct. Nov. 23. *Bergamotte d’Es- 
8. Seckel, Oct. - 17, Maréchal de la Cour, peren, Jan., Feb. 


9, Comte de Lamy, Oct. 24, *Haster Beurré, Feb. 


Those marked * will grow larger and handsomer against a wall, but will 
be better flavoured (if smaller) if grown in the free air. Marie Louise 
will do as a full standard ; the others as low trees only, pyramids, or trees 
on trellises. | - 


Grapes in Bottles (see p. 189)—Will Mr. Tillery oblige by 
telling us what size bottle he uses for this purpose, and the average 
temperature required? Would a dry cellar, or an upper room in a 
loft, answer? Are the bottles corked, or left open at the mouth P— 
W. H.——[The bottles used here are about three inches in diameter at 
the bottom, and ten inches in height, made of clear glass, and wi 
contain nearly a pint of water. At first 1 used pimt porter bottles, and 
they answered very well; but this year clear glass bottles are used, on 
purpose to see if the water is clear, as small pieces of charcoal are put in 
the bottoms of the bottles to keep the water sweet and clean. The tem- 
perature of the room must be kept as low as possible, just to exclude 
frost in severe weather, and never to get higher than 50° when the 
weather is dry and open. This could be best attained inan upper room 
in a loft, where proper ventilation could be given in dry days, and where 
a fire or flue could dry the damp in wet weather. The bottles are not 
corked, but left open at the mouth WiLL1aM TILLERY, Welbeck. | 


Fruit on Railway Embankments.—We noticed in Tor GARDEN 
of the 27th ult., an article on railway-side fruit culture, in which it 
is shown that fruit trees do grow on railway embankments. Our 
experience is the opposite. Fourteen months ago we planted one 
thousand raspberry canes on the side of an embankment, and all of 
them have died, the reason, in our opinion, being, that they had not 
sufficient soil in which to take root. It must be borne in mind that such 
embankments as you mention are mostly composed of sand or gravel, 
especially in this country. We would like to know if anyone has tried 
the experiment of growing fruit trees on embankments in Great Britain, 
and with what result P—M., Aberdeen.—T[There is abundance of good 
soil along many of our railways which might be utilised, if not for fruit 
for somé other product of use to the community. 


New: Fruit Label.—M. Hd. Pynaert, of Ghent, has.just invented 
* a new kind of label for marking fruits. It consists of small squares, like 
postage-stamps, on which the names of fruits are printed. They are in 
sheets of fifty labels, which are perforated at the edges like postage- 
stamps, and, like them, gummed on the under surface. These sheets are 
either special or general. In the former case, the fifty labels of the 
sheet all bear the name of the same kind of fruit; in the latter, the 
labels all bear the names of different kinds, The cost is very trifling: ten 
labels for a half-penny; a sheet fora penny ; one thousand labels, in eighty 
varieties, or according to choice, half-a-crown. 


Oct., Noy. 


FOUNTAINS. 


We are highly adverse to fountains im gardens of any kind, ~ 
in consequence of the great expense of constructing and 
supplying them, and also of the very unhappy effects they 
often produce from being placed in positions entirely unsuited 
for them, For instance, nothing can be m much worse taste 
than the water squirts at the head of the Serpentine; and 
those in Trafalgar Square, as already noticed in the columns 
of Tue Garpen, are feeble and ineffective. Of fountains out 
of place, we have recently seen no example worse than that 
in the centre of the exhibition tent in the Botamic Gardens, 
Regent’s Park. We think if wrong to place a fountaim of any 
kind inthe picturesque garden, — 
and it is better not to meddle 
with them in the geometrical 
one, unless a graceful design 
and a suitable position for 
them be secured. Fountains 
are seen to best advantage in 
open dusty spaces, small 
Squares, &c., in hot countries. 
In all cases where expense is 
incurred for them, concise and 
well executed designs like the 
one in the accompanying illus- 
tration should be the aim, At 
the head of the Serpentine, 
and in many other places we 
could name, the artist has been 
ambitious in attempting to 
make a regular garden of 
fountains, and the result is 
poor indeed. Even if there were such a pleasing design as 
that in our illustration, its effect would be to a great extent 
marred by surrounding it with a number of meaner ones, and 
with much rough and unsatisfactory stone and stucco work. 
We hear with regret that the Metropolitan Board of Works — 
contemplate the erection of a costly fountain in one of jin; — 
small gardens on the Thames Hmbankment. To do this Yaoe 
would require as much money as would suffice to let the sun 
and a few green leaves gladden the eyes of the dwellers M some — 
pestilential nook-of Bethnal Green. But if peter persist in 
spending money on fountains, they can hardly be excused for 
making them decidedly ugly when happy examples occur in 
many not distant cities. 


SEED COVERING IN THE AMERICAN’S GARDEN. ~ 


Ir there is one fault above another in all the gardening books, it is 
the lack of those simplest of directions and suggestions, withe~’ 
which the novice is utterly at fault. Thus, we are told in whPY 
month to sow a particular seed; that it must have a loamy soil; an! 
are favoured with some special learning in regard to its varieties, an 
its Linnean classification. ‘ Pat,” we say, ‘ this seed must be 
planted in a loamy soil.” Pat (scratching his head reflectively) : 
“ And shure, isn’t it in the garden thin, ye’d be afther planting the 
seed?” Pat’s observation is a just one; of course we buy our seed 


to plant in the garden, no matter what soil it may love. The more 


important information in regard to the depth of sowing ib, the modo 


of applying any needed dressing, the reduisite thinning, the insect 


depredators, and the mode of defeating them is, for the most part, 
withheld. That the matter is not without importance, one will ~ 
understand who finds, year after year, his more delicate seeds failing, 
and the wild and attentive Irishman declaring,—‘‘ And, begorra thin, 
‘it’s the ould seed.” ‘ But did you sow it properly, Patrick?” 

“‘ Didn’t I, faith ? I byried ’em an inch if I byried ’em at all.” 


An inch of earth will do for some seeds, but for others, it is an 
Ivish burial—without the wake. The conditions of germination are 
heat, air, and moisture. Covering should not be so shallow as to 
forego the last, nor so deep as to sacrifice the other essential in- 
fluences. Heat alone will not do; air and moisture alone will not do. 


A careful gardener will be guided by the condition of his soil, and — 


the character of his seed. If this haye hard woody covering like the 


beet, he will understand that it demands considerable depth to ~ 


secure the moisture requisite to swell the kernel; or that it should 
be aided by a steep, before sowing. If, on the other hand, it be a 
light fleecy seed, like the parsnip, he will perceive the necessity of 


bringing the earth firmly in contact with it—My Farm of Edgewood. : 


a 
i 


Fes. 10, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


a7 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


SEEDLING SEAKALE FOR FORCING. 


I wave noticed that many excellent gardeners practice, and 
recommend, the plan of propagating this indispensable 
vegetable by planting pieces of the roots, about two feet 
apart and the same distance asunder, between the rows— 

inning out the thicket of crowns each root is sure to make, 
to two or three. Later in the season they pick out the seed- 
stalks, which the latter generally show from time to time during 
the summer, seldom getting roots fit to force till the end of the 
second year. 

Now, with all deference to the opinions of others, I venture 
to assert that all this trouble during two years is not needful, 
not to speak of haying to grow two breadths of Seakale—a 
forcing and succession stock—by the above system. It is a 
well-known fact that seedlings, as a rule, always furnish the 
most vigorous plants, and if any one will grow two batches of 
Seakale—one from chopped roots and the other from seed— 
Tam sure they will verity the truth of this assertion to their 
complete satisfaction. 3 

Seakale, sown in March or April in well-prepared ground, 
will yield crowns fit for forcing in November equal to plants 
from cuttings at the end of two years. I will not say that 
each seedling plant will furnish as many crowns—not more 
than one, in fact; but a square rood of seedlings, judiciously 
cropped and thinned, &c., will yield as many, and as good, 
crowns as the same extent of two-year-old plants from cuttings. 
I haye sown a pound of Seakale seed annually for these last 
seyen years, and haye never failed but once in having an 
excellent supply of plants, the whole of which have always 
been forced the following winter and spring. The failure 
referred to was caused by an overdose of salt administered 
inadvertently by one of my men. 

_ Iam aware that forcing seedlings the first year is nota 
new plan; but I also know, both from reading and experience, 
_ {216 is an economical and satisfactory system very rarely 
adopted; and I wish to convince your readers that they may 
sow and clear their ground of Seakale nearly within the 
year, instead of always having two quarters of the kitchen 
garden occupied by it. J. Srursoy, Wortley. 


NEW VEGETABLES OF THE PAST YEAR. 


Aone the new vegetables of 1871 we find new names to be legion. 
It is, however, always a difficult matter to decide as to what is truly a 
novelty or new variety, and what is merely a new name giycn, it may 
be, to a greatly improved stock, but still essentially the same. Our 
vegetables are improved, or kept up to the standard, by selection far 
more than by the efforts of the hybridizer or introducer, as in the 
case of fruits and flowers. Peas, however, yield us real novelty. 
Mr. Laxton, to whom we have Already been indebted for several 
important additions, is now about to outdo himself by giving us, all 
at once, six new varieties—to wit, Superlative, having great pods like 
a broad bean, fully seven inches in length, which, whatever its quality 
be, will be a glorious pea for exhibition ; Griffin, early as Sangster’s, 
of a deep grassy-green colour, a great desigeratum in an early pea; 
Popular and Omega, two wrinkled marrows; Evergreen and Con- 
quest, the former a smooth pea, said to be of fine colour when 

_ cooked, the latter a green wrinkled. In addition to this, we have 


_ Emperor of the Marrows, from Mr. Williams; White Gem, First 


Crop Blue, from Messrs. Carter & Co.; Best of all (Maclean), from 
Messrs. Sutton & Sons, which last, if it prove true to its name, 
will be good indeed. One more must be noticed, viz., Canadian 
Dwarf, from Messrs. Finney, which is of great promise as an extra- 
ordinary cropper, and of fine quality; and there are still more 
candidates. Of onions we have many claiming notice of late. At 
present we may allude to the New Red Marzagole, the Neapolitan 
Marzagole, and the Red Mammoth Tripoli, all very large, of the 
Tripoli type. Amongst cucumbers there are also many aspirants, 
but the best which we have seenis Douglas’s Tender and True. For 
the lovers of large cucumbers, we may indicate the Marquis of 
Lorne. In tomatoes we have gained a good variety in Defiance; as 

_ among lettuces we have also in the Kingsholm Cox. In radishes we 
have a welcome addition to our winter salads in the Large White 
Californian, no doubt of Japanese or Chinese extraction, introduced 
by Mr. Robinson, which grows to a large size, resembles a great white 
Sablons turnip, and is of good quality, Lastly, among potatoes, we 


have so many to choose from, that we are at a loss which to sclect. 
Lee’s Hammersmith Early Kidney is very fine in appearance ; but it 
would be invidious to name others from amongst so many. It is 
satisfactory to know, and highly gratifying to feel, that the past 
season, although an unpropitious one for gardening generally, does 
not show any falling-off of energy amongst gardeners, but a quict 
progressive improvement.—A. I’. B., in “ Florist and Pomologist.” 


AN OLD TEMPLE GARDEN ELM. , 


Tur Benchers of the Middle Temple have just cut down an Elm 
which was sacred to the musings of Charles Lamb and the kindly 
fictions of Charles Dickens, for it was under the shade of that tree 
that “Elia” walked, and that pretty Ruth Pinch kept her tryst 
with honest John Westlock. Who has not read with a brightened 
eye and a cheerier heart that chapter which begins, “ Brilliantly the 
Temple fountain sparkled in the sun, and merrily the idle drops of 
water danced and danced, and peeping out in sport among the trees 
plunged lightly down,” &e.? ‘A pleasant place, indeed,” said Ruth ; 
“and so shady!’? Shady no more; there lies the old elm along the 
side of the Hall, sound to the core. Cui bono? The Benchers of 
our Inns of Court may build halls and pull down old erections, but 
once cut down a fine old tree, and no man can replace its beauties. 
Let those who may be misled by the plea that the old tree was 
dying pay a visit to its mutilated body by the side of the Hall, and 
observe, at the same time, the gap made in the little community of 
timber, and then say, as they will do, “Why cut it down; it cum- 
bered not the ground ?”—B. F., in “ Times,” Feb. 3rd. 

To the above, the following reply has since appeared in the same 
paper :— 

The legal barbarity imputed is exclusively my own. Audi alteram 
partem. The tree was a decaying institution. It had perished at 
the root, and nodded to its fall. It was condemned to fall, that it 
might fall safely and not be a fatal tree. Lama planter and not an 
uprooter of trees. I know the obloquy which attaches to all up- 
rooters and shakers of that which is planted in the soil too well to 
yenture rashly to remove a tree. As to such an one, public opinion 
would deem him fit to be suspended on a bough of its neighbour 
tree; but would it very much astonish the writer to hear that in 
lien of this one elm half a score plane trees are about to be planted 
on that spot, and that I hope our venerable buildings, under my 
renovating hand, which is thought to be the hand of a legal bar- 
barian, will flourish in a green old age? Trees, like men, we all 
wish to see planted and retained in their proper places. I read that 
some mischievous persons are destroying the trees on the Thames 
Embankment. The Commissioners threaten to remove the rest. In 
mercy, great Commissioners, execute your threat, for instead of the 
beautiful river, with its moving and sparkling waters giving animation 
to our thoughts by all it carries on its course—instead of the noble 
architectural beauties which the sight now takes in—we, if we live 
so long, shall otherwise see hereafter a long avenue of green foliago, 
and guess at a river which that foliage hides. Pardon me for this 
heresy, which, as it comes from a legal barbarian, may possibly be 
pardoned.—Laurence Peel, Atheneum Club, Feb. Sth. 


DAMAGING TREES ON THAMES EMBANKMENT. 


Av a recent meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works a report 
was received from the Parks and Open Spaces Committee, stating 
that certain of the trees on the Victoria Embankment roadway had 
been maliciously eut, and recommending the Board to offer a reward 
of £20 for information which would lead to the conviction of any 
person damaging the trees. “The chairman said he had been to the 
Embankment to ascertain the facts, and he found that these trees 
had been deliberately injured, and that it had been done with skill, 
as some instrament must have been put through the fencing for the 
purpose of damaging them as much as possible.—Daily Paper. 

[Our own reporter, who has inspected the Embankment, states that 
the damage committed occurs in the line of trees next the river. A 
few yards to the right of Waterloo Bridge, looking towar the 
Surrey side, one of the trees has been cut completely through, ‘about 
three and a half or four feet from the ground, with, apparently, 
a strong knife or a small hatchet, the top having been left, as it was 
erowing, between the supporting stakes. A little further on, towards 
Westminster, another tree also bears marks of injury, an attempt 
to heal which has since been made by covering the wound over with 
clay, and keeping it inits place by means of a bandage. A few yards 
further on another tree appears to haye received a knock from some 
blunt instrament, probably the back of a hatchet. This also has 
been dressed with clay. This last tree has been damaged higher up 


) 


272 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 10, 1872. 


SSeS 


the stem than its injured neighbours, the wound it has received 
being about four and a half feet from the ground. The Hmbank- 
ment gardens, say the daily papers, are to be ornamented with ever- 
greens on the occasion of the Queen’s passing that way to or from St. 
Paul’s Cathedral on the 27th instant, and already some five thousand 
laurels, hollies, box, firs, &c., bought at different nurseries for 
that purpose, are being planted in conspicuous positions. How long 
they will withstand the change from pure air to our smoky 
atmosphere remains to be seen.—ED. | : 


THE AMATEURS’? REMEMBRANCER+* 


Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—tTrees and shrubs’ prune, 
yemoying all decayed and unsightly branches, and thinning and regulating 
where overcrowded. Alterations bring toa close quickly. Flowers lke 
deep and porous borders ; but they should not be made too rich, as in 
that case the plants, especially in rainy seasons, run too much to leaf. 


Pits and Frames.—Plants in these examine, freeing them from 
dead or decaying leaves, stirring the surface mould, and otherwise keeping 
them clean. Auriculas, top-dress with rich soil, and young plants m small 
pots shift into larger ones, and as the plants start into active growth in- 
crease the supply of water; protect from heavy rains, and give air on all 
favourable occasions. Calceolaries, shift, and keep in a genial moist atmo- 
sphere. Sow mignonette on a slight bottom heat, in rich soil. Re-pot 
stocks, and encourage them; some ten-week stocks may also be sown. 
Carnations, clear of dead foliage, and stir the surfacesoil. Ranunculuses, 
sow in pans, and place in a cool close frame. 

Indoor Plant Department.—There will be no difficulty now in 
keeping conservatories and greenhouses gay and attractive, seeing that 
hyacinths, tulips, and other early flowering plants, are coming so freely 
into bloom. As the days advance in length and warmth, more encourage- 
ment may be given to regular occupants of these structures. Plants for 
successional blooming should be introduced into the forcing-pit, such as 
Lilacs, Ghent Azaleas, hybrid Rhododendrons, &c. Room must also be 
found for Chinese Azaleas, Roses, and bulbs. Dipladenias, Allamandas, 
Txoras, and Stephanotis, for stove ornamentation, should also be started if 
wanted early; and the various lands of Achimenes, Gesneras, Gloxinias, 
and other bulbous stove plants must likewise receive attention. Tea, 
China, and Bourbon Roses may now be increased where the stock of 
such things is deficient. 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Shift some of the best succession 
Pine-apples into their fruitmg-pots; keep the root temperature from 80° 
to 85°, and the atmospheric about 65°. ‘Take suckers off old stools with 
a “heel,” and potat once ito seven or nine inch pots. Vines breaking 
xequire a moist atmosphere, and those im blooma rather dry one. A’ 
soon as grapes are set, thinning must commence, and admit carefully ais 
avoiding cold draughts. Peaches and nectarines set, will require thinninr, 
and also syringing morning and evening in favourable weather; dishudg 
and keep them free from insects. Figs like plenty of water and frequent 
syringing ; pinch out the terminal bud at the fifth jomt. Cherries keep 
cool till set, and water very moderately ; temperature 45°, and admit air 
freely. Of strawberries keep up successions, and remove such as have 
fruited. Tomatoes sow in three-inch pots, and push on in heat. For 
cucumbers, prepare succession beds, and plant those already made, 
keeping the plants about six inches from the glass. Shift seedlings to 
three-inch pots when they have made the third leaf; afterwards pinch 
the leading shoots. Melons sow in small pots and when they make two 
rough leaves, shift; when+hey make three or four rough leaves, pinch; 
night temperature 60° or 65°, day temperature, by sunheat, 80°; keep the 
atmosphere moist. Mushroom beds, when about 60°, spawn. Radishes 
sow in gentle heat. Mustard and cress sow successionally once in ten 
days. Capsicums and chilies sow in strong heat, and prick off as soon as 
up, an inch apart. To potatoes under glass, admit air freely; water only 
the soil, and top-dress with light mould. Of rhubarb bring in sue- 
cessional plants for forcing. Seakale, lift and place in a mild temperature 
away from light, to blanch. Kidney Beans sow in pots for succession ; 
pinch off the top shoots, and syringe frequently. Asparagus add fresh 
linings to, maintain a temperature of 60° or 70°, drawing off the sashes 
in fine days. Celery sow ona slight hot-bed, or in boxes or pans. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Trenching and manuring 
finish as early as possible. Prune outdoor vines. Plant and prune bush 
fruits. Scions for grafting putin by the “ heels” till required, and head 
pack stocks to receive them. Orchard trees thin where crowded. Tinish 
training and nailing, especially on south walls; and syringe peach trees 
afterwards with sulphur and water. Of strawberries, make new plan- 
tations if necessary. Of beans sow a general crop, also a second crop of 
tall and dwarf peas. Of potatoes a full crop may now be planted. Some 
early turnips sow on a warm border. Of parsley sow some of the best 
curled, in drills a foot apart. Of cauliflower make a small sowing, prick 
out those in boxes or pans, and plant out some strong well-hardened 
plants of autumn sowings. Carrots sow a few Harly Horn on a warm 
border. Of cabbage sow an early variety on some warm spot, and trans- 
plant autumn sown. Of broccoli sow Walcheren ona warm sitnation. 
Radishes sow both long and turnip-rooted, protecting should the weather 
pecome severe. Garlic plant in drills two inches deep, nine inches from 
each other in the row, and the rows twelve inches apart. j 


2 vat eae monthly calendars, written by some of our ablest gardeners aro 
published in Tux Gapen in the first issue for each month, 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PUBLIC GARDENS. 


Victoria Park.—We understand that the thirty acres of reserved 
Jand have been secured for the public. Mr. Lowe and Mr. Ayrton 
have agreed with the Board of Works as to terms. This is a satisfactory 
termination of a gallant fight, which seemed almost hopeless when Mx. 
Lowe gave the adverse answer to the deputation which waited on him a 
few weeks since. It was. Mr. Reed, M.P., who on that occasion, if we 
remember rightly, proposed, as a last resort, to appeal to the Board of 
Worksin the matter, and the result has been a success obtained in the 
eleventh hour. i 


Public Park for Ashton-under-Lyne.—The Harl of Stamford 
and Warrington has generously proposed to give a tract of land, lying 
between the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne and Staleybridge, of the value 
of upwards of £10,000, for the formation of a public park for the dis- 
trict, on the condition that the inhabitants will subseribe the necessary ~ 
funds for laying out the park and its approaches. Mr. Darnton, solicitor, 
and the ex-mayor of Ashton-under-Lyne, has also offered to convey a plot 
of land, containing about nine and a half acres, and also a large mansion 
thereon, known as the “Highfield estate’? (late belonging to Abel 
Harrison, Hsq.), to form part of such park, for the sum of £2,000. The 
Highfield estate is subject to a yearly chief rent of £131, payable to 
ore Stamford, which his lordship has also generously consented to 

‘orege. : 

The Alexandra Park Company.—The winding-up matter of 
the Alexandra Park Company was before Mr. Church, the chief clerk at 
the Rolls’ Chambers, this week. The official liquidator said it had been 
mentioned in the public press that the creditors would be paid im full. 
Already they had been paid 17s. 4d.inthe pound. All that was expected 
further would be twopence inthe pound. ‘The chief clerk said he 
wished that all public companies that came before him paid 17s. 6d. in 
the pound. He allowed the matter to be adiourned. 

“Pour les Dames.”—What must foreigners think of our mock- 
modest style, where health is in many unavoidable cases sacrificed for 
appearance sake? Why are our large parks and promenades so destitute 
of accommodation for women, and why is the little that exists so carefully 
hidden from Imowledge as wellas sight ? Why should private individuals 
be left to provide for so great a public want? Such provision mustalways 
be inadequate, more particularly so when payment is demanded for that 
which vestries ought to supply and care for gratuitously. Retiring places, 
pour Tes dames should be erected in convenient corners, and one section 
shourd be free, whether in park, or street, or railway-station. The sterner 
sex has less to complain of, but a comprehensive system might be instituvedk —_ 
that would ‘provide for all requirements, without bemg imdelicately — 
obtrusive.—Lantern, in “ Builder.” ¥ : 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—February 10th. 


Flowers.—These consist of Hyacinths, Tulips, and Crocuses, Callas, 
Heaths; common and Chinese Primulas; Cyclamens; Azaleas, both Indian 
and Ghent; Camellias; Dentzia gracilis; Laurustinus; Acacias; Thyrsa- 
canthus rutilans, one of the most striking of winter-flowering plants ; 
Dielytra spectabilis; Bonvardias; Pelargoniums; Cytisus; the sweet- 
smelling Daphne indica; Fuchsias, Lily of the Valley, Violets, Mienonette, 
Wallflowers, Begonias, Christmas Roses, Lilacs, Tea and China Roses, 
Snowdrops, Arabis, Spirea japonica, Cinerarias, Winter Aconites, 
Hepaticas; and some cut flowers of Orchids, such as Dendrobiums, 
Odontoglossums, Zygopetalums, and Cypripediums. Among berried 
plants are Solanums, Ardisias, and Aucubas. ' 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 2s. to 4s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 
100lbs., 60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.— Grapes, per lb., 5s. to 
10s.—Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.— Pears, 


per dozen, 3s. to 8s.—Pine-apples, per lb., 6s. to 10s.—P te, 
each, 4d. to 8d. ples; © ? : omegranates, 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.— Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s, 8d.—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. to 3: 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— - 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 74.—Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s —Celery, 
per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s—Cucumbers, each, 
1s. to 2s.—French Beans, new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 
to 4d.—Horse Radish, per bunch, 3s. to 5s —Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d. 
—Lettuces, per score, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Mushrooms, per pottle, 1s. to 2s, 6d. 
—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 9d.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Radishes, 
per bunch, 2d.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Salsafy, per bundle, 
9d. to 1s. 34.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s.3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d.—Shallots, per Ib., 8d—Spinach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s.— 
Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d. to 6d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d. to 6d. 


- Part I. of THe GARDEN, containing-6 Numbers and upwards of 80 


Illustrations and Plans, may now be had, price 2s. Part IT. is 
also now ready, price 1s. 5d., and may be had through all book- 
sellers and newsagents, and at the railway stalls, Aa 
All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WrLt1AM Rosson, “Tur GARDEN ” Orricr, 37, Southampton — 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tur PusiisHER, at the same Address. . 


¥en. 17, 1872.) 


GARDEN. e 


273 


“phis is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
THE Agt ItsELF 1s NaturE,’’—Shakespeare. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
quarter, payable in advance, All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
Office. ; 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


THE GIANT PUFF-BALL. 

: (LYCOPERDON GIGANTEUM.) 

‘THERE is no deceptive puff about the Puff-Ball here figured 
—in fact, it needs no puffing; for its character, like its 
unsullied snow-white coat, is purity itself. These delicious 

_ puff-balls are nature’s real “lumps of delight,” and may be 
urchased eyerywhere in every field and pasture of autumn, 
for nothing an ounce. ‘These are the’ proper “balls” for 
young and old to study. It is far better to be dancing over 


B.—Section of ditto. 
. C.—Spores enlarged 700 diameters. 


A.—The Giant Puff-Ball. 


the September meadows after such epicurean treasures as 
Lycoperdon giganteum & Co. than to be capering with the 
light fantastic toe over Turkey carpets during the small hours 
of morning. As for other “ balls,” such, for mstance, as those 
the Prussians and French have familiarised us with in their 
fields and cities, why, they are too frightful for Fungologists 
to think over for a moment ; better study at once, and for ever, 
the “ terrestrial globes” here illustrated, the pleasures of which 
are warranted never to cloy. ; : 

Dr. Bull states that the Puff-Balls are edible when young ; 
and we consider the Giant Puff-Ball to have a great pre- 
eminence over all the others. It may be at once known by its 
great size, commonly measuring a foot in diameter, its snow- 
white colour, and its texture like the finest white kid leather, 


with the skin frequently breaking into minute arez. It grows 
with great rapidity, and is common in rich pastures, gardens, 
and orchards, usually irregularly scattered, but occasionally 
growing in enormous fairy-rings. When the interior of the 
Puff-Ball is pertectly white and firm, it is fit for the table. 
We consider the allied species not worth experimenting upon ; 
these may be small, and found growing upon stumps, palish 
brown in colour, or large, and covered with warts. ur plant 


is different in all these characters. 


Boys take an especial delight in kicking these great puff- 
balls to pieces. Undoubtedly, they are very alluring, and 
present just the same ‘temptation to hoys as the venerable 
bald human head does to the irate Irishman, inasmuch as the 
damage can be so clearly seen after the first hostile blow 
from the foot or shillalah—both are so easily “ caved in.” 

It generally happens that a single good-sized puff-ball is 
far too large for a single day’s consumption. Should the 
plant, therefore, be found growing in a garden or any similarly 
convenient place, the better plan is to cut a few slices off the 
living plant, and let the bulk remain growing (just as the 
horse’s haunches were treated in the apocryphal traveller’s 
tale); by these means, as Vittadini says, one may have a 
frittwra every day in the week. 

The best authorities agree in stating that no French 
omelette is half so good in richness and delicacy of flavour as 
the Puff-Ball omelette. Dr. Curtis, of South Carolina, calls it 
the “South Down” of mushrooms, and says, “it has a deli- 
cacy of flayour superior to any omelette ever eaten.” 

Cut’ slices a quarter of an inch thick, and fry with butter; 
then spread over them raspberry jam or jelly, or any similar 
sweet, and serve hot. For fritters, cut slices half-an-inch 
thick; dip in yolk of egg; sprinkle with pepper, salt, and 
sweet herbs; fry in fresh butter, and serve hot. The Giant 
Puff-Ball is one of the lightest, most digestible, and delicious 
of all fungi. W. G. Satu. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


KITCHEN GARDEN ROTATION. ; 

Wit reference to farm crops, it is only in exceptional cases 
where two white straw crops cari be taken profitably in succes- 
sion; and so injurious has the practice been found to be to the 
land, that most proprietors covenant that a proper and cus- 
tomary rotation shall be observed in the cultivation of the soil. 
Hence the origin of the two, three, or four course systems of 
cultivation, and hence, also, the rotation of crops. Before this 


_ system was introduced, land used to lay fallow every three or 


four years in order that it might be cleared of weeds and 
properly cultivated; but now, by the alternations of straw and 
green crops, fallows are rendered altogether unnecessary, except 
in cases of gross neglect where perennial weeds haye been 
allowed to accumulate in a very undue manner. Now in the 
management of a garden we have always found it necessary 
to divide the area, be it large or small, into five equal portions. 
One is devoted to perennial or permanent crops, such as As- 
paragus, Seakale, Rhubarb, Horse Radish, and the like, and 
once properly planted, these, beyond the ordinary rules of 
manuring and cleaning from weeds, require little attention. 
Strawberries we suppose to be grown upon the wall tree bor- 
ders, and fruit trees are cultivated in single lines running 
parallel with the walks. This leaves the four equal proportions 
which we have specified open for a specific rotation, which may 
be carried out ina systematic manner. Now, of these crops 
we have what may be called deepeners, -cultivators, and ex- 
hausters. Thus Célery, Cardoons, and carly Potatoes in 
trenches may be called deepeners, inasmuch as they necessitate 
the shifting of the-soil to aconsiderable depth, both in forming 
trenches and earthing. Surface crops are called cultivators, 
because the frequent hoeings necessary for the destruction of 
weeds exposes a large surface of the soil to the action of the 
atmosphere ; and exhausters are such root crops as Potatoes, 
Parsnip, Carrots, and the like, which scourge the ground of its 
manure and make it poor indeed, and consequently it is neces- 
sary that sucha rotation should be observed that the deepeners 
follow the exhausting crop. To this end we make the deep- 
eners Celery, &c., our leading crop. Therefore Plot 1 will be 


ae A . 


Ie a a 


274 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fen. 17, 1872. 


planted with Celery, heavily manured, and also with Potatoes 
im trenches on hot dung, and this plot will also contain the 
Cucumber or Vegetable-Marrow ridge. Plot 2 will be planted 
with Onions, Cabbage, early Cauliflower, and Carrots. Plot 3, 


summer Spinach, Turnips, and dwarf French Beans, followed | 


by Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts for the winter; and No. 4, 
the general crop of Potatoes, interlined with Brussels Sprouts 
and Winter Greens, or manured after the Potatoes are taken 
up and planted with autumn Coleworts. By this succession 
there is ho vacant ground; each crop falls systematically into. 
its allotted space, the ground by the preceding crop being pro- 
perly prepared for its reception. ‘Thus after the exhaustion of 
the soil by the root crops upon Plot 4, Celery and its com- 
panion crops step forward from No. 1, and by the deep trenches 
and heavy manuring restore its lost properties. Onions and 
Cabbage follow, which delight in deeply cultivated and highly 
manured soil, and these are followed’ by crops which rejoice 
more in surface cultivation. In this manner the round of the 
cropping may be kept on for a century without the soil bemg 
deteriorated, always premising that it receives manure with a 
liberal hand, and that no opportunity of trenching and ridging 
the ground as frequently as the absence of the crop renders 
such treatment practicable is neglected. It will be observed 
that in this rotation I have not said anything of Peas and 
other tall-growing leguminous crops. I suppose them to be 
crown in rows, eight, twelve, or fifteen feet apart, and that the 
minor vegetables are grown between them; always, of course, 
taking care that they do not stand upon the same ground two 
years in succession. Thus, if around the plot’you haye pyra- 
midal Apple, Pear, or Plum trees, and bush fruit, Gooseberries 
and Currants, planted alternately, say six feet apart, the Peas 
this+year will come opposite the tall trees, while next year 
their’ station will be opposite the bush fruit. By this system of 
cropping I have always realised the most complete success in 
the cultivation of vegetables of all kinds. Now, in the culti- 
vation of the permanent crops, if it is customary to take up 
Asparagus, Seakale, or Rhubarb for forcing, I always con- 
trive to have an improving crop upon the space. ‘Thus, 
atter Asparagus, I would have a ridge of hot dung and garden 
refuse for the cultivation of early vegetables or Cucumbers or 
Vegetable Marrows, and that trenched up and well incorpo- 
rated with the soil would make afit preparation for Asparagus 
in the following season, and by the same rule trenches for 
early crops assisted by hot dung would prepare the Seakale 
and Rhubarb ground for sueceedmg crops. Of Strawberries 
and such light crops as Lettuce and other salads, I say nothing, 
as I suppose them to be confined to the wall tree borders, and 
to such aspect as the varying seasons may render necessay. 


A. W. 


HARD GROUND FOR. BROCCOLI 


Ty penning a few notes on this esteemed vegetable, I have little 
new to offer, but merely purpose to describe a practical method of 
treatment, which, if carried out, cannot fail to give satisfactory 
results, Just now (December) we haye a good stock of Walcheren 
broccoli, well covered with fern—the best of all protectors for 
outside things, to be followed by Snow’s Broccoli, also covered up. 

Hor my first crop of Walcheren, I sow the seed about the middle 
of August, and plant (under hand-lights) in the first week of October 

_ all the larger plants, reserving the small ones for three-light boxes, 
Which gives me a succession from the first week in June until the 
last in July. These are followed by a pinch of seed sown inside ii 
February, which comes into use in August. In March we make a 


sowing on a south border, and another the first week in May; and by | 
picking out all the best plants first, leaving the smaller fry for the © 


last batch, we are enabled to keep well on until Christmas. 


The land cannot be toa highly tilled for cauliflowers, trenching 


and manuring being the order of the day; but for spring broccoli 
the case is different. We want good stocky plants. They are the 
following crop after the early potatoes are cleared, and the firmer 
the land the better. We strike the lines three feet apart, and plant 
two feet six inches apart in the row, one man making the holes with 
a crowbar, and another dropping in the plants. The only planting 
required is to well wash the dry earth into the holes, filling them 
level with the ground; and they seldom require any more water. 
We never lift or lay in our broccoli, the plants being sturdy 
and hardy; but in severe weather we cover with fern, the wind, rain, 
&c., washing it down to the neck, and thus preserying them. 
- > 


ro 


- delicate garden mould of some ten inches in depth, which would 


The following varieties keep us supphed with broccoli nearly the — 


whole year round :—Snow’s Winter White; Osborn’s, a really good 
thing; Harly Malta; Frogmore Improved, for early spring, say 
January to April, when we have Elletson’s White Protecting, Hibbie’s 
Royal Alfred ; and for latest of all, Cattell’s Eclipse, the best of all 
broccolis for late work. ~ ; 

As an illustration of broccoli-growing in firm land, I may mention 
that when taking charge of these gardens three years back, I found 
a quarter which had been occupied by strawberries for eight years. 
The crop of fruit being cleared, I had the plants all chopped up 
close to the surface, the land, which was as dry as snuff, raked oyer; 
and the plants planted in the manner above described; and I never 
saw so fine a piece of broccoli stand before the sun.- High manuring 
and deep digging give foliage three feet long; but this is not 
wanted. What is required, is to give plenty of room, and grow the 
plants stiff and firm. I sow my early broccoli the first week*in 
April, and the late the first day of May.—R. Gilbert, 
“ Florist and Pomologist.” 


—_——— eee 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


Thin Seeding.—Crowding is one of the sins of, thre small gardener. 
Because he is pinched for space, he must crowd his plants, forgetting 
that every living thing must have room to grow, and if it has not, attenu- 
ation must be the consequence. Of this there can be no doubt, and yet 
so covetous are many, that a man with afew score plants more than he 
jhas room for would rather spoil the lot than give or throw them away. . 
With good seed thick seeding is waste, and the neglect of timely thinning 
must result in the injury of the crop. _Where there is time, as 18 
generally the case with amateurs, itis a capital practice to drop the seeds 
of onions, carrots, and_ the like at those distances apart which they 
require for full growth. Three or four seeds in each patch will be quite 
sufficient, and, as the distance admits of thorough cultivation around the 
plants, superior growth is the consequence. This is something like 
dibbling the corn crops, a pint or two of seed upon properly prepared 
ground producing as great a return as when two or more bushels are 
sown. With scarce or expensive seeds, dibbling is a decided advantage. 


Garden Allotment Agreements.—As agent for the Hon, Mark 
Rolle’s South Devon estates, I beg to say, in answer to is Kestrel’s” _ 
inquiries, that I haye let several hundred allotments’ with the best 
results, and without the loss of a shilling of rent, on the following 
terms :—1. All allotments 20 perches in extent. 2. Rent (generally 5s.) 
payable in February in advance. 8. Ploughing and subletting prohibited. 
4, Landlord reserves power to resume possession any February without 
notice, on paying for crops and unexhausted manure. 5. Landlord pays 
all rates, taxes, and tithes. ‘The allotment field should be as close as 
possible to the village, and, if not naturally dry, should be drained; 
accommodation roads or tracts should intersect the field, so as to give 
access to all the allotments ; numbered boundary stakes should detine: - 
limits, and, to avoid jealousy, applicants should, in the first instance, — 
draw lots. I believe that allotments are great enemies to publicans, and — 
that if any notorious offence forfeitsa man’s allotment, the effect is good ; — 
put I have very rarely had to resume possession. If “ Kestrel” wishes 
to make money by allotments, he will find that in most villages labourers 


perhaps, like my employer, he is ready to accept 5s., and so show the 
labouring man that there are advantages in living under the wing of a 
large landed proprietor. Allotments givean agent some trouble, especially — 
at the outset; and that, I am afraid, is thereason why they are the excep- 
tion in country parishes rather than the rule-—2. H, Lirsconbe, East Bud- 
leigh, Budleigh Salterton. reyes « 
Foolish Trenching.—For a good garden, as I have said, a deep rich 
soil is essential; and to this end trenching is desirable ; but trenching 
will not always secure it, for the palpable reason that subsoil is not soil. — 
T have met with certain awkward confirmatory. experiences where a 
have made 
fair show of the lesser vegetables, has been, by the frenzy of trenching, | 
buried under fourteen inches of villanous gravelly hard-pan brought up — 
from below, in which all seeds sickened, and all plants turned pale. 
Whatever be the depth of tillage, it is essential that the surface showa 
fine tilth of friable, light, unctuous mould; the young plants need it to — 


-gain strength for a foray below. And'yet I have seen inordinate sums 


expended for the sake of burying a few inches of such choice moulds, 
under a foot-thick coverlid of the dreariest and rawest yellow gravel that ~ 
ever held its cheerless face to the sun.—Ik. Marvel. im 


The Plough inthe Market Garden.—Many, without retensions — 
to that nicety of culture which is supposed to belong to spade husbandry 
‘so overstock their gardens with confused and interceptin lines of froit - 
shrubbery, and perennial herbs, as to forbid any thoroug' action of the — 
plough. By the simple device, however, of giving to the garden the shape — 
of a long eam here and arranging its trees and walks in lines parallel oe 
with its length, and by establishing easy modes of ingress and egress at 
either end, the plough will prove a great economizer; and, under careful 
eras will leave as eyen a surface, and as fine a tilth as follows the — 
spade. | make this suggestion in the interest of those cultivators who are — 
compelled to measure narrowly the cost of tillage, and who cannot indulge — 
in the amateur weakness of wasted labour.—My Farm of Bdgewood, 


Burghley, in_ 


will give 10s. for 20 perches of fair arable land on the above terms ; but, % 


» 


Fes. 17, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


27 


cn 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from Page 258.) ~ 
GRAFTING UNDER GLASS. 

Geyekat Direcrions.—Certain plants require to be propa- 
gated under the shelter of acloche, frame, or greenhouse. Such 
are evergreen trees and shrubs, tender, rare, or ew plants. 
Evenness of growth and equability of temperature, keeping the 
subjects from exposure to the air or other adverse influences, 


_ yery much promote the union of the graft. The stock is a 
- young plant which has been potted, and allowed to grow in 


the open air for about a season. When itis time to graft it, it 
is put under cover. There are, however, certain shrubs which 
may be grafted at the time when the stock is potted; such 
as the Holly, Rhododerdrons, dwarf Biotas, and most shrubs 


~ the roots of which readily group themselves into a ball. The 


attention: 
_ with dead leaves and straw mats; but it is very rare that 


- Crocuz.—This is the 


weeks. 


best seasons for grafting under glass are from January to 


* March, and from July to September. Beyond the shelter of 


the greenhouse or other covering, no artificial heat from 
‘manure, hot-air or hot-water pipes will be required; and as 


other atmospheric influences, the grafts will not need the pro- 
tection of grafting-clay or wax. In times of great heat, the 
-glass of the house, frame, or cloche is covered on the outside 
with a mixture of the colouring-stuff called‘ English Green” and 
whiting, or simply with whitirg dissolved in water or milk; 
mats, canvas, or screens made with twigs or small branches of 
broom, heath or birch may also be used for this, purpose. 
These, if. steeped in a solution of sulphate of copper, will 
not so soon decay. 7 
_ GRAPTING UNDER THE 


most simple method of 
' grafting under glass, no 
ouse, or other shelter 
than that of the cloche 
being required. A quad- 
bed of river 
sand is made sufficiently 
broad to contain two or 
three rows of ordinary 
_cloches. In February or 
March, sometimes in 
July, the stocks are 
i and 
in groups in the ' 
sand Oise the Sloskies: : 
The rim of the cloche is sunk in the sand, so as to exclude the. 
air completely from the plants, and they are left so for’ six 
y that time the union of the 
The cloches are then gradually raised for a week, after which 
they are remoyed altogether; but the young plants are kept 
shaded with canvas or other screefis. These are at length 
removed altogether, before planting the subjects. out. The 


"stocks are raised in pots before hand. They may also be 


sometimes grafted at the same time that they are potted. 
Evergreens also, which can be taken up with the roots in a 
ball, are often grafted after they are taken up. They are 
then planted under cloches, in a compost of good soil, and 
not potted until two months afterwards, when the cloches are 


_ dispensed with. Autumn-grafting under the cloche does not 


succeed so well, and involves a greater amount of care and 
During winter, the rows of cloches are covered 


severe renters do not leave their marks behind them. The 
amateur who desires to try grafting under glass, may satisfy 
himself at trifling expense, by operating in spring with the 
cloche, and in open ground or nearly so. 


~  Grartine ty Frawes.—The frame consists of a wooden box, 


_ Set in cement or brickwork about two feet high, and sunk in 
the ground.to one-half its depth. If the height of the stocks 
requires it, the soil should be excavated from the bottom to a 
suitable depth, leaving the height of the frame over grotnd as 
it was. The frame mer Hs about 44 feet wide, and should be 
covered with glazed lights. The interstices between the lights 
and the frame should be stuffed with moss, in order to exclude 


the air. At the bottom of the frame is placed a layer of sand, 


_ the stocks are not exposed to the acticn of the sun, frost or | 


Propagating-house. 


rafts will be perfected. — 


tan, cinders, or even of ordinary soil, in which the subjects are 
plunged as soon as they are grafted. August is the best time 
for grafting under glass. The stocks should be grafted in the 
propagating shed at that time, or from the latter part of July 
to the commencement of September, and placed immediately in 
the frames. Spring is also a suitable time for this mode of 
grafting. As the perfect union of the parts does not take place 
sooner than five or six weeks after grafting, the air should be 
thoroughly excluded from. the frame during that time. Then 
the lights should be slightly raised for a few hours every day, 
when the weather is warm. Should the sun be powerful, 
tender plants must be shaded with sereéns or canvas spread 
over the lights, or by whitewashing the glass. But during the 
first weeks the frames should be covered with straw-mats. 
GRarrinG ty A House.—The propagating-house here repre- 
sented is of very simple construction. It is sunk to about from 
twenty inches to three and a quarter feet under the surface 
of the ground. The bottom is kept dry by a layer of four 
to six inches of sand and cinders. The outer walls are six- 
teen inches thick; the height inside from floor to roof is six 
and a half feet; and the glazed roof is about four and a half 
feet wide from the top to the sides. Two raised beds, each 
three feet «wide, are separated by a passage twenty-eight 
inches wide, and in these beds the stocks are planted as soon 
as they are grafted. These beds are filled with tan, sand, 
cinders, or ordinary soil. Instead of one of the beds there 
might be a shelf, which could be used for holding the potted 
stocks which are ready for grafting. When the beds are used 
: for raising cuttings, or 
receiving plants that 
have been bud-grafted, 
or for some winter 
operations, a layer of 
dung-heap manure mixed 
with dead leaves should 
be applied. The leaves 
serve to maintain the 
heat in the manure, an 
object which also may be 
effected by a mixture of 
fragments of cotton 
waste. Artificial heat-is 
not required in grafting 
under glass. When the 
stocks are grafted, which 
may be done eitherinside 


-or outside of the house, they should be arranged on the bed or 


shelf in groups, keeping similar kinds as much together as 
possible. They are then covered with cloches, which exclude 
the air, and under which they are kept for six or eight weeks. 
Every five or six days the condensed vapour on the inside 


of the cloche should be wiped off, and the cloche carefully 


replaced over the plants so that the air may not enter. The 
omission of this precaution would be more dangerous than 
néglecting to wipe the condensed vapours from the interior 
of the cloche. During periods of great heat, the cloches 
should be coyered with leaves of grey paper or the glass of 
the house whitewashed. Conifers are more hardy than ever- 
greens, and for them fhis will be superfluous. As soon as the 
union of the graft is complete, which will be in the space of 
six or eight weeks, the cloche is removed and the plant left ~ 
without it for three or four weeks, but still under the shelter of 
the house; or, should the house be required for any other pur- 
pose, the plants may be removed at once to a frame and 
covered with the lights. : 

TREATMENT AFTER GRAFTING UNDER Grass.—After grafting, 
the subjects are left for six or eiyht weeks cut off from the 
external air, As soon as the union of the parts has been 
established, the plants are still left under glass, but partially 
exposed to the air in theframe or house, by removing the cloches. 


_ If the grafting has taken place in autumn, the plants already 


grafted in frames are left there, and those which have been 
evafted in the house are also put under frames, where they will 
remain during the winter. ' When spring comes, the lights are 
raised in the day time; in the month of May the plants are 
removed into the open air, and should be placed at the north 


276 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


side of a building or evergreen hedge. If the grafting has 


been done in spring, the plants which have been grafted 
under cloches or frames, and which haye been already par- 
tially exposed to the air, should be put out in the same way in 
the shade. Plants grafted ina house should be put for amonth 
under a frame, the lights of which should be rai$ed in times of 
great heat; after this they are put out for a while in a shady 
place before they are finally committed to t he open ground. 
In nurseries, this shading. quarter is formed by a row of 
evergreens of compact and well-cliped foliage. The Chinese 
Arbor vitz (Biota orientalis) is generally used for this purpose, 
planted from east to west, so as to afford a full north aspect, 
and at a distance of two feet from each other. For stocks as 
tall as five or sixfeet, a row of trees planted at least six and 
a half feet from egch other will afford an excellent shade. The 
higher the shading is required to be, the greater should be the 
distance between the trees which form it, in order to admit a 
free circulation of air. When the plants are placed in the 
shade they should be moved into larger pots, and should be 
plunged im groups in beds at the foot of the shading trees, 
where they are to remain a year or two in the same pots. When 
sufficiently grown they are again moved into larger pots. 
According to their nature they may be subsequently planted 
permanently in shade, or in the open ground, or in the inter- 
mediate position known as the parasol. The parasol is a row 
of deciduous trees planted similarly to the evergreen shading 
trees. Hvery time the plants are moyed, whether in pots or 
not, their roots should be surrounded with a compost ap- 
proaching in character the soil in which they are to be finally 
planted. Peat soil mixed with river sand is best for the first 
stages. Woody plants prefer a substantial kind of nutriment 
to manures that will ferment and whose action is temporary. 
Pots with longitudinal grooves in the sides answer well for 
raising trees and shrubs. After the grafted shrubs have thus 
gone through the different phases of treatment, which finally 
conduct them to open-air growth, they thenceforward come 
under the common practice of the management of hardy 
plants.—C, Baltet, “ VArt de Greffer.” : 
(Lo be continued.) 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE WHITH LILY. 


T Au happy to be able to endorse, from a practical point of view, 


all that “Flos” (p. 239) has so charmingly written concerning 


this lily. Itis peerless in purity, beauty, and fragrance, while it 
lasts. Like a good many old things, it need not be discarded for 
newer beauties. It is as effective for back rows of ribbons, 
centres to foliage, and other plants as on the old herbaceous beds or 
borders. It is, indeed, worthy of a place of honour in eyery. 
garden; it is readily increased, and easily cultivated; it flowers 
best, however, if not too frequently disturbed. You have shown 


what it is in a mass, with an architectural setting; it is well nigh ag — 


effective in lines—and though it may seem presumptuous to write it, 
after Shakespeare’s reference to the futility of gilding refined gold, 
yet have F seen tho effect of the lily heightened by being fronted 
with scarlet and backed with blue Salvia patens in the rear. For 
many years a line of lilies has been queen of a ribbon border here 
throughout the month of June. Vor the time they fill all eyes, and, 
as it were, obscure, by their superior beauty, all else. When the 
lilies fade and die, a strong row of the dwarf Dahlia alba multiflora 
takes their place, and well occupies the ground the lilies have left 


vacant. We have other lines, groups, and patches of white lilies in 


yarious positions, and everywhere they flourish. 

It would be quite possible to work the grand golden, and other 
lilies into our bedding arrangements in a similar manner, and by 
such means to add new interest and beauty to our grouped flowers. 
Besides, in every garden of any extent lilies and other old-fashioned 
fayourites might haye separate beds, borders, and gardens wholly, or 
chiefly, to themselves. D. T. F. 


CHEAP ROSES. 
“T amt only a Dog Rose, and as such, cannot expect much 
attention ; nevertheless the stock from which I sprang lay claim to 
having been the progenitors of the Queen of the Floral World; a 


support some of our royal relatives. 


' shores of ‘thy great ocean, Truth.” 


position, however, untenable without the assistance of my humble 
brotherhood. This I should not object to, could our aid be given 
without torture in the shape of mutilation. First. our lower 
extremities are cut off until we have not a toe on which to support 
ourselves ; then our heads are ruthlessly removed; we are set in 
rows uncomfortably close; and almost as soon as we begin to assert 
our natural rights, we are subjected to the drudgery of haying to 
If we have an eye to growth 
it is ruthlessly put out—in fact we are simply made use of, in the full 
acception of the term, and have little to thank the world for. True, 
on one fine June morning, when a number of our family who had 
taken up their abode in a quiet corner were decked out in their — 
delicate blush robes, I once heard a young lady remark how 
beautiful we looked; but this was an exceptional occurence. There _ 


are comparatively few nowadays who can appreciate natural beauty. 


But I am digressing. My business has reference to our royal 
relatives. Recently another member of our family, who has shared a 


great deal-of the torture inflicted upon ourselyes—Miss Manetti is her ~ 


name—came amongst us, her ‘countenance radiant with joyful 
intelligence, which was, that an individual who signed himself * Y., 
aud who appears to take an interest in our common family, had 
signified that he had discovered a method by which the royal 
section of our family could be upheld in their present position of 


honour; nay, could eyen be made to increase their number and 
dominion to an unlimited extent without our assistance, thereby ~ 


sparing us the grievous mutilation already complained of. Imagine 
our joy at such good news. We were all ready: to burst our buds with 
expectation, which was heightened by the’ question being publicly 
asked of ‘Y.’ what his method was; the querist being ‘9. D. ¥.,’ 
who takes an interest in our well-being, and, if report is correct, is 
remarkable for his kind disposition ; though, in truth, I must say that 
hitherto, in displaying his loyalty to the Floral Queen, he has acted 
towards us just as hard-heartedly as the rest of his species. Yet I 
have no doubt he and others would be only too glad to be able to 
spare us the bad treatment necessity has hitherto compelled them 
to inflict. We naturally expected that ‘Y.’ would have revealed 
his secret, and so put an end to all our trouble. Imagine our dire 
disappointment when we learnt that he refused to disclose his secret. 
There was mingled disgust and resentment in eyery countenance, 


I believe the spines on’ some of the young and yigorous of our’ ~ 


community grew at least half an inch longer in no time; and the 


| general expression of all was’ such, that if ‘Y.’ had been within 


hearing, he would never have forgotten it. A general consultation was 
held as to what punishment he was deserving of, when it was proposed 


that if it were possible to. find him, he should receive ‘a sound. 3 


castigation with half-a-dozen of the strongest spied young briars, 
until not a thorn remained upon them. The proposition was 


. 


carried by acclamation, and all expressed their conviction that ~ 


“Y.’s’ secret would do him no good, as it, or something equal to it, 


was sure to come out that would be a general relief to us Dog Roses.” 


Happening to be in an outside corner of the garden, where a 
number of hriar and Manetti stocks are planted, I overheard the 


foregoing recital, and promised the stocks that if I could in any ~ 


way assist them, I would do so. ~) ys eeeee 
There is a method which I haye tried years ago, and by which, 
with proper attention and well-directed practical skiil, ten out of 
every dozen roses will strike root with a little practice in selecting 
the cuttings. After blooming, about the end of July, when the 
wood is about half ripe, select your cuttings, put them in pots, but 
not too thickly; give them a good watering, and then place the pots - 
as Closely as they will stand in cold frames under a north wall; keep 
the frames shut; in about three weeks the cuttings will have 
callused ; then plunge the pots in a nice bottom heat, and very few 
will fail to root in a very short time. They can then either be kept — 
in the pots through the winter, or they can at once be placed singly 
in three-inch pots, and wintered in pots where frost is excluded. 


As will be seen, the secret in this method is simply callusing the © — 


cuttings before they are put in heat to strike. If the cuttings are at — 
once placed in heat as soon as taken from the tree, great numbers 
of them damp off. The number of plants that can be propogated 
by the above method is only limited by the cuttings available. an 
Southgate. ' T. BAINES. 


4 


Witt you kindly inform “Y.” (the cheap rose-grower) that Cpe) 


think it is rather too bad, after making people’s mouths water by 
telling them that ‘ rose cuttings ’’ could be ‘‘ struck like willows,”’ 
to withhold his secret.—G. S., Cheltenham.——[We feel ashamed of 
anybody who wishes to hide any new pebble ho has found on tho 
t We believed in the existence of 
such poor beguiled creatures, but, scarcely thought they would have 
the hardihood to announce in one note, ‘We haye it,” and in the 
next, “ You shan’t see it.’”] \ ; 


‘ = 


s 


"Fen, 17, 1972.) 


THE GARDEN. 277 


TOBACCO IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Tus is truly a fine foliaged plant, of goodly stature and 


_ right royal mien, and one well suited for our modern style of 


‘ 


_ bling somew 
‘long, narrow foxglove flowers 


‘stems. 


call these tobaccos foliage 


they — grow. 
‘capital backs to masses of : 
reeds, Pampas grass, bamboos, rushes, or semi-aquatic vege- | 


gardening. There are several varieties of it, varying chiefly 
one from another in the stoutness and height of their stems, 
and size of leaf and flower. But these variations are also 
largely dependent on cultivation. The deeper and richer the 
ground, and more sheltered the position, the larger tobacco 
plants become in all their parts. 

The variety represented is probably the very best in habit 


‘and general characteristics for what is termed sub-tropical 


gardening. It is simply a variety of the common Virginian 
tobacco (Nicotiana virginica); the leaves are of medium size, 
and the habit branching. For a large sort of tobacco-to 
contrast well with this, Wigandioides is a grand plant. 


PEGGED-DOWN ROSES. 
BY OC, J. PERRY, THE CEDARS, CASTLE BROMWICH. 

Ture is, unquestionably, no mode of growing roses so 
effective as that of pegging them down. Many of our best 
rosarians, both amateur and professional, have expressed 
astonishment at the beauty and luxuriance of my beds grown 
on this plan, and haye confessed that they td idea such 
effects could be produced in that way even with the Queen of 
Flowers. It should also be borne in mind that rose beds 
when once formed and properly attended to are everlasting. 
There is no dying away every few years, as with roses on the 
briar or Manetti; and no permanent damage results from frost. 
Those who grow for purposes of exhibition should neyer be 
without such beds; they prolong the “showing” season, and 
often furnish blooms so grand as to delight even the most 


Pushing up a huge stem to a height of from six to nine | enthusiastic exhibitor. I do not say that we should depend 


feet, with numerous broad, 
Woolly leaves, it forms a 
grand background to Cannas, 
Castor-oil plants, or Wi- 
gandias. ‘’he flowers are 
also larger and much more 
conspicuous than in other 
kinds, and they stand well 
up on the crown of the 
Than these, scarcely 
any plants are more useful 
in leaf gardening, though, 
indeed, it is hardly fair to 


plants only. The long 
tubular blossoms are highly 
novel in epyccranee, resem- 

at ata distance 


on slender foot-stalks. 
Scarcely any plants equal 
the tobaccos in rapidity of 
growth. Thev form noble 
groups of ti mselves, and 
they mix kindly and con- 
gruously with most other 
fine-foliaged plants. They 
are great eaters; indeed, it 
is almost impossible to over- 
do them with food, solid or 
liquid. If every smoker had 
to grow his own tobacco-with 
his house slops, the sewage 
nuisance would be much 
abated, if not wholly cured. 
The stronger the drink, and 
the more of it, the faster 
tobaccos grow. ‘Try them, 
if possible, in a deep soil, rich 
in vegetable and animal re- 


The Tobacco Plant (Nicotiana virginica). 


entirely, on these beds for 
show flowers, as by so doing 
we would be debarred from 
showing new roses; as at 
; least three years must elapse 
before the plants could pro- 
duce fine blooms. Still, ex- 
hibitors will find them at all 
times handy auxiliaries. The 
first-prizes gained by me 
during the past year at the 
Crystal Palace, Leeds, York, 
® Wolverhampton, ‘Taunton, 
and Castle Bromwich, were 
won mainly by means of 
blooms cut from my rose beds 
grown on their own roots. 

I am now daily engaged, 
whenever the weather is 
favourable, in pruning and 
thinning out the rods, which 
this season are the finest IT 
have ever had, many of them 
being eight or nine feet long, 
and not in the least damaged 
by the winter. I therefore 
expect next summer to have 
the finest display of flowers I 
haye yet had. Any time 
between October and March 
answers for forming beds for 
pegging down; the ground 
should be deeply dug, well 
dressed with frame manure, 
and drainéd if necessary. The 
plants should be obtained as 
strong as possible; and must 
be on their own roots, and, if 
possible, struck out of doors. 
They should be planted three 
= feet from each other, and 


mains, near the margin of a 
lake or stream, and note how 
They form 


tation of various other descriptions. 

They are tender, but not so much so as Solanums or Castor- 
oil plants. Sow them in February in heat, prick off as soon as 
the plants appear, and pot and grow them in a genial heat of, 
say, 60°. This will enable you to turn out, from six or eight 


_inch pots, fine plants about the end of May. They will start 


off at once, and will not cease growing until frost comes. I 
seldom, however, leave them to become food for frost. 
Towards the end of October gather the leaves, pile, dry, and 
press them. Then dry afresh, and put them aside for dealing 
death to the aphides. Pull up the stalks, hang them up in 
bundles to dry in any out-of-the-way place under cover, and 
use them also, chopped up, for fumigating the houses. 
Thus it will be seen that tobaccos are useful as well as 
ornamental. nt : 1M Neal 


“ne Re Re ae =" fa 0 


should be cut down to three 

eyes early in April or in the 

last week in March.- Some 
blooms will be produced the first season.’ In February 
the next year, one of the strongest shoots from each plant 
may be pegged down, and all the weaker shoots should be 
cut close to the ground. This season some fine rods will 
be produced, and the beds will begin to be effective. A good 
dressing of rotten manure should be given in Noyember, and 
dug in previous to the pegging down in February. A quantity 
of stout pegs should be chopped from old pea sticks during 
the winter, so as to be in readiness for use during dry days in 
this month, when the pegging should commence. All the 
shoots should be cut away from eyery plant, with the excep- 
tion of three or four of the stoutest, which should be shortened 
about a third of their length and then carefully bent down so 
that the points may touch the ground or nearly so. Care must 
be taken in bending the shoots or they will split off at the 


| base, and in inserting the pegs so that they may not fly out of 


THE GARDEN. . 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


the ground. Hvery winter a dressing of manure should be given, 
and all the wood that has been pegged down cut away, and the 
strongest of the young shoots only pegged downas before. Many 
of the pegs can be used a second year; they should, therefore, 
not be thrown away, but put in a dry place until required. 

I must again impress upon growers the necessity of plant- 
ing only such roses as are on their own roots; all others will 
be a source of continual annoyance, for no matter how well | 
the stocks may be prepared, the bending down of the shoots 
will cause suckers to spring up, which cannot be eradicated, 
and will much interfere with the growth of the plants. A 
friend of mine, anxious to possess a bed of pegged roses, last 
year ordered from a nurseryman a quantity of dwarf roses for 
the purpose. He could not supply them on their own roots, so 
sent them on the Manetti. One day last May, my friend called 
on'me to say how beautiful her rose bed looked, and wished 
me to see it when I came that way. Accordingly, about the 
first weck in June, I had a look at this bed, and, to my 
astonishment and my friend’s annoyance, I at once saw that 
the winter had killed the greater portion of the roses, and that 
each root had thrown up a quantity of vigorous Manetti shoots, - 
which certainly made the bed look green and luxuriant, but 
not one shoot im twenty was what it ought to be. 

fost of the vigorous growing kinds of roses will answer 
pegged down, except teas and noisettes, which should neyer 
be used in that way. ¢ 

The following sorts I have thoroughly: provea to be good 
bedders, and can safely recommend them for that purpose :— 
Alfred Colomb Dupuy-Jamain 
Antoine Duchere General Jacqueminot 
Baronne de Wassanaér Gloire de Vitry 

(moss) Horace Vernet 
Baronne Gonella ~ Jean Goujon ‘ 
Camille Bernardin John Hopper 
Caroline de Sansales Jules Margottin 
Charles Lefebvre La Duchesse de Morny 
Charles Rouillard La Fontaine : 
Comtesse de Chabrillant a Ville de St. Denis 
Dr. Andry Lord Clyde 
Due de Rohan Louise Peyronny 
Duchesse de Caylus Madame Charles Verdier 


Duke of Edinburgh Madame Charles Wood 
Duke of Wellington 


Madame Clemence Joign- 
eaux 

Madame de Cambacéres 

- Madame Rivers 

Madame Victor Verdier 

Monsieur Boncenne 

Prince Camille de Rohan 

Senateur Vaisse 

Souvenir de Charles Mon- 
tault 

Thorin 

Vicomte Vigier 

Victor Verdier 

William Griffiths 

Xayier Olibo. 


CLIMBING DEVONIENSIS ROSE. 


I am glad to find Mr, Reynolds Hole standing up in defence 
of thisrose. Most of those who possess it speak of its superior 
hardiness, compared with that of the old variety. Its thorny 
habit indicates a hardy constitution, and it is rightly con- 
sidered to be nearly as hardy as Gloire de Dijon. I have 
Imovwn it to stand 16° or 18° of frost, wholly unprotected, on 
earden arches, away from any house or wall. The flowers of 
Climbing Devoniensis are identical with those of its parent in~ 
size, shape, colour, and perfume, and, under proper manage- 
ment, its powers, both of growth and blossoming, are won- 
dertul; one plant of it, which was put in four yearsago, almost 
covers the south front of a villa here. Throughout April and 
May during the last two years this tree has been literally a 
rose show in itself. Five hundred of its lovely flowers were 
counted on it at one time, more than a hundred of them 
measuring five inches in diameter, and some eyen more. 

Climbing Deyoniensis requires a dry, well-drained soil to 
assist it in ripening its luxuriant wood. The early, strong, 
sappy wood should be pinched or stopped when about a foot im 
length, in order to cause it to break into several shoots, which 
ripen better than the single rods would do if left unstopped, 
and which almost inyariably flower at each point the first 
season. Jor spring flowering the following year, these shoots 
should be trained laterally and downwards, and little or no 
pruning is needed beyond thinning out portions of the old 
scrubby wood in February. Thus treated, Chimbing Deyo- 
niensis is the best white climbing rose in cultiyation. 

With respect to the old Devoniensis, our gifted and well- 
beloyed rosarian, My. Hole, has allowed a highly treasonable 
thought to escape him when he says, “I do not believe that 
Devoniensis was of Anglican origin.” ‘ Deyoniensis,” says 
the late Mr. H. W. Foster, “was raised by my brother, the 
late Mr. George Foster, of Oatland; near Devonport, a 
genuine lover of horticulture, and a true florist.”* Mr. Geo, 

* Seo Letter of Mx, Foster in ‘* Beauties of the Rose,” 1850. 


_Foster’s opinion was that it was produced from the Yellow 


China fertilised by the Yellow Noisette Smithu, which 
was growing alongside of it, as he was constantly in the 
habit of fertilismg his roses. One of some seeds sayed at 
the same time produced a rose much like the Yellow 
Noisette, but greatly inferior to Devoniensis. The latter 
flowered the first year from the seed-bed, but was small and 
weak; and the second year, on being budded on a strong stock, 
it grew so as to be a yery fine flower. -In the following year, 
Mr. Pince, of Exeter, offered twenty guineas for it, and it then 
passed into the hands of Messrs. Lucombe & Pince. It is 
perfectly hardy, but requires a rich, strong soil. At a flower 
show at Liskeard last summer, I had the pleasure of meeting 
a nephew of Mr. Foster, who is a clergyman in Cornyall. 
We had some conversation respecting Devoniensis and its 
raiser, his uncle. That uncle has passed away, also Mr. H. W. 
Foster, and, still more recently, Mr. Pince, who had the honour — 
of bringing this grand rose before the public. But Iam glad 
to have been afforded the opportunity of thus reviving the 
facts of its Hnglish origin. It has achieved many a triumph 
in its onward course. I remember exhibiting at one of the 
old Chiswick fétes, nearly thirty years ago, four hundred 
specimen blooms of it; and shall not readily forget the late — 
Dr. Lindley’s appreciation of their fragrance and beauty. 

Heartily do I unite with Mr. Fish in his warm praise of 
Deyoniensis. It isnot only the pride of Devonshire, but of 
the world, and worthy to be the emblem rose of Hngland’s 
royalty.—Hy. Curtis, Devon Rosery, Torquay. 


Rosu Duyontensis was raised by Captain Foster, a gentleman — 
living at Stoke, near Plymouth, in Devonshire, about thirty 
years since, the parents being Smith’s Yellow Noisette and 
the Yellow China. After the second time of flowering, the 
late Mr. Pince bought it, and I believe Iam right in saymg 
the sum he paid for it was £40. It was sent out by that 
gentleman at 21s. per plant. Ihave not the least doubt that 
the climbing Deyoniensis Rose has originated m more than — 
one place.—T. Brown, Zooting. ; mi 


SOUVENIR DE LA MALMAISON AND CLIMBING 
_DEVONIENSIS ROSES. 
A rHousanp thanks to the Rey. Mr. Reynolds Hole for his cour- 


teous and satisfactory answer to my queries respecting these roses. . 


I shall try, Souvenir de la Malmaison again on its own roots. I do 
not quite despair of it now, because I remember having a few pass- 
able flowers of it late in the autumn. Can it be that the sun is too 
much for it early in the season? I shall also give the Climbing 


Deyoniensis the shelter of glass, though I do not expect ever to love 


the daughter as I do the mother. Bath is not Bury, but a corres- 
pondent writing from that favoured district as to climate, after 
praising the other good qualities of Climbing Deyoniensis, says :— 
“Tt is very hardy, haying withstood the severe winter of 1860-61. Ib 
grows in almost any soil or situation, eyen in thickly-built parts of Bath, 
amidst smoke and dust, where it thrives and blooms in great perfec- 
tion. So highly esteemed is this yariety that there is scarcely a 
villa residence in this neighbourhood (Bath) where one does not find 
this rose, and no amateur considers his collection perfect without it. 
Its blooms are of large size, some of them measuring six inches 
in diameter, and the shape is most perfect. This is, in fact, one 
of the best light-coloured exhibition roses in cultivation.” There; 
have I not made the amende honorable to the daughter, for the sake, 
however, of the mother, and the marvellous faith I have in Mr, 
Hole’s judgment? I confess I have never seen it anything like what — 
our Bath correspondent has described it, though I hope to do so some 
day in that genial home of the Queen of Flowers—Caunton. 
D. T. Fisx. 


A GARLAND OF SPRING FLOWERS. ae 
Ir I could be well assured that in the procession of the 
seasons, hoary Winter would not again interpose his unwelcome 
visage; that Mebruary, ‘satisfied with the state of the dykes, 
would think her mission performed, and give us bright and 
cheering days to compensate us for pluyious skies and stormy 


winds; and that blustering March would do his eras gently, 


I should hail with a perfect pleasure, unalloyed by any taint of - 
fear or uncertainty, the bright and fragrant flowers which the 
soft and steaming weather has tempted to burst into bloom, 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


279 


“ eyen before the shadow of winter has left us—even so early as 


‘ 


the first week in February. It is, perhaps, as unwise to anti- 


cinate sorrow as it would be to refuse to be charmed, or to 
accept the gracious gifts which are proffered to us by our pre- 
cocious flowers of spring. Let us, then, “ take the good the 
gods proyide us” joyfully and thankfully, and weave a garland 
of these the first gifts of the year. 

We will take our first bunch of bloom from Jasminum 
nudiflorum, which has this year produced a profusion of its 
bright yellow blossom, which, though otherwise charming, 


~ yet lacks the merit of fragrance; and so we will associate it 


with the winter Honeysuckle, so unobtrusively delightful, and 
which combines the odour of orange blossom with that of its 
own species, Lonicera fragrantissima, which should be in every 
garden. With this we may place the highly perfumed Chimo- 
nanthus fragrans, and the aromatic and brilliant flowers of 
Rhododendron dauricum atrovirens, and its fair cousin, R. 
a superbum; and with these we will associate the lowly 

olygala Chambuxus and Erica herbacea; and now, stoop- 
ing to the very ground, we may gather the winter Helio- 
trope, Tussilago fragrans, the Christmas roses, Helleborus 
nigerand purpurascens. Handfuls of Russian and Czar Violets 


_ate afforded by the plants transferred from their summer 


r- 


nurseries in Noyember and planted on half sheltered banks. 
At the feet of the great forest trees, and partly protected by 
their fallen leaves, we find the golden clusters of the winter 
Aconite; and, not far off, the pensive and chaste Snowdrop. 
A few Primroses have coyly appeared, and, more bold, the’ 
double Daisies present their bright pink-cushioned heads of 
bloom. The white Arabis is slowly expanding its blooms, and 


with the lilac Aubrietia will add variety to our garland. The: 


hardy and handsome Cliveden Bluc Pansy has not ceased to 
resent its blossoms during the winter, and gives the tint of 
Ine we have so long missed in the sky. ,The dwarf yellow 
Wallflower has anticipated the sunshine of spring, and enables 
us to add its rich orange-coloured blooms to our wreath. A few 
sprigs of Lamium maculatum and the small Periwinkle, both 


~gemmed with blossoms, will give graceful variety to this col- 


lection, culled in a short morning’s walk amongst the spring 
flowers; and to the above we haye just added Anemone blanda 
and Scilla sibirica. 


Those of your readers who cannot indulge in the luxury of 


conseryatories, may thus, by establishing a collection of hardy 
and early blooming spring flowers, enjoy the delight of 


gathering daily bouquets, even in February, fresh and sweet- 


mother earth. 
Winiiam Ineram, Belvoir. 
(These remarks were accompanied by a box containing 
specimens of all the lovely spring, say winter, flowers named 
yove, in fine flowering condition—a greater variety than could 
culled at the same date in most greenhouses. Really we 
too hard upon our “ dreary climate,” and too neglectful of 
capacities. } 


and charming from the bosom of 


' WILD FLOWERS FOR GARDENS. 


THERE is an indescribable beauty in the woods and wilds which 
you wish to transplant into our gardens, and the materials are 
unlimited and cheap. I have myself had a beautiful bit of bog 
garden, wherein I succeeded in growing everything I planted; and 
Ihave just finished another bog garden ready for planting. What 
a grand plant Parnassia palustris is for a bog! as are also the double 
blossomed Caltha palustris, Campanula hederacea, Anagallis tenella, 
Kpipactis palustris, Orchis maculata, and others. I grow most 
things in fibry, sandy peat; and right suream I that a good bog 
garden is extremely interesting. Osmunda regalis, Lastrea Oreopteris, 
and L. Thelypteris do admirably ; and what a charming plant is 
-Saxifraga Cymbalaria all the year round, either for the greenhouse 
or outof doors! Sibthorpia europza is a gem for running over moist 
sand-stones or hanging over moist rocks. The greatest difficulty I 
meet with is finding working men who will take notice of these 
plants. They seem to think them too common; yet, who in his 
rambling over moor and upland has not been entranced with the 
gems springing up by mossy riplets in sheltered corners? I haye 
often sketched little bits of, Nature’s gardening in Derbyshire and 
Yorkshire, and longed for\the means to come home and imitate 
them; and I am certain that many of those charming nooks and 
corners, that give the true loyer of Nature such indescribable 
pleasure, from the stately foxgloye to the tiny moss that gladdens 


the sight during the winter months, tan be imitated. People seem 
to know little nowadays of decoration, beyond the few gaudy 
plants that fashion has employed for these last thirty years. All 
credit is therefore due to some of our nurserymen for keeping alive 
many gems, in the way of alpine plants, which otherwise must 
have been lost. In my plant-collecting rambles, I haye picked up 
the following variegated forms :— 
Laminm maculatum 
aureum 
L. album plenum 
Thymus citriodorus 
aureus f " Poa annua, var 
Malva sylvestris erispa Geum urbanum, yar 
M variegata Matricaria, var 
Spirwa Ulmaria, var 
Orchis mascula alba, 
very fine 


Phieum pratense, var 
Melica uniflora alba 

M. = aurea 
Lolinm perenne, var 


Six vars. of Arum ma- 
culatum variegatum * 

A new variety of Lily of 
the Valley 

Sedum acre elegans 

Rumex obtusifolins varie- 
gatus 

And, best of all, Rumex 
crispus anreus reticu- 
latus ; this is a gem 

Also many others 


Wma. Exniore. 


a. ” 
Stellaria aurea 
Geranium molle aurenm 
Holcus lanatus, var 
Alopecurus pratensis, var 


Beechmont, Sydenham. 


BLUE-FLOWERED HYDRANGEAS. 

During the summer of 1869, I saw in Treland, in three several 
localities, very fine examples of blue-flowered Hydrangeas. The first 
was in the neighbourhood of Lismore, at a small wayside place not 
far from Lismore Castle, and almost by the side of the River Black- 
water. I was told of these blue Hydrangeas at Fermoy, and went to 
see them. ‘The plants were of immense size, and had been planted 
over forty years, and the flowers were richly tinted with ultramarine 
blue. They opened pink, but soon became blue, and as they decayed 
assumed the pink tint again. These blue Hydrangeas were the talk 
of the districts, and many persons had obtained cuttings, struck 
them, and had grown them on as pot plants, only to find them pro- 
duce pink flowers. When turned out into the open ground, blue 
flowers would invariably appear. There seemed to be a great deal 
of oxide of iron in the soil; and to the presence of this, the blue tint, 
was no doubt traceable. At Castle Martyr, the seat of the Earl of 
Shannon, near Cork, and again at Muckross, the Hon. Captain 
Herbert's residence at Killarney, nice young bushes of Hydrangeas, 
growing in the open ground, were literally covered with huge trusses 
of blue flowers, the effect of which was quite startling. 1 am sure 
I shall neyer forget them. R. Dean, Ealing, W. 


LICHEN AND MOSSES. 

Wer have found beauty in the tree yielding fruit, and in the 
herb yielding seed. How of the herb yielding no seed, the 
fruitless, flowerless lichen of the rock? Lichen and mosses (though 
these last in their Iuxuriance are deep and rich as herbage, 
yet both for the most part humblest of the green things that 
live)—how of these? Meek creatures! the first mercy of the earth, 
veiling with hushed softness its dintless rocks; creaty~- all of 
pity, covering with strange and tender honour the searred disgrace 
of ruin—laying quict finger on the trembling stones, to teach them 
rest. No words that I know of will say what these mosses are. 
None are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough, 
How is one to tell of the rounded bosses of furred and- beaming 
green—the starred divisions of rubied bloom, fine filmed, as if the 
Rock Spirits could spin porphyry as we do glass—the traceries of 
intricate silver, and fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, bur- 
nished through eyery fibre into fitful brightness and glossy traverses 
of silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed for 
simplest, sweetest offices of grace? They will not be gathered, like 
the flowers, for chaplet or love token; but of these the wild bird will 
make its nest and the wearied child his pillow. 

And, as the earth’s first merey, so they are its last gift to us. 
When all other service is vain, from plant and tree, the soft mosses 
and grey lichen take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, 
the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses, have done their parts fora time, 
but these do service for ever. Trees for the builder’s yard, flowers 
for the bride’s chamber, corn for the granary, moss for the grave, 

Yet as in one sense the humblest, in another they are the most, 
honoured of the earth-children, Unfading as motionless, the worm 
frets them not, and the autumn wastes not. Strong in lowliness, 
they neither blanch in heat nor pine in frost. Tothem, slow-fingered, 
constant-hearted, is entrusted the weaving of the dark, eternal 
tapestries of the hills; to them, slow-pencilled, iris-dyed, the tender 
framing of their endless imagery. Sharing the stillness of the un- 
impassioned rock, they share also its endurance; and while the 
winds of departing spring scatter the white hawthorn blossom like 
drifted snow, and summer dims on the parched meadow the drooping 
of its cowslip-gold—far above, among the mountains, the silver 
lichen-spots rest, star-like, on the stone; and the gathering orange- 
stain upon the edge of yonder western peak reflects the sunsets of a 
thousand years.—Joln Ruskin 


28 


0 THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


RHUBARBS AS ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 


Ix this genus, the grand typical plant, at least for the 
carden, is still in nubibus. Yes; ib is still among the 
clouds that cluster round the lofty peaks of the Himalayas; 
and, by way of showing that such does really exist, and that, 
too, under the very appropriate name of Rheum nobile, permit 
me to quote the following description of it in Dr. Hooker’s 
own words. He says, in his “Himalayan Journal” :—“On 
the black rocks the gigantic Rhubarb forms pyramidal towers, 
a yard or more high, of inflated reflexed bracts that conceal 
the flowers, overlapping one another like tiles to protect them 
from the wind and rain. A whorl of broad green leaves, 
edged with ‘ b 
plant, contrasting in colour with the transparent bracts which 
are yellow margined with pink. This is the handsomest 
herbaceous plant im Siklam. : eho 

These remarks will suggest to all the query, Why has ib 
not yet been introduced? Seeds were indeed sent home by 
Dr. Hooker, but none of them yegetated, owing to a con- 
siderable delay which took : 
place in their despatch 
homeward, and also to their 
being sent vid the Cape, 
thus receiving a double dose 
of the tropics, which is most 
detrimental to all albumin- 
ous seeds. I hope, however, 
with the now improved and 
rapid mode of transit, we 
shall be able to succeed in 
introducing this and many 
other plants that are to be 
met with on the Himalayas, 
such as the glorious species 
of Meconopsis, its close ally 
Cathcartia, and others. 

Rheum Hmodi (syn., aus- 
trale), the subject of the 
accompanying engraving, is 
a Nepal plant, which, be- 
sides yielding the valuable 
‘drug in its most concen- 
tratedform,is soremarkably 
distinct in general appear- 
ance from other forms of 
Rhubarb with which we are 
familiar, that it deserves 
more than a passing notice.. 
When growing vigorously it 
produces enormous leaves, 
measuring between seven 
and eight feet in circum- 
ference, with a perfectly 
plane margin, and a corru- 
gated surface; the colour 
being of an unusual tint of 
green. Both upper and 
under surfaces, as well as ss 
the footstalk, are covered with projecting papilla of a rigid 
character, that render the whole plant rough to the touch. 
The flowers are of a deep chocolate colour, and arranged, unlike 
those of all its congeners, in the form of a spike, with a few 
secondary branches given off here and there along its extent. 
I am inclined to think that the species known by the name 
“spiciforme,” said to be a Himalayan plant, will prove nothing 
more than this plant under another name. ‘This is a noble 
plant worthy of a place in every pleasure-ground, either isolated 
on the turf or in groups of plants of a similar character. 

Rheum palmatum, a native of Chinese Tartary and the 
north of Persia, gets its appropriate title from the palmately- 
cut character of its leaves. As it is usually seen, it is small 
in stature; but I have a notion that if fair justice were done 
to it as an ornamental plant, it would receive more general 
culture. With that object in view, I purpose giving it a trial, 
having got a plant established in a favourable position. 

Could we but dissociate our minds from the culinary 


red, spreads on the ground at the base of the 


Nepal Rhubarb (Rheum Emodi). 


character of Rhubarb, and prize it purely on its ornamental 
merits, the verdict would unquestionably be in fayour of its 
nobility as an instance of fine vegetable development. The 
large masses of foliage, beautifully crimped, and undulate as 
regards the margin, with their dark-green glossy surface, show 
the effects of hight and shadow in a wonderful manner; nor 
is the intense crimson-tints of the seeds, shaded off to yellow, 
to be despised as objects of beauty. _das. C. Niven. 
Botanic Gardens, Hull. 


PUBLIC GARDENS AND WAR. 

Onuy a week ago, in writing about the aspect of Paris on the féte 
of the Jour de l’An, we were speaking of the rapid recovery made 
by the French capital since its investment, and of the extraordinary 
faculty of recuperation which belongs to the character of the people. 
There are places around the gay metropolis, however, where the 
sorrowful memorials of the desperate calamity which has befallen 
France will not soon be obliterated. It may be easy to patck up the 
shot-holes in a wall, and ingenious workmen eyen resorted to the 

: deyice of hiding the rayages 
made by cannon-balls by 
means of strong paper covered 
with plaster of Paris, ora coat 
of Roman cement; but where 
you have a bare, melancholy 
waste of country, with the 
earth, that once formed grassy 

_ slopes or trim shrubberies, all 
heaped in tumuli and dotted 
with objects that look like 
graves marked by rude monu- 


that once whispered pleasantly 
to holiday-makers who sought 
their shade, are cut down, 
their blackened, rotting 
stumps only remaining ; where 
the ornamental lake oozes 


grass till it becomes a mere 
pond full of that renewal of 
_ life which we call decay—no 
temporary expedicnts suffice 


- monument of defeat and 
melancholy remembrance. In 
a word, it would be possible 
to rebuild all the palaces in 
the world, but nobody can 
make a great tree grow again. 
One is impressed with thi: 
reflection on taking a str__ 
towards the spot where / 7; 
grand old oaks with mig 
_ trunks and spreading branel,,’ 
—themselyes remains of 
evil days of 1815—have 
appeared, and the destructit— 
of the charming suburban 
retreat has been completed 
by the invasion of 1870. This portion of the Park of Princes 
was the most charming and picturesque spot of the whole wood, 
full of verdure and brightness. In other places a good deal 
of French decorative or operatic picturesqueness has been added 
to it; and, though nature can often even compensate for this sort 
of interference, we want to escape from it at intervals and 
seek some remoter shade, some lodge in a wilderness more or 
less vast. This was to be found in the beautiful coppice near 
the pool of Auteuil, now, alas, a wilderness. The fresh oasis, 
far from the dust and turmoil of Paris, is but a dismal swamp. 
A few surviving trees appear on the horizon, like the last sur- 
vivors of a brigade cut down on the field of battle. No fair 
Amazons canter gaily among the open space ; no promenaders appear 
on what once were pleasant walks. When we weve last there, one 
solitary little woman in a white bonnet, represented the throng that 
once resorted to the pleasant spot, and sheseemed to be looking into 
the gloomy pond, as though she could see reflected there the picture 
_of the melancholy events that had transformed the spot to its present 
dreary condition..—Illustrated Times. hs 


7 sluggishly in the thick weeay 


to. conceal such ravages, and 
the whole place is one sad © 


ments ; where the great trees, _ 


¥ 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION. 


RIVER SCENE IN GUIANA. 

Heat without water is a destroyer. Heat and abundant 
moisture are the magicians that populate the earth with stately 
and beautiful life. On the banks of such rivers as this they 
hold court. Giant grass and stately palm, and torturing liane 
and sturdy fig, and broad-leaved Arum and lady-like tree ferns, 
swarm on the brink of the noble river as if to cool their thirst. 
The slim branches and light foliage of the willows that follow 
the fresh waters through almost every vale and by every river 
over the vast areas of northern Europe, America, and Asia, are 
seen no more. In their stead are stately trees of the loveliest 
tropical forms, and the very water weeds are giants. In the 
foreground of our picture is a fleet of vegetable boats—more 
carefully built than ever was clipper on Clyde, or Hudson, or 
Thames. In our northern willow land we have our tiny water 


THE GARDEN. 281 


| 


In the noble Victoria, which, under the kind protection of 
some of our gardeners, has grown and bloomed so fairly in our 
hothouses, and even in the open air in heated water, we see 
the Water Lily of these hot and fertile regions. One of the 
water birds, so abundant in all waters of the American conti- 
nent, rests on a leaf; but that gives no idea of the supporting 
power of each fully-grown leaf, which bears a heavy boy 
without sinking. W. R. 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER III. 

Sirtine next to Mr. Chiswick, whose dark-brown locks con- 
trast with Mr. Oldacre’s silvery hair, like Perilla nankinensis 
with Cineraria maritima, my gardener puffs his pipe. Silent 
and thoughtful, as one who is wise at whist, he knows every 
trick in spades, and holds winning cards in his hand. We 


Aspects of Vegetation.—River Scene in Guiana. 


weeds—also with their fleets of little boats—like the ‘frog bit, 
the Villarsia, and the water lily, with its sturdy flotillas. But 
here we havea plant which is not putting forth all its strength 
even when its leayes are as large as a drawing-room table.* 
Tt seems a relic of some old time, when the spirit of vegeta- 
tion arose upon the waste of waters and appointed this to 
cover them with verdure while the trees were in their infancy. 
It is Nature’s own aquarium—yvast, varied, inexhaustible. The 
same clear moon and the glory of the heavens that we some- 
times see in the murky cities of men (glorious sights, of which 
we have not yet succeeded in depriving ourselves!), throw their 
divine radiance over the view, and help to make one wish that 
so long as men and gardens remain upon this tiny globe of 
ours such scenes may never perish, but remain to teach us 
noble lessons. How refreshing is the abounding sense of the 
majesty and inexhaustible riches and mystery of the vegetable 
kingdom that such scenes as this puts before us! 


* Leaves of the Victoria in this country have measured eight feet across. 


have scored the honours, have we not, old friend, in many a 
floricultural rubber, and proved our capabilities (dare I say our 
silver cup-abilities P) on many a board of greencloth. ‘Trained 
in no ducal gardens, taught in no colleges of science, you have 
learned your lesson, slowly but surely, from the greatest 
teacher of your art, Experience, bringing to her school that 
love which she delights to instruct, and which alone can master 
her laborious tasks. There was never, assuredly, a good 
gardener yet, who was not first of all a gardener at heart. 

My earliest associations with horticulture, recalled as I look 
upon that old familiar face, were not of a jubilant kind. I 
have to confess that, at the premature age of five, I gave 
lamentable proof of my descent from Eve by strong yearnings 
after forbidden fruit; and that at six, I was an experienced 
felon—uno, not a felon, for his crimes meet with capital punish- 
ment, and mine were avenged elsewhere—but, at all events, 
an artful thief. Neither so expert nor so shrewd, however, as 
to escape discovery and a just disgrace. My chief strategy, 


282° 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fs. 17, 1872. 


when, a tiny brigand, I prowled the earth for prey, was to 
enter the kitchen gardens as unconcernedly as possible, and 
then to call loudly, ‘‘ Dardner! Dardner!” If he responded, I 
would favour him with one of those spirited comments upon 
the weather in which we Hnglish are so happy, even from 
childhood, or would make inquiries of a most affectionate 
(and affected) order as to the condition of his bodily health ; 
and it was, “How do, Dardner? Fine day, Dardner! Dud 
morning, Dardner dear!” But if there was no respondent in 
the case, I, the appellant, immediately resolved myself into a 
Fruit Committee (all articles‘to be tested by flavour), and 
proceeded zealously to business. 

One dismal day, no reply haying been made to my accostals, 
T had reached the Gooseberies, and had taken up my position 
as a Squatter in (the vicinity of) the Bush, when I suddenly 
heard with horrible amazement a rustling sound among the 
Scarlet Runners, and, like a tiger from the jungle, sprang the 
dreadful Dardner on his prey ! 

How vividly I recall that awful capture!—the tedious pro- 
cession to the house, which I did my best to enliven with 
brisk but ineffectual kicks ; the astonished horror of the under- 
nurse, who immediately foretold my speedy translation to a 
penal settlement, and could not have expressed herself more 
severely if I had shot the bishop of the diocese; the trial by 
Fury, for such the head-nurse seemed to me in her wrath; the 
solemn sentence, “Put him to bed!” Undressed accordingly 
(I flatter myself that the operation was attended with some 
difficulty; there were buttons on the floor, [ remember; and 
the Judge’s cap was considerably rumpled), imprisoned, 
* cribbed, confined,” I dreamed a memorable dream. I was in 
a garden, and a sweet little fairy invited me to climb the magic 
Beanstalk. Glorious music from the silver horns of Hlfland 
sounded softly around us as we reached the summit and as we 
wandered among the most beautiful flowers and the most 
delicious fruits. No Dardners marred the prospect; and the 
fairy pressed me to refresh myself, with an earnestness which 
Iwas unwilling to offend. I was regretting, over my four- 
teenth Peach, the lamentable escape of juice, which is so 
inevitably connected with the outdoor fruition of this fruit, 
and was meditating a transfer of my attentions in the direc- 


tion of some white Nectarines, when all at once the sunlight _ 


faded, and the music was drowned by a thunderous bellowing 
which shook the “ Royal Georges” from their trees. <A giant’s 
hand was Jaid upon my throat; and I awoke to see Nurse at 
my erib-side, standing before me, as Queen Hleanor before Hair 
Rosamond, with a cup in one hand (rhubarb and magnesia), 
and a dagger in the other, to wit, a dry old finger-biscuit, which 
I was graciously privileged “to take after.” ; 

You feel for me, reader;—don’t you? I make no attempt, 
you will observe, to disparage the seasonable use of physic; I 
know that Nemesis is the sworn friend of Pomona, and that 
he who robs the orchard feels justly her avenging gripe; I 
could forgive Dardner for catching me at the Gooseberries; 
for smiling many atime, as I have no doubt he did, when the 
doctor’s gig drove up the avenue; for the remark he made, on 
the occasion of my reappearance after a somewhat serious 
surfeit, that ‘‘ he was afraid the pretty bird who ate his Morello 
Cherries, had hurt his little beak against the stones;” I could 
forgive him so far, and I could forgive Nurse for putting me to 
bed; but to make me swallow that vile nauseous mess, as an 
antidote to a perfectly impossible stomach-ache, to treat me as 
one surcharged and plethoric, when I was as hollow, sir, as my 
own drum; you must agree with me—although the mixture 
did not—that no insult could have been offered to me with a 
worse taste, and you will be glad to be told hereafter that I 
had my revenge. And here, as the champion of injured inno- 
cence, I protest solemnly against that flaunting display of the 
Family Medicine Chest, which I have noticed in some nurseries. 
The position of our own was fulsome. Each morning it met 
my awaking sight, with its hard, cold stare of brassy insolence; 
and it shone in the firelight, when I lay abed at eve, as though 
polished with the Oilof Castor. The expression of countenance 
with which the nurses pointed to that box was fiendish; and 
the way in which they unlocked it, and loitered over the pre- 
paration of its doses, was worthy of the Inquisition in its best 
and happiest days. Somebody filled the keyhole, on one occa- 
sion, with an unusual but ingenious combination of coal-dust 


and batter-pudding; and. somebody chuckled in his crib, you 
may be sure, when Nurse broke both lock and key. : 
Now let me propose briefly to my brother Spades and others — 


| a thought or two concerning the treatment of little children 


in gardens, 

With regard to flowers, let children be taught from the very 
first to admire, to love, and to cherish them, not to regard 
them as temptations to mischief, and to connect them only with 
uneasy recollections of punishment. When Master Johnn 
decapitates his first Tulip, or brings in his first Hyacinth, 
roots and all, from the borders, don’t treat him as an abandoned 
ruffian, and make him frightened at flowers for life; but show 
him with a calm and gentle tenderness the perfect beauty 
which his hands have spoiled, and tell him reyerently Whose 
work he has undone. Let him draw near and gaze, where he 
may not gather; point out to him the symmetry, the tints, — 
the perfume; remember that there are organs of Benevolence 
and Veneration, of Form, Order, and Colour, in the cerebral 
development of that curly pate, as well as of a Covetous and 
Destructive tendency; appeal to his higher, holier self, con- 
verse with the Chiistian that is in him; ignore what is evil - 
(for he will understand your tacit abhorrence) wutil there is 


-stern need of open censure; trust, instead of suspecting; tall 


to him of prizes, instead of prisons, patting his back with your 
open hand, instead of shaking your fist at him; and, as surely as 
Love and Truthfulness are better and stronger than Deceit and 
Hate, you shall find in that little heart such a sympathy with 
all things pure and beautiful, as shall bow your head in shame. 
With regard to fruit, I should ‘be inclined, J think, to deal 
with little children, ‘as confectioners and grocers are said to 
deal with their newly entered apprentices, and to give them a 
free range. I should, simultaneously, forewarn them thus :— 
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are now at liberty to make your- 
selves as ill as you please. These sour Apples and unripe ~ 
Plums are absolutely at your disposal. You will oblige me by 
abstaining from the green Gooseberries, until I have withdrawn 
a space, as the cranch is painful to my neryous system; but, 
subsequently, every bush is yours. Your meal will be followed 


by a variety of aches and pains, for which you haye to swallow 


some of the nastiest medicines known. These Nurse shall 


/ 


bring to you ina large teacup. If you would prefer to wait 


until dessert-time, you can have some niceripe fruit with Papa 
and Mamma, and a glass of Cowslip wine instead of Black Dose ; 
but pray please yourselves. Good morning.” eyes 
They would attend dessert, ultimately at all events, toa man. 
Bolts and bars tend only to enhance our longings, to excite 
suspicions in our naughty little breasts that fruits which are 
so strictly guarded must be of the most delicious order; and 
each small conspirator whispers to his brother, “ It’s rubbish, 
Tommy, about their being unwholesome: they only want them 
for themselves.” 8. Ryo 
(To be continued). ~ — 


A Deadly Grass.—One remarkable fact connected with Queensland 
botany is, that a grass, which grows locally abundant in the more northern 
portions of the colony, Aristida hygrometrica, (R. Br.), is fatal to sheep, b 
reason of itslong sharp tripartite awns getting entangled in the Seay 
ultimately piercing the skin and penetrating to the viscera of the thorax 
and abdomen. : 2, 


Influence of Green Light on the Sensitive Plant.—An 
interesting experiment in the effects of green light upon plant growth is 
reported in the Chemical News. In order to test the effect of green light 
on the sensitiveness of the Mimosa, M. Bert placed several plants under ~ 
bell-glasses of different coloured glass, set in a warm greenhouse. At the 
end of a few hours a difference was already apparent: those subjected to 
green, yellow, orred light had the petioles erect, and the leaflets expanded : 
the blue and the violet, on the other hand, had the petioles almost hori- 
zontal, and the leaflets hanging down. Ina week those placed beneath 
blackened glass werealready less sensitive ; in twelve days they were dead | 
or dying. From that time the green ones were entirely insensitive, and — 
in four days more were-dead. At this time the plants under the other 
glasses were perfectly healthy and sensitive; but there was a great — 
inequality of development among them. The white had made great pro- 
gress, the red less, the yellow a little less still; the violet and the blne did 
not appear to have grown atall. After sixteen days the vigorous plants 
from the uncoloured bell-glass-were moved to the green; in eight days 


_ they had become less sensitive, in two more the sensitiveness had almost 


entirely disappeared, and in another Week they werealldead. Green rays 
have no greater influence on vegetation than absence of light,and M. — 


-Bert believes that the sensitive plant exhibits only the same phenomena 


as all plants which are coloured green, but to an excessive degree. 


: 


Fen. 17, 1872.] 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 218.) 


CHAM#DOREA GEONOM#roRMIS (Mexico).—A stiff plant, not very 
ornamental. Fronds, entire, wedge-shaped, nine inches by six, bifid. 
_ ©. Gtavuctrort1a (Mexico).—Fronds, regularly pinnate ; pinne, droop- 
ing, fourteen to eighteen inches long, curving up and down, acumi- 
nate; those at the point shorter and broader than the others. An 
extremely graceful and ornamental species, light and airy in appear- 
ance, and when mixed with plants having large foliage its effect is 
striking and beautiful. 

C. Gramrtronri (GuaTEMALA).—Allied to the last, but more slender 
in leaf and stem; foliage, very narrow. An extremely elegant 
species, but scarcely dense enongh for general purposes. 

©. Liypentana (New GRanapa).—Fronds, regularly pinnate, four 
feet long; pinne, an inch and a half wide.’ A very beautiful plant, 
with gracefully arching fronds, suitable for central positions. 

C. CASPERIANA (Mexico).—Allied to the former, but differs in the 
fronds being more erect and leaflets longer. A good and noble 
species. 


\ 


Chammdorea clegans. 


C. crucrroria (Mrxtco).—Fronds, finely pinnate ; pinne, twelve to 
fifteen inches long, half an inch wide. An extremely elegant plant 
for table decoration, or for breaking the view without obstructing 
light. 

C. Deckwrrana (syNn., SracnypHorne;: Mrxtco),—Leaf, simple, 
wedge-shaped at base, bifid at apex, thirty inches long; veins, 
prominent. Stiff-looking, but useful for mixing with fine-leaved 
plants. 


C. Etation (Mextco).—Fronds, pinnate; pinne, drooping, acumi- 
nate, regular, nearly one foot long; upper side, convex, shortening 
towards the point; stem, slender. An elegant plant for pillar orna- 
mentation, or for decorating walls, the stem being flexible. 


C. ELEGANS (Mexico).—Fronds, pinnate ; pine, regular, ten inches 


long. A fine decorative table plant; the fronds forming a beautiful 
qark green head. . 


CERATOLOBUS CONCOLOR (Sumatra). — Fronds, recurved; pinnz, 
regular, dark green on upper side, under side, white, margin, tinted 
with a slight metallic hue; the fronds decrease in size, until at the 


- 


Ii Pes | Ao oy Shae A? ute 


THE GARDEN. 


283 


apex they are merely recurved spines; leaf-stalk clothed at base 
with sets of sharp thorns that decrease in number and size as they 
approach the top; stem, slender. In general appearance this palm 
resembles some of the species of Calamus, but it is coarsér, and 
pushes up suckers from the base in tolerable abundance. Good- 
looking plants, but not suitable for moving about, as their spines 
catch hold of other plants and tear them. 

C. GLAUCESCENS (JAvA).—Allied to the last, but larger. 
species are fond of heat and water. 

CHAaM@nops.—The whole of the species belonging to this genus 
are greenhouse palms, and may be distinguished from Latanias by 
the stiffness of their general aspect and the netted fibre at the base 
of the petiole. 

C. EXCELSA (SYN., ELATA: CHINA AND JAPAN).—Tronds, fan-shaped, 
cut nearly to the base; petiole, unarmed ; stem clothed with strong 
brown fibre. A compact plant, and very suitable for conservatory 
decoration. 

C. Forrunn (N. Cxurva).—Fronds, erect, stiff, forming the fourth 
of a circle, and bright-green; fibre at base of petiole, very dense. 
This palm has the character of being hardy, and in sheltered 
positions in our southern counties it will live out of doors; but in 
exposed situations it looks starved and miserable. As a greenhouse 
plant it is very ornamental, and in summer it may be exposed to 
any extent. 

C. numinis (S. Europe anp N. Arrica).—Plant, erect ; fronds, 
forming one-third of a circle; petiole, with small spines on margin. 
The whole aspect of this palm is greyish-green; it throws out shoots 
from the base in numbers sufficient to make it a dense bush. Single 
stemmed young forms of it make good plants for window and table 
decoration. It is nearly hardy. 

C. uysrrix (Sournery U. S. Aaenrca),—Foliage, dense, dark- 
green, erect, cut nearly to the base; fibre at the base of the petioles 
very strong, terminated by a row of stiff bristles. A dwarf plant, 
of very stiff habit. : 

C. Marrrana (Nepat).— Erect’ and stiff, bearing 
resemblance to the last-named species, except a little 
the spines at base of petioles. 

C. PALMETTO (SYN., CAROLINIANA: SourHerN U. S. Amenica).— 
Fronds, forming half a circle, cut nearly to the base, glaucous; petioles, 
unarmed. A lax «rower, and not verv ornamental. ‘ 

CG serrutata (Sy “vERN U. 8. Awertca).—Grows about tivo feet 
in height ; fronds, 9, ~s. short, and stiff. Not a good palm for 
purposes of decoratiox. 

C. STOURACANTHA (SYN., MACkUCARPA).—There is a plant in gardens 
under this name, but it looks very like C. Martiana. J. Croucner., 

(To be continued.) 


All the 


considerable 
difference in 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN, 


Climbers for Rafters and Walls.—Can you favour me with a 
list of really good climbers for both a stove and greenhouse, to grow up 
the rafters, or be trained ona wall ?—N. B.——[ The following are among 
the loveliest of known plants, and bloom freely with very simple culture: 
Greenhouse Climbers—Acacia Riceana, A. dealbata; Cobma scandens 
variegata, Habrothamnus elegans, Kennedya Marryatte, K. nigricans, K. 
rubicunda superba; Lapageria albiftora, L. rosea, L. r. splendens ; Man- 
devilla suaveolens, Passiflora Campbelli, P. Clowesiana, P. Imperatrice 
Engenie; Plumbago capensis, Rhynchosphermum jasminoides, Solanum 
jasminiflorum, Tacsonia Buchanii, T. ignea, T. Van Volxemii; Tecoma 
jasminoides, Stove Climbers—Allamanda, in var., Bignonia venusta, Bou- 
gainvillea speciosa, Cissus discolor, Clerodendron Balfourii, Dipladenia , 
amabilis, Hexacentris mysorensis, Hoya carnosa, Passiflora amabilis, P. 
princeps (racemosa), P. quadrangularis; Stephanotis floribunda, 'Thun- 
bergia Harrisii, Ipomw#a Bona Nox. } 


Plants for a Greenhouse with a North Aspect (sce p. 223).— 
Your correspondent “‘ F. S.”’ is quite justified inasking advice before he 
builds a greenhouse with a north aspect. My advice to him is, instead 
of one, to build two small houses, one a stove, the other a greenhouse ; 
then, whatever kinds of plants he has they will succeed as in the stove he 
will have plenty of heat m which to grow them; and, as they come into 
bloom, he can remove them to the greenhouse. In the case of bulbs, how 
nicely he could get them into bloom at three different times, so as to 
prolong their flowering season; and the same may be said with reference 
to all other classes of plapts. Of course, he would require one hot- 
water pipe in the stove more than in the greenhouse; so, rather than 
select a list of plants for a greenhouse, I would advise him to build a 
stove and greenhouse combined, then go to some nursery, and select 
plants to suit both houses. As to naming plants that would thrive in 
shade in a greenhouse, that, with the exception of -Ferns, would only 
end in disappointment.—T. SovrHwortH, The Gardens, Castle Head. 


284 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


GREAT GARDENS OF EUROPE. 


VERSAILLES. 
NOEL HUMPHREYS. 
(Continued from p. 217.) 

Tux fountains of the celebrated Basin of Neptune are in- 
variably those which on great occasions are the last set in 
action, and, enriched as they are by the most profuse and costly 
adjuncts of architecture and seulpture, they form the most 
splendid series of jets, cascades, and other devices that can 
possibly be conceived. A view of this grand final outburst of 
waters, which is always reserved as the bouquet for the close 
of the general display, may be best obtained from the back 
of the Fountain of the Dragon, as shown below, and may 
serve to convey some idea of the extent and magnifi- 
cence of some of the effects produced when the grandes 
eaue are exhibited at Versailles, which never fail to produce 
upon all who have had the good fortune to witness the display, 
an impression of costly magnificence of which no spectators 


BY 


been undertaken upon false calculations ; and the great arches 
of the incomplete work now form a picturesque modern ruin. 
If, however, the project had proved successful, it is calculated 
that all the fountains at Versailles might have heen kept 
playing every day from morning till night; but the royal 
intentions were frustrated by insurmountable obstacles. The 
smaller supply which was eventually obtained from the reser- 
voirs at St. Quentin, Trappe, Peray, and other places, on the 
same high level as Versailles, and which is principally the 
collected result of an extensive system of superficial drainage, 
only enables the great series of fountains to be set in action 


for a very few hours at a time, and at certain periods — 


only. The whole of those reservoirs, when at their fullest, 
are said to contain nearly eight million cubie metres of 
water; the ayerage being something more than five millions. 
Of this supply nearly half is now required for the town of 


Versailles, the remainder only being available for the grand 


hydraulic displays in the gardens of the palace. 
Of the restless constructing and destroying that took place, 
Saint Simon thus speaks, im relation to the expenditure at 


Basin of Neptune, Versailles. 


have eyer denied the charm, however much it may have 
impressed upon them that the whole thing was in a spurious 
and semi-barbarie taste which they ought not to endorse. 
It must, in fact, be admitted that grand and impressive 
effects may be produced by various kinds of art, even those 
which modern theories cannot but denounce as spurious. 
‘That such hydraulic displays, enhanced in effect by the 
adjuncts of elaborate sculpture, costly masonry, and planta- 
tions intended solely to increase the effect, were deemed 
the most princely kind of decoration by means of which royal 
gardens, and those of persons exalted by wealth or rank, could 
be rendered magnificent, 1cay be conceived by the realised 
example afforded by Versailles. It is still more fully proved 
by the gigantic efforts of human labour and lavishly extravagant 
waste of millions which were expended in the futile attempts to 
bring the waters of the Eure to Versailles—a wild project 
which was attempted by means of the acqueducts of Maintenon. 
More than 30,000 soldiers were at one time employed on those 


vast works, which, when half completed, were found to haye 


Marly, which was almost as extravagant as that at Versailles :— 
“Great trees,” he says, “were brought at enormous cost 
from, the forest of Compiégne, and other places still further off, 
of which three-fourths died, which were immediately replaced 
by others. These were again sacrificed to make a space for 
new lakes, where courtiers amused themselves with Venetian 
gondolas, and the lakes were again transformed back into full- 
grown forests, which were expected to yield deep wooded 
shades, the very day they were planted.” It was the same at 
Versailles. The celebrated Labyrinth (a description of the 


original state of which was given in a previous number of THE 
GARDEN) was an extravagantly costly gee-gaw designed by _ 


the great painter, Le Brun, while Benserade furnished the 
inscriptions; yet it had to make way in 1755 for newer and still 
more costly objects, which were fortunately conceived in a 
somewhat simpler and better taste. 

To describe all the other works, almost equally important, is 


not possible in anarticle which only pretends to afford a rapid — 


glimpse of the general characteristics of the gardens of 


oh ea hs 


é ay try se PF 
Pea te ae Oe 


ee 


. 


straight gravel walks of the 


- Straight lawn, extends the 


. 


Fex. 17, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


285 


Versailles, and to point out the defects of such a system of 
Seg as well as its excellences, when they occur. 
‘There is, however, one more of these elaborate and costly 
decorations which cannot be passed over withouta brief notice, 

~ as it is one of the most pleasing; and, to use a much abused term, 

much more gardenesque in character than most of . the 
others. It is the Bosquet dela Colonnade and its architectural 
features that are here alluded to. This bosquet is an open 
Bppce surrounded by a dense wall of foliage, in the centre 
ot which rises a graceful circular colonnade, one hundred 
feet in diameter, every available portion of which is elegantly 
enriched with sculpture. These light arcades of white 
marble, define themselves with charming effect against 
the dark background of foliage; and when jets of water are 
thrown up from the yases which alternate with the columns, 
and the scattered spray produces a slight mist which blends 
the forms of the edifice with those of the surrounding foliage, 
the effect is very fascinating. . 

Therearenot many instances 
in the formation of these gor- 
geous gardens in which the 
living greens and leafy forms 
of the trees are made to play an 

_ important part in the design: 
water, and marble wrought by 
the mason or sculptor, having 
the principal parts assigned to 
them in the vast composition. 
Those small portions of the 
plan which may be strictly 
called garden design, are ex- 
tremely devoid of anything like 
inventive taste, and display a 
positive absence of any kind of 
natural effect, goodorbad. To. 
attempt descriptions of the 

- Salle de Bal, the Queen’s Bos- 
quet, the Basin of the Mirror, 
the Saloon of Chestnut Trees, 
the Green Circle, the Etoile, 
she-Domes, and other objects 
of analogous character, would 

‘only be a repetition of what 
has been said before. Imme- 
diately below the terrace are 
the geometrical parterres, 
which, however, perform a 
very secondary part among 
the fountains; and beyond 
these parterres extends the 
long green lawn known as the 
the lapis Vert, flanked by 


—— 


same length. Beyond these, 


THE PROPAGATOR. 
HYBRIDIZING PANSIES. 


I HAVE been a grower of Pansies for many years, and my experi- 
ence in regard to their iniprovement, by means of fertilization, may 
perhaps be useful to beginners. I select the best varieties I can 
find, and those most likely to yield something good and distinct for 
parents. I make my bed at the end of August, in front of a hedge 
facing the south-east. This bed is for early bloom. I cause it to be 
dug a spit deep, breaking up all lumps, and giving it at the same 
time a liberal coating of well-rotted horse-dung and road-sand. These, 
when well mixed, are dug in. In planting, I make a hole about a 
foot deep, and put into it about a handful of charcoal or cinders, as 
drainage. When the plants are well established, about November, 
| I surface-dress with cocoa-nut fibre. This will he found invaluable 
for protection, and the plants will root into it in spring. This bed 
| will produce fine early blooms, and if a few are required for ex- 
hibition, some old lights should 
be propped over them to throw 
off heavy rains. 

For alater bed, I choose a piece 
of ground by the side of a hedge 
facing the north-east. I make the 
bed ot yellow loam, or the nearest 
approach to it I can get. I dig 
it well, and break all lumps ; then 
I dress it with decayed leaves and 
rotten horse or cow dung: the last 
is best, if it can be had. These 
should be dug in and well mixed. 
The bed must be well drained, 
and notin alow situation. If the 
latter, use charcoal or cinders as 
directed in the case of the last bed. 
This bed will be found to be a fort- 
night or three weeks behind the 
other, but the quality and colour 
of the flowers will be superior to 
those in the early bed. 


For the purpose of hybridizing, 

I select the best and earliest 
flowers I can find, and taking care 
not to injure any of the other 
organs, I remove the anthers from 
such flowers as I select to breed 
from. ‘The flowers to be ferti- 
lized should be young, and the 
operation should be performed 
before the pollen grains show 
themselves, otherwise fertilization 
. may take place while the anthers 
are being removed, and which is 
best done in damp weather. With 
a brush made of a few hairs out 
of a rabbit’s tail, on a sunny day, 
I take the pollen grains from the 


of equal breadth with the 


equally straight canal, en- 
larged at each end and in the 
middle by formal basins, and 
-erossed at right angles by another canal of somewhat 
wider dimensions. Parallel with the Tapis Vert and its 
lateral walks, other straight walks are formed behind the 
plantations, on either side; and there are transyerse walks at 
right angles, cutting the plantations into large square patches, 
termed indiscriminately “ bosquets.” Each of these bosquets 
has some central object, such as the colonnade above described, 
a fountain, or a group of statuary, fowards which diagonal 
walks converge; and this kind of disposition is again and 
again repeated where the breadth of the ground permits. 

Below the Tapis Vert, after the canal commences, diagonal 
paths diverge through the plantations, as shown in our plan 
(p. 216); while in the grounds of the Grand Trianon the form- 
alisms of the “bosquet” system are repeated, with little or 
no variation. - The gardens of the Little ‘Trianon, however, are 
in a totally different style, and will require a few words in our 
next issue in addition to what has been said of them in the 
first portion of this article, 


ee Ok ty 


The Colonnade at Versailles. 


flowers I wish to hybridize from, 
and apply them to the pistil of 
the flowers from which I have 
removed the anthers. When fer- 
tilization is finished, the flowers 
shonld be, if possible, kept dry and free from bees or flies. The 
best plan is to cover them with a piece of thin muslin. All the 
flowers operated upon may not “take,’’ but in a few hours those 
that have “‘taken”’ will be distinguished by a peculiar twist which 
the petals always assume. When the seeds come to be ripe, sow 
them immediately in pans well drained with charcoal, and in fine 
soil, with plenty of sand and leaf-mould in it. Keep them in a 
shady, cool place, and plant out as soon as the plants are large 
enough to handle. When the flowers are opening in spring and 
before any of them are fertilized, it is a capital plan to dust the bed 
with lime, which keeps off slugs and other pests, and thus often 
saves a pet flower from injury. Success, however, wholly depends 
on the care bestowed upon the plants, and none need expect to 
grow Pansies well unless more than ordinary interest is taken in 
their culture. In making beds for pansies some put a thick layer of 
cow dung under the surface soil so as to form a cool bottom for the 
roots to run in, a practice which succeeds admirably in warm dry 
situations; but in cold damp places it is apt to sour, and render the 
plants unhealthy. E.S 


286 


THE GARDEN. ~ : 


"[ Fes. 17, 1872. - 


PROPAGATING YUCCAS. 


Ty this operation it is best to begin with a goodplant. If a large 
one is lifted out of the ground, it will be found that the root portion 


is studded with numerous elongated fleshy tubers, varying from | 


three to five inches in circumference. All the exposed ones may be 
removed from the thickeried root extremities without the least 
injury either to them or the parent plant. The specimen, after 
being denuded of its root-buds, can be again planted in good soil, 
and will go on thriving as if nothing had been done to it. It is not, 
however, necessary that the plant should be taken out of the ground 
for the purpose of removing these fleshy tubers. It can be 
done by simply baring the roots on opposite sides, and cutting the 
tubers off with a knife. These fleshy root-buds, after their removal 
from the plant, can be potted, and placed in a gentle heat, keeping 
the apex a little above the soil, when they will soon develop a healthy 
crown from the extremity, also rootlets from the sides. After the 
tops have pushed a few inches, they should be removed into a cold 
pit or frame, and afterwards planted ont in open-air beds, where 
they will soon mature themselves. 

Another method of propagating the Yucca is by sections of the 
stem. When a plant branches, from the effects of flowering or 
by an injury, one of the branches may be cut off, and its stem 
cut into transverse sections, from one inch to one-and-a-half in 

“thickness, and partially dried on the cut surfaces, by placing them 
upright in an airy position. They must afterwards be laid on the 
floor of a hot propagating pit, which has been previously covered 
with a layer of soil, over which a covering of sand has been placed, 
and afterwards kept partially moist. Im a few weeks it will be 
found that the dormant buds round the cut secticn will swell, and 
finally push out into young growths, and roots will protrude from 
the lower side, which will penetrate the sand into the soil. After a 
few months the central portion of the section will decay, and the 
young plants will be left independent. When this takes place, they 
can be put round the inner surface edge of pots in good soil, where 
they will soon come forward, and, when strong enough, may be 
planted out in open-air beds. 

The stems of Yuccas are formed by the decaying leayes annually 
falling, or what is more frequently the case, being pulled off. At 
the base of each fallen leaf, on the stem, will be found a scar; on 
the edge of each scar a slight swelling is observable, which, when 
detached, will develop into a young plant. Ona free-grown stem, a 
section one inch thick will generally contain two dormant buds, and 
half an inch thicker will haye about three buds. When cut thicker 
more buds may be given out; but they are not so easily handled as 
those produced from the thinner slices. While in very old, slow- 
grown stems, the scars are much closer together; and although the 
dormant buds are numerous, many of them never come forward. 
The development of these scars will not take place on the plant so 
long as the top remains ;.but if the top happens to be removed, it 
will be found that several of the scars nearest the upper end will 
develop into shoots. The superfluous ones can be removed, and 
treated as cuttings; they will soon root, and form independent 
ants. 

z When an old plant is furnished with numerous branches, it is easy 

to remove any of them in a state fit to grow, merely by cutting a 
notch about half an inch deep round four-fifths of the stem. - After 
the ent becomes a little dry by exposure to the air, roll a quantity 
of damp moss round it, keeping it both above and below the notch. 
The under edges of the upper portion will soon callus over, and 
roots will be produced into the moss. Whenthe roots are sufficiently 
strong, the stem may be cut on each side a little below the half-inch 
notch. In time the top may be cut off, and inserted either into a 
pot orin the ground. It will thus be seen that a few plants possess 
greater propagating powers than the Yucca. 

In this country, so far as I am aware, the Yucca has never been 
known to produce seed, although seed isnot unfrequently sent over 
from the southern States of America. Seedlings when procured, 
however, take a long time coming forward, compared with the 
methods of propagation just given. This is one of the not unfre- 


quent cases in which a plant does not produce seed, but where nature: 


has provided other means of increasing it—J. M‘Nab, in “ Villa 
Gardener.” 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PROPAGATING, 


Anomalous Grafting.—In your number for December 80, 1871, 
p. 122, I find the following passage :—‘ Whoever wishes to study grafting 
in the works of celebrated ancient authors on horticulture, will find a 
string of absurdities, some of which we will mention. Virgil speaks of a 
plum-tree which bore apples after having been grafted, and recommends 
the grafting of the pear on the ash.” I am unable to verify the first 


* are allowed to grow up together. 


assertion, as I cannot discover the passage; but is it an established fact 
that a plum-tree cannot be grafted on the apple? As regards the 
second assertion, Virgil does not seemto “recommend” the grafting. He 
merely states (Georg. II., 71) that the Ornus—most probably Pyrus 
aucuparia—will produce the white flowers of the pear tree. Both these 
trees belong to the order Rosaces, as does also the almond, whose inter- 
breeding with the pear M. Baltet appears to doubt.—W. O. CrmAyE. ie 

Roses on Orange Trees.—Have you ever seen rose trees united to 
orange trees, and both flowerimg together? I used to manipulate them ~ 
with success, and astonished our greatest botanists, who could not make 
out how roseworts could be united to citronworts. Should any of your 
correspondents like to Imow the method I employ, I will send it with 
pleasure, as I hate selfishness in all matters ot horticulture.—J. § 
|We shall be greatly obliged if you will describe your plan.| 

The Ash on the Oak.—The articles on grafting which have 
appeared in THE GARDEN haye induced me to forward you the 
following account of what has come under my notice:—It has always 
been an axiom that there must be a close affinity between the stock and ~ 
the scion. I accepted that without question till last summer, when my 
attention was called to a remarkable tree—in fact, a fine young ash which 
had been grafted on an oak. his had been done about two teet from the 
gréund, and the line of separation was sharp and distinct between the 
two barks, although the character of the ash bark was slightly changed, 
seeming more rigid and unyielding than the ordinary condition; while 
both bark and wood had acquired the astringency of the oak, and when 


‘put in water, tinted it blue; and while the common oak trees were full of ~ 


fruit, this was entirely destitute. Whether it ever blossoms, I cannot 
say, as | have not yet visited it at the proper season. The habit of the 
tree also seems modified, and, I think, improved, beg more compact; 
the wood is much harder, though it does not seem to differ in structure. 
This tree is growing at Highlands Farm, Ilford, Hssex, and may be fitty 
years old, or probably more. Whether anybody at the farm knows the 
history of it, | cannot say. Ihave called your attention to this, so that 
you may invite some of your practical contributors to give the results of 
amy experiments they have made, such as the grafting evergreen plants 
on deciduous, or the opposite process.—ALFRED GuvgEeNe awed 
proof has our correspondent that the tree is graited on the oak |: 
Grafting Bignonia radicans on the Catalpa.—a correspon- 
dént of the Horticultewr Francais announces the successful grafting of 
Bignonia radicans on the Catalpa. Some of the branches were headed 
back, and the Bignonia scions inserted by cleft-grafting. The result was, 
that from the midst of the luxuriant foliage of the Catalpa emerged 
numerous flowering branches of the Bignonia. - : 
Preparations for Grafting.—Professional French grafters who 
make tours amongst the farmers, often find prepared grafts dried up or 
otherwise injured. To avoid such accidents the following plan has been” 
adopted with excellent results :—The cuttings are first wrapped in rags, 
in order to prevent the soil from mixing with the scions, and attaching 
itself to their bark, and then the packetsare buried in a cold spot, to 
the north of a wall, ata depth of eight or nine inches; and, im order to 
prevent the scions from being injured when unearthed, a few branches 
are laid uponthem. Scions thus treated, whether cut in autumn or im 
February, will keep perfectly till the end of April, if not later. The 
rule is, that at the time of grafting the sap should be rising im the stock, 
and about to do so in the scion ; if the latter is cut at the moment of 
grafting it may be more forward than the stock, in which case the graft 
will fail. By cutting the scions previously the movement of the sap is 
stopped, and if they are then laid under ground the retardation may be 
carried to such an extent that they may be applied to stocks already in 
leaf, which is a great advantagé where many graftings are to be made, 
per if the buds of the scions are much developed success is very 
oubtful. = 5 


Seeds and Weeds.—So full of seeds of various kinds is the ground 
in spring that when we sow a crop of any good seed, flower or vegetable, 
itis sometimes difficult to distinguish the crop from the weed, and both 
To obviate this, seeds should not, as w _ 
rule, be sown broadcast, butin drills or little lines or circles, according to 
kind and taste, and then, when they come up, it is easy to separate the 
sheep from the goats. ; ? 


Raising Seeds.—Do such seeds as Aralia, Canna, »Cassia, 
Chamzerops humilis, &c.,; Chorozema, Chamepeuce, Solanum, Dracsenas, 
and ferns, quoted in catalogues as greenhouse plants, require a stoye to 
start them, or can they be grown in a small greenhouse r—R. W. Parry, 
juy.— [All except the ferns and the Chammepeuce, would be the better” 
for being started in a hotbed or warm propagating house or stove, 
although some of them grow very rapidly, as the Canna$ and Solanums ; 
Chamspeuce raise with the half hardy annuals; ferns raise in a moist~ 
shady stove, unless they are hardy kinds, in which case, a moist frame or 
pit will suit them. ] : 


A Wew Cure for the Currant Worm.—Our friend Hick 
Cupps, Hsq., of Harfseysover, drops usa tear and a line, enclosing this 
aragraph :— ‘ 
e oh Caamenagst man has found a sure cure for the devastions of the 
currant worm. He sprinkles his bushes with whiskey; the wormbecomes 
drunk, gets to fooling around, and finally falls off, and either breaks its 
neck outright, or cripples itself so that life becomes a burden.” e: 
He says this is a melancholy waste of whiskey to preserve a few berries” 
capable of producing nothing better than currant wine. his own re- 
markable words, it is “throwing a sprackerel to catch a mat (hic).”’—Fun. 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


287 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


¢ 2 3, 

yf " ER g ~ x 

t Ps r Z > z : [eg 
BOS RIE Oi ieee EONS 


THE PINE-BORING BEETLE. > 
(HYLURGUS PINIPERDA.) 
Tris is asmall, purplish-black beetle, which, both in its larval and 
perfect state, does much injury to different species of pine trees. It 
is to it that the brown and withered leaders and shoots which are 


often to be seen on these trees are generally due. In the north of 
Europe it ravages the woods of Pinus sylvestris. In the department 
of the Landes, where the Pinaster (known there as the Maritime 
Pine) predominates, it specially attaches itself to it. In_ this 
country we know that it attacks various kinds of pine. Pinus 
austriaca, for example, is preferred to the Scotch fir; and Pinus 
insignis is liked better than either. It has also been observed, 
either in this country or in Belgium, upon Pinus pumilio, 
P, laricio, and P. brutia; 1 no doubt also on others which have 
escaped record. This is the earliest of the Xylophagous beetles. In 
the north of Europe, according to Ratzeburg, it appears in the month 
of March. . In the south of France it is to be seen in the first fine 
days after the depth of winter; and from the month of January, 
after two or three days of sunshine, one is certain of finding it 
already occupied in boring the bark of pines that have been felled 
or are sickly, as weil as stumps remaining in the ground. Here it is 
little seen before May. It discloses its presence on the trees by the 
little heaps of rotten wood which the larva casts out of its galleries. 
It is the fresh liber of the plant that forms its food, consequently those 
trees whose liber is too much dried up are disregarded. Those which 
_ they attack are sometimes so full of sap that an abundant flow of 
the resinous juices follows their boring, which hardens into the form 
of tubes of greater or less thickness around the orifice of invasion. 
It is indifferent as to the age of the trees. From their tenth or 
twelfth year, until their most advanced age, they are subject to its 
attacks; but it is rare to meet with it in trees under ten years old, 
the reason of which, without doubt, is that these do not offer snffi- 
cient space for the development of the insect. 
GALLERIES, 
~_ The hale by which it enters is oblique, and the principal gallery, 
ways simple—that is to say, without ramifications—extends longi- 
tudinally above and below this entrance hole, forming at the furthest 
end at each side a small curve, whence it proceeds in a straight 
direction. It is supplied with from one to four air holes. We usually 
find both the male and the female in this gallery ; but never more 
than one individual of each sex, and rarely the female alone. The 
eggs are deposited in little notches like those of the Bostrichi, and 
the galleries made by the larve are winding and transverse, except 
when the diameter of the tree is considerable, when they end by 
becoming oblique or longitudinal. These galleries are hollowed out, 
like the gallery for eggs, in the liber in contact with the cambium, 
which, however, they never touch. They detach the bark completely, 
making it easy to lift it in large sheets. It is unnecessary to 
_ remind our readers that the cambinm and liber are the layers which 
separate the wood from the bark, the cambium being the layer 
outside the wood, and the liber that inside the bark. The metamor- 
phosis into the pupa takes place in the bed of liber or in the bark. 
LAYING AND HATCHING OF EGGS. 

As soon as it appears after winter the Hylurgus piniperda invades 
the trees or timber which it selects to nourish its offspring. The 
gallery for the eggs is pretty quickly hollowed out ; but the emission 
of the eggs rarely follows very soon after the completion of this work. 
The occurrence of warm days in spring often determines the laying 
of the eggs, but the cold and varying weather which frequently 
succeeds keeps the hatching back, and when at last the larve do 
come out, the recurrence of similar causes may retard their develop- 
ment. It is not until the month of May or June that the develop- 

ment becomes rapid, seconded as it then is by the length of the days 
and the higher temperature. The grubs then grow quickly, pass 
into the pupa stage, and the perfect insect takes to flight in June or 

_ the beginning of July. ; 
PROCEEDINGS OF PERFECT INSECT.—TERMINAL SHOOTS ATTACKED. 

Next comes the time when it forces itself on our attention by 
destroying the young shoots of the trees. Hitherto it has-not touched 
them. It has been occupied with the food under the bark of solid, 
thick trunks or branches. Now, in the perfect state, the liber which 
served for a sumptuous diet to the larva, is not good enough for it. 
It must have the fine pith of the young shoots still in the herbaceous 


_by the exudation from tissues ruptured by insects. 


state. It has been said that it sometimes will go farther back on the 
branch, and begin at the two or three year old part. But this must, 
we think, be a mistake. Its gourmand proceedings soon show them- 
selves, and the brown, withered, hanging, or broken shoots dis- 
figuring our trees tell us that their enemy has been at work. This 
continues during the whole sammer until September. 

When we come to examine the mischief, we may generally perceive 
one of those short stalactites of hardened resin which are produced 
If we search for 
the cause, we find that these withered shoots or twigs are hollow, the 
medullary substance having been eaten out. In the interior of the 
tunnel so made, which is frequently prolonged to the terminal bud, 
we may generally find a Hylurgus piniperda. If it is found to be 


The Pine-boring Beetle and Grub, 


empty, it is because the insect has left it ; but, in that case, we may 
sometimes notice below the entrance hole another by which it has 
made its exit. More frequently there is only one hole; which goes 
far to prove that the insect has both entered and gone out there. It 
is not unusual for two individuals to establish themselves in the same 
twig. There are then two orifices for entrance at different heights, 
and the two galleries do not usually communicate with one another, 
because the lower Hylurgus stops its work before breaking through 
into the upper tunnel. 

The insect seems to pass freely up and down its tunnel—and, 
indeed, it keeps it clean swept and garnished; and this furnishes 
the easiest and simplest test by which we can distinguish its work 
in these young shoots from the work of some species of small moths 
that attack the pine shoots in the same way. Curtis quotes 
an observation of Dr. Lindley on the mode of the Hylurgus’s work, 
which illustrates this :—‘‘ For the purpose of observing its proceed- 
ings more narrowly, I placed a shoot of the Scotch fir under a glass 
with the insect. In about four hours after, its head and thorax were 
completely buried in the shoot, and it had thrown out a quantity of 
wood, which it had reduced to a powder, and which nearly covered the 
bottom of the glass. In sixteen hours more it was entirely concealed, 
and was beginning to form its perpendicular excavation, and was 
busily employed in throwing back the wood as it proceeded in 
destroying it.” Consequently, in the bored shoots formed by the 
Hylurgus piniperda, there is no detritus or excrement; whereas, in 
the shoots bored in a similar manner by the Tortrices, the gallery 
is encumbered with excrement. And the reason of this is not 
any greater love of cleanliness and tidiness on the part of one insect 
than the other, but simply that, in the case of the Hylurgus, the 
tunnel is excavated by the perfect insect itself, and not by its grub; 
whereas, in the case of the Tortrix, it is the grub that makes the 
excavation. The former has greater freedom of action. The grub, 
as usual, eats straight forward, choking up the passage behind it 
with the detritus and debris of its workings, so that returning would 
generally be as tedious as beginning afresh. 


Shoot Bored by Pine Beetle. 


The excavation of the shoot is one of the points in the history of 
the Hylurgus on which it is common to hear a difference of opinion. 
Is it really done by the perfect insect, or by the grub? Certainly, 
it is by no means an uncommon thing to find a grub in the perfora- 
tion; but then that fact is not enough. The perforated shoot may 
not be the work of the Hylurgus, or the grub may not be its grub. 
It may be that of the Tortrix or something else. » One of our friends, 
a very acute observer, states that he has frequently found two grubs 
in the same tunnel, and he thinks eyen more. Equally strong 1s 
his statement that he has frequently found the pupa in perforated 
shoots. But then the pupa was not the pupa of a beetle, but of a 
moth. There are other collateral circumstances which are opposed 


288 


THE GARDEN. « .+ "= 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


to the idea of the grub of the Hylurgus attacking the terminal 
shoots. 

INJURIOUS EFFECT OF LEAVING THINNINGS, ETC., LYING ABOUT. 

One circumstance is that it has been observed that the insect is much 
more frequent and destructive in woods where recently cut wood, or 
thinnings or prunings, are left on the ground, and that the same 
result follows the putting up of palings of Scotch fir, recently ent 
and not dried or seasoned. The grub, as already mentioned, feeds 
on the liber of the pine while fresh and full of the natural sap of 
the plant. As the reader knows, this continues fresh and liquid for 
a considerable time in the pine (at least twelye months), and it is 
better adapted for the use of the insect during these one or two 
years than either before or after. After it has turned into actually 
dead wood, it will not do at all: their food is fresh meat. While 
still part of a healthy and vigorous tree, it suits them better, but 
not absolutely, for the resin is apt to overflow them and drown them. 
Into the bark of such trees the Hylurgus is slow to enter, and where 
it has done so the observer will find specimens embalmed in resin. 
They are free from such an inconvenience when the connection with 


the seat of life and growth issevered (but not too. long severed), as 


in recently-felled trees and pruned branches, or where the health of 
the tree is retrograding and its circulation languid, and such form a 
suitable nidus for the insect—a sure focus of infection—the centre 
from which the insect spreads around. This is well recognised among 
foresters. 

Thus we have a communication from a correspondent near 
Ware, Herts, who says:—‘‘ There is no grub in the young planta- 
tions here, though there are many Scotch firs and austriacas as well; 
but then there is no fir used for fencing in this place.” 

Another correspondent remarks, that while his plantations haye 
suffered from the Hylurgus, it does not appear to have attacked 
much larger woods which surround his property. But his plantations 
are almost part of the shrubberies and garden around his house, and 
are much cared for, carefully thinned and pruned, andthere is always 
some dead timber thus provided for them as a nidus, while in the 
larger woods around him there is nothing of this provision. 

Again, ‘The beetle has invariably decreased with us (Warbrook, 
near Hyersley, Hants) after the clearing away of the old dead wood, 
and where no trees have been taken down it has not appeared. 

M. Perris cites a similar illustration. He says:—‘‘Around a 
recently constructed limekilIn, a yery considerable quantity of 
recently felled pines were stored which were severely attacked by H. 
piniperda. By the side of the limekiln there was a group of pines 
about fifty years old, separated by a distance of from three to four 
hundred yards from the neighbouring forests.” The pines, which had 
served for the propagation of the Hylurgus, gave innumerable 
swarms of these insects, which, haying at’ their door the pines of 
which I spoke, threw themselyes upon them en masse, attacked 
almost all the branches, and produced such au effect that in the 
month of August the trees appeared dried up, and after a stormthe 
ground was strewed with broken twigs and the branches fringed 
with them. I was then consulted, and I confined myself to advising 
the proprietor of the limekiln and the pines not to store up wood 
which had not been felled more than a year, or remove the bark of 
that which had been felled more recently. These precautions haying 
been taken, the mischief was not repeated in the following year, but 
the trees showed only a languishing vegetation and gave very little 
resin. The year after they were rather more vigorous, but it was 
easy to see that they were merely in a state of conyalesence. I 
consider it a piege of good fortune that they escaped the attacks of 
the Xylophages, and that the proprietor had not to suffer from his 
imprudence.” ; 

It has been a question with some authors whether or not the 
Hylurgus passes the winter in the perforated young shoots, but it 
has been definitely resolved in the negative. Ratzeburg, Chevandier, 
and Perris, all assure us that they have found the insects sometimes 
in great numbers gathered together round the neck of the roots of 
large living trees. ‘They hide in the crevices of the bark, or bore as 
far as the liber, only to make themselves a shelter. — 


DESCRIPTION. 

The grub is about three lines in length, whitish or yellowish 
white, except the mandibles, which are ferruginous, turning into 
black at the tip. Its body is curyed, and thickest at the thorax. 
It has no eyes and no legs or feet, but in their place two series of 
retractile nipples under the three thoracic segments, and a double 
little tuberenle along each side. The number of its stigmata is 
nine pair. . 

The perfect insect is black or purplish black, unless\when newly 
or prematurely disclosed, when it is chestnut coloured, ‘pr more or 
less pale. Onur illnstration represents it, and therfore /renders a 
detailed description unnecessary. 


The prevention and cure of this insect has been pretty clearly 
indicated by the details we haye just given. The prevention is 
obyiously to be careful-to leave no recently cut pine wood or branches 
littering the ground. Palings made of fresh cut pine wood with the 
bark on ought to be eschewed. Old wood seasoned and barked is 
harmless, and when the insects have reached the perfect stage and 
attack the young shoots they should be picked and burned or other. 
wise destroyed. 


. 
' 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


Town Garden Plagues.—I havea garden ahout half an acre in 
extent in the centre of a town, and this little oasis, which has been 
trenched and manured until the soil is extremely fertile, is infested by the 
following plagues :—First of all, hundreds of cats make it their rendezvous, 
and, in the spring time, sharpen or clean their claws in the hearts of my 
finest cabbages. Hvery «butterfly withm five miles concentrates her 
reproductive powers on the leaves of my plants, which are, consequently, 
a mass of insects as soon as they show a leat. Chattinches and sparrows 
in clouds descend upon the early peas, pick off every cotyledon as it shows 
itself; and root wp sometimes the seedirom the earth. The only certain 
erop is that from the gooseberry bushes; but even on these the points of ~ 
the berries are mostly covered with aphis. I have slain so many cats, 
that 1 can scarcely find room for their carcases.—W. M.—([/A good way 
of keeping cats out of town gardens has been given at p. 114 of Tur. 
GARDEN. | ; 4 8 * 

Worms on Lawns.— J. B.” (p. 255) should keep a pair of Green 
Plovers (Peewits). I have found these birdsa sure remedy; they hardly 
ever cease eating whilst a worm is to be seen; they must be driven in at 
night, or the cats will come after them. In the day time there is not 
much fear; for if puss comes too close, they will call out loudly for help. 
When worms are scarce, put near their water-trough a little chopped 
meat, or some bread-crumbs mixed with hot dripping—one wing must 
be kept clipped. In addition to their very active services, these birds 
would be interesting and attractive pets for mamy years; they cost about 
three shillings and sixpence each.—G. I’. 


CONSERVATORIES IN THE NATURAL STYLE. 
A COOL HOUSE. : 

In a preceding article (p. 181) we have given considera- — 
tion to the laying ont of a winter garden or conservatory for 
plants belonging to the warmer regions of the world, and have 
grouped together such representatives of tropical vegetation 


as can exist in the same atmosphere. The only exeeptions — 


which we have made to this rule is in the case of some green- 
house kinds which acquire larger dimensions under the influ- 
ence of a more intense heat than they would in a cooler 
atmosphere, such as certain Palms, Aralias, &e. For instance; 
the Rice-paper plant, which grows in the open air in the south 
of France, acquires gigantic dimensions im’ a hothouse. A 
specimen of it, thus treated, measured thirteen feet two inches 
high, and threw out magnificent leaves, exceeding six feet six 
inches in length, including their stalks. 

In most cases, nevertheless, the plants named for a green- 
house suffer under too high a temperature. Besides, the cool 
winter garden is still more valuable than that which we have 
already placed before our readers, inasmuch as it is as rich in 
ornamental specimens, and more within the ‘reach of 
moderate means. Very little artificial heat is enough 
to keep the temperature in winter at a minimum of three 
degrees above the freezing point, which is quite sufficient for 
the period of repose which is required for many of the plants 
from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and mountainous 
tropical regions, &e. One can hardly believe what numbers of 
plants there are, often supposed to belomg to tropical climates, 
with which a cool conservatory can be furnished. Numbers 


r 


of our beautiful Palms would yield to cooltreatment; andhun- 


dreds of Ferns require no better situation than the shelter of 
glass. The Dracenas, Agaves, Acacias, Dasylirions, Ficus, 
Avalias, Banksias, tender conifers like the Norfolk Island Pine, 
Yuccas, 
certainly submit to the same treatment, without mentioning 
the smaller kinds, which only thrive under a low winter 
temperature. 


Grevilleas, Rhopalas, and the Cactuses, would 


2 


The experience acquired of the natural style of arrangement = 


in conservatories during fifteen years in Hurope, enables us to 
recommend it with confidence. “The treatment carried out in 


reference to some tropical species has often no relation to the 


altitude at which the plants naturally grow. Should a plant 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


BY 


if 


i 


290 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fes. 17, 1872. 


arrive from Mexico, it would naturally be placed in a warm ' 
conseryatory. But as regards the Ferns of that country, they 
are found between 3,600 and 6,000 feet above the sea level, 
that is to say, at the limit where begin the Pines and Heaths 
of the sub-alpine region; and it is at this height that the 
magnificent Alsophilas spring up. 

More than thirty Palms now flourish in our cool houses, A 
sreat number grow in the cold regions of tropical mountains, 
such as the Ceroxylon andicola, which is found at 10,000 feet 
and upwards. The Oreodoxa frigida, and several kinds of 
Chameedorea, rise up to the Pine region; the Areca humilis 
reaches to 8,000 feet in Java; the Chamerops Martiana to 
7,800 feet in Nepal; the Phoenix humilis to 6,000 feet; with- 
out reckoning the Chamzrops excelsa of China, the Rhapis 
flabelliformis of Japan, Corypha australis. &e. 

Let us now proceed to plant a cool house on the plan 
already used in the case of a-warm conservatory. By the 
aid of numbers, we can at once show the different types of 
vegetation that may be used im each case. Our large illustra- 


a 


2 -_ 
beale of feet. 


Permit me now to, give a list of plants with noble leayes, 


and of stately port, that thrive well in a cool house :-— 


67. Chamzrops  stoura- 


cantha, 


90. Oreodoxa frigida 


136. Seaforthia gracilis 
173. Phoenix tenuis 


142. Chamedorea glauci- 


15. Chameerops excelsa 1683. Cocos Romanzoffii folia i 

32. Corypha australis 159. Areca Sapida ; 137. Chamzrops Martiana 
56. Juba spectabilis 166. Glaziova elegantis- ' 119. Phoenix sylvestris 
102. Sabal palmetto sima 105. Cocos australis 

105. Phoenix reclinata 154. Ceroxylon andicola 95. Phoenix farinifera 
95. Rhapis flabelliformis 156. Calyptrogyne elata 105. Cham#rops humilis — 
93. Livistona sinensis , 149. Seaforthia elegans 102. Brahea nitida “ 


84, Seaforthia robusta 134. Brahea dulcis * 

Here, then, are twenty-six kinds of Palms, more or less” 
high, which will thrive perfectly under the temperature that 
has been named, and which will torm a background of foliage 


of supreme elegance. We speak of such only as haye been 


proved to succeed; and if the altitudes at which they grow 


spontaneously are compared, it will be seen that a conservatory 
with a minimum of 38° Fahr. is all that they require. 
known that for eyery six hundred feet of altitude aboye the 


Ground Plan of a Cool Conservatory in the Natural Style. 


tion will convey a faithful picture of the general aspect of 
vegetation that may be obtained in a large, slightly-heated 
structure. We will first give a list of climbing plants, with- 
out which no such structure can be properly adorned :— 


1, Rhynchospermum jas- 25. Mandeyilla 


¢ suaveo- 53, 54, 58, Aristolochia 
minoides lens ciliosa, 
4. Plumbago scandens 27, 28, 30, 31. SenecioG0. Kennedya Maryatte 


7. Passiflora cerulea 
9. Mikania scandens 
12,13. Solanum 


mikanioides 

33. Tropwolum spitfire 6: 

jasmin- 36, Passiflora edulis 
38. Akebia quinata 

17. Cobra scandens yarie- 41, Aristolochia 


Troprolum speciosum 
3. Tropxolum pentaphyl- 
Jum 

Bignonia Cherere 

71, 72. Tacsonia Van 


65, 


semper- 68, 


gata virens Volxemii 
21. Thunbergia laurifolia 44. Clianthus punicens 74. Lapageria alba 
23. Kennedya violacea 46. Fuchsia coccinea 77. Hoya carnosa 


49, Lapageria rosea 80, Clianthus Dampieri 


It must be here observed that, for a conservatory of the size 
named, the number of plants given would he too extensive, 
and would darken the house too much during winter. We 
only give the list entire for the use of a conservatory lerge 
enough to contain them; for example, from 100 to 150 fect in 
length, with a proportionate width and height. 


AT 


sea, the mean temperature decreases one degree. But. if it 


be admitted, as is generally the case, that the mean tem- 
pominre of the tropics is 80° at the sea level, at six thousand ~ 
eet it would be only 65°, and at ten thousand feet, 50°, that 
being equal to the mean temperature of southern England. 
It is not, therefore, very extraordinary that the Palms of these — 
high regions, as in the case of the Chamerops excelsa, can live 


O fretst. 


out of doors in those climates where they have nothing to 


fear but exceptional winters (such as the intense cold of — 
December 1871). If we have not certain data as to this mode 
of culture, it is because Palm trees have hitherto been too i 
costly to risk their sacrifice in the open air. ; 
The Cycads, although generally less hardy than the Palms 
above-named, are still available for the conservatory, where 
a low temperature for a short time would not be prejudicial, 


but where they would suffer by prolongation of that tem- — 3 


peers Thus we would advise the following specimens to 
e planted as named hereafter :— 


85. Bowenia spectabilis 169, Encephalartos Alten- 134, Dionedulo 
96. Cycas reyoluta steini 120, Zamia australis” 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. ~ 


291 .°* 


Among the Tree Ferns, the following are suitable for the 
conservatory :— 


yeaa ate australis 116. Alsophila ornata 170. Cyathea dealbata 
$2. Blechnum brasiliense 140. Balantium antarcti- 151. Todea australis 
cum 


With plenty of space one might add :— 
Alsophila excelsa C, spectabile Lomaria cycadifolia 
Balantium Culcita Cyathea medullaris L. gibba 
B. Sellowianum C. Smithii : L, discolor 


Blechnum Rio-grandense Dicksonia fibrosa L. magellanica 


Cibotium regale D. squarrosa 
The following plants, though not so important, deserve a 
- place by the side of these, such as :— 
106, Cordyline indivis® 107. Camellia japonica, 
97. Aspidistra elatiot var. t 
93. Podocarpus Totara 86. Erythrina Marie Bell- 
99. Clivia cyrtanthiflora anger san 
100, Correa cardinalis 87. Francoa sonchifolia. 
101. Farfugium grande 92. Edwardsia grandi- 
104, Eucalyptus viminalis flora . ] 
91. Sparmannia  afri- 


109. Eleagnus undulata 
108. Clivia nobilis cana 


In order to make intervening spaces a little ornamental, 
‘an infinite number of less important plants could be added. 


88. Camellia 

87. Ligularia Keampferi 
89. Aucuba Himalaica 
86. Cineraria capensis 
83. Brugmansia sangui- 


nea 
81. Daphie delphini 


We next come to plants for decorating the beds of the 


central portion. For the grass plot may be taken ;— 
174. Pancratium mexica- 121. Rhododendron Jen- 134. Thea viridis 
kinsii ; 144. Platycerium grande 
175. Sedum spectabile 122. Araucaria excelsa 145. Senecio platanifolia 
_ 172. Aspidistra elatior va- 128. Lomaria gibba 146. Nephrolepis exaltata 
riegata 130. Beaucarnea tubercu- 148. Dracaena Runphii 
171. ve Verschaffelti lata 150. Pteris cretica albo- 


lineata 

Agnostus sinuatus 
Cyrtomium faleatum 
Acacia dealbata 
Pimelea elegans 


129. Chrysanthemum 
Comte de Chambord 153: 
110. Macleania cordata 137. Crowea saligna 152. 
113. Linum trigynum 143. Aspidium Bellangeri 155. 
* 114. Eucalypfus giganteus 139. Stadmannia australis 158. 
115. Aralia Sieboldii 142. Mimosa cultiformis 157. Littawa gracilis 
117. Skimmia oblata 141. Sparmannia afri- 165. Senecio Ghiesbreghtii 
117. Rubus roseflorus 164. Musa Ensete 
118. Thuiopsis dolabrata 


mo between the borders and the glass may consist 
of :— 


2, Wigandia urens 
5. Yucea aloifolia tri- 29. Magnolia fuscata 


112. Phormium Golensoi 
. Philesia buxifolia 


cana 
135, Eucalyptus giganteus 


26, Verbena citriodora 5. peace ous zamirvfo- 
rf 


2 
aa - 34 Aralia dactylifolia 59. Phyllocactus Aker- 
-o. odwardiaradicans 35. Ficus macrophylla manni 
6 Yibarnum suspensum 37. Templetonia retusa 61. Fuchsia var. 
8. thorroea hastilis or 39, Siphocampylus Hum- 64, Aralia nerifolia 
Phormium tenax boldtianus . 66. Osmanthus ilicifolius 


10. Veronica Andersoni 40. Solanum Warzcewiczii 69. Oreopanax platani- 
variegata 42, Montagnea heraccifolia folium 

11. Acacia lineata 43. Clivia miniata- - 70. Boeconia frutescens 

14, Abutilon striatum 45, Salvia (various) 73. Helianthus major 

16. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 47. Rogeria gratissima 75. Aralia papyrifera 

18. Aralia pubescens * 48. Rhododendron Gib- 76. Hebeclinium macro- 

19. Senecio Ghiesbreghti - soni phyllum 

20. Nicotiana wigandi- 50. Azalea amcna 78. Hedychium gardneri- 
oides 51, Rhopala australis anum 

22. Bambusa Fortunii ya- 52. Rhododendron Nut. 79. Desfontainea spinosa 
riegata talli 

24. Viburnum Arrafuski 57. Pleroma elegans 


GENERAL TREATMENT. 

The Palms for a winter garden ought to be kept in 

pots up to the period when their leaves- divide and show 

- their character and their stems become at their base as thick 
as the arm. ‘They must not be put in the ground before this, 
nor until they shall have been frequently repotted and have 
been kept as much as possible ina warm greenhouse where the 

_ pots have been plunged in tan. They should be repotted twice 
a year, in spring and summer, when their growth is rapid, with- 
out cutting the roots, and in pots deep and narrow. A quiet 
and warm atmosphere, somewhat shady, but without stagnant 
moisture, is best suited to Palms when young. Growing 

_ Ferns have nothing to fear from the open air or the sun; it is 
only the stemless kinds which flourish in the shade and under 
other plants, their roots requiring nourishment. The Also- 
phila australis may be placed outside in the full sun without 
injury if it be watered from time to time with liquid manure 
“it will acquire considerable dimensions in a short time and be 
of unsurpassable beauty. 

A great number of the plants named will remain uninjured 
if protected from the frost; but it is better, as has been 
already said, to keep up the winter temperature a little 
over the freezing point; and even when the sun strikes upon 

the glass, raising the temperature, it will not be necessary 
to open the house at all during the winter. After February 
however, when vegetation is getting active, it will be necessary 


~ would make a good compost. 


to give air gradually and to water in the evening. In March 
you must begin to shade with some light material up to the 
time that you can uncover the greater part of the conservatory, 
and at last place some of the plants in pots or boxes in the 
open air. As tothe great Palms and Tree Ferns, Dracenas, 
Avalias, &c., they will be better slightly shaded throughout the 
year, taking care to give plenty of air. Where it could be 
easily done, it would be desirable to remove the roof and allow 
the contents to be refreshed by the summer rains. Thus 
managed, with plenty of water and a proper amount of shade, 
it is very possible to develop splendid vegetation in such a 
structure. 

Here, then, is another example of a winter garden in the 
natural style. Should the readers of Tux Garpen take some 
interest in the matter, we may, at some future period, show 
how it may be suitably varied by tropical plants, hothouse 
fruits, and medicinal plants. Ep. AnpRre. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
POT CULTURE OF THE FIG. 


To those who are fond of this fruit, and have no means of growing 
it either planted out in a house or in the garden, its culture in pots 
is peculiarly useful. It will be found that the essentials necessary 
to success are very simple, especially where there is a pine stove or 
cucumber house at command. The -roots must be kept in a very 
confined condition, and moist; the leaves, by syringing, kept clean 
and healthy, with an atmosphere free from aridity until the fruit 
arrives at the ripening process, when they must be placed in a 
medium of heat, airiness, and comparative dryness, as the fruit is 
liable to rot if allowed to get wet, and in a humid atmosphere it 
would be deficient in flavour if allowed to ripen therein. The fig is 
very impatient of stagnant moisture at the roots, and at certain 
stages of growth more so than at others. Therefore, to prevent as 
far as possible any mischief from this cause, it is requisite to make 
the drainage perfect, so that it may last good, if need be, for two 
successive years. The compost also ought to be of a perfectly open 
and free character, and at the same time manurially rich enough to 
afford sustenance for a lengthened period; a gritty, fibrous loam four 
parts, sound manure one part, and a few half-inch bones added, 
The pots in the growing season ought 
to be placed on bricks, so as to allow the water which may drain 
through the bottom of the pots to clear away, thereby conducing to 
the healthiness of thetrees. Where there is not much room in which 
to grow them, fresh batches should be periodically propagated, and 
the largest of the trees should be thrown away. 

As early now as possible, eyes should be put in, either singly in 
three-inch, or a number in larger sized pots, covering the buds not 
deeper than half an inch with the finest of the compost used, which 
ought to be free from anything likely to cause the roots to break 
when potting them off. In a brisk hotbed the emission of roots 
occupies but a short time, and shortly after this is the case pot off 
into five-inch pots, and place them in a position where they will have 
plenty of light, and a warm, hard bottom to stand on. Be sure not 
to water them till the compost—which ought always be moist when 
used—has become dry; otherwise, if watered before, the roots will 
rot, and the plants in consequence die. After the first watering, the 
plants ought never be allowed to get dry, but kept constantly moist ; 
this applies to succeeding repottings as well. Seven-inch pots are 
the size required for the next shift, then nine-inch, and for the 
largest plants another remove into eleven-inch pots will be required. 
Those pots which are intended to stand over the next year must be 
thoroughly drained ; the smaller sizes require but little. By pinching 
the points out of the plants when nine inches high, paying attention to 
stopping the side branches at every fourth or fifth leaf, and tying 
them down horizontally, so as to afford the greatest possible room 
for leaf development, and a greater number of shoots to fill in the 
centre, neat bushes will be formed. After this, all that is required 
is keeping the shoots pinched, thereby inducing fruitfulness, thinning 
the crops down to a moderate quantity on each bush, and shifting 
them into pots two sizes larger than those previously occupied. In 
performing this operation, gently prick the ball ronnd the outside, to 
get rid of any soured soil; pot in all cases to the same depth, and 
ram the soil quite firmly in round the ball. Place them in a moist, 
warm temperature, keep well supplied with water, and ply the 
syringe to prevent flagging; when roots have commenced working 
in the new soil, remove them to a warm position out of doors, 
standing them on bricks; from thence to be moved into a house, 
where no danger from frost need be apprehended. The best time 


BOay She 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fex. 17, 1872. 


for shifting into larger pots is immediately after the last crop of 
fruit has been gathered, fifteen-inch pots being large enough for any 
of them. When it is thought necessary to shift bushes in this size of 
pot, chop off an inch from the ball all round, and treat them as 
advised for other pottings. Weak manure water is beneficial when 
the pots are thoroughly well filled with roots, but not unless this is 
the case. It is also the usual practice to surface-dress the pot at 
intervals; but this I cannot recommend, as either an overdose or a 
scant supply of water is generally sure to follow, either of which is 
exceedingly hurtful to the well-being of the fig. 

Tf the trees are required for forcing, commence with a temperature 
of from 50° to 55°, increasing it as the buds break into leaf. When 
in full leaf, a temiperature of not less than 65° must be allowed them 
at night, with a proportionate rise in the daytime. As the plants 
progress, an increase of 10° may be made with advantage. By com- 
mencing with a few in the beginning of January, and judiciously 
managing the stock of trees, a continued supply of ripe fruit may 
be secured from the middle of April on tillantumn. Care must 
be taken to keep the trees from getting dry during the winter. 
Plunging the trees, where possible, is the best meams of attaiming 
this end, and has the additional advantage of securing to the root a 
comparatively even temperature. The brown Turkey fig is the best 
variety for pot culture that I have had experience with, the great 
fault of many sorts being the bad habit they have of casting their 
fruit. The flayour of the brown Turkey is also unsurpassable, when 
thus grown, by other varieties grown under any other conditions. 
The fruit must not be gathered till the skin has shrivelled. R. P. B. 


PEARS AND APPLES UNDER GLASS. 


I nec to inform Mr. Baines (see page 229) that I grow these fruits 
to eat ; and I can assure him, if he has never had an opportunity of 
comparing house with open-air ripened apples or pears, he has a treat 
in store which will shake his allegiance in what, at the present time, 
he may consider to be “superior fruits.” With apples and pears, it 
is true, I cannot girdle the year with fruit, but I can command a 
nine months’ supply, in great variety and of unsurpassable excel- 
lence ; and this, more especially for private growers, I consider pre- 
ferable to a glut of stone fruit at a time when fruit is plentiful. 
What is it but climate which gives superiority to the pears of France 
and the Channel Islands? What but climate, backed by cultural 
skill, renders the pines and grapes of our glass-covered areas superior 
to those of any other part of the world? Again, compare the 
superior dessert apples and pears of the south of England with those 
of the north, and climate again asserts its ascendency; and, such 
being the fact, why should we northerners be deprived of glass for 
our common fruits if we like toindulge init? A finely-matured 
peach or bunch of grapes are grand things in the dog days, but per- 
fectly-ripened apples or pears at the present time, when all nature is 
comparatively asleep, is something equally to be appreciated. These 
I have learned to regard as superior fruits, necessaries which no 
household ought to be without, while peaches and nectarines may be 
regarded as luxuries, fruits of a day, which must be used directly 
they are ripe, or be lost for ever. This is my reason for-recommend- 
ing the house cultivation of apples and pears. What a house-ripened 
grape is to the same kind from the open wall so is a house-ripened 
apple, pear, or plum to the same kinds grown in the open air.—W. 


SPRING FROSTS IN VINEYARDS. 


Tue Messager Agricole, a French periodical devoted to scientific 
agricultural ‘and horticultural pursuits, publishes a paper on this 
subject, written by M. Gaston Bazille, président de la Société Centrale 
d’ Agriculture de lHéranlt. “It is,” says the author of the memoir, 
“just before sunrise, when the sky is serene and the atmosphere 
calm, that danger to the vines is imminent, eyen when the thermo- 
meter is some degrees above the freezing point; but if the heavens 
are cloudy, or ever so slight a mist obscures the sun, there is no 
danger to be apprehended. After many trials of various means of 
producing a dense smoke economically and quickly, and main- 
taining it from an hour before sunrise until an hour or two after, I 
haye fonnd nothing answer nearly so well as the burning of refuse 
of coal tar distillation, which costs a mere trifle. This, when set 
fire’to in shallow earthenware pans, gives out a dense black smoke, 
effectually obscuring the brightest sky. These pans should be 
placed at intervals of about twenty yards on the east and north sides 
of the vineyard only; for it is to be observed that it is useless to 
place them on the south or west, inasmuch as when the wind is from 
these points of the compass the vines neyer suffer. The critical 
period appears to be about the middle of April. If,” says the 
memoir, ‘the sun has set in a clear sky with a north wind, the 
chances are that there will be frost in the morning, and it is then 
that my workmen are up earlier than usual. The thermometer is 


consulted frequently, and wheneyer it is found not to be seyen 
degrees above freezing, a number of them, each carrying a lighted 
torch, pass quickly along the lime in which the indammable 
material has already been placed in suitable vessels, applying his 
torch to each as he passes rapidly along, and in a few minutes the 
whole vineyard is protected by a curtain of black smoke. In the 
year 1864 this process was repeated on three consecutive days, viz., 
the 9th, 10th, and 11th of April, at my vineyard of St. Sauveur, 
and on the first day caused no little alarm to a village situated about 
five miles south of our operations, and when the cause of the smeke 


became known created considerable amusement, and gaye rise fo 


many jokes by my neighbours at my expense; but, as my vines 


were preserved while theirs suffered considerably during these three _ 


days, they are now, when spring frosts are expected, to be seen in 


their vineyards torch in hand. The system is not expensive; five or — 


six men will suffice to protect a vineyard of thirty hectares 


(75 acres), at an outlay of about fifty francs for materials and 


labour.” ; 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


‘, 


Bottling Grapes.—There are some operations connected with — 


horticulture that find favour, more or less, for a time, though their 
advantages are practically few. Preserving grapes in bottles comes 
under this denomination. If your grapes are badly grown, deficient 
alike in finish and flavour, bottle them if you choose; you cannot easily 
make them worse. But if, on the other hand, they are really good 
‘grapes, possessing that first essential, flavour, by all means keep them out 
of the bottles ; for, before they have been in them many weeks, they 
will be as devoid of flavour as if they had never had any. I have fre- 
quently tried the practice, this being invariably the result; and all with 
whom I haye spoken on the subject, who have tried the bottling system, 
admit that the same thing happens with them—otherwise, it would be a 
very great convenience to be able to clear a whole crop at once, and so 
relieve the vines, and be able to use the houses for any other purpose for 
which they might be required. But this one fact—the destruction of the 
flayour—is fatal to the practice.—T. BAINES, Southgate. = 


Pruning Old Apple Trees.—I have always supposed that the 
main object in pruning old trees was to keep up a vigorous, healthy 


growth ; but how can this be done, if all the young and thrifty shoots 


are annually cut away, and none left but the old and enfeebled heavy 


branches ? This seems-to be the general practice, and Iam only surprised 


that these old apple trees live as long as they do. When I wantto restore 
health to an old tree, I cut away as much of the old wood as it seems 
advisable, and leave that which is young and healthy. One healthy 
young shoot is worth a dozen old branches for restoring health. After 
_a branch has produced fruit for a dozen or more years, it is sure to show 
signs of becoming weak; and if the internal structure is examined, the 


¥ 


annual deposit of wood will be found very thin. At the same time new — 


shoots will start out of these old branches near their base, these are 
usually termed sap-shoots, and the almost universal practice is to eut 


them away entirely ; but they are sure indications of feebleness in the 


branches above, and if the trees are very old, a few of them should be 
encouraged, and the branches above them entirely cut away. Of course, 


all large wounds made by the removal of such branches should he 
- covere 


with wax, or some similar composition.—M. 

Japan Pear.—tThis curious-looking fruit has attracted considerable 
attention from amateur fruit-growers within the past few years,—not so 
much from the quality of the fruit as from the remarkable growth of 
wood it makes, and the profusion and size of theleayes. We have specimens 
in the orchard, grafted a year ago last spring, that made shoots last 
season ten feet long, and three-quarters of an inch in diameter 2t the 
base. The leaves on those shoots are five or six times as larg 
ordinary pearleaf. The tree does not shed its leaves until a month or six 
weeks later than the common pear ; and from the Ist September until the 


1st of December, the Japan pear makes a beautiful ornamental tree, the 


large as the 


foliage becomes equally brilliantas the red maple. We have two varieties, © 


and they are undoubtedly seedlings of the old Chinese Sand pear. James 


Hogg says, in the December number of the Agricutturist, that both of 
these varieties are quite common in Japan, where the fruit is used tor 
domestic purposes. The fruit of the Japan pear looks more like a russet 
apple than it does a pear, but the wood and leaf have the characteristies 
of the pear. One of the varieties is quite fragrant, having a pleasant 
aroma, not unlike a fine quince. Two yearsago last fall, when we fruited 
it the first time, we considered the fruit nearly worthless, unless it was to 
keep and look at all winter. 
in the same way as in preserving quinces, and, to our surprise, we find 
they make very excellent preserves. The treemakesa very rapid growth, 
pearing early and abundantly. The fruits look like ropes of onions, they 
are so thick on the branches. With further trial the fruit may prove 
a substitute for quinces for preserving purposes, and they may be 
valuable on this account. But even admitting the fruit to be without 
merit, the Japan pear will make a handsome addition on our grounds as 
an ornamental tree. The trees of this variety that we have are grafted 
on thepear,'and the union seems quite as goodas it does with the common 
pear, grafted at the same time. Next spring we intend to re-graft the 

Japan stock with the Seckel and one or two other varieties, to see if the 

zapia erovrenct the former will exert any change on the latter, either in 

wood or fruit. * : 


Last fall we had some of these pears put up 


Fes. 17, 1872.) 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, ETC. 


d : r : 
Royal Horticultural Society.—The anniversary meeting of 
this society took place on Tuesday last. From the report of the 
- council, we learn that the society realised £5,030 from the penny 
a-head royalty on visitors to the Exhibition of 1871, who were 
allowed admission to the garden. It was announced ‘that although 
in 1870 some loss was sustained at Oxford, last year it was more 
than redeemed at Nottingham, where the net profit was £774. The 
sum received this year for annual subscriptions does not materially 
differ from that of last year; and the number of Fellows continues 
nearly the same. ‘The sum received for daily admissions and 
promenades has fallen off from £463 to £172, a deficiency directly 
traceable, it is said, to the International Exhibition of last year. 
One step in the right direction is the appointment of a Botanical 
Professor, who, by lectures, answers to personal inquiries, and 
other means, shall assist in establishing a more correct knowledge 
of the principles of botany and horticulture, and of the names of 
plants, among those of the Fellows and their gardeners who are 
desirous to profit by the opportunity. Mr. Thistleton Dyer, late 
Professor of, Botany in the University of Dublin, has undertaken 
‘the duties of this department, which we doubt not will be efficiently 
carried out. With respect to Chiswick, although the whole of 
the open space appropriated to the fruit department has been 
‘completed, the new boundary walls have yet to be furnished. 
Steps, we understand, are now in progress to obtain such trees as 
are adapted for that purpose, and ere spring has much advanced as 
complete a collection of Apricots, Cherries, Peaches, arid Nectarines 
as if is possible to obtain shall have been secured, and the former 
high reputation of the Chiswick Garden for its pomological col- 
lections will have been restored. Up to the present time there 
exist, under the successful re-arrangement of these, about 400 sorts 
of Apples, 350 of Pears, 300 of Plums, 430 of Cherries, 220 of Vines, 
and 100 of Figs. Of the last there are yet many varieties that 
have not been determined. This season arrangements have been 
made for a trial of Peas, of which the varieties have become so 
numerous, and the confusion of names so complicated, since the last 
great trial in the garden. In the Great Vinery there is a very 
marked improvement in the condition of the Vines since the enlarge- 
ment and re-dressing of the border, and the heading down of some 
of the varieties. The new Grape, Madresfield Court, which was at 
first supposed to be a variety requiring hot treatment, has proved 
to be one of the very best for a cool house, equalling if not surpassing 
the Black Hamburgh in the high condition it attains under such 
cireumstances. A vine of this variety was planted in company with 
one of the Black Hamburgh in the Rey. Mr. Fountaine’s vinery 
which was erected in the garden, and although the house has no 
provision of any kind for being artificially heated, the Madresfield 
Court grape ripened thoroughly, and was considered to be much 
better adapted for such a situation than the Black Hamburgh. 
But little opportunity was afforded last season for carrying on the 
usual trials of flowers, but in the vicinity of the Council Room a 
new series of beds for the growth of trial plants has been made, 
-and.though it was late in the season before these beds were com- 
pleted, a collection of Bedding Pelargoniums was nevertheless got 
together, and planted out in tim¢ to make satisfactory progress. 
These were examined in August, when the following awards were 
made :— First-class Certificates, as Flowering Plants, Lawrence 
Heywood, Charley Casbon, Mrs. Mellows, Lady Kirkland, Stanstead 
Rival, R. Bowley, Waltham Seedling, Louis Veuillot, and Penelope. 
As Foliage Plants, Goldfinder, Macbeth, Louisa Smith, and Black 
Douglas. It is proposed to continue the trials of Bedding Pelar- 
goniums, and to add in the outdoor department collections of 
Pentstemons and /Phloxes, and in the indoor department Fuchsias. 
On the wall bounding the trial ground on the west, it is proposed to 
grow examples of ornamental hardy climbers, instead of fruit trees 
as heretofore. Notwithstanding the reduction of space in the 
garden, the collection of herbaceous perennials which had been 
“recently acquired, has been retained. H.R.H. Prince Arthur, 
Arthur Grote, Esq., F.L.S., and Andrew Murray, Esq., F.L.S., 
were elected members of the council for the ensuing year; and his 
Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, K.G., John Clutton,Esq., and Major-Gen. 
Scott, C.B., were respectively re-elected president, treasurer, and 
secretary. — 


Fruit and Floral Meeting, Feb. 14.—The principal features 
o£ this meeting were the Orchids, Primulas, and Cyclamens,! but 
here were a good many other subjects of interest. Amongst the 
Orchids were some noble specimens of Celogyne cristata, shown by 
~*-ssps. Veitch and Williams. Amongst the finest Dendrobiums were 

. 5 avery sweet smelling kind; D. Wardianum, with 
glumaceum, freely flowered. Mr. Williams had y 


4 


) 


THE GARDEN. 


“principal. 


293 


first class certificate for a magnificent plant of Lelia anceps, with 
nineteen good flower spikes, and measuring about three feet in 
diameter. Lycastes were numerous and very beantiful, as were 
the Odontoglossums, and some plants of Phalenopsis amabilis and 
Schilleriana were nicely bloomed. Vandas, Angrecums, and Catt- 
leyas were well grown and flowered, especially the latter. But 
the most admired Orchid of the day was Masdevallia ignea, 
which is truly a brilliant acquisition to our cool houses, as it is of 
easy culture, dwarf, very distinct, and a very free blooming plant. 
It would seem to be as great a gain among Orchids as the gorgeous 
Anthurium Scherzerianum was among Arums. <A spike of the splendid 
Ambherstia nobilis was sent from Chatsworth; on the parent plant 
at present there are upwards of one hundred spikes of lovely yellow- 
stained red blossom. Cyclamens were shown in splendid condition 
by many growers. Every winter and spring show proves more and 
more the unrivalled merits of these for enlivening our greenhouses 
during the dullest season. In fact if we are happy enough to dis- 
cover a few other kinds of plants equally useful for winter and spring 
decoration, our conservatories will prove as gay in January and 
February asin June or July. Chinese Prishulas were also to be seen 
in great variety ; they show much improvement of late. Ornamental 
variagated Kale, shown by Mr. Melville, of Jersey, was nicely 
coloured, and of apparent value for spring decoration in our flower 
gardens. Tillandsia Lindenii was one of the most striking and 
beautiful objects in the room, being of good habit and producing 
handsome flower spikes of a fine and distinct blue. Two baskets of 
Lilly of the Valley, grown by Mr. Howard, were among the finest 
we remember to have seen. Among hardy spring flowers the sweet- 
scented and richly-tinted Iris reticulata was as usual the gem. Bou- 
vardias were shown as cut flowers in neat little bundles, with the 
stems buried in moss. The Bouvardias are invaluable for cutting, 
and, if we mistake not, will soon be as indispensable for winter and 
early spring bouquets in this country as they now are in America. 
There was a large and freely-bloomed specimen of Daphne indica 
rubra, to which a special certificate was awarded. It was grown by 
Mr. Johnstone, Uxbridge. Dessert apples and pears were in good 
condition; the winning apples were Blenheim Orange, Ribston 
Pippin, King of Pippins ; the second prize lot containing, in addition 
to these, Braddick’s Nonpareil. Glou Morceau, Winter Nelis, and 
Pass Colmar, were in the first dishes of pears; other pears shown 
were Knight’s Monarch, Beurré Rance, Prince Albert, Easter Beurré, 
and Josephine de Malines. ~ eee 

Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s Park.—At a recent meeting 
of this society, the secretary reported the receipt of another speci- 
men of the *‘ Mangrove Tree,” from the West Indies; he believed it 
to be only the second instance of the importation of this curious 
plant alive to Europe, although numerous attempts have been made. 
In both instances the society, and natural history generally, are 
indebted to the care and exertions of the officers of the Royal Mail 
Steam-packet Company, and Mr. P. Cameron, of St. Thomas, 
Jamaica, who gave particular attention to the packing and transit 
of the ‘‘plant case,” contrived by the secretary of the society, and 
sent ont for the special purpose. 


Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society.—At the 
annual meeting of this society, which took place the other day, the 
Council announced that the working of the past year had resulted in 


'a gross profit of £709. 2s. 9d., which, after appropriation of the 


amount necessary to pay interest upon the debts of former years, 
leaves a net sum of £397. 15s. 8d. available for reduction of the 
We also learn from the report that the ordinary income 
of the society has exceeded the expenses by £305. 11s. 8d., notwith- 
standing that a considerable expenditure has been necessary in 
renoyations and repairs of various portions of the premises. The 
financial result of the national horticultural show at Whitsuntide 
was a balance to the credit of the society of £553. 19s. 10d. 

Royal Agricultural.and Botanical Society of Ghent.— 
This society, we understand, intends to hold, in. March 1873, its 
usual quinquennial International Horticultural Exhibition, of which 
the programme will appear early this year. *_ 

New Provincial Horticultural Society.—Through the kind- 
ness of Mr. Ingram, of Belvoir Castle, we are enabled to announce that 
a very promising horticultural society has been formed for Grantham 
and South Lincolnshire. It is established to promote the true 
interests of horticulture, and is not to be restricted to the getting up of 
an annual flower show. It is proposed, should the society prosper, to 
endeayour in various ways to further the views of those who desire to 
extend the practice of gardening amongst cottagers, to take cognisance of 
the state of village gardening, and to distribute good sorts of fruit-trees 
amongst deserving people. The interest taken in the matter by all classes _ 
is best evinced by the extensive and satisfactory list of subscribers,!which 
enables the committee to offer upwards of £200 in prizes, in this, the first 
year of the society’s existence. It is announced that the first summer 
exhibition is to take place on the 17th and 18th of July next. 


294, 


‘THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 17, 1872. 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER. 


Flower Garden and Shrubberies.—Prepare beds and borders 
for summer flowers; and, as soon as herbaceous plants are up, 
slightly fork up the ground among them. Prune the hardier kinds of 
roses; climbing ones, on poles and buildings, undo, thin, and tie up 
again; sweep and roll lawns. If not already done, plant out anemones 
and yranunculuses; finish pruning ornamental trees and shrubs; dress 
borders of American plants with decayed leaves, scattering a little soil 
oyer them, to keep them in their place. Plants requiring stakes should 


be attended to, and neatly, though firmly, supported before March winds 


set in. 

Indoor Plant Department.—To plants in borders now beginning 
to grow give a good soaline of tepid water, temperature 45°, and, when- 
ever fayourable, admit plenty of air. Acacias, Camellias, and other 
plants coming into bloom must not suffer from want of water. Plants for 
successional blooming introduce into the forcing-pit, keeping pelar- 
goniums near the glass, so as to have short-iointed wood. In stoves 
maintain a temperature of from 55° or 60°, allowing a slight rise by sun 
heat. Pruneand pot Alamandas, Dipladenias, Clerodendrons, Stephanotis, 
Rondeletias, &c. Start a few Gloxinias, Gesneras, Achimenes, and Calla- 
diums, especiallysuch as show signs of early growth. Water sparingly 
until the plants begin to grow, and avoid undue excitement and cold 
currents of air: ‘To orchids give a night temperature of 55°, and from 
— 60° to 65° during the day; the Mexican house may be 8° or 10° lower; 
avoid excitement. Water only such as show signs of growth; give no 
water overhead at present, but sprinkle the floor, walls, and stages with 
tepid water once or twice a-day. Retard the blooming of some of 
“the finer kinds of orchids, by removing them into a ccoler house; to 
those coming into flower give all the light possible, but screen them from 
sudden or bright gleams of sunshine. Potting materials should now be 
in readiness under cover. 


Pits and Frames.—Bedding plants wintered in vineries and other 
houses remove to these, keeping them close for a few days—atterwards, 
admit air freely; protect from frost, wind, and heavy rains. To scarlet 
geraniums and.faney pelargoniums give a small shitt. .Heaths require 
full ventilation ; should mildew appear, dust with sulphur, and they must 
never suffer from want of water, nor get too much. From carnations 
clear lead leaves, and stir, and refresh the soil. Ten-week and other 
stocks, Cobsa scandens, Lophospermums, Maurandyas, and other 
choice plants, sow for early flowermg on a gentle hot-bed. \ Pansies, 
plant ont; Dahlias, start in moderate heat for cuttings. Pots, boxes, 
soils, &c., must now be got in readiness for sowing, shifting, and for 
cutting. ‘ 

Indoor Fruit Department.—Prepare for the general potting of 
pine-apples; but the more advanced among them should havea shift at 
once. Use every means to get the roots in a growing and healthy state 
before potting. Vines started reyuire a moist temperature—those 
setting a dry one; stop and thin shoots of the more advanced, and keep 
regularly tied those retained. In thinning the shoots, commence at the 
upper part of the house, and work downwards, taking care of the 
leaders. Figs, water freely at the root and overhead ; encourage short- 
jomted firm wood, and pinch at the fourth or fifth jomt; temperature 
at night, from 55° to 60°; by day, from 65° to 70°. Peaches and nectarines 
set, and remove any shoots not required for succession; syringe fre- 
quently, and increase the temperature. Introduce fortnightly, successional 
strawberries, giving plenty of water to those in active growth; whilst 
those in flower, and setting fruit, ave better kept rather dry than moist; 
give air carefully and early in the day, keeping the temperature at from 
68° to 70°, To cucumbers keep up a brisk, moist temperature of 75° at 
night, and from 80° to 85° by day; to the beds add fresh linings as often 
as necessary. Set the blooms, and stop the shoots, so as to prevent super- 
fluous growth ; water overhead, as well as at the root, with tepid water ; 
if mildew appears, sprinkle with water, and dust with sulphur. As the 
roots extend, add two or three inches of fresh soil. Melons sufficiently 
advanced stop, removing superfluous growths and male blossoms, main- 
tain a ground temperature of 85°, admit air cautiously, ayoiding cold 
draughts, sprinkle frequently with thesyringe, and encourageshort-jointed 
vines, by keeping the plants near the glass. Seakale litt for succession, 
and place in a mild temperature, excluding light. Of Asparagus keep up 
a succession. Capsicums and chilies, sow in heat; those that have made 
four or five leaves, repot, and still keep them in heat. Carrots in frames, 
if up, thin; look after snails and slugs. Keep up a succession of ladney 
beans, syringe frequently, and keep them near the glass; top-dvess with 
light rich mould those about to fruit. Lettuces, sow ona slight hot-bed 
tor succession ; plant autumn-sown ones on a spent hot-bed, temperature, 
55° to 60°. Mustard and cress sow in gentle heat every ten days. Hgg 
plants sown last month pot, and keep im moderate heat. Radishes sow 
in gentle heat. Mint and sage force in succession. Expose peas raised 
inheat gradually, and carefully shelter them from frostor cold winds. 
Celery sow in gentle heat, using a rich compost; those above ground thin 
or prick out into pans and boxes. Cauliflower, marjoram, and basil, sow 
in gentle heat, for planting out. ‘To potatoes in frames give plenty of air, 
and, in watering, do not wet the foliage. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden.—Protect early blossoms 
from spring frosts by meens of wide coping boards, as shown in our last 
number, canvas, fish, or woollen netting, branches of evergreens, cc. 
Pruning of all kinds finish. Prepare grafting clay. Lichen or moss on 
frnit-tree stems or branches scrape off. Fork up the ground between 
cabbage plants, lettuces, spinach, and other crops. Portugal onions sow 
on a warm border, and afterwards transplant. Peas and beans sow in 


a sheltered situation. To cauliflowers under” hand-glasses give all the air 


and light possible, and permit them to receive gentle showers in mild , 


weather; but protect them from frost, cold winds, and heavy rains ; prick 
off young cauliflower plants raised in frames. 
spinach ; sow, also, an early crop of stone turnips. 
sowings transplant; and make a sowing of, leeks. Chervil and fennel 
may now be sown. Sow both long and turnip-rooted radishes on a warm 
border, and coyer with rough litter till the plants appear. Shallots plant 
in deeply-worked soil, in drills one foot apart, and six inches between the 
plants. Tie up and blanch endive. Seakale and rhubarb cover with 
pots, and surround them with as much leaves and litter as will generate a 
heat of 50° or 60”. Tansy, tarragon, balm, mint, horehound, burnet, &c., 
may now be propagated by offsets, or division of the roots. co 


Lettuces of former 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET, February 17th. 


Flowers.— Of these there is now great abundance, and some taste- 
fully got up bouquets, consisting of white Camellias, which are invariably 
used as centre-pieces; spikes of Orchids; ‘lea Roses; Maiden Hair 


Fems; Cyclamens; Violets; Hpiphylums; Tropwolums; Snowdrops;— 


Pelargoniums; Hucharis; Mignonette; Orchids; Orange Blossoms; de. 
Among others flowers we noticed Fuchsias; Bouvardias; Chinese 
Primulas, and P. denticulata; Cyclamens, in fine condition; Dielytra 
spectabilis; Deutazia gracilis; Spirzea japonica; Zonale and fancy Pelar- 
goniums; Cytisus; Camellias; Ghent and other Azaleas; Heaths; 


Sow a small crop of round - 


Cinerarias; Lilacs ; Acacias; Thyrsacanthus rutilans; Callas; Crocuses; — 


Snowdrops; Tulips; Narcissus; Hyacinths; Anemones; Polyanthuses ; 
Arabis; Hepaticas ; and Aconites. Amongst sweet-scented flowers were 
Violets, Tea and China Roses, Mignonette, Lily of the Valley, Orange 
Blossoms, Sweet Bay, and swect-smelling Orchids. ee ; 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 2s. to 4s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 
1001bs., 60s. to 65s—Pilberts, per lb., 8d. to. 10d.— Grapes, per lb., 5s. to 
10s.—Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, 
per dozen, 3s. to 8s——Pine-apples, per lb., Gs. to 10s.—Pomegranates, 
each, 4d. to 8d. 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.— Aspa- _ 


ragus, per 100; 8s. to 10s.— Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 


“bundle, 10d. to 1s. 83d.—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d.— 


Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Capsicums, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.— 
Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.—Canlifiowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, 
per bundle, Is. to 2s.—Chilies, per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 
1s. 6d. to 8s.—F rench Beans, new, per 100, 8s. to 4s.— Herbs, per bunch, 2d. 


to 4d.—Horse Radish, per bunch, 8s. to 5s.— Leeks, per bunch, 2d, to4d. 


—Lettuces (French), Cabbage, per dozen, 1s. to 2s., Cos, per dozen, 
3s. to 5s.——Mushrooms, per pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d.—Onions, per bunch, 
4d. to 94.—Parsley, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Radishes, per bunch, 2d. 
—Rhubarb, per bundle, 6d. to 1s. 6d.—Salsafy, per bundle, 9d. to 
1s. 3d.—Seorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 1s. 3d—Seakale, per punnet, 
1s. to 2s.—Shallots, per lb., 8d.—Spimach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s.— 


| Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d.—Turnips, per bunch, 3d. to 6d. 


en 


A Dine for Birmingham.—At the quarterly meeting of the 


the Birmingham Town Council this week, the Mayor read a commu. _ 


nication from Mr. Alderman Ryland, containing a proposal from his 
relation, Miss Ryland, of Barford Hill, Wandsworth, to present to the 
town:a piece of land for the purposes of a public park. The piece of 
land in question, known as the Cannon Hill estate, consists of about 
54 acres, and is situated on a picturesque acclivity on the sonth of 
the town, and about two miles from the Town Hall. In the eyent of 


< 


the acceptance of her offer, Miss Ryland is prepared to lay out the 


land in an ornamental manner, at an expense of abont £5,000, and to 


transfer the fee simple to the Corporation, reserving a right of way 
through the park to the house which overlooks it. The plans contaim 


provisions for cricket and croquet grounds, a gymnasium, and an 
artificial lake, and the gift altogether is estimated to represent a 


value of not less than £30,000. It is scarcely necessary to say that 
the proposal was accepted by the Council, with warm expressions of 


y 


gratitude to the munificent donor, in whose honour it is proposed to — 


name the new acquisition ‘‘ Ryland Park.” 


New Ride in Hyde Park.—The new road and ride, which has 


been some months in preparation in Hyde Park, was opened last week. 


It branches out of Rotten Row opposite Albert Gate, cutting across” 
that part of the park on which the first Great Hxhibition stood,and runs 


alongside the drive to Kensington, where it joms the “ Row.” Th 
length of drive in Hyde Park is thus now nearly doubled. ee 
Trees on the Thames Embankment.—tIn veply to Mr, 


Laurence Peel (see p. 271), who entreats the Commissioners *“im merey ” 
to xemove the trees from the Thames Embankment, because “if we live ~ 


so long we shall hereafter see a long avenue of green foliage, and be left 
to guess at a river which that foliage hides,” permit. me to remind him 
that no beauty is so beautiful as when partly veiled, and that “ the some- 
thing ” which is left for the imagination to supply is the truest part of al? 
enjoyment.—aA Lover of Foliage. f 


Pe A SE ae ree | 
Al communications for the Editorial Department should be addressea 
to Winrn1aM Rozrnson, “THE GaRDEN’” Orricr, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All lett ~ »-fow* 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other busines — 
- be addressed to THE PuBLIsHER, at thp same Ad 


oie! 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


29 


ox 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art rrseELr 1s Naturg.’’—Shakespeare. 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER IV. 


I must tell you now (how one loves to linger even among 
the naughtinesses of early youth!) how I essayed to avenge 
myself upon our Gardener for his artful ambuscade behind 
those Scarlet Runners. He had, in those days, the finest 
Peaches in our neighbourhood ; and upon the occasion of our 
giving a grand dinner, ati which the Ducal party from the 
Castle graciously assisted, he had sent in such a dish of them 
as could not be surpassed in the county. The specimen which 
crowned the pyramid was enormous (“ Monstreuse,” though 
not “de Doual’’), and was the largest I had ever seen, save one, 
which my eldest sister had made in wax, and in which, so far 
as size was concerned, she had considerably exceeded the powers 
of nature. When our guests had arrived (we saw them go 
through the hall, we little ones, as we stood in our night-gear 
upon a distant landing, like tipsy Pecksniffs on a reduced 
scale), and had seated themselves at the banquet, what do you 
think I had the andacity to do? I stole down stairs, imper- 
fectly accoutred as I was, and substituted the artificial for the 
real Peach, secreting the latter in a cupboard of the house- 
keeper’s room, where the dessert was lying in state !* 

Two hours later, some of the ladies were brought up “to see 
the children.” They found me, as you will conjecture, parti- 
cularly fast asleep. I was located in an inner nursery, which 
seemed to be regarded that night, as a small chamber of 
horrors, attached to the general exhibition. ‘Is that the arch- 
traitor?” I heard Lady Isabel ask; ‘‘the villain slumbers 
soundly ! let us kiss the hoary miscreant.” And then I heard 
how successfully my scheme had sped. The pyramid had been 
placed in the centre of the table, and the big Peach had been 
admired by all. Papa had been complimented, as though he 
did the pruning and the nailing, and general management of 
the wall trees, himself. The Duke had facetiously suggested 
that it should be taken to a side-table, and carved like 
a round of beef. Squire Granville prophesied that, when 
it was touched, there would be such an inundation of juice, as 
would compel the company to swim for their lives. Finally, 
the Duchess had been persuaded to divide it with her neighbour, 
and then the imposture was discovered. It had been such 
fun! Every one had been amused, and Papa, though he 
seemed puzzled and annoyed at first, had laughed most heartily 
of all. 

All this was very successful; but it was not the success I 
had intended. Not a word of blame was spoken of him for 
whose entire confasion and discomfiture I had laid my malig- 
nant plans. I alone was censured, and that most mildly. 
Taken by Mamma to the Castle in the carriage, and my new 
clothes, I had expressed my penitence to the Duchess, and had 
been immediately punished with a large casket of the most 
delicious bonbons I ever tasted. 

Some years afterwards, for the war continued, and “ revenge, 
Timotheus cried,” through my boyhood, I made another hostile 
experiment, which had a completely felicitous issue. Once a 
month, Mr. Evans, the gardener, brought in his account book, 
and used to sit in an armchair by the fire in the servant's hall, 
awaiting his master’s leisure. From an interview of this kind, 
my father returned one winter’s evening to the bosom of his 
family, in a condition of extreme bewilderment. ‘‘ Evans had 
behaved in the most extraordinary manner. Evans, the 
soberest man on the estate, was ostentatiously intoxicated ; 


* This incident ocenrred long before the introduction of the diner a la Russe. 


could scarcely rise to salute his master, and when he did rise 
had brought the armchair with him, and worn it behind him 
in the most ridiculous manner. Had neyer seen any one so 
demoralised and red in the face. And, to crown all, the man 
had put himself into a passion, and murmured something 
about ‘ standing it no longer,’ had sat down with a crash upon 
his anything but easy chair. There my father had left him; 
but the first thing in the morning, he would have an explana- 
tion—yes, that he would.” 

I could have give him a very full explanation that evening if 
Thad liked. I had smeared the dark seat of that wooden chair 
most liberally with cobbler’s wax, and had limed my bird 
securely on his twig. 

My father sent for me next morning, after a conversation 
with Mr. Evans on the subject of his “ séance fantastique,”’ and 
commenced an oration of a severe and admonitory character ; 
but he broke down in his second sentence, laughing till the 
tears rolled down his cheeks and leaving me master of the 
entire position, with the exception of the kitchen garden, 
into which I did not feel inclined to wander for many subse- 
quent weeks. 

Then came a period wherein we felt that weariness of 
quarrelling, which the brilliant but bilious Duc de la Roche- 
foucault has termed “une lassitude de la guerre,” in which we 
still maintained a pugnacious posture, but struck no blows— 
just as you have seen a couple of pullets drawn up in order of 
battle, and confronting each other féte-a-téte, but wholly indis- 
posed to peck. Alas! I disturbed this peaceful armistice with 
an onslaught of unprecedented ferocity. An undergraduate at 
Oxford, I began to fall in love, indiscriminately, with every 
pretty girl I saw; and Venus must have flowerets for her 
golden hair, and fragrant posies for her soft small hand. For 
her sweet sake (“nam fuit ante Helenam,” &c.), 1 commenced 
such a series of sanguinary raids on the conservatory, as must 
haye made poor Eyans’s heart to “bleed” almost as freely as 
his plants. Leaders and laterals, hard wood and soft—now the 
top of a pyramidal Azalea, to make the centre of a bouquet, 
now the first fronds of some delicate and costly Fern, to form 
its graceful frimge—fine old specimens and “ nice young stuff;” 
flowers and foliage all went down in terrible excision, until the 
place looked as though it were one of her Majesty Queen 
Flora’s gaols, filled with plants of an abandoned character, and 
having their hair dressed & la convict. 

Oh, ladies and gentlemen—Oh, dames and damsels with your 
pretty gardens, and long scissors of shining steel—Oh, gallant 
lovers, with your trenchant Wharncliffe blades—Oh, mothers 
and daughters, knocking over the flower pots as you sweep 
along in your “ trailing garments”—Oh, wide-sleeved dandies, 
breaking the young shoots as you reach forth recklessly to 
seize your prey—Oh, belles and beaux, so charming, so amiable, 
and so profoundly ignorant on the subject of plants! Pause 
awhile, I beseech you, and stay your ruthless hands, for you 
know not what fatal mischief you may do. One little snip 
with those sharp “rose nippers,” and you may destroy in w 
moment the pleasant hopes of a skilful taste, and the just 
reward of a patient industry. You may ruin the symmetry of 
a plant for ever; and behold hereafteran unsightly dwarf, when 
you might have gazed upon a glorious Life Guardsman. What 
should you say, fair lady, were some disagreeable miscreant to 
intrude upon the privacy .of your bright little boudoir, and to 
extract the tail of your piping bulfinch ? And you, my brave 
gentleman, would your observations be entirely such as your 
pastor would approve, were you to hear from your groom 
that some coarse-minded person had paid your stables a visit 
during the night, and “ gone the whole hog” with your hunter's 
manes ? 

There is provocation, I must allow, sometimes. There are 
Spades in the floricultural pack, though not in our company 
(limited), so mean as to the amount, and so sulky as to the 
manner of their donations, that their scared employers, dare 
not, finally, ask for a single petal, and so are led to adopt the 
facile alternative of freely helping themselves. 

But how comes it, the question may arise, that the young 
Oxonian, of whom we heard just now as at fierce war with 
gardeners, and as cutting and maiming the plants around 
him with so much brutal stolidity, how comes it that he 
has suddenly put off the paraphernalia of battle for the 


296 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fes. 24, 1872. 


peaceful apron of the florist, and changed his sword into a 
pruning knife ? 

Of this transformation, the happiest event of my life, I must 
speak hereafter ; appropriately, I think, im a little lecture upon 
Roses, which I am preparing at the request of “ The Six of 
Spades ;” but I must first introduce you to the rest of our 
brotherhood; and now, if you please, to that quaint, hearty, 
hard-working, plain-speaking, cheery fellow, Joseph Grundy, 
head gardener, coachman, &c., &c,, to the good old ladies at 
the Grange. S. R. H. 

(To be continued.) 


THE eR UitsGAK DEIN: 


THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 


Tumse may truly be said to be the most delicious fruits that 
ripen in the open air of Brita. They are liable, however, 
to many diseases, some of which may possibly be ascribed to 
a certain delicacy of constitution incidental to their eastern 
origin; consequently certain conditions are absolutely 
necessary to insure their successful cultivation in this country. 
A matter of paramount importance is their bemg worked 
upon a suitable stock. Various kinds of stocks have been 
tried; but I believe it is now admitted that the Muscle Plum 
is the best, more particularly for trees intended to be grown 
in the open air. The healthy or unhealthy condition of the 
individual stock, as well as its being of the proper variety, has, 
I may add, much to do with the future success of the tree. 

SOIL, SHELTER, OPEN-AIR STANDARDS, POT CULTURE. 


The next important condition is that of the soil. Both the 
peach and nectarine are found to require, or, at least, to 
succeed best in a somewhat deep and moderately calcareous 
soil, which must be rendered entirely free from anything like 
stagnant moisture. The only other condition I will mention, 
is that of shelter—or being placed on the south, south-east, 
or south-west side of a wall, or protecting medium of some sort ; 
and, without compliance with this and the above-mentioned 
conditions, I fear that there is little probability of successfully 
cultivating these delicious fruits in the open air in this 
country. Some years since, encouraged by the success of 
dwarf pyramidal pears, plums, cherries, &c., an attempt was 
made at this place to cultivate peaches and nectarines im a 
similar fashion, and the venture did certainly, to some extent, 
succeed. During several favourable seasons really good and 
well-flayoured peaches and nectarines have been borne hy 
dwarf pyramidal trees, growing in the open quarters of a 
kitchen garden, which many have witnessed. But altogether, 
the experience of several years’ cultivation of these trees 
has led me to the conclusion that peaches and nectarines 
cannot be profitably or satisfactorily grown as standards or 
pyramids in the open air and climate of Hast Anglia. As 
we advance in life, there is a tendency to think and to say 
that things are different from what they were long ago. I 
have even heard of an old gentleman who maintained that 
peaches had not the same flayour as they had when he was 
young. Some of his friends ventured to hint that the sup- 
posed change was possibly as much due to his palate as to 
the peaches. But, be this as it may, my observations lead me 
to think that for several years past, in many garden establish- 
ments, peaches and nectarines have not succeeded so well on 
open walls as they did many years ago. This circumstance 
may, possibly with justice, be ascribed to a series of unfavour- 
able seasons, which place the matter, in a great measure, 
beyond our control, but which may, in turn, be succeeded by 
seasons more favourable to outdoor success. Nevertheless, 
although this should prove to be the case, the price of glass is 
now so much reduced, and orchard houses haying become the 
fashion of the day, it is, doubtless, to these and to similar 
structures that we have now to look for our principal supply of 
these usefuland delicious fruits. Thisismore particularly likely 
to be the case now when the mania for confining fruit trees 
in pots is quietly subsiding, as it was not difficult to foresee 
that it would do. For I must say that I have always failed to 
discover any real adyantage likely to be deriyed from the 


practice of growing fruit trees in that manner ; notwithstanding 
this, however, I am quite aware that excellent fruit has been 
produced by this method, in proof of which I may state that 
the Barrington and other varieties of peaches were produced 
here in abundance last year, averaging more than eight ounces 
each, from pots about fifteen inches in diameter, and the same 
may probably be done during the ensuing season. Still I 
should be sorry to depend upon trees in pots for a general 
supply of either peaches or any other kinds of fruit. 


OPEN WALLS, WIRING. 


With respect to the use of garden walls in this country, I 
think that it will ultimately be found to be more profitable, 
and also more satisfactory, to devote them to the use of our 
more hardy fruits—including the finer kinds of pears—and, if 
possible, to discontinue the practice of driving nails into them. 
This is certainly a great evil; a necessary one, I admit, where 
other means of securing the trees to them do not exist. But 
all garden walls, old as well as new, ought to be properly wired 
for the purposes of traming. Nail-holes, irrespectiye of dis- 
figurement, offer to the various insect-enemies of fruits, in all 
stages of development, free and comfortable quarters, of which 
they are by no means slow to avail themselves, and from which 
it is difficult to dislodge them. The gardening world has to 
thank you very much for your able advocacy of the wiring 
system; some months since I was much pleased to see this 
being carried out in a most efficient manner, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Macarthur, in the splendid new gardens of his 
Highness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, at Elvedon, near Thet- 
ford, in Norfolk. 


CULTURE UNDER GLASS, SPAN-ROOFED ORCHARD HOUSES. 


My experience as to the use of glass for the growth of peaches 
and nectarines, brings me to the conclusion that, in order to 
obtain fruit of the best quality, from such trees, in abundance, 
and with something like certamty, we must revert to, or adhere 
to some modification of, the old system; that is, to train the 
trees under, and near to the glass roof of such structures as 
we devote to their culture, thereby securing the greatest 
possible amount of solar influence. Here we have two span- 
roofed orchard houses, each about ninety feet in length, twenty 
feet wide, and twelve feet high inthe centre. Bothare devoted 
principally to the cultivation of peaches and nectarines, but the 
interior arrangements are different. In one house a line of 
pyramidal peach and nectarine trees occupies the central bed, 
reaching to the top of the house. These trees are remarkably 
handsome and healthy, and generally bear good crops of fair 
sized fruit, and of good flavour, but somewhat deficient in 
colour, and a little late in ripening; the latter circumstance, 
however, is rather an advantage than otherwise, masmuch as 
it extends the peach season to the utmost. In the other house 
the path is in the centre, and the trees are planted on each side, 
at a distance of some eighteen inches from the side walls, and 
within a few inches of a hot water pipe, which, though seldom 
used, is nevertheless available for the exclusion of frost when 
desirable. Strong wires are stretched through the house length- 
ways, at a distance of sixteen inches from the glass, and about 
one foot. apart. The stem of each tree is trained vertically 
across the wires, towards the apex of the roof; and horizontal 
branches from the vertical stem of each tree are led along each 
wire; the result is thus a series of cordons of peaches and 
nectarines, under each side of the span roof, extending to 
the entire length of the house. The shoots produced by these 
cordons require pinching two or three times during the 
growing season; they are carefully spurred or pruned during 
the winter or early spring, and they have never failed to pro- 
duce abundance of fruit of the finest quality, richly coloured, 
and altogether greatly superior to the produce of pyramidal 
trees occupying the central bed of the other house. Indeed, I 
have no recollection of having ever gathered finer fruit than is 
annually produced by these horizontally trained trees. . 

Culford, Bury St. Edmunds. P. Grinve. 


Moss on Fruit Trees.—Syringing with salt water in winter, is 
reported to destroy this; and some recommend soda water. The salt 
water should not, it is said, be stronger than sea water, which contains 
some three per cent. of salt. The best way would be, perhaps, in the 
first place, to ascertain the right strenght on some one tree of little value. 


Fez. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


297 


PROTECTION OF WALL TREES. 


THERE are those who do not believe in nor practice any form of 
protection for their fruit trees. Their conviction is, that, taking an 
average of seasons, they gather more and better fruit without than 
with it. And it must be admitted that over-protection has proved 
most mischievous. Unsuitable materials and faulty modes of using 
them have probably ruined more fruit and fruit trees than they have 
sayed. Besides, a radical danger lurks in all protective expedients. 
Most of them must almost of necessity leave behind them a legacy 
of weakness. In proportion to their thickness and consequent ability 
to keep out the cold, they shut out the light; and often the semi- 
darkness proves more destructive to vegetation than the most severe 
cold. Hence, until we reach that high state of protection indicated 
by “W.” (see p. 292), when all our tender fruits shall pass safely 
through their danger period beneath the shelter of glass, the chief 
merit of our opaque expedients for the protection of fruit trees must 
consist in devising a happy mean or compromise between the con- 
tending forces of light and darkness. We must, to write popularly, 
keep out as much cold and as little light as possible. 

One of theoldest and simplest modes of saying the blossoms is that 
of protecting copings. The theory, as expressed by gardeners, is 
that frost falls in straight lines. Run outa coping to sever these lines, 
and the power of the frost is eut asunder and the trees saved. 
Practically the results are as stated, and I will not burden this paper 
with the true theory of the matter. Provided the coping is wide enough 
and sufficiently thick and impervious, it is a safeguard against frost 
in calm weather. Of course, winds dash the cold air against the 
blossoms as waves are dashed against perpendicular rocks, and the 
blossoms may then be frost-bitten, despite the overhanging coping. 
Still, these copings often prove canopies of safety, and the illustra. 
tion already given of those in use at Montreuil (p. 269), shows a 
capital way of using them in a temporary manner. Here is another 
method equally simple and effective, as practised at Thomery and 


Fig. 1. Permanent and Temporary Copings. 


in other parts of France. Modifications of this are also common in 
England. The illustration pretty clearly explains itself. The wall 
is surmounted by a heayy, cumbrous coping of tiles projecting 
about ten inches on either side of it. This is a permanent coping, 
water and frost proof. But it is not wide enough to shelter the trees. 
Hence, at intervals of about two yards apart projecting irons, almost 
twenty inches long, are inserted and slightly inclined towards the 
earth at the ends. These are the bearers of a secondary coping of 
wood, bituminized felt frames, or slates. The frames used in France 
are eighteen inches wide and ten feet long. The felt is simply nailed 
to light rods of wood, which are easily lifted off andon. These 
frames being water-proof are much used to protect grapes andother ripe 
fruits from the autumnal rains, as well as for cold-proof screens early 
in the spring. Wooden shutters are frequently employed instead of 
felt. Straw mats, slates, or even a layer of spruce branches, are 
almost equally serviceable against cold. But, of course, felt or wood 
are more powerful protectors, inasmuch as they keep the blossoms 
dry. And, whatever contrariety of opinion prevails about the effect 
of moist or dry air in moderating or arresting the powers of frost, 
as a matter of fact, every cultivator knows that a dry blossom-bud 
passes through a degree of cold unscathed that would haye blackened 
it into death and decomposition had it been wet. 

Next in importance to projecting copings follow moveable curtains 
of textile fabrics, such as canvas, bunting, tiffany, nets of wool, 
twine, oiled calico, blinds, &e. These are by far the most efficient 
when kept dry. Therefore, they ought to have the aid of projecting 
copings, and ready means should be furnished for moving the cur- 
tains up or down easily and speedily. This is generally done by 
means of a roller and pulley, or by suspending the blinds on rings 
placed on iron rods at top and bottom. Rollers of wood to carry the 
blinds right off the trees are the best arrangement. With blinds on 


the option of the cultivator. 


rings part of the wall is mostly shaded by the curtains, and the 
latter are also exposed to all weathers. Not necessarily so, however, 
for blinds may be drawn up and let down with an arrangement of 
rings on irons, though not so readily as on rollers. Hither way, one 
great merit of such protectors is their easy portability. They should 
never be let down at all, unless absolutely wanted. The cultivator 
scanning the heavens, and sleeping with one eye open, will seldom 
be caught napping, though occasionally he may have to get out of 
bed at unseasonable hours to let the blinds down. 

Fig. 2 shows a combination of three protectors: a coping of tiles, 


Protected Peach Wall. 


Fig. 2. 


another of straw mats, and a third of canvas on rollers. This com- 
bination of different methods together ensures the safety of the 
trees. The canvas is doubled in efficiency by being thus overlapped 
skywards. 

Fig. 3 shows a similar arrangement on a common wall. In this 
case, however, the canvas is made to overlap two rows of cordons in 
front of the wall—a capital way of killing three or more birds 
with one stone; for, indeed, on wide borders five or six rows of 
cordon fruit trees may be grown. I find the plum does remarkably 
well as a ground cordon. I am also trying peaches and nectarines. 
Apples and pears, of course, do well. By growing all our choice 
fruits near to our walls thus we utilise the heat radiated from their 
faces, and render it impossible to crop the borders of our fruit trees 
with vegetables. In a protective point of view we are likewise 
gainers by inclosing the warm earth at the base of our walls. .The 
earth gives and takes heat more slowly than bricks. Hence, when 
the walls get cool, the earth helps them; and the more warm earth 
we can inclose in the same area with our wall trees the better. Of 
course, the entire border, or only a portion of it, may be inclosed at 
It will take a little more canvas; but 
those who have seen or grown most cordons will be the first to 
declare that it is impossible to do too much for them. 


Fig. 4. Coping for Young 


Fig. 3. Protection for Wall 
Peach Trees. 


and Ground Cordons. 


Fig. 4 shows how our means of protection may be brought down 
to the stature of the trees. Wonderfully simple when seen; but 
I have noticed many walls with expensive protective expedients all 
good and proper for mature trees, but useless, because too high 
above their heads. These simple iron or wooden brackets can rise 
with the growth of the trees. Of course, as the trees cover more 
wall, the brackets would be made wider—a point of great im- 
portance. For although heat radiates in straight lines, yet the 
amount of heat returned to the trees on the face of a wall is very 
much as the breadth of the overhanging coping. Therefore, the 
higher the wall the wider the coping, if the same efficiency is 
wanted. In all our various expedients for protecting wall trees, 
it is singular that so little attention has been paid to the wall 
itself as a source of warmth. We build walls that our trees may 


298 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fex. 24, 1879, 


be warmer on than off them; but we place the walls as far asunder 
a3 possible, as if we feared their aggregate warmth would produce 
a tropical climate. They do not seem to have any such fears in 
France and Germany. The following is a spring view of a fruit 
garden in North Germany, on the model of the best of those at 
Montreuil. The walls run east and west, and are about thirty feet 
apart. The walls have thus a cumulative effect on the temperature 
—they give and take from each other, and thus the atmosphere of 
the fruit gardenis sensibly ameliorated. By this “grouping of walls” 
much shelter may likewise be provided. Cold points and prevailing 
winds may be built as well as planted out, and special care ought to be 
taken in the formation of soils, drainage, &c. By choosing a sloping 


i i F 


i} 
ci" 


BORO eee 


Fruit Garden in North Germany.—Spring View. 


site, or building the walls ona graduated scale from back to front, 
they might be placed still closer together, say at distances of ten or 
twelve feet; and the whole space thus be conyerted into fruit-tree 
borders. Then curtains or screens, like temporary tents, might be 
raised over an entire block of walls at onte. Indeed, there is no 
reason why the cultivator should not copy a leaf out of the nursery- 
man’s book in this matter. The latter groups his walls of brick, 
stone, reed, concrete, wood, or glass, close together for training and 


growing young trees. This crowding together is chiefly to economise 


space, but it likewise husbands—yes, and accumulates—warmth. 
Glass walls may be even placed closer to each other, as the light and 
heat pass freely through; peaches may likewise be grown on both 
sides to an equal degree of perfection, thus virtually doubling our 
south wall space. The accumulative effects of the reciprocal action of 
glass walls upon each other, and their aggregate results on local 
temperature, promise to be greater than that of any other walls. 
From the protection of walls, we advance a step further to the 
sheltering of espaliers or cordons in open borders. Here is a very 
simple mode of doing so (Fig. 6), whichis now practised in some places. 


Vig. 6. 


Three lines of galvanized wire are carried along the espalier; the 
centre one rising a foot or so above its top, and the side ones a little 
under or on a level with the espalier. A few posts will suffice to 
stretch the wire on; and the width of this triangle may be from 
three to five feet, according to the height of the espalier. Just 
before the buds of the trees break, this triangular skeleton 
should be covered with canvas, bunting, or even common mats. 
The tighter these are put on, the more rain they will pitch off. 
Whatever is used can readily be thrown over the wires and made 
fast by sewing or tying on each side. Figure 7 is a side view of 
this mode of protection for double lines of espaliers. This 
simple arrangement is well worthy the attention of every cultivator. 


Of late years a sort of prejudice has set in againt espaliers, and [ 
confess I prefer nice conical fruit trees to them or any others. But 
still, when well-managed, espaliers are extremely effective, and may 
be so treated as to produce a maximum weight of fruit from the 
smallest area of ground. 

Fig. 8 exhibits an extension of a similar mode of protection. In 
this case the canvas is brought down to the ground, and is made 
to include three cordons on either side of the double espalier of 
pears. Of course it would be necessary to roll up or fold back the 
canvas as far as the triangular roof daily. This would inyolve a 
good deal of labour; but it seems not only impolitic, but a reckless 
waste of capital, skill, and time, to allow the fruit crop of a year 
to be wrecked for lack of this careful protection of the trees for a 
month or six weeks in the spring. 


PEARS AND APPLES UNDER GLASS. 


I can assure “‘W.” that I haye had ample opportunity of com- 
paring these fruits grown under glass with those in the open air. 
If, regardless of cost in culture, all the attention possible is given 
them, they are equal to those well done out of doors, but not 
superior. But it is relatively the same with these fruits under glass, 
as we generally find it with peaches and nectarines. Those that 
are under glass receive every attention, whilst those that are outside 
are comparatively neglected. It is possible that there may be a few 
kinds that might succeed better inside than out; for instance, the 
Newtown Pippin Apple is very poor grown in this country, compared 
with the same sort grown in America; and I haye not seen Calville 
Blanche grown here equal to that kind grown in France. But these 
are simply the exceptions found in the cultivation of fruits in general. 
I maintain that the pears grown in France and the Channel Islands 
are not superior to those grown in this country except in appearance, 


‘not in flayour. Ican assure ‘‘W.” that there is nothing extraordinary 


in keeping up a supply of pears and apples for nine months in the 
year; with good culture, a judicious selection of sorts, and a well- 
constructed fruit-room, this can be easily done in any part of the 
country not absolutely unsuited to the growth of these fruits. 

After a dry, warm summer, when I have always found the late- 
keeping pears and apples to come in much later than in wet, dull 
summers, I haye frequently commenced in July with Citron des 
Carmes, and ended up in May with Ne Plus Meuris. 

Anyone has a perfect right to adopt this mode of culture who 
feels disposed ; although it entails three times the amount of cost 
the productions are worth. But it is opposed to the interests of 
horticulture to usher this or any other system before the world as 
possessing advantages which do not belong to it. 

Southgate. T. Bares. 

“Bottling Grapes.—I am surprised to find Mr. Baines (p. 292) 

asserting that bottling grapes deteriorates their flayour. Hrom a rather 
extensive trial of this system of preserving late grapes, I have not found 
this to be the case to any great extent where they were thoroughly ripened 
before being put into the bottles. This I have tried with Lady Downe’s 
Seedling kept in bottles for four successive months, against some left on 
the vines in the same vinery, and, if anything, the bottled grapes were the 
best flavoured when compared. If Mr. Baines can grow late grapes as 
well as he can cultivate specimen plants, when thoroughly ripe in October 
or November he may bottle them without any fear of their losing 
flavour. The great utility of bottling thick-skinned late grapes, such as 
Trebbiano, Royal Vineyard, Lady Downe’s Seedling, and others, is to get 
the vines pruned and properly. dressed every year in season. I used to 
have grapes hanging in April and May, with the vines in full leaf, and of 
course this soon had an injurious effect upon the vines. ‘To test their 
flavour I shall send you a bunch or two of Muscat grapes that have 
been bottled for three months.—WILLIAM TILLERY, Welbeck. 
I wAvE forwarded some grapes for your opinion, my employer 
being anxious to mow what you think of them. They have been kept 
in the grape-room here in bottles of water. ‘The Muscats have been cut 
from the vines eighteen weeks, and the Lady Downe’s Seedling have been 
cut sixteen weeks from the vines.—RicHarp NisBwr, Aswarby Park.—— 
[We have tasted your grapes, and think their flavour excellent. They 
have also been submitted to several of our friends, good judges of grapes, 
all of whom assert that better flavoured Muscats or Lady Downe’s they 
have rarely eaten. The bunches, too, are large, the berries plump and 
sound, and covered with beautiful bloom. } 


“Nores AND Quertis” repeats an excellent story concerning the Duke 
of Wellington and the late Mr. Loudon. Mr. John Claudius Loudon 
wrote to askthe Great Duke for leave to inspect the beeches at Strathfield- 
saye. His writing was not very legible, owing to an affection of. his right 
hand, and it will not appear surprising, therefore, that the then Bishop of 
London, Dr. J.C. Bloomfield, should have shortly afterwards received the 
following note: “My dear Lord,—I shall always be glad to see you at 
Strathfieldsaye; and my servant shall show you as many pairs of my 
breeches as you choose to inspect; but what you want to see them for is 
quite beyond me,—Yours, &c., WELLINGTON,” : 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


299 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION 
TREE 


FERNS. 

Sometmes the transition from cold to hot countries is 
marked by a total change in the character of the vegetation, 
sometimes by the greater development of the same or similar 
types. In our latitudes the ferns are lowly and humble— 
companions of the moss and the short delicate grass or dwarf 
heather; in warmer 
latitudes they rear 
tall and stout co- 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


WORTHLESS NOVELTIES. 

Tue adulteration of seeds has often been complained of, but 
the needless multiplication of varieties is the greater evil. The 
extent to which this is carried by our seedsmen—eyen the 
most respectable of them—could only be justified by real and 
rapid improvement; and this, we need scarcely say, does not 

occur. Indeed,some 
kinds of vegetables 
are well known to 


lumns or stems, 
from which they 
throw off crests that 
rival the palms 
themselves in 
stately beauty and 
grandeur. Their 
slender trunks rise 
to the height of 
from twenty to 
twenty-eight feet, 
and from the tops 
spring large fronds, 
often eight or nine 
feet long, bipinnate 
and feathery, which, 
from their extra- 
ordinary delicacy, 
are put in tremu- 
lous motion by the 
gentlest wind. 

The slender 
trunks, often quite 
smooth, and beanti- 
fully pitted by the 
marks of the inser- 
tion of the leaves, 
although they grow 
to such heights, are 
sometimes not more 
than three inches 
thick. They are 
confined to the 
torrid zone; andon 
some of the Hast 
Indian islands they 
grow in such num- 
bers that their stems 
are as close to each 
other as the slender 
firs and pines are 
in unthinned plant- 
ations. Sometimes 
the trunks of these 
tree ferns attain a 
greater thickness, 
as much as two 
feet or more in dia- 
meter; but in such 
instances they are 
generally cased in a 


be practically the 
same now that they 
were a dozen years 
ago,and yetour seed 
houses bring out 
new varieties every 
year, and go on 
christening and 
selling at a high rate 
varieties which 
really have no un- 
common merit. 
Who knows the 
difference between 
a slice from Messrs. 
A. & Co.’s cucum- 
ber Emperor of the 
Longs, sent out at 
a high price this 
spring, and some 
variety in culture 
for the past ten, 
twenty, or, it may 
be, hundred years ? 
Nobody. Yet the 
gardening public, 
baited by printed 
descriptions and 
new names, are 
yearly buying varie- 
ties of no decided 
merit,and, it may be, 
inferior to many 
good and well- 
known kinds, for 
perhaps several 
times the price of 
the very best in 
cultivation. Seeds- 
men are enabled to 
carry on this system 
by the taste that 
everywhere prevails 
for novelty. Thus 
it is that of almost 
every vegetable 
there are new and 
worthless kinds sent 
out every year, and 
perhaps the same 
kind often sent out 


thick layer of roots. 
Wherever the tree 
ferns appear within 
the tropics, from the 
plain to the height 
of three thousand or four thousand feet, the soil and atmosphere 
are full of moisture—indeed, they seem to prefer wet places, 
and grow in them along with Musaceze and Scitamines. The 
shrubby ferns prevail rather at the tropics than in the equato- 
rial zone, and they are also less frequent at the foot of tropical 
mountains than at an elevation between two thousand and three 
thousand feet. Recent years have witnessed a rich accession of 
these tropical forms to our gardens. With the hardier palms 
they constitute the most valuable materials for the picturesque 
conservatories recently advocated in our columns. 


Aspects of Vegetation.—Tree Ferns. 


by different houses 
under distinct 
names, to the end- 
less confusion and 
great injury of the 
cultivator. Real and useful novelties are welcomed by 
everybody; but in the case of our best known vegetables 
it is rare to find any real improvement, the limits to 
which they can attain in any one direction seeming to have 
been detected and fixed in the course of hundreds of genera- 
tions of their lives. What is sometimes offered as a new pea 
—the earliest in cultivation—is often simply an old kind under 
a new name, not a minute earlier than it was twenty-five years 
ago. The love of novelty, as we have remarked, has a deal to 
do with this; but it is notable that the same thing does not 


300 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fxs. 24, 1872. 


prevail on the Continent, where the love of novelty is quite as 
great as here. We have conversed with a large Parisian seeds- 
man on the subject, and he regarded it as the greatest evil of 
the seed trade in this country. ‘“ Hvery one of your seeds- 
men,” said he, ‘seems to think it necessary to send out a 
certain number of novelties every year, and we, obliged to buy 
them to seeift they are worth adding to our lists, find as a rule 
that they are old and worthless kinds, and often that the same 
kind is sent out by several houses under distinct names.” The 
remedy for this great evil does not seem so clear as that for 
adulteration. It rests chiefly with the public, who should 
never invest in new and very dear varieties of the seeds of 
well-known vegetables, unless they have certain evidence that 
the said kinds are better than those which they will find 
marked at less than half the money in the same lists. With 
flower seeds and seeds of new species it is different, as these, 
when first breaking into varieties under cultivation, often offer 
marked interest and value. If a code of nomenclature were 
fixed on by our Horticultural Society, or some similar body, 
and the new names and characters only given to kinds possess- 
ing real novely and merit, much good might be done; but the 
immediate and best remedy remains with the public. They 
should, as a rule, avoid all new varieties of well-known vege- 
tables, unless in possession of some real proof of their merit ; 
and then they may be spared the disappointment of finding 
that they haye secured a very ordinary or very worthless 
variety, at, it may be, four times its real value. 


PRIZE CELERY. 


Orprvary celery growers commit no greater error in the 
cultivation of this excellent vegetable than that of sowing it 
very early and then starving the plants afterwards. As early as 
the end of January we have seen directions given for sowing 
the early crop; and the chances are that the plants so raised 
will be drawn up and stunted into premature old age 
long before the weather is sufficiently seasonable for them 
to be transferred tothe open trenches. Then follows “bolting,” 
and “kekky” celery, all originating im the check which the 
plants have received. Plants, to have them erisp and juicy, 
must be grown with vigour. To sow at the right time, and grow 
the plants afterwards without a check, is the right way to 
succeed. This is the secret of the Nottingham system,and im no 
town is celery generally so well grown. ‘The following is the 
plan pursued:—About Nottingham celery is grown in almost 
every garden, and many of the working men grow it with an 
amount of success only to be attained by those who make its 
cultivation a hobby, and pursue that hobby with the enthusiasm 
of men determined to succeed. Among these the late Mr. 
Samuel Hooley, of Wollaton, was the most successful, so much 
so as to be justly considered the champion grower of the 
county. In 1866 he won five first prizes, competing against 
129 growers; and in 1867 four first prizes, contesting the 
pride of place with 126 exhibitors. 


CELERY, NATURAL AND CULTIVATED. 

Of course, much is achieved by attentive cultivation ; but 
eyen this, unless you have the proper kind to grow, will not 
ensure the desired results. When we look to the celery in 
its original state, choking the ditches in some parts of the 
country and forming an acrid and dangerous poison, and 
compare it with the long, thick, solid, and finely formed speci- 
mens, perfectly blanched and crisp as an icicle, one cannot 
but wonder at the ennobling influence of cultivation, and be 
thankful that the great Giver of all good has blessed us with 
faculties to convert “weeds” to such useful purposes. 
Few plants are more esteemed than the celery; for whether 
stewed or forming part of a salad, it is relished by almost 
every person. Poisonous when green, it_ possesses when 
blanched high medicinal qualities, and is one of the best 
things which persons suffering from dyspepsia can eat. One 
of the best kinds of celery is certainly that called Hooley’s 
Conqueror, the kind with which the raiser himself succeeded 
in conquering all competitors who came against him. It 
is of the red section, and remarkable for its broad, thick, 
fleshy leaves, which are almost free from ribs or corruga- 
tions. It is the result of careful selection for some years, and 
at last the character has become so fixed that every plant may 


. receive the plants. 


be depended upon as being almost certain to come true to 
its kind. 
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 


In the cultivation of this plant it is indispensable that the 
ground be thoroughly drained to the depth of three feet at 
the least—if four, all the better—and that it be trenched and 
enriched by the addition of manure and leaf soil to the depth 
of two feet, mixing the manurial matter as intimately through 
the soil as possible. The best way to do this will be to 
trench and ridge the soil at the same time, performing the 
operation of mixing the dung as the work proceeds. This 
should be done as early in the autumn as convenient, and 
during the winter, in dry and frosty weather, the ridges 
should be frequently forked over so as to expose the whole of 
the soil as much to the enriching and ameliorating influence 
of the atmosphere as possible. In this way the whole mass of 
soil may be brought into fine workable condition. It may seem 
strange to want well-drained soil for this plant, which is 
naturally found in ditches and other damp places, but nature 
is not always the best indicator of the conditions most suitable 
for a plant in a domesticated state. In a wet soil, Celery grows 
rank and strong flayoured, and quickly rots when the weather 
is continuously wet; in a well-drained one, the rain passes 
speedily away and the soil remains in a healthy condition. 
In the spring, in March or April, the ground may be levelled 
down, and then trenches for the plants may be prepared. 
These should be taken out to the depth of twenty inches and 
one foot wide, and, if possible, the trenches should run from 
north to south, so that the sun may act upon both sides alike. 
Tread the bottom of the trench quite firm, and then place in 
it perfectly decayed, but rich, horse dung to the depth of 
eight inches, and that, too, must be trodden pretty firm, then 
return the soil, and the work is complete, and ready to 
The trenches should be four feet apart 
from centre to centre, and the plants must be, when planted, 
one foot apart. Between the trenches a couple of rows of 
early potatoes or a row of early peas may be taken, as these 
will be out of the way by the time the celery requires full 
exposure. The reason for placimg the dung so low is that the 
roots may get to it, and feed upon it just at the time when the 
centre leaves, those that will be blanched for exhibition, are 
pushing up. At that time it will impart increased vigour to 
the plants, and the leaves will be formed with corresponding 
strength. 

SEED SOWING, AND TREATMENT OF YOUNG PLANTS. 

The time for sowing the seed to produce plants for the early 
autumn exhibition is earlyin April. At that timea slight bed of 
hot dung must be made, to receive a small frame, or some 
hand glasses, and this being covered with some good soil, the 
seed may be sown very thinly. Shut the frame closely down, 
and allow it to remain so until the young plants begin to show. 
Then air must be given daily, and every care must be taken to 
induce the plants to grow as strongly as possible, and for 
that purpose, where they come up too thickly, a few of the 
weaker ones may be drawn out, to give more room for. those 
retaimed. When the plants have two or three leaves they are 
in a fit state to plant out in the nursery beds, which must be 
prepared specially to receive them. The method of prepara- 
tion is this:—Tread a piece of ground tolerably firm, and 
upon it place about four inches thick of rotten horse-dung 
and leaf mould in equal proportions. Tread this firmly, and 
upon it place about an inch of rich fine soil. Rake this level, 
water it, and the following day, oras soonas it is dry, it will be 
fit to receive the plants. These must be put out in lines, the 
plants being not less than four inches apart, and each plant 
must be pressed firmly as it is planted. Of course, it is of the 
greatest importance that the plants be shaded until they 
recover the transplanting, that they receive copious supplies 
of manure water when necessary, and that they be kept free 
from weeds, so as to induce them to grow as robustly as pos- 
sible. Plants properly cared for will be fit to be removed to 
the trenches in two months from the time of sowing, say the 
end of May. 


PLANTING IN THE TRENCHES AND SUMMER TREATMENT. 
Before planting, each trench must be forked over a full spit 
deep, and the plants must be put out a foot apart. In 


Fes, 24, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


301 


removing them take care to preserve every fibre possible, and 
this, through the manure being trodden firm, you will be able, 
to a great extent, to do. Press the soil firm about the roots, 
water well, and shade the plants from bright sunshine until 
they are re-established. The summer treatment will consist 
in thorough cleanliness from weeds, copious watering twice 
or thrice a week according to the weather, and protection of 
the plants from being broken by rough winds. For this pur- 
pose, it may be necessary, after the plants get a foot high, to 
tie them loosely with matting, but be careful the ligature 
' does not at any time get tight, so as to cut the plants. In 
watering, it is essentially necessary that the water be warm 
at the time it is used, and for this purpose it should either be 
exposed to the sun in a tub fora day or two before it is used, 
or it should be taken from a pond. Soft or rain water is 
the best for all garden purposes, and be careful to give sufli- 
cient each time to soak the soil the full depth of the roots. 
Tf it can pass freely away by the drainage, you can scarcely 
give too much water in bright sunny weather, but in dull 
weather so much will not be required. When the plants are 
six to nine inches high, weak manure water, prepared by 
soaking horse-dung and a handful or two of soot in a tub of 
water, may be given at each alternate watering, and a handful 
of soot scattered occasionally around the plants upon the 
ground will be found a valuable stimulant, and will also tend to 
prevent the ravages of snails and other insect pests. For prize 
Celery it is not customary to earth the plants much until they 
receive the final earthing, but a little soil may be scattered 
over the roots about once a fortnight. This will serveasa 
mulching, and will encourage the roots to spread on the surface 
of the soil. 
EARTHING AND BLANCHING. 

From five to six weeks is the time necessary to ensure the 
Celery becoming thoroughly blanched, and that is a very 
essential point in growing it for exhibition. At the time of 
earthing remove the small leaves from the base of the plants, 
and at the same time any suckers or secondary shoots that 
may have formed, cutting or twisting them clean out. This 
done, fold each plant to the height you intend to carry the soil 
in clean strong white paper. and tie it loosely with some thin 
matting, not over strong, as it is necessary 1t should rot and 
give way as the plant swells. Some people use tubes, such as 
drain pipes, around the plants to support the soil, but if tubes 
are used, the best are those made of iron, zinc, or tin, as they 
are better conductors than earthenware, and consequently 
allow the soil to become more quickly warmed or dried in wet 
weather ; the tubes being fixed, fill up to the necessary height 
with fine light soil, and the work is done. Where tubes are 
not used the soil must be banked up in the usual manner, 
taking care to make the bank slope outwards and quite smooth 
so as to prevent the wet soaking into the centre of the plants. 
Water must still be copiously applied to the roots, and manure 
water, weak, but copious in quantity, must be freely admi- 
nistered—the weather, of course, being some guide as to the 
quantity required. 

CELERY FOR EXHIBITION. 

Celery about Nottingham, when prepared for show, has only 
the small outer leaves taken off, and it should be washed quite 
clean and free from dirt, and be shown in pairs neatly tied 
together. Inaddition to the properties before mentioned, viz., 
the leaves being broad, thick, solid, crisp, and without ridges, 
they should be free from stringiness and the plants dwarf, 
sturdy rather than thin and long, and the inner leaves should 
grow up regularly without spec, stain, or insect blemish. In 
judging Celery, any plants that are pipy, hollow, or have 
rotten or discoloured leaves, are at once put aside; and a 
deformed or run centre is a certain disqualification. The 
blanching must be perfect and crystal like, and if, in the red 
kinds, the pink colour does show, it should be of that delicate 
tint which indicates perfect fitness for table, though not per- 
fect blanching. Add to these qualities fine form and weight, 
and you have the essentials of a perfect specimen of Celery. 
In conclusion, we may say the secret of Mr. Hooley’s success 
was, like the secrets ot all other successful cultivators— 
a vigorous plant vigorously pushed forward to its final result. 
He began late, by which he escaped the risk of the plants 
starting prematurely to seed, but he lost no time after he did 


begin, and hence rarely failed to bring his plants to the head of 
the prize list on the show day. Of course there is much inthe 
kind grown, but as seed of that and other good kinds is now in 
the market, that drawback no longer exists. W. P. Ayres. 


BROCCOLI. 


Firry years ago we had good varieties of broccoli, and grew 
them pretty nearly as well as we do now. We hada good early 
white, a good late ditto, and an early and late purple, a large 
brimstone variety, and a sprouting purple. Fashions have 
changed vastly more than horticulture since those days of 
knee-breeches and large buckles, when Wellington boots were 
unknown and Bluchers not discovered. It was about that 
time when, hearing a good deal of the skill and colossal opera- 
tions of the London market gardeners—the acres of handhghts 
for early cauliflowers, and the miles of celery—that I started 
for London, as full of hope, perhaps, as many who went on a 
higher enterprise. But London generally takes a good deal of 
the starch out of a young man, poor and without friends, and 
is usually overawing for awhile till he feels his feet, I remem- 
ber it was very sleety and stormy in crossing Wimbledon 
Common, and my spirits were not improved by seeing an old 
gibbet there, with its chains and irons rattling in the breeze, 
However, I soon entered a market garden, and felt again at 
home among the vegetables and flowers that were growing 
extensively in it for Covent Garden. 

At that time people thought as much of their horticultural 
skill andacuteness as they do now; but I suppose this is true 
of every generation that has existed since Adam delved and 
Eve span. At present it is no uncommon thing to hear un- 
thinking though clever people speak as if we had arrived at 
the climax of horticultural improvement; whereas the truth is 
there is as much room for investigation and discovery as ever. 
When we look at the vast surfaces of the earth that have never 
yet been tickled with a hoe, and consequently never smiled 
with a harvest—when we think of the comparatively small 
number of really good fruits that we have succeeded in 
bringing into popular use; and when we reflect on the multi- 
tudes of species found in every clime, and that their uses and 
capabilities, medicinal or economical, are as yet comparatively 
unknown, we must own that the ground has hardly been 
broken yet. 

I got on very well in the market gardens, and soon became 
the manager of the one I entered first. At that time I took 
every opportunity of seeing good examples of market garden- 
ing, independently of the one I was immediately interested in; 
and I had very little difficulty in doing this, for at that time 
there were gardens all the way from Pimlico to Putney 
Bridge, besides those on other sides of London. Ever since 
that day I have grown quantities of broccoli, and perhaps a 
few hints from my experience may be of use. 

One of the first additions and improvements to the kinds 
already named was sent out by Messrs. Grange, who kept fruit 
shops in Piccadilly and Coyent Garden, and who had, besides, 
a large market gardenat Hackney. It was called Grange’s early 
white broccoli, and had a great run of popularity, and was then 
lost sight of, to reappear a few yearsago. Something near it 
in character is Snow’s early white—a very useful autumn and 
winter kind, which I have failed to get true from seed of late 
years. The Malta white is still a good old early spring kind, 
when we get it true, and its leaves are so arranged as to act 
as an efficient protection to its head or heart, for the heads are 
always in close and perfect union in the broccoli tribe. 
Osborn’s dwarf is a delicate and neat little kind, throwing its 
heart leaves so much open that, if not looked after pretty 
sharply, every little morning frost disfigures it. 

Of all the really useful whites, the Cornish or “ large spring 
white ” is my favourite when procuredtrue. By making three 
or four little sowings of it from the first week in April till the 
first week in June, and planting these out in succession, fine 
cauliflower-like broccoli may be cut from Christmas till the 
following May. This variety has also an advantage in having 
an abundance of heart leaves to protect it, and is hardy in 
constitution. 1t takes a good deal of frost to disfigure it. In 
fact, I begin to think that, with this and a good variety of 
cauliflower, we want but little else to keep a supply the whole 


f 


302 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fus. 24, 1872. 


year round. It is most likely to be obtained true from Corn- 
wall, as they grow it in quantities there. Of purples, the early 
Cape is a useful autumn kind. The cooks do not like its 
colour, though it is tender and of a nice flayour; neither do 
they like that of the old hardy purple sprouting, which is a 
useful kind for large consumers. I have left off the culture 
of most of the purples for years, managing to secure a succes- 
sion of the best white kinds, which are preferred by all parties. 
Among other good kinds, I may name Walcheren for the early 
autumn cuttings, early Penzance, Snow’s winter, Knight's 
protecting, and Somer’s particular, and Sulphur and Lake's 
white for late spring or early summer use. 

The object of the country gentleman or private cultivator, 
as opposed to that of the market gardener, should be a regular 
succession of good heads, and not a glut at any one time, 
which might be disposed of by the market gardener, but is 
often almost thrown away in private gardens. The broccoli 
is so hardy as to be grown with ease in all parts of the British 
Isles; but where exposed to the cold blasts it suffers in severe 
winters, and indeed we have had some winters within the past 
dozen years that left ‘he broccoli plots a mass of rotten vege- 
tation. It takes a ge jd deal of cold to do that, however, and 
it even often escapes a scorching frost if a nice coat of snow 
has fallen previous:y. Some attempt to protect them by 
planting them very closely, and by sheltering them with boughs 
and hardier crops, but none of these avail much if it comes to 
a thorough hard frost. However, as this very rarely happens 
in Britain, and broccoli as a rule escape, we shall say no more 
about protection. They are not fastidious about soil, but, like 
most things; they are partial to good living, and will always 
be found—like some bipeds—the “best-hearted fellows in 
the world” when their food and drink are good and in 
abundance. 

Any ground that is cleared off during the season may be 
planted with them. All garden ground should he sufficiently 
rich, deeply cultured, and in such tilth that watermgs beyond 
one or two after the first planting, or any other attentions 
except mere weeding, are unnecessary. From the way in which 
some talk of using liquid manure, one would think they had 
quite substituted it for the naturalrain. 'l'o give liquid manure 
to broccoli is a thing I never do, nor to any such crop. Well 
tilled and properly manured garden ground is in no want of 
liquid manure, and I pity the man who has much to do with it 
in a tasteful garden. 

The first sowing of seed should be in March, the main crop 
in the end of May, and a little of the Walcheren should be sown 
in the beginning and end of June. They are, of course, always 
sown out of doors, but persons wishing to secure a stock for 
early autumn cutting may facilitate it by sowing a pinch very 
early in a cold frame, quickly inuring them to the free air and 
pricking them out on nice warm borders. As a matter of 
course, the seed should be sown on warm, nicely situated 
borders, and thinned and pricked out as soon as large enough 
to handle. They should be planted carefully, using every 
‘precaution to keep the roots and leaves as free from injury 
as possible. James BaRnus. 


Two Ways of Travelling.—Going by railroad I do not consider 
as trayelling at all; it is merely “being sent to a place, and very little 
different from becoming a parcel; the next step toit would of course 
be telegraphic transport, of which, however, I suppose it has been 
truly said by Octave Fenillet, “ Tl y awrait des gens assez bétes pour 
trouver ¢4 amusant.” If we walk more than ten or twelve miles, it 
breaks up the day too much; leaving no time for stopping at the 
stream sides or shady banks, or for any work at the end of the day ; 
besides that the last few miles are apt to be done ina hurry, and 
may then be considered as lost ground. But if, advancing thus 
slowly, after some days we approach any more interesting scenery, 
every yard of the changeful ground becomes precious and piquant ; 
and the continual increase of hope, and of surrounding beauty, 
affords one of the most exquisite enjoyments possible to the healthy 
mind ; besides that real knowledge is acquired of whatever it is the 
object of travelling to learn, and a certain sublimity given to all 
places, so attained, by the true sense of the spaces of earth that 
separate them. A man who really loves travelling would as soon 
consent to pack a day of such happiness into an hour of railroad, as 
one who loved eating would agree, if it were possible, to concentrate 
his dinner into a pill.—John Ruskin. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


WARY 2G Op d ey Me 
BoA en Bi 


ROSES AND ROSE CULTURE. 
BY S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 


Srycz the accounts of the first National Rose Show were 
printed in the year 1858, I have not seen im any weekly 
publication so much interesting information concerning roses 
as appears in the last number of THE GARDEN. 

In the first place, ib is to me, and, I doubt not, to many 
other fond rosarians, a very great gladness to receive from 
such an authority as Mr. Curtis, of Torquay, not merely the 
assertion, but the proof, that Devoniensis is an Hnglish 
rose. Never until now have I believed that our climate, or 
rather our miscellaneous collection of climates, could produce 
such delicate loveliness; and I would urgently exhort our 
growers of seedling roses and others not to confine their 
experiments to the hybrid perpetual section, but, remembermg 
Devoniensis, to extend their attentions to the family from which 
she springs. Nor let them hope to evade this duty by pleading 
that “ Devonshire has, of course, THE cream in her Tea.” 

Tn the next place, Mr. Perry’s article is a very valuable one. 
There is not amoré reliable judge of roses than he; and he 
will agree with me, I know, im the statement that, as a rule, 
the grandest of roses are grown in the budding-sround. But 
for a beautiful rose garden, for abundant and continuous 
bloom, for Inxuriance of foliage, for endurance of frost—which, 
if they are mulched can do them no harm—for general effect, 
and for economy too, his plan of growing roses upon their 
own roots is by far the best. Vivacious and rampant as the 
briar is where it is not wanted, it is very shortlived in our 
rosaries; and it seems often to be a race, generally terminating 
in a very dead heat, whether the stock or the scion shall expire 
the first. In Mr. Perry’s tasteful and successful garden, where 
I have seen all that he describes “a blowing and a growing” 
as only such rose trees can, there is no need of ambulances at 
every “fall” to bear away the dying and the dead. 

And there is no hacking here of the poor Dog-rose, no cruel 
clipping of his mane and tail (as though he were a Wrench 
poodle), of which Mr. Baines, at page 276, makes humorous 
complaint. Heartily do I rejoice to see this prince of plants- 
men (some day, let us hope, we may be blessed with a Society, 
not a whit less Royal, but a good deal more Horticultural, 
than that now dominant, which will delight to honour, by an 
order of merit, such excellent skill as his) writing about 
the Rose; and much do I thank him for his welcome, practical 
hints as to the early treatment of cuttings. His instruction, 
moreover, is specially opportune, coming in conjunction 
with Mr. Perry’s commendation of roses upon their own 
roots. 

At the same time, I would remind the beginner that it takes 
three years,as Mr. Perry tells us, to make a rose bush from 
a cutting; and I would, therefore, adyise him to buy at the 
nurseries. And thus we come to the subject of ‘ Cheap 
Roses,” also diseussed by Mr. Baines, Mr. Fish, and others, 
in the last number of Tar GarpEN. My own conviction is, 
that, considering the expenses of the grower in rent, wages, 
glass, and fuel, in the cost of novelties, their uncertain merit 
and yet more uncertain sale, in grievous losses from drought 
and damp and frost, the prices charged for rose-trees are 
perfectly fair and just. And if, simultaneously with his 
purchase from the growers, the amateur plants briars at 
seven shillings a hundred, or Manetti stocks at five shillings, 
and learns the easy arts of budding and grafting, how else 
can he fill his garden with beauty at such a moderate 
outlay P t 

There is a simpler, shorter, cheaper method of propagating 
rose trees than any which I have yet seen described, which is 
known, I dare say, to some of your readers, and which I may 
shortly, if I am not anticipated, explain to all. At present, 
haying promised to the nurseryman who revealed it to me, to 
keep his secret, I can only give to them who ask, What is it ? 
an anecdote in lieu of an answer. Some years ago, one of 
the minor canons in the Cathedral at Salisbury asked the 


< 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


prayers of the church at every service for a sick man, whom 
he mentioned by name. This was done daily, morning and 
evening, for so longa period that ‘one of the higher dignit- 
aries at last suggested that the name need not be repeated. 
On which the minor canon, who was very sensitive of inter- 
ference, gave out at the next service, with an air of injured 
disgust, “The prayers of the church are desired’ for an 
individual whom I’m not at liberty to mention.” 

For a while I must endure a similar restraint with regard 
to the multiplication of rose trees. 


G@NOTHERA MARGINATA. 


Tuis pliant is altogether unique amongst its congeners as regards 
habit and appearance. Commencing at the base. the flowers continue 
to issue in long suecession from the axils of the leaves, and are 
elevated vertically over remarkably slender tubes, fully a span in 
length, in a way to produce a beautiful effect. The flowers, as com- 
pared with the plant, are of great size, and pure white. The stigma 
is cruciform and considerably exserted. The description just 
given, we are quite aware, is very im- 
perfect, and conveys a_ still more 
imperfect idea of this fine thing. As 
yet, so far as we are aware, this 
Gnothera is without a specific name. 
It comes from the State of Utah, 
North America, and was communicated 
to Dr. Moore by his friend M. Roezl, 
of Zurich. When we saw the plant at 
Glasnevin it promised to seed freely, 
and we hope ere long to see it widely 
distributed and taking a prominent 
position in the choice herbaceous 
border or cutting a figure in some 
phase of subtropical gardening, for 
which its dwarf habit and exotic 
appearance seem to render it emi- 


nently suitable.—Irish Farmers’ 
Gazette. {The plant at Glasnevin 
is the true Qinothera marginata 


(Nuttall), not of Botanical May., t. 
5,818, which is Ginothera eximia (A. 
Gray). The former is much the best 
plant, producing flowers constantly 
and daily during four months of 
summer. | 


ACANTHUSES. 

Tuxse stout and hardy herba- 
ceous plants are of the greatest 
importance in the picturesque 
garden or the pleasure-ground, 
their effect being being very good 
when they are well established. 
They thrive in almost any soil, 
but attain their greatest luxu- 
riance and beauty in deep warm 
ones. The best uses for these 
species are as isolated tufts in the 


grass, in the mixed border, or in picturesque groups with | 


other hardy subjects. In all cases they should be placed 
in positions where they are not likely to be disturbed, as 
their beauty is not seen until they are well established. All 
are easily propagated by division. Few herbaceous genera 
may be made more useful than this. The following are the 
best kinds :— 


Acanruus LaTiroLivs.—The leaves of this are bold and noble 
in outline, and the plant has a tendency, rare in some hardy 
things with otherwise fine qualities, to retain them till the end 
of the season without losing a particle of their freshness and 
polished yerdure. We should not like to advise. its being 
planted in the centre of a flower-bed, or in any other position 
where it would be disturbed ; but in case it were determined 
to plant permanent groups of fine leayed hardy plants, then 
indeed it could be used with great success. Supposing we 
have an irregular kind of flower-garden or pleasure-ground to 
deal with (a common case), one of the best things to do with 
this Acanthus is to plant it in the grass, at some distance from 
the clumps, and perhaps near a few other things of like 


THE GARDEN. — 


| colour, growing 


Acanthus latifolius (after Vilmorin). 


503 


character. It is better than any kind of Acanthus hitherto 
commonly cultivated, though one or two of these are fine. 
Give it deep good soil, and do not grudge it this attention, 
because, unlike tender plants, it will not give trouble again for 
a long time. 

ACANTHUS LONGIFoLIUs.—A fine, distinct, and new specie 
from Dalmatia and 8. Europe, three and a half feet to four feet 
high, distinguished from A. mollis (to which it is allied) by the 
length and narrowness of its arching leaves. They are about 
two and a half feet long, very numerous, of a bright green 

g at first erect, then inclining and forming a 
sheaf-like tuft, which has a very fine effect. The flowers are 
of a wine-red colour, becoming lighter before they fall. A 
specimen in the gardens of the Museum at Paris, in four years 


| after planting, had twenty-five blooming-stems rising from the 


midst of a round mass of verdure nearly two and a half feet 
in height and width. This would be very effective on the 
undulating and picturesque parts of pleasure-grounds. It does 
not run so much at the root as A. mollis. It seeds more freely 
than the other kinds, and may be . 
readily increased by seeds as well 
as by division. Its free-flowering 
quality makes this species pecu- 
larly valuable, while it is as good 
as any for isolation or grouping. 


Acantuus Moiis.—A well-known 
old border-plant from the south of 
Europe, about three feet high, with 
leaves nearly two feet long by one 
foot broad, heart-shaped in outline, 
and cut into angular toothed lobes. 
The flowers are white or lilac, the 
inflorescence forming a remarkable- 
looking spike, half the length of 
the stem. Well adapted for borders, 
isolation, margins of shrubberies, 
and semi-wild places, in deep 
ordinary soil, the richer the better. 
Increased by division of the roots 
in winter or early spring. 


ACANTHUS SPINOSIssIMUS.—This is 
in all respects among the finest 
of fine hardy foliage-plants, growing 
to a height of three and a half feet, 
and bearing rosy flesh-coloured 
flowers in spikes of afoot or more in 
length. It is perfectly hardy, very 
free in growth, and is quite distinct 
from any of the other species, 
forming roundish masses of dark- 
green leaves, with rather a profu- 
sion of glistening spines, by which 
it is known immediately from its 
relatives. As a permanent object, 
fit to plant in a nook in the pleasure- 
ground or ontheturf,associated with 
the nobler grasses or other plants, there is nothing to surpass 
it. It does not often flower; and if it should throw up a spike, 
it will perhaps be no loss to cut it off, as its leaves are its best 
ornament, though the flowers too are interesting. Never at 
any time does it require the least attention ; it will stand any 
exposure. It will thrive best in good and deep soil. South of 
Europe. 


SWEET PEAS. 


EyeryBopy admires Sweet Peas for their perfume as well as for their 
beauty, but few persons grow them so successfully as they could 
wish; that is, they do not keep them in healthy blooming condition 
throughout the season. This arises from several causes ; first, the 
ground not being sufficiently rich or deep where they are first 
planted; secondly, sowing too thick, by which the plants have to 
battle for life; and thirdly, expecting them to grow in situations 
where other shrubs or trees are constantly robbing them of 
their proper supply of nutriment. If the Sweet Pea is to be really 
well grown, and continue to bloom for many months of the season, 
the ground or stations must be prepared just the same as you 


304 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fus. 24, 1872. 


would prepare them to grow Celery—that is, excayate a trench 
fifteen or eighteen inches, put in six inches of rotten dung, return 
the soil, and sow your peas, not in a continuous row, but if a row is 
to be formed, in patches about a foot apart, placing from six to a 
dozen Peas in each patch. In this way you will get vigorous 
development, and, with the assistance of the dung and free watering 
in dry weather, a plant that can resist some of the vicissitudes to 
which plant life is exposed. If you wish the blooming to be con- 
tinuous, you must not allow a single pea to be formed. As fast as 
the flowers drop, cut off the flower stems, and if, when you are 
gathering flowers, you cut off Some of the points of the branches at the 
same time you will promote the blooming principle by causing the 
plants to break afresh and form fresh branches. The purpose and 
end of all plants is to produce fruit and seed, and we know among 
annuals, of which the Sweet Pea is one, that so soon as the seed is 
formed the future energy of the plant is directed to its maturation, 
and very few fresh flowers are produced. Preyent the formation of 
seed and the plant will continue for an indefinite period, sometimes 
for years. From this the importance of removing seed-pods so fast as 
they are formed should be apparent to every one. A crop of Sweet 
Peas sown in March and another about the middle of May should 
command a succession of flowers up to November. Pea sticks 
generally are not very sightly objects im a dressed garden, but if 
you procure a sufficient leneth of three or four inch mesh galvanized 
wire netting and support it at therieht distance and height by neatly 
painted stakes you may form most efficient, neat, and durable Pea 
risers. Pp. A. W. 


MURAL GARDENING. 

THERE may be seen—nich unto the village of Ollerton, Notts, and 
within view of those grand old oaks of Birklands, which still remai” 
to remind us of Bold Robin and the great Shire Wood—srowing i” 
graceful combination upon the walls of a modest little waysid® 
home, two creepers. These are the Variegated Ivy (Hedera foliis 
argenteis) and the Pyracantha (Cratzecus Pyracantha). The glowing 
scarlet berries of the latter contrasting beautifully with the silver 
foliage of the former, seem to brighten the wayfarer’s journey, and to 

** Cheer the ungenial day ;” 

ani I commend this conjunction to those readers of THe GARDEN 
who are interested in mural gardening, and who haye, horticulturally 
speaking, a “‘wall eye.” Furthermore, I avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity to suggest to them a still more admirable alliance for the 
summer months, namely, plants in alternation of Rose Maréchal 
Niel (or Rose Gloire de Dijon) and of Mr. Jackman’s magnificent 
Clematis, which bears hisname. When these hang out their banners 
of purple and gold upon the outer wall, the effect upon the “ wall eye” 
just referred to is almost overpowering. S. ReyNonps Hone. 


PRIMULA ALTAICA. 


Aone thé choicest gems of the hardy spring garden there are 
few that will bear comparison with the Altaian Primrose (P. altaica), 
and yet I know of few gardens where it is to be found. It was sent 
to me some years ago as a most interesting and desirable plant, and 
I have ever since cultivated it with the utmost care. It is, however, 
delicate in constitution, and I can seldom reckon upon keeping more 
than two or three robust plants. I suspect it misses the protection 
of the winter snows of its native home. In general appearance it 
very closely resembles our own P. acaulis (vulgaris), but may at 
once be distinguished by its narrow and more deeply-cleft petals, the 
reddish hue of its flower stalk, and its singularly attenuated, deeply 
channelled, and sharply cuspidated calyx, the basis of which is not 
nearly so deflexed as in P. acaulis. The tube of the corolla, too, 
rises higher above the calyx than in the last named species. The 
flowers, which are produced in great profusion—quite smothering 
the plant when it is in a healthy state—are of the most loyely soft 
mauve, the base sulphur, with an orange spot in the centre. It 
comes into bloom several weeks earlier than the common Primrose, 
in fact, it is the companion of the earliest Aconites, Snowdrops, and 
Snowflakes. It seems to come quite true from seed, butisyery shy in 
ripening any. It ought to be one of the favoured pets of every 
garden, and I hope some day it may be. It cannot but be loved at 
first sight wherever it is seen. 


The Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, Tring. H. Harper Crewe. 


[Along with this communication came a beautiful bloom of this 
charming Primrose, which is certainly one of the handsomest of the 
fine genus to which it belongs. In 1849 a plant of it in a pot was 
exhibited in beautiful condition by Mr. Darbyshire, who found it in 
a meadow on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, near the entrance to 
the Black Sea. ] 


SPRING HAS COME. 


Tue sunbeams, lost for half a year, 
Slant through my pane the morning rays; 

For dvy Northwesters, cold and clear, i 
The East blows in its thin blue haze. { 


At first the snowdrop’s bells are seen, 
Then close against the sheltering wall 
The tulip’s horn of dusky green, 
The prony’s dark unfolding ball. 


The golden-chaliced crocus burns ; 

The long narcissus-blades appear ; 
The cone-beaked hyacinth returns, 

And lights her blue-flamed chandelier. 


The willow’s whistling lashes, wrung - 
By the wild winds of gusty March, 
With sallow leaflets ightly strung, 
Are swaying by the tufted larch. 


‘The elms have robed their slender spray 
With full-blown flower and embryo leat ; 
Wide o’er the clasping arch of day 
Soars like a cloud their hoary chief. 


See the proud tulip’s flaunting cup, 

That flames in glory for an hour— 
Behold it withermg—then look up— 

How meek the forest-monarch’s flower ! 


When wake the violets, Winter dies ; 

When sprout the elm-buds, Spring is near ; 
When lilacs blossom, Summer cries, 

“ Bud, little roses! Springis here!” 


The windows blush with fresh bouquets, 
Cut with the May-dew on their lips; 
The radish all its bloom displays, 
Pink as Aurora’s finger tips. 


Oh, for one spot of living green— 
One little spot where leaves can grow— 
To love unblamed, to walk unseen, 
To dream above, to sleep below! 
—Oliver Wendell Holmes. 


EARLY FLOWERS. 


The following are the earliest and latest dates at which the subjoimed 
plants have flowered during the first four months of the year, from 1850 
to 1871, as observed in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kdinburgh, by Mr. 
James M‘Nab, viz. :— 


Name. Harliest Date. Latest Date. 

Adonis vernalis ... Feb. 18, 1851 Apr. 19, 1855 
Eranthis hyemalis Jan. 15, 1851 Mar. 2, 1855 
Hepatica triloba... Jan. 14, 1858 Mar. 7, 1855 
Draba aizoides ... Mar. 4, 1863 Apr. 11, 1855 
Orobus vernus ... oe Jan. 25, 1869 Apr. 16, 1855 
Nuttallia cerasiformis ... -| Feb. 7, 1869 Mar. 20, 1870 
Ribes sanguineum -.| Mar. 1, 1869 Apr. 19, 1855 
Tussilago fragrans ... -| dan. 18, 1863 Feb. 14, 1871 
Rhododendron atrovirens ...J Jan. 2, 1851 Apr. 6, 1855 
eS nobleanum ...| Jan. 16, 1869 Apr. 13, 1855 
Jasminum nudifiorum... Jan. 21, 1869 Mar. 18, 1870 
Omphalodes verna Feb. 2, 1863 Apr. 23, 1855 
Mandragora vernalis ... Mar. 2, 1869 Apr. 9, 1867 
Scopolia carniolica --| Feb. 19, 1869 Apr. 9, 1864 
Daphne Mezereum__... --| Jan. 2, 1851 Apr. 6, 1855 
Nordmannia cordifolia. a8 Jan. 21, 1869 Apr. 9, 1855 
Corylus Ayellana -| Jan. 14, 1858, Mar. 21, 1855 
Crocus susianus... =e --| Jan, 15, 1858 Mar. 8, 1853 
+ Yernus and vars «| Jan. 18, 1858 Mar. 15, 1853 
Sisyrinchium.grandiflorum ...} Jam. 14, 1858 Mar. 23, 1870 
as album ... «| Feb. 20, 1869 Mar. 29, 1864 
Galanthus niyalis ae «| Jan. 4, 1858 Mar. 2, 1855 
7 plicatus Jan. 26, 1869 .Mar. 4, 1870 
Leucojum vernum ‘s Jan. 17, 1869 Mar. 21, 1853 
Narcissus moschatus ... | Mar. 16, 1869 Apr. 13, 1855 
a psuedo-narcissus ...| Mar. 24, 1850 Apr. 20, 1855 

ay pumilus 5 Feb. 18, 1869 Apr. 2, 1855 
BrythroniumDens-canis Mar. 1, 1851 Apr. 11, 1855 
Fritillaria imperialis Mar, 13, 1851 Apr. 14, 1855 
Museari botryoides Feb. 17, 1858 Apr. 14, 1855 
Puschkinia scilloides ... «| Feb. 29, 1869 Apr. 16, 1855 
Scilla bifolia (blue) ... .-| Jan, 30, 1866 Apr. 10, 1855 
os H (red)... .| Mar. 10, 1863 Apr. 6, 1855 
5 in (white) ... Feb, 21, 1869 Apr. 5, 1855 
» major cod Keb, 21, 1869 Mar. 25, 1870 

s, Sipirica ... oa ..| Heb, 8, 1866 Apr. 21, 1855 
Symplocarpus feetidus.. «nf Heb. 4; 1851 ar. 20, 1855 


- however, requires constant swilling. 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


305 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Alpine Plants Green in Winter.—I have recently purchased a 
place with a good deal of raised and rocky bank, within close view of the 
windows. On these I should like to establish the most interesting kinds 
of alpine vegetation, especially if I can obtain kinds that do not leave the 

und bare in winter. My garden is near a town, but in pure air.—J. F. 
The following will suit you well :— 


Alyssum montanum Loiseleuria procumbens Saxifraga umbrosa 
A. saxatile St Ee rae dendroideum Sedum acre 


Andromeda tetragona enziesia empetriformis 8. album 

Arabis albida Myosotis dissitiflora 5. Anacampseros 
Arenaria balearice M. sylvatica 8. anglicum 
Aubrietia, in var. Othonna cheirifolia 8. Ewersii 
Corydalis lutea Phlox reptans 8. glancum 
Daphne Cneorum P. subulata S. monregalense 
Dianthus alpinas Polygala Chamebuxus 5. pulchellum 

D. neglectus Primula Auricula S. sexangulare 


Dryas Drummondi 


P. integrifolia 
D. octopetala 


3 Sempervivum calcareum 
Pyrola rotundifolia 


8. globiferum 


Empetrum nigrum Sagina glabra, var. corsica S. Heuffelli 
Epigea repens Saxifraga affinis 8. hirtum 
Erica carnea S. Andrewsii S. montanum 
Erysimum ochroleucum — §. Bucklandii 5. tectorum 
Gaultheria procumbens _ §. ceratophylla Silene acaulis 
Genista sagittalis S. cordifolia 8. alpestris 
Gentiana acaulis S. Cotyledon S$. Pumilio 
G. verna S. crassifolia _ Soldanella alpina 
Globularia cordifolia 8. Geum Thymus lanuginosus 
Helianthemum, in var, S. hirta Vaccinium Vitis-idwa 
Tberis, in var. S. hypnoides Veronica saxatilis 
Leiophyllum buxifolium SS. juniperina Vinca major 
Linnea borealis 8S. longifolia V. minor 
Linum arboreum S. muscoides Viola, in var.] 
Lithospermum prostra- §. palmata 

tum S. Stansfieldii 


Late Flowering Rhododendrons and Azaleas.—Will some 
of your correspondents kindly furnish me with the names and colours of 
a few late flowering good varietiesof Rhododendron and hardy Azalea ? 
I am desirous of planting a few first-rate varieties, and prefer late 
Errenis sorts on account of the danger to early ones from spring frosts. 
—Rusticus. 


The Winter Heliotrope.—This is very suitable for planting by 
the sides of walks in woods, under trees, or in clay where nothing else 

ill grow. Where other plants of a more objectionable character grow 
this seems to have the power of exterminating them. It is green the 
greater part of the year; and at this season, when in flower, its scent is 
something like that of hawthorn blossom, but not so strong. It must not be 
introduced into dressed grounds, as it would become a troublesome weed ; 
but by woodland walks and on roadside banks it would never be out of 
place.—Wa. TAYLOR, Longleat. 


Christmas Roses.—Mr. M‘Nab laid before a recent meeting of the 
Botanical Society of Edinburgh a variety of Hellebores raised from seed 
by Mr. G. M. Butler, nurseryman, Finnart, Greenock, being crosses 
between Helleborus purpurascens and atro-sanguineus. The habit of the 
plants, as well as the size of the flowers, approaches H. purpurascens, 
while the colour is intermediate between the two. These hybrids will 
prove a great acquisition, as adding to our stock of hardy winter flowering 
plants, now so much wanted. Mr. Butler does not give any detailed 
account of their parentage, but it seems evident that the seed has been 
taken from the H. purpurascens crossed with H. atro-sanguineus. 


Cypripedium Calceolus.—Last September I became possessed of 
a root of this plant, the crown at that time looking as if it would imme- 
diately start. I planted itina forty-eight-sized pot, in coarse turfy peat, kept 
thoroughly open by a free use of small broken crocks. Up to the 
present time it has not started at all, and the other day, when I removed 
some of the soil, to see if it was rooting, I found some of the old roots 
ina state of decay. I should add that it has been kept near the glass in 
a house, where the temperature has not been below 45° all the winter. I 
fear I have treated it wrongly.—S. HitiMan, Lower Norwood. [C. 
Calceolus is a perfectly hardy plant, which will grow in the open air in 
half shady places in any part of Britain. On the fringes of groups of 
shrubs, in good sand or calcareous loam, it would be likely to thrive, and 
also on shady banks. A few pieces of caleareous rock broken up with the 
soil, and also half buried round the plant, are very desirable for it. ] 


Plants Suitable for a Suburban Public-house.—A corres- 
pondent has written to ask an opinion as to the kind of plants most 
suitable for his front garden, he having recently opened a smail suburban 
tavern. To this, a friend, to whom the query was submitted, has 
favoured us with the following reply:—‘‘Tell your correspondent 
he must, in the first place, carefylly avoid the Zea-plant; and after 
selecting some respectable plant im-porter, he had better purchase a good 
stout Ale-o! This he must at once make quite tight with strong Bass. 
Should his neighbours make fun of this plant, and call it a Rum shrub, he 
had better remove it, and plant in its stead a Boose-well-ia. This, indeed, 
has some advantages over the former, for its smell is truly Zush-ious. It 
s For the border, he might have 
Gin-tian and Cloves ; these will be found far preferable to either L-beer-is or 
Mug-wort. Should the boys prove troublesome, and pull up his flowers, 
he cannot do better than plant a few wild peeler-goniums in theneighbour- 
hood. Our friend “jops” this will quite meet the views of the tavern- 
keeper.—W. G. 8, 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE MANAGEMENT OF OUR PARKS AND 
PUBLIC GARDENS. 

TuosE interested in selecting trees for planting in positions 
liable to much smoke could scarcely do better now than stroll 
into Hyde Park or any other of our London parks and gar- 
dens, and observe the aspect of the evergreens as compared 
with that of the deciduous trees. But nowhere may the ruin 
be seen more plainly than along the drive in Hyde Park, 
where it is quite painful to see the filthy and dying objects 
that were once beautiful and glistening young evergreen 
conifers. It was simply folly to plant these in this position ; 
as anybody who studies the fate of trees in London could 
have foretold that they had about as much chance of thriving 
as if planted in the fire. The whole thing is disgraceful to us 
as a nation of gardeners; and the worst of it is we do not 
know who to blame for it. It was done long before Mr. 
Gibson, than whom no man is more fitted to do justice to the 
position, was placed in charge of Hyde Park. But even if 
this were not the case, we could not, if report be correct, 
blame the superintendent. We understand that our great 
parks and gardens are not ruled by their appointed guardians, 
but from the central office. It appears that the functionaries 
here, not content with selecting the best man they can find 
for each park or garden, not content with the many important 
duties which of right belong to them, go further, and are good 
enough to inform the various able and intelligent super- 
intendents of our public gardens where they are to place 
their pelargoniums, and, generally, how they are to arrange 
the details of their charge! 

We have reason to believe that this system, so intolerable 
and unjust to the superintendents of our gardens and parks, 
and so fraught with evil to the gardens themselves, is applied 
to the Royal gardens at Kew as well as to the parks. We 
know of a case in which a superintendent of a park was 
desirous of getting rid of a peculiarly objectionable feature 
in one of our most popular parks, and reported accordingly ; 
but orders came not to interfere with it. We assure the 
reader that nothing in a tea-garden could have been in worse 
taste, but the answer from Whitehall Place was, “ Let it remain !” 
On the other hand, orders, from which there is no appeal, are 
given for the execution of the most unwise changes in our 
gardens. If a mere question of taste were involved in this, 
we should not have anything to say. Let the reader look at 
one of the consequences of the system we point out—the 
hideous “rockwork” at the eastern end of the Serpentine, 
and he will see at once that it means in at least one case 
a costly monstrosity in the vilest taste. 

Not long ago the site of this was an ordinary steep bank 
shaded by trees, with an objectionable and watery hollow 
at its base. It was resolved to improve it by covering it 
with an extensive “rockwork.” It is difficult to give an 
idea of what this is like, but numbers of our readers may 
have an opportunity of seeing it for themselves. Suppose 
a cottager, in some part of the country where cottagers 
display grotesque taste in their usually pretty little gardens, 
to be owner of a few barrowfuls of the rubbish of burnt bricks, 
clinkers, &c., and to make of these and a little mortar a flat 
shapeless mass on the ground, with a hole in the middle to 
act as a sort of vase. Suppose the whole surface of the large 
bank im the park to be covered with a gigantic and hideous 
plaster of this kind, and a roundish hole here and there left to 
be filled with earth for the reception of plants, and the reader 
who has not an opportunity of, seeing this scene will have 
some idea of what it is. We should hesitate to describe it were 
it not under the eye of everybody, as people might naturally 
conceive it ineredible that such a course should be pursued 
in a public park on which vast sums of money are spent. 

The “rockwork’’ once made, then came the planting; and 
in this, if possible, a'greater blunder was committed. Probably 
the wretched effect of the great bank of plaster and brick- 
yard rubbish became too evident, and it was resolved to hide 
it by thick planting; but, in any case, the whole surface is 
covered with evergreen and often rare shrubs as thickly as 
the floor of a nurseryman’s waggon on its way to the railway _ 


306 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fen 24, 1872. 


station with a load of specimens. In many cases they are 
denser than this, and if the reader walks round the fringes 
ot the bank, he will see as many as half-a-dozen choice little 
shrubs stuck in, and struggling for existence, in one hole, or 
rather he will see the sickly remnants of them, for of course 
they gradually perish under such treatment. Delicate and 
pretty little alpine shrubs, like Daphne Cneorum, that 
always require a little space to spread out and be seen, may 
be here observed bearing their last few leaves, extineuished 
under some coarse shrubs; and this in many cases. In one 
miserable hole here, only large enough to develop a house- 
leek, or some rock plant with an iron constitution, we observed 
the following plants :—a Retmospora, two kinds of Rhododen- 
dron, an Ivy, a Genista, a Daphne Cneorum, and a small Cedar. 

The whole was done at first just as if it were merely 
arranged for the sake of its effect for a single evening. It 
resembled a vast toy garden, planted by children innocent of 
any notion that the shrubs would grow. Of the judgment 
used in selecting the subjects, some idea may be formed when 
it is stated that numbers of plants of the New Zealand Flax 
were crammed im among the shrubs on the low mounds. But 
the prime beauty of the planting here has yet to be described. 
Here and there on the surface of this wonderful “rockwork” 
may be observed a clinker and cement vase sticking up a 
couple of feet above its neighbours, and less than two feet 
in diameter, probably designed to act as the “last great 
eyidences of mountain beauty”; or, say, to afford something 
of the effect the Lombardy Poplar affords among low-headed 
trees. What is planted in these pockets elevated ina thin 
wall of cemented rubbish? A creeper to fall over the sides, 
ora Yucca? No; each contains what was once a promising 
specimen of one of the noblest and hardiest conifers known 
—the well-known and much-admired Picea Pinsapo of Spain, 
and which forms such imposing forests on the higher and 
northern parts of the Sierra 
Nevada. M. Bossier, who dis- 
covered this fine tree, which has 
already formed large specimens 
both near London and Paris, would 
indeed be astonished to see it in 
this position, as would every lover 
and planter of conifers throughout 
these islands. Inaddition to being 
planted as described, they are 
placed right under large trees, 
so that they are in dense shade in 
summer. 

We are, in simple pursuance of 
our duties, obliged to call atten- 
tion to eyesores in our public 
parks; but so long as the system 
we have alluded to exists, it would 
be most unfair to blame the super- 
intendents of the gardens or parks, 
who are not guilty of perpetuating 
such absurdities as we allude to, and who are powerless to 
remove them. 

The question we now bring up, let no man suppose to bea 
trifling matter. Let anybody, with a knowledge of trees or 
general gardening, walk round the “ rockwork” alluded to at 
the end of the Serpentine, and look closely into its structure and 
planting, noting also the Piceas dying in the ridiculous vases 
just named, and he can only come to one conclusion—that the 
whole thing is a standing insult to the intelligence of our 
gardeners and garden architects. We shall continue, then, to 
point out blemishes of this kind, assuming that the super- 
intendents of our gardens fre not responsible for them—at 
least till we learn that their hands are loosened. 


Picea Pinsapo, as planted at the 
end of the Serpentine (froma 
sketch in the Field). 


The Cow Tree.—On the parched side of a rock on the mountains of 
Venezuela grows a tree with dry and leathery foliage, its large woody 
roots scarcely penetrating into the ground. For several months in the 
year its leaves are not moistened by a shower; its branches look as if 
they were dead and withered ; but when the trunk is bored, a bland and 
nourishing milk flows from it. It is at sunrise that the vegetable fountain 
flows most freely. At that time the natives are seen coming fromall parts, 
provided with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow and 
thickens at its surface. Some empty their vessels on the spot, while others 
carry them to their children,—wmbolit. 


A NOBLE NATIONAL PARK. 


THE YOSEMITE 


N order to form some idea of the noble 
J national park about to be described, let us 
i.~f imagine a noble chain of giant mountains, 
: oA with towermg peaks for months white 
\o “with snow, with flanks clothed in gigan- 
2 tic forests and riven with chasms, down 
which streams are precipitated from yast 
heights into park-like valleys, forming cas- ~ 
‘ cades of astonishing beauty and grandeur, and 
=> again dashing onward in “arrowy” torrents 
) through the valley. Letit be imagined further that a 
7 region has been discovered, in which the grandest 
features of alpine scenery are concentrated within com- 
paratively limited space around a yalley of surpassing 
beauty, and then some idea may be formed of the territory 
which the State Government of California has declared a 
national park, to be preserved in all its original magnificence 
as a pleasure ground of the American people for ever. 

It is in acts of this kind that the far-seeing sagacity of 
American rule is exhibited under its most’ favourable aspect, 
and in a way that makes its shortcomings in many other 
directions seem small failings in comparison with its grand 
sympathies for the well-being of its rapidly increasing millions. 
In many of the States of the great Mederation, stretches of 
noble scenery haye been secured for public parks by timely 
foresight, before the disfiguring hand of man could settle his 
tall black chimneys and his noisy workshops like unsightly 
blotches on the fair face of beautifulnature. Some of the noble 
parks thus secured have been briefly described in the pages of 
Tue GarpEn ; but those alluded to, though containmg grand 
natural features of rock, of river, of remnants of natural 
forest, cannot for a moment be compared with the Yosemite 
Valley, which was proclaimed a people’s park in 1865-66. 

The Yosemite Valley became known to Europeans for the 
first time in the year 1850. During the whole time of the 
Spanish occupation of the country and that of the Americans, 
till that date the extraordinary beauty of that magnificent 
recess among the great mountains of the Sierra were utterly 
unknown except to the Red Indian. Im the year 1851, a 
small mining population of Whites, living on the streams 
which head round the vicinity of the Yosemite land, found 
themselves unable to live in peace with the scattered Indians 
of the region, and a war ensued, in the course of which it was 
ascertained that the Indians hada secret stronghold high up 
among the mountains, into which they disappeared wheneyer 
they found themselves completely overmatched. In 1851 an 
expedition was organized to discover this retreat if possible, 
and drive the Indians from their fastness, which was effected 
through the treachery of a chief named Tenaya, who led the 
Whites by the secret tracks of his tribe into the Yosemite 
Valley. The Indians were terribly disheartened by this 
betrayal of their retreat, and, after a feeble resistance, made 
peace, and retired far into the Neyada, leaying the beautiful 
valley in the undisputed possession of the white man; the 
Indians who remained being finally expelled after a quarrel. 
in 1852. It was ascertained that in this favourite retreat of 
the Indians they had a special name for eyery meadow, every 
stream, every cliff, and every waterfall in the valley, some of 
which were picturesquely descriptive, as are so often their 
own personal names. The waterfall, now known as the 
Bridal Veil, they called “ Po*hono,” meaning a blast of wind, 
and expressive of waving motion imparted by the wind to the 
slender stream in its fall of nearly a thousand feet. The 
beautiful cascade now knownas the Vernal Fall, they called 
“ Peiuayac,”’ or white water, which is, in fact, but a shower 
of snowy spray. ‘These are, however, already superseded 
by English names, many of which, if not always appropriate, 
are not without their poetry, and will serve to perpetuate the 
enthusiastic feelings of admiration with which Europeans first 
beheld the wondrous scenery of this unrivalled alpine yalley. 
That such a spot should have remained undiscovered till within 
the last twenty-five years appears somewhat extraordinary. 

Approaching this “State Park” from the Mariposa side, 


VALLEY. 


Fes. 24, 1872.] 


VALLEY. 


* SCENE IN A NOBLE NATIONAL PARK—THE YOSEMITE 


308 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 24, 1872. 


near which station was discovered the grove of Giant 
Wellingtonias, which has also been declared national property, 
the visitor arrives at an opening in a great ledge of rock, 
about seven thousand feet above the sea level, from which the 
first view into the valley is obtained. It has been named 
“Inspiration Point.’ The entire valley is about six miles in 
length, and from half a mile toa mile in breadth, and sunk 
almost a mile (perpendicular) below the general level of the 
adjacent region. It may be roughly likened, as has been said 
by an American describer, to “a gigantic trough, hollowed out 
in the mountains nearly at right angles to their regular bend. 
The yast chasm is, however, of extremely irregular form, 
being characterised by prominently jutting angles and deep 
recesses ; its stupendous walls, which are, on an average, above 
two thousand feet high, being as nearly perpendicular as can 
be well conceived in alpime scenery—one deep sheer cut down, 
productive of the most startling effect when seen for the first 
time. Its detached features are so remarkable, that any one of 
its great domes of granite—any one of its great waterfalls— 
would be sufficient in Europe to attract travellers from all parts. 


From Inspiration Point to the bottom of the valley is a 
deep descent of nearly three thousandfeet. The more striking 
features which first present themselves are, on the left, the 
enormous rock called ‘1 Capitano,” which one cannot help 
thinking may have been so named by one of those Spanish 
friars who are known to have penetrated far into the moun- 
taims in their missionary pursuits. At all events, the name is 
an appropriate one. It is, indeed, the Captain rock, standing 
at the head of all its giant congeners—the true hetiman, as a 
Cossack might say, of the granite giants that wall in the valley. 


Another great rock, with rounded and polished crest, which 
seems to have been half cut away from base to summit, is 
conspicuously visible over the Sentinel Rock, and is known as 
the “Half Dome.” Opposite Hl Capitano is the gracefully- 
beautiful waterfall known as the Bridal Veil, which precipitates 
itself, in its first clear leap, to a depth of 630 feet, when it 
strikes on a projecting ledge,and makes another plunge of 300 
feet, the total height being over 900 feet. As seen at a distance, it 
seems sometimes to flutter like a white lace veil, producing an 
indescribably beautiful and peculiar effect, from which it has 
received its poetical name. 

On the other side of the valley is a cascade nearly, if not 
quite, as beautiful, which has received the name of ‘ Virgin’s 
Tears,” which again suggests the visit of some pious Spanish 
friar, as the modern mining population of Anglo-Americans 
would be hardly likely to have conferred a name founded upon 
Roman Catholic legends. This fall makes a clear descent of 
more than a thousand feet into a deep recess of rocks; and in 
the spring, when the supply of water is abundant, forms an 
exquisitely beautiful object. Yet this cascade, very superior 
to the celebrated Staubbach of the Swiss Valley of Lauter- 
brunnen, is hardly spoken of as remarkable among the mar- 
yellous beauties of the Yosemite Valley. The towering group 
of rocks called the Cathedral, from their turreted aspect, rise 
2,660 feet above the base of the valley, and yet are far less 
lofty, less massive, and less impressive, than El Capitano. 

The next object that attracts attention is a detached rock 
call the Obelisk, or Sentinel Rock, from the foot of which the 
first glimpse is obtained of the grandest of all the grand 
features of this marvellous valley, the Yosemite Fall itself, 
which, taking into consideration its height andits surroundings, 
may, perhaps, be considered the grandest: and most pic- 
turesque cascade in the world—so many elements of beauty 
and grandeur are combined in this grand fall and its acces- 
sories. Its vertical height, it is assumed, surpasses that of any 
known waterfall in the world. In the central depths of the 
Himalayas or Andes there may lurk concealed some miracu- 
lously-formed valley, whose features, both im rock and water, 
may surpass those of the Yosemite, but such regions have not 
yet been discovered ; therefore, the Yosemite Fall, of its kind, 
remains at present supreme. In the spring, when the snows 
first begin to melt, the volume of water of the Yosemite Fall 
is very great. At its average, the breadth of the stream 
which falls over the lofty granite ledge is about twenty feet ; 
but, in the early spring the supply of water is nearly treble 
what it becomes at a late period. The first vertical descent of 


this cascade exceeds 1,500 feet. From the ledge on which it 
then strikes, it makes a further descent of 600 feet in a series 
of plunging falls, and then takes a final leap of 400 feet on to 
a talus of low rock at the base of the precipice. As the 
various portions of the fall are upon one vertical plane, the 
effect is fully as grand, and eyen more picturesque than it 
would be if the descent were made in a single leap from the 
summit to the bottom of the valley, a depth of 2,500 feet! The 
descending mass of water is too great to allow of its being 
broken up into spray; nevertheless, it widens considerably in 
the course of the descent, and at the base, at high-water time, 
its general width is not much less than 300 feet. At a 
moderate state of water supply, it has been estimated the 
quantity projected over the summit is at the rate of 220 cubic 
feet per second. : 

One of the principal characteristics of the Yosemite Valley 
is the close concentration of so mamy magnificent features, the 
great fall, for instance, being only distant in a straight line 
from the Sentinel Dome two and a half miles, and the extra- 
ordinary clearness of the atmosphere makes it appear less than 
half that distance. In springtime, and at the period of full 
moon, the scenery of this valley is perfectly magical, and no 
description—not even that of a Byron, if such a genius were 
again ayailable—could ever approach im words, the glorious 
majesty of thescene. Weknow well how he could paint alpine 
scenery by what he said when he makes Manfred exclaim, as 
he issues from his mountain laboratory at night, and paints 
the Alps by moonlight,— z 

** The stars are forth, the moon above the tops 
Of the snow-shining mountains.—Beautiful !”” 
And, again, in words that might apply to the rent rocks and 
tumbling waters of the Yosemite Vale, lit by the moon,— 
** And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon 
All this, and cast a wide and tender light, 
Which softened down the hoar austerity 
Of rugged desolation.” 

But even touches like these of an inspired pen would paint 
but vaguely the marvellous and endless details of exquisite 
beauty, which shines out in the soft spectral light of the Cali- 
fornian moon, in early springtime. 

A remarkable cliff beyond the Yosemite Falls rises to the 
height of 3,030 feet above the level of the valley, and a little 
further on an Indian canyon may be ascended by good climbers, 
from which a magnificent view of the whole region may be 
obtained. Many more such features, combined with the aspect 
of the waters of the Merced, which run through the yalley, 
and the beauty of the Californian flowers that cluster about the 
roots of the noble detached trees, and carpet, inthe season, the 
Open spaces in the denser woods and the alpine meadows 
during spring and summer, render this region of concentrated 
natural beauty and grandeur, one of the most remarkable spots 
on earth. What a chance America has of making its vast 
inheritance the noblest and most attractive in the world! Scenes 
of matchless magnificence lie spread out before her, unencum- 
bered by any of the claims of private property, and that can 
by a stroke of the official pen, be made public property for the 
enjoyment of all, as a common possession. In our thickly 
populated country there is no longer a chance of securing such 
national privileges without an entire remanipulation of our 
land system. ‘There was once a time—only then public parks 
were not dreamt of—when we might have enclosed many a 
noble piece of land, which might have formed natural parks of 
great beauty. 

But the times for doing so are long past with us, and it 
is only by struggles with already established “ rights” that we 
can now receive a few shreds of land, here and there, for 
popular purposes. The remaining scrap of Hampstead Heath 
had to be purchased from the Lord of the Manor with a 
large sum of money taken from the taxation of the whole 
people. ‘The remnant of our once grand Essex forest has to 
be fought for foot by foot, or dearly paid for. The claim fora 
little extension of Victoria Park, in order to afford a little more 
breathing space for the dense population of eastern London, is 
deemed an unwarrantable demand by our tight-handed Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer; and, in short, the time is past with us 
for doing that which the State Legislature of California has 
effected with such far-seeing wisdom, Nori Humeureys. 


Fes. 24, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


309 


THE BOTANIC GARDEN AT GLASNEVIN. 
(FROM DR. MOORE’S REPORT). 

In the Paim-house, two of the large palms have flowered and 
perfected their seeds, from which young crops have been raised. 
One, Seaforthia elegans, a feather-leafed species, native of Australia, 
is now nearly forty feet high; the other, Latania borbonica, a fan- 
leafed kind, from .the Isle de Bourbon, has attained nearly the 
same height as the former. In one of the other warm conservatories 
the Mango tree, Mangifera indica, bore ripe fruit last year. The 
chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao, is also fruiting again. The filmyferns 
are growing well in the house lately erected for their culture. The 
different species of Trichomanes and Hymenophyllums seem quite at 
home in it, and have been much admired by many of the visitors who 
have seen them. The fine collection of ‘tree ferns which is now in 
this garden continues to make progress; but it is difficult to make an 
atmosphere exactly suitable for them in ordinary conservatories 
where they are associated with other kinds of plants. Additions of 
considerable interest have been made to all the departments in the 
garden, in the way of plants, which have been obtained partly by 
purchase, but mostly by exchange. The journey I made to the prin- 
cipal botanical establishments in Belgium, Switzerland, and Ger- 
mahy, during the month of July last, enabled me to make selections 
from them of such plants as were much required at Glasnevin, and 
to supply in return those selected by the directors of botanical 
gardens, &c., from our lists. By no other means cana good botanical 
collection be properly maintained, where it is necessary to grow 
many kinds of plants not to be found in commerce. The gardens 
have been much frequented during the past session by the professors 
of botany and their students, belonging to several of the medical 
schools in Dublin, for the purpose of teaching and studying from the 
arranged plants. Notwithstanding the unusually wet summer of last 
year, a very large number of persons have visited the garden, on both 
week-days and Sundays. The books show that the Sunday visitors, 
during the year, amount to 170,170; on week-days, 54,889. Total, 
225,059. 


Public Park.—On Tuesday, February 6th, the Warrington Town 
Council passed a resolution, authorizing the purchase, by the town, of 
Bank Hall and its beantiful grounds for the sum of £50,000, for the 
purpose of forming a public park. The mansion is to undergo certain 
alterations and-additions, which will fit it for a town hall, to which will 
be attached suitable handsome buildings fora police station and a fire- 
engine station. While we find so much difficulty in raising £24,000 to 
secure a small extension of Victoria Park for the vast population of East 
London, we are fairly put to shame by the spirit displayed by this pro- 
vincial town. The cases are not precisely analagous, a park for the 
population of Warrington being, comparatively speaking, a luxury, and, 
therefore, more properly be paid for by themselves. But, had not the 
means been fortheoming, as they evidently are, it would have been 
incumbent upon the Government to come to the aid of Warrington, ina 
case where the health and wholesome recreation of the people are 
concerned. 

Meetings in the Parks.—Mr. Ayrton’s Bill for the regulation 
of the Royal Parks and Gardens contains the following among the 
eighteen regulations to be enacted by the Bill :—‘‘ No person shall 
deliver, or invite any person to deliver, any public address in a park 
except in accordance with the rules of the park.” The rules 
(except as to any matter within the jurisdiction of the Ranger) are 
to be made by the Commissioners of her Majesty’s Works and 
Public Buildings. The Bill applies to Hyde Park, the Green Park, 
Kensington Gardens, St. James’s, Regent’s, Victoria, Kennington, 
Greenwich, Battersea, and Bushy parks, Richmond Park and Green, 
Hampton Court Park and Green, Kew Gardens, Chelsea Gardens, 
Parliament Square Gardens. Primrose Hill, Holyrood Park, and 
Linlithgow Park. 

Proposed New Market near Leicester Square.—The com- 

any Which has been formed for the erection of a new market close to 

eicester Square, near Coventry Street, include in their plans a proposal 
to build on a portion of the square, dividing it into wide and spacious 
streets, leaving about half the area of the square open and still unbuilt 
upon. It is suggested that the site and the property in the locality will 
be enhanced in value by the opening of a fruit and vegetable market on 
the side of Coventry Street, with two entrances from the last-named 
street, and platforms underneath, connected with the new railway which 
is about to be constructed, so as to unite the Euston with the Chan 
Cross and Waterloo stations. All the requisite plans in connection with 
the company’s proposed works have been deposited with Parliament. 

Hardening. Asphalte Covering.—Nothing can be done till 
summer ; then, on a hot day, give a coat of coal tar; this will dry in a 
few days ; then boil pitch, tar, and tallow together. I do it by rule of 
thumb—say, one of tallow and three of pitch to four of tar; put this on 
on a hot day, and, if properly done, roofs or paths will require no further 
care for years ; ten feet square may be tarred with a sweeping-brush in ten 
minutes.— English Mechanic. 


A WINTER GARDEN FOR LONDON. 


WHat resources have the people in the way of enjoyment during 
spring and summer? Let the myriads that throng our publie parks 
and gardens answer. The human frame, pent up in close workshops 
or rooms for many days together, sighs eagerly for a glimpse of 
nature, a breath of fresh air, the odours of sweet flowers, the enjoy- 
ment of the beautiful, even though to be had only in a London 
park. To rich and poor alike, our Hyde, Victoria, and Battersea 
parks, or our Kew and Hampton Court gardens, are glorious institu- 
tions, of which, while the sun shines warmly, one never tires. The 
noble umbrageous trees, the green velvetsward, the orange or scarlet 
tufted shrubs, and, not least, the beautiful flowers, with the many 
and varied tints of foliage, planted out in quaint and captivating 
forms, all combine to allure and attract the attention of all classes. 
We are proud of our parks, and justly, but these are but fair weather 
sights; and, when winter comes, where can the poor Londoner enjoy 
his holiday ? My earnest wish, therefore, is that either the Goyern- 
ment or private capitalists would establish within our midst a 
veritable winter garden. But what sort of a garden is practicable ? 
We want our winter garden to be vast in its proportions. Nothing 
but a large area, enclosed and covered by iron and glass, will suflice. 
The kind of building in which such a garden should exist must not be 
a temple dedicated to Flora—a thing to look at only. It is not in 
height but in breadth that we shall find our hopes realised—a 
building that shall hold within its bounds the simplest flower or the 
choicest plant as easily as they can now be cultivated within the 
bounds of the humblest glass structure our gardens afford is what 
we want. 

Our winter garden ought to be placed in some sheltered spot in 
a deep crescent of trees and shrubs, which should shield it from 
the north and east winds, whilst its entire area should be encircled 
with shrubs and borders. The glass erection should be strong, and 
consist of a series of half-circular roofs, supported upon neat 
iron columns, plenty of ventilation being provided, as well as wide 
and roomy gutters, so as to enable snow and dirt to be cleaned off 
with facility. Within we would have, at least, one small portion 
divided by a glass partition from the remainder, and which should 
be devoted to the cultivation of plants and flowers that need heat to 
have them in perfection. In the larger area, however, there should 
only be maintained a moderate degree of heat, so that, with proper 
cultivation, the humble primrose and the violet should blossom as 
favourably in the vast structure as on the banks of our fields and 
meadows. We want neither shelyes nor stages, but artistically 
arranged banks, beds, and borders, all margined with Lycopods, suc- 
culents, ornamental grasses, and any kinds of vegetation that will 
thrive well under glass. All through these beds and borders must 
be planted masses of Camellias, Azaleas, Cytisus, Coronillas, and 
all kinds of winter-flowering plants, whilst half hardy ferns, palms, 
&e., shall tower up and display their splendid forms to the gaze of 
admiring multitudes. As far as possible, the groundwork of these 
beds must be covered with all kinds of plants that experience has 
shown to be useful for winter decoration, not even the humblest 
hedge flower being forgotten. Running like a network all over the 
wide area should be broad, smooth gravel or asphalte pathways, over 
which thousands might wander without discomfort, and be delighted 
with the charms that so beautiful a spectacle would present. Seats 
in all kinds of recesses, and at all commanding spots, should be. 
abundantly provided, and nothing should be wanting to make our 
winter garden the most beautiful, enjoyable, and captivating place 
of resort thatthe metropolis could boast through the dull, dead days 
of winter. 

Then we must have miniature waterfalls on rockwork; and, in order 
that the flowing streams should be at a proper temperature, we 
would have them previously to entrance subjected to the action of 
powerful jets of steam, and thus not a little would be accomplished 
towards the maintenance of an agreeable temperature. Such a winter 
garden would be a boon to us. 

Perhaps much of what I have advised is tneapable of realisation, 
but at least the conception will bear consideration. One thing is 
certain: our winter garden must be within reach of the people, and 
not placed eight or nine miles away, making the cost of travelling 
greater than the cost of admission. Great as haye hitherto been 
our horticultural enterprises, a good winter garden will cars ha 
all. A. . 


New Mode of “ Watering” Streets.—Some days since, at a 
meeting of the Paddington Vestry, at which tenders were received for 
watering, slopping, &c., it was resolved by a large majority to accept Mr. 
Cooper's tender for “ watering” the parish with his patent salts for the 
ensuing twelve months. We presume these are something of the nature 
of the deliquescent salts tried in Paris. 


310 - 


THE GARDEN. 


[Frs. 24, 1872. 


GREAT GARDENS OF EUROPE. 


VERSAILLES. 
THE GARDENS OF THE LITTLE TRIANON. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 

Tim gardens of the Little Trianon neyer fail to produce an 
agreeable impression upon the visitor after the grand for- 
malities of the great gardens of the palace. ‘Their comparative 
simplicity and the refreshing irregularity of the walks and plant- 
ations, in professed imitation of nature, are undoubtedly a 
source of relief to the explorer who has undergone the fatigues 
of the endless rectangular walks oppressed with the legions of 
statues, urns, and fountains of the great gardens. Nevyerthe- 
less, the comparative naturalness of these pretty grounds is 
not above criticism. The Marquis de Girardin, when he 
purchased the celebrated domain of Ermenonville in 1763, 
proceeded to embellish it after his own carefully cultivated 
taste in the matter of landscape gardening; upon which 
subject he published a treatise, the title of which may 


clear lake in which they are reflected, and turn his attention to 
the finely-grown trees, many of which first flourished in Hurope 
in the soil of the Trianon, he cannot but feel that the pretty 


jardin paysage is avery pleasant place. Hyen the somewhat 


over-classical Temple of Love is so prettily situated on the 
picturesque island, that one is inclmed to give in even to the 
pretence of its name, and Bouchardon’s elegant statuette of 
Cupid, cutting his bow out of the club of Hercules, is such a 
graceful fancy, that the imagimation is led away captive, and, 
not troubling itself about shams, is simply delighted with the 
pretty effect of the little edifice reflected in the lake. 

Eyen the imitation ‘“ Swiss Village,” fails to offend, and the 
“natural” arch of foliage at the side of the lakelet, one base 
of which terminates in the water, is so tastefully and naturally 
managed that criticism is so fairly led away by it, that the 
trickiness of the thing evades notice. 

There is one feature in the gardens of the Little Trianon—a 
little building overgrown with ivy and deeply embosomed 
among noble trees—which is so truly picturesque and attractive 
that it matters little whether it be a reality or a sham, for it is 


Scene in the Gardens of the Little Trianon. 


be thus translated, “On the Composition of Landscapes, 
and the Means of Embellishing Nature.” He hastened to 
put in practice at Ermenonyille the theories enunciated in 
his work; and the result of his labours has been thus 
described by a clever though somewhat cynical critic :— 
“This is certainly a return in the direction of nature; but 


accompanied by the unfortunate determination 10 ornament it . 


by the introduction of sham ruins, imitation cottages, pre- 
tended temples, false tombs, and other devices of a similar 
class, such as verses inscribed on rocks, or halt-obliterated in- 
scriptions on fallen fragments of stone; it being expected that 
a wanderer among those serpentine paths should feel a vivid 
pleasure in the deciphering of some sublime phrase half 
overgrown with moss on the face of a rock, or to fall into a 
pleasing reverie in the contemplation of the fallen stones of 
the sham ruin.” Absolutely similar remarks might be made 
on the planning and decorations of the gardens of the Petit 
Trianon, which have also their sham seignorial castle, their 
sham chawmieres, their imitation mill, and their utterly idle, 
yet very pretty mill stream. But if the visitor will only shut 
up his cynical criticism, and admire the green slopes and the 


undoubtedly a very charming object; so charming, that few 
will care to be told that it was originally built as a veal dairy, 
which it now only pretends to be, as it is no longer used for 
that purpose. 

In summing up the general merits of the great park 
and gardens of Versailles, it must be admitted that as a 
erand geometric garden, supposed to be in accordance with 
the architecture of the palace, it is the most sumptuous example 
of its kind that regal expenditure and the labour and genius of 
a host of great artists ever produced, or that is ever likely to 
be produced—at any rate m Europe. In such a system of 
gardening, the beauty of flowers, the contrasts of various _ 
kinds of foliage, the grandly contrasted natural forms of trees, 
and the irregularly and picturesquely sedged edges of 
sparkling water, perform no part, or, at all events, a very 
minor part. And therefore, this system of palatial gardening 
must be judged, to a great extent, according to the principles, 
good or bad, upon which it is based. We must at the same 
time concede to the little landscape garden of the Trianon the 
merit of being sufficiently charming to prevent the most 
cynical critic from objecting to it. : 


Fes. 24, 1872.) THE GARDEN. Sul 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 
SAND AN UNSUSPECTED PLANT-KILLER. 


Aut is not gold that glitters, we know; and it is equally true, 
though not so well known, that all is not sand that_ looks to be so. 
T have even found in some so-called silver-sands a large percentage 
of lime. It looked white and 
sparkling, but tested with water it 


AN OLD PLANT OF THE DWARF FAN PALM. 


Tis is usually seen in such a dwarf condition that few of 
us would suspect it to attain such stature as that represented 
by the specimen now figured. It grows, and has long grown, 
in the Garden of Plants at Paris, where it and a companion 
plant are placed every year in the open air. This Palm, valu- 

able in all stages, is particularly 
so for narrow pie glass- 


made a milk-like infusion. Many 
such-sands contain lime enough 
to kill whole colonies of heaths or 
other choice plants. And as to 
coloured sands, they are still more 
impure; and the more colour, as 
arule, the greater the impurity ; 
for the colour is the stain left by 
some earth or iron that is certain 
to be injurious to plants. Reigate 
silver-sand is the best. The par- 
tiality of cultivators for this is well 
known to dealers in sand; conse- 
quently, they all profess to come 
from Reigate, though many of 
them get their supplies much 
nearer where they live. I have 
even had white sand from the 
seashore offered for pure Reigate. 


The purification of sand for the 
potting of choice plants is a 
branch of gardening that has been 
much neglected. Great care has 
been exercised in the selection of 
peats and the choice of loams, and 
their qualities have been, and are, 
tested in various ways ; but sands 
have received far less attention ; 
and yet the best sweetened loam 
and peat may speedily be converted 
into plant poison by means of im- 
pure sands. The best sand I ever 
had was pounded down from white 
free or sand stone. A good por- 
tion of it was used ina roughish 
state, and the roots of Heaths, 
Epacrises, Azaleas, &c., clung to 
these as if they were pearls of 
great price to them; and the fine 
sand seemed almost equally es- 
teemed. For the potting of choicer 
plants, all sands should be passed 
throngh fire and water first. The 
first burns out any organic im- 
purities, and the latter washes out 
fine earthy matter. Some portions 
of sand may even be too fine for 
our purpose, and their minute 
particles can be washed out. Sand 
is used chiefly for mechanical rea- 
sons ; it baulks, if I may so express 
it, the cohesive power of soils, and 
hinders them from running too 
closely together. Hence, the 
grittier it is, in reason, the better. 
For soft-wooded plants and com- 
mon purposes, I prefer road to pit 
sand. Both ought to be washed ; 
and when this is done, the reason 
of the preference will appear. Take 


covered passages, &c., where a 
tall, gvaceful, and tropical type 
of vegetation is required, and 
where there is no room for 
wide-spreading forms. 


CONSERVATORIES IN 
THE NATURAL STYLE, 


In discussing the subject of con- 
servatories in the natural style 
nothing has yet been said res- 
pecting the building for the winter 
garden, conservatory, or whatever 
name it is thought fit by which 
to designate it; nevertheless, 
wherever any attempt is made to 
carry the project to a successful 
issue it is of much importance 
that this most essential point be 
well considered. By far the 
greater number of conservatories 
in this country, large and small, 
are nothing more than mere crea- 
tions of the architect, who gener- 
ally finds a vacant corner into 
which the introduction of a con- 
servatory will improve the appear- 
ance of the mansion, and this 
without regard to adaptation for 
the plants it is destined to hold. 
Therefore, with the exception of 
roof-climbers, it becomes a mere 
living sepulchre for the occupants, 
which canonly be kept in anything 
like tolerable condition by frequent 
removals, simply through an in- 
sufficiency of that greatest of all 
essentials— light. The fact of 
every plant which we introduce 
into our glass houses, and more 
especially the occupants of the 
warmest of them being indigenous 
to countries where they are sub- 
ject to an amount of light scarcely 
understood by us in our sunless 
climate, ought to point to the 
necessity of making this the first 
consideration in the matter. And 
even if it were not a positive 
essential to the existence of the 
plants, there is another potent 
reason in reference to this to be 
considered, and that is that a con- 
servatory ought to be most enjoy- 
able in winter; yet how often do 
we find from insuflicieney of light 
that a gloom is cast over the whole 
of the interior ? 

The first consideration should be 


the same quantity of each to start 
with, and at the end of the wash- 
ing we will find generally as much | 
again of the road as the pit sand 
left. Of course the latter varies se 
immensely in quality, and occa- A 
sionaly pits of pretty pure coloured | 
sand arefound. But very often pit sands contain fifty or more per cent. 
of coloured earths, soft, fine, useless, and it may be highly injurious. 
Sand might readily be burnt in our boiler furnaces in small 
portable retorts; and were its purification, either by fire or water, 
more general, we should hear fewer complaints of sour soils that 
the roots refused to feed upon, and of sudden and apparently 
unaccountable deaths among choice plants. D. T. Fisx. 


the sitnation. Unless a conserva- 
tory can occupy a position that 


Fine Old Specimen of the Dwarf Fan Palm. will afford an abundance of light, 


Y, and also harmonise well with the 

—>igi<— architectural features without 

ee being made too lofty for the 

well-being of the plants, it never 

ought to be placed in immediate proximity to the mansion; 

and, wherever it is placed, the internal appearance, when furnished, 

ought to take precedence over mere outside effect ; but where sound 

cultural and the necessary architectural knowledge are combined, 
both these essentials might be secured. 

The next question is the material—iron or wood. On this subject 

much difference of opinion exists; each have their advantages. In 


312 


THE GARDEN. 


[Frs. 24, 1872. 


wood, the expansion and contraction consequent upon the changes of 
our variable climate, are much less than with iron, consequently 
there is not so much breakage of glass. Against this, iron has the 
two great advantages of durability, and its greater strength admits 
of its being reduced in bulk, so as to admit much more light than is 
possible in the case of wood; therefore I must give the preference to 
1ron. 

A third consideration is the form of the building; here there will 
be room for the exercise of much diversity of taste, and the 
surroundings in each individual case will in some measure determine 
the plan: Conservatories of any size, constructed with a single span, 
internally have an apparent deficiency in breadth, in short, a cramped 
appearance, and do not afford sufficient scope for anything approaching 
a natural arrangement of the plants. The best form would be a 
series of three or five curvilinear spans, according to the length, the 
centre one being higher than the rest, using iron columns for 
support, and hollow, so as to take off the roof-water. This form 
might be varied with a transept, or in other ways, if thought 
desirable. 

As to the distribution of the plants, no set form of arrangement 
can be satisfactorily given, unless the size of the building was deter- 
mined on; but, above all things, anything approaching crowding 
must be avoided, otherwise, it would be impossible to secure the 
repose which is so essential for general effect. As to the plants that 
are to be permanently planted ont: this will require being done with 
judgment, considering well what proportion each individual is likely 
ultimately to attain, and should be confined to such things as are 
intended to drape the walls with climbers for the roof and the plants 
that are to fill the most commanding positions in the building. If 
it were necessary to use only such things as are grown for the beauty 
of their foliage, or to make the arrangement to consist principally of 
such, then almost all might be planted ont. This might answer in 
the sunny clime of southern Europe, but during our sunless winters 
we want a very considerable amount of colour in the shape of 
blooming plants. Now, I say distinctly, that with few exceptions, 
these blooming plants must not be planted out, but must be grown 
in pots, tubs, or similar contrivances. And this for many reasons, 
the principal one being that it is impossible to regulate the blooming 
season with plants that cannot be moyed. As to the objectionable 
appearance of the pots or tubs, this might easily be overcome by 
sinking them to the level of the ground where they are placed; or 
there are many other devices by which they might be concealed. 
But, as I attempted to show in my first communication on this 
subject, unless the selection of the plants is made with care and 
judgment, failure must follow. Instead of going to the hottest parts 
of the world for plants of quick growth that will always be strugeline 
to outstrip the bounds allotted to them, and that require a tempera- 
ture too hot to render the place as enjoyable as it should be, the 
selection should be made of such plants as are found in more tem- 
perate climes that possess advantages the reverse of those to which 
T allude. 

I have no doubt that a more natural arrangement of our conser- 
yatories will gradually take the place of the present system. or- 
tunately, this improvement in general effect can be attained without 
sacrificing in any way that excellence of culture on which the 
gardeners of this country justly pride themselves. 


Southgate. T. BAtus. 


I quire agree with M. André as to the general principles involved 
in this matter. Nothing is more desirable than that the structures 
by courtesy called ‘‘ green” houses and conservatories should be 
made a little greener and fresher and more natural-looking than they 
usually are. This is desirable from eyery point of view, but especi- 
ally so for the gardener, who is continually harassed by the present 
system of fillmg and emptying the conservatory every second week 
or so. The success of the plan, however, depends entirely on the 
selection of the plants; and while M. André’s selection of Palms 
and plants of noble habit is admirable, and embraces a good many 
things that deserve to be better known, I think he is wrong in enumerat- 
ing in his last list such subjects as the Sweet Verbena and the Spar- 
mannia. No doubt they would do well, but so would hundreds of 
unsuitable weeds. Itis the noble Palm, Draczena, and Tree Fern 
type of vegetation we want; the small-leaved and flowering plants 
we can add in pots as we like. 
for permanent planting as the tropical forms. But the chief reason 
for employing such plants as the New Zealand Flax, the hardier 
Palms, Tree Ferns, Dracenas, &c., is because they do not become 
periodically shabby; do not rush up to the roof hastily and begin 
pushing through the glass, but remain for years at a time in a 
healthy and beantiful condition—always in winter or summer ready 
to gracefully harmonise with any flowering or other plants we can 
spare to associate with them.—H. Viner. [We quite concur. | 


As types, these are not so welcome. 


APHELANDRA CULTURE. 


THOUGH common many years ago, these are now not often 
seen, even among the best-appointed collections of plants. 
Why this should be we cannot tell, for they are not plants of 
difficult cultivation, neither do they belong to the most fugitive 
of decorative plants, as the flowers are produced upon branched 
spikes, and remain in perfection for many weeks. The great 
drawback is that they are not easy to produce in a dwart state, 
and hence, unless great care be taken at the outset, they are 
apt to run up spindly and produce a single spike of bloom 
only. To prevent this, it is necessary that the cuttings be 
taken not more than two inches long, so that the young buds 
may come pretty close to the ground. ‘The buds are opposite 
im pairs, and hence the first growth should be two shoots, the 
second four, and so on, six or eight pairs of shoots making a 
magnificent plant—such a one as is rarely seen, and will take 
several years to form. Cuttings may be taken in the spring, 
when the plants will be in a comparatively dormant state, and 
possibly many of the leaves will have fallen. Cut the plants 
down to within the last pair of joints on each shoot from the 
old wood, and then cut each shoot into lengths close above and 
about two inches below the joints, making the last cut in a 
slopmg direction, so as to allow a larger surface for the 
production of roots. T'o strike the cuttings readily a brisk, moist 
bottom and atmospheric heat is necessary—in fact, indispens- 
able. The cuttings are best put in singly in small pots, as 
then they sustain very little check in removal. When they 
are struck allow the shoots to grow on, removing them into 
larger pots as it may become necessary, until they are six or 
eight inches high, and then, when the pots are full of roots, stop 
each shoot back to the lowermost pair of buds. From these 
four pairs of shoots should be produced, and when these have 
attained sufficient strength they also may be stopped back, and 
if they are vigorous at the time eight pairs of shoots may be 
the result. This, technically speaking, may be called forming 
the bottom, a process which may result in fine plants another 
season, but not in those which will produce flowers the first. 
But never mind that; take care to get the last set of shoots 
well grown and thoroughly ripened, and then gradually dry 
off and put the plants to rest for the winter. They must not 
be kept absolutely dry for the winter; but no more water 
must be given than will be requisite to keep the plants 
from shrivelling. ? 

With plants for blooming it will be necessary to grow them 
right on from the cutting state, giving them none of the 
checks of the stopping process, but encouraging them to grow 
as strongly as possible. For this purpose a brisk growing 
temperature of 70 degrees, rising to 90 degrees with sun heat, 
is necessary, and if at the same time bottom heat can be given, 
it willbe so munch the better. Cuttings rooted in small pots 
may be remoyed to four-inch, again to six-inch, and if they are 
very robust, to eight-ich pots, of course watching the right 
time for these several removals. The best compost for the 
strong-growing kinds is rich turfy loam three parts, and a 
fourth of rotten dung well incorporated, to which must be 
added sufficient sand, charcoal, and crushed oyster-shells to 
make it light and friable. Pot firmly at all times, but 
especially when the plants receive their last shift for the 
season. ‘To ensure their blooming, the plants should be kept 
in full light, and as near to the glass as possible; but at the 
same time, as the leaves are thick and coriaceous, to prevent 
their scorching it will be necessary to shade them in bright 
sunlight, This, however, will depend upon the quality of the 
glass. If it is good and free from conyexities, no shading will 
be necessary; but if not, it will be safest to throw a slight 
shade over the plants in bright sunlight. The plants may be 
made to bloom at any time from October, or earlier, to March, 
according to the temperature in which they may be placed; 
but all attempts to prolong the blooming beyond that season 
and into the early spring have signally failed. When they 
have ceased blooming reduce the supply of water, and remove 
the plants into a lower temperature. The time for cutting 
them down must be regulated by the season in which it is 
desired that the plants should bloom. It is best to divide the 
stocks of the plants into three or four sets, and, by introducing 
a set into a higher temperature every month, a succession of 
bloom may be had from October to the end of March, 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 318 


In speaking of the old plants, in successive years the young 
shoots must be boldly cut-back to the lowermost pair of buds 
upon each branch, then syringe them daily, limiting the supply 
of water at the root. Ina short time the buds will begin to 
develop themselves, and then the plants must be shaken out, 
the roots curtailed, and repotted into small pots in the compost 
previously named. After this bottom heat may be applied 
with advantage, and the plants may be grown vigorously on, 
of course guarding against those insect pests to which almost 
all plants are subject. ‘The preceding remarks apply in the 
main to that old favourite species, A. cristata, but they are 
also applicable to A. aurantiaca and Roezli, though these, 
being more delicate in habit, will require the compost to be 
very turfy, with an addition of peat; and, until they become 
well established, should have limited pot room and careful 
watering. ‘Two more beautiful plants when properly grown 
it would be difficult to conceive. The regret is that we see 
them so rarely. In addition to the above we may specify 
A. nitens, a recent introduction from Guayaquil, which blooms 
in May. A. Siboniana, from Brazil, is another spring-blooming 
species of great beauty, These two species we should specially 
recommend to our great 
plant growers as being 
worthy of their attention 
for exhibition purposes. 

V 


PALMS FOR THE 
GARDEN. 
(Continued from p. 283.) 


Cocos AUSTRALIS (SYN., 
WALLISU: PARAGUAY) .— 
Habit, dense; fronds, recur- 
ved; pinne, regular, narrow, 
channeled on the underside ; 
a character which also belongs 
to all the species. <A good 
greenhouse palm, the fronds 
of which are more like those 
of a Phoenix than those of 
others of the genus. 

C. BOTRYACRA (SYN., BOTRYO- 
pHora: T’RoricaAL AMPRICA).— 
Fronds, when young, erect, 
when old, drooping; pinnz, 
regular, lax. Very ornamental 
when about ten, or from that 
to sixteen feet in height, the 
whole plant then being very 
erect, and forming a striking 
object among large-foliaged 
plants. 

C. PLExuosA (BRAzIL).—In ~~ Senta 
general habit allied to the 
last, except as regards the pinnae, which are arranged in sets of 
from eight to ten. Very ornamental. 

C. nucrreraA (Cocoa-Nur Patm: INDIAN ArcuiPELAGo),—Fronds 
very stout compared with those of the other species; pinn, regular, 
two inches broad. <A well-known and noble palm for large stoves; 
fond of water and heat, and so fast a grower as soon to get too 
large for general purposes. Of this species there is a fine variety 
ealled the ‘‘ King,” with a yellowish tint in the foliage, altogether 
a stronger plant than the last, of which, moreover, there are some 


twenty other varieties, some smaller than the normal kind, but not | 


in cultivation in this country. 

C. PERNAMBUCENSIS.—A lax, bad grower, and not useful. 

C. PLuMOSA (SYN., CoMMOSA: BRAzIL).—Erect ; pinne, irregular. 
Of the erect-growing section of this genus, this is the best, though 
all are good. Where a slim, tall plant is required to break a line or 
give elegance to a lofty stove, such palms as these are useful, giving 
to such positions a very tropical effect. 

C. ROMANZOFFIANA (BRAzIL).— rect; pinne, regular, narrow, 
and lax. 

C. scHizoPHyLLa (Boxiv1a).—Fronds, reflexed, long; pinnae, regular ; 
petioles brown, with spines at base. A tall-growing species, with 
the habit of a Phoenix. A very ornamental conservatory palm. 


C. WEDDELIANA.—Fronds, gracefully spreading; pinne, one and 


‘|Window Box furnished with Dracenas. 


a half inch wide, regular, glaucous. The most elegant species of 
this genus ; when not more than four feet in height, young plants of 
it have often as many as twelve and twenty graceful fronds on them , 
forming a plume of the most beautiful description. 


Corernicia.—A genus of Tropical American palms, haying 
foliage similar to that of Latanias, but irregular and sparse; there- 
fore not desirable in an ornamental point of view. The species are 
cerifera, tectorum, and palmata, the last of which is the best; foliage 
nearly round and dark-green. 


CoRYPHA AUSTRALIS (SYN., LIvIstonA: New Horianp).—Fronds, 
palmate, cut half-way, forming almost a circle; spines on the petiole, 
small and recurved; fibre at base brown. An excellent greenhouse 
palm or for setting out of doors in summer. It is not a very fast 
grower, and may be kept in a room for a long time without injury. 

C. UMBRACULIFERA (CrYLOoN).— Fronds, palmate; petiole with 
small spines on margin. A very slow-growing palm, and one which 
forms very strong roots, unfitting it for pot culture. 

DirLorHEMiuM cAUDESCENS (BraAziz).—Fronds, from twelve to 
twenty feet, two feet six inches wide, nearly erect, regular, pinnate, 
channelled on the underside, and white ; upper surface dark green; 
| unarmed. A noble palm for a large house, the nearly erect fronds, 
showing the white undersides, 
being very effective ; moderate 
heat is sufficient for it. 

D. LirroRALE (BRAziL).—A. 
lax, useless plant for decora- 
tive purposes. 

D. marirmmum (BRAziL).— 
In general aspect like can- 
descens, but dwarfer and 
denser. 


ELMS  GUINEENSIS 
Om Parma: Wesr Tropican 
Arrica).— Plant, dense; 
fronds, erect and spreading ; 
pinne, regular, channelled on 
the underside, recurved; base 
of petiole spinose ; fronds, fully 
developed, plant from eight to 
ten feet. When young, this 
makes a good plant, as well as 
a good useful plant for deco- 
ration, being of light feathery 
habit, and it will last well in 
a small pot for eight or ten 
years. When old, it gets 
rough; it is fond of heat 
and water. 


(Tue 


E. MpLANAcoccA (Brazin), 
—In general appearance like 
the last, but slenderer, and 
without spines; a good 
palm. J. CRoUCHER. 


(To be continued.) 


|THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 
| Bsiage 23 


DRACZHNAS AS WINDOW PLANTS. 


Bur a few years ago Draceonas were only known in collections of 
choice ereenhonse plants, and like many other things, it was formerly 
supposed that they could only be grown by skilful gardeners. They 

| have been found to endure, however, and even flonrish under very ordi- 
nary treatment. The increased taste for and general use of hanging- 
baskets and window-boxes have made plants formerly rare in such 
positions now quite common. Dracznas, as will be seen by our illus- 
| tration, have a fine appearance in window boxes, and they also look 
well in Wardian eases. Dracznas, as is doubtless well known, belong 
to the Lily family, but they do not haye showy flowers, and are 
cultivated solely for their foliage. Many of them have red coloured 
foliage, and others present different shades of green. There is con- 
siderable difference in the width and thickness of the leaves, and all 
have a pleasing tropical habit. They endure the dry air of our 
dwellings with impunity. The tall specimen in the centre of the box 
is Dracena indivisa; the two smaller ones are, D. terminalis, with 
reddish foliage, and D. australis, with broad green leaves. Some 
| Tradescantia repens is put in as a covering to the soil, so as to give 
the box a pleasing appearance.—Hearth and Home. 


314: 


THE GARDEN, 


(Fes. 24, 1872. 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from page 199.) 


Our illustration is intended to furnish a view of plant 
arrangement im a room which is lighted on one side only. 
Tyy and the antarctic vine here form an important part of 
the decoration. The baskets of plants on the floor are 
placed at just such a distance from the wall that the ght 
from the windows 
may fall directly on 
them. In place of oa —— 
these, flower-stancs 
may be used, plac- 


Tre ARRANGEMENT oF PLANTS IN Rooms, Corrrpors, CEntArs, &c., WHERE 
nHE TEMPERATURE 1s ABOVE THE MPREEZING Port. 

We must here, as in the foregoing remarks, make a dis- 
tinction between the arrangement for ornament, and the 
arrangement for culture only. With respect to the arrange- 
ment for decorative purposes in rooms not usually occupied, 
but which maintain a temperature above the freezing point, 
ov in corridors, on staircases, &e., with a similar temperature, 
the instructions al- 
ready given will 
be equally suitable, 
and the only dif- 
ference will be im 


ing them directly 
opposite the win- 


the selection of the 
plants. Hardy _ 


dows. The parts of 
the wall between 
the windows are 
very unsuitable po- 
sitions for flower- 
stands, although 5 1 
one often sees them = 
placed there. fi 


evergreen green- 
house plants may - 
be employed here 
during the period 
of rest, and, so long 
= 2 as they donot make 
a fresh growth, 
may even be placed 


In dwelling- ; = 


during the winter 


rooms, properly so f= : in positions at a dis- 
called, plant deco- tancefrom the light 
ration, as we have | without suffering 
hitherto described any harm. But as 
it, cannot be carried aii MN soon as the new 
on, as it would S ins ul | growthcommences, 
either darken the ) they must be trans- 
yooms too much, or ferred to positions 
would deprive the which are hetter 
mistress of the ales lighted. 

house of the win- Sus In the greater 
dow recess inwhich Giles hi ql number of cases, 
she loves to sit at a = SAA Mas _ greenhouse plants, 
table with herwork. d ( whether they be 


But even in Russia, ( 
when nature out of 

doors lies dead and ee 
the earth is coyered iN 
with a shroud of 
snow, we can ob- 
tain the greenness ult 
of vegetation, s0 aml a 
soothing tothe eyes MAM Seek 
and so cheering to AIR 
the mind, by con- 
structing bowers or ; i 
canopies of ivy or 


a: 
== 


evergreen foliage 
plants, or flower- 
ing plants, are not 
brought by the 
amateur inside the 
dwelling-house for 
decorative pur- 


poses, but partly in 
order to produce 
flowers for winter- 
oa blooming, partly to 
fill flower - stands 


Cissus, at the win- ah sit alepedh 


dowand onlya little ti 


before the windows 
in summer, and 
partly for the open- 


broader than it, so als Bil Sy air decoration of 
that they may be in \ mont fp balconies, veran- 
a line with the side- be SN Sy dahs, &¢., during 
walls of the window SOE SAN the summer. 
recess. The plants yates TeNSY Therefore in cul- 
placed in the win- tivating them in 


dow hereshould not Oi fe af ——— 


rooms, the winter 


be too large, and 


period is the chief 


then the mistress ft) e 


one which requires 


can sit at her work- : === 


attention. Hardy 


= = kinds which can en- 


table in a green = = SS 3 


bower in the middle 


dure some degrees 


of winter, the di- 


of coldunsheltered, 


mensions of space 
in the apartment 
being very little 
curtailed thereby. 
But these rooms 
generally haye several windows, one or other of which may, 
without detriment to the light or the use of the apartment, 
he devoted entirely to plants, in which case boards or shelves 
may be placed one over another, and on them may be cultivated 
ornamental foliage plants, or flowering plants, or the windows 
may be converted into double windows, the construction of 
which will be explained further on. 


Room Plant-Culture at St. Petersburgh. 


and which maintain 
a perfect state of 
rest all through 
the winter, may be 
wintered in places 
feebly lighted, or even almost dark, such as cellars, vaults, 
&c. As in such places all depends on keeping the plants 
in a state of rest, the temperature should range from 
1° to 8° above zero. The positions of the plants are to be 
looked to, so that they will he injured neither by too much 
moisture or damp air, nor by dust or too dry air, In the first 
case mouldiness and decay, and in the second the drying up 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


of the plants will inflict much damage. Thorough ventilation 
will prove of considerable service during the winter. Cellars 
in which fermentation is carried on, dry heated vaults, fruit 
cellars, &c., are consequently unsuited for the wintering of 
plants; while half-lighted, dry cellars are most favourable. 
Deciduous shrubs, and shrubs in pots, and even hardy ever- 
greens, are more easily wintered in such localities, m pro- 
portion as the mildness of the climate allows them to be 
brought in late in the season, and to be brought out again 
early in the following spring, before the new growth begins. 

A room with a temperature above the freezing point is an 
excellent place for wintering the greater number of those 
favourite greenhouse flowering plants, the flowers of which 
fall off principally in the summer months, such as_Pelar- 
goniums, Heliotropes, Wuchsias, &c. In this case, where it 
is possible to have such an arrangement, the plants should be 
placed on tables or stands which run across the window, and 
at just such a distance from it, that the parts of the wall 
between the windows may not hinder the light from falling 
directly on the plants. Stands with steps from top to bottom, 

_ and rising from the window, which are not more than a foot 
broad at the most, are the most suitable arrangement, because 
on them the plants are so distributed that each receives more 
light than if they were arranged on tables. When a stand of 
this kind is used, there should be either no plants or only 
very small ones placed between it and the window, so that 
the plants on the stand may enjoy all the light possible. The 
space behind the stand and under it may be utilized for the 
wintering of deciduous plants, hardy evergreens, and, above 
ail, hardy greenhouse plants in a state of rest. 

When the room is not to be entirely devoted to the wintering 
of plants, several boards may be placed in the window, at a 
distance of two feet one above another, on which the smaller 
plants may be placed. Other and larger plants may be set 
on separate stands at just such a distance from the window 
as to permit access to the smaller plants which are placed 
there. Ventilation in mild weather and a careful observance 
of the temperature, so that frosty air may not enter during a 
sudden change in the weather, are two points which require 
to be especially attended to.—Ivom the German of Dr. Regel. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


Rose and White Flowered Lapagerias.—The rose-coloured 
Eapaeens and its white variety, on account of the size, form, consistence, 
and durability of their flowers, are among the most choice and valuable 
for cutting. The latter is a most important quality most fully developed 
in the Lapageria. The flowers have a wax-like consistency that preserves 
them from fading for days, or even weeks. Pendent branches, hung 
thickly with rosy pink or white bells, are simply magnificent for vase and 
basket work, the effect being unique and inimitable. The flowers strike 
one at once as of the highest quality, while their size adapts them 
admirably for large vases, &e. A vase filled with Brugmansia suaveolens, 
with Lapageria rosea fringing its sides, has a magnificent effect. Single 
flowers, set in green moss or fern, are telling in flat arrangements. I 
hardly venture to write how long the flowers will keep fresh in such 
positions. Then, for centres or for forming hand bouquets, the Lapageria 
mounted singly furnishes material of the first quality. A single flower of 
either the rose or white variety forms an exquisite eye or centre. Both 
colours may be used in the bouquet with good effect. A white centre, 
with three or five rose-coloured flowers round it, forms, with green 
backing and fringe, anda little “stabbing” of Lily of the Valley, Hoteia 
japonica, violets, or mignonette, or other slender flower, for contrast and 
perfume, a perfect bouquet. A rose centre with white around is equally 
beautiful, and more chaste. The white variety gives quite a new 
character to wedding bouquets. This isa great boon; for few arts are 
more difficult than the securing of variety in bouquets spotlessly white 
and green only. The novelty of form, too, in the Lapageria is an advan- 
tage tothe maker of wedding bouquets. Standing up, the white cup-like 
flowers remind one of spotless goblets offered to the bride. The only 
difference in the two varieties is that of colour ; in all other respects they 
appear identical. The white does not manifest that great weakness even 
that often appears in white varieties, as if white were indeed the breath 
of consumption, or the pale touch of early death. Still, the white variety 
is not yet generally cultivated, though it ought to find a place in every 
garden.—D. 7. F., in “‘ Field.” 


A New Floral Ornament for the Drawing-room.—Last 
August a lady friend of mine gathered a handful of the world-renowned 
flowers of Forget-me-Not, Myosotis palustris, and to preserve them for as 
long a period as possible they were put in a large soup-plate filled with 
rain water. The flowers were placed near the window, so as to enjoy the 
advantages resulting from an abundance of light and air, and the water 


THE GARDEN, 


315 


was replenished when needful. In a surprisingly short space of time— 
three weeks, I believe—white thread-like roots were emitted from the 
portion of the flower-stalks in the water, and they ultimately formed a 
thick network over the plate. The flowers remained quite fresh, except- 
ing a few of the most advanced when gathered, and as soon as the roots 
began torun in the water the buds began to expand, and to take the place of 
those which faded ; and up to the middle of November the bouquet—if it 
may be so-called—was a dense mass of flowers ; and a more beautiful or 
chaste ornament for the indoor apartment cannot be imagined.—Zhomas 
W. Grussler, in ** Gardeners’ Magazine.” 

Goniophlebium appendiculatum,—It is well known that many fern leaves, 
even when they are matured, will not stand long in water after being cut—one 
or two days at the most will suffice to finish their beauty. Even the Maidenhair, 
though quite matured, will not stand more thanthree days. I may mention one 
kind which is a very beautiful fern in any way we choose to look at it, whether 
in pot, basket, or fern-case—Goniophlebium appendiculatum, fronds of which 
will stand three weeks in water in a perfect state. I lookon this fern as a most 
valuable one at this season of the year. It is a warm greenhouse kind, and like 
most of the valuable winter decorative ferns, is most impatient of heat. It 
should never be allowed to get dry, and a saucer of water at the roots in summer 
will assist it very much to mature its numerous fronds for the winter months, 
when they are found really yaluable.—H. K., in ** Gardeners’ Ch ronicle.”? 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 276.) 
METHODS OF GRAFTING. 


Tusk are numerous, and vary according to cireumstances, 
being not unfrequently the result of chance, or the fancy of 
the operator. From our own experience and observations we 
shall describe the modes which are most useful. By modifying 
them in one way or other the number may be increased; but 
all may be referred to the types which we shall describe, and 
may be employed with the same results. A systematic classi- 
fication of them is difficult, on account of their number, and 
the almost invisible lines of demarcation by which some of 
them are divided from each other. They may, however, be 
grouped into three great divisions, viz. :—Grafting by approach, 
or inarching ; by detached scions : and by detached buds. 

In the descriptive part, under each subdivision, we shall 
give the title by which each particular operation is known. 
We have arranged the subject in the following order :— 


GRAFTING BY APPROACH. 
Group 1.—Method by veneering. 
» by inlaying. 
English method. 
Group 2.—Inarching with an eye. 
r with a branch. 
Grartinc BY Deracunp Scions. 
Group 1.—Side grafting under the bark. 
with a simple branch. 
with a heeled branch. 
in the alburnum. 
with a straight cleft. 
+ As with an oblique cleft. 
Group 2.—Crown grafting. 
Ordinary method. 
Improved method. 
Group 3.—Grafting de précision. 
Veneering, common method. 
* in crown grafting. 
ys with strips of bark. 
Crown grafting by inlaying. 
Side grafting by inlaying. 
Group 4.—Cleft grafting, common single. 


” ” double. 
” oblique. 
99 terminal. 
” ” woody. 
” 3 herbaceous. 
Group 5.—Whip grafting, simple. 
complex. 


Saddle grafting. 
Group 6.—Mixed grafting. 
Grafting with cuttings. 
When the scion is a cutting. 
When the stock is a cutting. 
When both are cuttings. 


316 


THE GARDEN. 


[Fus. 24, 1872. 


Roor GRartine. 
Of a plant on its own root. 
a on the root of another plant. 
Grafting with fruit buds. 
Bup Grartinc (Bupp1Ne). 
Group 1.— Grafting with shield buds. 
Bud grafting under the bark, or by inoculation. 


ordinary method. 

3 with a cross-shaped incision. 
3 with the incision reversed. 

Ss by veneering. 


x the combined or double method. 
Group 2.—Plute grafting. 
A common method. 
es with strips of bark. 


GRAFTING BY APPROACH. 


GuyERAL InstRuctions.—Grafting by approach is the most 
ancient of all the methods of grafting. From time imme- 
morial nature has given examples of it in our forests, hedges, 
arbours, &c., where we find trees joined together by their 
branches, stems, or roots, from long continued contact or 
rubbing. Grafting by approach, then, consists in uniting two 
trees by their stems or branches. In certain cases, the shoot 
of a tree or plant is thus grafted on the parent sten: or branch. 
The season for grafting by approach commences and ends with 
the flow of the sap, from March to September. The stock 
and the scion may be in the woody or the herbaceous state, the 
mode of operation being the same in both. Im grafting by 
approach, the scion is not stripped of its leaves, as in the 
other modes, because it remains attached to the parent plant 
while it is being joined to the stock. From both scion and 
stock a precisely similar portion of wood and bark is removed, 
so that the parts may fit exactly when they are put together. 
In order to promote their union, the graft is bandaged, and 
covered with grafting wax. In the case of two trees being 
grafted together, a prop, or stake,is used. After they have 
continued to grow together for, at least, a year, when the 
union may be considered perfect, the part grafted on the 
other may be detached from the parent stem. The modes of 


grafting by approach may be divided into two classes :—First, 


those ordinary methods, in which the upper part of the scion 
is retained after it is joimed to the stock; and second, the 
process named “inarching,” in which the cut top of the 
scion is inserted under the bark of the stock. 


Veneer Grafting by Approach. 
Group I. 


Orpivary Grartinc By Arrroacn.—The scion is a tree, or 
a branch of a tree, distinct from the stock, or a branch 


belonging to the stock itself. The top of the scion is kept 
entire aboye the point of contact with the stock: however, if 
too long, it may be cut above the graft, leaying two or three 


eyes if it be a single shoot, and a length of four, eight, or 
twelve inches if it be a ramified branch. There are different 
ways of joining the scion and stock, named after other modes 
of grafting, as by veneering, by inlaying, and by the Hnelish 
method. 

VENEER GRAFTING By APPROAC H.—The scion (A) has a portion 
of the bark and alburnum removed at a. In the stock (B) a 
flat-bottomed groove is made at b, reaching to the alburnum, 
and corresponding in dimensions to the part @ of the scion. 
The metro-greffe will be useful here in adapting these two 
parts accurately to each other. ‘They are then jomed together 
at C, bandaged and covered with grafting-wax if necessary. 

Approach GRrarting BY Innayinc.—The scion (D) is 
slightly cut on both sides at d. The stock (H) is prepared to 


Approach Grafting by Inlaying. - 


receive it by having an angular groove made at e, mto which 
the bevelled part d will fit accurately, and be inlaid, as shown 
at B. 

™ Enetish Mztuop or Approacu-Grarrinc.—In addition to 
bandaging, the parts may be still more firmly consolidated by 
means of corresponding tongues or notches (A and B) cut in 


English Method of Approach-Grafting. 


each, so as to fit exactly into each other as shown at C. If it 
is apprehended that the union of the parts will be tedious, the 
top of the stock is cut off at the time of grafting, and the 
scion joined to its extremity. This is called the English 
method, 


Fes. 24, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


317 


= s — 


Grovp II. 

Approacu-Grartixe BY Inarcuinc.—Although more par- 
ticularly employed for restoring defective parts of plants and 
trees, this mode of grafting by approach is equally useful for 
multiplication. The proper time for it_is from April to July. 
The chief difference between this and the preceding group 
consists in the cutting off the top of the scion, whether tree 
or branch, and the inoculation of the top so cut under the 
bark of the stock. The cutting of the scion is made under an 
eye or a shoot, so that one or other may be set in the stock. 
This scion, having been topped andcut in the manner 
represented at S in our illustration under the terminal bud 
or shoot, is grafted into the stock by means of a reversed 
T-shaped incision in the bark, as shown at V. The place of 
the incision is calculated from the length of the scion, which 
should be an inch or so longer, so that in inserting it into the 


incision it is first slightly bent, drawn back, and the point 
then allowed to slip under the bark. The two principal modes 
of inarching are only to be used during the flow of the sap, 
in spring or in summer. 

Tyarcuine witn an Eyz.—The eye being selected like the 
terminal bud, the scion is cut at the end with a flat splice- 
graft, asshown at S. It is then inserted under the bark of 
the stock T, which is raised at V. We shall re-produce 
hereafter the same graft completed and beginning to vegetate. 
When the bark of the stock is thick, an incision is made with 
a double longitudinal cut, the intervening strip of bark is 
raised at one end, and the top of the scion is inserted under 
it. Neither the strip of bark nor the bandage should cover 
the eye of the scion. z 

Tyarcuinc with 4 Brancu.—The scion (L) bearing a young 
lateral branch (M), is to be cut about a Le above i in a 
sloping direction (N), on the side next the branch. Care 
should be taken not to cut the end too thin; and the leaves 


N A 
Tnarching with a Branch. 


are not to be removed from either the branch or the scion. 
The stock is either a distinct tree, or a branch (O) bearing 
the scion. The incision (P) is made in such a manner that 
the introduction of the scion is effected as represented at R. 
The branch (M) may be left entire or cut down to two eyes, 


according to its length. It is called an “anticipated branch” 
if it has been produced in the course of the year on the 
herbaceous scion, in which case the grafting would take place 
in summer. It is called a “branch” simply, if it has been 
developed in the spring on the woody scion, or in the pre- 
ceding year on the main branch. In this case, the grafting 
would fake place from April to June—C. Baltet, “UArt de 
Greffer.” (Lo be continued). 


ANOMALOUS GRAFTING. 


Your correspondent, apropos of anomalous grafting, in your num. 
ber for December 30th, p. 122, whilst asserting that Virgil speaks of 
“a plum tree which bore apples after being grafted,” and ‘ recom- 
mends the grafting of the pear on the ash,” mis-states Virgil’s drift 
in his second clause, and in his first confounds his authority with 
that of Palladius, a Latin horticultural writer of the fourth century 
after Christ. Of what Virgil has to say on grafting, Mr. R. D. Black- 
more’s version of the “ Georgics”’ gives a fair transcript :— 

«© But nuts are grafted on the rough arbute, 
And barren planes bear apple trees in fruit. 
With chestnut bloom the beach is silver-laid, 
The mountain ash in white pear-flowers array’d, 
‘And swine crunch acorns in the elm tree’s shade.” 
—Georg. IT., 69. 

Palladius has not found a translator that I know of for his poem 
on grafting, but I give his lines ad rem, and a rough and ready 
version of them :— 

“Tnsita proceris pergit concrescere ramis, 
Bt sociam mutat malus amica pirum ; 
Seque feros silvis hortatur linguere mores, 
Et partu gaudet nobiliore frui. 
Spiniferas prunos, armataque robora, sentes, 
Levigat, et pulchris vestit adulta comis.” 
—77-82 Palludius De Insitione. 
. 


The engrafted apple, blending kindly growth, 
Transforms the kindred pear tree, nothing loth ; 
Leaves barren habits in the native wood, 

And joys to yield a fruitage apt for food. 

Makes smooth the spiny plums and prickly thorns, 
And with gay foliage novel boughs adorns. 


In the context to these lines the author describes how the service 


tree (Sorbus) and the medlar (Mespilus) owe to the apple the same 
insitional improvement. James Davies, M.A. 


LAW. 


IS A GREENHOUSE A CHATTEL OR A FIXTURE? 


Tis case was heard before Mr. Justice Quain, in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, on the 5th instant, and was an indictment removed 
into this court by certiorari, the prosecution being instituted for a 
conspiracy under the Malicious Injuries to Property Act, and the 
penal sections of the recent Debtors Act. The defendant, Mr. D. 
Perkins, was a nursery gardener and florist, and held a lease of his 
house and gardens in St. John’s Wood Terrace. In 1869 he obtained 
an advance of about £117 on the security of this lease from the 
Model Discount Company. ‘The advance, it appeared, was not 
repaid, and in June 1870 he filed a petition for the liquidation of 
his affairs under the Bankruptcy Act. During his tenancy he 
erected four greenhouses on his premises, the brickwork and found- 
ations being there when he came into possession. The evidence was 
that these were not fastened into the brickwork, but laid upon it so 
as to be fixed only by their own weight. While the liquidation 
proceedings were pending it was alleged that the defendants took 
down and removed three of these greenhouses, and a prosecution 
was then instituted against them for conspiracy under the above 
Act. The case for the defence was stated to be that they had been 
sold before the liquidation by Mr. D. Perkins to his co-defendant, 
a Mr. Tindal. A somewhat curious point arose as to whether a 
greenhouse erected in the way described was a building, or fixture, 
within the meaning of the Act for preventing malicious injury to 
property. The facts turned upon the alleged removal by the 
defendant of the greenhouses after a distress for rent and after the 
presentation by him of a petition for liquidation. The learned 
Judge ruled that the greenhouses were not ‘buildings or fixtures” 
within the meaning of the first-mentioned Act, and that the defence 
might be confined to the question whether they had been removed 
fraudulently with the object of defrauding creditors within four 
months of the commencement of the liquidation. The case for the 
defence was that the greenhouses had been sold by one of the 
defendants, D. Perkins, to a co-defendant, one Tindal, some time 
before both the distress and the liquidation proceedings. The jury 


318 


THE GARDEN. 


(Fes. 24, 1872. 


cs 

found the defendants D. Perkins and Tindal guilty, and acquitted 
the third defendant, Frederick Perkins, who, it appeared, had only 
acted as gardener and labourer for his father, D, Perkins. The 
learned Judge ordered D. Perkins and Tindal to stand forward, and 
sentenced them to be imprisoned—D. Perkins for two months, and 
Tindal, as the principal offender, for three months, in each case 
without hard labour. 


THE AMATEURS’ REMEMBRANCER. 


Flower Garden and Shrubberies.—Herbaceous borders dig 
lightly over, taking care not to injure the roots of the plants; loosen the 
surface of spring flower-beds, and make all appear neat and gay. Rectify 
the edges of grass verges, gravel walks, and lay box edgings. Lawns 
‘sweep and roll. Roses prune, and firmly stake. From those on walls and 
pillars remove dead wood ; thin them, and neatly tie them up again. Beds 
and borders of American plants, dress with a covering of decayed leaves. 
Plant out Pansies, wintered in frames, press the soil firmly about their 
roots. Where Auriculas are planted, loosen the soil to the depth of two 
inches, and top dress with cow-manure, leaf-mould, sand, and charcoal. 
Plant out Hollyhocks four or five feet apart in deep rich soil. 

Indoor Plant Department.—In conservatories, which should now 
everywhere sparkle with floral beauty, maintain a night temperature of 
45°, and while the weather is so favourable give plenty of air. Letnothing 
suffer from want of water, and plants beginning to grow syringe morning 
and evening. Climbers, thin and tie where required. Keep up a regular 
succession of blooming plants, and those done flowering remove. Calla- 
diums, Gloxinias, Gesneras, &c., showing signs of growth, pot, and place 
inanice bottom-heat of 75.° Marantas, Dieffenbachias, Draczenas, tropical 
Palms, &c., repot, and keep in a warm, moist atmosphere, and where 
convenient, a brisk bottom-heat should be given. Pot Sarraceniasin rough 
bits of turfy peat mixed with a little silver sand. Ferns not already 
potted, should receive that attention at once, and where ferneries are out 
of repair, they should be renovated. Orchids beginning to grow may 
receive more water, but at present, they must be kept rather dry at the 
root; encouraging a moist, fresh, and healthy atmosphere, by frequent 
sprinklings of water on the floor, walls, tables, &e. Shade from bright 
sunshine, and give a little air, but avoid cold draughts. 

Pits and Frames.—A regular supply of Lilacs, Azaleas, Spirzas, 
Deutzias, bulbs, &c., should be introduced to the forcing-pit, for conser- 
vatory decoration hereafter. Propagate Coleuses, and pot those already 
rooted. Alternantheras shake out of their cutting pots, and pot off 
singly into small pots. Dahlias and Cannas, start in gentle heat; sow a 
few choice annuals for indoor decoration on a gentle hot bed: those 
already up shouldbe pricked off into shallow pans. Gloxinias, Gesneras, 
&e., as they begin to grow, shake out, and pot, then plunge them in a 
gentle bottom heat. Chrysanthemums, if rooted, should be potted singly, 
and kept near the glass, shading from strong sunshine fora few days. 
Sow Lobelias in pans or boxes, prick off those sown in autumn, and 
plants from cuttings should now be placed in heat for propagating from. 
Tropolums, introduce into heat for cuttings; Fuchsias, prune, and 
place in gentle heat, for early flowering and for cuttings. Stocks in 
frames, as soon as they show flower-buds, and the single ones can be 
known from the double, should have the former pricked out, and thrown 
away, and the latter potted. Geraniums and other bedding plants 
should receive all the air possible; young plants may be repotted, and 
where two or three are in one pot, separate them, and pot singly. Pro- 
pagate by inserting in sand ima hot-bed of 60° or 65°. Verbenas should 
now be kept in heat for cuttings, which should be placed in a hot-bed, 
and kept near the glass. As soonas rooted, pot off singly, and plunge in 
bottom heat, so that the points of the young plants may be taken off, and 
struck. Salvias, Heliotropes, Ageratums, d&c., may be similarly treated. 
Camellias should now be grafted, or inarched, keeping them rather close 
afterwards for a time. 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Pine-apples, pot as they require it; 
they may now receive more water and heat than they have been getting ; 
keep up a bottom heat of 85°, and maintain a steady growth. Those 
colouring fruit require a drier atmosphere and more air than succession 
plants. Vines setting require a rather dry atmosphere ; for Muscats, a 
night-temperature of 70°, and for Hamburghs, 65°. Thin and tie, and 
syringe frequently those starting. Before and after the fruit is set main- 
tain a moist atmosphere. To Figs give plenty of water, and keep up a 
temperature of from 60° to 65° at night; pinch the young shoots at their 
fourth or fifth jomt. Peaches and Nectarines set may havea temperature 
of 60°, not more; syringe frequently, and give plenty of air, avoiding 
draughts; for those in flower, maintain a temperature of 50°, keeping 
the atmosphere dry, and admitting air whenever that can be done. Straw- 
berry plants introduce every fortnight to shelves near the glass; pick off 
small flowers, and when a sufficient quantity is set, remove the rest. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden. — Finish planting 
frnit trees and bushes, also pruning and nailing. Blossom protection 
look to, adopting some of the modes of protection given in another 
column. Ground vacant dig, and trim edges of alleys. Grafting may 
now be commenced. Sow Onions on well-prepared ground; plant some 
bulbs for seed in an open situation, and cover to the depth of six inches. 
Peas and Beans sow for succession. From Lettuces in frames xemove 
the sashes in fine weather, and sprinkle with lime, to keep off snails, &c., 
and make good blanks. When Lettuces are sown in frames with Carrots 
or Onions, the former should be removed, and the latter thinned and 


regulated. From Cauliflowers, remove the handlights in warm weather. 
Radishes, sow successionally, covering with litter till they appear, after 
which the litter may be removed. As soon as Broccoli is cut, replant the 
ground. Early Turnips sow, also prickly Spinach and early Cabbages. 
Potatoes forwarded a little im boxes, plant out in a warm, sheltered 
border ; early potatoes may also be planted im the open ground. 


A NEW LONDON PARK. 


Tuer contractors of the Metropolitan Board are now engaged in the 
rapid completion of what will be one of the best of the public 
gardens of the metropolis; and by the spring it is hoped that it will 
be ready for the recreation of the public. Wor many years past the 
large open space known as Stepney Green, which is situated in the 
heart of the most crowded quarters of the Hast of London, had fallen 
into a neglected condition, and its enclosure and adornment haying 
become the subject of discussion at the local board, the Mile End 
Vestry, an appeal was made to the Metropolitan Board. After a 
brief delay, the Metropolitan Board consented to contribute the 
whole cost—about £3,000—of converting the fields into flower 
gardens and a public recreation ground. Stepney Green, apart from 
its sanitary value as one of the very few open spaces in the Hast of 
London, has many interesting historic associations. It is the last 
remaining remnant of the once famous Mile End Green, the trysting- 
place of the civic archers of the Tudors, and the rendezvous of the 
rioters of Hssex in the insurrection led by Wat the Tyler in 1381. 
By a patent granted under the seal of the Second Charles an annual 
market and fair was held on Mile End Green at Michaelmas; but this 
has shared the fate of other metropolitan fairs. Itis only within 
the last century that some of the houses of the Stuart nobility which 
stood on Stepney Green, and marked the spot as a once fashionable 
quarter, were demolished; and so recently as 1859 a large castellated 
mansion belonging to the Marquis of Worcester, and commonly 
known as “ King John’s Castle,” was still standing in excellent 
preservation. The Lord of the Manor of Stebunheathe has now 
granted Stepney Green for the free and perpetual use of the people 
as a recreation ground, and, except in regard to the expenditure for 
enclosure and culture, this valuable open space, which contains 
many noble and venerable trees, has been secured to the public 
without cost.—Metropolitan. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—February 24th. 


Flowers.—Conspicuous among flowers, representatives of which are 
now everywhere in blossom out of doors, are Violets, Crocuses, Snow- 
drops, Christmas Roses, Arabis, Aconites,'and one or two species 
of Saxifrage ; while, from frames we have the lovely Winter Windflower 
(Anemone blanda), which often opens its charming deep-blue blossoms 
as early as Christmas. Cyclamens, Primulas, and Polyanthuses—those 
never failing harbingers of spring may be obtained in abundance ; and of 
those ever-pleasing occupants of our hot-houses, Orchids, there is no 
scarcity, either as regards quantity or variety. Other flowers consist of 
Spireeas, Daphnes, Heaths, Epacrices, Roses, Acacias, Camellias, Deutzias, 
Lilaes, Cytisus, and others. 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 2s. to 4s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 
100lbs., 60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.—Grapes, per lb., 6s. to 
12s.—Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, 
per dozen, 8s. to 8s.—Pine-apples, per Ib., 6s. to 10s. 

Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 64.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 83d.—Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.— 
Canliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, 
per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 1s. 6d. to 3s.—French Beans, 
new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.— Herbs, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.— Horse Radish, per 
bunch, 3s. to 5s—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Lettuces (French), Cab- 
bage, per dozen, 1s. to 2s., Cos,per dozen, 3s. to 5s—Mushrooms, per 
pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d.—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 6d.—Parsley, per bunch, 
2d. to 4d.—Radishes, per bunch, 2d. to 6d.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 6d. to 
1s. 6d.—Salsaf'y, per bundle, 1s. to 1s. 6d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 
1s. 3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 1s. to 2s.—Shallots, per Ib., 8d.— Spinach, 
per bushel, 3s. to 4s.—Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3d.—Turnips, per 
bunch, 3d. to 6d. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum, 9s. 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
quarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. 

All communications for the Pditorial Department should be addressed. 
to WitntAM Roxinson, ‘Tur Garpen ” Orrice, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tur Pusuisuer, at the same Address, 


Marcu 2, 1872.} 


THE GARDEN. 


319 


- “This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tuer Arr rrsELF Is Nature.”’—Shakespeare. 


FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE ROSE SECRET. 


THERE is no mystery whatever in raising roses in any quantity by 
means of cuttings, and thus making them much cheaper than budded 
ones. Where cuttings can be had in quantities, the best time to put 
them in is October, on a sheltered south border, into which plenty of 
sand has been worked to make it light. If frames can be put over 
them, they will strike quicker and be safer in severe winters than 
when unprotected. In making the cuttings a small piece of the old 
wood should be left attached to the end inserted in the soil, as it 
calluses sooner for the emission of roots than when only the current 
year’s wood is used. Last year, in October, I had between four and 
five hundred cuttings put in from roses grown in pots, consisting of 
some of the best new sorts. About twelve cuttings were put in each 
pot, and the pots were placed in a frame, where they have continued 
all through the winter. ‘They are all now thoroughly rooted, and 
want planting out the first opportunity. I have frequently struck 
great batches ef the Fellemberg Noisette and Céline Forestier for 
planting in hedges, and all on a south border in the open air. The 
Fellemberg is one of the very best of perpetual flowering, dark- 
coloured Noisettes, and when mixed with Céline Forestier a hedge of 
them is grand all the summer and autumn, the only drawback being 
that severe winters often cut them down; but they spring again from 
the roots. Roses on their own roots ought to be planted more than 
they are ; for, either as bushes or pillars, they are far more graceful 
than the cabbage-headed standard roses: now so much patronised. 
Another reason for cultivating roses on their own roots is their 
safety in very severe winters; for, if cut down to the ground or 
snow line, they will spring up again from the roots, and soon show 
their former beauty. In cycles of ten or twelve years a killing frost 
thins all the standard roses, and both nurserymen and gardeners 
suffer great losses in their collections. For exhibition purposes, 
perhaps, the largest and finest specimens of rose flowers are grown 
on standards, the first or second year after budding; but, for a 
display of the Queen of Flowers, give me a pillar rose tree covered 
with flowers from ground to top— WILLIAM Tittery, Welbeck. 

Ir “G. S.,”’ who feels disappointed with “ Y.” in not letting 
him know the way in which he grows his cheap roses, will try the 
following plan, he will doubtless be able to grow them by the 
hundred or thousand. I select my cuttings in September or October, 
and put them in any odd corner of the garden. The cuttings have 
about six eyes, three below and three above ground. I make a trench 
to begin with, as if I were going to put in box edging, put in the 
cuttings, tread them firmly, and then level for the next trench, and 
so I go on until all arein. I put in two hundred enttings last 
October, and of these only two have missed growing. Those I 
inserted the season before made shoots four feet and five feetlong. I 
have struck Devoniensis most successfully in this way.—W. J. 
“Y.’s’? meTHOD of managing rose cuttings, which is so 
mysteriously held back, is doubtless striking them in water. 
Cuttings put in a glass of water ina warm room will grow—i.e., 
make roots. A lady whom I know strikes quantities in this way. 
They, however, require very careful handling afterwards, in the matter 
of potting, &c. The roots, being so tender, damp off in the soil— 
a circumstance owing, doubtless, to the bruising they receive by 
that operation. The varieties which will most readily grow in this 
way are the Teas; the most success attended the trial of other 
varieties when small fine cuttings haye been used. Now the pruning- 
time is come, plenty of opportunities will offer for the experiment.— 
Henry Mitts. 


TsomeriMEs strike a few Roses, not by the thousand, like “ Y.’’; 
but ninety-five out of every hundred cuttings put in can be struck 
in the following manner :—In the spring, as soon as the Roses have 
made shoots about six inches long, 1 take a sharp knife, and where 
I think them too thick I take off some of the young shoots with a 
bit of a heel to them. I then have some six-inch pots ready, with 
plenty of drainage in them, and fill them with soil consisting of 
loam and leaf-mould, with plenty of silver sand. I put ten in a 
pot, and then plunge them in the cutting-frame, with a bottom heat 
of about 75°. I shade them as little as possible, give them plenty 
of air, plenty of heat, and plenty of moisture; and thus managed 
they strike as freely as Verbenas. There is no secret in that. I 
have some plants in frames now that were struck last May. They 
consist of Madame Margottin, Céline Forestier, Charles Lefebvre, 
and Elizabeth Vigneron, all of which are, of course, small; but 
nevertheless they haye on them three or four blooms each, and I 
find them handy for the decoration of small vases in the drawing- 
room or for cutting from ; if they are spoilt, it is of no importance, 
as I can strike more next May. On the 17th instant, I planted out 
twenty Maréchal Niel and about a hundred Hybrid Perpetuals of 
kinds that were struck at the same time and had been kept in pots 
ina cold frame. They are from twenty to thirty inches high. I 
shall cut them down nearly close to the ground, and take all shoots 
off but the two strongest, and next year they will be pegged down to 
make an edging for the centre walk in the kitchen garden.—J. PINK, 
Lees Court. 


On«x of the largest rose growers in France says :—My principal 
propagator employs two methods for striking rose cuttings. Ist. He 
keeps strong plants of each sort of roses we have in large pots, 
which are plunged ina bed of ashes. About Christmas, when he 
looks over his stock of roses on their own roots, and finds that some 
sorts have run short, he removes the rose trees of the said sorts 
which are in pots into the propagating house, where they soon push 
young shoots. About the end of February he cuts all the young 
wood off, divides it into bits with two buds each, and plants the 
cuttings closely in silver sand in frames, which are on both sides of the 
propagating house, and under which the flue runs. The frames are 
two feet broad, and are covered with movable panes of glass, 
which are washed every morning. My propagator takes great caro 
in inserting the cuttings, to cover only the lower bud. After they 
are planted, they are watered through a finely rosed watering-pot. 
In three or four weeks all will have struck root. They are then 
potted off into small pots, covered again for a week or two, and then 
remoyed to an outside frame, where they get hardened off. 

The second method is, in the beginning of July, to take the half- 
ripe wood of such rose trees as my propagator wishes to increase, 
and to cut it in the same way as has just been described; but, 
instead of planting the cuttings in the propagating house in heat, 
he inserts them in frames against a north wall, which he has nearly 
filled with finely-sifted coal ashes. In about five weeks all will 
have struck root, and none will have damped off.—G. §., Chellenhan. 


{Other interesting communications on this subject remain over 
till next week. | 


THE ROSE GARDEN FOR MARCH. 
BY GEORGE PAUL, 


RosEs are now in so forward a state as to almost necessitate 
immediate pruning in order to have dormant eyes to prune back to. 
The present time is considered, I believe, by amateurs early for the 
operation ; but, from considerable experience (last year’s especially 
on a very large scale), I think pruning should be done earlier in the 
season than it is in general. The fact is, we are losing in our Hybrid 
Perpetual roses the character retained from the damasks and Hybrid 
Bourbons, and getting the earlier growing and early flowering 
habits of the Chinas. Of course, the numerous seedlings of General 
Jacqueminot, a host in themselves, have led to this organic change. 
The season will somewhat modify the pruning. One must prune back 
closer than ordinary to have a good unshot eye to start with. Thin 
the shoots well out, leaving no wood in the head that is not healthy 
and fairly vigorous. Study the individual habits of the roses; the 
catalogue descriptions of vigorous, robust, and moderate being in 
some sense guides. For instance, Maréchal Vaillant, a vigorous kind, 
does not bloom if cut in close. Its shoots require to be left at least 
one foot to one and a half foot in length. Robust roses, as Madame 
Vidot or Baroness Rothschild, with short stumpy wood, should be 
pruned to a prominent bold eye—the best on the shoot, high or low. 
The small wood of these sorts never yields blooms worth having, and 
must be cut clean out. Moderate roses, as Mdlle. Bonnaire or Xavier 
Olibo, need close pruning. They may be cut in almost to the old wood, 


320 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 2, 1872. 


quite so, when the shoots are weak. The eye to which the shoot is 
pruned should, if possible, look outwards. If this rule is followed, a 
hollow head will be formed, allowing air to circulate well amongst 
the foliage and flowers. Prune, if possible, after a day’s drying 
weather, as, if the ground is in good order, roses do not bleed badly. 
Choose likewise fine weather to dig the ground, turning in some 
manure, unless this has been already done, when a mulching of some 
short horse dung (road droppings, fermented by haying been in a 
heap, are good for them) may be applied early in April. 

Make good all vacancies in borders where the kinds to be planted 
are Hybrid Perpetnals, Noisettes, and standards of the Teas, and 
reserve places for dwarfs of Tea roses, which are better planted from 
pots in May. 

In the forcing houses a few kinds started in November will be just 
opening. Sonyenir dun Ami, Madame Falcot, and the white 
Hybrid Perpetual Marquise de Montemart, are amongst the first. 
Where plants are just breaking syringe twice a day, which will also 
supply almost sufficient moisture tothe plants; 55° to 60° is a good 
day temperature, which may fall to about 50° at night. All pot 
roses should now be pruned, as after May, grown under glass, they do 
not compare fayourably with the early flowers from out of doors. It 
is well therefore to get all pot roses over by the end of that month. 
Pot roses should always be pruned some days before being started, 
however slowly, into growth. 


HARLY SPRING FLOWERS. 


A ove for flowers of all kinds seems naturally implanted in man ; 
but it is the early flowers of spring that always bring along with 
them the greatest degree of pleasure. Our affections seem imme- 
diately to expand at the sight of the first opening blossom under 
some sunny bank, howeyer humble its race may be. Addison says 
that he always looked upon the whole country, in spring-time, as a 
spacious garden. We then welcome our long-lost associates with a 
cordiality that no other season can excite; and Flora, even early in 
the year, scatters her gifts all over the land with generous hand— 
some to deck the valleys with innumerable hues, others to adorn our 
mpland pastures. Who among us has not admired the drooping Snow- 
dzop of peerless white, or the pale Primrose, which garnishes the 
hedgerow bank, or the Wallflower, whose abode is everywhere, from 
the crumbling ruins of the dismantled abbey to the humble cot- 
tager’s garden, or the meek Violet, whose home is in the secluded 
dell, where at dewy eve its fragrant sweets are tossed upon the 
gentle breeze? These, when they reappear in spring, stir up 
dormant memories which few can altogether abolish. The sight of 
the Crocus bursting through the mould bespeaks the advent of sunny 
days. With summer flowers we seem to live, as with our neighbours, 
in harmony and goodwill, but for carly flowers we cherish a private 
friendship ; and, when we first meet them in spring, itis like meeting 
with a long-lost friend. Autumn Violets are greeted with none of 
that affection with which we hail Violets in the spring; they are 
unseasonable, and we view them with curiosity rather than delight. 
The last Rose of autumn loses its charm compared with the first Rose 
of summer. very season, however, has its peculiar charms, and 
autumn’s sere and yellow leaf yields to many as much enjoyment as 
the full gush of young foliage in spring. 

Amongst the earliest flowers of the year are those of the Christmas 
Rose and the fragrant Coltsfoot, whose beautiful blossoms load the air 
with perfume. The vernal Hound’s Tongue, too, rivals the Forget- 
me-Not in loveliness, and, like the Primrose, is a ‘“lorn tenant of 
the peaceful glade.”” The Wood Anemone carpets the shady grove, 
and Hepaticas of various hues also love the shade and thrive best 
when undisturbed. The humble winter Aconite, with golden flowers 
frilled with green, must also be classed amongst the first harbingers 
of spring; as must also the vernal Pheasant’s Hye, with golden 
flowers prettily set off with leaves like Fennel. The charming little 
Moor Heath (Erica carnea) is indispensable to the spring garden, 
giving it a warm, wild, rosy glow, much wanted on a cold spring 
day ; and not less valuable is the Mezereon, whose branches, though 
leafless, are well attired and thickly beset with blushing floral wreaths. 
With these may be associated the Poppy Anemone, concerning 
_which the poet exclaims,— 

“* See yon Anemones their leaves unfold, 
With rubies flaming and with living gold ;’’ 

and Dog’s Tooth Violet, of humble growth, with spotted leaves 
and drooping flowers; also our beautiful little early Squills, with 
flowers of celestial blue; or the Blue Bell, with its spikes of nodding 
bells, which deck the woods and groyes in imperial hues. Nor must 
we omit the Crown Imperial, or the bold Daffodil that defies the 
winds and storms that sometimes beset it early in the year. With 
materials such as these there need be no necessity for bare borders or 
beds in spring, Geroran Gorvon, A.L.S. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN FOR MARCH. 
BY GEORGE WESTLAND, WITLEY COURT. 


WueErE new lawns have to be formed, the preparation of the 
eround is of the greatest importance, and except this is attended 
to in the first place no after management is likely to be so thoroughly | 
productive of that verdant close, even, evergreen turf so desirable ; { 
and unless good turf can be secured, perfectly free from coarse \ 
grasses and weeds of every description, I would fayour sowing 
with seeds adapted for the formation of a permanent lawn, being 
particular that the ground is made evenly solid. Lawns that were 
top-dressed early in winter, and such as are patchy, will be improved 
by being sown with grass seeds and white Dutch clover; afterwards 
rake and roll over the ground. Finish turfing repairs, and edge 
the margins of walks. This is a good time, before the ground 
becomes hard, to grub up Daisies, Dandelions, &e. Sweep and 
roll turf; the rolling should be done the day previous to mowing, 
and lose no time in haying the grass cut with the machine, which 
will greatly improve the appearance and texture of the turf. Speci- 
men ornamental shrubs should now be pruned. Aucubas, Hollies, 
Bays, Portugal Laurels, &c., will be greatly improved by going over 
them with the knife, so as not to lacerate the foliage. The branches 
may also be regulated; cutting back straggling shoots upon such 
plants as Junipers, Retinosporas, Yews, and Thujas, &e. Unless 
such plants as the Irish Yew, for instance, are rendered compact by 
pruning, they break down and often become unsightly. Borders 
containing herbaceous plants should be manured and dug; and such 
plants as require it should be divided and replanted. Herbaceous 
plants are the first to cheer usin spring and the last in autumn; 
they therefore deserve a little attention. ‘Towards the end of the 
month, plant Gladioli either in groups, beds, or lines, keeping the 
crowns about three inches under the surface. That soil is best for 
them that has been enriched with manure twelve months previously 
and frequently turned ; avoid manure in any form coming in contact 
with the bulbs, asit is almost sure to generate decay although it gives 
continuity of bloom. Gladioli should be planted at different times. 
They are also well adapted for pot culture. Mignonette may now 
be sown, and after the middle of the month sow hardy annuals 
at intervals. Transplant autumn sown annuals, and thin out those 
remaining, so as to induce perfect development. Sweet Peas should 
now be sown. 

The following is a list of good Bedding Pelargoniums ; but it must 
be observed. that soil, situation, and other local circumstances 
often effect such a decided change im certain kinds, that it is 
impossible to say whether or not they will be equally effective 
everywhere. They haye been, however, all that could be desired here. 


SCARLET. 

Vesuvius, first-class in every respect. 

Waltham Seedling, fine bedder, the finest in the Steila section. 

Lady Constance Grosyenor, a remarkably bright and effective 
variety—one of the best. 

Bayard, very dark crimson; very effective. 

Violet Hill, very dwarf; requires liberal treatment; first rate 
when well grown. 

Tom Thumb, still one of the best for effect when planted in large 
masses, and good in all seasons. 

Warrior, a veritable scarlet, with fine trusses of bloom; for large 
beds and vases this is a most effective kind. 

Duchess of Sutherland. 

PINK. 
Christine, still the best; Blue Bell, a fine variety. 
WHITE. 

Madame Vaucher, than this we haye yet nothing better. 

Purity, also a good bedder. 

Waltham Bride and Avalanche, two silyer-edged kinds, with white 
flowers ; both charming and very effective. ' 

GOLDEN TRICOLORS. 

Sophia Dumaresque, Sophia Cusack, and Lady Cullum. . These 
are inferior to the Golden Bicolor kinds, with plain yellow leaves, 
which are best adapted for effect. Such as Crystal Palace Gem, a 
desirable variety of fine habit and constitution, Golden Chain, and 
Golden Fleece, may also be grown as the best of that section. 

SILVER BICOLORS. 

May Queen, one of the most effective, with pure white and green 
leaves; Flower of Spring; Mangies’s Variegated, still a very useful 
trailing variety. 

Pits and Frames.—Push forward propagation with the utmost _ 
dispatch, maintaining a brisk heat; and be careful that soils are 
properly prepared and atvated, as much mischief is done by potting 
tender cuttings in cold, wet, pasty soils. Never allow a plant to 
experience a check if possible. Prick off seedlings as soon as they 
are fit to handle ; and remember that if they are allowed to become 


Marcu 2, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


321 


drawn and leggy in the seed-pans, no after management will insure 
such a perfect plant. Secure a good stock of Coleus Verschaffeltii 
and Batemanii, which are the two finest varieties of that genus for 
bedding purposes. Also Iresine Lindeni and Herbsti, both of which 
yank amongst the most useful plants we possess. Do not over- 
look Ageratum imperial dwarf, so serviceable among blues and more 
effective even than Lobelia at a distance. Divide and pot herbaceous 
Lobelias. Pot off cuttings and remove the more hardy among them 
to cold frames, to make room for the raising of the tender kinds of 
seeds, which should now be sown in well-drained pans in light, 
sandy soil. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


THE DYEHOUSE CHERRY TREE. 

Anour thirty years ago, an old man named Dyehouse found grow- 
ing in his orchard, among some English Morellos, a small bushy tree, 
which differed in form from the others, and also ripened its fruit 
some four weeks in advance of them. The fruit was about the size 


ras 


A 


The Dyehouse Cherry Trees 


of that of the Morello, but different in colour and shape; and the tree 
was found to be much hardier than its supposed parent. It grew 
vigorously, and soon became a good bearer. The original tree is now 
dead, but others raised from it have been disseminated to a limited 


The Dyehouse Cherry. 


extent over this (Lincoln) and a few adjoining counties. The raiser 
was not a fruit-grower. He lived out in our hill country, far removed 
from fruit regions, and no one, until recently, except a few neigh- 
bours, knew anything of this cherry. Eight years ago I planted fifty 
plants of it, about five feet high and with stems an inch in diameter; 


they grew rapidly, and for the past four years have gathered full 
crops from them. ‘They have been in full bearing for three years, 
and have not wholly failed, even this present year (1871), when all 
other fruits, without exception, were totally destroyed by the severe 
cold of April 28th. I believe this variety to be a seedling. It is cer- 
tainly very desirable. As a fruit for tarts and preserves, it has no 
competitor in the cherry kingdom. The fruit is quite tart, but when 
fully ripe is, to my taste, perfectly delicious, having the most pleasant 
and agreeable acid. This cherry would make a fine wind-break and 
ornamental hedge, if planted eight feet apart, and cut down at plant- 
ing time to within a foot of the ground, and annually pruned. It will 
bear much cutting, with impunity. I saw a small orchard of it, 
which had been repeatedly browsed by stock, and it grew finely. I 
cut one down to the ground, and it threw up a dozen vigorous stems, 
and grew into a beautiful bushy tree——American Agriculturist. 


JANUARY’S TEACHING.—FRUIT TREES. 


At first view it may appear somewhat remarkable that fruit trees 
should be so little influenced by eight weeks of weather more or 
less mild, moist, and unseasonable. Spring flowers are expanding, 
and spring plants are making rapid growth, so that we have already 
a garden chequered by bright blossoms, those of early rhododendrous 
being conspicuous ; but the apricot, which is especially susceptible 
of abnormal warmth in the early part of the year, is almost quiescent. 
Peach-buds are scarcely moving; and pears, considering the many 
temptations offered by a spring-like temperature, betray the same 
commendable reluctance to burst into bloom, Early plum-buds 
exhibit a disposition to expand, but are by no means so far advanced 
as to be liable to injury from frost. 

We may learn, from the occurrence of a season such as we are 
experiencing, that circumstances may exist which tend to modify tho 
effect of temperature on fruit-trees. It seems that dull and clondy 
weather, even when accompanied by a vegetating temperature, is 
insufficient to excite deeply-rooting trees. When the weather is 
frosty, but clear, apricot trees are more prone to open their blossoms. 
Perhaps it is not alone the hygrometrical condition of the atmo- 
sphere that has kept fruit trees inactive. The soil was chilled by 
severe frost in December, and frequent falls of rain throughout 
January surcharged the land with wet, and so rendered it impervious 
to the influence of the milder condition of the air. 

The lesson taught us by the circumstances I have attempted to 
describe seems to me to be capable of application in the manage- 
ment of wall trees, which are often excited by bright weather early 
in the year, and are, as a rule, cut off by succeeding frost. It is to 
exclude the trees, by covering them carly in the year, from the 
existing influence of bright sunlight, and by watering the borders 
abundantly, or otherwise procuring such a state of things as exist to 
depress the temperature of the ground at this season, so that the roots 
may be kept from the stimulating effect of early but treacherous 
warmth. 

‘An examination of our weather record for January shows but 
little variation of temperature, the range being only 26°, and an 
absence of severe frost, unusual in the first month of the year. 
The lowest reading of the maximum thermometer was 39° on the 
20th; a temperature of 52° was recorded on the 4th, and 53° on 
the 30th; the average maximum temperature of the month was a 
little short of 47°. The minimum thermometer recorded slight 
frost on eight nights, the lowest reading being 27°, or 5° below 
freezing, on the 15th. The occurrence of clear sky and unobscured 
sunlight was recorded on eight days only ; so that there were twenty- 
three dull and clondy days; a south-west wind prevailed, and rain 
was registered on eighteen days—the amount collected was about 
three inches (2°97 actually). The same dull, moist weather has 
characterised the month of February up to the present time 
(February 15th); a change of wind from south-west to east and 
north-east somewhat lowered the temperature of the air. 

Belvoir. Wa. [vera 


THE FRUIT GARDEN FOR MARCH. 
BY WILLIAM TILLERY, WELBECK. 


Outdoor Fruits.—March, the most uncertain month in the year, 
makes it necessary to devote more attention than most gardeners can 
give to preserve their fruit blossoms from its scathing power. The 
month this year is likely to have a great preponderance of easterly 
winds, for the prevailing currents have been southerly for the last 
two months, and there is almost sure to be a reaction. Up till this 
date in February, rain has fallen more or less on nearly every day, 
and the soil is quite saturated; but a change to slight frosts in the 
mornings has taken place, and the air is gradually getting drier. 
Apricots, peaches, and nectarines will want protection as soon as the 


322 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 2, 1872. 


blossoms show colouf- Glass coverings are certainly cheapest and 
best where they can be had, and strong canvas the next where 
it can be rolled up and down, according to the weather. All nailing 
and pruning should be completed as early in the month as possible, 
for the blossom-buds of hardy fruit trees on the walls are swelling 
fast. I find pears on the quince stock to be more advanced in their 
buds than those on the pear stock. The time for grafting will be 
earlier in March this year than usual, and grafts intended for using 
must be placed in the ground behind a north wall till wanted. There 
are often many worthless kinds of apples and pears in collections, and 
the best way is to cut their heads off and graft them with good sorts. 
Gooseberry and currant bushes will soon have their foliage expanded, 
unless a check comes soon, and protection of some kind may save a 
crop should there be severe spring frosts. Hern leaves, dry hay, 
or fir branches, will if put on the top of the bushes on the appearance 
of a severe night’s frost often afford sufficient protection. Straw- 
berry plantations will now want dressing, and if a slight covering of 
littery manure is spread over the beds the foliage will grow through 
it, as well as the flower stalks, and the straw will keep the fruit 
clean. 

Orchard House Fruit Trees.—The mild season has naturally 
brought all kinds of fruit trees grown in pots into bloom sooner 
than usual. If the pots have not been top dressed in the autumn 
they should now be done so by making a rim of fresh cut turf round 
the edges of the pots with the grassy side down and filling the centre 
with some well rotted cow or sheep dung. This will give fresh 
vigour to pot trees which have not been repotted for years. Before 
the flowering process commences, syringe with Gishurst Compound 
of the strength of three ounces in a gallon of water, and this will 
help to keep the trees free from mildew and aphis; soft soap 
dissolyed in water of the same strength is likewise an excellent cor- 
rective of mildew on Peach, Nectarine, and Cherry trees. 

Vineries.—As soon as the stoning process in the earliest vinery 
commences, a steady night and day temperature must be maintained. 
The thinning and stopping the shoots in the succession houses will 
want frequent attention; and muscats, when in flower, require a 
high temperature, 70° not being too high. To have this fine variety 
of grape in the greatest perfection as regards colour and flayour, 
the forcing of it should be commenced in January or Webruary if 
possible. 

Peach Houses.—The thinning the fruit where too thick, and 
tying the shoots down as they advance in growth, must be attended 
to. In the earliest peach house it is better to leave the fruit rather 
thick on the trees till the stoning process is over, as some may drop 
off then. The temperature must be kept rather lower and equable 
till the stoning is over, and the inside borders kept well watered. 
The dull, sunless weather of the last few weeks has been against 
peaches and nectarines setting well in the late succession houses 
without artificial fertilisation. 

Fig House.—Iligs, whether grown in the borders, tubs, or pots, 
will now require liberal waterings and syringings over head on fine 
clear days. 
sionally until they begin to ripen. The most luscious fies I have 
ever tasted were grown in pots, and the trees placed on bricks on the 
flue of a succession pine pit. The sorts were the White Marseilles 
and Lee’s Perpetual, and the fruits, when ripe, were of the most 
delicious syrupy flavour. The trees were grown in turfy loam 
brought from the top of a limestone rock, and the pots when placed 
on the top of the flue had the trees well rooted in the soil. The pots 
were placed in shallow pans containing water and liquid manure, 
until the fruit began to ripen, when the watering was discontinued 
for a time. 

Cherry House.—Cherries require to be kept in rather a low 
temperature when stoning; from 50° to 55° will suit them. Air must 
be given freely in favourable weather. 

Cucumber and Melon House or Pit.—The weather lately 
has been much against the growth of young Cucumber and Melon 
plants, for the long continuance of dull days and want of sunshine 
have given them asickly appearance, and many of the earliest raised 
plants haye succumbed. If grown in dung beds the linings must be 
attended to, soas to keep up therequisite temperature. When grown 
in houses or pits heated with hot water, the trouble of growing them 
is greatly lessened, for heat and moisture can be better regulated 
there. Sow now good batches of seeds for succession crops, and 
keep the young plants in the seed beds till strong enough to 
harden off. 

Strawberries.—The earliest placed plants in heat will now begin 
to be showing colour, and watering must be more sparingly given to 
improve the flayour. The Black Prince with me is now beginning to 
ripen, but I shall discard it in another year for forcing early, for it 
is only a small fruit with not much flayour, and the plants are yery 


Some liquid manure may likewise be given them occa-_ 


liable to mildew. Keens’ Seedling is, if from selected plants, 
perhaps, the best early forcing strawberry yet grown, and President 
is also very good for a second kind for succession. 


THE PINERY FOR MARCH. 
BY JAMES BARNES, 

Pay great attention to fruit swelling in all stages; continue to 
allow an increase of heat by day and night, as the light increases. 
Maintain a kindly humidity, taking care to ventilate, but so as to 
avoid draught. Give tepid, clear manure water to the roots, and 
syringe round the stems and oyer the plunging materials with the 
same. Some charcoal laid about the surface of the plunging 
material is also beneficial in absorbing and. giving off gases and 
humidity. Take care that such fruits as haye nearly finished 
swelling get neither bottom watering nor syringing about the stems ; 
and if they can be moved to a light, dry situation, let it be done, in 
order to improve colour and flayour, and make room for others that 
may be starting. From those now in bloom withhold syrimging for 
ashort time till they set, and apply but moderate humidity. Give 
such pines as are now starting into fruit every encouragement, in 
order that they may make a bold and strong appearance; taking 
care at the same time not to stint them for water at the roots. 
Select for another batch the finest, fittest. ripe, well-grown plants, 
and place them together on a well-prepared, moderate bottom heat, 
to come into fruit in succession, and shift on other successions to 
replace them. In the case of succession plants, there must be no 
stand-still; shift them on as they require it into good sized, well- 
drained pots, in which they are intended to fruit, using good, 
healthy, sweet, well-pulverised soil, charcoal, and soot. Place them 
on a kindly, moderate bottom heat, increasing the atmospheric heat 
as light increases, which will also naturally raise the bottom heat a 
little. Syringe freely now on fine afternoons, shutting up early. 
Maintain a kindly, humid growing heat, and allow the plants to 
make full speed while there is light and heat. No check must be 
allowed, or splendid, well-swelled fruit will not follow in succession 
at all seasons of the yeay. Starve or stagnate a young pine-plant, 
and it will never produce perfect fruit. Suckers, take off in 
succession as you clear away the fruit, and pot and start them 
immediately. Thus fine plants and noble, well-swelled fruit will 
be the result. Push them along at full speed on a kindly, healthy 
bottom heat in a humid atmosphere, well charged with ammonia, 
giving kindly methodical syringings early on fine afternoons, airing 
freely in order to fully maintain robustness and vigour throughout 
their progress, and never allowing a plant to get dry at the root, or 
pot-bound for lack of timely re-potting. Attention to little items 
like these cannot fail to end in complete success. 


WHAT THE DATE TREE IS TO THE SAHARIANS. 

Ture are eight villages in the oasis of Wodian, in the Desert of 
Sahara. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is the cultivation 
of the date tree. At Kreez, one of the villages, there is an excellent 
spring of water; but it will not supply all the plantations. There- 
fore deep wells haye been made, and by the aid of camels the water 
is raised from them in earthen jars whose contents are emptied into 
wooden troughs. The water is conducted by long trenches into 
channels, which, when one plantation is well watered, is diverted 
to another grove of trees. The blessings of the date palm are neyer- 
ending to the dwellers in the Desert. Tirst, it delights the eye by 
its picturesque appearance ; it affords shade, without which the heat 
of the sun would be beyond endurance; its fruit is food ; its wood is 
fuel; houses are built of it: and from its leayes baskets, ropes, mats, 
bags, brushes, brooms, beds, and fans are manufactured. From its 
branches the natives make cages, fences, and chairs. After the 
kernels of the fruit have been soaked two or three days in water, 
camels will eat them with eagerness. 

The date tree reaches its highest vigour at thirty years, and 
continues bearing fruit in perfection until it has reached its one 
hundredth year. It gradually decays for a hundred years more, and 
then dies. A date palm yields during its best years between twenty 
and thirty clusters of dates, each cluster weighing about thirty 
pounds. If the suckers, of which every date tree throws out a 
number, are removed and transplanted, fruit can be obtained from 
them in ten years’ time. Trees raised from seed will not yield dates 
until twenty years old. The Arabs love their palm trees. They 
would not leave the desert with its groves of dates for the Garden of 
Eden.—Hearth and Home. : 


Extreme Cold.—<A rural American paper says they haye no ther- 
mometer in their town, so the weather gets as cold as it likes. Another 
journal of western New York reports the glass “30° below nothing, 
and it would haye gone much lower, only it wasn’t long enough.” 


Manon 2, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


323 


COLOCASIA ODORATA. 


For warm conservatories, large stoves, &c., this is one of the 
most imposing and easily grown of fine foliaged plants. It is 
indeed so easy of culture in a warm structure that by merely 
planting it out in a bed of loam, or even in a gravel pathway, 
ib’ grows without any further trouble. It is a native of the 
East Indies, and its stems are usually from three to eight feet 
in height, but when planted out in warm stoves it will even 
attain greater dimensions. When well grown the leaves 
measure more than three feet in length, are very handsome, 
and of a fine fresh green colour. The flowers are comparatively 
small for such a large plant, of a pale greenish yellow colour, 
and delightfully fragrant. As they open one by one in spring 
they do not attract the eye, but quite fill the air with a delicate 
odour. This is one of the plants used in the open air in 
summer forthe sake of its fine foliage; but it does not grow so 
well as Caladium esculentum in the open air. It endures the 
open air in summer in the neighbourhood of Paris, and also in 
the warmer parts of southern England, but should not be 
planted out till June. Its chief attraction for the sub-tropical 
garden, as distinguished from other large plants of the Arum 
tribe, lies in its 
somewhat tall woody 
stems; the other 
kinds are almost 
stemless, or have 
only very short 
stems. It is quite 
easily propagated by 
division, or, in some 
cases, by means of 
pieces of the stem. 


PLANTS FOR A 
NORTH HOUSE. 


Tr the light is much 
obstructed, ferns and 
Selaginellas will give 
the greatest amount of 
unmixed pleasure with 
the least cost. Butif 
nothing obstructs the 
light, many things may 
be grown as well in a 
north house as in any 
other aspect, especially 
in summer. I am as- 
suming the house is 
heated in some way 
or other. In a mixed 
collection, where there 
is only one house, it is 
not desirable to at- 
tempt growing many 
hard-wooded plants, and those should all be of very easy cultivation. 

For winter and spring blooming grow the following :—Dutch 
bulbs, potted in October, placed in the open air, and covered over 
with six inches of ashes, old tan, or cocoa fibre, till the pots are 
filled with roots (about six or eight weeks) ; Lily of the Valley will 
bloom late, but will be none the less beautiful; cineraria, sown 
twice, first in April and again in July, potted off, and grown in a 
cold frame, or on the north side of a fence or wall, to be housed 
before frost comes ; Solanum capsicastrum (hybrids), sown early in 
spring, potted off, and planted in a rich border in June, to be lifted 
and potted in September, will brighten up the house with scarlet 
berries all the winter ; Cytissus racemosus ; camellias ; violets (Neapo- 
litan, Giant, and several double sorts); mignonette, sown in pots in 
July and August; several annuals, sown in September, such as 
Saponaria calabrica, Nemophilas, &c.; musk is a favourite pot plant 
in large cities ; Lycopodium denticulatum; myrtles; a plant or two 
of the fan palm (Chamerops humilis) ; Draczena australis ; Cyperus 
alternifolius ; Abutilon Thompsonii; several acacias, such as armata 
and Drummondii, Calla zthiopica, Primula sinensis, &c. 

: For summer: calceolarias, sown in July, and the seed pot plunged 
in ashes under a hand-light, and shaded, when up pot off, and grow 
in a frame under a north wall, to be taken in before winter. These 
will flower beautifully in a north house in June and July. Fuchsias 
will do well in summer, and may be placed under the stage in winter. 


Colocasia odorata, 


| scarce, but in houses of this kind do not crowd them too much. 
| is better to grow a few plants, and do them well, than to fill the 


+ 
Zonal geraniums; lilies, especially the lancifolium section, andauratum. 


| A few chrysanthemums may be grown out of doors for blooming in 


October and November. Several of the variegated Japanese plants 


of recent introduction would be useful in winter, when flowers are 
It 


house too full. Damp is the chief thing to guard against in winter ; 

but do not aim at too high a temperature, and ventilate as freely as 

possible when the weather is favourable. E. Hospay. 
Ramsey Abbey. 


VENTILATION DURING WINTER AND SPRING. 

Wuaterver views are held, or system adopted, in regard to venti- 
lation, our practice must be modified, or at least ought to be, by 
times and seasons. For instance, many years’ practice has convinced 
me that, unless for any special purposes and under exceptional 
conditions, all through yentilation should cease from December to 
April. Of course I am writing of houses in which a high temperature 
is maintained, such as plant stoves, intermediate plant houses, early 
vineries, peach houses, &c. 

In winter and early spring ventilation, the primary object should 
be to renew the atmosphere without creating draughts. The 
regulation of tempera- 
ture is a less impor- 
tant matter. I say 
thisadvisedly, knowing 
that many may think 
otherwise. But a rise 
of tenor fifteen degrees 
caused by the heat of 
the sun does no injury. 
And if it did, the in- 
jury would be nothing 
compared with that 
caused by keeping 
down the temperature 
to its proper leyel by 
means of a current of 
outside air passing 
through the house. 
Many hardly believe 
in ventilation at all, 
unless they feel a rush 
of air passing through, 
or at least have the 
opposite sets of yenti- 
lators open  simul- 
taneously. In the early 
months of the year, 
we ought not to be 
able to feel the move- 
ment of the air. If 
we do, it should be a 
warning that the ven- 
tilation is injuriously 
excessive. Air circu- 
lates freely enough 
with only one set of 
ventilators open. It is astonishing how subtle heated air is, and how 
soonit finds an exit, even if that is at the lower part of the house. This 
is easily proved by introducing a few dishes of hot water, or burning a 
little paper or tobacco in a hothouse at work. The steam or smoke will 
point out the course of the air as it travels with it in a visible form. 
The top ventilators establish a double current at once, but it takes 
a little longer for air to find its way out and in at the lower 
openings. In this way the air of a house gets changed thoroughly 
without creating draughts. True, the change is more gradual, but 
this is the chief merit of ventilation early in the season. Hurried 
ventilation is most mischievous. We want to let out exhausted 
and to let in fresh, unused air; the danger lies in a too rapid 
exchange; and in doing it, our chief object is to let out and in 
no more than is needful, for all excess in either direction involves 
a loss of heat and of moisture. ‘The air let in is colder and 
drier than that let out. The first thing this newly-admitted air does 
is to warm itself and quench its thirst at our expense. This may 
seem a small matter tosome. Water is plentiful, it may be, and 
there is no stint of coal. It is, however, a very serious affair to tlie 
plants, for the cold air does not take the trouble to go and hug our 
pipes round till it gets warm, nor to run to our cisterns or evapo- 
rating pans to wash itself clean and mollify its harsh, biting thirst. 
On the contrary, it steals heat and extracts water from every tender 
leaf and flower it touches, and makes them shiver and starve under 


324 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 2, 1872. 


its exactions. Hence the more cool air passed over them the more 
they loose, and the less they have left for themselves. Therefore, 
unless the air can be both watered and warmed before it enters hot- 
houses in winter and early spring, the less of it that sweeps through 
them the better. Neitheris there any necessity for rushes of cold air 
through hothouses. A change of air is, undoubtedly, desirable; but 
eyen the importance of this has been exaggerated. Air is not so 
readily exhausted by plants as many have assumed, and there are 
few or no glasshouses so closely constructed as to be air-proof. In 
almost all of them an interchange is taking place between the 
internal and external air, and the circulation of the internal atmo- 
sphere is incessant. Apart from any exchange between the heat of 
the pipes on the one hand, and the coldness of the glass on the other, 
the air has a restless time of it. ; 

I must not, however, be understood as decrying ventilation ; on 
the contrary, I am simply advocating caution. Hither set of venti- 
lators may be opened alternately ; but, during the winter and early 
spring, itis best not to open both simultaneously, unless the outside 
and inside temperatures approximate to equality. 1D)s WN 10 


THE CREEPING MYRTLE. 
(MYRSIPHYLLUM ASPARAGOIDES.) 

For some years the florists around Boston have cultivated a 
charming greenhouse evergreen, which is extensively used in 
floral decorations. We first met with it a few years ago in the 
hands of a New York florist, who knew it only as Boston 
smilax, and it is by some called Boston vine. The name 
Myrsiphyllum means Myrtle leaf, and asparagoides, resembling 


) 
SNS 


The Creeping Myrtle. 


asparagus, a likeness which, while it is apparent to the botanist, 
is not very manifest at first sight, The roots are fleshy; the 
stems, though small, are strong and elastic, and climb to the 
height of some twenty feet. ‘he foliage is of a fresh, lively, 
shining green. ‘The flowers are small and white, appearing 
two or three together, and are followed by a globular berry. 
The plant is grown in ordinary greenhouse culture, and is 
trained upon strings. It will grow well in rooms, especially if 


it can have an abundance of light, and when trained over a 
support of some kind soon covers it with luxuriant green. It 
may be propagated by dividing the root, but our florists 
generally raise it from the seed, which is freely produced hy 
old plants. This matures in July, and is sown as soon as ripe. 
Tt is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The engraving gives 
some reduced branches and a portion of the plant of the 
natural size. The delicacy and beauty of the myrsiphyllum 
especially adapt it for use im floral decorations, and it has an 
additional good quality—ait lasts a long time im good condition 
when cut. For making up floral wreaths for the hair it is 
superior to all other green, and large quantities are used for 
this purpose alone. It is sometimes used with fine effect to 
trim a white dress; being obtainable in long pieces it readily 
forms a graceful tracery far superior to any embroidery. We 
think that the cultivation of this plant for ornamental purposes 
must be peculiar to this country, as we do not find it in any of 
the European plant catalogues, or in foreign works on flori- 
culture.. Latterly the florists near New York have engaged in 
the culture of this plant, some of them devoting whole houses 
entirely to it. The myrsiphyllum bears cutting well, as new 
shoots spring up in great abundance after each cutting back. 
[The above charming plant, the figure and description of which 
we borrow fromthe Aimerican Agriculturist, is occasionally seen 
in botanical and curious collections in this country. In America 
ib is now the most important plantfor adding grace and ver- 
dure to floral decorations. It is usually tramed on strings of 
twine, led trom each small pot to the roof. Hach plant forms 
a beautiful glistenmg wreath around its strmg. By cutting 
this the wreath is easily carried, and may be used without dis- 
turbance in many kinds of indoor decoration. | 


THE INDOOR GARDEN FOR MARCH. 
BY T. BAINES, SOUTHGATE, 

Conservatory.—The materials for keeping up an effective 
display in conservatories will now haye become more plentiful than 
during winter, and one of the most important considerations is, to 
see that portions of such things as will bear retarding without 
injury are at once placed under conditions to imsure their being 
made ayailable later im the season. Where, indeed, anything like a 
continuous supply of blooming plants is required, it is quite neces- 
sary to haye at command a house so placed that the sun will have 
little influence upon it, except for an hour or two morning and 
evening. A lean-to with a north aspect is best. Many imagine 
that such houses are only required by those who retard plants for 
purposes of exhibition; this is a mistake. By selecting a portion of 
the stock of Camellias, Azaleas, Epacrises, Geraniums, Cinerarias, 
Cyclamens—in fact, any of the numerous greenhouse plants that 
are used for conservatory decoration, the blooming season may be 
prolonged to almost double its usual length, especially if judgment 
is used in selecting varieties that are naturally late in flowering. 
Camellias — candidissima, fine white; Bealii, red; Lavinia Magei, 
striped ;—Azaleas—brilliant and Juliana, both red; Extrani and 
coronata, both bright rose; Gledstanesii formosa, white striped ;— 
Epacrises—eclipse, grandiflora, rubra, and miniata splendens. These, 
and others, which the careful observer cannot fail to note, can be 
retarded without injury, so as to come in at a time when they will 
be found of great use. And itis not only during spring when such 
a house will be found of the greatest value; it will also be an 
excellent place in which to harden the stock of Ghent Azaleas, 
double flowering Plums, Lilacs, Spirzeas, &c., that haye been foreed, 
and which frequently, from want of a suitable place, are subjected 
to treatment ill calculated to render them of use the following 
season. Later in the season, too, it will suit Camellias well that 
have set their bloom, and which, from want of proper accommodation, 
are turned out of doors; further onin the season still, late flowering 
Chrysanthemums may be kept safely in such a house until the 
middle of January, at which time they will be found most useful. 
Large Camellias, which have got leggy from want of judicious 
pruning when young, or through overcrowding, may be improyed in 
the following manner :—Take, at once, a couple of healthy young 
plants, in six-inch pots of any approved kind, place these on 
the surface of the ball of the plant to be operated upon; then 
inarch the heads of each of the young plants as low down as they 
can be got on the opposite sides of the large plant. These 
will become firmly united during the summer, when they may be 
severed from their original stems; and in the following season, 
before growth commences, the head of the stock or naked plant 
may be cut away just above where the young plants have been 


Marcu 2, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


325 


inarched, when they will commence to grow apace and in a 
Movable shading, of thin 
material, should be got ready, as bright sunshine on a March day 

Pinch out the points 
These will be useful in 


little time make a handsome plant. 


makes short work of many things in flower. 
of a portion of the stock of Pelargoniums. 

July, after the early ones are over. Start another batch of Achi- 
menes, Gloxinias, and Tydwas for summer decoration. 


no care afterwards will put right. 


Stove.—Finish potting the principal hard-wooded occupants of 
Alocasia Veitchii and Lowii are plants 


stoves as early as possible. 
which are frequently not well grown, chiefly through being potted 
in unsuitable soil. They do not like anything of an adhesive nature ; 
they do best in one-half fibrous peat, one-half chopped sphagnum, 
with a liberal admixture of sand. Alocasia metallica enjoys the 
same materials. The more easily grown Alocasia macrorhiza variegata, 
on the other hand, requires a different soil. Good turfy loam two 
parts, rotten dung one part, with sufficient sand to secuye quick and 
thorough drainage, suits this plant well. Palms may now be potted, 
using fibrous peat, with a moderate admixture of broken crocks and 
sand; being water-loving plants, nnless well drained the roots become 
unhealthy. With longer days, the temperature of the stove ought 
to be increased 8° or 10° during the daytime, and 5° at night; closing 
early so as to shut in the sun’s genial warmth, which is much better 
as well as more economical than fire-heat. Syringe the plants at 
the time of closing the house; and always let this be done sufficiently 
early to allow the foliage to dry before night. Stoves that face the 
south, or in gardening phraseology stand east and west, will require 
slightly shading during sunny weather; at least some of the 
occupants will need a little shade, and it is better to place such 
at one end of the house, and only shade that portion; as the less 
shade the better, if scorching can be avoided. Stoves that are built 
north and south do not require shading so early in the season. 

Fern House.—Any potting that remains to be done here shonld 
be attended to at once. Many of the commoner kinds reproduce 
themselves freely. It is therefore always well to keep a quantity 
of these in small pots; they are useful for intermixing with large 
plants, the appearance of which is much improved by an admixture 
of small ones; and if the latter are allowed to get somewhat pot- 
bound, their fronds will last in a cut state much better than those 
from plants more freely grown, and the better plants are saved from 
mutilation. All ought to be carefully picked over, removing such 
fronds or portions of them as are naturally decaying, yet do not 
cut out much that has life in it, as this has a tendency to weaken 
the plants. As the days lengthen, raise the temperature a little. 
Brown Scale is the greatest enemy of the Fern house, and with the 
approach of warm weather this pest will begin to increase apace if 
not checked. Every means should therefore be used to keep it down; 
as it soon renders the plants unsightly. As soon as growth com- 
mences, shade slightly during sunny weather, and allow more 
moisture in the atmosphere as well as at the roots. Give air on 
all mild days, otherwise the fronds push weakly; a condition that 
should be avoided, as leaves of that kind never maintain a healthy 
appearance so long as is desirable. If thrips makes its appearance, 

' fumigate frequently yet not too strongly. 

Orchids.—Proceed with potting, carrying out the operation in 
accordance with former directions. See that the plants are kept as 
free from insects as possible. White scale and a minute yellow thrips 
are their greatest enemies. The scale will thrive alike on those from 
the eastern or western hemisphere, on thick fleshy-leaved plants like 
Vandas, Saccolabiums, or Aerides, as well as on the thin leaves of 
Miltonias, Lycastes, and Dendrobes; the thrips attack most fre- 
quently the thin-leaved plants, yet if allowed to get the upper hand 
they will do much mischief to the young leaves of Phalaenopsis, Sac- 
colabiums, or Aerides. They usually secrete themselves down in the 
heart of the plants, where no amount of fumigation that can be used 
with safety appears to affect them. Continual syringing will keep 
them in check. Some growers object to syringing overhead; but, if 
it is done sufficiently early in the morning to allow the plants to get 
dry before night, with a reduction of atmospheric moisture, no bad 
results will follow. For the eradication of scale nothing is more 
effectual than the sponge and a camel’s hair brush carefully applied. 
Tnerease the temperature 6° or 8° by night, with 8° or 10° by day, 
according to the state of the weather. Shade with thin material 
during bright weather, yet never allow it to remain down when not 
required. ; 

Hard-wooded Plants.—All hard-wooded plants which it is 
necessary to pot during the spring ought to receive that attention by 
the middle of the month. If cold, cutting winds accompany bright 
weather, do not give any side air near where newly potted plants are 
placed; but let the top lights be opened. Shade and sprinkle water 


See that 
Lilies, breaking through the soil, are not left where they have an 
insufficiency of light; otherwise they make weak growth, which 


about the paths and upon the stages where the plants are placed. 
Let all plants as they are potted receive what tying they require to 
put them in proper shape, especially young growing stock. Any 
omission in this matter is frequently fatal to symmetrical appearance, 
as the plants get older the young wood getting too stiff to bend. If 
mildew happens to exist on the ripe wood of last year, it will most 
likely attack the young growth as soon as the plants begin to move. 
This applies to such things as Boronia pinnata, Hedaroma tulipiferum, 
and Leschenaultia biloba. If such should occur, dust with sulphur 
at once. Azaleas that have been much affected with thrips last 
summer would be much benefited by a good washing with tobacco- 
water now, as the eggs that were deposited in autumn will soon come 
to life under increased temperature. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Tree and other Pzeonies.—It does not seem to be generally known 
that these force well, and form valuable additions to the conservatory 
early in the season. A temperature of from 45° to 55° hurries them into 
bloom, and they may be had in flower in February or March. Several of 
them are sweet-scented, and all are interesting, and more or less beautiful. 
The chief use of such plants forced consists in their anticipating the 
spring or summer by many months.—D. T. F. 

Lilium giganteum.—Will you kindly tell me how I canincrease my 
stock of this noble lily p—J. Frispy. [There should be a few good 
suckers around the base of your old plants, which may be taken off with a 
heel when potting, and firmly placed in small pots, using a compost of 
finely chopped turfy peat and loam, some leaf-mould, and a good admix- 
ture of sharp river sand. A very gentle bottom heat would accelerate 
their rooting; they should be kept close for a few days, and shaded from 
strong sunshine. | 

Hydrangea japonica.—lI have a few plants of this Hydrangea, 
which I am at a loss how to treat, so as to have them in bloom early. Can 
you kindly help me P—G. Fox. [If your plants are young they should be 
re-potted now, and such as show signs of flowering, if required early, may 
have a little extra heat to accelerate their blooming season. Should the 
plants consist of several branches, those not possessing flower-buds may 
be removed, and used as cuttings, in which case they make nice blooming 
plants by next spring. 

Myosotis dissitiflora.—This is one of the best of flowers for con- 
servatory or for room decoration in February. Take up tufts of it from 
the open border, say a month or six weeks before they are wanted, and 
keep them in a temperature of from 45° to 50°, and they will flower pro- 
fusely. They remain a long while in flower, and never look so lovely and 
delicate as when under glass. Everybody likes them in vases and 
bouqnets—in short, this Forget-me-Not is a great acquisition any and 
everywhere for early flowers. It is not at all particular as to situation, 
and flowers freely in a room or cottage window.—D. T. F. 

White Lilacs.—Where can I get the white variety of lilac so com- 
monly seen early in the Paris markets ?—A. Witt1ams.—|The lilacs 
about which you inquire consist wholly of the ordinary purple kind, which 
is forced in pots. After being lifted they are placed in a cool house for a 
little while, after which they are subjected to a high temperature, with 
plenty of water overhead and at the root, and kept in total darkness by 
means of covering the pits in which they are grown with straw mats, &c. 
The lilac colour by this means is exchanged for one of pure white, and the 
bloom is of a better quality than if the true white variety had been used. } 

Cool Orchids for Conservatories.—W ould you kindly name a few 
cool orchids for the conservatory, those easiest to grow and obtain ?— 
Ciara. [Orchids in general require a little extra heat when making 
their growth, but we think the following may suit you: Barkeria Skinneri, 
Cattleya citrina, Cypripedium insigne, Coelogyne cristata, C. odoratissima, 
Disa grandiflora, Epidendrum vitellinum, Goodyera macrantha, Lelia 
anceps, Lycaste Skinneri, Masdeyallia ignea, Miltonia spectabilis, Odonto- 
glossum grande, Phajus grandifolius, P. Wallichii. | 

Solomon’s Seal.—I can endorse all that Mr. Hobday says about this. 
No plant is easier forced or more useful, ‘either in pots or for cutting. 
It is improved alike in leaf and flowers by forcing. Few flowers are 
more striking in tall vases, and the tiny tubes mounted singly or in 
threes, give chaste variety in a bouquet that puzzle many and gratify 
everyone. The single leaflets mounted are likewise serviceable for 
fringing; altogether itis charming. Smaller plants, with from three to 
six flowers, form model table plants.—D. T. F. 

Chinese Primroses.—We beg to send you from our seed grounds at 
Nice specimens of our Chinese Primroses. Amongst them, as you will see, 
are some novel things, such as the Madder red-shaded crimson, which we 
call Florence, and the double variety of the same; the double red, double 
white, double white fern-leaved, double spotted; then the white with 
the yellowish green centre, the lilac margined white, and others.— 
Sruart & Co. [A charming collection of blooms, generally of large size, 
finely varied in colour, of good substance, and altogether extremely 
beautiful. Among the best (are Village Maid, doubleand single, blush, 
mottled, and flaked with crimson; double red, purplish crimson, full and 
handsome; carminea alba punctata, rich deep crimson, thickly dotted 
with white; double Florence, brilliant in colour and very double, while 
the single variety is equally fine in colour; lilacea alba punctata, deep 
lilac, covered with minute white spots; lilacina alba marginata, bright 
lilac, distinctly edged with white ; red fern-leaved, also a fine kind; all, 
in short, lovely more or less, and well deserving of cultivation. } 


326 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 2, 1872. 


THE COW PARSNIP (HERACLEUM). 


Tres and fashions change ; colour has had its day, and form 
now begins gradually to assert its right to due recognition. 
You have already given in your columns some examples of 
plants remarkable for fine form, and nobility of aspect, and 
now I shall proceed to add a few more to their number. 

The genus Heracleum, numerically speaking, is not a large 
one; and, owing to the great sameness of general contour that 
presents itself among its species, I shall not be far wrong 
when I say that the maximum of beauty as well as of gigantic 
development appears to be monopolized by one species, and 
that tolerably familiar to most people by the very appropriate 
name of the Giant Cow Parsnip—(Heracleum giganteum)—a 
synonym that has become so thoroughly popularized that im 
referring it to its true specific name, H. sibiricum, I have 
no wish to insist in laying claim on its behalf to the usual 
rights of priority as regards nomenclature. Tt is a widely dis- 
tributed plant in the wilds of Siberia, and one which of all 
others gives the most 
marked character to the 
herbaceous vegetation of 
our northern hemisphere 
so admirably illustrated 
in one of the early num- 
bers of THe GarpEN, and 
exquisitely individualized 
in the accompanying 
woodcut. 

Tt was introduced into 
this country some thirty- 
five years ago, and is a 
grand plant for the wild 
garden, and were it not 
for the fact that its maxi- 
mum of beauty is at- 
tained soon after mid- 
summer and succeeded 
by a very rapid decay, it 
would deserve a place in 
the sub-tropical garden. 
The early removal of the 
flower stems would not 
only add vigour to its 
artistically cut and ar- 
ranged leaf development, 
but also protract its 
beauty for a much longer 
period than otherwise. I 
have grown this plant 
with flower stems as 
much as fourteen feet 
high, the crowning tcr- 
minal umbel being more 
than two feet across; and 
in a wild corner during 
the succeeding winter, long after all trace of foliage has 
disappeared, the ghost-like reminiscences of former life 
which these stems present have a beauty of the melancholy 
type peculiarly their own. It is a most abundant seeder, 
and after it has become once established, I would recom- 
mendthe remoyal of the flower stems while the seeds are 
still adherent, or it may soon outgrow the bounds allotted 
to it. For a small wild island in a lake no plant can be 
more appropriate. There, of course, its vagrant propen- 
sities will be curbed by the limit of its island home, and 
its roots dipping far below the water level will drink in a 
bountiful supply of that great essential towards vigorous 
development. I may also state that this plant has qualifi- 
cations that warrant its claiming a place no less aristocratic 
than in onr metropolitan squares or town gardens gene- 
rally. In one of the narrowest and oldest streets in Hull, 
under the very shadow of the house that gave the 
great Wilberforce birth, it yearly attains a height of ten or 
twelve feet, and looks wonderfully luxuriant. I should, how- 
ever, add that possibly some of this luxuriance, displayed 
under otherwise adverse circumstances, must be attributed to 


Cow Parsnip. 


a bountiful supply of guano and other artificial manures from 
the adjacent warehouses. 


Heracteum Witnermsi claims a near relationship to the 
foregoing, but is smaller in stature, rarely exceeding six feet 
its leayes are less rigidly cut and shorter in the foot-stalk ; the 
individual flowers are also larger and more closely arranged 
in the umbel, its most noticeable general feature being its 
denser and more compact habit. 

H. PLaAvEsceNs, with its yariety angustifolium, which is 
sometimes elevated into specific distinction, both possess 
characters sufficiently distinct from each other. The latter 
has long narrowly-divided leaves, and is decidedly the more 
elegant of the two. In both the species and variety the foot- 
stalks and veins of the leaves are covered with soft straw- 
coloured hairs, whence originates the specific name. 

H. rminens is a species of more recent introduction, and one 


| which I have not yet seen under circumstances sufficiently 


favourable to justify me im expressing an opinion respecting 
it. The dense covering 
of downy hairs which it 
has on the leaves, com- 
bined with their massive 
and rounded outline, 
must, however, I think, 
have a very charming 
effect. 

H. ABsINTHIFOLIUM.— 
Some little time since this 
was noticed in one of the 
gardening _ periodicals, 
and accompanied by a 
figure which does not ap- 
pear to me to convey any- 
thing like, a correct idea 
of the true plant. I have 
grown the Zozimia ab- 
sinthifolia, to which the 
former is a synonym, and 
its foliage is so finely di- 
vided as to come under 
the descriptive character 
we find in books of “foliis 
decompositis”; it is with 
me neither a very vigo- 
rous grower, nor does it 
possess any very marked 
character worthy of re- 
commendation. 

I need only add to the 
foregoing remarks, that 
all the species are fond of 
good, rich, moderately 
damp soil, and therefore 
where the latter is poor 
and sandy it must be sup- 
plemented with a bountiful supply of manure. 

J. C. Niven, Botanic Gardens, Hull. 


ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS AND THEIR MAKERS. 


THERE are about 170 firms of artificial florists in London. Of this 
number perhaps not more than one-half are manufacturers; the other 
half, although describing themselves as florists, are either wholesale 
dealers or importers of foreign goods. Of the manufacturing firms, 
about ten houses each employ 200 hands, and ten more each find 
work for 100 hands; the smaller houses keep from twenty to thirty, 
and some eyen as few as six or eight. There are outdoor workersas 
well as indoor, and including both, it may be fairly computed that at 
the present time from 4,000 to 5,000 women and children find 
employment in this fancy trade, which is divided into branches : rose- 
makers, pattern-makers, preparers, cutters-out, jet, silk, satin, and leaf 
hands, and monunters, being the titles by which the branches are distin- 
guished. First-class hands can earn 20s. to 25s. per week if fully 
employed, but the average earnings may be said to not exceed 15s. 
There are, however, highly talented artists, who make from £100 to 
£150 per annum; these, as a matter of course, are educated women, 
possessing a knowledge of botany, and skilled in ornamental art. 


aS 


number of pieces of artistic work. 
mineral colour known as such) has been abandoned by the flower 


Marcu 2, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 327 


Second-class hands earn from 15s. to 20s. per week, but as work 
fluctuates with this class more than with the first, the average may 
be taken at 10s. Some years back the trade was found to be a very 
unhealthy one, as, indeed, were most trades in which colours are used. 
We have ourselves seen strong men bleed profusely at the nose 
whilst engaged in dusting emerald green or ultramarine powder ona 
Emerald green (at least the 


makers, and something less harmful, we might say harmless, substi- 
tuted. The only colours now used are aniline dyes, and the trade is 
much more healthy on that account. 

Many buds, grasses, and mosses are of foreign manufacture, and 
are imported from Paris and Berlin, to be made up and mounted by 
British hands. Flowers, stamens, petals, pistils, and leaves are 
mostly of English make. French buds and leaves, combined with 
English flowers, and mounted by British florists, command the highest 
prices, and are mostly patronised. 

Having ascertained these few facts from the proprietor of a large 
manufactory in the city, Mr. W. Jones, 16, Redcross Street, that 
gentleman kindly invited us to an inspection of his workrooms; he 
himself accompanied us and explained the various processes, often 
delighting us and calling forth our admiration by exhibiting samples 
of finished bouquets, as we proceeded on our tour among the roses. 


First our attention was directed to the huge piles of white muslin 


as the chief material used in the manufacture. We were next shown 
some muslin which had been dyed a most verdant green and then 
calendered; this was ready for forming into leaves, entting up into 
blades of grass, or for a hundred other purposes. 

We now proceeded to the leaf-makers’ room. Here were cutting 
presses and steel cutters, and some of the largesheets of green muslin 
were being stamped into various-shaped leaves ; there were also em- 
bossing presses, fitted with steel dies, on which had been cut the 
veins of the leaves. After being shaped and duly embossed, the 
leaves are handed over to some young females who sit beside cauldrons 
of boiling bees’ wax, into which each leaf is separately dipped, and 
then laid out to dry; this gives the glaze to the leaf, and makes it 
appear almost natural. One of the young females said she could dip 
100 gross of leaves in a day. We ascended to the rose-makers 
room. We thought we were 

“* Down in a flowery vale, 
All on a summer’s morning.” 

We have many a time and oft visited Covent Garden Market in the 
early dawn, and reyelled in the glorious sight there presented to our 
view, and in the rich perfume the flowers exhaled. We were strongly 
reminded of those spring and summer treats by what we saw here, 
but the rich odour, of course, was wanting. In the centre of a light, 
lofty room stood a long work-table, on which lay scattered every con- 
ceivable particle from which a flower could be made. There were 
roses, lilies, fuchsias, geraniums, violets, snowdrops, conyulvuli, 
daisies (I might almost continue to the end of the floral calendar), all 
in bits—as if Master Robin Goodfellow, otherwise known as Puck the 
Mischievous, had stolen into Queen Titania’s conservatory, and wan- 
tonly picked every flower, bud, and leaf to pieces.—Woman. 


PUBEIC’ GARDENS. 


VICTORIA PARK: ITS PRESERVATION AND 
EXTENSION. , 

Wuewn the ground was purchased by Government, in 1842, 
for the purpose of forming a park for the use of the dense 
and rapidly-increasing population of Eastern London, a certain 

ortion was reserved as building land, the ground-rent arising 
from which might, it was thought, produce an income suffi- 
cient for the maintenance of the park, and possibly serve to 
reimburse, to some extent, the original outlay. 

The inhabitants of the surrounding districts are now seeking 
to prevent further building on the reserved ground, and to 
have the portion still remaiming unlet to the builders thrown 
into the park. Mr. Lowe, however, turned a deaf ear to the 
deputations that waited upon him with that view, being 
determined, as keeper of the national exchequer, to stand upon 
his rights rigidly, on the prevailing principle of strict political 
economy. ‘The people of the Tower Hamlets, and especially 
the inhabitants of Hackney, were indignant at the resistance 
offered to their prayer, declaring that the vastly increased 
population of the neighbourhood required a proportionate 
increase of breathing space in the shape of such open places 
as might be readily available, like the still open belt of adjoining 


land, which was purchased with the national money along 
with that forming the park. 

The press has, to a certain extent, sided with the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer in considering that the people of Hackney 
and adjoining districts were unreasonable in demanding a 
further outlay for their particular benefit out of the taxes of 
the country at large; while, on the other hand, the advocates 
for preserving all the open land possible for the benefit of 
the overcrowded inhabitants of the densely-built district of 
Bethnal Green insistedthat Mr. Lowe was acting with a Shylock- 
like determination to have his bond, and nothing but his bond, 
even at the cost of any amount of human life. A good deal 
of sharpish invective has been used on either side ; and by many 
of those not immediately interested, both among the writers 
of the public press and the eyer-busy letter-writers that are 
always to be found among the general public, very opposite 
opinions have been arrived at without a complete knowledge 
ot the facts of the case. 

The editor of Tue Garpen, in that portion of the publica- 
tion devoted to public parks and gardens, has thought it 
advisable to obtain, on the spot, the fullest information con- 
nected with the points in dispute, and to make known the 
results, accompanied by a carefully engraved plan of the 
park, the disputed ground, and other open ground lying near at 
hand, without which assistance it is utterly impossible for the 
public to arrive at a just conclusion regarding the pretensions 
on either side. 

It will be seen, on reference to the plan, that the original 
laying out of the park was exceedingly well conceived. In 
the first place, the park was divided into two main sections, 
the one for the recreations of walking or riding—to which 
purposes the West End parks are entirely devoted, to the exclu- 
sion of cricket, foot-ball, or any other athletic games or 
exercises. The second section of Victoria Park was laid out 
with the express view of rendering it available for cricket, 
foot-ball, and other open-air games tending to the healthy 
exercise and amusement of the population of East London. 
Bathing was also suitably provided for, a lake of considerable 
dimensions being surrounded by shrubberies, with a private 
path of approach for bathers only, as will be seen by reference 
to the annexed plan—an arrangement far in advance of that 
utter neglect of the decencies which still prevails in Hyde 
Park in the bathing season. Everyone, on either side of the 
question in dispute, will be glad to learn that the whole of 
the plantations in the park have thriven well, and are in a 
state of vigorous growth, especially an ayenue of young elms, 
which are destined to become a grand feature in Victoria Park 
some few generations hence. A fine architectural feature in 
the park is the drinking fountain, one of the first of its class, 
which was erected at the expense of a well-known munificent 
lady, then Miss Burdett Coutts. 

There was much enthusiasm displayed concerning the original 
purchase, planning, and embellishment of Victoria Park ; even 
Joseph Hume, generally disposed to hold the national purse- 
strings as tightly as possible, giving his cordial support in 
every way; while private individuals aided in the work after 
various fashions—Mr. Dixon presenting two of the stone 
alcoves which formerly stood on old London Bridge, which 
form solid looking park features of a substantial character, 
both useful and ornamental. They bear suitable inscriptions 
briefly stating their history, on which account they will long 
remain objects of considerable national interest. 

It will be seen by the annexed plan that Hackney Common, 
containing something less thana score of acres of open ground 
closely adjoins the park, and at one point is only separated 
from it bya roadway. Here there is a means of extension 
without interfering with Mr. Lowe or his bond, which has 
not been mentioned in the newspaper discussions. It appears, 
however, that Parliamentary interference may be necessary 
to remove a few technical impediments to the incorporation 
of the common with the park; an addition which some 
consider, as we were informed by residents in the neigh- 
bourhood, would be a sufficient increase of space. This pomt 
has not been brought forward in any of the letters and leading 
articles which the contention for breathing room at the East 
End of London has led to. It is time, however, to come to 
the precise point in dispute—namely, the belt of ground 


[Mancr 2, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


AA NYO YV.H 


328 


‘II OL GUAGY HA OL LAOAV GNOAONY @UIAdSIa AHL YNIMOHS “Wavd VIMOLOTA 


SS eee 


i eee 


Marcu 2, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


329 


encircling the park, which was set apart as building ground. 
A portion still remains unappropriated to that purpose, as is 
distinctly shown on the appended plan. That portion, amount- 
ing to 294 acres, is the space which it is requested may be 
permanently annexed to the park land. It is, virtually, a part 
of the park, being within the ring fence by which it is enclosed ; 
and being still in turf, and only separated from the rest of the 
land by a slight iron rail, any casual visitor would take it for a 
permanent part of the actual park, and could not fail to feel 
both surprise and regret if suddenly informed that it was 
about to be built on, and the area of the park narrowed by the 
absorption of that pleasant and tolerably broad green strip 
into the surrounding chaos of bricks‘and mortar. 

It only remains to state what the advocates urge as their 
reasons for setting up their claim that the belt of still 
open green land ought to be permanently added to the 
ark. ‘The position taken up by Mr. Lowe and his supporters 
is, that the park was purchased and presentel to Hackney 
and the surrounding districts on certain conditions; adding 
that it would be manifestly unfair that the whole nation 
should be taxed in order to enlarge a park for the special 
benefit of East London. As to Mr. Lowe's first proposition, 
their answer is this: When Victoria Park was first es- 
. tablished, it was distinctly stated by two of the Com- 
missioners, at different times, Lords Morpeth and Duncannon, 
that if the surrounding population very much increased, the 
space set apart for leasing to builders should be incorporated 
with the park. This understanding was very soon to a certain 
extent ratified. It being subsequently conceded that only one- 
sixteenth, instead of one-eighth should be set aside for building. 
The principle being thus established of extending the original 
limits of the park, at all events to the extent of any building 
ground left uncovered, if greatly increased population should 
render it desirable. The actual increase of population since 
the formation of the park is thus stated by Dr. Tripe, the 
medical officer of the Hackney District :—According to the 
census of 1841, the population of the surrounding districts 
was 530,280; while in 1871 it had risen to 839,647; a vast 
increase, in proportion to which the addition of the 295 
additional acres to the park would be very inadequate. These 
facts sufficiently dispose of Mr. Lowe's first position. 

The logic of his second position is not more tenable. He 
says it is unreasonable that East London should obtain 
breathing room at the national expense. If that principle 
were acknowledged to be unanswerable, then Mr. Lowe is 
bound to sell the whole of Victoria Park (which he could do 
at a good profit), and put back the sum realized into the 
national exchequer; for it was bought with the national 
money, furnished by the whole of the taxpayers of the 
United Kingdom. Again, if the shallow argument put 
forward be sound, how is it that the Chancellor of the Hx- 
chequer goes on sanctioning the great annual outlay on the 
West End parks, which during the last ten years has been 
at the rate of £59,000 a year, as shown by Mr. Holmes, M.P. ? 
In what does the principle differ, as between East End and 
West End parks? But Mr. Lowe’s argument is neither 
logical, statesman-like, nor charitable. What were the words 
of Mr. Hume—Joseph Hume, the friend of the people? Why 
in speaking of public parks and places of recreation (in refer- 
ence to the formation of Victoria Park), he said, “ I want the 
business done for the people in every part of the realm; and, 
whilst I have succeeded for the working classes in Edinburgh, 
Liverpool, and other places, I look with confidence to the 
success of those who have taken up the subject in the best 
possible manner in the Tower Hamlets.” 

Thus we see that the principle of affording breathing spaces 
for overcrowded populations wherever they may occur, out of 
the public purse, has been not only acknowledged, but already 
acted on. The petty view, that each spot should pay for its 
preservation from the evils of overcrowding or any other 
unayoidable evil, is justly and irrevocably exploded. The 
equalization of poor rates being one of the newer and better 
principles which apply to this case; in the wholesome action 
of which, Belgravia and St. James’s, with comparatively no 
poor, will be made to contribute their just quota towards the 
maintenance of the poor of St. Giles’s and other districts 
where the poor abound. The noble letter of Mr. Fawcett, and 


the combined efforts of the members for the district, the Rev" 
D. Hansard, and other members of the Victoria Park Preserv- 
ation Committee, aided by the energy and efficient activity of 
Mr. Heath, their hon. secretary, will doubtless, as there is now 
every reason to believe, be crowned with thesuccess theydeserve. 
They have placed the matter in the fitting hands of the 
Metropolitan Board of Works, and now ask for even more 
land than the 29} acres in dispute; suggesting that the 125 
acres originally secured as a site of the once proposed con- 
centration of the gas works of the metropolis should be added 
to the park, its close proximity rendering the junction 
comparatively easy. This addition, or an equivalent enclosure 
from the still available open land at Hackney Wick, with the 
addition of Hackney Common, would scarcely bring the East 
End park up to the dimensions of Regent’s Park; while 
the surrounding populations are so much more numerous, and 
so much more densely crowded. ET Niele 


KEW GARDENS. 


InTERESTED by the remarks on these gardens (p. 217) I was 
induced to pay them a visit, at a season certainly when they 
were not seen to the best advantage; yet, when free from the 
dazzle of masses of flowers, one is able all the better to 
appreciate what has been done, and what is doing, in the 
distribution and arrangement of the grander features of 
the place, namely, its noble trees, fine slopes of turf, and 
other great natural advantages. 

On entering the gardens from Kew Green, one used to be 
pleasingly impressed by the aspect of grand unbroken spaces 
of turf, varying in light and shade according to their wavy 
undulations, and out of the smooth green surface of which 
arose the trunks of finely-grown forest trees, producing an 
open and park-like effect, full of a kind of repose and grandeur 
which was very grateful after miles of closely-built suburbs 
that have to be traversed before Kew can be reached from 
London. But instead of the well-remembered impression of 
free space just alluded to, I found, on this occasion, the 
general appearance of the place at the entrance sadly changed 
for the worst. The smooth expanse of turf was dotted all 
over with small, and sometimes very shabby, shrubs, each 
making a disagreeable spot, that one longed to remove at 
once, as it impeded and broke up the view of the stately 
trunks of the big trees, while it presented in itself no 
characteristic either as to rarity or beauty that could for 
a moment recommend its preservation; at all events, not 
ae aA spot where it had been so obtrusively and tastelessly 
placed. 

The disturbing influence of the petty, dotty plantations has 
entirely obliterated all appearance of breadth, and imparted a 
confined and uncomfortable aspect to the place, as though there 
were not room enough, and shrubs had to be stuck about every- 
where, without regard to taste, simply because, from some in- 
comprehensible necessity, they had to be planted, and there was 
no room forthem anywhere else. This new grievance awoke at- 
tention to the formal kidney-shaped beds of Rhododendrons 
which occur, one after another, on each side of the main walk, till 
their repetition becomes absolutely nauseating; while equally 
formal masses and hedges of common laurel (a plant which does 
not thrive particularly well in the soil of Kew), afford the only 
marked yariation that is to be found in the way of evergreen 
shrubs. Surely, in the noble garden of Kew something more 
ought to be doneto gratify the public eye—say, by planting a few 
scores, at all events, of some of the thousands of forms of 
exquisite foliage with which our subject woods and mountains 
in all parts of the world have enriched us. 

Such ill-conceived and badly carried out devices are the 
more regrettable, as there are closely neighbouring features, 
both natural and artificial, which must strike all spectators as 
remarkably fine. The Great Palm House, for instance, not- 
withstanding certain blemishes in the design of the entrances, 
displays a grander series of graceful lines and curves than 
any structure of the class in Europe. Then there are the two 
noble twin limes, finely grown trees of unusual beauty, which 
are rendered still more interesting by the great bushes of 
mistletoe rooted on their branches; the mistletoe being so 


330 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 2, 1872. 


rarely seen on the lime. There are also to be seen several 
very remarkably fine specimens of silver-barked birch, so 
picturesque in growth and form, and of such unusual size 
as to suggest that we are enjoying a glimpse into some grand 
glade of natural forest. Surely, with materials such as these 
to work with, far better results might have been achieved 
than those we see in progress in these naturally beautiful 
grounds. What a noble vista is the Sion Vista, terminated 
by the glorious waters of the Thames at one of its grandest 
bends! and there are several other natural features equally 
fine in this truly royal garden. Yet, that unrivalled vista, 
thus nobly terminated, is actually threatened with being 
utterly blocked up by injudicious planting. The great rows 
of Deodars which were planted to flank it several years ago, 
and which are now making fine growth, were destined to 
become a grand feature; but why plant Douglas firs m front 
of them ? 


In the Pagoda Vista, which has already been blocked up at 
one end, similarly injudicious planting is actively proceeding ; 
especially an interior avenue composed of a series of groups 
of three trees, only four feet apart from each other. These 
trees, being oaks, beech, ash, and other trees of large growth, 
will most probably choke each other in a few years; and will, 
if they should escape self-suffocation, impede altogether the 
view of the Deodars. The wholesale destruction of natural 
beauty that is going on close to the Pagoda struck me as still 
more extraordinary. here is, or rather was, a fine green 
knoll there (opposite the new winter garden), crowned with an 
irregular and highly picturesque group of old cedars and 
other trees. Their great trunks, with the rugged pmky- 
tinted bark, which assumes a warm, glowing rose-colour in 
a bright sunlight, rise boldly like noble vegetable columns 
from the smooth, green sward, crowned with their spreading 
canopies of dark-green, like the stone pines of the south, 
which form such charming objects in Turner’s Italian scenes. 
Well, it has been, as it seems, deemed advisable to hide this 
nobly picturesque group of Pinasters; and several plantations 
of young firs and other shrubs, enclosed within common 
laurel hedges, have been already made apparently for that 
express purpose. The only traceable object which could 
otherwise have led to this seeming piece of wilful vandalism 
is, possibly, the intended formation of a series of narrow 
avenues radiating from the winter garden, one of which, 
formed by rows of Arbor vite, is only nine feet wide. Now, 
can it be possible that it is tended thus to shroud the 
Pagoda with a kind of “Asian mystery”? or have the 
deyisers some other object to realise? If so, whatever it 
may be, it is certain that the loss of the fine natural scene 
they are destroying in order to effect their purpose, will not 
be compensated for by any results at present apparent. 


Next, let the spectator take his stand in front of the conser- 
vatory, and look across towards the Richmond Road. He will 
see, immediately in front, a piece of rising ground, on which 
stand some remarkably fine trees of various kinds, among 
them a noble Cedar. This group, with the towering spar of 
Donglas fir rising from among the mass of foliage, is one 
of the most picturesque features of the garden. Neverthe- 
less, its view is about to be confused and obstructed, as far as 
possible, by the interposition of petty plantations of mean 
shrubs and solid square patches of cropped lanrel. Such 
proceedings appear simply incomprehensible. 

Nort Humpnreys. 


The Mountain Flowers.—Together with this great source of 
pre-eminence in mass of colour, we have to estimate the influence of the 
finished inlaying and enamel work of the colour-jewelry on every stone ; 
and that of the continual variety in species of flower; most of the 
mountain flowers being, besides, separately lovelier than the lowland ones. 
The wood hyacinth and wild rose are, indeed, the only supreme flowers 
that the lowlands can generally show; and the wild rose is also a 
mountaineer, and more fragrant in the hills, while the wood hyacinth, or 
grape hyacinth, at its best, cannot match even the dark bell-gentian, 
leaving the light-blue star-gentian in its uncontested queenliness, and the 
Alpine rose and Highland heather wholly without similitude. The 
violet, lily of the valley, crocus, aiid wood anemone are, I suppose, 
claimable partly by the plains as well as the hills; but the large orange 
lily and narcissus I have never seen but on hill pastures, and the exquisite 
oxalis is pre-eminently a mountaineer.—Modern Painters. 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE MONTEREY CYPRESS. 
(CUPRESSUS MACROCARPA.) 


GENERAL resemblance, or, what naturalists call, “facies,” is 
a character that rarely fails to lead to a true estimate of the 
affinities of species. Hyven the apparent exceptions may, in 
the end, turn out to be no exceptions, but indications of a 
connection which we repudiate on the strength of other 
characters, which, in reality, may be less persistent or less 
significant, although more structural. Our sketch affords, on 
the other side, a good example of such a revelation of affinity. 
Most people, at first, sight, would say, “that is the represen- 
tation of two or three old Scotch firs, or perhaps of some old 
stone or umbrella pines (Pinus pinea) in Italy.” But they are 
not firs at all; they are Cypresses—fine old specimens of the 
Cupressus macrocarpa growing on the coast near Monterey, 
in California. In Mr. Hartwee’s first account of it, indeed, 
he described it as forming “a tree sixty feet high, with a stem 
nine feet in circumference, with far-spreading branches, flat at 
top like a full-grown Cedar of Lebanon, which it closely 
resembles at a distance.” The reader is now enabled to judge 
as to this for himself. We have stated the impression which 
it produced on us. 

This species may be regarded as the representative or 
equivalent of our largest Huropean Cypress (the Cupressus 
sempervirens) on the Pacific Coast of North America. Like 
it, it reachesa great age and a great size; its foliage is similar, 
and, as in it, the fruit is large and hard, differently shaped, indeed, 
being oblong instead of round, but of the same character, and 
nearer it than any other well-defined type of Cypress. 

It has been known since 1838, when Mr. Lambert gave the 
Horticultural Society a few seeds of it, without name or indi- 
cation of locality. It then received the manuscript name of 
Cupressus Lambertiana, and, as it was easily propagated by 
cuttings, it soon got pretty widely distributed in gardens in 
England under that name. It was afterwards received, 
through Dr. Fischer, of St. Petersburgh, as a new species of 
Cypress from California, but still unnamed and undescribed. 
It was next introduced in greater numbers by Mr. Hartweg, who 
had been sent out to Mexico and California by the Horticul- 
tural Society to collect plants for them. In sending it, he 
gave it the name of C. macrocarpa, from its large seeds, and 
it was described and published under that name in 1849 by 
Mr. Gordon in the Jowrnal of the Horticultural Society. So 
it stood for a number of years, those who may be styled the 
old holders calling it C. Lambertiana, and the new holders 
calling it C. macrocarpa. But, like many other plants—we 
had almost said, more than most other plants—the Cypresses 
indulge in individual variations, every seed-bed producing 
peculiar modifications ; and as with other species so with this, 
it Was soon observed that varieties showed themselves, among 
which, the most remarkable, from their opposition of habit, 
were two, one growing straight and narrow, more or less 
pyramidal, or approaching the fashion of the Lombardy 
Poplar—the other more spreading, and like the beech or the 
cedar. Horticulturists, finding that they had two names and 
two marked varieties of this Cypress, forgetting the origin 
of the names, naturally set themselves to apply them to the 
two varieties. At first, of course, confusion became worse 
confounded, but gradually the gardening world have got to 
distinguish the two varieties, and habitually toapply the name C. 
macrocarpa to the upright growing plants, and C. Lambertiana 
to the more spreading plants. Mr. Gordon has ascribed this 
difference to the first plants having been chiefly cuttings; but 
it is beyond doubt that the upright and horizontal varieties 
are both found as seedlings in beds raised from seeds of the same 
tree. As these two forms are generally so well marked as to 
make it an easy task to assign any plants either to one or the 
other, it would seem that there can be no harm—nay, that it is 
rather desirable—that they should continue to be known, by 
separate titles ; and as it is never desirable to disturb accepted 
titles when it can be avoided, we should suggest that the hori- 
zontal-growing form should continue to be known by the title 
of C, macrocarpa, var. Lambertiana, and the upright-growing 
one by that of C, macrocarpa, var. fastigiata. 


331 


Mancn 2, 1872.) 


THE -GARDEN. 


Ay H K ny) Cage 
ay ‘ MU 
? WEI gps AMIE y Ut 


THE MONTEREY CYPRESS (CUPRESSUS MACROCARPA) AT HOME, 


332 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcm 2, 1872. 


The tree is fast-growing and beautiful at every stage of its 
growth, and in every form. Its verdure is exceedingly rich, 
dark, and luxuriant; its branches reddish; and the long, 
whip-like shoots impart a peculiar grace to it. Unfortunately 
it cannot be absolutely depended on as hardy in every position 
or district in this country. Mr. Palmer’s tables show that 
out of 109 places reported on indiscriminately and without 
selection, during the winter of 1860-61, the tree was killed at 
half of them. In England it was lulled at 43 out of 75. In 
Scotland at 14 out of 30. In Ireland only 4 places are 
reported on, and at these it escaped without any deaths or 
much injury. In England and Scotland it was in the midland 
counties that the chief mortality took place. In 1866— 
another severe winter—it suffered still more; all the fine 
specimens in the Botanic Gardens at Kew were then cut off, 
and generally the finest examples in Britain were swept 
away. In some more fayoured places it escaped, and it may 
reasonably be expected that it will escape in such places 
again. Up toa certain age (which it will be long ere we reach 
in this country), the older the plants the stronger they will 
be, and the better able to withstand the severity of our climate. 
The finest examples which we have seen since 1866, are those 
at Castle Kennedy, in Wigtownshire, which are arranged in 
a semicircle, so as to show their luxuriance and beauty to the 
best advantage, and at the same time allow the two different 
types of form, of which we have above spoken, to be well 
seen. 

Notwithstanding its liability to be cut off when a bad year 
comes, the beauty and grace of this tree, even in its young 
stage, are so great that we may be sure it will always hold a 
place around our English country houses. When killed it 
must be replaced. It should perhaps be noted that a variety 
of Cupressus Lawsoniana (a much hardier plant) has been met 
with, possessing exactly the same habit and port as the 
fastigiata variety of C. macrocarpa; its colour, however, is 
not equal to that of the latter, although very beautiful in its 
own way; but the green of C. macrocarpa is peculiarly rich, 
and we remember no other Cypress which possesses it. A.M 

[For the sketch from which our plate of the Monterey 
Cypress was engraved we have to thank Mr. E. Vischer, of 
San Francisco, a gentleman who has long studied, and most 
faithfully sketched, many of the most remarkable trees, and 
much of the most picturesque scenery, of California. | 


PINE FOREST IN THE JURA. 


Aone the hours of his life to which the writer looks back with 
peculiar gratitude, as having been marked by more than ordinary 
fulness of joy or clearness of teaching, is one passed, now some years 
ago, near time of sunset, among the broken masses of pine forest 
which skirt the course of the Ain, above the village of Champagnole, 
inthe Jura. It is a spot which has all the solemnity, with none of 
the sayageness, of the Alps: where there is a sense of a great power 
beginning to be manifested in the earth, and of a deep and majestic 
concord in the rise of the long low lines of piny hills; the first 
utterance of those mighty mountain symphonies, soon to be more 
loudly lifted and wildly broken along the battlements of the Alps. 
But their strength is as yet restrained; and the far-reaching ridges 
of pastoral mountain succeed each other, like the long and sighing 
swell which moves over quiet waters from some far-off stormy sea. 
And there is a deep tendency pervading that vast monotony. The 
destructive forces and the stern expression of the central ranges are 
alike withdrawn. No frost-ploughed, dust-encumbered paths of ancient 
glacier fret the soft Jura pastures ; no splintered heaps of ruin break 
the fair ranks of her forests; no pale, defiled, or furious rivers wend 
their rude and changeful ways among her rocks. Patiently, eddy by 
eddy, the clear green streams wind along their well-known beds; 
and under the dark quietness of the undisturbed pines, there spring 
up, year by year, such company of joyful flowers as I know not the 
like of among all the blessings of the earth. It was spring time, 
too: and all were coming forth in clusters crowded for very love; 
there was room enough for all, but they crushed their leaves into all 
manner of strange shapes only to be nearer each other. There was 
the wood anemone, star after star, closing every now and then into 
nebule; and there was the oxalis, troop by troop, like virginal 
processions of the Mois de Marie, the dark vertical clefts in the lime- 
stone choked up with them as with heavy snow, and touched with 
ivy on the edges—ivy as light and lovely as the vine; and, ever and 
anon, a blue gush of violets, and cowslip bells in sunny places; and 
in the more open ground, the vetch, and comfrey, and Mezereon, and 


the small sapphire buds of the Polygala alpina, and the wild straw- 
berry, just a blossom or two, all showered amidst the golden softness 
of deep, warm, amber-coloured moss. I came out presently on the 
edge of the ravine: the solemn murmur of its waters rose suddenly 
from beneath, mixed with the singing of the thrushes among the 
pine boughs ; and, on the opposite side of the valley, walled all along 
as it was by grey cliffs of limestone, there was a hawk sailing slowly 
off their brow, touching them nearly with his wings, and with the 
shadows of the pines flickering upon his plumage from above; but 
with a fall of a hundred fathoms under his breast, and the curling 
pools of the green river gliding .and glittering dizzily beneath him, 
their foam globes moving with him as he flew. It would be difficult 
to conceive a scene less dependent upon any other interest than that 
of its own secluded and serious beauty ; but the writer well remem- 
bers the sudden blankness and chill which were cast upon it when he 
endeayoured, in order more strictly to arrive at the sources of its 
impressiveness, to imagine it, for a moment, a scene in some abori- 
ginal forest of the New Continent. The flowers in an instant, lost 
their light, the river its music ; the hills became oppressively desolate ; 
a heayiness in the boughs of the darkened forest showed how much 
of their former power had been dependent upon a life which was not 
theirs, how much of the glory of the imperishable, or continually 
renewed, creation is reflected from things more precious in their 
memories than it, in its renewing. Those ever springing flowers and 
ever flowing streams had been dyed by the deep colours of human 
endurance, valour, and virtue; and the crests of the sable hills that 
rose against the evening sky received a deeper worship, because their 
far shadows fell eastward over the iron wall of Joux and the four- 
square keep of Granson.—The Seven Lanups of Architecture. i 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 


[We this week commence a series of notes on this subject, by 
Mx. George Gordon, A.L.S., long superintendent of the arboretum in 
the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick. The notes 
will be chiefly devoted to valuable, but neglected, rare, or half- 
forgotten subjects. Few have paid more attention to trees and 
shrubs than Mr. Gordon, and none are better fitted to advise us in 
the matter; as, in addition to a rich knowledge of hardy trees and 
shrubs, he has also the rarer knowledge of the conditions that suit 
them best, and a taste for arranging them that their beauties may 
be seen to greatest advantage in our gardens. | 

THE SIBERIAN SALT TREE (1MALIMODENDRON ARGENTEUM). 

THE Salt Tree thrives well in any good garden soil, and if a little 
salt be given old plants of it occasionally, it greatly impreyes their 
growth. This plant is propagated by means of seeds, by cuttings 
of the roots, and by grafting it on the laburnum or the arborescent 
Caragana. When the latter, however, is used for the stock, it is apt 
to throw up suckers close to the ground, and, therefore, it is not so 
good for the purpose as the laburnum, which does not do so. 
name is derived from ‘‘ Halimos,” maritime; and ‘‘ dendron,” a tree, 
in reference to the plant growing naturally im salt fields and saline 
steppes near the river Irtysh, or Ivtis, in Siberia. It was first intro- 
duced in 1779. 

It forms an irregular, much-branched, deciduous shrub, from four 
to eight feet high, when planted in the open border on its own 
roots; but when grafted standard high on the common laburnum, 
it forms one of the most graceful drooping plants that can adorn a lawn 
or shrubbery. ‘The leaves are alternate, abruptly pinnate, with two 
pairs of small leaflets, clothed with a whitish silky down, deciduous, 
and with the petioles and stipules spinose. The flowers are of a fine 
rosy purple, sweet smelling, pea shaped, tolerably large, and pro- 
duced in great abundance on two and three-flowered peduncles, from 
the endof May to the middle of July, or even later, if the season 
be moist. The young plants, however, flower but sparingly at first ; 
but when they attain size and age, they bloom profusely. The pods 
are inflated, or bladdery, ‘hard, ovate, brown, and contain but few 
seeds. 

Its synonyms are Robinia Halodendron, Caragana argentea, and 
Halodendron argenteum. 


THE AMERICAN BURNING BUSIL (BUONYMUS AMERICANUS). 

Tur American Burning Bush is a sub-evergreen, loose, spreading, 
recumbent shrub, from three to six feet high, which requires to be 
planted in a partially-shaded and moist situation. It is a native of 
North America, and is found from Canada to Florida, among rocks 
and in moist woodlands. It was first introduced in 1686 by Mr. 
James Sutherland, at that time curator of the Edinburgh Botanic 
Garden. The Euonymus americanus forms a fine ornament in the 
autumn, when loaded with deep crimson fruit, intermixed with dark, 
glossy leaves; and, when viewed from a distance, when the sun is 


The - 


Mancn 2, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


333 


shining upon it, it appears as if on fire, hence its American name of 
the ‘Burning Bush.” It is also called the ‘‘ Strawberry Tree,” on 
account of its warted capsules. 

The leaves of the American Burning Bush are elliptic-lanceolate, 
and serrated on the edges, from one to two inches long, leathery in 
texture, almost sessile, dark, shining green above, with the upper 
ones often slightly falcate, and all of them mostly acute pointed, 
and either tapering to or obtuse at the base, more or less persistent 
or eyergreen, and especially so in mild seasons. Branches, slender, 
spreading, and recumbent, with the shoots smooth, quadrangular, 
and deep green when leafless. Flowers, small, yellow tinged with 
red, and produced in great abundance, in from one to three flowered 
panicles, in Mey and June. Fruit, a prickly, warted capsule, of a 
deep crimson colour when ripe, somewhat resembling the fruit of the 


common arbutus or strawberry tree, but not nearly so large. Seeds, 
white, with an outer scarlet covering, and ripe in October. 
G. G. 


Synonyms: Enonymus alternifolius and H. sempervirens. 


THE ARBORETUM FOR MARCH. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

Finish up all trenching, draining, planting, and pruning; clear 
out water-courses; tie up and remoye, or stack, all felled stuff, 
faggots, and cord wood ; cutting out and placing by itself anything 
fit for charcoal. Bed out all seedling, layered plants, and last year’s 
struck cuttings. Make preparations for, and sow the seed of 
yarious forest trees, such as Oak, Beech, Ash, Sycamore, White 
and Black Thorn, Yews, Evergreen Oak, Hollies, Furze, Broom, &e. 
See that all newly-planted trees are upright and firm in the ground, 
and that such as require it are staked and tied. Prepare healthy 
open, sandy, sweet borders and quarters, in which to sow the seeds 
of the various kinds of conifers. The Scotch Fir and its varieties, 
all of which are very hardy, should be sown on well-prepared soil, 
in beds of four or five feet wide, in open quarters. The tender and 
more spare seedling kinds, of which one only has small portions of 
seed, I have always sown on nicely prepared borders in sheltered 
situations. Very small portions of seed of such as are considered 
diffieult to raise I have sown in boxes or in pans, and have placed 
them under a cold frame or pit lights; and great rarities I sow 
always in pots, plunged in sand or cinder ashes, close to the glass of 
a northern aspect, or placed so as to face north in summer ; pricking 
the young plants off as soon as up into pans an inch asunder each 
way, or one plant into a small sixty-sized pot. Such has been my 
practice, which for many years has been very successful. Common 
and abundant kinds, sow in beds and quarters patted or beaten 
down gently with the back of a clean spade to firm the seed, covering 
it according to its size from half an inch to one inch in depth with 
open, healthy, sandy soil. Those in pots, pans, and boxes, I cover 
with charcoal dust intermixed with the soil, using it also on the 
border and beds. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Acer Negundo variegatum.—This beautiful maple has not yet 
received the attention which it merits, for few variegated trees equal it 
for effect when planted in masses or singly. I have afew trees of it pro- 
cured when it first came out; they are now about fourteen feet in height, 
and the variegation is still as beautiful as when they were young. When 
planted in shrubberies, or for park scenery, this maple would have the 
same effect on a large scale as the finest silver variegated pelargoniums 
have on a small scale in our flower gardens. Cut sprigs of it are likewise 
useful for mixing with flowers for table decoration, or for other purposes. 
Wittiam TILLERY, Welbeck. 

Moving a Tree with Nest.—1 shifted a yew tree out of a planta- 
tion, distant at least 300 yards from my house, and planted it within a 
dozen yards of my front door. There was a blackbird’s nest in the tree, 
which was finished, but had no eggs in it. To my very great surprise | 


_ saw a blackbird on the nest the very next day, and before I left home she 


was sitting on five eggs. That the old bird should follow a nest of newly 
hatched young [ can imagine ; but I never before heard of an instance like 
the one I name.—Deadfull, in ‘* Field.” 

An Old Yew Tree in Bavaria.—In one of your articles on 
Sequoias you refer to old Yew trees. I have found ona hunting tour in 
our mountains a yew tree of the following dimensions: circumference, 
4157 metres = 13 feet 6 inches; height, 7°3 metres = 23 feet 9 inches ; 
diameter of the old tree, 13238 metres =50 7-10ths inches; diameter 
of a young tree, 00846 metres = 3 inches; annual layers, 98; 

: 98 x 1,328 
age of the large tree, ————— = 1,588, years. As, however, the annual 
growth has probably considerably diminished in the last thousand years, 
the treé is undoubtedly much older. Are there older Yew trees known in 
England? I send a photograph after a sketch. The tree stands in the 
Valley of Balderschwang, im South Western Bavaria, on a very narrow 
ridge.—Orro Forster, Augsburg. 


“Trees of Liberty” in Paris.—The last of the “Trees of 
Liberty ”’ planted in Paris during the Republic of 1848 has just been cut 
down in the courtyard of a house in the Rue d’Amsterdam, which it had 
embellished and shaded, if not sanctified, during the last four-and-twenty 
years. ‘The first ‘‘ Tree of Liberty” was planted on the 24th of March, 
1848, in the Champs de Mars. After the 4th of September, 1870, there 
was a question of planting new trees of liberty, and some were planted 
in the provinces; but the scheme fell through in Paris, owing to the high 
price of fuel. 

The Monterey Cypress (C. macrocarpa).—I did not say that 
My. Barron had lost 999 out of a 1,000 plants of this Cypress which he 
had planted near the sea, What I did say was, that although Mr. Barron 
had been unsuccessful, that was no reason why others should not 
succeed ; for I had seen hundreds of fine examples of this beautiful tree 
doing well in so many places round the sea-coast. To point out all the 
places in which I have seen it thriving, from Brighton to the Isle of Wight 
and from thence to Swansea Bay—would take up too much space. I will 
therefore only state that I saw some fine healthy plants of it close to 
Sketty, and only a few minutes’ walk from Mr. Barron’s place, near the 
Oystermouth station, Swansea Bay, and not far from the road leading to 
the well-known ruins of Oystermouth Castle—J ames BARNeEs. 


THE COTTAGER’S GARDEN. 

No waxen blossom stained with rainbow hues, 
No crimson-flush of petals, heaven-dyed, 

No spoils of distant zones and eastern shores, 
Snatch’d from the poisonous woods to feed man’s pride ; 

No spiked and spotted aloes, dagger fenced, 
No lilies floating on their leafy raft, 

No air-plants dappled like great butterflies, 
Spice odours from the Orient isles to waft; 

But just one little hush of southernwood, 
Fragrant and evergreen as honesty, 

And clumps of purple heart’s-ease rarely found 
In rich man’s gardens, whereso’er they be. 

A tufted rod of hollyhocks, with rosettes, 
For bower-pot or for posy; or a bed 

Of blood-red scented cloves, so jagg’d and quaint, 
To deck a Sunday coat with tuft of red. 

A plant of marigold, with golden glow, 
To spread perennial sunshine o’er the plot; 

A winter rose, to bloom when summer’s gone, 
And cast a gleam of hope when spring’s forgot. 

—All the Year Round. 


THEGHOUSEHOLD: 


THE FAIRY-RING CHAMPIGNON. 
(MARASMIUS OREADES.) 

CHAMPIGNON is a name applied in France to edible fungi in 
general, or, if specifically, it indicates more especially the 
common mushroom. The subject of our illustration is an 
early species, seldom produced in any quantity late in the 
season. When of a good size, and quickly grown, it is, 
perhaps, the best of all agarics. It is so common in some 
districts, that bushels of it may be gathered in a day, and 
eyen on our lawns it is by no means uncommon, where, as 
well as in old pastures, it generally appears in broad brown 
patches, either circular, or forming a portion of a circle. 
M. urens, the only species with which it can be confounded, 
the most acrid of all allied funguses, usually grows in woods, 
though sometimes in the fairy-ring. However, its flat top 
and narrow crowded gills cause it to be readily distinguished 
anywhere. 

Pileus smooth, fleshy, convex, subumbonate, generally more 
or less compressed, tough, coriaceous, elastic, wrinkled; when 
water-soaked, brown; when dry, of a buff or cream colour, 
the umbo often remaining red-brown, as if scorched; gills 
free, distant, ventricose, of the same tint as the pileus, but 
more pale; stem, equal, solid, twisted, very tough and fibrous, 
of a pale silky-white colour. 

The following are the opinions on the merits of the Fairy- 
Ring Champignon as an edible fungus :— 

“On the Continent this species has long been considered 
edible, but, on account of its coriaceous texture, it is dried, 
and employed in the form of powder, to season various made- 
dishes.” —Dr. GREYILLE, 


334 


THE GARDEN. 


([Mancn 2, 1872. 


“The common Fairy-Ring Champignon is the best of all 
our funguses, yet there is scarcely one person in a thousand 
who dare yenture to use it. With common observation no 
mistake need be made with regard to it. Tt has an extremely 
fine flavour, and makes perhaps the very best ketchup that 
there is."—Rny. M. J. Burxunny. 

“An excellent flavour, as good as that of most funguses.’— 
Dr. Bannan. 

Moprs or Cooxiye Marasmius orwapes.—Grnrrat Usr.— 
“Cut im small pieces and seasoned it makes an excellent addi- 
tion to stews, hashes, or fried meats, but it should only be 
added a few minutes before serving, as the aroma is dissipated 
by over cooking. It is the mushroom used in the French @ la 
mode beef shops in London.”—Dr. Banu. 

When stewed, the champignons require rather longer time 
to insure their being perfectly tender. They are readily dried 
by removing the stems from the fungus, threading them on 
a string, and hanging them up ina dry airy place. * When 
dried, it may be kept for years without losing any of its aroma 
or goodness, which, on the contrary, becomes improved by the 
process, so as, in fact, to impart more flavour to the dish than 
would have been imparted by the fresh fungus; though it is 
not to be denied that the flesh then becomes coriaceous (or 
tough), and less easy of digestion.”—Dr. Bannan. 


The Fairy Ring Champignon. 


CramrigNon Powprr.—Put the champignons in a stew-pan 
with alittle mace, and a few cloves, and a sprinkling of white 
pepper. Simmer, and shake constantly, to preyent burning, 
until any liquor that may exude is dried up again. Dry 
thoroughly in a warm oven until they will easily powder. Put 
the dried agaric, or the powder, into wide-mouthed glass 
bottles, and store ina dry place. It will keep any length of 
time. A tea-spoonful added to any soup, or gravy, or sauce, 
just before the last boil is given, will produce a yery fine 
mushroom flavour. 

Picktep CHamrieNons.—Collect fresh buttons of the Fairy- 
Ring agaric, and use them at once. Cut off the stems quite 
close, and throw each one as you do so into a basin of water 
in which a spoonful of salt has been put. Drain them from it 
quickly afterwards, and place them on a soft cloth to dry. For 
each quart of buttons thus prepared, take nearly a quart of 
pale white wine vinegar, and add to it a heaped tea-spoonful of 
salt, half-an-ounce of whole white pepper, an ounce of ginger- 
root bruised, two large blades of mace, and a fourth of a salt- 
spoon of cayenne pepper tied in a small piece of muslin. 
When this pickle boils throw in the agarics, and boil them in 
it over a clear fire moderately fast, from six to nine minutes. 
When tolerably tender, put them into warm wide-mouthed 
bottles, and divide the spice equally amongst them. When 
perfectly cold, cork well, or tie skins and paper over them. 
Store in a dry place, and keep out the frost. Full-sized 
champignons may be pickled exactly in the same way, but will 


require longer boiling, until, indeed, they become tender.— 
Modified from Miss Acton. 

CHAMPIGNONS QuICKLY PickLEp.—Place the prepared buttons 
in bottles with a blade of mace, a tea-spoonful of pepper- 
corns, and a tea-spoonful of mustard-seed im each, and coyer 
with the strongest white wine pickling vinegar boiling hot. 
Cork or tie down as before, but do not expect them to keep 
above three months. 


MODES OF COOKING TRUFFLES. 


Trurres Au ViN.—Take some good-sized fresh truffles, wash them 
perfectly clean, put them in a saucepan with a pod of garlic, a bundle of 
sweet herbs, and pepper and salt to taste; fill up the saucepan, so as to 
cover the truffles, with some very good stock and white wime in equal 
parts. Let them boil gently till done, and serve dry in a napkin. 

Trurres A 1’ paniNNe.—Lay some truffles cut in slices in a dish that 
will stand the fire; strew over them some parsley and shalot finely 
minced, some pepper, and a little salt; pour some olive oil over them, 
put them in the ovin, covered close, for a quarter of an hour or 
twenty minutes, and when done squeeze the juice of a lemon oyer, and 
serve. 

Trurres Savrres.—Put some butter im a saucepan, and some truffles 
cut in slices ; toss them for five minutes, then moisten with a glass of 
sherry, and add pepper, salt, a little powdered nutmeg, and a small piece 
of glaze; let them stew gently till done. Serve with sippets of bread 
fried in butter. 


Cauliflower Salad.—Boila cauliflower in salted water till tender, 
but not overdone; when cold, cut it up neatly im small sprigs. Beat up 
together three tablespoonfuls of oil and one tablespoonful of tarragon 
vinegar, with pepper and salt to taste: rub the dish very slightly with 
garlic, arrange the pieces of cauliflower on it, strew over them some 
capers, a little tarragon, chervil, and parsley, all finely minced, and the 
least bit of dried thyme and marjoram powdered. Pour the oil and 
vinegar over, and serve. 

Orange Salad.—Peel eight oranges with a sharp knife, so as to 
remove every vestige of skin from them, core them as you would core 
apples, then ent them in slices, and lay them im a deep dish; strew over 
them plenty of powdered loaf-sugar, then add a large wine-glassful of 
pale brandy; keep the dish covered close till the time of serving. 

Orange Chips.—Cut your oranges longways, take out all the pulp, 
and put the rinds into rather strong salt and water for six days, then 
boil them in a large quantity of spring water until they are tender; 
take them out, and lay them on a hair sieve to drain, then make a thin 
syrup of fine loaf-sugar (one pound to one quart of water); put in your 
peels, and boil them over a slow fire till yousee the syrup candy about 
the pan and peels, then take them out and grate fine sugar over them. 
Lay them ona hair sieve to drain, and set them in a stove, or before 
the fire to dry, Lemon chips or candied peel may be made in the 
same way. 


iio—E PROPAGAG@R: 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 


TREATMENT AFTER GRAFTING BY ArpRoacH.—The employ- 
ment of two distinct subjects so as to preserve a harmony of 
growth necessitates the use of fastenings, supports, props, or 
hooks, in order to fix the grafted stems and branches as firmly 
as possible in the desired position. Should the bandage haye 
penetrated the bark, it should be removed, and a fresh one put 
on if there is reason to think that the union of the parts is 
not completed. The final detachment of the graft requires 
the greatest care. It consists in separating the branch or 
stem which forms the scion from the parent plant as soon as it 
(the scion) can dispense with its support, and is the last opera- 
tion in layering and grafting by approach. It comprises two 
points :—first, cutting off the head of the stock above the 
graft; second, cutting the scion-branch or stem below the 
graft. It is prudent to proceed by degrees both in the entire 
operation and in its details, first cutting off the head of the 
stock and afterwards detaching the scion from the parent 
stem. In both cases this should be done by a series of succes- 
sive cuttings, in order to ayoid the reaction consequent on 
extensive mutilation. F 

Currme orr THE Heap or tHe Srocx.—The operations for 
this purpose may commence a fortnight after grafting, it the 
graft appears to have succeeded. Tirst, the extremities only 
of the principal branches are cut off. A week after they are 
shortened down to four or eight inches. When the union of the 
graft is certain, the stem is shortened in two or three cuttings, 
so as to leave a simple stump about two inches above the 


Marcy 2, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


335 


graft, and furnished, if possible, with small shoots to draw the 
sap. With subjects grafted in spring, this operation is per- 
formed about the end of summer; the cohesion of the parts 
will be perfect before winter. But if the grafting takes place 
later, we should confine ourselves before winter to shortening 
the branches of the head or the leading shoot as soon as the 
parts are perfectly united. The final cutting down to four 
inches above the graft should be postponed to the following 
spring, when the sap begins to flow. The heel or stump is 
retained for one season to serve as a prop to which the scion is 
tied, and also that the shoots left upon it may draw up the 
sap. It is evt away entirely when the cohesion of the parts is 
considered perfect and the scion sufficiently vigorous to dis- 
pense with it. It would not be amiss to cover the wound with 
grafting-wax, and to continue the prop for some time longer. 
This succession of cuttings is only applicable to those cases of 

rafting in which the stock has not been previously headed 
gaan, and when the part above the graft is to ke replaced by 
the development of the scion. 

DetacHMENT OF THE Scion FROM THE Parent Stem.—This 
is an important matter, as by it the scion is left to its own 
resources, the parent stem being no longer called upon to 
support it. We cannot, therefore, set about this operation 
with too much cireumspection. In the first place, complete 
separation should not take place until the graft has attained 
one full season’s growth. Some persons do not always observe 
this rule; but we cannot recommend anyone to follow their 
example, and the grafter will find our opinion confirmed in the 
course of his practice. However, the scion should continue 
connected with the parent as long as its union with the stock 
is incomplete. The time of perfect cohesion may be judged 
of by the swelling which rises round the edges of the joining, 
and ie the simultaneous growth of the two parts. In case of 
doubt, it is best to act prudently and prepare the young tree 
to support itself without the help of the parent. ‘This is done 
by making ee r incisions on the part which joins the 
parent to the stock. A single incision may suffice, but at the 
end of a week ora fortnight it should be made deeper. In- 
stead of single incision, the separation may be gradually 
effected by a succession of cuttings penetrating the bark and 
the wood, or of cireular incisions or rings on the arm of the 
graft. These are begun at some distance from the point of 
contact with the stock, and are made deeper and nearer to the 
graft at each successive operation. At last the arm is cut 
clean off close to the graft, and the wound coyered with 
grafting-wax. 

Re-rLantinG.—Should the new tree not find in the place 
where it has been grafted a sufficient supply of nutritive ele- 
ments, it should in almost every instance be taken up and 
transplanted into another place, either in the nursery or where 
it is intended to stand permanently. It is better not to 
remove it until it has grown at least a year from the time of 
its detachment from the parent. It will thus have become 
inured to exist on its own resources, and will not have been 
subjected to several severe operations in quick succession. 
Should the separation have produced any deviation from the 
desired direction of growth in the grafted tree, a stake or prop 
should be used, which will keep ina straight line both the 
stem and the graft at the same time. A few longitudinal 
incisions on the elbows or curved parts, aid the dilatation of 
the tissues, the free circulation of the sap, and the straighten- 
ing of the stem; but trees newly transplanted should not be 
thus cut. 

PropaGation BY Approacu-GrarrinG.—In all cases it is best 
to have the scion and stock in close proximity to each other, as 
the work of grafting is thereby simplified. In well-kept 
nurseries, the parent-trees are planted in positions where graft- 
ing by approach is intended to be carried on, either before the 
stocks are planted, or at the same time. Should parent-trees 
and stocks, which are strong enough to be grafted at once, be 
planted, they should not be operated upon for at least a year. 
They will thus be better rooted, and the union of the graft 
will be more certain. Those parent-trees and stocks are 
selected which may be grafted with success, and are trained in 
a tall or branching form, in order to facilitate their junction at 
the time of grafting. The same parent may furnish scions to 
several stocks at the same or different times. The illustration 


just given exhibits several methods of placing stocks of various 
sizes in proximity to a common parent-tree. Here the stock 
which is high enough is grafted in the upper part with a scion 
growing at the same elevation, while its neighbour, which is too 
high for the next scion, must be drawn towards the ground, in 
order to be brought into contact with it. Another is grafted 
close to the ground. Among the subjects in pots, some are 
placed on a simple or double stand, which raises them to the 


desired height; another is grafted with the pot buried in the 
soil, which may answer it better. The stocks being young and 
the scions sufficiently flexible, they can be brought together in 
places best suited for grafting them. In nurseries, small 
samples of new trees are sometimes kept in pots. If it is 
desired to propagate them on tall stems, stocks of the required 
height are planted, and the parent-plant is elevated sufficiently 
by means of a stand. The following representation exhibits a 


specimen of this kind of work. In order to protect the parent 
from the effects of prolonged drought, the pot should be placed 
inside a larger one, and the space between them filled with moss 
which should be kept moist, or with fine sand, which is better 
for keeping cool. example of a method diametrically oppo- 
site to the preceding is very often seen in nurseries, in which 
the parent-tree is very strong and branching, while the exten- 
sion of its roots and the shade of its foliage seldom allow 
young stocks to be planted around it. In order to propagate 


336 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcn 2, 1872. 


it, young stocks must be grown in pots. In the second year of 
their growth they are placed among the branches of the parent- 
tree. For this purpose a stage with steps or shelves is erected, 
on which the stocks are placed within reach of different 
branches. ‘The pots placed on a shelf are surrounded with a 
bed of moss, tan, sand, or other material, which will retain a 
moist coolness; for it will be difficult to water them, and rain 
and dew will be intercepted by the foliage. When a tree is in- 
tended to serve as a parent in grafting by approach, it is well 
to excite the sap to flow towards the scion-branches, especially 
at the time of grafting. Accordingly the branches not used 
for grafting should be lopped or shortened without weakening 
the tree. ‘This suppression of some of the branches will cause 
a greater flow of sap to the others, which are to be used as 
scions. It also enables us to repeat the operation of grafting 
by approach every year with the same parent-tree. The shoots 
which are developed by the cutting of the branches which are 
not grafted, will serve in their turn, should there be need of 
them, for scions the following season, Just when the detach- 
ment of the previous year’s grafts is commenced.—C.. Baltet’s, 
“PArt de Greffer.” (Lo be continued.) 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER Y. 

[REMEMBER that, when we first formed our floral brother- 
hood, I introduced the name of Joseph Grundy with some 
anxiety, lest it should not be welcomed as I wished. I was 
afraid that his occasional wanderings from the garden in the 
direction of the stable-yard, the sudden transfer of his 
attentions from his horseradish to his horse, and again from 
his cob to his cobnuts, might disqualify him from becoming a 
member of our little guild of gardeners. These noses, I 
reasoned, accustomed as they are to Orange-blossoms, will 
inevitably turn up at the mere notion of a groom with straw 
at his boots. But those noses did nothing of the kind. My 


nomination was received with hearty approval. “If he is not’ 


too much engaged,” said Mr. Oldacres, with a quaint gravity, 
“in laying out the new grounds at Kensington, or in reviewing 
‘ Darwin on Species,’ let us have him by allmeans. Seriously, 
I am glad to second this candidate. While we teach him 
something about gardening, we cannot fail to profit in turn 
from the presence among us of an industrious, an honest, a 
righteous man.” 

To these commendatory epithets, I would append the 
adjective cheery, as characteristic of one who is not only happy 
himself, but communicative of happiness to others. I never 
meet that Fourteen Stone of healthfulness, crowned with its 
rosy smiling face, as bright as a good conscience and brown soap 
can make it, without feeling a certain freshness at heart—a 
braver confidence in the hopes and joys of life—a more sure 
emancipation from its cares and sorrows. Like the “bit of 
blue” which precedes the sunshine when the storm-clouds 
break, that face beams with fine weather. Here is a delightful 
barometer, which disdains the influence of atmosphere, rain, 
and wind, and boldy assures you in the middle of a hurricane, 
that everything is “ set fair.” It is a face at which babies of 
the most reserved and haughty disposition immediately smile 
and coo; while the most timid children “walk under his huge 
legs and peep about, to. find themselves dishonourable ” 
lollipops. Coming quickly round a corner, upon a recent 
oceasion, I suddenly confronted Mr. Grundy, engaged in the 
arduous evolutions of hopscotch, and his expression of bashful 
uncertainty whether he should resume his position as a 
rational biped, or go on with the game and win it, wasa 
supreme treat, 1 can assure you. Finally, he got upon the 
line—I wonder with those boots of his that he was ever off 
it—and resumed his original standing in society, amid the 
derisive cheers of his small competitors. 

You would scarcely imagine that this festive countenance 
could ever be regarded with a qualified pleasure, nay even 
with feelings of discomfort; but there are scenes and seasons 
wherein I have met it with much perturbation of spirit. I 
maintain that upon occasions of national humiliation, upon 
Ash-Wednesday and other days of penitence, Joseph Grundy 
ought to sit in the vestry. No member of our congregation is 
more in earnest than he; but his face utterly declines to 


identity itself with any internal seriousness, and glows in its 
amazing joy and radiance, as though protesting against the 
whole proceeding, and contradicting every word of the service. 

And was not that same hilarious visage a sore trial and 
stumbling-block, when, in days that are past and a gallery 
that is pulled down, Joseph Grundy performed on the bassoon ? 
He was but poor company aS a musician, was Joe, but 
thoroughly conscientious; and though I never knew him to 
finish with the choir, he always played out his verse honour- 
ably, and came ina few notes behind, blown, but extremely 
gratified. We have an harmonium noy, and the bold bassoonist 
sings, and sings well, in the choir. Drowsy indeed must that 
believer be who does not start in his bed upon Christmas morn, 
when Grundy, lustily and with a good courage, bids his 
brother “ Christians, awake!” 

Lustily, and with a good courage, is his rule in all things. 
It does one good to see him at his work, and I think of the 
American’s striking words, of “the nobility of labour, the long 
pedigree of toil,” as I watch him, manfully accepting that 
irksome destiny, which the first gardener hath entailed upon 
usall. A right honest Spade is Joseph. His no “lubbard 
labour,” of which Cowper, in “The Garden,” speaks as 
“loitering lazily, if not o’erseen.” If you come upon him when 
he is resting awhile, he does not hastily resume his labours, 
and so confess that he has been idle, and does not deserve 
relaxation (I always distrust those demonstrative gentlemen 
who are so excessively energetic when their employer is 
present), but he stands at ease until he feels himself refreshed, . 
and then plies his spade once more, with a determination and 
energy which induce the idea that he has solemnly pledged 
himself to dig to the Antipodes before tea-time. It is good, I 
say, to watch him at his work, for “laborare est orare,’ and 
that work is prayer, is as true a text this day as when it cheered 
the hearts of those toilsome monks, who were long the only, 
and always the best, gardeners. 

So we, haying seen Joe Grundy dig, were glad to admit him 
into our Society of Spades. He is not scientific, it istrue. I 
recall mistakes in his nomenclature of plants, discreditable to 
his etymology. I have heard him speak, for instance, of 
Yallermandies, Cameleons, Dolphiniwms, and the like. I know 
that in spelling Cactus he leads off with the letter K.; and I am 
quite sure that he could no more repeat some of the delightful 
titles which are given to flowers (let me mention, by way of a 
nice little specimen, Siphocampylos Manetticeflorus) than an 
Ephraimite could say Shibboleth. But there is a nobler 
language, my friends, than is to be found in Botanical 
Dictionaries, grand words of Truth, Goodwill, and’ Honesty ; 
and these Joseph Grundy speaks. There is a higher task 
appointed than the precise orthography of tallies, that we 
“learn to labour and to wait;” and he studies this lesson well. 

In his little intervals of leisure, the semibreve rests of his 
solo on the spade, during which, to quote his own expression, 
he is engaged in “catching his wind,” he is wont to survey 
with much contentment the pleasant garden around him. It 
freshens him, he says, to have a peep at the flowers, and to see 
things looking comfortable and happy, as though they thanked 
him for his trouble; and, indeed, to look upon that smiling 
pleasaunce is a “refreshment to the spirit of man.” Tt is lai 
out much as gardens were a quarter of a century ago. Large 
beds, round or oval principally, with flowering trees in the 
centre, the Lilac, the Acacia, the Laburnum, the Almond, and 
their kind; next these, the glossy evergreen, the Arbutus, the 
Aucuba, the Box, the Berberis, the Juniper, Holly, and Yew; 
and outwardly the border for flowers. “And gravel walks 
there for meditation,’ meander about these beds in tortuous 
course, conducting you to sweet little spots of coolness and 
seclusion, and giving you a continual change of objects for 
contemplation, I never wander in those charming grounds, 
but I ask myself this question—Are we not making a 
“tremendous sacrifice,” (as the drapers say, when they are 
anxious to dispose of surplus stock, or seedy old “shop- 
keepers”) to that Gigantic Idol called “ Bedding Out?” Are- 
not our modern gardens, and these close to our windows, fire- 
works and kaleidescopes for three months in the year, with 
brown fallows for the remaining nine? Don’t talk tome about 
your “ Winter Gardens,” your Golden Hollies with eight leaves 
your priggish little Irish Yews, about as big as .ninepins 


Marcu 2, 1872.] 


To the Nursery, say I, with those tiny infants. And I won't 
listen to any nonsense about “grand display of bulbs in 
Spring!” The grand display costs a fortune, and comes up 
“patchy,” after all. I looked out the other morning from the 
window of a grand house in these parts, where they have 
streets of glass and regiments of gardeners, upon a magnani- 
mous but unhappy experiment to beautify the beds with bulbs. 
There were to be Maltese crosses in silver, and golden coronets 
upon cushions of purple. The idea was gorgeous, but the 
result was this—I could scarcely shave for laughing! Oh, the 
gaps and the blanks, the hiatus vatde deflendi! Puritanical 
mice had defaced the crosses, and appropriated the Crown 
Jewels. 

Surely it is better for mind and body to feed regularly upon 
wholesome food, wpon the meats and fruits of the earth in 
their season, than to have three months of feasting, and nine 
of fast. At the Grange there is always something close at 
hand, not exiled to the kitchen garden, to please you. 


“The daughters of the year 
One after one through that still garden pass, 
Each garlanded with her peculiar flower.” 


From the cheeful parlour, with its oaken panels and large 
square stone-mullioned window, I see in winter the 
Laurestinus, the bright red berries of the Holly, the pale 
yellow Aconite, the white Christmas Rose. There are Violets 
under that window, waiting for a sunny gleam, and the room 
itself is redolent now with the delicate perfume of the 
Chimonanthus fragrans. Soon they will have in abundance 
the Snowdrop (our Lady's flower)—the Crocus, purple, and 
gold, and white (the latter irreyerently termed by children 
“poached eggs,’ and very like them)—Hepaticas, the sweet 
Mezereon, and all the first flowers of spring. You “would 
remove that Ribes, because it must look shabby in the winter !” 
But don’t you see that there are too many evergreens around 
it to allow the eye to rest upon it, much less to be offended by 
it; and it is so with all the deciduous trees. 

* And we seem,” said Miss Susan to me (two maiden sisters 
live at the Grange, Miss Susan and Miss Mary Johnstone, so 
sweet tempered, and good and graceful, that I often wish they 
were twenty years younger, and bigamy more in favour), ‘we 
seem to haye all the happiness of a garden, without those little 
vexations and disappointments which trouble some of our 
neighbours. We ought to be very thankful ;” and I know that 
she is thankful, though she neither groans, nor squints at the 
firmament, and in fact does not care what I think on tke 
subject; “for our home is not only lovely in our own eyes, but 
seems to endear itself to our friends also. Even strangers are 
struck at once with the greenness and quietness of our ‘fair 
ground.’ Our good Duke, lunching here in September—it is 
only in the partridge season that we have the privilege of a 
visit—looked around, and sighed to himself,‘ How very, very 
peaceful!’ He was comparing our pretty little plot, fancy, 
with nis grand terraces, and his geometrical designs, his rain- 
bows, his ribbons, and his stars, and I verily believed that he 
preferred the former. Indeed, he confessed as much, by 
quoting two lines of poetry, which we afterwards found in a 
translation by Mr. Pope from Martial :— 


‘But simple Nature’s hand with nobler grace 
Diffuses art!ess beauties o’er the place.’ 


And dear Mr. Oldacres, the first time he smoked a pipe in the 
new arbour, seemed to arrive ata similar conclusion. ‘Prettier 
than anything we’ve got,’ he grunted. ‘If aman wants to 
know what a fool he is, let him go and lay out a garden!’ 
“And it is a comfort to feel that our old-fashioned style 
evokes neither jealousies nor comparisons from your anxious 
modern competitors. If the spirit of any young gardener is 
troubled.at the sight of some to him unknown noyelty, and envy 
with malignant glare is eyeing it, as Greedy Dick the tartlets 
and pies, he is at once appeased to hear that it has been with 
us half a century, and is only annoyed with himself for 
admiring anything so superannuated. No one points out, 
with lively satisfaction to himself, those ‘sad mistakes in 
arrangement of colours,’ which your great artists are as prompt 
to see in others as they are to overlook in their own parterres. 
Wearenever told that our favourite plants are ‘ quite super- 


THE GARDEN. 


5337 
seded, and gone out of cultivation some years since!’ And 
nobody sneers at our boiler, for the simple reason that we 
have no greenhouse. Ah! I must tell you what dear Mary 
said” (Miss Susan, you must know, looks upon Miss Mary as a 
combination of Sydney Smith and Venus), “when Joseph 
cs Sods a wish, the other day, that we would set up what he 
called ‘a bit of a Consartive-Tory.’ ‘Joseph,’ she said, ‘so far 
as I am concerned, I feel more disposed, as I’m losing my hair, 
to set up a bit of a Wig!’ 

“Apropos of Grundy, what do you think that delightful 
elephant did last evening, We had a few friends to dine with 
us, and it unfortunately devolved upon Joseph to place a 
pyramid of jelly upon the table. Carried unsteadily, it 
commenced of course a series of the liveliest oscillations, and 
so swayed itself to and fro, when it reached its destination, 
that poor Joseph called to it in real agony of mind, ‘ Who-a 
who-a, who-a!” I need not tell you that he concluded the 
performance by hissing violently, when he swept away the 
crumbs, as though manipulating his horse, for that, you know, 
he always does.” S R. H. 
(To be continued. ) 


ASPECTS OF VEGETATION. 


THE TRAVELLER’S TREE OF MADAGASCAR. 


Mapacascar is larger than Great Britian and Ireland com- 
bined, and, therefore, as may be imagined, its vegetation, 
which is of arich tropical character, varied by tall Cocoa Palms, 
groves of Pandanus trees, Indian Acacias, thickets of Bam- 
boos, and other forms of hot-country vegetable life, is inte- 
resting in the extreme. Its interior is mountainous and 
wooded, some of the trees being of surprising beauty, and the 
woods often so loaded with a luxuriant drapery of creepers, as 
to render them an almost impassable jungle. Parasitical on 
the branches of some of them have been found Angrecums 
of the most lovely description, while ground Orchids of other 
kinds are not uncommon; aud Madagascar is said to be the 
“very Eden of ferns.” 

In running streams occur the Lace-leaf plant, now so 
interesting a feature of our stove aquariums; and, in larger 
rivers, great patches of the beautiful blue Water Lily 
(Nymphiea czrulea). 

But it is with the Traveller's Tree (Urania speciosa) we 
wish now more particularly to deal, and whose singular 
structure and masses of broad foliage impart so peculiar a 
character to the Madagascar landscape. As our illustration 
indicates, it is a moisture-loving plant, or rather, tree; but it 
is also abundant on hillsides, covering vast tracts of the 
country, intermingled only here and there with the Rofia Palm. 
Ellis, in his interesting book on Madagascar, thus speaks of 
this singular tree, which is altogether one of the most 
remarkable that has been discovered in that island : 

“The extent to which it prevails may be inferred from 
the native name, ‘ravinala,’ by which it was designated by 
Sonnorat, its discoverer. Ravinala is, literally, ‘leaf of the 
forest,’ as if it was the leaf by which the forest was charac- 
terised, which is the fact where it abounds, though in many 
parts it is not met with at all. The tree rises from the ground 
with a thick, succulent stem like that of the Plantain, or the 
larger species of Strelitzia, to both of which it bears a strong 
resemblance. It sends out, from the centre of the stem, long 
broad leayes like those of the Plantain, only less fragile, and 
rising, not round the stalk, but in two lines on opposite sides, 
so that, as the leaves increase, and the lower ones droop at the 
end or extend horizontally, the tree presents the appearance of a 
large open fan. When the stem rises ten or twelve feet high, 
the lower part of the outer covering becomes hard and dry, 
like the bark of the cocoa-nut-tree. Many of thetrees in this 
region were at least thirty feet from the ground to the 
lowest leaves. I frequently counted from twenty to twenty- 
four leaves on a single tree, the stalk of each leaf being six 
or eight feet long, and the broad leaf itself four or six feet 
more. 

“The whole of these twenty-four bright green gigantic 
leaves, spread out like a fan at the top of a trunk thirty feet 


888 THE GARDEN. [Marcu 2, 1872. 


Marcu 2, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 339 


=o OOOO eee 


high, presented a spectacle as impressive as it was to me rare 
and beautiful; and in this part of the country they were the 
most conspicuous objects for miles together, and were it not 
that these vast bright green shining leaves are slit on each 
side by the winds, and so flutter in smaller portions with the 
passing breeze, the prevalence of this tree would impart a 
degree of almost inconceivable magnificence to the vegetation 
of the country. 

“In the fan-like head of the Trayeller’s Tree, there were 
generally three or four branches of seed pods. The parts of 
fructification seemed to be enclosed in a tough firm spathe, 
like that of the cocoa-nut; but the subsequent development 
was more than that of the fruit of the Plantain. When the 
pods, or seed vessels, of which there were forty or fifty on 
each bunch, were ripe, they burst open, and each pod was seen 
to enclose thirty or more seeds, in shape like a small bean, but 
enyeloped in a fine silky fibre of the most brilliant blue or 
purple colour. T. : 

«But this tree has been most celebrated for containing, even 
during the most arid season, a large quantity of pure fresh 
water, supplying to the traveller the place of wells in the 
desert. Whenever I inquired of the natives, they always 
affirmed that such was the fact, and that so abundant and pure 
was the water, that when the men were at work near the trees 
they did not take the trouble to go to the stream for water, 
but drew off and drank the water from the tree. Having for- 
“merly been somewhat sceptical on this point, I determined to 
examine some of the trees, and during my journey this 
morning, we stopped near a clump of trees. One of my 
bearers struck a spear four or five inches deep into the thick 
firm end of the stalk of the leaf, about six inches above its 
junction with the trunk, and on drawing it back a stream of 
pure clear water gushed out, about a quart of which we caught 
in a pitcher, and all drank of it on the spot. It was cool, clear, 
and perfectly sweet. On further examination I found that 
there was no filtration of the water through any part of the 
plant, as I had been led to suppose when I had seen water 
drawn by Sir William Hooker from one of the specimens in 
the palm house at Kew. There was a kind of natural cavity, 
or cistern, at the base of the stalk of each of the leaves, above 
its union with the stem, and the water which had been collected 
on the broad and ribbed surface of the leaf, had flowed down a 
groove or spout on the upper side of the stalk, into this natural 
reservoir, whence it supplied nutriment to the tree, and refresh- 
ment to the traveller or the labourer. 

“But in Madagascar this tree might, with propriety, be 
called the Builder’s Tree, rather than the Traveller’s Tree. Its 
leaves form the thatch of the houses on the eastern side of the 
island. The stems of its leaves form the partitions, and often 
sides of the houses, and the hard outside bark is stripped from 
the inner and soft part, and, having been beaten out flat, is laid 
for flooring; and 1 haye seen the entire floor of a long, well- 
built house covered with its bark, each piece being at least 
eighteen inches wide, and twenty or thirty fect long. The leaf, 
when green, is used as a wrapper for packages, and keeps out 
the rain. Large quantities are also sold every morning in the 
markets, as it serves the purpose of table-cloth, dishes, and 
plates at meals, and, folded into certain forms, is used instead 
of spoons and drinking vessels.” 

In warm conservatories planted in the natural style, the 
Traveller's Tree, in skilful hands, might be made to play an 
important part, especially in the neighbourhood of artificial 
water, in which its reflected form would have a striking and 
pretty effect. If only forthe sake of contrast this truly 
elegant Banana-like plant is well worth attention. It is occa- 
sionally to be found in our hot-houses; but not unfrequently 
Strelitzia augusta, which it somewhat resembles in habit, goes 
under that name. - 


Washington Irving as a Garden Critie.—“1 was once taken 
down with him,” says the author of “ Pencillings by the Way,” “into the 
country by a merchant to dinner. Our friend stopped his carriage at the 
gate of his park, and asked us if we would walk through his grounds to 
the house. Irving refused, and held me down by the coat, so that we 
drove on to the house together, leaving our host to follow on foot. ‘I 
make it a principle,’ said Irving, ‘never to walk with a man through his 
own grounds. J have no idea of praising a thing whether I like it or not. 
You and I will do them to-morrow morning by ourselves.’ ” 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 
BY R. GILBERT, BURGHLEY. 

Tux best soil for Asparagus is a light, rich, friable loam. 
Towards the end of autumn or beginning of winter select an 
open situation for its growth. Haying judiciously done this, 
give the ground a thick coat of farmyard manure, say at the 
rate of sixty loads per acre. Then trench to the depth 
of three feet, thoroughly mixing the soil and manure, and lay 
it up in ridges and let it remain in that condition throughout 
the winter to ameliorate and sweeten. 

SEED SOWING. 

Asparagus seed should only be gathered from the strongest 
and earliest shoots, such as have had the full benefit of light 
and air during the summer. The bed should be light, rich, 
and sandy, leaf mould affording the principal source of 
nourishment. Sow the seed in March or early in April, and 
if the beds are carefully hoed and kept free from weeds during 
the summer and autumn, the plants will become strong and 
be in good condition for planting the following spring. 

PLANTING. 

The ground having been trenched and neatly levelled, set 
out the beds as nearly north and south as possible, five feet 
wide, with two-feet alleys between them. Plant three rows in 
each bed, which may be done by setting the line a foot from 
the outside along the beds, and making a notch or drill with 
the spade sufficiently deep and wide to allow the roots to be 
carefully spread out. While the drills are open, scatter into 
and along them some clean river sand to sharpen the soil and 
enable the rootlets at once to commence work; this done, fill 
up, and make all firm about the plants with the hands, keeping 
the crowns two inches below the surface. The other two lines 
must be planted in the same manner,and should stand eighteen 
inches apart. Planting should not be commenced until the 
roots begin to grow; about the first or middle of April is the 
usual time. 

GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 

Throughout the summer and autumn the beds must be kept 
open and clean by means of frequent hoeings, say once a fort- 
night. Should the weather proye very dry after planting,.a 
mulching of litter or other dung would greatly benefit the 
plants. During the first and second seasons cauliflower may 
be planted between the beds. Cutting should not begin before 
the third season, and even then it must not be indulged in too 
severely. The third season the beds should be earthed over 
from the alleys, which are dug out to the depth of eighteen 
inches, the soil therefrom being laid on the surface of the beds 
for blanching purposes. 

FORCING. 

Our mode of forcing Asparagus is clearly illustrated by the 
annexed diagram. Our beds are five feet wide, with three-feet 
alleys between them. ‘The alleys are dug out to the depth of 


Ss 
A + FS A 
Ss 4 
2 
ly ft. 2 9 Ih ft. 
hot Bed, 5 feet wide. ~ Bed, 5 feet wide. hot 
dung. dung. 


Section of two Beds with Alley between them, and half of two 
; corresponding Alleys. 
two feet, the soil being spread over the surface of the beds, on 
which frames, covered with sashes, boards, or shutters, are 
placed. 'The space between the beds, being four and a half 
feet deep and three feet wide, is filled with fermenting material, 
such as stable dung and leayes, as are also the outside 
half alleys. Before filling these spaces with litter, we make 
holes into the sides of the beds large enough to admit a 
one-inch bore drain pipe. These holes we find beneficial in 
admitting heat to the interior of the bed. ‘The side trenches 
are filled with hot dung to the height of the frames, the 
beds in which, marked 4 a, are also coyered with the same 


340 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 2, 1872. 


material until the heads make their appearance, when it is 
removed. If white Asparagus is wanted, the frames are kept 
dark by being covered with shutters ; bu, if green is preferred, 
glazed lights should be put on. After the fermenting material 
is remoyed from the beds, the frames are kept close for a few 
days, after which a little air is given on favourable occasions, 
a practice which increases both flavour and quality. It is 
necessary to maintain a temperature of 60° or 65°, but at no 
time should it exceed 70°. When this heat cannot be kept up, 
fresh linings must be added. The ordinary plan of forcing 
Asparagus is by lifting good four-year old roots, and placing 
them thickly on a hotbed. This is more uncertain than forcing 
the plants where they grow, inasmuch as the bed may become 
overheated, which would be prejudicial to the plants. On the 
surface of the bed should be placed a few inches of old tan, on 
which the plants are to be thickly stored, carefully spreading 
out their roots. Some fine soil must then be worked among 
them. Sashes or wooden shutters may then be placed on the 
frames, which are kept quite dark till the plants appear, after 
which, should the produce be required in a green state, light 
and air may be given in suitable weather. 


HORSERADISH. 


Mn. Trursron says (see page 112) that he selects roots of Horse- 
yadish ‘‘as long and as straight as possible,” and that by the system 
he lays down he has grown in one year a stick of Horseradish twenty 
inches long and six inches round, from a very slender root. I have 
adopted this system for some years, and I can quite vouch for the 
practicability of obtaining the stated circumference from a very 
slender root ; but will Mx. Thurston kindly point out to us amateurs 
how the leneth is obtained, because my own experience is, that to 
produce a length of twenty inches, the root as originally inserted in 
the ground must have been twenty inches; for I haye never found a 
root inserted increase in length. It throws out roots from its base 
and makes for itself a crown, but it will not grow any longer. If, 
therefore, Mr. Thurston will explain this point, it will be a boon to 
us, as we should then know if it were indispensable or not to have 
long roots. I would also remark that I have done all he says in the 
way of making the bed in March instead of November. What is his 
experience on that point? The root has always been an awkward 
one to keep within limits, but by Mr. Thurston’s plan it can always 
be confined to two beds planted alternately, small or large, according 
to the requirements of a household. H. S. Warson. 


The Cottage, Old Charlton. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN FOR MARCH. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 


A most interesting and busy season has now arrived, and one on 
which the year’s success, or otherwise, toa great extent, depends; 
for if matters haying reference to cropping are not systematically 
performed in proper time, when the soil is in the right condition to 
receive the plants or seeds, little else but failure need be expected. 
In matters of cropping, do not stick to any certain rule as to the 
day of sowing or planting, whether the soil and weather are 
suitable or not, but first make a good and kindly preparation, by 
thorough deep culture and turning oyer of the soil in as rough and 
open a manner as possible to admit sun and air. In short, turn and 
re-turn the soil till it falls to pieces like slaked lime, and is in every 
way so sweetened and pulverised that, by watching the opportunity 
for a fine day, a large portion of work may be performed. Having all 
things in order and in good condition is the very keystone of success. 
It is even better to be a little out of season, than to begin cropping 
in the midst of disorder. 

Artichokes, Jerusalem, finish planting. 

Artichokes, Globe, pull away decayed leaves if any, in order to 
admit air to the stools and crowns, and set about early thinning out 
the weakest shoots. ; 

Asparagus, continue to get into gentle heat strong roots; sow 
seed, and prepare for planting new beds the end of the month. I 
always like to see the buds pushing forth before I take up the plants ; 
after which, do not allow them to lie about, but replant at once in 
rows two feet apart, and let the plants stand one foot asunder in the 
rows. A good deep drill drawn on each side of the line, and the roots 
spread astride of the drill, will be the right way to plant them, and 
after two years’ time, every other row will furnish rare plants to 
take up for forcing. 

Beer, red, sow for salad use for the whole year, and a small portion 


of white sugar beet, for use in place of spinach—should it be dry 
and hot in July and August, when spinach is hard to be got. 

Beans: of these, plant a full successional crop of Lone-pod, 
Broad Windsor, or some other approved kind. 

Broccoli of all favourite late kinds sow after the 12th instant. 

Brussels Sprouts: of these, make a full sowing the beginning of 
this month; prick out, and plant early, in order to insure large, 
seasoned, well ripened plants by autumn, so as to have good solid 
little heads all up the stems ; young, free-growing, late-sown plants 
will not button or head in to be depended on; a hard-trodden, 
heavy soil suits them best. 

Cabbage, sow a small quantity of the Matchless, Nonpareil, Little 
Pixie, and London Colewort. 

Capsicum and Chilies, pot off; place in moderate bottom heat, and 
stop at eight or nine inches. 

Cauliflower, plant out now a full crop of winter stored plants; 
sow Veitch’s Giant and other late kinds, and prick off, as soon as 
they can be handled, all early sown plants, first in boxes or frames, 
then on warm borders. 

Carrots: of these, sow a full crop on some open quarters, from the 
middle to the end of the month, in drills one foot apart, using fresh 
slaked lime as a dressing. There is nothing with which I am 
acquainted that insures so heayy or such a clean, finely-flavoured 
carrot as a good dressing of freshly-slaked lime and a slight 
dredging of dry chimney soot, applied in showery weather in May 

Celery, sow a pinch in succession; but I never succeeded so well 
in the way of obtaining a splendid crisp, solid, lasting crop as when 
I sowed the first week in April, on a gentle bottom heat, thinly 
pricking out again on some gentle hot-bed. In this way 
some of the plants are soon ready for early planting out; a 
batch is then pricked out on half-decayed leaf mould or rotten dung, 
which can be easily removed with the roots in the form of good balls. 
In this way no check takes place, and the result is most satisfactory. 

Cheryil: of this, sow a pinch of curled, first in a warm situation, 
and, for succession, in a fortnight, on a north aspect, on account of 
its starting propensities in hot weather. 

Cress, &c., sow common and curled, as well as mustard, on a warm 
border out of doors; and land cress on a north border for summer 
and autumn use. Of Watercress make new plantings in shallow 
streams or damp, cold spots, for summer and autumn use. 

Lettuces, plant out a full crop, and sow, once a fortnight, a pinch 
of summer kinds, both cabbage and cos. 

Onions, sow a full crop in drills, one foot apart, on well-prepared, 
thoroughly pulverised soil; if iiht, make it firm by treading or hard 
rolling. 

Marrow, Vegetable, sow in a little heat, in order to have sturdy, 
strong plants for turning out under hand-glasses when four or five 
weeks old. 

Sweet and other herbs: sow in a gentle heat Basil and Marjoram, 
and on healthy borders, Thyme, Winter Sayory, Marigold, Purslane, 
Parsley, in full crop, Skirret, Hyssop, Fennel, Carraway, Borage, 
Balm, Burnet, &c. 

Radishes, of all kinds sow a full crop. 

Rhubarb: seed of this should now be sown, and large crowned 
roots divided, to make new plantations. 

Parsnips, sow a full crop in drills, ‘one foot apart, on deeply- 
trenched, pulverised land. 

Peas, sow throughout this month on vwell-trenched, deeply- 
cultivated, thoroughly pulverised soil, all the late kinds and the 
tall sorts, twelve to fourteen feet apart; which is not only a con- 
venient distance, but insures a full supply of light and air to the 
crop, which is doubled by this treatment; and it forms a partial 
shade for such summer crops as are planted between the rows. 
Champion of England, Dixon’s Fayourite, Harrison’s Glory, Laxton’s 
Prolific and Quality, Maclean’s Best of All, Prince of Wales, Wonderful, 
Nonpareil, and Veitch’s Perfection are all gcod peas for succession ; 
and for the last or latest crop of all, British Queen, Premier, and 
Ne Plus Ultra. arly peas, stick and protect against cutting winds, 
and dredge with dry dust the base of all crops now up on dry 
evenings, to prevent canker and shanking. 

Sayoys, sow a full crop the beginning of this month, then again 
at the end of it. 

Salsify, sow in drills one foot apart. 

Scorzonera, sow after the middle of the month. 

Seakale, sow in drills, or dibble one foot apart each way, in order 
to have strong plants for forcing next winter; if sown on well- 
prepared, pulverised, rich soil, and well attended to through the 
summer, strong clean plants will be the result. : 

Spinach, sow the round summer variety in drills, between peas 
or other ways, once a fortnight. New Zealand spinach sow in heat. 

Turnips, sow in drills a few once a fortnight of any small, short 
topped early kind, in order to have turnips young, sweet, and tender. 


Marcu 2, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


341 


a 


NOTES, 
THE TEMPLE GARDEN PLANTING. 

Ir weuld be difficult to find anywhere a more striking illustration 
of the little knowledge or love of trees possessed by those who lay 
out gardens, than is now to be seen in the Temple Gardens. A long 
and noble promenade has been made just within the garden and 
parallel with the Thames Embankment, which, as everybody knows, 
is planted with two lines of plane trees. The walk in the Temple 
Gardens is yery close to the north footway of the Embankment and 
its line of trees. One would suppose that in the selection of the 
trees for margining the new promenade, some other kinds than the 
plane would be selected, and that even a contractor’s navvy would 
hesitate to plant another line of the same kind of tree right against 
those already in position. Not so. A line of planes is planted almost 
right against the planes of the Embankment, so that both lines must 
meet and injure each other before the trees are one-fourth grown. 
Then there is a curved walk leading froia the promenade to the build- 
ings, and this again is being planted with planes on each side a few feet 
fromthe margin ; their tops will touch in a few years! There are at 
least twenty other trees that would thrive quite as well as the plane, 
and which differ in size, so that subjects suitable for every position 
might have been easily found. Not one of these is to be seen. 
There is no evidence that the planters know any tree but the plane; 
and that, as we have pointed out, is so placed that they seem to have 
no idea of the size to which it attains. What a pity it is that such 
a noble and interesting old garden should be spoiled by such silly 
blundering ! 


NOT FOR OUR HEIRS. 

WuiLe the trees on the Embankment, as referred to in a previous 
number, have been mutilated by “‘roughism,” the young trees planted 
a few years ago in the churehyard of St. Mary-le-Strand have just 
been dug up by the roots to gratify the sight-seeing section of the 
London public by making way for the erection of stands for viewing 
the procession to St. Paul’s. However laudable may be the anxiety 
to catch a glimpse of the Queen on such an occasion, it would seem 
to be carrying the desire to do so too far when a permanent injury is 
recklessly inflicted in order to gratify it. We may be told that at 
this time of the year young trees may be dug up with impunity if 
planted again within a reasonable time. But it is self-evident that 
the digging up of the trees in question, which had already made con- 
siderable progress, will be a severe Check to their growth, especially 
as it is already late for tree planting work. It is, indeed, a question 
whether it would not be better to plant in their places other young 
trees fresh from the country instead of replanting those which have 
been necessarily somewhat enfeebled in constitution by the atmo- 
sphere of London, which will have rendered them somewhat less able 
to bear such knocking about as a summary uprooting must involve. 
If such a course should be deemed advisable, when the time comes 
for replacing the ill-used trees, the end will be that we shall have to 
wait afew years longer for the agreeable effect of a few fine trees 
in mid-Strand, and all for nothing better than the gaining of a few 
shillings by hiring stands and seats to sight hunters. H. 


MUTILATION OF TREES IN HYDE PARK. 


Even Mr. Vernon Harcourt himself, on gazing at the destruction 
of trees in the park last Tuesday between the Marble Arch and 
Grosvenor Gate, must in his own heart admit that the Magna Charta 
might with propriety be so far modified as to protect timber from 
the violence of a heedless mob. If it is quite impossible without an 
infringement of our constitutional liberties to lay down and enforce 
such stringent regulations as will be sufficient for the purpose, it 
surely might be allowable to fence in the trees in the park in such a 
manner as to render them safe from injury. It will take many 
years to restore to them all they have lost by one day’s rejoicing, 
and the ghost of Evelyn must have smiled bitterly at the anniversary 
of his death being marked by the wholesale destruction of trees 
from no other motive than idle mischief. Not even Peter the Great, 
when he damaged Evelyn’s trees at Sayes Court, Deptford, to the 
extent of £150 in three weeks, committed a greater act of barbarism 
than that committed by the playful crowd who amnsed themselves 
last Tuesday by destroying their own property and leaving the park 
in much the same condition as though a whirlwind had passed over 
it. It is always expected that the people as they grow wiser. will 
learn that no particular end is gained by mutilating timber. As, 
however, their wisdom on this point seems to linger on the road, it 
might be as well, pending its arrival, to devise some measure that 
will be effectual to shield them from the consequences of their own 
folly, and prevent pulling their playthings to pieces.—Pall Mall Gazette. 


THE NEW GARDEN AT STEPNEY. 

Tus, described by the Metropolitan as likely to prove ‘one of tho 
best of the public gardens of London,” is a narrow strip of ground 
about a quarter of a mile long, and from thirteen to eighteen yards 
broad. 1t was lately an unenclosed space, with a few elms and other 
common trees, but is now surrounded by a strong railing, and is 
being rapidly converted into a garden. Roads cross it in three 
places, throwing it into four divisions. Although the sides of each 
strip are as straight as the sides of Gower Street, and although no 
curvature of the walk tkrough the centre of each slip could 
neutralise the formality of the scene, a serpentine walk has been 
made through all the strips; otherwise the works in progress are 
very satisfactory. If properly planted with a good variety of 
deciduous trees, the garden will prove a great addition to its 
immediate neighbourhood, but it can never lay claim to be called 
‘one of the best public gardens in London.” 


Blackheath.—A correspondent of the Standard says, “ Black- 
heath is doomed! It is no longer a free but a conquered spot. All 
rights of commons are extinguished, and all industries and sports 
are for the future to be pursued on sufferance. What does Black- 
heath want with enclosures for flowers, &c.? A wall only stands 
between it and the grand old historic park, where, on soft lawns, 
railed enclosures for shrubs and flowers are tastefully in place. But 
the heath, with its old and wild traditions, and whose glory has been 
its untrammelled freedom, winces at the exotic plan. The blots on 
the heath are the work of cupidity (surely not of the lords of the 
manor). Excavations for gravel and encroaching structures 
mar the fair proportions of the heath. Why not give com- 
pensation for the houses, pull them down, place seats, and plant 
flowers here? Then the Board of Works might look for praise. 
There is the plateau on which the cannons and the flagstaff stand. 
Here, it is asserted, that no fewer than seven currents of air 
meet together. Here, too, when the wind blows from the south 
it is averred, you can taste salt spray on your lips as it bounds 
over the ‘ purple rim” of the hills. The Knockholt Beeches, plainly 
descried, link us to the sea, for they are a beacon to sailors on the 
other side. We look on the range which sweeps away to Dover, 
crowned on its way by Lympne Castle, Cxsar’s Camp, and Shake- 
speare’s Cliff. Am I sure that this plateau will not be desecrated by 
enclosure ?” 


The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens.—The Albert 
Memorial, it is said, will be inaugurated by the Queen in April next. 
The memorial in itself may be said to be finished, and even now the 
iron railings are being erected round it. Mr. Foley cannot, however, 
complete the statue of the late Prince Consort until many months 
have passed, and if the memorial is inaugurated this spring it will 
lose its chief charm—it will be “ Hamlet” without the Prince of 
Denmark. 

Asphalte Roadways.—The Corporation of London have given 
instructions for Princess Street, Mansion House, to be laid with 
asphalte, by the Montrotier Asphalte Company, on a sub-stratum 
of concrete, made with the natural hydraulic cement from Lyme 
Regis. The enormous traffic in this part of London will prove a 
crucial test for roadways executed in the manner proposed.—Builder. 


A Noble Offer.—The people of Aspatria, in Cumberland, want 
a new market hall and assembly room; and have resolved that the 
sum of two guineas be offered as a premium for the best plan of a 
building. 

St. Paul's Churchyard.—A project is before the City autho- 
rities for widening the western end of St. Paul’s Churchyard by 
cutting off a portion of the ground attached to St. Paul’s. The 
Commissioners have since offered the Dean and Chapter £15,000 for 
the ground sought to be taken away from the graveyard at the 
western end, with a view to the proposed improvement there, and 
the cathedral authorities and the Commissioners are now in negotia- 
tion on the subject. 


The Lamp Standards on the Embankment.—These have 
been designed by Mr. Vulliamy, and are to cost, we urigerstand, 
£21 each. They are good specimens of iron casting, in very bold 
relief. The arms and lanterns are to cost £13 each, fixed complete, 
and this, with about £1 each extra for some little necessary adjuncts, 
gives the total cost of each lamp, fixed and ready for lighting, as 
£35. 

“The Irish Gardener’s Record.”—We are happy to announce 
the re-appearance of this useful little publication, which is for the 
future to be issued fortnightly. 


342 


THE GARDEN. 


{MancH 2, 1872. 


LAW NOTES. 

Moving Vines at Expiration of Tenancy.—1 have some young 
vines planted in a small vinery, which I am desirous of moving when 1 
quit the premises I now occupy next quarter day; but my landlord claims 
them as his. Can he legally do so —H.—[ When you quit possession your 
vines are, we believe, the property of your landlord, and you cannot claim 
any compensation, unless you are a market gardener, or there is some 
special covenant in your lease. | 

New Park at Tooting.—A lawsuit of an unusual kind got into the 
Vice-Chancellor’s Court the other day, the object of which was to restrain 
the Metropolitan Board of Works from promoting a scheme under the 
Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866, for devoting Tooting Beck Common to 
the public as a park or pleasure ground, the objection to the scheme in 
question being that it was intended to sell a part of the common for 
building ground. In July 1868, the owners of the manor of Tooting Beck 
agreed with Mr. Drew and Mr. Flower to sell the greater part of the manor 
to these gentlemen to enable them to convert the common into public 
pleasure grounds. he plaintiff, a Mr. Telfer, was entitled to 1-24th of 
the manor under the agreement in question, provided that no part of the 
waste should be sold or let without the consent of the plaintiff and some of 
his co-owners, and if the common were not used for the purpose intended 
one twenty-fourth should be resold to him. The contract was completed, 
and the Metropolitan Board of Works agreed to buy the common from 
Messrs. Drew and Flower, and induced the Inclosure Commissioners to 
prepare the scheme, which was objected to. The Vice-Chancellor was of 
opinion that the Metropolitan Board, standing as they did in the shoes of 
those persons from whom they had bought, by promoting this scheme 
were acting in contravention of rights they {had contracted to observe. 
It had been contended that the defendants were acting in a matter of 
public duty, and therefore they, as a public body, ‘could not be restrained 
from such promotion. The scheme itself showed that their object in 
separating a part of the common was to make money, and ‘there was no 
trace of anything like an application to Parliament. The injunction, 
therefore, must issue. 

Overhanging Boughs.—My neighbour’s trees so overhang my 
garden as to injure it by their shade. Can I remove the overhanging 
boughs ?—J. F.—[We believe that if a person’s trees overhang your 
garden and fence, to their injury, and the owner of the trees will not cut 
them back as far as your hedge, you can do it yourself, if you stand on 
your property. But neighbours should not so act to each other. Itis far 
better to prune by consent. | 


Royal Horticultural Society’s Show at Birmingham.— 
It will have been noticed that a resolution was passed at the public 
meeting, requesting the local committee to give their attention in a 
special manner to the exhibition of horticultural implements, buildings, 
&e. If the special prize committee should have ample funds at their 
disposal, it would be advisable to open a few classes in which prizes 
should be offered to manufacturers only of some of the leading articles, 
for example, lawn mowers, garden rollers, garden engines, garden seats, 
vases for different purposes, flower pots, ornamental and otherwise, 
collections of spades, forks, hoes, &c. In addition to these prizes, the 
judges might visit the stands of all other exhibitors, and distribute prizes 
to articles of merit not included in these classes.—H. 

Royal Horticultural Society’s Birmingham Meeting.— 
I see there is to be one class for four pines at this exhibition. Now, 
the majority of pine growers have not four pines ripe at one time ; 
therefore all small cultivators are shut out; and we get perhaps two, 
seldom three, exhibitors for one of the best prizes, whereas if for 
single frnit we should have twenty. The next is for four dishes of 
grapes. Who beside a market gardener would cut twelve bunches 
of his best grapes to be spoiled at Birmingham ? therefore all the 
“little men” are again shut out. Next come eight dishes of fruit, 
a class in which everybody kaows few can exhibit. Lastly, what 
have we poor cabbage-growers done that these most useful products of 
the garden should not be represented? Had I belonged to the sub- 
committee (and I was invited to join it), I should have tried my 
utmost to make classes so that great and small cultivators might 
meet in the exhibition tent on equal terms, instead of making laws 
to shut out a deserving, hard-workiug, and intelligent class of men. 
—R. Givperr, Burghley. 

Leicestershire Floral and Horticultural Society.— The 
summer show of this society will be held on Wednesday and Thursday the 
8rd and 4th July. Itis also in contemplation to hold a Chrysanthemum 
and winter fruit show some time in November. 


Warming Greenhouses with Gas.—I have completed an im-_ 


proyed system of gas arrangement, and for several weeks past I haye used 
the gas to warm my greenhouse, which is twenty-five feet long, thirteen 
feet wide in middle, and twelve feet high; part span. The arrangement 
outside of the house is an improved air and gas burner acting on a conical 
double jacket copper boiler with ordinary two-inch flow and return joints, 
and four-inch iron pipes inside greenhouse. When once lighted the gas 
continues to burn day and night without further attention or labour. The 
cost of the gas used is about one shilling per day. (The price of gas here 
is 5s. per 1,000).—James Copeutt, Aylesbury, in “ Bnglish Mechanic.” 


THE MANGROVE (RHIZOPHORA MANGEL). 


THE note (p. 293) from the Royal Botanic Society’s proceedings 
in reference to this plant is not quite correct. A case of mangroves 
was sent to Kew by Mr. Prestoe, of Trinidad, in 1868 or early in 
1869. Though most of them died on being shifted, one lived, which, 
as well as one received from the Royal Botanic Society, grew well 
until one night in the winter of 1870-71 the house in which they 
stood was allowed to get as low as 48°, and after that they drooped, 
and died in less than a month. The mangrove naturally inhabits- 
muddy swam ps close to the sea shore in tropical climates; there 
fore, when the plants of it just alluded to came to Kew, they were 
treated to salt water for a time; but after a few weeks this was ex- 
changed for common soft water—in which they were plunged in a 
tank half way up the pots, and this, together with strong soil 
induced them to make vigorous growth and to push strong roots 
from the stems. After that they were transferred to the tank in 
the Victoria House, where they passed part of each day with the 
pots submerged, and part just above water. This pseudo-tidal 
action, however, did not benefit them;'for although they continued 
to grow, they lost vigour. Mangroves will grow quite freely in a 
temperature above 60°, if the soil is kept wet. J. CROUCHER. 


NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS, 


Torquay.—The tenderer kinds of evergreen oaks from Asia will doubt- 
less live out of doors in Devonshire. One of the kinds you haye sent is 


certainly not an oak; another no doubt is Quercus dealbata or glauca, a - 


Chinese species. If you will send us fair specimens of the others we will 

endeavour to name them. 

5 H. 8. N.—Through Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., 4, Quai de la Megisserie, 
aris. 

J. R—1. Tur Garnen is the work referred to under another name, and 
modified in plan. 2. We cannot recommend tradesmen; see trade cata- 
logues. 38. Will be answered next week in “‘ Indoor Garden.” 

C. B.—The narrow leaved Hucalyptus is resinifera; for all medical 
purposes the resin is said to be fully as efficacious as ano; this land 
is sometimes called gummifera. ‘The broad leaved one is Eucalyptus 
robusta, a very hardy and rapid growing land, which attains to an enormous 
size in Van Dieman’s Land. 

¥. M. H.—W. Thompson, Ipswich. 

J. K.—Lycopodium denticulatum will succeed in a temperature of 
between 40° and 50°. 

J. O.—We are unacquainted with the stove you name. 

M. W.—For red, pink, or purple dwarf edgings to continue in flower till 
September, we know nothing better than verbena, nicely pegged down and 
kept in order. 

ouNG GARDENER.—Use good one-year old vines, and as your fruit 
wall is on arches plant inside, spreading out the roots well inall directions. 
Train one rod up each rafter, and, when established, prune on the spur 
system. Peaches and vines do not succeed well in the same house. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—March 2nd. 


Flowers.—These continue to be supplied in great abundance and 
variety, especially such things as Primroses, Cyclamens, Geraniums, and 
Orchids, among which some charming kinds are furnished in a cnt state. 
Solanums and other berry-bearing plants may also still be obtained. 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 2s. to 4s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 
1001bs., 60s. to 65s.—Filberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.— Grapes, per lb., 8s. to 
15s.—Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, 
per dozen, 3s. to 8s.—Pine-apples, per lb., 6s. to 10s. Fi 

. Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- 
ragus, per 100, 8s. to 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s—Broccoli, purple, per 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 3d.— Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d.— 
Cabbages, per dozen, 10d. to 1s. 8d.—Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.— 
Cauliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, 
per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cucumbers, each, 1s. 6d. to 3s.—French Beans, 
new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Horse Radish, per 
bunch, 3s. to 5s.—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Lettuces (French), Cab- 
bage, per dozen, 1s. to 2s., Cos, per dozen, 3s. to 5s.—Mushrooms, per 
pottle, 1s. to 2s. 6d.—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 6d.— Parsley, per bunch, 
9d. to 4d.—Radishes, per bunch, 1d. to 6d—Rhubarb, per bundle, 6d. to 
1s. 6d.—Salsafy, per bundle, 1s. to 1s. 6d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d. to 
1s. 3d.—Seakale, per punnet, 1s. to 2s.—Shallots, per Ib., 8d4—Spinach, 
per bushel, 3s. to 4s—Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3s. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum 9s, 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
quarter, pavable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. : 

All commumications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Witt1aAm Rosinson, ‘THE GARDEN ”’ Orricn, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PuBLIsHER, at the same Address. 


a aw) . aes a 


Marcu 9, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


343 


“Thisisanart . 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Agr rrseL¥ is Nature.”’—Shakespeare. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


PARKS AND BUILDING GROUND. 


No one can be more desirous than myself that parks, 
gardens, and open spaces should be multiplied in the vicinity 
of all our large towns, and that they should be made as 
- extensive as possible; but certain considerations, left entirely 
out of sight in the article on Victoria Park in your last week’s 
issue, seem to render it advisable, with the view of ‘furthering 
this yery object, that the strips of land in dispute should, as 
originally proposed, be let for building on. With your per- 
mission, I will briefly state what these considerations are. 

1. When a sum of public money is voted for a park, and 
a special provision is made to enable the park to become in 
time self-supporting, and even to have a surplus revenue 
which may eventually pay back to the nation its original 
‘cost, it seems to me to be bad policy to endeavour to annul 
these provisions, and thus make it a perpetual charge on the 

_reyenne. For, if this is done, it must imevitably render any 
Goyernment both less willing and less able to entertain the 
question of establishing new parks. The fact of the great 
increase of population round the park,-which is adduced as 
an argument for keeping the building land open, is the very 
circumstance which has rendered the surrounding land so 
valuable, and which will enable it to produce the required 
revenue, ; 

2. There is, however, a very important principle involved 
in this question, which has been” strongly advocated by Mr. 
John Stuart Mill, viz.:—that as much as possible of the 
increase in the value of land which is directly caused by the 
public, should belong to the public. Now there is no more 
certain way of increasing the value of the surrounding land 
than by making a beautiful park in a densely peopled district ; 

- and by reserving a strip of land all round that park at the 
outset, expressly to be built upon when the demand arises for 
it, you do actually secure a large share of the increased value 
to the public. The strip of building land around Victoria 
Park, for instance, is certain to increase in value; so that, 
besides producing a good revenue for the first term of the 
leases, it will probably, as those leases fall in, be re-let ata 
much higher rate, and so produce an increasing revenue, 
which may not only suffice to pay for the present park, but 
may also supply funds towards the formation of new parks in 
outlying districts where they will be then more needed. 

3. But if the strips of land in question are now permanently 
attached to the park, we not only lose all this present and 
prospective benefit ourselves, but we make a free gift of the 
wealth we have created to men who have no earthly right to it. 
For there will then be a most valuable building frontage to the 
park, about three miles in extent, in the hands of private persons, 
whose property will rise to double or treble its previous value 
the moment we extend the park up to their boundary, and 
give them the certainty of a perpetual view over it. Many of 
these freeholders will have purchased their ground at a low 
price, because it was believed that they would be entirely shut 
out from the park by a continuous line of houses on the 
reserved land. 

4. It is of the very first importance to establish the practi- 
eability of the principle of always securing, at the time when 
great improvements are first made at public expense, an addi- 
tional tract. of cheap land, the -enhanced value of which, 
created by the improvement, may at some future time repay 
its cost; and [ cannot but think that itis very short-sighted 


. 


policy, under any circumstances, to claim this reserved land, 
and so neutralise this highly desirable result. It is almost as 
suicidal as the practice of those Governments which, having 
obtained a loan on the faith of the establishment of a sinking 
fund, appropriate the revenues set apart for that purpose on 
the first monetary pressure. 

5. On looking at your very clear map of Victoria Park, it is 
easily seen that the strips in question form a very small part 
of the whole; and although twenty-nine acres in one lump is 
a good-sized piece of land, it is of far less importance when 
in a strip nearly three miles long. For a large portion of this 
extent, the strips are only one hundred feet wide ; and it cannot 
much affect the park as a place of recreation whether the 
houses, which will soon inevitably encircle it, are built on the 
outer or the inner side of the surrounding roads. On the 
other hand, it is a matter of the highest importance to prove, 


that in populous districts parks can be mode self-supporting, 


after a few years, by the simple method of surrounding them 
with a belt of land reserved for building, the constantly 
increasing rents of which shall benefit the public instead of 
private landowners. I therefore maintain that it is the true 
interest of the people at large that the original scheme should 
be carried into effect, because it is founded on a true and most 
important principle, which will favour (as surely as the oppo- 
site course will check) the multiplication of parks and gardens 
for the people. Axrrep R, WALLAcr. 


[We wholly agree with our correspondent, who puts this 
case in sucha clear light. Apart from the various~ excellent 
reasons given by Mr. Wallace, it is desirable that the public 
should possess the power of determining what kind of buildings 


shall exist in the immediate neighbourhood of its parks. 


Again, the gain of a mere riband of ground, such as is shown 
in our plan, or the gain of the strips of ground around the 
two most recent London: parks, and of which we have heard so 
much clamour, is as nothing compared with the advantage of 
securing other parks, however small, in densely populated parts 
of the City, and which we could secure so easily if the grand 
pee of allowing the public to benefit by the improvements 

e adopted. We must secure for the dwellers in our vast 
cities more than a breath of fresh air ona Sunday afternoon 
at perhaps a distance of several miles from their houses. 
With reference to the gain to the public from the construction 
of parks, we have some evidence from the other side of the 
Atlantic, which came to hand the same day as Mr. Wallace’s 
letter. It is a report of the splendid new park at Brooklyn, 
which we had the pleasure of visiting in 1870:—* On reference 
to the rolls of the city’s property, the commissioners find that 
since the commencement of active operations on the park, 
there has been added to the tax list the large amount of 
77,232,410 dollars, the Board of Assessors having felt them- 
selves justified by its very obvious increase, in adding twenty- 
five per cent. to the city’s taxable property for the year 
1869. It should be observed, also, in order to a proper 
appreciation of these facts, that a large portion of this 
increase, to wit: the sum of 32,820,059 dollars, has arisen 
in the wards immediately surrounding the park, including 
the town of Flatbush, thereby increasing the city’s annual 
income nearly a million of dollars.’’] 


THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 


Your correspondent’s remarks (p. 217) on the Pagoda Vista at Kew 
will surprise nobody ; it is a legitimate subject for criticism to all in- 
terested in ornamental planting. How anyone could have dreamed of 
disfiguring such a beautiful vista by planting deciduous trees in front 
of Deodars, has caused much discussion amongst practical men. 
That fine promenade was originally a grand conception; but for 
years it has been evident that the Deodars were not succeeding. On 
the contrary, they have proved a failure; for, from thé time they 
haye been planted, they ought to have been twice the size they are 
at prestnt. It is now proved that, except in the south of England 
or in certain favoured localities, Deodars are not sufficiently hardy 
for our climate. But why should not steps have been taken long 
ago to remedy the error, by planting trees that would have 
answered the purpose? Surely, from among conifers, plentiful as 
they haye been for years, choice might have been made of trees that 
would have given satisfaction. It has been long known that the 
Cedrus atlantica is much hardier than the Deodar; therefore, it 


344 : 


THE GARDEN. — 


might have been planted between the Deodars, the latter being 
allowed to remain until the atlantica had attained sufficient size to 
be effective. As an additional provision against failure, outside the 
Deodars might have been planted a row of such trees as Picea 
nobilis or grandis, both excellent for ayenués; and between them 
some other sort, for the purpose of haying the choice of which 
should ultimateiy remain. Again, a row of Picea lasiocarpa or 
P. nordmanniana, or any other suitable species, might have been 


planted inside the Deodars, where the objectionable deciduous trees. 


now stand—for which, surely, some more suitable locality might 
have been found. Hach group, as has been shown, consists of three 
different species, from widely different parts of the world; they 
may, therefore, be expected to grow into all sorts of sizes, habits, 
and hues, quite unfitting them for an avenue where uniformity 1 
an important feature. ; 
With respect to the Sion Vista, your correspondent’s remarks do 
not apply with so much force. Here, also, the original conception 
was good, but the Deodars have failed to fulfil their mission ; and I 
am disposed to think Douglas firs and evergreen oaks in opposite 
threes, alternately, 
the two is thus afforded, and if they succeed, they are both good 
avenue trees. As to the examples of Cupressus Lawsoniana referred 
to, they extend from the American garden only, on the west front 
of the Palm House, to the wire fence, and being in keeping with 
other surroundings, cannot be considered to be very objectionable. 
The new vista opened through the wood from the Pagoda towards 
‘the head of the lake opposite Sion House, if well carried ont, might 
prove a fine feature; but unfortunately at present it looks as if it 
were a mere makeshift, being much too narrow, not nearly enough 
of the old trees haying been remoyed to give light and air to those 
planted to form the avenue, or to give any tree or shrub a chance 
of succeeding. What, might I ask, is to be done with that huge heap 
of earth at the head of the lake which terminates the view looking 
westward from the Pagoda? Is it to be carried away piecemeal, 
after having been raised to its present height at so much labour 
and expense? Could it not be made the foundation for a rockwork, 
which is so much required at Kew? If properly managed, it might 
be made to present both shade and sunshine for plants requiring 
either, and would afford a grand opportunity of getting placed out 
to advantage that immense collection of hardy alpine plants which 
Kew possesses, and which is now starying in pots in pits or in out- 
of-the-way places where the public has little chanee of seeing it. 
It might also be provided with miniature lakes for alpine aquatics ; 
and rude rocky walks naight traverse it, so as to enable the public to 
inspect its nooks and corners in order to find the different gems 
planted there for its enjoyment. Could not such a feature as this 
be produced equally well ab Kew as at Battersea, and be a noble 
substitute for that miserable abortion in the way of rockwork that 
is to be found nearthe Hconomic House, and at present the only 
thing representing rockwork in this, in many respects, fine warden P 
Hammersmith, W. A, Dick. 


THH ROCKWORK IN HYDE PARK. 


From what has been stated in your pages, it seems almost impossible 
to determine who is responsible for the gardening in our parks. Itis 
intolerable, after putting the best men in these places, that they 
should be overridden on their own grounds by the Chief Commissioner 
of Works or his subordinates, who may or may not know a Pelargo- 
nium froma Pansy. Why not hold each superintendent responsible for 
the furnishing and keeping of each park under his care, Mr. Gibson 
being head over all? Such abortions as the rockwork at the end of 
the Serpentine are a disgrace to the taste of the age, a reckless 
waste of public money, an outrage on congruity, and an exhibition 
of the very worst sort of Cockney tea-gardening. It is to be hoped 
that some member of Parliament will move for a return as to the 


cost of planning (?), building, and hiding that rockwork? ‘Hvery- — 


one has a right to insist that this abortion be remoyed. Supposing 


the Commander-in-Chicf were to order a regiment of soldiers to 


stand on their heads, would either officorg or men obey ? Undoubtedly 
not. But sucha whim would not be a whit more absurd than the 
placing of rare conifers in rustic vases formed of clinker and 
cement, or the thrusting of a Retinospora, two Rhododendrons, an 
Ivy, a Genista, a Daphne, anda small Cedar, all into a single hole only 
large enough for a house-leek. Such an exhibition is the more to be 
regretted, as there are really many fine examples of good gardening 
and furnishing in the parks. Year by year they are becoming more 
rich and beautiful, and, if left to their proper superintendents, I 
have no fear but the future will excel the past. But if this is a 
sample of our statesmen’s style of landscape gardening, for the credit 
of the nation, I trust we shall see no more of it. A man might 
arise who could govern an empire, or plant a garden with cqual 


rather a good idea, -as a choice between 


scheme as would present little difficulty in the way of mam- - 


' cent of liquorice. Almost all the samples found adulterated with sugar — 


-— [Mance 9, 1872, 


ease; but such combinations are rare; and our statesmen might 


surely be better employed than ordering Pelargoniums, Verbenas, ~ 
&e., by the thousand, and giving instructions where to plant 
them. : a ; : 
The same want of knowledge is equally apparent in regard to 
planting trees. For years past horticulturists haye been crying 
out against the folly of planting evergreens im London. ‘The dust 
chokes, the soot smothers them, and there is speedily an end of 
them. Deciduous trees and shrubs, on the contrary, get a new start ~ 
annually ; they drop their smothered leaves and begin life afresh ; 
the bare boughs get washed clean in winter, and thus the plants 
thrive in spite of smoke-dried air and London dust. But the 
official mind ignores all this, and plants evergreens. ‘The ~ 
remedy is obvious. Let practical men be supreme in their own 
sphere, and let statesmen be content with the privileges of paying . 
for and enjoying results; then such a monstrosity as the Hyde ~ 
Park rockwork would be impossible. Of course the step fromthe 
sublime to the ridiculous is easier by way of an artificial rockery ~ 
than by almost any other path. And, apart from its glaring faults 
in construction, the whole attempt in Hyde Park was doomed to 
failure from the smallness of the area. In such a position, unless: 
bold scenery on a commensurate scale with the surroundings could — 
have been formed, nothing of the kind ought to have been attempted. 
As well attempt to force the grandeur of mountain scenery mto 
a nutshell, as form a rockery, worthy of admiration, in sucha spot, 
with such materials, and without a spark of taste or genius, = 
: D. 1. Fish, — 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


A FARMHOUSE GARDEN, 
THE annexed plan represents a piece of pleasure-ground and 


other features belonging to a garden suitable for a farmhouse. 


The house in question has been recently erected by Mr. W. H. 
Smith, M.P., near Henley-on-Thames, and is of a handsome 
and commodious character, far superior to the generality of 
erections of this kind. Occupied with the many duties of an 
extensive farm, the owner usually has but little time and, 
labour to bestow on his garden, and, therefore, it has been 
considered desirable to confine the arrangement to such a é 
tainine good order with no great amount of labour, Gravel 
walks, flower-beds, and the like, have, therefore, been avoided; — 
and for the same reason,\the piece of ground that bowinds the 
public road has been allowed to remain as an orchard, m pre- 
ference to converting it into dressed ground. It will be seen 
that this strip is sereened from the dwelling-house by a belt 
of shrubbery, as are also the farm buildings and cottages on 
either side. These shrubbery plots consist of a mixture of — 
ordinary plants, both evergreen and deciduous, with a few 
light erowing trees where necessary, such as Acacia, Moun- 
tain Ash, Laburnum, and Gleditschia, intermixed with them. 
With regard to shrubs or trees for special positions, an 
attempt has been made to plant only such as would render the 
garden as interesting as possible, by means either of flowers 
or fine foliage, aud thereby, in some measure, compensate for _ 
the absence of flowers in borders and beds. isos 
With respect to planting, considerable attention has also 
been paid to mix in with the ordinary occupants of the place 
various trees, which, in addition to their ornamental character, ” 
might be found useful for domestic purposes, such as the 
quince, Siberian crab, medlar, &c. The open grass space on — 
the private front of the house might be made ayailableas a 
croquet ground; it is therefore kept free from both plants and 
flower-beds. All the finer hardy herbaceous plants might like- — 
wise be arranged on and near the margin of the shrubberies, 
and in that way a good deal of floral beauty would be intro- 
duced with good effect and at little cost. oe 


' Adulteration.—The principal of the Inland-Reyenue Laboratory, 
Mr. G. Phillips, reports that 432 samples of tobacco were examined by — 
him in 1870 for the Excise Department, and 312 were found to be 
adulterated, the adulterants being wheat and rice starches, sugar, — 
liquorice, lampblack, catechu, and colourmg matter. The amount of 
adulteration ranged up to 4 per cent. starch, 40 per cent. sugar, 55 per 


and liquorice were.“ Cavendish.” It is believed thatit is smuggled into 
this country in small quantities by sailors, i sea 


THE GARDEN. 


Mac 9, 1872.] 


845 


MEADOW 


SALISEURIA 


oe §=LEe 
a Keerive Sarna 
ies SF wecemd EL 

Be LinirheazR * , Lawy 


Suds. Corts 
Mis SEREY 
wey Leavea THIRY 


TAL 


WvEET LAY & 
webs. ecm } 


FARMHOUSE GARDEN ON THE PROPERTY OF W. H. SMITH, ESQ., M.P., HENLEY-ON-THAMES. DESIGNED BY MR. MARNOCK. 


ME/ALZOYW 


346 


THE GARDEN. 


[Maren 9, 1872. 


THE INDOOR “GARG EN: 


GLOXINIAS FOR WINTER BLOOMING. 


I po not think it is generally known how easily Gloxinias may 
be had in bloom in winter, and how very beautiful they are, 
either for decorating a cool stove or for cut flowers. or this 
purpose I recommend plants raised from seed. No one who 
has ‘not been in the habit of raising seedlings of those plants 
can form any idea how much more vigorous they are than those 
raised from cuttings; and for merely decorative purposes, 
they are far superior. Of course, I admit, if it is desired 
to perpetuate any particular variety, it is absolutely necessary 
to do so by means of cuttings. Several years ago I saved 
seeds from a flower of great substance, and of a peculiarly 
rich dark crimson colour, that had not, so far as I was aware, 
been crossed with any other variety; but the seedlings pro- 


duced flowers of all shades of colour, between crimson, purple, » 
and white, but not one like the parent; in this respect they are 


very variable. The plants we have now im flower were raised 
from seed abont three years ago, and the largest are in nine- 
inch pots; some of the bulbs are upwards of six inches in 
diameter, and if we could have spared room to have given them 
a shift into twelve+inch pots, the plants might easily by this 
time have been three feet in diameter. Of course, I do not say 
the flowers are equal to those of the best named varieties for 
exhibition purposes, but many of them are largo and yery 
pretty; I am, however, only speaking of them as decorative 
plants for winter. I like the erect flowered kinds best; for they 
are more useful for cutting. 
The seeds should be sown in February or March, in well- 
- drained pots, in peat and sand; fill the pots to within half an 
inch of the top; press down firmly, and make the surface quite 
smooth with the bottom of a small pot, giving at the same 
time a good watering. Sow the seeds thinly and evenly over 
the surface, and scatter over it a little silver sand. To check 
evaporation, and thus obyiate too much watering, place on the 
top of the pots a little clean moss. The seeds are so small that 
heavy waterings would be likely to: carry them down so deep 
as to prevent their growing; but by giving the pots a good 
_ watering before sowing the seeds, and a thin coyerig of moss, 
and afterwards very little water will be required till the seeds 
germinate; as soon, however, asthe seedlings are up, the moss 
must be removed, and, when they are large enough to handle, 
prick them off into small pots, and grow them on in the stove, 


or a warm pit shaded from bright-sunshine, shifting them into — 


larger pots when necessary. 

They will begin flowering about July or August; but if the 
object is to grow them for winter flowering, pinch off all blooms 
till October, when a few flowers may be obtained the first 
winter. About March gradually withhold water, and allow 
them to go to rest. When at rest Gloxinias are treated by many 
cultivators the same as Caladiums, that is they keep them dry 
in the stove; but in my practice in treating them as winter 
bloonting plants, and of course at rest the principal part of the 
summer, early in June they are moved out of doors, and laid 
on their sides in some partially shaded corner. And I find 
this cool treatment seems to agree with them, for the rest is 
more perfect, and when housed about the end of September, 
they.have started into growth,and are ready for potting. The 
second season, if well managed, many of the plants will 
measure from one to two feet in diameter. In potting them 
after the first year, use a richer compost. We always use for 
large bulbs about a sixth part of thoroughly decayed manure 
with the peat, and a liberal proportion of sand, and small lumps 
of charcoal to keep the soilopen. When in full growth, supply 
them freely with water, and maintain a moist atmosphere, and 
when in flower, water them twice-a week with weak clear 
liquid manure. Fe 

There is no difficulty in entirely changing their period of 
flowering, by resting them in summer, and so having them in 
flower from November till March, and that too without any 
special forcing, but by simply reversing their period of rest; 
but, as I previously stated, I find seedlings much more manage- 


ible in this respect than plants raised from cuttings, and there ~ 


is a strength and vigour of constitution about them that 
nothing seems to injure. Thrips will attack them, and, if not 


stopped at once, will destroy them; the best preventive is a 
moist atmosphere, without absolutely dashing much water 
over the foliage, with mild tobacco fumigations occasionally, — 
whether insects are visible or not. “i 
Anyone who has a few named varieties should select three 
or four of the most distinct, and cross them, save the seed, and 
give the seedlings a trial against the older kinds. _ Seeds of 
Gloxinias may also be purchased from most of our principal 
seedsmen. ey 
Herewith I enclose a few blooms merely to show how useful 
they are for cut flowers; but of course they give no idea about 
freedom of flowering, or size of plants, in which resides their 
chief value. f i. Hoppay, Ramsey Abbey. 


[The blooms in question reached us in the most perfect con- 
dition, and were the admiration of all who saw them. The 
colours were of the most delicate description—clear white, 
beautifully edged with lavender and crimson.| __ ate 


STOVE ALPINES. : 

Way not have stove as well as hardy alpimes? If a more natural 
arrangement than has hitherto been practised is to be carried out in 
our glasshouses, of course we shall want now and then a bit of rock- 
work, and in the following list of dwarf plants many will be found - 
useful for that kind of ornamentation, as well as for other positions ~ 
of a similar character, in a tastefully planted stove. Where plants 
of larger size are desired, they may readily be found among Cala- 
diums, Achimenes, and Marantas. ) ; : 
Aischynanthus fulgens Dichorisandra undata Jerdonia indica 
A. Paxtonii D. musaica Monolena primuleflora 
Au. tricolor Dipteracanthus affinis Nematanthus longipes 
Agalmyla staminea D. calvescens Oplismenus imbecilis 
Asystasia capensis Dorstenia maculata Oxalis mandioceana 
Barleria flava D. arifolia O. sensativa 
Begonia albo-coccinea D. Bahiensis Peperomia arifolia 
B. conchifolia D. argentata P, brachyphylla 
B. hernandizefolia Eranthemum igneum P. marmorata, 

B. hydrocotylifolia EK. leuconeurum P, magnolifolia, 
B. Rex and varieties K, verbenaceum P. reflexa 

HK. yenosum P. rubella 
Ficus repens P. yariegata 


B. scandens 
B. Thwaitesii 


B. Peirceii E F. falcata Pilea muscosa F 
Bertolonia maculata Fittonia argyroneura Scindapsus pictus — 

B. marmorata Gymnastachyum Pear- Stigmatophyllum pictum 
B. margaritifera = =—_—sCeli Streptocarpus Rexii a 
Caladium argyrites G. Verschaffeltii S. polyantha 

Centroselenia picta G. zeylanicum S. Saundersii oe 


Centradenia rosea Higginsia (Campylobo- Selaginellas, any 


Chamzranthemum Bey- _ trys) argyroneura Scutellaria cordifolia 

richii variegatum H., discolor Stenogastra ccncinna 
Columnea scandens ~H. porphyrophylla S. multiflora 
Conradia neglecta - H. refulzens Tapeinotes Carolinse 2 
C. multiflora Hoya Bella Tillandsia muscosa ~ 
Coccocypselum repens H. Paxtonii T. acaulis 
C. metallicum H. Shepherdii T. zebrina A 
Cyrtoderia chontalensis Hypocyrta glabra Vriesia speciosa F 
C. metallica Impatiens polypetala Ferns, yarious 
C. coccinea I.repens | 3 

. J. CROUCHER. 
VIOLETS. . 


. THANKS to a mild winter, Violets are in bloom a month earlier 
this season than usual, and thousands of our labouring poor have 
been for several weeks past, and still are, busily engaged in the 
gathering and selling of this early spring flower. All round London 
Violets are grown by acres, and in such a way as would astonish our 
country friends, who, beyond the culture of a few double kinds ina 
frame or two, seldom bestow much attention on the cultivation of — 
this delightfully sweet-scented flower, with which just now London 
markets are almost flooded; the sort being an improved form of 
the single Russian Violet. They are commonly planted in rows, 


~about three feet apart; the plants being about eighteen inches 


from each other in the rows. ‘his allows of the hoe to be freely 
worked, of a ‘plentiful application of manure, and of the growth 


‘of crops between the lines during the summer. New plantations — 


are z..ade upon ground on which vegetable erops have been’growing, 
and consist of the strongest and best rooted side shoots taken from 
the old stools immediately the blooming season is over. With due 
attention these make strong plants, and yield a) considerable 
quantity of the finest flowers the next spring, and the second 


year bear a first-rate crop of bioom. Some let them stahd another MAP eke 


year, but the flowers, although most abundant, are not so fine as 
from younger plants. 
covered the major portion of the ground. If anyone has som 
out-of-the-way path that wants an edging, by all means let him 
get some’of these Violets and plant them out along the sides; they 
will make both an excellent edging and furnish abundance of ~ 
beautiful. flowers, A.D. - 


The stools will also, by this time, have 


aoa 
fan 


Manrcr 9, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


347 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
" APPLE ORCHARDS—PRUNING AND TRAINING. 


_ Iv is gratifying to witness the great improvement seen throughout 
the country-in the training and management of apple orchards. 
Formerly, it was the general practice to allow them to grow without 
care; now, well shaped and well cultivated trees may be seen in 

_ every neighbourhood, on the grounds of good cultivators. But still 
there are many who begin at the wrong end in pruning their 
orchards, by waiting till their deformities become developed in 
large or bearing trees, and then lopping off large limbs to remedy 
the bad shape. This practice not only makes large wounds, which 
are long in healing over, but it is a sacrifice of what would otherwise 
be a valuable growth of wood. It is far better in every way to give 
the young tree the right shape in the first place, and then by proper 
attention it may be kept so by the easy process of simply rubbing off 

-any wrong or supernumerary shoots as they appear, or, at most, 
cutting them out with a knife, without the necessity of resorting to 
the use of the axe or saw. 


Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 

We give a few illustrations of the proper mode for keeping the 
tree in the right shape through the successive stages of growth, 
until it becomes the large handsome shaped bearer—contrasted with 
deformed shapes not unfrequently seen on the grounds of slovenly 
cultivators. . 

Fig. 1 represents a well shaped tree from the hands of the skilful 
nurseryman. The head consists of four or five branches, which are 
‘to form the framework of the future tree—the only subsequent care 


Fig. 4. ig. 5. x 


being the preservation of just enough side shoots along these 
branches as they increase in growth, to form a thrifty, evenly dis- 
tributed head—these shoots in their turn to supply others, as they 
_ become larger. Purchasers of trees, however, who desire to get their 
-trees at as low a price as may be, are unwilling to pay for those 
which are thus handsomely worked, and receive such as are shown in 
fig. 2, which have grown three or four years with very little attention. 


These will need special care to give them a right shape as soon as 
practicable, the best treatment for which is to cut the top off at the 
dotted line, which will give a form like fig. 8, and from which a 
good shaped head may be made. 

Sometimes unskilful nurserymen trim up their’ young trees so 
closely, in order to supply the call for “tall trees” from equally 
unskilful planters, that the slender stem is unable to sustain «the 
mass of leaves and shoots at the top, and they assume the form 
shown in fig. 4, reminding one of the “bowirig bean.” Avoid 
buying such trees—or, if once on your hands, they may be cut back 
as already described, and possibly a head may be obtained from the 
new shoots. —~ 

It should be borne in mind that all cutting back and pruning for 
this purpose must be done very early in the season and before the 
buds begin to swell; for if done later, it will only check instead of 
helping growth. 


- 
— 
—— 
~ 


ne 
~~ 

A 
* 


f 


By keeping an occasional eye on the young orchard, and rubbing 
or cutting out any needless shoots which may spring up, the trees in 
a few years will present the appearance shown by fig. 5; and by 
continuing this care as they grow larger, they will appear like fig. 6, 
which shows the bare branches without leaves. 

A well managed tree, as it begins to come into full bearing, is 
shown by fig. 7; and when of larger size, by fig. 8. If the lower 
branches of such large trees become too drooping by the successive 
loads of fruit giving them too low a position for easy cultivation, a 
few may be readily removed with the saw. Where nothing very 
particular is grown under them the branches may be allowed to 


remain near the cround for ihe convenience of picking, and treatcd 
thus they will also furnish a larger bearing head. 

Having now given suggestions for keeping the trees of an orchard 
in proper shape (which to be successful must always be accompanied 
with good, clean cultivation, except on the very richest soils), we 
add additional illustrations of badly Gut and mutilated trees by way 
of contrast, and for the purpose of inducing young planters to ayoid 


348 


THE GARDEN. 


[Mancr 9, 1872. 


such management. fhe mode of pruning old trees shown in figs. 9 
and 10 may still be occasionally seen, but we are glad to state that 
it is rapidly giving way to a better treatment. Workmen who know 
nothing about trimming trees, are sent into old orchards with axes, 


Vig. 8. 


by owners who know no more, and soon reduce good old trees to 
such distorted forms as theso figures represent—the first being what 
may be termed a ‘ sprawler,”’ and the second “a two-story” tree with 
a scant attic. 


Nig. 9. 


When apple trees become old, new vigouris sometimes imparted t> 


dhem by a moderate pruning of the tops at a season when destitute | 


of leaves, and before the buds swell. This pruning should be 
gradual, or performed in two or three successive years, beginning at 


Fig. 11. 


the top and working downwards, leaving the main branches ; and not 


as figs; 9 and 10 represent, by beginning at the bottom and running 
upwards. But as a general rule, we do not advise any attempt to 
restore quite old trees in this way. When the trees have reached 
old age, they ought to be replaced by new ones. It is rare that apple 


and rests on the top of the bottle receptacle. 


trees liye much oyer sixty years in the best fruit-regions of the 
eastern and middle States, and rarely over forty years at the west, 
and when they have thus fulfilled their destiny, they may be-dis- 
charged, and new ones brought on. 
twenty or thirty years old may be often much improved, especially 
if in connection with resrafting to better sorts. In this case work - 
downwards, taking two or three years for the operation, as already 
described, giving them, not the form of fig. 10, but of fig. 11, which 
shows the young shoots, from grafts or otherwise, springing up and 
forming a new, handsome, symmetrical head.—Albany Cultivator. 


GRAPE ROOM AT ASWARBY PARK. | 

Our erape-room—that, is, the apartment in which we keep our 
bottled grapes —is on the second floor ina north aspect, and there- 
fore dry and free from sunlight. The three ‘great evils to guard 
against are damp, frost, and artificial heat. Ovr room is twenty-one 
feet by sixteen feet, and seven feet six inches in height. ‘The walls 
are thoroughly plastered, the ceiling having three coats ; and above 
the ceiling and between each rafter is packed clean dry sayydust, 
to act as a preventive against frost. The north and east walls of 
the room are exposed to the open air; the west and south are inside 
walls, which assist in keeping ont frost. 
of composition, is always covered with clean dry sawdust. There 
is no ventilation from the roof, but two windows look towards the 
north, and are ‘fitted with shutters inside to be closed in severe’ 
weather. The space between the shutters and windows is padded with 
clean, dry material in frosty weather. The door, which is on the 
south side, can be* converted into a double door when required; 
the space between being, like the windows, closely padded, so as 
to make the room in frosty weather almost air-tight. Ventilation 
is wholly derived from the door and windows, which open and shut 


-as required, as thorough ventilation with a good amount of light 


is required at all times whenever the weather will permit. When 
the day is damp and cloudy, or the wind in the north, the room is 
not opened; still, I never lose a chance of admitting ight and air, 
if only for half-an-hour. On the 8th of December, when we hac 
20° of frost, the temperature in the room did not get lower than 38” 
without artificial heat. The temperature is kept as near 48° as 
possible, and with careful attention the ropm will stand for weeks 
at that temperature. At each end are arranged fruit shelyes for 
the best varieties of dessert pears and apples; the centre bemg 
devoted to the grapes. We haye eight standards, 6} feet high and 
two inches square, with brackets let into two sides of them 


alternately ; the brackets are 14 inch thick, and after being Jet — 


into the standards are 43 inches by 3} inches. Four of these stand- 
ards are placed on each siesof the room, leaving a passage-way all 
round them. The bottle receptacles are then laid on the brackets, 


on which they rest perfectly flat. hey ave then made fast with a 


serew, which passes through from the underside of the bracket and 
enters the underside of the receptacle. A light facing of wood is 
fitted to the face of the standards from the underside of the bracket, 
This prevents the 
receptacle from rising up behind, and gives the whole a neat and 
finished appearance. Each pair of standards carries seven ten-feet 
lengths of bottle receptaclés, four on one’ side and three on the 
other. Each length holds eleven bottles, so that each pair of 
standards carries seventy-seven bottles. Nach standard kas an 
iron spike in its top, which, passing through laths of wood fixed 
there, binds all firmly together. ; Re: Weare 
After trying experiments in many different ways, I find nothing to 
equal charcoal and pure rain water for grape preserving. The shoot 
with the bunch of grapes on it is placed in the bottle close to the 
water, but not in it. When the grapes were nearly ripe, I thought 
to myself I must not cut all; if I can, at once—for this reason, that 
every bunch of grapes in the house does not ripen at the same time, 
nor yet in the same week._ Ten or twelye days before cutting any 
to take to the room, I went over all the bunches in the Muscat house, 
and selected from forty to fifty that had arrived at maturity; IT 


shortened back the shoots to two eyes above the bunch, and the ~ 
small laterals attached to those two eyes were allowed to remain. I 
am now speaking of Muscats alone, the foliage at the time being 
My vines are trained on the extension — 


quite healthy and green. 
system, and forcing was commenced on the 7th of March. Cutting 
back the shoots ten or twelve days previous to cutting off. the bunches 
to take to the room obviates the use of sealing wax or any other 
material in that way, as the wound becomes perfectly hard and dry 
of its own accord, and will neither take up nor give off moisture. 
The day before cutting I have the charcoal and water put into thé 
bottles. Ithen have all the selected bunches cut and taken to the 
room, cutting the shoots off at two eyes below the bunch-when 
possibleto do so, With all the green foliage attached, allowing Hien 3 


‘ 


But trees which are not over . 


The floor, which consists — 


. 


i as they drop, and at once removed. 


__ vines. 


dic off of its own accord, which takes from three to four weeks. After 


grapes are in the room the leaves must be carefully gathered up 
Having disposed of the first lot 
of grapes, I go to the vinery again, and select another quantity to 
- come in in succession. This to some may seem a slow process, but 
am satistied that it is a better plan than leaving the grapes on the 


The foliage was nearly all off Lady Downe’s Seedling when I cut 
my bunches of that sort. This autumn I shall select them the same 
as J did the Muscats. I may add that the bottles are all stopped 
with wadding. The time, I apprehend, is not far distant when grape 
rooms will be as common as fruit rooms, and they will answer the 

end in view quite as well, provided they receive proper attention. 
People must not think that grapes will keep in a room for four or 
five months without careful looking after. ~  Ricitarp Nisbet. 

Aswarby Park, Falkingham. ; 


FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 


Tr is an old and familiar truism that “there is nothing new 
under the sun’; still, as time pfogresses fresh readers spring 


up, for whose advantage it is sometimes desirable to discuss . 


uestions that some of us look upon as definitively settled. 
orcing strawberries is in many places an important part of 

a gardener’s duties; and to keep up a constant succession 
from March—which is as early as they are required in most 
establishments—till they can be gathered in the open ground, 
requires a good deal of forethought and attention. After 
trying a good many varieties, | think the following may be 
— relied upon :—Keens’ Seedling, President, Sir Charles Napier, 


_ and British Queen. If very early fruit is required in January 


y 


_ or February, Black Prince forces well, and may be grown to 
a fair size by severe thinning. Bicton White Pine I have 
found yery useful when several dishes are wanted=at the 
- Same time, as it gives more variety. ‘T'rollope’s Victoria is a 
_ heayy cropper and sure bearer, and a large showy fruit, but 
not first-rate in flavour. ey f 
In preparing the plants the best way is to lay the earliest 

lot into small pots, and it is important that this should be 
done as early as possible in the season; for later crops I have 
often laid them into the fruiting pots ab onge to save time, 
and always found them do well. I would strongly recommend 
the following plan to anyone who has a difficulty in procuring 
early runners in sufficient qnantities. I need not say how 
important it is that plants for early forcing should have plenty 
of time to develop and mature their growth. In September 
take a sufficient number of the late runners and plant them 
six inches apart in a prepared bed in a frame, give them a 
good soaking of water, and after they are established take 
off the lights and only cover them in severe weather; pinch 
off all flowers that show in the spring, and about the third 


- week in May pot them in the fruiting pots. I have never 


_ known plants ‘so treated fail. They have plenty of time to 
fill their pots with roots; and to ‘plump up their crowns, 


give them a few doses ‘of weak liquid manure, but don’t 


+ 


‘over do it, or late growths may be excited when the aim 
‘should be rest by a moderately dry treatment. Shelter of 
some kind from heavy rains and cutting winds is necessary 
from October till forcing begins about Christmas. In selecting 
the runners, care should be taken to obtain them only from 
the most poe or fruitful plants, as the absence of this care 
is often the cause of strong healthy-looking plants turning 
out blind or unfruitful. Thirty-two sized pots are the most 
_ suitable for the fruiting size; but good crops may be grown 
__ in forty-eights by plunging the pots in troughs or boxes half 
_ filled with rich soil, or by plunging them into other pots two 
sizes larger in the same way. Don’t be deterred from adopting 
this plan by any exaggerated ideas about the labour, for it is a 
mere trifle, and time will be saved in watering, and J am sure 
the result will be satisfactory. The best soil for strawbexries 
is a good sound loam, adhesive rather than sandy, apdaeetsly 
enriched. The best way to poner it is, when the sods are 
cut to pack them in long sq heaps in alternate layers of 
sods and manure, putting in of course only the proper pro- 


portion of manure, which must depend upon the quality of. 


the loam. In about eight months it will be ready for use. 
~ Lhave known gardens where there was great difficulty in 
procuring loam of good quality, from the natural soil of the 


THE GARDEN. 


349 


district being of a light sandy nature, without sufficient body 
or strength to suit strawberries well in pots; and, although by 
adding manure it could be made rich in organic matter, still 
that did not supply the necessary weight or firmness, if I may 
so term it. I believe in most light land districts beds of marl 
or clay are commonly found, the value of which is pretty well 
known to light land cultivators. It may generally be had on 
most estates for the carting, and nothing rectifies a light soil 
like clay. In such cases it is always desirable to keep a few 
loads in the compost yard and a few bushels dry in a shed 
ready for use for strawberries, melons, or any other crop that 
does best in a strong soil. When required for use, break it up 
as fine as sand, which, as if is dry, there will be no difficulty 
about doing; take out all stones, and in this state it will mix 

_thoroughly with any soil, so as to be in a condition for plant 
food. I have generally found about one-sixth of clay the right 
proportion; but.no hard and fast line can be laid down. I am 
convinced, if anyone who has hitherto had a difficulty in 
growing good crops of strawberries from the sandy nature of 
the loam will try this plan, he will find his difficulties dis- 
appear. In potting, ram the soil in firmly, keeping the crowns 
well up. 

In commencing forcing, if a pit can be spared, fill it with 
leaves to within six inches of the glass, treading it down as the 
work proceeds. Plunge the pots about half their depth, and 
introduce a fresh batch in succession every fortnight. Give a 
little air night and day except in severe weather. Don’t water 
too freely till the flowers appear, in order to induce the flowers 
to come away well with the foliage. At this stage, if desirable, 
they might be moved to a light house to make room, where 
the night temperature does not exceed 60°, and where air 
can be given freely till the fruit is set. ‘Thin the fruit to about 
ten or twelve on each pot, removing all late blossoms. Push 
the plants on rapidly with a higher temperature and plenty of 
moisture, using the syringe freely amongst them twice a day ; 
if not looked after well in this respect, red spider may attack 
the foliage and spoil the flavour of the fruit. Although I 
recommend the mild genial warmth of a pit filled with 
leaves for starting strawbtrries in January and February, still 
good fruit mee be obtained without its aid by utilizing the 
back shelves of peach houses and vineries in the usual way; 
and the gradual adyance in temperature in such houses will 
suit them. After the fruit is set the plants may be moved to 
the pine stove or any other warm house or pit if wanted early. 
Place a saucer under each pot, but don’t allow the water to 
remain in it to become stagnant, or the roots may become 
unhealthy. In forcing strawberries, and, indeed, this remark 
is ‘applicable to all other kinds of forced fruit, the great secret 
of success lies in the previous year’s preparation. If the 
plants have been well selected, well grown, and well matured, 
there will be no difficulty under reasonable treatment in fruit- 
ing them. With successional crops, as the days lengthen and 
there is less risk of their setting, thin the blossoms without 
waiting for the fruit to set, as it is only a waste ef force to 
leave all on till that is accomplished. Place a small stick to each 
cluster of fruit, tying it neatly up; it brings the fruit nearer 
the sun, and keeps it cleanfrom the manure water; and I have 
an idea that the fruit swells more rapidly when kept in a 
vertical position, from the admitted tendency- of the sap to 
flow upwards ina direct line. In using liquid manure, there 
is nothing much better than that made from sheep droppings 
with a little soot added. I prefer to use it weak at every 
watering from the time the fruit is set till it begins to colour, 
rather than give strong doses at intervals. In preparing the 
stock of plants, provide liberally, so as to have a hundred or 
so to come on in a cold pit without forcing, as there is often a 
break in the supply in many places between the forced fruit 
and those in the open ground; which such an arrangement will 
prevent. EL. Hobday, Ramsey Abbey, in “ Field.” 


THE AMERICAN BLACKBERRY. 

Tur Rochelle or Lawton blackberry has been despitefully 
spoken of by many ; first, because the market fruit is generally bad, 
being plucked before it is fully ripened; and next, because in rich 
clayey grounds, the briars, unless severely cut back, and again back, 
grow into a tangled, unapproachable forest, with all their juices 


exhausted in wood. But upon a soil moderately rich, a little gravelly 


‘ 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcr 9, 1872. 


. and warm, protected from wind, served with occasional top-dressings 
and good hoeings, the Lawton briar bears magnificent burdens, Hyen 
then, if you would enjoy the richness of the fruit, you must not be 
hasty to pluck it. When the children say with a shout, ‘‘ The black- 
berries are ripe!” I know they are black only, and I gan wait. 
When the children report, ‘‘ The birds are eating the berries,” I 
know I can still wait. But when they say “ The bees are on the 
berries,” I know they are at full ripeness. Then, with baskets we 
sally out; I taking the middle rank, and the children the outer 
spray of boughs. Even now we gather those only which drop at the 
touch ; these, in a brimming saucer, with golden Alderney cream, 
and a sowpcon of powdered sugar, are Olympian nectar; they melt 
before the tongue can measure their full roundness, and seem to be 
mere bloated bubbles of forest honey.—My Farm of Edgewood. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN, 


Grapes in Bottles.—Tumnp are few subjects upon which all agree. 
Therefore I'am not surprised at Mr. Tillery supporting the bottling 
system. Muscats, I am aware, suffer less by it than any other 
kind, on account of their being naturally higher flavoured. I am 
personally acquainted with no fewer than a score of gardeners who 
adopted the system because of the conyenience it afforded, but who 
haye been compelled to 
abandon it, because 
their employers com- 
plained that grapes so 


THE GARDENS OF ENGLAND. 


SHRUBLAND. 

Lrkz most fine gardens, those of Shrubland owe much to 
their site; they occupy more than half a hundred acres of 
beautifully hanging ground, on the side of a well-wooded deer 
park. The mansion, a fine specimen of the Italian style, 
remodelled, extended, and improved by Sir Charles Barry, 
crowns the gardens, and has impressed much of its character 
upon a considerable portion of them. The position of the 
house is most commanding, and it forms the chief feature in 
the landscape for many miles round. It oyerlooks not only 


_the grounds, but the Valley of the Gipping, that winds out 


and in among the green fields like a silver thread, till if. — 

expands into the deeper, broader Orwell at Ipswich. Standmg._ 

in front of the mansion, overlooking the grand flight of steps 

seen in the accompanying representation, the whole of the 

middle distance and foreground is a series of gardens, fol- 

lowing each other in different styles, until the eye secks rest 

on a belt of wood that fringes the garden boundary in the far 

distance. Near to this a large artificial lake has recently been 

formed, and between the steps and this luke, broad glades of 
sweeping turf and 

huge masses of 

shrubs bring the eye ; 

forward to a nafu-  — 


‘~ 


treated were deficient 
in flavour. I can assure 
Mr. Tillery that long 
before I grew specimen 
plants I grew grapes; 
‘and that I found it 
easier to produce them 
up to the required stan- 
dard than plants. Lam 
ready to admit that the 
practice of preserving 
grapes in bottles is 
admissible under cer- 
tain circumstances. 
Twelve months ago, I 
bottled about half a 
hundred weight, the 
produce of vines I found 
here two years ago in 
a condition impossible 
to produce first-class 
fruit. My object in 
bottling them was to 
relieve the yines. When 
I get them into the 
condition -which I hope 
to be able some day to 
have them, no bottling 
for me.—T. Baryzs. : 
We haye recently received from Mr. Wm. Tillery, of Welbeck, 
examples of Muscat grapes, preserved in bottles for three months, 
which, for flavour and general condition, were all that could be desired. 
‘They have begun to shrivel since being taken out of the bottles; but even 
the most shrivelled and uninviting-looking of the berries still retain their 
good flavour. 

Profits from Strawberries.—Onr friend, Wiliam Parry’of Cin- 
naminson, N.J., gives some details about strawberry. culture. He says: 
“In the spring of 1870, before planting strawberries, we opened furrows 
three feet apart, and spread along them a mixture of fine ground bones, un- 
leached ashes and marl, then turned a ridge on it and set out the plants. 
They made a vigorous growth, and in the summer of 1871 produced the 
finest crop of fruit we ever grew. Six acres, mostly of Boyden’s No. 30, 
Charles Downing, Wilson’s Albany, and Kentucky, yielded 46,000 quarts, 


Shrubland: View from the House. 


_ to the trimmest formalities of art are not uncommon through- 


and sold at an average of 16°7 cents per quart in market, amounting to — 


7,682 dollars, or an average of 1,280 dollars per acre. The Boydens were 
the best strawberries we grew. One whole shipment sent to New York 
brought 38 cents per quart, being the highest price obtained during the 
‘season.”—Aimerican Paper. ; 

Seale on Currant Trees.—Are the seales on the enclosed currant 
sprays the eggs of insects? and, if so, what kind ? and how can I exterminate 
them? They are too numerous to cut off. Would a daub of Baltic tay, 


or of that and cart-grease, be likely to imprison them, and so cause their | 


death ?—R. V., Seaford Grange, Pershore. {What you have sent us is 
Coccus patelliformis. We should recommend washing with Gishurst 
Compound, and brushing the seales off with  nailbrush where practicable. 
It is probably too late now; but in mild weather in winter, when the buds 
are quite dormant, hot water, varying from 150° to 160° is reported to 


kill seale-—A. M.] 


_ masses of scarlet pele poniutas, with which they are crowned. 


ral-looking labyrinth, 
“planted with all sorts 
of semi - wild and 
common plants. 
Rough irregular 
mounds of earth have 
been thrown up, and 
furnished after the 
manner of undressed 
nature. This style — 
is carried right up 
tothe retaining wall « 
that boundsthe panel —- — 
garden, The annexed : 
illustration furnishes 5 
a good view of this * 
part of the gardens, 
as seen from the 
grand steps. Imme- 
diately beyond the 
panel garden is 
nature wild and free, P 
then lawn dressed © 
with shrubs — lower 
down fringed -again 
| with flowers, merg- 
_ ing finally into wood ~ 
or water. ‘The sudden transitions from the wildness of nature 
out these gardens. Such violent contrasts are fairly open to 
criticism; but where a picture, as at Shrubland, has to be 
spread over a surface sixty acres wide or long, strong lightsare 
needed to prevent the scenery becoming monotonous. = = = 
The great garden terrace stairs, so prominent a feature in our 
illustration, consist of about a hudred steps, twelve feet wide, . 
with four rests over twenty feet wide, and a central landing, from 
which they swerve to the right and left within about a dozen 
steps of the bottom. ‘Their whole flight connects the panel 
garden with the balcony garden, immediately in front of the . — 
mansion. A broad belt of evergreen shrubs, mostly box,hugand 
hide each side of the staircase to the base of the balustrading. 
At each projecting rest these shrubs are carried up higher, _ 
and#thus the even line of green; that might otherwise be 
objectionable, is broken. The yases with which the balus- 
trading is ornamented break it in another manner, by means of 


ae ae ee ae | eee 


Pyramidal trees also run up among the shrubs, which merge 
into the adjoining wood. At the bottom of the steps,and 
almost close to them, two beds of yew, with a mixture of _ 
variegated box, so disposed among it as to represent a light. 
coloured serpent lying lazily on a green cushion, have a unique — 


Marcu 9, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


351 


as well as a singular effect. There are also several beds or | link together the house and the steps and form the balcony 
masses of Juniperus sabina, which likewise, in some measure, | garden. 

tend to subdue the white appearance of so much stone. And | 
| sweeps the extremity of the pleasure-grounds and lawn, and 
| passes under, or near, nine of the finest Sweet Chestnut trees 


a beantiful hanging wood cuts the house, balcony gardens, 
and lawn off from the series of other gardens lying a hundred 
or more feet lower down. 


/ in the kingdom. 


At the bottom of the grand steps, a noble grassy glade | 


stretches so far to the right and left in straight lines 
as to lose itself almost in the distance. This glade is, one 
of the finest features of Shrubland. It skirts the base of the 
hanging wood on the one side, and a whole series of gardens 
in different styles of form and planting rest upon it on the 
other. Proceeding to the right from the panel garden, one 
gets glimpses of the fountain garden, burnished with colour ; 
‘and half enclosed, as it were, with a conservative wall, 
further on, are tne quaint Chinese garden, the box 
embroidery, verbena garden, and maze. 
the poplar, rose, and tent gardens are situated; and from 
‘these, detached groups of flowers and shrubs stretch away 
towards the outer fringe of wood and the lake. On the 
opposite side of the glade a huge ribbon border, consisting 
mostly of Dahlias, occupies a niche cut of the wood; and 
_ further on, near the gate leading to the park, the Swiss cot- 
tage, with its garden > 
and rocky fernery, is 
placed. From this 
point, and from what 
may be termed the 
looking-glass _ gar- 
den, two brilliant 
borders lead up to 
an open .summer- 
house witha glorious 
picture—the subject 
a charming — land- 
scape in front. 
Coming closer, this 
is found tobe a far- 
reaching view of 
the surrounding 
scenery,allthe more. , 
enjoyable because 
of the illusion. 
From here, the 
upper lawn is im- 
mediately reached, | 
which rises up to 
the noble’ conser- 
yatory attached to 
the drawing-room, 
_ and sweeps onwards 
to the balcony gar- 
den at the top of the 
steps, and far be- 
yond it. The lawn, 
which slopes beauti- 
~ fullyfrom the house, j 
skirts the base ot the mansion on one side, and top of the 
hanging wood already adverted to on the other. 


Shrubland; like most buildings in the Italian style, has a 

_ series of terraces, with retaining walls of great massiveness 
and beauty, and on these terraces garden art is made to 
fraternise with that of the architect. Tiny beds, bordered 
with the whitest of silver sand, are furnished with flowers of 
various sorts, in thin lines and little gronplets. By-and-bye 
these fringes become wider, and the grouplets broaden into 
masses, till hollyhocks lift their towering stems proudly above 
heavy stone walls, and are supported with rich masses of 
glowing Per. As regards the intermediate space 
between the mansion and the grand steps, some large beds, 
placed on each side of the centre walk, are filled with several 
hundreds each of pelargoniums, chiefly in broad bands, the 
varieties used being such as pink cerise unique and Golden 
Chain, finished with the old brilliant Baron Hugel as an edging. 
Then, on each side of the walk are set fine standard Portugal 
Laurels. Furtker, masses of Humea elegans, Spiral Juniper, 


Below these again, | 


Shrubland from the Gardens. 


and similar plants, together with stone baskets and vases, 


Proceeding to the left of the balcony. garden, a wide walk 


They are supposed to have endured the 
changing seasons of probably a thousand years, are marked 
with the scars of’ many a storm and whitened with the 
proofs of hoary antiquity. This walk terminates ina seat, 
from whence a fine dell in the deer park is seen, mostly fur- 
nished with Sweet Chestnuts of almost equal size andage. Pass- 
ing down the end of the grounds, here a lower level is reached, 
and a straight path leads along between a raised bank on 
the right, furnished with blocks of wood, &c., covered with a 
rank growth of wild, rampant vegetation. On the other side 
a modern ribbon border is placed—nature and art once more 
in violent contest, rather than contrast. And here nature 
has the best as well as the most of it. A few steps more, and 
we are in the panel garden again,at the bottom of the steps, 
with its splashing fountains and all the glory of its floral and 
architectural accompaniments. 

Of late years, perhaps, art has dominated somewhat too 
strongly over nature at Shrubland. ‘This is almost the inevi- 
Leak table result where 
great architects be- 
come also landscape 
gardeners. They 
naturally carry their 
building tastes with 
them. Still, both 
architectural and 
natural beauty have 
been on the whole 
well blended at this 
fine place. Shrub- 
land is one of those 
uncommon places 
where the nature 
of the ground near 
the house really de- 
mands a terraced 
garden. Ourillustra- 
tions have been lent 
by Mr. Murray, 
from “The Lite 
and Works of Sir C. 
Barry.” D.T. Fis. 
THE LESSON OF 

THE LEAF. 

WE men sometimes, 
in what we presume 
to be humility, com- 
pare ourselves with 
leaves ; but we have as 
yet no right to do so. 
The leaves may well scorn the comparison. We, who live for ourselves, 
and neither know how to use nor keep the work of past time, may 
humbly learn—as from the ant, foresight—from the leaf, reverence. 
The power of every great people, as of every living tree, depends on 
its not effacing, but confirming and concluding, the labours of its 
ancestors. Looking back to the history of nations, we may date the 
beginning of their decline from the moment when they ceased to 
be reverent in heart, and accumulative in hand and brain; from the 
moment when the redundant fruit of age hid in them the hollowness 
of heart, whence the simplicities of custom and sinews of tradition 
had withered away. This lesson we have to take from the leaf’s life. 
One more we may receive from its death. If ever in autumn, a pen- 
siveness falls upon us as the leaves drift by in their fading, may we 
not wisely look up in hope to their mighty monuments ? Behold how 
fair, how far prolonged, in arch and aisle, the avenuesof the valleys ; 
the fringes of the hill! So stately—so eternal ; the joy of man, ihe 
comfort of all living creatures, the glory of the earth—they are but 
the monuments of those poor leaves that flit faintly past us to die. 
Let them not pass, without our understanding their last counsel and 
example ; that we also, careless of monument by the grave, may 
build it in the werld—monument by which men may be taught to 
remember, not where we died, but where we lived.—John Ruskin, 


352 


THE GARDEN. : 


~ ~ _ 


[Marcu 9, 1872. 


ee ee een eee —————————————————————— 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER VI. = sj 

Axp thus those gentle ladies survey with an amused 
benevolence the anxious difficulties of their faithful Joseph. 
Who, indeed, could be seriously angry with him, beaming, as 
he does, from a desire to please, and glowing with a determi- 
nation to do his best? Jfon your coat some venial gravies 
fall, look in his face, and you'll forget them all. He impinges, 
I confess, upon his fellow-servants, at times when their 
equilibrium ought to be especially respected, as, for instance, 
when they are engaged in the administration of. coffee, in the 
setting on of lamps, and the like; but only from an earnest, 
affectionate wish to hand you your muffin hot, an anxiety to 
get at you with something to eat—a noble sympathy, which, to 
feed you, my friend kicks the shins, treads upon the corns, 
and ignores the proximity of meaner men. You do not 
approve, and I do not justify, the deep immersion of his thumb 
in the Trifle, as he places it proudly before you, although his 
Berlin glove is of snowy whiteness (“I would I were a glove 
upon that hand,” whispers your comic neighbour, “that 1 
might kiss those sweets”); but we must both of us admire his 
attentive care of that-beautiful crystal bowl, which he msists 
on carrying, to the intense terror of the whole household, 
knowing, as we do, that rather than break it, Joseph Grundy 
would prefer to be “set quick i’ the earth, and howled to death 
with turnips.” 

Only once, within my cognizance, has he been seriously, nay 
sternly, censured; and this on the occasion of an appeal which 
he addressed to Miss Susan, for the loan of a certain single- 
barrelled gun, “to shoot them oudacious blackbirds.” He 
affirmed that they not only stole his fruit, but that, when he 
droye them away, they just “popped on to the top of the wall 
and then turned round and saweed him,’ He had imvented 
searecrows of such repulsive aspect as would have scared, he 
was sure, any decent birds into fits; but those brutes had come 
back, as imperentasimperent. One effigy, that of a gentleman 
fully armed with the artillery which Joseph desired to realize, 
and threatening grim destruction to all around, they had 
treated with conspicuous scorn, sitting upon the fowling-piece, 
“ disgesting,”’ as Mr. Grundy said, and using the entire creation 
as a kind of lounge, and worse. So had they exceeded in 
effrontery those their naughty brothers of whom we read in a 
recent delightful biography,* that when the ladies set up an 
old packing case, with a piece of red bunting affixed thereto, as 
an object which could not fail to dismay the winged banditti of 
the neighbourhood, “they stood upon the box to eat the 
cherries, and then wiped their beaks on the rag!” 

Were not these proyocations sufficient, think you, to disturb 
even the placid spirit of a Grundy, and to make sour within 
him the rich custards of his huxsan kindness? A mouse, we 
read, set the lion free; and a blackbird may rouse the British 
ditto, eyen as the twopenny tin horn of the bird-tenter may 
excite the, startled hunter, or speak to the charger of war. So 
there he stood, erect in all the majesty of wrath, bold as Ajax 
defying the lightning, and suggesting that he should like a 

un, 

And wherefore is Miss Susan mute? Stands she aghast, 
astonished, speechless, at the indelicate behaviour of the 
feathered tribe, or wherefore is she dumb? She loved those 
blackbirds well, and now she wears the strangely piteous look of 
one hearing, for the first time, harsh things of her beloved, and 
listening to the most respectable evidence that the joy of her 
soul is a thief. There she stands, grandly indignant, like the 
Lady Ida, when she found three men in petticoats among her 
“ sweet girl-graduates ”’:— ; 


y ** A tide of fierce 
Inyective seem’d to wait behind her lips, 
As waits a river, level with the dam, 
Ready to burst, and flood the world with foam.” 


But Miss Susan keeps the flood-gates closed, and without a 
word, the heart’s stream too flush and deep to ripple, she 
walks slowly, sternly, to the house. 

But it is not the birds, my reader, who have caused this sad 
dismay. It is “animal implume”’—it is Joseph Grundy, for 


> *“The Life of Patrick Fraser Tytler,” 


‘ 


retired with dignity. 


whom this stillness in the air portends a thunder-storm. Two 
hours afterward it fell. ; ; 

I must tell you, first of all, that a real shower, material not 
metaphorical, had just refreshed the earth, and all the leaves 
of the glossy evergreens were shining, “as if” (Mrs. Verjuice 
beautifully said) “ every one of ’em had been French-polished,” 
when Miss Susan went forth to speak her mind, Poor Joseph’s’ 
mocking bird was singing on the treé, as though he had wet 
his whistle to some purpose, and had clarified and strengthened 
his throat with raindrops, as the operatic songstress with 
stout. : } 

“Then Ida, with a yoice that like a bell, re 
Tolled by an earthquake, in a tumbling tower, M 
Rang ruin, answered, full of grief and scorn.” “ 


“Grundy,” she said (he told me subsequently, with intense > : Fs 
pathos, that she had not addressed him by his surname since 


he upset “them gold fishes,” fifteen years ago, and he would 


much have preferred that she had commenced with “Pick-  — 


pocket”); “Grundy, be good enough to listen to that flute, and 
tell me which particular tones are inferior in sweetness to your 
big bassoon. And tell me at the same time, Mr. Joseph” (he 


would repeat the “ Mr.” with an extreme disgust, as though ib 


were an epithet too vile and dreadful for any but the confirmed — 
garotters), “tell me why that chorister in his black cassock 


should not sing his anthems all the year round, as you once a ~ 


week in the choir. It may be my want of taste, Joseph’ 
Grundy, but I prefer the tune which he is now singing, to — 
your favourite, ‘Bobbing Round!’ Shoot the Blackbirds! 
Kill our Minnesingers! I will not dwell upon the perils 
which must result, both to life and property, from your first — 
experiments with a gun; I pass over the triflmg inconvenience 
of our compulsory residence in the cellar while you broke 


every pane in the house; but I pause to ask you how you dare 


to propose the murder of those sweet musicians, who not only 
sing for you as you work, but eat your grubs and wireworms 
by the bushel? Cover your cherries with nets, Joseph ~ 
Grundy—and your head with shame! You are worse, I 
declare, than that dull yahoo from the mining’ districts, who, — 
coming to spend a few days in the country, ‘could not sleep 0” 
nights for them nasty nightingales.’ 
Verjuice, and order her to make you acanary dumpling? or — 
would you prefer that four-and-twenty blackbirds be forthwith 


Shall I take our cageto 


4 


- 


baked ma pie?, Seriously—do those birds no hurt. * Taree peo 
Ty. ere) 


by a Power that pities me, I learn to pity them; an 
commend the lesson to you.” : 


Then her neat figure, in its grey silken dress, moved away 


upon the gravel homewards; and he was left Jamenting. And 
now befell a visitation, too common in an unloying world; a 
lancer rode forth to prick the wounded; a donkey came to kiclk 
the ailing lion. -—Like a pirate upon some helpless wreck, 
sweeps down Mrs. Verjuice upon Joseph’s grief. With bad 
taste and worse grammar, she announced her solemn conyiction 
that it was his, Joseph’s, desire and haim to break his 
missusses arts, and it was her opinion, though she judged no 
one, that he was in Co. (by which she meant in partnership) 


with most of the internal powers; and she only hoped he ~ 


might not some day find himself where the worm never should 
be squenched. This and much additional rubbish she dis- 
charged with great yolubility, and then, imitating her mistress, — 


But distinct and separate, as the orators themselves, were 
the effects of the two orations. Miss Susan’s speech left her — 
hearer sad, ruthfully penitent concerning the blackbirds, and 
as thorouglily ashamed of the subject, as the Ancient Mariner 
must have been of the albatross hung about his neck. Mrs. 


V.’s remarks appeared, on the contrary, the rather to cheer 


and comfort him; and he so far regained his animal spivits as 


~ 


to wink, when she finished, to an attendant robin (presiding, __ 
like an Emperor, over his Diet of Worms, hard by), and 


pointing with his thumb to her retreating form, to murmur, 
* Poor old runt.” ; ities 
They are good friends, nevertheless, these two fellow- 
servants; and Sleet and Sunshine, as Miss Mary calls them, 
enjoy together life’s April day. ‘When the old galis onthe ~ 
hig,” says Grundy—irreverently alluding to those seasons in: 


which the lady’s temper is especially acetose, her observations « — 


of the pointed order, and her enunciation so exceedingly _ 


d 


 Mancn 9, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. : 


353° 


‘nimble, that, as Schiller said of Madame de Stéel, “a man 
must be all ear to follow her”—* when the old gal is on the hig, 
Tnever counterdix nothink. Beautiful, says I, as if I were 
admiring of a pin-wheel; and off she goes, just like one, a 
blazing, and fiazing, and spluttering, till all her gunpowder 
and brimstone’s burnt out, and she stops as still as a hyster.” 
Artful Joseph! shrewd in thy reticence, as the monk Eustace 
with Elspeth Glendinning, when he remembered that a 
‘woman of the good dame’s condition was like a top, which, if 
you let it spin untouched, must at last come to a pause; but, 
if you interrupt it by flogging, there is no end to its gyrations! 

At an earlier period of their acquaintance, Joseph had 

essayed by various demonstrations to intimate to Mrs. V. that 
her monologues were a little tedious, yawning with extended 
arms, and constlting his watch from time to time in a very 
anxious and ostentatious manner. Such a watch! After an 
entire derangement of the owner's yest, a liberal display of 
brace and button, and some powerful tuggings at a steel chain, 
out it came from its well, like the diving-bell at the Polytechnic. 
Mx. Chiswick pretended to covet the case, as “a sweet tank for 
the Victoria Lily,” and affirmed that when Grundy travelled 
cn the rail, his timepiece was charged as extra luggage. But 
the exhibition of this huge chronometer, displayed and bran- 
dished as some intimation that Time was on the wing and 
precious, by no means produced the effect proposed. “The 
old mare” (you must really~ excuse Joseph's stable mind) ~ 
“began to rear and plunge tik anythink ; and says I to mysen, 
this here’s a hanimal, which she'll stand no ticklings by whips 
nor straps, and if you dont give her her ‘ed, Joe Grundy, you'll 
be having her heels through your splashboard ! ” 

Tf evidence were ae to show the prudence of these 
reflections, and I wished to demonstrate the happy consequences 
of allowing the old mare her head, I should point triumphantly 

to the scarlet “comforter,” which, coming through foul 

weather to “The Six of Spades,” Mr. Grundy is wont to wear, 

and which was wrought expressly for him by the swift needles 

of Verjuice. Mr. Oldacres never beholds this neckerchief 

without addressing an inquiry to the Curate (of whom anon, 

my readers) “whether he is aware that one of the Society has 

serious thoughts of petitioning Parliament to legalise marriage | 
with grandmothers ;” and then he will address the brother in 

question, and promise him a dish of “the Duke’s Potatoes,” 

whenever they are needed for the wedding feast. 

- But what does he mean by “the Duke’s Potatoes?” A good 
many years ago, when Joseph Grundy first came among us, 
with horticultural experiences of a very limited range, he was 
invited to attend a general meeting of our Floral and Cottage- 
gardening Association. The proceedings terminated with a 
supper, and at this supper were handed round some Jerusalem 
Artichokes, which Mr. Oldacres had kindly sent from the 
Castle. Now Joseph is a very impartial feeder, accepting all 
things (I was compelled on one occasion sternly to reprove a 
facetious waiter, whom I caught winking at his assistant, as 
he offered to my friend the sweet pudding-sauce, and watched 
him pouring it liberally all over his boiled rabbit)—and he 
now helped himself accordingly. Presently an expression of 
extreme disrelish passed over his rosy face, and beckoning to 
the landlord of our yillage inn, the Gunter of our feast, he 
asked, disdainfully, to be informed, “ Whose swilltub he had 
robbed o’ them things?” The reply was, that they had come 
from the Castle, a present from Mr. Oldacres. A momentary 
2 te and hesitation flitted over Mr. Grundy’s lineaments, 
and then he spoke bravely, as he ever does, his thoughts :— 
* Duke or no Bubs, if poor ould chap gets no better taturs nor 
these, he’d be foine and pleased with a Turnip !” 

Hence the allusion of Mr. Oldacres. But Joseph is generally 

ready for him-with some amusing rejoinder, and is never 
indeed to be lightly regarded as an adversary in jest and 
banter. There came a stranger to one of our meetings, I forget 
by whom introduced, and who must have possessed, if phren- 
ology be true, so large an organ of self-esteem as considerably 
to perplex his hatter. This gentleman was pleased during the 
evening to turn his attention to Joseph Grundy, and, rightly 
inferring from his appearance that he was not a highly 
scientific gardener, to inquire, in ridicule, “ what Orchids he 

thought of exhibiting at the next Crystal Palace Show ?” J. G. 
took four long pulls at his’ pipe, and then answered very 


. ._- 
7 


meekly, “I have n’t no Orchids, if you please, sir, and I’m not 
much of a shower; but I think I know what prize you'll win, 
sir.” “Indeed,” said our visitor, evidently pleased with the 
notion that his fame_as a florist was known to us all; “and 
which may that be?” “ Well,” said Joseph, “thou'lt be first 
i’ Cockscombs, and thou'lt not be very far behind i’ Greens.” 
And now that I have brought Spade No. 4 in safety back to 
our club-room, let me express the hope that he has not wearied 
you ; and let me introduce you to his Reverence, the Curate. 
(To be continued.) S. RB. H. 


THE GARDENING OF THE HUGUENOTS. 


As a contribution to the early history of cultivation, the following 
article from Mr. Smiles’s work on “The Huguenots” will be found 
interesting :— 

At page 46 we read :—‘ Among the first things the Flemings 
did on arriving at Sandwich, was to turn to the best account in 
gardening the excellent qualities of the soil in that neighbourhood.” 
Though long before practised by the monks, gardening had become 
almost a lost art in England, and it is said that Katharine, Queen 
of Henry VIII., unable to obtain asalad for her dinner in all 
England, had her table supplied from the Low Countries. It is 
reported that vegetables were formerly so scarce that they were 
salted down. Even in the sixteenth century, according to Foxe’s “ Life 
of James II.,”’ p. 205, a cabbage from Holland (save the mark) 
was deemed an acceptable present. Hull then carried on a thriving 
import trade in cabbages and onions. The rarity of vegetables in 
this country may be inferred from the fact that in 1595 a sum 
equal to twenty shillings was paid at that port for six cabbages 
and a few carrots, by the purveyor of the Clifford family. (Whit- 
taker’s “History of Cromer,” p. 331.) Harttel, writing in 1650, says, 
that an old man, then living;remembered the first gardener who 
came into Surrey to plant cabbages and cauliflowers, and to sow 
turnips, carrots, parsnips, and early peas, all of which at that time 
were great wonders, we having few or none in Englazd but what 
came from Holland and Flanders. It is also supposed, though it 
cannot be exactly ascertained, that the Protestant Walloons intro- 
duced the cultivation of the hop into Kent, bringing slips with them 
from Artois. The old distich,— 


** Hops, Reformation, Bays, and Beer, 
_ Came into England all m one year,” 


~marks the period (abont 1524)-when the first English hops were 


planted. There is a plot of land at Bourne, near Canterbury, where 
there is known to have been a hop plantation in the reign of Blizabeth. 
Another kind of crop introduced by the Flemings at Sandwich was 
canary grass, which still continues to be grown on the neighbouring 
farms, and is indeed almost peculiar to the district. It may be 
added that to this day the ‘Sandwich celery” maintains its 
reputation. Mr. Smiles continues :—‘‘ The first "lemish gardeners 
proved highly successful. The cabbage, carrots, and celery pro- 


-duced by the foreigners met with so ready a sale, and were so much 


in demand in London itself, that a body of gardeners shortly 
removed from Sandwich and settled at Wandsworth, Battersea, 
and Bermondsey ; where many of the rich garden grounds first 
planted by the Flemings continue to this day the most productive 
in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.” Again, treating upon 
subsequent events, Mr. Smiles, speaking of the refugees at Port- 
arlington, in Ireland, observes (p. 383), “that the dwellings of the 
strangers were distinguished for their neatness and comfort; and 
their farms and gardens were patterns of tidiness and high culture. 
They introduced new fruit trees from abroad ; amongst others, the 
black Italian walnut, and the Jargonelle pear—specimens of which 
still flourish at Portarlington in vigorous old age. The emigrants 
also™introduced the espalier with great success, and their fruit 
became widely ‘celebrated. Another favourite branch of culture 
was flowers, of which they imported many new sorts, while their 
vegetables were unmatched in Ireland.” 

Again, at page 413, it is remarked of the French handloom 
weavers, who introduced the silk trade into Spitalfields and other 
places, that while their domestic habits were the purest and their 
industry unbounded, they indulged in simple pleasures, and were 
especially noted for their love of flowers. They vied .with one 
another in the production of the finest plants; and wherever they 
settled they usually set up a floricultural society to exhibit their 
products. Among the first societies in England was that established 
by the exiles in Spitalfields; and when a body of them went over 
to Dublin to carry on the mannfacture of poplins, they proceeded 
to set on foot the celebrated flower club which still exists in that 
city. Others of them, who settled in Manchester and Macclesfield, 
carried. thither the same love of flowers and botany which still 


7 


504 : 


THE GARDEN. 


> Re 


Marcu 9, 1872.) 


continues so remarkably to characterise their descendants. At page 
431 itis stated that there are still some of their old mulberry trees 
to be seen in the gardens near Spital Square. One of the streets, 
too, ig named Vine Street—probably from the culture of the vine 
by the refugees. In a recent letter to the Times, the Rey. Isaac 
Taylor says, that in addition to the many names and surnames and 
their traditions, the only relic which these exiles retain of their 
former prosperity and gentle nurture is a traditional love of birds 
and flowers. Their rooms, however wretched, are decorated with a 
sickly plant, struggling, like its sickly owner, for bare life; ora 
caged bird warbling the songs of heaven to the poor imprisoned 
weaver as he plies his weary labour. 

‘The Huguenots were farmers as well as gardeners. They intro. 
duced improved modes of husbandry, and were the first to turn 
their attention to the cultivation of waste lands. In Languedoc 
the cantons inhabited by the Protestants were the best cultivated 
and most productive. The vine dressers of Berii and the Pays 
‘Messin on the Moselle restored those districts to more than their 
former prosperity ; and the diligence, skill, and labour with which 
they subdued the stubborn soil and-made it yield its imerease of 
flowers and fruit and corn and wine, bore witness in all quarters 
to the toil and energy of the men. Indeed, it is impossible to 
exaggerate the influence of these exiles upon the industry and 
household economy of our country. 


THE ARBORETUM. 


HARDY TREES ‘AND SHRUBS. 
THE BEAUTIFUL NEPAL SPIRMA (SPIRMA BELLA). 


THis is a native of Nepal and Bhootan, where it is found in 
ravines and mountain woods, at an elevation of from five thousand 
to nine thousand feet. It is perfectly hardy, grows freely in any 
common garden soil, and is easily increased either by cuttings, or 
by means of suckers, which, if separated in the autumn, soon make 
nice plants. It was first introduced in 1820. No garden, however 
small, should be without it. 

It forms a beantifuly open, and rather loose-growing shrub, from 


three to four feet high, which throws up strong shoots annually | 


from the ground, that, in the following season, produce laterals, 
terminated with loose corymbs of, pretty deep rose-coloured flowers 
in May and June. The leaves are alternate, on longish footstalks, 
ovate, acutely pointed, sharply serrated, light green, and smooth on 
the upper surface, somewhat glaucous beneath, with the peduncles 
and principal veins on the under side pubescent. The stems are 
somewhat diffuse, flexuose, reddish, and branching; branches, loose, 
slender, spreading, and downy. The fruit, which is Soa of five 
reddish, shining carpels, is ripe in September. 

The late Mr. Loudon called it “a very beautiful species, which 
every cottager ought to have in his garden.” 


THE NEPAL WHITE BEAM TREE (PYRUS VESTITA), % 

Tus forms a splendid small tree from twenty to thirty feet in 
height, which flowers in May and June. It is a native of Kamaon 
and Upper Nepal, at elevations of from nine thousand to twelve 
thousand feet, and was first introduced in 1820. The leaves are 
very large, ovate-acute or elliptic, acutely crenated or coarsely 
serrated towards the points, on rather long footstalks, and when 
they first appear, which is very late in the season, they are clothed 
with a thick white coating of wool, but as soon as the warm 


weather advances, they throw off their fleecy coat on the upper | 


surface, and at length become smooth and of a glossy green. ~In 
-the autumn, before they drop off, they assume a fine pale yellow 
colour. The branches are whitely tomentose when young, but 
smooth when old. ‘The flowers, which are numerous, and white, are 
borne in branched terminal woolly racemose corymbs, The fruit is 
round, tubercled, glossy, and about the size of a common marble, 
and greenish brown when ripe in October. 

The subject of adapting’ the size of trees to the extent of the 
grounds in which they are to be planted, is one which is very 
generally neglected, notwithstanding its great importance; for 
almost every one who plants a garden of a few rods in the neigh- 
bourhood of London, finds in eight or ten years afterwards that a 
few of the coarser-growing trees have attained to such a size as to 
smother everything else, and to render it altogether impossible either 
to have smboth turf or healthy flowers: Now the Pyrus vestita is 
one of those small trees which are most suitable for planting in such 
places, not only on account of the beanty of its foliage, but also on 
account of its growing fapidly till it attains a height of from fifteen 


to twenty feet; then ib becomes comparatively stationary for many 
years. ; 

The following are the synonyms under which it is often sold :— 
Pyrus crenata, lanata, and nepalensis. G. Gorpon, A.L.S. 


Tree-wives.—I must tell you about some . of my tree-wives. I 
was at one period of my life much devoted to the young lady-popula- 
tion of Rhode Island, a small, but delightful State in the neishbour- 
hood of Pawtucket. ‘The number of inhabitants not being very large, 
I had leisure, during my visits to the Providence Plantations, to 
inspect the face of the country in the intervals of more fascinating — 
studies of physiognomy. Iheard some talk of a great elm a short 
distance from the locality just mentioned. ‘‘ Let us see the great 
elm,” I said, and proceeded to find it; knowing that it was ona 
certain farm in a place called Johnston, if I: remember rightly. I 
shall never forget my ride and my introduction to the great Johnston 
elm. I always tremble for a celebrated tree when I approach it for 
the first time. Proyincialism has no scale of excellence in man or 
vegetable ; it never knows a first-rate article of either kind when it 


has it, and ig constantly taking second and third rate ones for Nature’s 


best. I have often fancied the tree was afraid of me, and that a sort 
of shiver came over it as over a betrothed maiden when she first 
stands before the unknown to whom she has been plighted. Before. 
the measuring-tape the proudest tree of them all quails and shrinxs — 
into itself. All those stories of four or five men stretching their arms 


around it and not touching each other’s fingers, of one’s pacing the 


shadow at noon and making it so many hundred feet, die upon its 


leafy lips in the presence of ‘the awful ribbon which has stfangled so — 


many false pretensions. As I rode along the pleasant way, waliching 
eagerly for the object of my journey, the rounded tops of the elms 
rose from time to time at the roadside. Wherever one looked taller 
and fuller than the rest, I asked myself, ‘‘Is this it?” But as [ 
drew nearer, they grew smaller, or it proved, perhaps, that two 
standing i in a line had looked like one, and sodeceived me. At last, 
all at once, when I was not thinking of it—I declare to yon it makes j 
my flesh creep when I think of it now—all at once I saw a great, ° 
green cloud swelling in the horizon, so vast, so symmetrical, of such 
Olympian majesty and imperial supremacy among the lesser forest- 
growths, that my heart stopped short, then jumped at my ribs as a 


hunter springs at a fiye-barred gate, and I felt all through me," 


without need of uttering the words, “ Thisis it!”—The Autocrat of 
the Breakfast Table. | : 


‘THE TIMBER FORESTS OF ‘THE A 


ISLANDS.* at) 


Mr. Kurz, Curator of the Herbarinm of the Bopen Botanio 
Gardens of Calcutta, was directed by the Goverment of India 
to proceed to the Andaman Islands (now, unhappily, brought 
into prominent notice by the saddeath of Lord Mayo), and, im order 
to prepare a detailed report of the nature of their vegetation, he 
visited most of the eastern coast, as far as Macpherson’s Straits 
and Rutland Island, and afterwards explored the Labyrinth Islands, 
and a good part of ‘the western coast, as far as Port Campbell. Mr. 
Kurz next proceeded, on board the Diana steamer, northward. alone 
the eastern shore as far as Middle Straits. On the 1ith of May, 
however, when on the point of starting to explore the interior of Sonth 
Andaman from Escape Bay, Mr. Kurz was seized by the Burmese 


convicts who had been assiened to him as servants to aid himin _ 
‘prosecuting the exploration a the island. 


and foot, these good and faithful servants left him lying on the 
ground in the jungle, and effected their escape. Mr. Kurz, though 
thus deserted, succeeded in reaching the coast in safety ; but this 
mishap, combined with subsequent “circumstances, compelled him — 
to relinquish the further prosecution of the intended explorations, 
and he unwillingly returned to Calcutta, leaving a great part of the 
work assigned to him uncompleted. His report of the obseryations 
he was enabled to make previous to his misadventure is, however, 
full of interest as far as it goes; and it is to be hoped that he will 
be enabled on a future occasion to complete his botanical survey of - 


' the islands under more fortunate conditions, and especially at amore 


fitting season of the year. ‘The hot and dry months—March, April, 

May, and part of June—were found, when too late, exceedingly 
unfavourable for botanical explorations ; the herbaceous plants being 
scorched up almost beyond recognition, and the decidtous trees 
entirely bare of flowers, fruit, or even foliage. Mr, Kurz arrived at 
the conclusion, seeing that the heavy rains roccurred in J uly, August, 
and part of September, that October, Noventber, and December would 


* Condensed from the ‘‘ Blue Book”’ Reports of the Hast India Forest Gon: 
seryancy, : 


Having tied him hand 


{ 


Marci 9, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 


be the-most favourable for his purposes; and it is possible that 
a fature expedition may be made at that season. 

The following summary is a condensed abridgement of the detailed 
report submitted by Mr. Kurz to the Government of India in 1868, 
with several additions and corrections subsequently appended. The 
whole of South Andaman was found to be hilly, and almost moun- 
tainous’on the eastern coast, but having a good extent of level land 
on the western side. Rutland Island, however, rises gradually into 
a central mountain, which attains the height of about two thousand 
feet. 

The diversity of soils of South Andaman, considering the extent 
of the island, is very great. Over decomposed serpentine rock a 
brick-colonred soil is invariably found. A yellowish clay follows the 
course of the sandstone formation, and is the most extensive and 
important of the soils. A greyish black soil, full of silicious par- 
ticles, follows on the greenstone rock, while a black humous soil is 
predominant in the valley, and especially on Termoklee Island, 
where the Kuppalee trees flourish in great cc. According 


except in the rainy season, which sets in in the middle of May, is 
tolerably dry. During the rains the temperature falls occasionally 
to about In the middle of July the continuously heavy showers 
cease, and rain generally falls only on alternate days, or after two or 
three days’ interval. This weather, Mr. Kurz was informed, con- 
tinued, with little variation, till January and February, wlien the 
hot, dry season sets in. It appears that, since considerable forest 
clearings have taken place, the occurrence of the spring rains has 
been retarded by about half a month. 

The general botanical aspect 
Andaman is richly picturesque, the hills being in many parts densely 
clothed with forests of finely-grown trees, ranning up with a straight 
stem to a height of one hundred feet or more, many of them forming 


of the eastern coast of ° South 


the support of climbing plants, which, reaching the summit, hang in 
leafy drapery, and form gigantic festoons from tree to tree, where 
they put forth their various and brilliantly coloured flowers far above 
the reach of man. Among these climbers Dinochloa, Calamns, 


Dischidia, and others may be recognised. At Corbyn’s Cove tue 


Au Indian Forest. 


to the degree of moisture there these soils are more or less, mingled 
with decayed vegetable matter, and in consequence more or less 
fertile. 

From observing stuthps of trees rising from the sea near the coast, 
Mr. Kurz came to the conclusion, after careful investigation, that 
the Andaman Islands are slowly sinking, and that the submerged 
land in which these stumps are still standing, formed, at a compa- 
ratively recent period, high and dry land, many ‘of these stumps 
being found to belong to species which never grow in mangrove 
swamps, nor in any locality such as that in which they are now 
standing: They were Pongamia, Wrythrina, Thespis, Mimusops 
indica, and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. It is, in. fact, known that the 
sea has encroached from forty to fifty feet at Chatham Island, in 
Port Cornwallis, where the storehouse has been destroyed by the sea 
since the abandonment of the place in 1796; while a similar encroach- 
ment is now in progress at Port Blair. 

The temperature in Sonth Andaman in April i8 86° to 87° at six in 
the morning, and about 91° in the middle of the day. Even in the 
night the thermometer seldom falls below 85° The atmosphere, 


vegetation of the deciduous trees becomes more stunted, rare 


ceeding eighty feet, and-other trees. are of less straight 


The general verdure, however, becomes brighter af the rainy 
season, long tracts occurring ‘with leaf-shedding trees which 
are found also among the predominating evergreens of the 


forests. 

In the mangrove swamps Rhizophora and Ceriops, wi 
glossy foliage, fringe most of the little bays and straits, and Phoenix 
paludosa is a characteristic feature all along certain parts of the 
Barringtonia and Exccecaria Agallochum being conspicuous by their red 
decaying leaves in June and July. Lagerstreemia and Pterocarpus 
exhibit profusely in their season their rich lilac or yellow blossoms ; 
and Mussienda, with its snow-white calyx segments, forms a remark- 
able feature in the botanical atray. A large Crinum, with broad 
leaves, appears abundantly along the sandy parts of the shores ; 
while arborescent Enphorbiacew impart a singular character to the 
coast scenery ; and Serew Pines and a kind of Cycas of considerable 
height carry the imagination back to the earli 
Most varied tints of green may be everywhere seen among the forest 


their 


ical epochs. 


396 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 9, 1872. 


mass, and suggest the existence of a most luxuriant flora, which, 
however, is only developed during the rains. 

The mangrove vegetation is most remarkable about the flat 
shallows of Mangrove Bay and Middle Straits, extending into the 
seaas far as low-water mark. The trees get higher towards the 
land and up the banks of the creeks, and they attain the height of 
eighty feet when supplied with fresh water instead of salt. Carapa 
oboyata is the most curious feature among these mangroyes, and is 
often quite covered with the still more curious Hydnophytum formi- 
carum,sthe tubers of which attain an enormous size. Among the 
most frequent orchids of the region are Hria Kurzii, Pholidota imbri- 
cata, Dendrobium crumenatum, Oxystophyllum, Cleisostoma, Cirrho- 
petalum Andersonii, and Bolbophyllum; and among the most con- 
spicuons climbing plants are a handsome Hoya and Dischidia. It was 
observed that the rough bark of the trees was almost entirely clothed 
with a great variety of cortical lichens. A coarse glaucous Cyperus, 
Acanthus ilicifolius, and A. ebracteatus were almost the only phane- 
rog'amic perennials observed growing in the swamps. 

‘At a certain point in the Middle Straits on both shores the palms 
Phoenix paludosa and Licuala paludosa suddenly appear in great 
abundance, occasionally mixed with mangroves, but usually growing 
in the rear of them; and Fimbristylis andamaniea was found 
abundantly near the same point, but nowhere else in South 
Andaman. 3 

In places where from the steepness of the shore there is no swamp, 
and mangroves do not find a congenial habitat, a zone of vegetation 
of another kind occurs, consisting chiefly of Thespesia populnea, 
Hibiscus tiliaceus, Pongamia glabra, Hrythrina indica, Guettarda 
speciosa, Heritiera littoralis, Pandangs verus, Cycas Rumphii, and 
many other plants usually found in similar situations in the tropics. 
Calophyllum inophyllum of enormous size was also observed; and 
among the more conspicuous climbers of the region are Ipomea cam- 
panulata, Mucuna gigantea, Brachypterum scandens, Entada 
Purscetha, and several kinds of vines. Ipomea pes caprad sometimes 
forms a striking feature near the sea, and there are various creeping 
grasses, such as Ischaemum muticum. Among the Ferns of this 
part of the coast, Polypodium quevcifolium was obseryed in great 
profusion ‘on the branches of trees standing near the sea. Imme- 
diately behind the seashore zone of vegetation a@ greater variety 
occurs, and several plants were observed which until now were only 


known from southern India, such as Freycinetia, Anaxasorea,- 


Dinochloa, &c. 

The evergreen forests are most extensive in the Andaman Isles, 
but most difficult to penetrate, in consequence of the rank growth of 
gigantic climbers, such as climbing bamboos and prickly canes with 
terribly strong and sharp thorns, ' the growth of climbing plants of 
this kind being fostered by the warm moisture and congenial shade 
furnished by the ever ereen foliage of many of the great “forest trees. 
Those forests, which Me. Kurz indicates as Kuppalee forests, occupy 
the land at the mouths of creeks and the zone immediately 
behind mangrove swamps. 
of Kuppalee (Mimusops indica), a tree ranging generally from 
seventy feet to eighty feet, with a girth of twelve feet to fourteen 
feet, and growing up as straight as Dipterocarpus. The Burmese 
name of this tree (Kuppalee) signifies “tree of the Andamans.” 
Calophyllum inophyllum and Hernandia, and also Macaranga indica, 
are occasionally found associated with the Mimusops. 

Farther inland the more mixed forests begin, in which the typical 
tree is Dipterocarpus lwvis, the other and far less predominant trees 
being Dipterocarpus alatus, Mesua ferrea, Lagerstroemia hypolenca, 
Pterocarpus Dalbergioides, nina glabra, and several others; and, at 
this season (April), there often appears a group of leafless Bombax 
malabaricum, Tetrameles nudiflora,and some other leaf-shedding trees. 

Under the protection of the more lofty trees, others of smaller 
growth occur in abundance, such as Myristica and the delicate 
Baccanrea sapida, Mangifera sylvatica, several ethrantherm, a 
large-flowered Musseonda; and a number of other rubiaceous trees 
are also tolerably abundant. Beneath these the shrubby under- 
wood, which is extremely dense, is difficult of classification in a 
general statement; but it may be stated that amone the most 
~ common are Claoxylon, Rottlera, Glycosmis pentaphylla, Unona 
longiflora, and Grumilea elongata. 

The climbing vegetation comprises Dinochloa Tjankorreh, several 
vines, Thunbergia Taurifolia, Uvaria sumatrana, Zizyphus Oenoplia, 
several Cucurbitaces, Brachypterum scandens, Mlagellaria indica, 
Gnetum scandens, and so many others, in so much that it may 

. almost be said that every family of tropical climbers has its repre- 
sentatives. They are so numerous, and of such robust growth, and 
many of them so formidably thorny, that, as before stated, they 
render parts of- these forests, especially near the ridges, almost 
impenetrable, 


Palms are numerous in the Andamans; and.on Termokleo Island 


Sometimes they consist almost entirely 


_number of smaller families. 


a gigantic but stemless’Corypha, with leaves thirty feet eae 
presents a most striking appearance. } 
The herbaceous vegetation, both annual and perennial, which is to — 
be found during the dry season, is exceedingly scanty, and confined to ~ 
abont a dozen genera, the only reg annuals which appear during 
the heats being Urena Jobata, Blumea yirens, and B. myriocephala. 
Among the “deciduous trees, which are leafless during the same 
period, are Bombax malabaricum, several kinds of Sterculia, Calos- 
anthus indica, Albizzia Lebbek, Ficus infectoria, Canarium enphyllum, — 
and several others, which give those parts of the coast where they 
occur a barrer appearance ‘during three or- four months of the year. 
But in June, when the rains bring them into leaf, various tints of 
red, brown, and yellow quickly enrich the buds, the fully developed 
foliage exhibiting the richest greens of various tones, -while the 


broad, hemispherical crowns of ‘the trees produce a most agreeable — * 


contrast to the more spiral growth of the evergreens. Owing to the ~ 
little shade afforded by these deciduous trees “during the hot season, 
climbers cannot develop their growth beneath them, and the regions 


of deciduous trees are, therefore, nearly free from them, thefew that 


occur being of weakly and stunted growth. The immense buttressing — 
of some of the large trees was specially noticed by Mr. Kurz, who 
states that trees having a girth of twelve feet at a height of eight or 
ten feet, may have a girth of forty feet close to the ground, ‘im conse- 
quence of the vast vides or vegetable buttress, by means of which 
the trunks are steadied and kept erect against the fierce wind BES a 
cyclone. os 

The bamboo jungles, which form one of the leading features i in- 
the Andamans, were found by Mr. Kurz to ocenr inyariably im con- 
nection with the indurated chloritic rocks; and wherever bamboo 
jungles appear, it may be safely inferred that chloritic rock or ser- 
pentine is present. The mean height of these bamboos is thirty feet 
to thirty-five fect, and they consist principally of Bambusa_anda- — 
manica. In the midst of these cane jungles forest trees of the 
largest growth occur at distances of one hundred feet or so, and 
many of them reach a height of one hundred feet. Dillenia aurea 
and Careya sphaorica are the most common. These tal] trees, when 
seen from the sea, stand out from the bamboos like slender palm 
trees from a low jungle. 

The central portion of the forests of South Andaman remain still 
nearly a terra incognita, Mr. Kurz having penetrated into that region 
for a few hours only. ‘The trees that ‘he observed to be most 
numerous were Dipterocarpus laevis, Dracontomelum, two species of 
Irina, Bassia caloneura, Chickrassia tabularis, and others. The- 
principal shrubs were Alsodeia bengalensis and Unona longiflora ;__ 
the chief climbers being Dinochloa, several vines, and Calamus. Aas 

On Bird Islands the large number of orange-red fruits of the 
Trichosanthes palmata produce a rich and picturesque effect, looking 
like a number of bright-coloured balls suspended from the rocks. 

In summing up his observations on the character of the Andaman 
flora, Mr. Kurz observes that its peculiarities do not consist in the 
presence of new and rare species, but rather in the remarkable - 
absence of many of the common forms which are so abundant in the 
surrounding countries. Among the most important of these defici- 
ences is the total absence of Magnoliacem, Onagraric, Umbelliferss, 
Vaccinies, Antirrhiness, Labiate, Polygonacem, Amarantacem, Sal- 
solace, Cupulifere, Conifer, Pontederiacem, Hypoxidem, and a — 
The absence of Nymphwaces and 
other aquatic families is to be accounted for by the great scarcity of — 
water in the dry season. The’ extreme scarcity of annual plants and 
of so-called weeds beyond Port Blair is also one of the most remark-” 
able features in the flora of the Andamans. 

Of the importance of the Andaman forests In regard to trees” 
yaluable as timber, Mr. Kurz has obtained much interesting infor. 
mation, and yet he believes that in consequence of the circumstances 
which prevented the completion of his survey he is not yet acquainted 
with more than two-fifths of the different kinds of timber trees which 
exist in the several islands. The mean height of the largest forest 
trees he estimates at about a hundred feet, ‘with a girth from eight 
to twelve feet. 
bamboo jungles there are not more than ten ina similar area. Onthe 
sandstone formation, Dillenia aurea, Mimusops indica, Sterculia ornata, _ 


‘Pterocarpus Dalbergioides, and anumber of others, form immense trees _ 


from eighty to a hundred feet high, with a straight, unbranched stem — 
like a woodéoil tree; but the same species are stunted and of inferior 
growth where the presence of chalk much influences them. Mr. 
Kurz remarks that we do not as yet possess a thorough knowledge of 
the relative value of the timber trees of British cent itself, atten- _ 


tion having been attracted to comparatively few kinds, Much less 


do we know of the value of the different kinds of Andaman timber, 
which must be tested by exporiment before any trustworthy con. — 
clusions can be arrived at. No’trees of such enormous size as are 
noted from Burmah haye been observed by Mr, Kura in the pier ‘ 


They ocenr from twenty to for tyin’anacre,butinthe : 


—_— - ee - 
“gb Beta a ea 


“Mance 9, 1872.) . 


THE GARDEN. 


357 


The largest wood-oil trees which he measured did not exceed fifteen 
feet three inches in girth, with a height of one hundred and twenty 
feet, while Dr. Wallich notes them in his reports as having a girth of 

_ twenty-one feet four inches and being two hundred and fifty feet 
high. No teak was found during Mr. Kurz’s explorations, nor any 
timber of equal quality, except perhaps the Kuppalee (Mimusops 
indica), of which there is vast abundance, and which yields the wood 
so much used for gunstocks by the Madras Ordnance Department, 

' where it is known by the name of bullet wood. This tree grows with 
a straight stem to the height of eighty feet before it branches, the 
average girth being twelve to fourteen feet. It appears that at the 
lowest computation the forests abounding in trees of this genus 
occupy thirty square miles in South Andaman. ‘he Kuppalee is 
esteemed by the natives asa very valuable timber tree, and it has been 
sold at fifty rupees a ton. For house building and furniture it may 


be found too heayy, but for machinery and railway work it is invalu- | 


able. Mr. Kurz recommends to the Indian Government the careful 
conservancy of the forests producing it, which are in the flat country 
near the coast, and easily accessible. 
Among the trees yielding second-rate kinds of timber Mr. Kurz 
mentions the Pemah (Lagerstremia), the Kengan (Mesua ferrea), 
- the Padouk (Pterocarpus Dalbergioides), the Kokkoh (Albizzia 
. Lebbek), and also Careya sphwrica, which all occur in the high 
forests of the hilly interior. > ws ; 
Among the mangroye swamps the following trees are notable for 
their strong wood :—Penlay-oong (Carapa obovata), Pinlay-kanazcee 
or Soondree treo (Heritiera littoralis), and Bewbce (Bruguiera 
gymnorrhiza). All these trees occur in Burmah, but are not worked, 
as teak, of which there is still a good supply, is deemed preferable. 
On the whole, Mr. Kurz does not recommend resorting at present to 
the Andamans for our Indian supply of timber, but the preservation 
of those forests he deems to be highly important, as the whole of 
the vitally important water supply and general moisture depends 
greatly on the preservation of large forests,,so that every precaution 
should be taken to prevent needless and wasteful encroachments ; a 
point strongly insisted upon by Mr, Dalzell, in his valuable report 
on the influence of forests, preserved in the records of the Bombay 
Government. y H. N. H. 


‘NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Lopping Trees.—Some Birches, Laburnums, Acacias, and Weeping 
Willows obstruct the view between my windows and the public road. Can 
I, a tenant, lop off some of the offending branches ?—J. Mactaren.—[If 
you lop the trees without your landlord’s consent he ean bring an attion 
against you for damaging his property. | 

Killing Tree Stumps.—Yonr correspondent “ W. T.,” in planting 
young trees on ground where, he says, the roots of the existing trees 
cannot be got out, has committed a mistake that will, in all probability, 

prove fatal to those he has planted. I never knew a single instance 
_ where a new plantation was made on ground that had been previously 
occupied with trees that ever succeeded, unless the whole of the ground 
was trenched over as deeply as the roots of the trees removed had gone, 
and every root, as thick as a person’s finger, got out—an operation that 
costs as much as the ground is usually worth. The result is generally 
this: the young trees for a time grow, but in two or three years ‘they 
ris to look sickly, and die off. On examining the roots, they are found 
to be destroyed by a fungus, which has done nature’s work in assisting 
the decomposition of the dead roots, and, for want of a further supply 
of food, attacks the living ones, which, in turn, succumb to its encroach- 
ments.—T. BAINES, Southgate. 
Dwarf Shrubs for Edgings.—Will you kindly give me a list. of 
dwarf shrubs, &ec., for permanently furnishing the margins of beds and 
masses of shrubs now nakedin winter? I should like them dwarf and 
. neat- in habit—Drnra—[The following will perhaps answer your 


purpose :— 
Andromeda floribunda | Euonymus radicans fol. Menziesia, several kinds 
“ separ by ios Uva Ursi _ variegata Ononis fruiticosa 
_ Astragalus Tragacantha Gaultheria procumbens » rotundifolia 
Agalea amena — ia og Shallon Pernettya, several kinds 
ra tery ht erectus Genista anglica Polygala Chamebuxus 
Calluna vulgaris, in yar. “F ispanica Potentilla floribunda * 
Cistus, various species , »  ‘Ssagittalis ee, fruiticosa 
us canadensis ~ » tinctoria Rhododendron, many 
Cotoneaster microphylla Helianthemums, many kinds 
mad ‘ mhymik olia kinds rs Ruscus hypoglossum 
Oytisus sessilitolius Hydrangea, severalkinds ,, racemosus 
Daphne alpina Hypericum calyctinum Salix lanata 
»» Cneorum Indigofera Dosua _ reticulata 
» co 3 +”, floribunda Santolina Chammecypa- 
»,_ fioniana ~ Ivies, in great variety rissus 
Empetrum ni, Juniperus squamata sy Viridis 
rift: rubrum », . tamariscifolia Skimmia japonica 
Epigwa repens ; Kalmia latifolia BS laureola 
Erica, all hardy species ~_ ,, i oblata 


» nang 
Euonymus saponicus fol. Ledum buxifolinm 
argentea »  thymifoliuam ~ 
»  nanus Mahonia aquifolin 


an! 


Spirwa, several kinds 
Vaccinium, 3 or 4 kinds 
Vinea, various kinds.} 


plum, ‘an 


Hybrid Conifers.—Have any of your readers tried, now we have 
cone-bearing trees of Abies Douglasii, nobilis, &c., to raise hybrids 
between A. pectinata and these beautiful conifers? Such hybrids would 
probably be much hardier than their parents, and would be of great value 
in our climate, where even Nordmanniana was killed last winter in low 
situations in Bavaria.—Orvro Forsrer, Augsburg. 


Mistletoe Growing on the Oak.—But few authentic instances 
of the common mistletoe being found growing spontaneously on the oak 
in England are to be found on record; the most reliable is that by the ~ 
late Mr. Donald Beaton; who, in March 1837, exhibited at one of the 
meetings of the Horticultural Society in London a branch of the common 
oak, with two plants of ordinary mistletoe attached to it, and which had 
been found growing on the estate of Lord Somers, at Eastnor Castle, 
near Ledbury, in Herefordshire, by Mr. Moss, then the gardener there. 
The oak tree on which the mistletoe was found had several large plants 
of the parasite upon it, and was the only instance known to Mr. Moss, 
although he had made diligent search through a large extent of oak 
woods and other plantations in which mistletoe abounded on other kinda 
of trees; he, however, had noticed mistletoe growing on that particular 
oak for more than fifteen years, and he also remarked that the oak on 
which it grew was close toa large willow loaded with the parasite, and 
from which, no doubt, it had escaped,—G, 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


BULLFINCHES. 

THERE are very few gardens or orchards in this part of the 
country that altogether escape the depredations of Bullfinches. , 
Except ina slight weakness for raspberries, these birds are not 
particularly troublesome during the summer, but when winter 
fairly sets in they leave their woodland haunts and visit with 
undesirable frequency the neighbouring gardens and orchards, 
blighting without scruple the hopes of the gardener by remoy- 
ing with marvellous expertness and rapidity the blossom buds 
of his cherished trees. Just when winter is leaving us, and 
the days have perceptibly lengthened, and we may notice that 
the buds of the early plum trees have begun to feel the 
influence of the season bya slight expansion of their substance 
and by the relaxing grasp of the imbricated scales that hold 
the embryo blossom—at this moment more than any other 
we are pretty sure to have the self-betraying piping note of 
the Bullfinch sounding in a satisfactory key from the plum and 
cherry orchard, and we know from experience that our chance 
of crops of fruit from these trees will be small indeed if prompt 
measures are not taken to drive off these marauders. 

During the winter and before the pairing season, Bullfinches 
move about in small family parties of five or six members— 
probably the parent birds and the nestlings of last season. 
Knowing something of the social habits and instincts of these 
birds, we are pretty well assured that the discovery of a good 
store of sweet fruit-buds will not be preserved as a secret in 
the family circle, but will be confided to the very extensive 
range of acquaintances birds in general and Bullfinches in par- 
ticular seem to possess, Hence the best, and in the end the 
most merciful, course to pursue is to effectually terrify or 
destroy the first flight that appears amongst the fruit trees. 
The attempt to frighten by means of blank cartridge may 
precede the more decided course which involves a certain ex- 
pentane of No. 8 shot. We have tried to Keep Bullfinches 

rom our trees by interlacing white thread amongst the 
branches and by dusting the buds with soot and lime; but in 
each case the birds gave us to understand that they saw 
through such flimsy pretences by devoting themselves more 
particularly to the trees operated upon. | : 

In the open woods we can well believe that the removal of 
a certain piace of the buds from the wild fruit trees—cherry, 

thorn—tends to repress and. restrict the profusion 
of growth and excess of fruitfulness that, without the corrective 
action df birds and insects, might ensue. When we enter 
upon the scene, it but too often happens that we disturb the 
order and economy of nature by capricious acts of destruction 
or by injudicious favour. The merciless extinction of hawks 
has led to an undue increase in certain tribes of small birds, 
that of the Bullfinch among others. Were this not the case, 
the Bullfinch might have been recognised, in their diminished 
numbers, as hirds of positive utility, both in the forest and 
orchard, and be named as benefactors, instead of being included 
among “ garden plagues,” W, Ineray, Belvoir, 


508 


THE GARDEN. 


‘(Marcu 9, 1872. 


THE NEW VINE PEST. 

(PHYLLOXERA VASTATRIX). 
Dr. 
ravages in the south of France, and that after having destroyed 
almost all the vines in the department of Vancluse, and a very 
large part of those of Bouches du Rhone and du Gard, it has 
made a descent on the vineyards of l’Herault, on several points 
simultaneously. It, however, does not attack all vines alike; it 
has a marked preference for some particular kinds, and of those it 
does attack, it does not carry on its ravages on all in the same way. 
He saw at Bordeaux a vineyard where the proprietor, M. Laliman, 
had bronght together numerous varieties of American vines alongside 
those of the district. There are, as most people know, hundreds of 
varieties of vines in France; so are there in America; but they are 
all derived from three typical species, of which one is Huropean, 
the Vitis vinifera, and two American, the Vitis cordifolia and Vitis 
labrusea. Now,from what he had himself seen, and from the obserya- 
tions of M. Laliman and Mr. Riley (for America), it has seemed to 
him to result that the Vitis vinifera is attacked through the roots, 
the Vitis cordifolia through the leaves, and the Vitis labrusca i is not 
attacked either through the leaves or the roots. Starting from 
this, he suggests that the ravaged vineyards should be replanted 
with stocks of Vitis Iabrasea (whose roots would be safe), on which 
might be afterwards grafted the plants of the country (whose leaves 
would be safe). The Vitis vinifera alone has the elegant form of 
our deeply-cut vine leaves with which everyone is familiar. The 
Vitis cordifolia has coriaceous leaves, formed like the leaf of the ivy. 
Its foliage is sombre above, veined below. The Vitis labrusca has 
the leaves soft denticulated, shaped like the leaves of the lime or 
sometimes of the maple. Its foliage is a tender green, and of a 
uniform grey and a little silky below. M. Lichtenstein adds he is. 
far Saann maintaining his hypothesis against all comers or as one 
incapable of contradiction ; a caution wisely given, because it seems 
to have been well ascertained that the Phylloxera passes from the 
leaves to the roots of the same plant. Mr, Riley (in 1870) stated, 
with ample details, that he had ascertained beyond doubt that after it 
has eaten up the leaves, or after they haye fallen, it migrates to the 
roots below, there casting their skin and assuming aslightly different 
form (more tubercular than before). But it would appear that M. 
Lichtenstein has satisfied himself that the mischief done by this 
migration is slight, and different from that done by the insect when 
it settles to the root in the first mstance. ‘A fact exists,” he says, 
“which is, that in a vineyard which has been attacked, one kind of 
vine dies because it is attacked by the roots—it is the French one; 
another suffers becanse it is attacked by the leaves in summer, and 
by the roots (but feebly) in wimter—it is the cordifolia: and its 
descendants; a third resists and grows vigorously—it is the labrusca 
and its varieties.’ We agree Satan M. Lichtenstein that, at ll 

eyents, his plan is surely w orth trying. A. M. 


ANTS AND APHIDES. 

Permit me to thank Mr. E. Newman for disposing of that mis- 
chieyous fallacy that ants eat or destroy aphides. On this assumption 
many cultivators haye welcomed ants as their best allies, thns 
harbouring two evils on their plants instead of one. There is no 
longer any doubt that the ants and aphides are sworn allies, unitedly 
bent on the discomfiture and defeat of cultivators. Hach rather 
formidable by itself, they become well nigh inexterminable when 
associated together, For instance, the locomotion of the aphis in 
its most ravenous state is comparatively s'ow; and the Space 
between plants is to it an impassable g gulf. But can any one insure 
any part of a plant,-in any piace, against the visitation of a daring 
ant, either with or without wings: ? ‘Their skill and daring carry 
them anywhere—everywhere ; and they take the flies, green or 
black, with them. Again, tobacco smoke or water deals death to 
the aphides; but the ants seem rather to enjoy a smoke than 
otherwise, and nothing weaker than arsenic seems to disagree with 
them, either outside or in. Further, I believe the ants not only 
hide up er guard the aphides from each other, and thus establish 
new colonies, as Mr. Newman points out, but that they likewise 
shelter them in their earth ‘casemates in times of danger. On 
fnmigating plant.houses where both abound, the ants seem to be 
all excitement at first; and it is no uncommon occurrence to see 
them forewarning the aphides of their danger, gently agitating 
and driving them off, as Africans do their cattle when an enenty is 
at hand, and carrying off the more lethargic toa place of safety. 
Again, when the tobacco-sick aphides fall down on the surface, there 
are their friends the ants waiting ready to receive and bury, them. 
The earth is heaped over them, not to cover the dead but 
resuscitate the living. This slight covering of earth shuts ont the 
smoke, ‘and they quickly revive, Even when the aphides are too 


LICHTENSTEIN states that this pest is still continuing its 


-the moment. 


scockc hafers when apparently drowned, and he has found that after cem- 


sick to fall down in a fainting fit, the ants are equal to the 
emergency, and mount up the stems or leaves, where their distressed 
friends most do congregate, with bits of earth wherewith to protect — 
them. And such earth shields are effectual, and the aphides emerge 
from the casemates hungrier and more rayenously destructive than 
before. 

And then as to the milking of the ants. I have no doubt it 
increases~their capacity for sap sucking. ‘This explains another 
fact with which I have long been familiar, but the reason of which 
I could not comprehend till now, that is, that aphides and ants” 

together always seemed to do more mischief than the aphides alone; 
and yet the ants never appear to do anything but dance attendance 
on the aphides. I should like Mr. Newman's opinion on this point. — 
But my previous observations would lead to the conclusion that the 
oftener the aphides are milked the more. they eat, hence, the more 
ants the more destructive the aphides. It is quite certain that the 
aphides like the attendance of the ants. It was the apparent 
pleasure they manifested under their pba eo ee first 
conyineed me that they did them no injury. 

The simultaneous appearance of ants and aphides i isa very curious 
phenomenon, and might suggest the inquiry at times of whether the 
aphides do not carry ‘the ants. Naturalists will tell us whether this 
is possible. If it is, I should certainly be prepared to believe that 
they do. 
heels so closely that it is impossible at times to say which comes 
first. Of course this would be so, on Mr. Newman’s supposition that 
the ants transport the aphides; but it would be a curious instance 
of reciprocal service in the insect world, could it likewise be shown 
that the aphides transport the ants in embryotic form. 

A handy, certain’ remedy for the destruction of ants is still a 
desideratum, which I trust some of your readers will be able to 
provide. Boiling water and arsenic are fatal to ants; but the ~ 
difficulty is to get the former on them without injury to the plants 
at root or top; and the latter they often refuse to eat, though 
treacled nicely to suit the supposed sweet tooth of the fe me 

T. 


MOLE HUNTING IN GARDENS, — 


Aw old man, well up in mole-lore, though not a_professional mole- 
catcher, like Warps (see Professor Owen’s s article on “ Mole Hunting 
in Gardens,” page 249), assured me that the best way to get hold of 
some moles that had proved very troublesome in a carnation border 
and adjacent flower-beds, was to watch for them and pitch them out. 
We added: “Tt is easily done, for moles only work periodically, and for 
a short time at each spell. Eight, twelve, four—night and day—are 
their working times, as regularly,as the clock. »! (his seemed to me. 
such a novel view of mole- working that I at once started to their 
haunts to test its accuracy. I ‘had little faith in the stated- hour 
theory, so I went all unproyided for a hunt. 
just as the clock struck one of the working honrs—I forget which, at 
Presently, as if the clock had summoned the mole to ~ 
duty, the ground was turned up ina fresh heap beside me. After 
the heap there followed a ram. Quick as possible I followed tke 
track with my hands; the mole, greatly wondering, doubtless, what — 
it had got at its heels, did its best, and went ahead at a gallop. 
But fate was against it. It had to make and clear the way, and it 
loosened the earth for me; so, after an exciting chase, I overtook 
and caught him. I have seen a good many pitched out since then 
with a spade ; but I believe my success with hands only, against the 
boring snout and short, stout fore-feet of the mole, is unique. — } 

My: chief object, how ever, in writing, is to have it on the authority 
of Professor Owen, or some other gifted naturalist, whether the mole 
adheres to these periodical workings ; and whether or not it deyotes — 
the same hours always to work, sleep, and play. Dots Vist. 

[Professor Owen has kindly favoured us with the followi ing re- 
marks on-this subject :—‘‘ Moles,” he says, “ do work, with pretty 
regular intervals of rest, four or more times in the day 3 ; but not 
all at given hours. Your correspondent has drawn his conclagion 
frontprobably an accidental coincidence.” | 


Bees Westtialive to Fruit—In France, it is said, there are no 
greater pests to the frnit garden, especially to the grapes, than the — 
common honey-bees. They are not content with levying a very handsome 
tithe, but they often devour no less than four-fifths of “the crop, besides 
attacking all the best pears and apples. In short, they are much worse — 
than wasps, as these are not abundant and troublesome every fear, as the ; 
bees are. 


Tenacity of Life in Cockchafers.—M. le Marchant, a “phar- t. ve 


macien at Caen, has made many experiments on the tenacity “of life in 


plete immersion for a considerable period, if taken out of the water aa a 
exposed to light and air, they have still shown signs of life, ; 2 


ne Te. S 


Treached the ground — 


This much is certain, that they tread upon each other’s 


A A i UE 


- stormy or very 


‘them too much, 


Marci 9, 1872.] 


“THE GARDEN. 


359 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from page 313.) 
a DOUBLE WINDOWS. 
Tux following general rules may be found useful in the case 
of plants grown 


in double vwin- 
dows :— He 

1. When the 4 
mercury stands l. 
belowthe freezing - 
point, the venti- 
ators should not ~ 
be opened. 

2. During hoar 
frost, if the wind 
‘strikes the win- 
dow, the venti- 
lators should be 
closed even if the 
mercury stands 
aboye 32°; as | 
otherwise the im- 
moderate influx 
of the wind can- 
not be prevented. 

3. In mild, fine 
weather green- } 
house plants ma 
receive as muc 
air as possible, } 
but hothouse 
plants only so k 
when the tempe- 
rature outside is 
higher than that 
within, and when 
the air is calm I" 
and not too dry. 
In spring, before 
the greenhouse 
plants are placed = 
out for good in 
the open air, the 
double window 
should be’ previ- 
ously ventilated 
by day and by 
night. : 

_ 4. In opening 
the ventilators 
from — without, 
cate should be 
taken not to open 


as too great an 
influx of dry sum- 
mer air would 
destroy all the 
advantages which 
the double win- 
dow affords. In 
summer, during 


dry warm weather 
when ventilation 
from within is 
impossible, fresh ' 
air may be see 
admitted throug , 
all the ventilators which haye been made to open inwards. 
5, The windows which open inwards should not be opened 
during dusty summer es nor when, in cold weather, the 


_ other windows of the room are opened. 


a _ SHADING, 
In intimate connection with ventilation and the regulation 


Section of a Plant Case. 


of the temperature stands the subject of shading. In bright, 
strong sunshine, when there is no ventilation, the temperature 
inside the double window is raised not only to a considerable 
degree, but it will also dry the air very much. If, at the same 
time, there is a flow of air, either from within or without, the 
greater number of greenhouse plants in the double window 
require no shading in the course of the autumn, winter, and 
spring. But when, 
during constantly 
cold nights and 
clear, open sunny 
weather, green- 
house plants must 
be kept longer-in 
their winter 
quarters, . they 
may have a slight 
shading in gpring 
by giving the 
outer window a 
thin coat of lime- 
wash.: As soon 
as the weather 
becomes permia- 
“nently warmer, 
greenhouse plants 
are put out for 
good in the posi- 
tions intended for 
them in the open 
air, having been 
previously hard- 
ened off by the 
admission of air. 
As the double 
window must al- 
ways occupy a 
sunny position, it 
must always be 
artificially shaded 
when it is used 
in the end of 
spring and during 
the summer for 
‘ the culture of 
tender hothouse 
plants. This 
shading may be 
effected either by 
means of lime- 
wash, as men- 
tioned, or by sus- 
pending a cover- 
ing of thin canvas, 
or some’ suitable 
material. The 
first method is 
the simplest, but 
it has this disad- 
vantage, that it 
remains during 
gloomy wether, 
and then does not 
look well either 
from within or 
without. This dis- 
advantage may, to 
some extent, be 
diminished —_ by 
Bi es laying on as thin 
a coating as pos- 
sible, so as to 
break the force of the direct rays of the sua, and yet admit 
sufficient light. i . 

The plants in a common double window are best shaded on 
hot and bright summer days by hanging a shade of sailcloth 
outside which can be raised and lowered by a cord. The same 
mode of shading may be used for the double window, only 


gee 
f 


~ raised 


360 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 9, 1872. 


here the raising and lowering of the shade must be from the 
outside, or the cord may be passed over rollers, and brought in 


through the frame of the window, so that the shade may be ~ 


raised and lowered from within at any time when necessary. 
This arrangement is, of course, the best. 

As the erection and maintenance of such a shade is always 
costly, we may suggest two other methods. ‘The first of 
these resembles the limewash plan in being a permanent 
shade formed of some shading material fastened oyer the 
outside of the window. or this purpose wide-meshed muslin, 
or a shade woven 
of reeds, or twigs 
with interstices at 
least as wide as the 
width of the ma- 
terials, is used. This 
shade, which is to 
remain fixed all the 
summer, and which 
merely breaks the 
force of the sun’s 
rays, and yet looks 
better than the lime- 
wash, is first applied 
in spring, when there 
is reason to’ dread 
that the increasing 
heat of the sun may 
injure the plants. 

The other mode 
consists in hanging 
on the inside of the 
glass a shade of thin 
linen or cotton ma- 
terial. This plan is 
easily adopted, but 
the shade can only 
be properly managed 
by raising and lower- 
ing if with cords 
close to the glass, as 
the ordinary method 
of doing so by means 
of rollers would be 
injurious to many of 
the plants in the 
window, or could not 
be used at all. If 
this inner shade be 
and lowered 
by some contrivance 
smuilar to that which 
is employed for the 
windows of railway 
carriageS we may 
consider it the best 
kind of shade, as it 
can be used or re- 
moyed at all times, 
is not affected by 
the weather, is easily 
managed, and, lastly, 
is not expensive. 

With reference to 
shading in general, 
it is to be particularly - 
observed that it promotes a luxuriant and strong growth of 
the plants by inducing a moist atmosphere; but if if is carried 
to too great an extent, it is unfavourable to the production 
of flowers. Therefore, wherever a permanent shade is em- 
ployed, it should not be used sooner than the season of the 
year renders it absolutely necessary, and should be removed 
early in autumn; at the time when no shade can be given, 
ventilation both from within and without should be employed 
according to the weather. _ But where a movable shade is used, 
the plants should have the benefit of the morning and evening 
sun, and should be shaded only from eight or nine o'clock in 


Large Plant Case 


the morning until three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Iu 
winter, the sun may be allowed full access during the entire 
day. 7 ‘ 7 

‘i INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS, - 

Double windows, which always possess a greater depth than 
ordinary room windows, should bring safely through the 
winter as large a number of plants as possible, or supply 
flowers ‘during the winter months for the other windows or 
for flower stands. Jor this purpose, in addition to the lowest 
shelf, or that which rests immediately on the window-sill, one 

or more «shelves 


should beadded. In_. 


order not to inter- 

rupt the circulation 

of the air, imstead, of 

boards, the upper 

shelves should be 

~ made of laths placed 

at the distance of an 

: inch from each other. 

These laths should, 

moreoyer, be move- 

able, so that they 

may be all or par- 

tially removed at any 

time whenthe growth 

of the plants below- 

them renders this 
necessary. 

The uppermost of 
these shelyes will 
occupy the warmest 
and the driest posi- 
tion, and on that 
account are the most 
suited for the forcing 
of flowers. The plants 
placed on them are 
reached by means 
of a movable ladder 


sides. ; 

Finally, in “in- 
serted ” double-win- 
dows, at. the bottom 
of which there is no 


purposes, the taller 
plants ave placed on 
a board which lies on 
the ground, and only 
single small plants 
on the window-sill, 
which is not more 
* than 14 foot broad, 
and immediately in 


panes. 
of the lowest shelf 
from the ground de- 
pends on the height. 
of the plants, the tops 
of which should re- 
ceive as much light 
as * possible. “By 


with steps on both | 


reservoir for heating © 


front of the lowest 
The height — 


the arrangement of © 


the plants on separate shelyes, the smallest and weakest speci- 


mens will be next to the window, and the larger ones placed — 


farther back, so that each may haye as much light aspossible. 

Further, the plants in the double window. should not be 
placed so closely together that thei branches will touch each 
other, or even that some of them may lie ‘against others, 
otherwise only thin bad specimens will be grown, as occurs 
in plant houses under the same circumstances. We may here 
repeat what has been already said, that it will afford the 
cultivator more pleasure and satisfaction to raise a few good 
specimens than many bad ones { 4 


Boa S 


Marcu 9, 1872.) 


, Mi PLANT CASES. 
A contrivance much adopted for the culture of plants in 


‘rooms, especially for such plants as do not thrive in the 


dry air of a room, and which has been frequently em- 
ployed with the best results, is a large glass case arched at 
the top; or it may be of small size and constructed of glass 
and iron, and placed on a table or stand near the window. 
When it is of small size, the whole of the top may be taken 
off in order to attend to the plants, and when of large 
dimensions, windows or openings are made in the sides for the 
same purpose. The particular form of the case and the 
table or stand may be varied in a manifold degree. 

_'The figure on p. 359 is an illustration of one of these plant 
cases of moderate size. The stand bears, firstly, like most 
flower-stands, a box or case, made to fit it exactly. Inside this 
case is another made to lift, out, and formed of zinc or of 
tinned iron, with a pierced bottom, anda tray underneath to 
receive the water which drains down, and which is carried 
off through ‘a~cock underneath. In order to expedite the 
drainage from the upper case into the tray, the upper case 
should stand on hollow supports. We have also given a 
yertical section of this arrangement, on which the permanent 
thriving of the plants cultivated in the plant case depends, 
for unless the drainage is perfect, the earth ceases to be per- 
colated by air, and becomes sour and unfit to furnish proper 
nutriment to the plants- ‘ 

In the culture of stove plants, this most important point 
must be attended to, not only in reference to the plant case, 
but also wherever plants are grown in iron boxes which stand 
in wooden cases (as, for instance, for forming arbours in 
windows, &c.), similar precautions must be taken with regard 
to the drainage. 

The iron case is now filled with earth, in which are planted 
Ferns, Aroids, Marantas, Bromelias, Selaginellas, Palms, &c., 
or pieces of stone may be placed in it, between which earth is 
to be filled in and planted with a suitable selection of plants 
which can be grown between the stones. 

In plant cases of larger dimensions, little landscapes with 
fountains, cascades, and tiny mountains may,be represented. 
Dead branches of trees, of not too great a size, and knotty 
roots, may~be placed here and there, and planted with 
Bromelias, Orchids, and Aroids; handsome baskets and other 
contrivances containing Orchids, Aischynanthus, &e., may be 
suspended at intervals, while dwarf Selaginellas and neat Ferns 
cover the turf between the plants... 

On the preceeding page is an illustration of the gable end of 
one of the largest plant cases that we have seen, and which 
Herr Graveur Zimmerman has constructed and set up ina room 
of his dwelling-house in St. Petersburgh. It is 9} feet long, 
5} feet wide; the windows are 5} feet high, and.the height of 
the gable end is 7} feet. The stand supports a reservoir of 
zine filled with water, the surface of which is for the greater 
part covered, with the exception of an irregular space in the 
middle, where numerous. fountains play and gold fish swim 
about, while water drops continually from the cliffs in the 
foreground. This water passes into the under basin. Where 
water is not used, the basin is covered over with a perforated 

late, on which a layer of soil is placed, and in this many 
tina of handsome indoor plants, such as Ferns, Palms, 
Avoids, Scitaminez, Lilies, &c., are planted, the surface under 
them being coyered with a green carpet of Selaginella, Ficus, 
and Tradescantia, while here and there handsome small speci- 
mens of yariegated- Caladiums, Eranthemums, and Gloxinias 
in flower add greatly to the effect. Between these plants arise 


_ several higher cliffs, of which the one represented in the fore- 


und contains a zine reseryoir at the height of four feet 
Eon the bottom, which feeds the fountains and the little 
cascades which fall from the rocks. ‘The water is foreed into 
this reseryoir from the larger one by means of a pump placed 
under the stand. ~ On the cliffs and in their crevices grow all 
sorts of ferns, Dasylirions, Aroids, &e., and here’ and there 
knotty branches are furnished with climbers, Orchids, Brom- 
elias, and similar plants, which attain a luxuriance equal to 
that which ones sees in a regular plant house. 
We know that the Japanese delight to give a representation 


- of a whole landscape .on the smallest scale in their little 
gardens; but in the plant cases we may have before our eyes, 


- 
~ ™ © 


THE GARDEN. 


| plants grow, so much vapour will be developed from the soil 


361 


the whole year through, the luxuriant vegetation of the 
tropics on a small scale; and, confined to a town life, may 
cultivate for our enjoyment a pleasing collection of the finest 
and most tender plants from all countries. 


CONSTRUCTION OF A PLANT CASE, 


The roof of the plant case may be of various shapes—angular, 
round, vaulted, &c:—but it should always be made as light as 
possible. The frame may be of cast iron, wrought iron, or 


Sheet iron, and should be painted and varnished to preserve it 


from rust. In plant cases of small size the entire glass cover 
can be taken off, or a large bell-glass may be used; in those 
of moderate size single panes are used as windows to open and 
shut. In those of larger size,a cast iron or wrought iron 
frame is used, covered with lightly constructed iron framed 
windows, which can be raised at pleastire to put in and take 
out plants. In Herr Zimmerman’s, the framework is made 
of wrought iron, and all the lower windows open on hinges. 
A similar structure of wood would be too clumsy, and would, 
from the effects of the summer air and the moisture inside, 
soon warp and require to be repaired. 


POSITION OF PLANT CASES, 
. In order to secure good results in the plant case, it should 
be placed near the window in a position where the sun may 
shine-on it during the greater part of the day. Where the 
room is not exposed to the sun, the plant case should be placed 
near the window, and a selection made of such plants as thrive 
in the shade, such as Ferns, Aroids, cc. 

Plant cases of large dimensions, like that of Herr Zimmer- 
man’s already described, should be placed at a distance of about 
three feet from the window, as if placed nearer, the shade of 
the window piers would be injurious to the plants, and yet the 
window should be near enough to allow of the beneficial 
influence of the sun. Where the locality permits, a corner 
room exposed on both sides to the sun should be selected for 
plant cases of large size. While small plant cases on stands 
as high as the window-sill are best placed in the window recess, 
those of larger size, which must be placed some fect from the 
window, should be on stands not more than from one foot to 
one anda half foot high, this being fhe best height for light, 
management of the plants, and also for the decoration of the 
room, 

WARMING PLANT CASES. 

As the plant case stands in the apartment, special heating is 
usually unnecessary. Only when variegated tropical plants 
like Anzctochilus, Marantas, Caladiums, &c., are grown in 
cases of smaller size, or when East Indian orchids, such as 
Vandas, Saccolabiums, &c., are grown in those of greater 
dimensions, can heating be employed with advantage. For 
this purpose, as inthe case of the double window, a hot-water 
apparatus only can be employed, and that may be cither such 
a one as was there described, or a small covered reservoir may 
be placed underneath, at a few inches distance from the bottom 
of the plant case, and kept heated by a lamp. ‘To conduct the 
heat, pipes should be laid under the soil of the plant case and 
aloug the surface of the stand. If the reservoir or the pipes 
are placed in immediate contact with the soil in which the 
which will be condensed on the inside of the glass, as to 
obscure or totally hide the plants from view, and so all the 
effect of the arrangement will be lost. Finally, wherever large 
cases are placed in rooms with a temperature of from 60° to 
65° Fahr., instead of employing artificial heat, it will be suffi- 
cient to water and sprinkle the plants daily with tepid water 
and to keep closed vessels of hot water near the cases. ~ 


ADVANTAGES OF PLANT CASES. 
The glass covering of plant cases not only shelters the 


plants from the effects of dry air, from great changes in the 
temperature produced by air and heat, and lastly from the 


hurtful dust, which in all dwelling-rooms covers the plants 


more or less, but it also prevents an undue exhalation of 
moisture from the soil and the plants,so that in the inside a 
moderate, equable, moist, and warm temperature is maintained, 
which, for a large number of the handsomer tropical plants, is 
an essential condition of successful culture and strong healthy 
growth. By the double glass covering the quantity of light 


362 


THE GARDEN. 


[Maron 9, 1872: E 


which reaches the plants is somewhat diminished, 
the greater number of plants which love a moisture-laden 
atmosphere do not naturally grow in localities exposed to the 
full sun, but rather in the shade of shrubs and forests, such as 
ferns, the greater number of the monocotyledonous plants of 


warm countries, and many of the most admired fine foliage © 


plants (Aralias, Rhopalas, &e.) of our hothouses, they will not 
at all suffer when the case is placed im an otherwise favourable 
sunny position near the window, if a suitable selection of plants 
has been made. Thirty years ago bell glasses and water glasses 
were very much used in rooms, and placed over cuttings to 
induce them to strike root. The plant case is merely an expan- 
sion of this idea, which however, was first practised on a large 
scale by Dr. Ward, of Clapham Rise, about thirty years ago. - 


MANAGHMENT OF PLANT CASES. : 

With respect to special treatment, we add some instructions 
which, howeyer, are particularly applicable in the case of 
plants from the warmer latitudes. Hvery day the plant case 
should be visited once, and every withered or fallen leaf and 
shoot should be remoyed. Moreover, should any mouldy or 
disagreeable smell be perceived, the cause must be sought for 
and removed, and all the windows should be opened for some 
hours, or the glass covering remoyed, so as to give free access 
to the fresh air. The windows must always be kept clean, and 
be regularly wiped inside and outside. Small cases should be 
washed on the inside once a week." A mouldy smell, foul air, 
and a diminution of light are the consequences of neglecting 
to cleanse the cases. Plants in a plant case do not require to 
be watered so often as those in the open room. In dull weather, 
and during the short days of winter, care should be observed 
in this respect, and no more water given than is absolutely 
necessary. In fine, sunny spring and summer weather, ib will 
be proper to sprinkle and water carefully with tepid water. 
This will also remove any sourness that may exist at the 
bottom of the case. As it is chiefly plants from the warm 
latitudes which should be-grown in plant cases (Ferns, 


Orchids, Marantas, &c.), a watering and sprinkling of tepid 


water, will prove very beneficial even in winter. When the 
room windows are opened in mild, warm, dull weather, the 
windows of the case should be opened, and the bell glasses 
yaised in order to give the plants someair. In dry, hot summer 
weather, the plants should be slightly sprinkled im the 
morning and evening, and air should be admitted at night as 
well, to renew the air in the case as well as to lower the 
temperature. : A : 

When the growth of individual plants is so luxuriant as to 


interfere with that of other plants, or to produce’ crowding and |} 


choking, they must either be trimmed or removed altogether. 
If in bright, hot summer weather the.case comes under the 
direct rays of the sun, it should be shaded durmg mid-day 
by suspending a curtain in front. If no shade is used, then 
air must be admitted, andthe plants should be sprinkled. 


" ARRANGEMENTS WITIT-REGARD TO PLANTING. 
When, for purposes of planting, earth is to be placed in the 
case, the perforated bottom which serves for carrying off the 


water should first be covered with potsherds, in such a: 


manner that a concave piece may be placed over each of the 
holes. In this way the bottom will be coyered with a layer of 
potsherds half an inch deep. On these should be placed a layer 
of clean sphagnum, and on this the soil, the most suitable 
mixture for which is meadow loam with some loose peat and 
sand. A stiffer mixture may be used between the stones of 
the rockwork, consisting of heath soil or turf or well-rotted 
leat mould and loam. 

In consequence of too strong a growth, deterioration of the 
soil, and the decay of individual specimens, certain parts, or 
even the whole, of the plant case must be planted afresh from 
time to time; in which case, fresh soil must be added under the 
directions already given. The most suitable time for this 
operation is in February and the beginning of March, when the 
new growthjcommences. The Selaginellas, which form the 
green turf, must be removed as often as they grow too thick 
and too long, as this spoils the appearance of the turf. With 
these (i.¢., the kinds generally used for making a turf) there is 
very little trouble. i 1 Ip, § 

place fresh roots or growing cuttings are put in in tufts, and 


But as | 


They are simply pulled up, and in their» 


however, should not be done from the middle of October to the 
begining of January.—I'rom the German of Dr. Regel. 
(Lo be continued.) 


DRAINAGE. 

(‘Tun following admirable essay was recently read before the 
Institution of Surveyors -by Mr. R. B. Grantham, C.H. Tt 
merits the attention of all interested in garden drainage.] 


systems of land drainage, and to them I have paid particular 
can be carried out sately, effectively, and permanently; but, 
arterial drainage cannot be properly designed and executed. 


is to keep the subsoil water at such a level as not to allow it 


moderately dry, and causing a circulation of air through it. 
A very prevalent opinion existed that the sole use of pipe 


upon the surface of the land as rain, or overflowed it from 
springs, &c.; and with many farmers this idea is still prominent, 
and they cannot understand that if drains are sunk in clay 


they would not lay the drains deeper than! two feet cr two feet 
six inches. I haye many times tried to convince them what is 
the source of the water, by showing it to them by trial holes 
dug in stiff. clay, and asking them where they thought it came 
from, as there was no appearance of its haying run down the 
holes from the surface of the land, or of its naying percolated 
from the sides of the holes. Ihave shown them that it could 
only rise from the bottom; but in few instances only have I 
found that the conviction, even if arrived at, lasted very long. 
T have also shown them that, after a drain has been dug out to 


inches, has been taken up and the pipes relaid at depths of 
four feet and upwards; and it is scarcely possible to believe 
that in the present day persons can be found who would prae- 


. tise shallow in preference to deep drainings. When the soil — 
between the drains has been rendered perfectly permeable, so 


than rain-water sinks to the full depth of the drains, and the 

subsoil water rises up to their level, the work may be deemed 

to be satisfactory, as showing that the drains have not been 

placed too far apart, having regard to the depth in the parti- 

cular soil which is being treated. : oh: 
SOILS. 


both the dgpth and width apart of drains, is found in dealing 
with the 


of the strata ? 


vious strata, store up large bodies of water, which, by slow 
percolation, saturates the surface of the country. So that we 
can in such cases, by simple means and a small amount of work, 
free large areas of land from wetness. A knowledge of the 
soils may be gained by sinking trial holes, exceeding in depth 


may be classed in two grand diyisions—clays and free soils, 


that each of them admits of several subdivisions, and in both 
cases rock may be mixed with them. 

DEPTHS OF DRAINS. ne 

Four feet minimum depth of pipe drainage has been fixed 


r after mature deliberation ; but it onght not to be imperatively 


insisted upon in every kind of soil or under all the varying 
conditions of land. One constantly meets with the objection 


attention asthe means by which minor or subterranean drainage - 
without a knowledge of the requirements of pipe drainage, — 
The end of all pipe drainage, let the depths be what they may, — 
to rise to the roots of the plants, and injure their growth by 


| its coldness and non+fertilising properties, and to render the 
‘soil above the pipes more friable and open, by making it — 


soils as deep as four feet, the drainage water will ever reach 
them, or the land ever be improyed; and if left to themselves, — 


In laying out drainage the principal difficulty im determining 


the proposed drainage, or by boring to moderate depths. Soils — 


from these new and similar turf will soon be produced, This - 


Arterial drainage and outfalls are the leading works in all — 


drains was, to take off to an outlet, water which descended 


its proper depth, in a few hours water will gradually rise where pas 
there was none before. Many instances are well knownin 
which shallow draining, say trom two feet to two feet six | 


ifferent kinds of soil that are met with. The first 

questions that naturally arise are—What is the geological 

formation of the locality? and what is the inclination or dip 
From the answers to these questions we 
are able to infer the existence or absence of permanent 
springs. Thus, for example, beds of gravel, sand, or other free — 
soil, surrounded or underlaid by beds of clay or other imper- 


and it is‘these we have to deal with; but it must be remembered 


°° as 


_ 


Maren 9, 1872.] 


that water cannot get down through thick clay, and that it is 
useless to go so deep as four feet; but our experience teaches 
-us that the soil, having become more loosened and opened by 
- eracks, admits the permeation of water to that depth at least ; 
_ the yery worm-holes permit the rain to percolate; and after it 
has once found its way, by gravity, through the soil, by innu- 
merable small passages, it never ceases, year after year, to 
continue the same course. Thus, in course of time, the whole 
depth, from the causes before cited—namely, the prevention 
of the capillary attraction upwards of ungenial water, the 
admission of air by the pipes, and the gradual filtering of rain 
from above—is totally changed in character from that of an 
obdurate and untractable soil to that of a more genial plant- 
producing one. The same effects are produced both in arable 
and-pasture lands; but the system to be adopted in draining 


them is somewhat different. I haye hitherto endeavoured to_ 


we that’ there is a certain minimum depth at which pipe 
rainage is capable of producing the best results, more parti- 
eularly when applied to stiff clay. ; 
DISTANCES APART. 

T think a general rule might be established to determine, in 
connection with the depths, the distances at which the drains 
should be placed apart from each other, and that is that the 
-width should be a multiple of the depth, for instance, four feet 
drains may be 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, or 40 feet apart, the depth 
being first found at which the level of the water bed stands 
beneath the surface. We must then judge, from the nature of 
the soil, whether it will allow of the water finding its way, for 
half of any 6 the above widths, to the pipes; always bearing 
in mind that water will find its way most quickly to a vacuum 
orthe point of least resistance. Take again any soil in which 

_ it may be found that the water level stands at five feet deep, 
the multiple may be 40, 45, 50, 55, or 60 feet, and so with six 
feet drains the widths may be 60, 66, 72, 78,84, or 90 feet. The 
drainer’s judgment and experience will enable him to determine 
at which of these widths the particular soil which he finds 
will act best, remembering again that each line of pipes, 7.e., 
each drain, only influences half the distance between it and the 
next one-on either side of it. 

‘ (To be continued.) 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE ROSE SECRET. 


I HAveE been making all sorts of guesses as to what Mr. Reynolds 
Hole’s secret for the easy propagation of rose trees can be, and 
wonder if perchance it could possibly be the same method which I 
have several times used successfully, not only for rose bushes, but 
for divers other plants; whether it be the same or not, mine cau be 
easily put to the test by anyone who takes an interest in the matter. 
This method is only a modification of the one long used in France 
(and in other-countries, I dare say) for the propagation of some hard 
wooded plants, such as the Oleander, and which consists in placing 
the entting in a bottle of water hung out in the open sun. I choose the 
rose cuttings rather stunted and not too luxuriant, and place them 
iu ashaded part of a moderately heated greenhouse, in bottles, jars, 
or any sort of vessels filled with water, into which I put a piece or 
two of charcoal to ward off putrefaction. Making roots is a mere 
question of time, and sooner or later they are sure to appear. I have 
propagated all sorts of plants in this way, even such as would have 
been supposed too liable to rot, from being herbaceous or very pithy. 
Thave rooted large branches of Aucuba with stems as big as my 

finger, notwithstanding the pith, which is considerable in that shrub, 
and have succeeded perfectly with Verbenas and such like, also with 
Vines, Heliotropes, Fuchsias, Candytuft, Diplacus, and in general 
most bedding plants. I have never done this on a large scale, and 
only for convenience sake, or from curiosity. I once made a border 
of perennial Candytuft, requiring two or three hundred cuttings, 
which I placed all in one jar, they rooted very quickly, and were at 
once placed in rows; another time I broke accidentally the stem of a 
large bushy Diplacus, in the month of February, and at once took off 
every branch with the heel on and placed them in a glass jar; they 
were rooted in fifteen days, and were nice potted plants long before 
the time for turning out. - With respect to Roses, I may perhaps have 
rooted fifty or sixty evttings at different times and of all sorts, and 
do not remember any failures. I generally placed them in water at 
proning-time, say from 1st to 15th March, before the leaf-buds 


ES SG ATS Cee ee 


THE GARDEN. 


from the open ground will generally be the strongest. 


363 


broke; but have also rooted them at midsummer while in full leaf, 
I have no doubt the method may be systematised, and the evolution 
of roots hastened to any required degree by means of large pans 
with hot-water pipes passing through them. The great thing is to 


keep the water sweet and to obtain the evolution of roots before 


there are any symptoms of decay ; judiciously applied bottom heat 


and leaving on as many leaves as the cuttings can bear, will, of 
course, tend to promote this.—Frepk. Parmer, Versailles. 

Tue following is a method of striking rose cuttings especially 
adapted for increasing rapidly new and scarce varieties. In November 
procure from the nursery the kinds you desire to possess. I should 
have no objection to their being on the Manetti stock, if budded close 
to the ground. Plants on their own roots can scarcely be obtained 
strong enough to yield plenty of cuttings; in fact, new roses can 
hardly be obtained at all on their own roots: When received, shorten 
back their roots and pot them into six or eight inch pots according 
to their strength, completely burying the stock if possible. I must 
say, however, that with most of the plants on Manetti stocks that 
have come into my hands I have found a difficulty indoing so. When 
potted, give a good soaking of water, and place them in a cool house. 
About Christmas prune them, cutting away all weak shoots, and 
shorten well back all strong ones. In January fill a pit with leaves 
and stable dung, so as to produce a nice sweet steady bottom heat 
of 75°. Plunge the pots in the pit, and for the first three weeks 
give abundance of ventilation, as the object isto induce vigorous 
root action without unduly. exciting top growth. When growth 
commences, use the syringe freely early in the afternoons of sunny 
days, shutting up the pit at the same time. Remove every flower 
bud that appears as soon as observed, and supply them freely with 
liquid manure. A very suitable liquid manure may be made for 
this purpose by dissolving 1lb. of guano in a barrel of soft water 
(thirty-six gallons). When the wood is sufficiently advanced, pro- 
pagating may be commenced. Some judgment is necessary in 
selecting the wood of the requisite firmness, as soft growth will 
damp off; but anyone who has had experience in budding will 
understand what I mean. As soon as the shoots have reached the 
proper degree of solidity, commence taking off the cuttings ; each 
joint with a leaf and bud attached will make a cutting. Leave the 
leaf on entire, and about an inch and a half of the wood below the 
bud. Remove with one stroke of the knife a thin strip of the outer 
bark, commencing on the opposite side of the bud and reaching down 
to the base of the cutting. The object of this is to facilitate the 
emission of roots. Insert the cuttings round the sides of six-inch 
pots, with the leaves pointing to the centre; do not use a peg, but 
take the cuttings between the finger and thumb and gently but 
firmly press them in. The base of the cuttings thus have a firm 
resting-place, which is a point of some importance. Plunge the 
‘entting pots into a brisk bottom heat of 80° or 85°; shade on bright, 
sunny days and keep them close. Do not let the leaves flag, but 
guard against damp, and ina yery short time they will be rooted. 
In preparing the pots for the cuttings, let them be well drained, 
placing a few rough pieces of turf over the drainage. Fill the pots 


.to within half an inch of the top, and water them with a rosed pot ; 


let them drain for half an hour, then apply about a quarter of an 
inch of dry, sharp silver sand. When inserting the cuttings, the 
dry sand will fill all cavities, and a gentle sprinkling with water will 
make all firm. Weak spindling cuttings seldom make strong plants ; 
therefore it is important that the plants producing the euttings 
should be well attended to, and that, as far as possible, every flower 
bud should be remoyed, in order to induce strong vigorous growth. 
In buying roses for this purpose, I should prefer them from the 
open ground rather than haye plants in pots; becanse the plants 

Where the 
necessary convenience exists, it is not too late now to give this plan 
a trial. There is nothing new about it, for I have put in rose 
cuttings from-single buds many years ago with scarcely five per 
cent. of failures. The great thing is to take the wood when it is 


beginning to get firm, which is generally about the first week of the 


blooming period ; of course, all the shoots will not be ready at the 
same time, therefore, if a large stock is wanted, the work of pro- 
pagation may go on for several weeks. Many hundreds of cuttings 
may be obtained in this way from only a few strong plants. A 
very good plan of striking roses when cuttings are plentiful is 
to put them in a preparéd bed under a north wall or fence in 
October. Make the cuttings about eight inches long, and plant 
them thickly in rows, in a slanting direction, leaying about two 
inches of the cutting out of the ground. This inyolves little trouble, 
and ina favourable season a large percentage will root. In severe 
winters a little hay scattered thinly over them will protect them.— 
E. Hospay, Ramsey Abbey. 


_ — So Mr. Hole has a “rose secret” which he dare not divulge 


Why did he not, like another Church dignitary I have heard of, arrest 


the secret in its shell with, ‘‘ Stop, stop, I must first call in a few 
friends to help me to keep it” ? Bethat as it may, perhaps some 
of the following guesses may anticipate his solution of the enigma. 
Rose roots, I find, may be converted into plants im the same way, 
though not quite with equal certainty, as the roots of Pelargoniums, 
Cut them into handy lengths, plunge them into a bottom heat of from 
40° to 80°, with a fair shave of moisture, and white feet will run down, 
and a white head pop up, like a piece of blown glass; and presently, 
from these, venerables veritable crown-shoots, like delicate asparagus 
tops forced in the dark, will spring ont, and grow up into roses. 
There is yet another and a surer method of manufacturing plants 
“from the voot stocks of roses. Behead a rose on its own roots down 
to within an inch or two of its root-crown. If you leave much 
stem the subsequent procedure will be useless, as the strength of 
the plant will rush stemwards, as water flows through an open 
channel. In this case we want to force the water, as it were, up- 
hill; therefore little or no open channel or stem must be left. 
Plunge this root stock, with the chief roots barely covered, into any 
lieht stuff, in the same high temperature as that prescribed for 
the rough root cuttings. Continue this treatment until a great 
forest of suckers appear. 
a rootlet or two and a single shoot attached to each; return to a 
genial temperature of 60° or 70° till the plants are established. 
What may prove a secret to some, is striking roses by means of 
buds. At first sight, one can but wonder that this has not been 
more generajly done. Reasoning from analogy, it would seem as 
easy to root a bud in moist sand or earth as in the bark of another 
plant. But the living sap makes all the difference; and I have 
never succeeded in rooting a bud of a rose in the eartn with only 
the bark attached, as in common budding, Something more than 
this is needed; that is found in a portion of the wood. Use rose 
buds as we mostly do vine buds “and scarcely one of them will root. 
Cut the shoot asunder lengthwise, removing from one half to three 
quarters of the shoot; make the base smooth; cut the ends clean 
and square, about half an inch on either side of the bud, and treat 
_ them properly afterwards, and many, perhaps all of them, may 
grow into plants. There is, however, an element of uncertainty 
about it, depending upon the state of the wood, the period of the 
season, the variety of rose, and the treatment given. I have 
found a bottom heat of from 70° to 75° best for this work. 
The rationale of the treatment is this:—First of all excite the 
bark to form a callusity either at the ends or the sides of the wood. 
When this takes place, the bud is safe; but, should the bud grow 
fast, as it willif placed in the same temperature as its base, it will 
have expended its store of growing force on its ownelongation rather 
than in making roots. Consequently, as soon as the store of food 
treasured in the wood and bark are exhausted, the bud perishes ; 
otherwise, it lives. This mode of increase may be adopted at any 
season when dormant buds are available. It is, however, most suc- 
cessful abont the end of June with the first matured buds of the 
season. The best place for operating in summer is a pit or frame, 
in which the bottom heat can be regulated, and the surface tempera- 
ture kept down by a north aspect, shading, sprinkling, &e. The 
-China section is the easiest managed in this way, including, of 
course, Teas, then Noisettes, Bourbons, Perpetuals, in the order I 
have placed them. Provence and summer roses are the worst of all 
to root from buds, and can, of course, only be tried in winter. 
Records of experience in this matter, such as you have had in your 
pages, are extremely interesting, and may tend to cheapen roses,-or, 
at least#’make them more plentiful. ; D. T. Visa. 


The Veitch Memorial.—We understand that the trustees of 
this memorial have invested the balance of the fund, amounting to 
£870 in stock of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway ; and that. as 
soon as sufficient interest accrues to render the prizes to be offered 
worthy of the object in view, they will proceed to make arrange- 
ments to determine their relative value, and to submit them to public 
competition, in accordance with the powers conferred upon them by 
the subscribers. ‘ 

Railways and Public Parks.—Kveryone who knows Birming- 
ham is acquainted with a public park or chase in its neighboruhood, 
like Bagshot or Windsor, of about 3,000 acres, including woods, lakes, 
and a small portion of cultivated ground. It is called Sutton Park, 
and forms one of the principal lungs of a district populated by a 
million of inhabitants. The thousands who have yisited this park 
will learn with dismay that there is a proposal to run a railway 
across the best portion of it, destroying the picturesque character of 
the scenery, and cutting off communication between one side and the 
other. From a sanitary stand-point, the injury, destruction, or 
enclosure of large parks and open spaces is most lamentable, especi- 
ally when these happen, like Sutton Park, to he in the neighbourhood 
of great centres of population,—Lancet, 


THE GARDEN. 


Then cut the roots into fragments, with | 


[Marcu 9, 1872. 


x 


OUR WEEKLY CALENDARS. x 


Ture first attempt at garden literature was a calendar of garden 
operations, and a calendar must ever be an important and a useful 
feature in a gardening periodical. Hitherto calendars haye been, as 
a rule, invariably written from current observation in one place, aided 
by compilation from already published records; but in consequence 
of the many important branches in which the art of gardening 


now presents itself, it is manifestly impossible that any one man or 


even half-a-dozen men can from actual observation write such a 
calendar as will mect the multifarious wants of the now vast 
gardening public. 


It has, therefore, occurred to us that we might 


make a useful innovation in the art of calendar-making, by giving  - 


weekly a faithful and comprehensive record of the work actually per- 


formed in every kind of garden, during the current week, around 


that greatest centre of gardening in the world—lLondon, Ordinary © 


weekly or monthly calendars all possess the disadvantage of haying — 


to recommend the performance of operations which a sudden change 
in the season may render impossible or unwise. 
ward our weekly calendars will describe work actually performed, 


But, as hencefor- | 


and being carried out, in private and public gardens, nurseries, and 
market gardens, by the best practitioners in these respective depart- 
ments, the public will have, on the appearance of our paper, a 
reliable weekly guide as to the garden operations that require most 
pressing attention; while our monthly calendars, issued im the first 


number of each month,.and written by some of the ablest gardeners 


in England, will indicate the general plan of the months’s operations. — 
The climate of Britain doubtless varies a good deal ; still, a record of 
garden operations carried on around London, will, for all practical 
purposes, be a trustworthy guide for all other parts of the country. 
The short space of time that will elapse between the conclusion of 
our week’s observations and the reception of them by the public, can 
make no practical difference to readers in the southern parts of Bng- 
land and Ireland, whilst for the large portion of our readers who live 
considerably north of our great metropolis, the directions will come 
in goodtime, We have only to add that daily observations in all the 
best private, public, and commercial gardens in and around London, ~ 
will be made by competent reporters in the special interest of this 
department of THE GarpEen. x Lage 


GARDENING AROUND LONDON. 


~ PRIVATE: GARDENS: > 7.) om 


Conservatories, &c.—At present conservatories everywhere are 
gay with Camellias, Heaths, Azaleas, Acacias, Cytisus, Daphnes, 
Epacrises, Hyacinths, and other bulbs; Cyclamens, Primulas, Mig- 
nonette, Cinerarias, Violets, Callas, Bouvardias, and many other 
things, the whole being intermixed with fine-foliaged 
serve to set those in flower off to good advantage. The temperature 
of these structures is now kept at about 45° or 50° at night, allowins 
a rise of 10° by sun heat. Plants started into growth receiye more 
liberal supplies of ‘water, and the atmosphere is kept moist by 
sprinklings from the syringe. Flowering plants from the forcing 
pit take the place of those done flowering. The beds, which have 


been top-dressed, are kept neat and trim. Airis giyen plentifully 


in the morning, shutting up early in the afternoon. Greenhonse 
plants have now been nearly all repotted. Such as intend to 
exhibit their plants, are now busy training, accelerating, or re- — 


tarding them. ‘To Bougainyilleas, Clerodendrons, Stephanotus, 
Caladiums, &c., they give a brisk heat and plenty of moisture. 
Azaleas, Genetyllis, Dracophyllums, Chorozemias, &c., are kept 


neatly trained, and Pelargoninms are placed on shelves close to 
the glass. Cinerarias and Calceolarias are shifted into their flowering 
pots. eS k & 
Stoves.—The potting of stove plants is in general finished. To 
such as are in active growth, water is“freely given both at root and 
overhead, and the atmosphere is kept moist by frequent sprinklings 
on all available surfaces. A little shade, when necessary, preyents 
scorching. Air is given in the morning, and the house is shut up — 
carly. Gesneras, Gloxinias, Achimenes, Caladiums, are potted — 


and placed in heat to succeed those previously started, Orchids 


are being repotted, and those most actively in growth receive a 


good supply of moisture at the root and in the atmosphere, but 


those starting are only sparingly supplied at the root; the atmosphere 
is, however, kept warm and moist by frequently sprinkling, with — 
the syringe, the paths, stages, walls, &e. During bright sunshine, 
a little shade is giyen. Most Orchid-growets place a piece of eottin 


| wadding round the stems immediately below where the flower — 


spikes appear, to prevent the ascent of woodlice, &c., which cat 
the points off the flower spikes. Ferns are kept growing steadrly, 
and have all been potted, except some of the hardy sorts thab are 


+ 


, 


plants, which — 


s 


_— Manom 9, 1872.) 


THE, GARDEN. 


365 


_ kept for conservatory decoration; these latter are now receiving a 
shift, and being placed in cold frames. 
. Pits and Frames.—Where there is no propagating-pit, hot 
_ dang beds are now devoted to that purpose. Cuttings of Coleus, 
_ Alternantheras, Heliotropes, Ageratums, Geraniums, Lobelias, Mes- 
- embryanthemums, Tropxolums, Calceolarias, Verbenas, Gazanias, 
_ &e., for bedding purposes, are being constantly put in, and as soon 
as rooted are potted off singly, and their place supplied with another 
batch of cuttings of the same. Wigandias, Solanums, Verbesinas, 
_ Polymnias, and many other sub-tropical plants are placed in 
heat, when they yield abundance of cnttings, which are easily propa- 
gated in the ordinary way. Chrysanthemum cuttings, which are 
rooted and potted separately, are placed. in cold frames, kept 
close for some time, and gradually inured to light and air. 
_ Annuals required for early flowering in conservatories are now being 
sown in pots in heat. Polemoniums, Phloxes, Sempervivums, and 
other hardy plants wintered in frames, are being taken out, and set 
in sheltered places, to make room for other things. Echeverias in 
boxes are kept under stages, or anywhere in a cool house where they 
ean be kept dry. Lilies in pots, as they appear above ground, are 
kept near the glass, Stocks in pots are being repotted, and single 
ones, as soon as discerned, are cast away. Yellow Pyrethrums, 
elena &ec., in frames, have the sashes removed during fine 
ys: 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Plower gardens, where not 
previonsly done, are now being filled with Pansies, Daisies, Forget- 
me-Nots, Pyrethrums, variegated grasses, Sempervivums, and many 
other useful spring flowers. Crocuses, Snowdrops, Aconites, Scillas 
(sibirica), Bulbocodiums, Dog’s Tooth, and other violets, Arabis, 
&c., are now everywhere in full bloom. Flower beds are being 
neatly trimmed and edged; lawns are being swept, rolled, and 
mown, and walks gravelled. Grass and ivy verges are being made, 
and box edgings laid. Pruning of roses in many cases is finished, 

whilst in others it is only just began. = 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Pine apples swelling fruit -are 
allowed az increase of temperature and a moist atmosphere. Sne- 
cession plants receive plenty of water and heat, and are shifted on 
as they require more root room. Vine shoots are being stopped and 
regulated, and bunches too thick are being thinned, For Muscats in 
flower a high temperature and a dry atmosphere are maintained, but 
for Hamburghs less heat is needed. Vines breaking are furnished with 
a moist atmosphere. Early Peaches and Nectarines are thinned, 
and syringed morning and afternoon, and shut up early. In many 
cases a little airis left on all night. Strawberries are being intro- 
duced into forcing houses, keeping them near the glass; those in 
flower requiré a dry atmosphere. _ Melons and Cucumbers are being 

- sown for a general crop.’ Those planted out are tied and thinned, 
and have their flowers picked off Sintil they have strength enough to 
support fruit. A moist atmosphere is maintained, and water is given 

freely at the root, avoiding wetting near the neck of the plants.‘ 
The syringe is frequently used amongst the foliage. Kidney beans 
are forced in succession, giving them plenty of water at the root 
and oyerhead. Tomatoes are being sown. Capsicums sown last 
month are being potted, and another sowing has been made. Celery 
is sown in heat, and pricked off as soon as fit to handle, still keeping 
it in heat. Potatoes in frames are allowed plenty of air; other 
frames are being filled with tubers, forwarded a little in pots, so as 
to come on in succession. das. 


Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Department.—Pruning of fruit 
trees is for the most part finished, and nailing is being pushed forward 
rapidly. Mulchings of litter are applied to trees that have been 
lately planted. Grafting has been commenced. Apricots, Peaches, 
and Nectarines are being protected with nets, thin canvas,&c. Bush 
fruits have been pruned, and jthe'ground about them dug. Fresh 
plantations of Strawberries still continue to be made. _Artichokes 
are cleared of litter, and fresh plantations, if required, are being 
made. Small sowings of Broccoli, Cabbages, Savoys, and Cauliflowers, 
have beenmade. A full crop of autumn-sown Cabbagesis being planted. 
Canuliflowers are planted out singly, and also in patches of three, six, 
-or nine, under a hand-glass. A main crop of Onions is being sown, 
also of Parsnips, Carrots, and Borecole. Leeks are also being sown 
for transplanting. A small sowing has been made of early Turnips 
ona warm border, Main crops of Potatoes are being planted. A 
full crop of Beans, and succession ones of Peas, are being sown. A 
small sowing of Beetroot has been made, and the main sowing of 
Parsnips is being putin. Mint, Rue, Savory, Sage, Camomile, Balm, 
&e., have now their roots divided, or slips detached from the parent 
plants, and planted in lines. Spinach is being sown between lines 
of Peas; and of Mustard and Cress small sowings gre made on a 
warm border, ee te 


a bs 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.—The most pressing labours under this 
head are propagating, repotting, training, starting plants that have 
been at rest, &c. Young Heaths and Azaleas are grown in London 
nurseries by the thousand. They are now mostly, with the excep- 
tion of those in flower and specimen plants, kept in cold frames. 
The potting of Heaths, in most cases, is finished. Camellia blooms 
aré being, in some cases, cut for market; small plants also, with a 
few nice flowers on them, sell well. Those to be kept another 
season in the nursery are repotted, pruned into shape, and kept 
growing on in an intermediate temperature. Young specimens of 
greenhouse hardwooded plants in great variety are now being potted 
off. Those struck in the autumn are placed on the side shelves of 
the propagating house, there to remain until fit for potting off singly. 
Cuttings of many kinds are now being inserted in pots under bell- 
glasses, and set in gentle-bottom heat. Azaleas,Camellias, Daphnes, 
Roses, Ivies, Citrons, &c., that have been grafted are still kept in 
close houses, and those that have freely united and are swelling 
should have their ligatures eut. Cytisus, Acacias, &c., are kept in 
cool pits or houses. Tropical Palms are mostly all potted, and kept 
growing in moist, warm houses; the hardier kinds, about to be 
potted, at present enjoy an intermediate temperature. Dracsnas 
have been potted, and are now kept in brisk heat, with a good supply 
of water. Old and seraggy specimens have been, in some cases, cut 
down, the stems being used for propagating purposes. Dieffen- 
bachias are also in some instances cut down, and the stems cut into 
short bits for propagating. Young and shapely plants of them are 
repotted, and kept in a brisk, moist heat. Gesneras, Gloxinias, 
Achimenes, and Caladiums, are now started in small pots in strong 
heat. Marantas have been repotted, and are likewise kept in strong 
heat. Alm¥stall stove plants haye been shifted, and are commencing 
to grow; they have abundance of water at the root and overhead, 
and enjoy a high temperature. Orchids are, for the most part, 
repotted and top-dressed. Aucubas are placed in heat, to induce 
them to flower freely, and be the more easily ‘‘set”” by-and-bye. In 
some cases they have been already fertilised. Bedding plants, such as 
Geraniums, Calceolarias, Alternantheras, Lobelias, Coleuses, Verbenas, 
Troprolums, Mesembryanthemums, Heliotropes, Ageratums, Wigan- 
dias, Solanums, and many others, are in heat, in order to cause them 
to yield cuttings more abundantly. Dahlias are started ander 
stages and in any place where they can be conveniently stowed, and 
where they can enjoy a little heat. Cannas are started in the same 
way, but are propagated by dividing the roots, preserving a crown 
to each division, which is placed in a small pot, and kept in heat. 
Cuttings of Aucubas, EHuonymuses, and various kinds of conifers, 
are now being inserted in silver sand under hand-glasses, and plunged 
in a gentle bottom heat. Those propagated in the autumn have still 
the benefit of hand-glasses. Early annuals for conservatory decora- 
tion are raised from seed sown now in heat, also bedding plants, 
such as Lobelias,-Centaureas, Petunias, Pyrethrums, Amarantuses, 
Solanums, &c. Alpine and herbaceous plants in small pots and 
wintered in frames, are now placed out on beds, on which a layer of 
coal ashes has been put, and over the more tender kinds hoops are 
placed, so that in case of frost a mat, or some other covering, may 
be thrown over them. The pits and frames they occupied are filled 
with bedding materials, Heaths, Azaleas, Epacrises, &c. 

Outdoor Department.—The lifting of deciduous trees is now 
over. The ground where they grew is levelled, dunged, and dug ; 
and the remaining specimens that are scattered over the ground are 
taken up and re-planted in lines and im proper order. Evergreens 
continue to be lifted in great quantities for planting, which is now 
going on busily, although early in September is a better time for 
such work. Layering of Limes, Acers, Rhododendrons, Laurels, 
&c., is now being done. The layers are kept in their places by 
means of small pegs, the point of each shoot projecting twelve 
inches above ground with its point cut off. Those layered last year, 
where well rooted, are lifted and planted-in lines abont twelve 
inches apart. All open. spaces between lines of young trees and 
shrubs are dug over, and the walks trimmed and gravelled. 
Climbers in pots are still kept plunged in sheltered places in 
cocoa-nut fibre, or some other material, and securely staked. Young 
conifers in pots are placed on wall borders and plunged. Various 


‘bulbs and other plants are turned out of their pots and planted in 


beds. Grafting has in some cases commenced, and’ in most instances 
it is to begin in earnest next week, stone fruits being the first to 
be operated on. The stock of young fruit remaining after the winter's 
sales are now being trained, some for walls, pyramids, espaliers, &c. 


MARKET GARDENS. 


Tre fine warm weather which we are now experiencing advances 
vegetation so rapidly that spring work in this department is coming 
on witha rush, Everybody is now busily employed with Asparagus 


366 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 9, 1872. 


See SR, CS OS ST TE TE 


beds, which are being covered over with soil dug from’ the alleys 
between them, neatly rounding their surface. Lettuces in frames 
are fully exposed during fine weather, and young plants are being 
put ont between lines of Gooseberry bushes, in open spaces, and on 
every available surface where deeper rooting and stronger growing 
things would not answer. Radishes from the earlier sowings are now 
fit for use, and others are coming on to take their place. Some are 
little more than above ground, while others are only just sown; there- 
fore in that way a constant succession is secured. Radish-beds are 
covered with litter until the young plants appear above ground, after 
which the litter is moved into the alleys, to be replaced on the beds 
in severe weather. 
prove injurious to Ra-lishes on their first appearance. Cauliflowers 
that have been wintered in frames are being planted out, nine 
under a handelass, which is removed after the plants have got 
established a little, and only used afterwards for protection from cold 
winds or frost. From this position they are lifted and planted out, 
as ground becomes ready for their reception, three being left under each 
light. Young plantations of Jerusalem Artichokes, where not 
finished, are now being made. Between lines of young transplanted 
Onions, Lettuces, Cabbages, and other crops, the surface is being 
carefully loosened with short hoes. Onions, Cauliflowers, Savoys, 
Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Turnips, &c., are now being sown; but 
seeds for main crops of these will not be put in.yet for another 
fortnight. Wherever ground has: been cleared of crops, it is well 
manured and dug over for something else ; in cases where the grounds 
are extensive, instead of digging the plough is introduced, after which 
the ground is harrowed, lined off, and planted. Potatoes are now being 
planted extensively. A good method of economising space is to 


plant Cabbages (Fulham) about fifteen inches apart in autumn, anl _ 


to dibble in now some early Potatoes between the lines of Cabbages, 
which are removed on the appearance above ground of the Potatoes. 
Successive sowings of Peas have been made, and as soon as they get 
abont an inch above ground they are staked. Rhubarb plants that 
were forced early have their crowns now fully exposed in many cases, 
whilst others are still covered with litter, ander which the leaves are 
coming up good, clean, and crisp; open air crops of Rhubarb are also 
pushing up. Asparagus is forced in frames by lifting the roots, and 
placing them on beds of fermenting material, covering with several 
inches of mould; litter is placed over the sashes, and removed for a 
short time about midday, when a little air is given. Seakale is like- 
wise forced from lifted roots, packed closely in hotbeds, and also in 
the open ground, in the ordinary old-fashioned way. Young Carrots 
in frames get plenty of air throughout the day, and are kept growing 
on steadily. Pruning of bush and orchard fruits is in most cases 
finished, and the prunings are being collected into heaps and bu-ned. 
Cleaning the ground is being proceeded with vigorously. From 
about the stems and roots of bushes and trees the weeds are remoyed 
into the open space between them, and there dug into the ground. 
Beds are in course of formation for the reception of Wallflower seed, 
this old favourite flower being grown to a vast extent in the market 
gardens round London. ‘ 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. - 


Tun third meeting of the season took place at South Kensington on 
Wednesday last, under very propitious circumstances as regards weather, 
but the display of plants was scarcely up to our expectations. Amongst 
Orchids, however, was a magnificently-bloomed plant of Phalmwnopsis 
Schilleriana, which was deservingly recommended to the council for a 
Lindley medal. It had two great branching flower spikes, on which were 
no fewer than 207 blossoms in the greatest possible perfection, notwith- 
standing their journey all the way from the north of Scotland. Other 
Orchids consisted of well-flowered plants of Dendrobinm Farmeri 
erassinoda, and cambridgeanum. Som2 Odontoglossums were also 
shown, but notin such fine condition a3 at last, meeting. Amongst them 
were some good plants of O. Alexandrw and triumphans. A few Lyeastes 
were likewise contributed, as well as Oncidiums, Vandas, and Cyprip2- 
diums, together with a good plant of Cymbidiam eburneum., Of Camel- 
lias no well-grown specimens were exhibited; but there were some 
prettily-flowered small plants. Roses, both in pots and in a eut state, 
were plentiful and good. Of Lily of the Valley, two baskets were exhi- 
bited in splendid condition. There were also good collections of Cyela- 
mens and Chinese Primulas, as well as an interesting exhibition of hardy 
spring flowers, consisting, among others, of a double white variety of 
common Primrose, the charming Iris reticulata, Dog’s Tooth Violets, and 
Squills. Toxicophlma Thunbergi, a new plant from Natal, was exhi- 
bited; it has close heads of white flowers, which are sweet scented. It 
promises to be a good addition to our stock of winter-blooming stove or 
intermediate house plants. Among other things, we noticed the pretty 
little Stenagastra concinna, and a variety of Imantophyllum miniatum 
called Cooperi, better coloured and larger in the truss than the ordinary 


A boy is kept to frighten off birds, which 


species. A few very nice Palms were shown, amongst which we noticed — 
the handsome Calamus verticularis. 

First-class certificates were awarded to the following :—Calamus yverti- 
cularis, from Messrs. Rollisson, Tooting ; Imantophyllum miniatum, var., 
Coeperi, from Mr. Green, gardener to W. Wilson Saunders, Hsq. ; 
Toxicophlaa Thunbergi, from Mr. B. 8. Williams, Holloway; and 
Waltham White Chinese Primula, from Mr. W. Paul, nurseryman, Wal- 
tham Cross. 

Among fruit were som2 good late grapes, prominent among which were 
Alicante, Lady Downe’s Seedling, Barbarossa, and White Tokay. Among 
other fruits were two-good examples of smooth-leaved Cayenne Pines, 
weighing respectively six and a quarter and five pounds; a dish of very 
fine Keens’ Seedling Strawberries; and a dish of Cox’s Orange Pippin — 
Apples, in excellent condition and good in flavour. There were also some 
creditable dishes of Asparagus, Rhubarb, and Seakale. Heads of Snow’s 
White Broccoli, and Myatt’s Cape Broccoli, were shown by Mr. Gilbert, 
Burghley Park. i orate 


LAW. 


CARTER & CO. v. SUTTON & SONS. 


On Thursday, before the Master of the Rolls, an injunction was sought by 
the plaintiffs, Messrs. Carter & Co:, of High Holborn, to restrain the 
defendants, Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Reading, from publishing certaim 
trade marks, which the plaintiffs alleged were piracies. > 2 

It appeared that an advertisement had been inserted by Messrs. Sutton 
& Sons in January 1872 in one of the gardening periodicals, in 
which the medal granted by the Commissioners of the International 
Exhibition was used as a trade mark. Messrs. Carter, claiming this asthe 
exclusive property, communicated with the defendants, and received from ~ 
them a reply expressing regret that throngh inadvertence this should haye — 
appeared, and at the same time reminding them that in the year 1862 there 
were two international exhibitions held, viz., the “ International Hxhibi- 
tion,’ and the “ Royal Horticultural Society’s International Exhibition ;”” 
and that it wasto the medal of the latter, and not the former, that the defend- 
ants had claim. ‘The plaintiffs further stated that the same infringe- 
ment was committed in a work entitled “ Sutton’s Amateurs’ Guide and 
Spring Catalogue for 1872,” and they therefore prayed the court to 
restrain defendants from issuing such publication, and also to compel 
them to recall such as had already been issued. : 

On behalf of the defendants it was contended that a sufficient explana- 
tion had been offered, and that in addition the defendants had caused — 
a notice to be inserted in the different horticultural journals, to the effect 
that a mistake in the medals had occurred, and that the medal of the 
International Exhibition was not theirs (the defendants). The Master of 
the Rolls, in delivering judgment, said that the plaintiffs had utterly failed —~ 
to make out their case; that the injunction must therefore be refused, 
and that costs would be costs in the cause. ire OS 


‘ 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. | : 


W. Ectior (Many thanks. Mandragora officinalis.)\—S. R. (The dwarf 
yellow wallflower-like plant is Erysimum ochro leucum.)—J. K. (The — 
Pines you allude to are imported from the Azores: they are fine frnitand 
in good condition.) —G. 8. (Yes; we shall be glad to have an account of — 
the way by which you get such fine Petunias. Will you at the same time 
kindly furnish us with your address, not for publication ?)—W. Dinson 
(7s. Blackwood, we believe.)—A Supscriver, (Bignonia Cherere, Plum- 
bago capensis, and Tacsonia van Volxemiiare the three best climbers for 
the. conservatory in autumn.)—L. Saw, (Clematis Jackmani end 
montana.) - : ~ 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—March 9th. 


Flowers.—Bonquets consist of white Camellias and Tea Rosesin the 
centre, surrounded by other flowers and ferns. Polyanthuses and the 
pretty Primula denticulata are now making their appearance; among 
other things we noticed sprays of various Orchids, Hyacinths, and other 
Datzh bulbs, Violets, Geraniums, Heaths, Mignonette, Hepaticas, Daises, 
Arabis, Aubrietias, and other early out-door flowering plants. cust 

Prices of Fruit.—Apples, Dessert, 23. to 4s. per dozen.—Cobs, per 
100Lbs., 60s. to 65s.—Iilberts, per lb., 8d. to 10d.—Grapes, per lb., 10s. to 
183.—Lemons, per 100, 7s. to 10s.—Oranges, per 100, 6s. to 10s.—Pears, 


_ per dozen, 8s. t> 8s.—Pine-apples, per Ib., Gs. to 103. 


Prices of Vegetables.—Artichokes, green, each, 6d. to 8d.—Aspa- __ 
ragus, per 100, 8s. t9 10s.—Beet, per dozen, 1s. to 2s.—Broccoli, purple, per ~ 
bundle, 10d. to 1s. 3d.—Brussels Sprouts, per half sieve, 2s.6d.to3s.6d— 
Cabbages, pef dozen, 10d. to 1s. $d.—Carrots, per bunch, 5d. to 7d.— *_ 
Canliflowers, per dozen, 2s. to 6s.—Celery, per bundle, 1s. to 2s.—Chilies, 
per 100, 1s. 6d. to 2s.—Cueumbers, each, 1s. 6d. to 3s.—French Beans, ~ 
new, per 100, 3s. to 4s.—Herbs, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Horse Radish, per 
bunch, 8s. to 5s.—Leeks, per bunch, 2d. to 4d.—Lettuces (French), Cab- 
bage, per dozen, Is. to 2s., Cos, per dozen, 3s. to 5s.—Mushrooms, per 
pottle, 1s. to 2s.—Onions, per bunch, 4d. to 6d.—Peas (green Continental), 
2s. per packet, or 10s. per quart.—Parsley, per bunch,2d. todd.—Radishes, _ 
per bunch, 1d. to 64.—Rhubarb, per bundle, 6d. to 1s. 6d.—Salsafy, per 
bundle, 1s. to 1s. 6d.—Scorzonera, per bundle, 9d, tols. 3d.—Seakale,per 
punnet, 1s. to 2s.—Shallots, per lb., 8d.—Spimach, per bushel, 3s. to 4s. 
—Tomatoes, per small punnet, 3s. en 


THE GARDEN. 


367 


wee 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue ART ITSELF 18 NatuRE.”—Shakespeare. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


FLYING FLOWERS. 
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 

Ir, as a supplement to the beautiful flowers which the pro- 
tection of glass enables us to enjoy, we could command tlie 
presence of objects of equal beauty, endowed with the addi- 
tional charm both of life and motion, it cannot be denied that 
the pleasure derivable from our greenhouses and conservatories 
would be greatly enhanced. A beautiful butterfly is but a 
winged flower: the essences of a plant have been extracted 
for its formation ; the fibre of the leaves has probably gone to 
form the neurations of the broad, sail-like wings; and the rest of 
the leafy structure to weave the delicate and nature-painted 
tissue. When the store of delicate material has been collected 
by the greedy industry of the untiring caterpillar, and duly 
climinated from the grosser matter, the continuous accumula- 
tion ceases, and the embryo bud of the flying flower is rapidly 
formed and protectively enclosed in its horny calyx, in which 
the development is completed; and when the final expansion 
takes pepe the horny calyx is burst, and flung off, like 
that of a great scarlet poppy; four living petal-wings, like 
the closely folded petals of the poppy, spreading themselves 
ae, out to their full size, essay their strength by a few 
trial flappings, like the first essays of a young bird, and the 
flying flower either darts fearlessly through the air in wild and 
joyous evolution or hoyers lovingly above some poor wingless, 
but yet beautiful, flower that is destined, from the recesses of 
its luscious nectary, to furnish the delicate food of the new- 
born butterfly, who seeks it in the depth of its cell with his 
uncurled, hair-like tongue. 

The butterfly’s resemblance toa flower is not confined to 
the beautiful petal-like wings, but the body seems to repre- 
sent the pistil, and the elegant antennz the filaments and 
anthers. The analogy seems, indeed, something more than a 
fanciful resemblance. Chrysalis of the Great Swallow-'Tail, 
the largest of our native butterflies, might be laid on the soil, 
or on the large leaves of some of the conservatory plants, 
there to await the period of their expansion. Nothing can be 
more interesting than to watch the escape of the butterfly 
from its chrysaline prison, after the first cracking of the horny 
shell along the back, to the gradual breaking forth of the 
beautiful insect. Whenit first dragsitself gradually out of its 
cell, the wings, which are soon destined to assume such large 
dimensions, in proportion to the size of the body, are little 
more than mere rudiments, scarcely half-an-inch long; but 
rapidly, either by the developing of invisible foldings, or by 
actual growth, they assume their natural size, the almost 
sudden expansion, or growth, being plainly observable in their 
rapid progress by the naked eye. 

_Very beautiful is the aspect of many of our native butter- 
flies. The colouring of the Great Swallow-Tail (Papilio 
Machaon) is bright and striking in a high degree, the light 
gleaming yellow forming the ground colour being“enriched 
with bold markings of velvet black, rendered gorgeous 
towards the edges of the hind-wings by splendid pencillings 
of violet and orange. The charming effect of half-a-dozen or 
a dozen of these beautiful insects flitting from plant to plant 
.can be readily imagined. It is as though a race of winged 
flowers had sprung into existence, or as though the petals of 
certain of the ordinary flowers had suddenly been changed 
into wings, and gifted with the powers of flight. 


In order to secure such a display, it is only necessary to 
proceed at once to the natural history depot in Holborn, or the 
one in New Oxford Street, and purchase, at the small cost of 
fourpence each, a dozen chrysalids of Papilio Machaon, and 
place them in convenient places about the greenhouse or con- 
servatory. This is the season at which these chrysalids are 
to be procured ; arid to those who have not tried the experi- 
ment, the result will undoubtedly prove highly interesting. 
The chrysalids of P. Podalirius can sometimes be procured at 
the same time, and, possibly, those also of Parnassius Apollo, 
that noble butterfly which may be seen by Swiss tourists on 
the lower slopes of the Alps. ‘The semi-transparent wings of 
this beautiful insect are of alight cream colour, boldly marked 
with black chequers, and also with rich crimson rings, which 
never fail to attract the attention even of those who are the 
least susceptible of being aroused to the admiration of natural 
objects. . 

-If a tank, especially one of natural form, with a sand or 
gravel bottom, be introduced into the conservatory, as is now 
frequently the case, the cultivation of a few water insects 
might add very considerably to the interest afforded by the 
water plants. A few of the curious larvae of the dragon-fly 
tribe, for instance, might be collected from neighbouring 
brooks, and transferred to the conservatory tank; thus 
affording the opportunity of witnessing the spectacle of their 
marvellous transformation, from the black and somewhat 
hideous form of a kind of miniature water demon, crawling 
about the sand or grayel-bed of the brook or tank, toa creature, 
whose elegantly formed and gorgeously coloured body is 
wafted through the air by gossamer. wings, whose lace-like 
neurations are of truly marvellous beauty. When the “creeping 
thing” at the bottom of the tank has attained to the limit of 
its existence in that form, it will ascend to the surface, and 
creeping up the stem of some aquatic plant, will secure itself to 
that support by means of a loop of silken web, and then sink 
into the trance (of some few weeks’ duration) which precedes 
the metamorphosis it is about to undergo. The manner of 
its extrication from the indurated husk of its former shape is 
extremely curious, and, to those who have not seen it, would 
form an episode among the more ordinary events of the con- 
servatory, as interesting as that of the first blooming of a 
newly introduced exotic plant. 

In the tropical house there is no reason why the gorgeous 
butterflies of Brazil and of the Eastern Archipelago should 
not be introduced. Many of them are far more splendid than 
any flower, and adding, as they would, the charm of motion to 
the splendour of their dazzling metallic hues, they could not 
fail to form a new feature of a very attractive character. With 
the present facilities of international communication it wonld 
not be difficult to secure the collection of chrysalids by the 
natives, who possess extraordinary instincts for seeking and 
capturing the wild denizens.of their swamps and forests—from 
beautiful and harmless insects up to the savage panther and 
dangerous python. They have, indeed, made a.recular trade 
of it, and it is by their ingenuity, and their knowledge of the 
habits of the wild animals of their country, that our museums 
and zoological gardens, both private and public, are supplied. 


-With the command of such a source of supply it ought not to 


be difficult to obtain chrysalidsof the resplendent and dazzling 
Morpho Adonis, of several of the gorgeous Theclas, and of 
many other lovely insects, to form the flying flowers of our 
hot-houses, and tropical palm houses. 


CLIMBING SPECIES OF ASPARAGUS. 


TE use of these for the ornamentation of rafters and trellises 
in cool conservatories is not by any means general. They are, never- 
theless, plants of easy cultivation, possess elegant foliage, and are 
useful for bouquets, and when grown in’ small pots and trained on 
wire, they make graceful arches for table decoration. They are 
increased by division of the roots, an operation which should be 
performed when they are at rest. All the species of this genus are 
fond of strong soil; and, being natives of South Africa, they grow 
during winter, when they are most useful, though some are ever- 
green. Those best adapted for indoor decoration are,— 

ASPARAGUS FALCATUS.—This grows from eight feet to ten feet in 
height ; foliage, very fine, arranged in threes, giving the spray @ 


1 


368 


‘THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 16, 1872. 


very elegant appearance when hanging from a rafter. 
are white, and yery small. Plant, herbaceous. 

A. scanDENS.—A slender plant, with foliage resembling that of 
our common Asparagus; stem, flexible, from six feet to eight feet in 
length, giving the plant a graceful appearance, especially useful 
for table decoration. Herbaceous. : 

A. DECUMBENS.—A dwarf plant, also with foliage like that of the 
common Asparagus. It grows in winter, and may be used for hanging 
oyer the side of a vase, a purpose for which it is extremely useful. 

A. RETROFRACTUS.—A very strong-growing species, with evergreen 
stems; foliage, faleate; stem, spinose, attaining a height of from 
twenty feet to thirty feet. Useful for the ornamentation of a high 
conservatory, where quick growth is required and large foliage is 
objectionable. It produces new stems every season, when the old 
ones, if not required, may be cut away, or, if required to furnish at 
the bottom at any particular point, they may be stopped back. 

‘ J. CRoucHER. 


The flowers 


DAMPIER’S GLORY PHA. 
(CLIANTHUS DAMPTERI). 3 


Or the many brilliant greenhouse plants which we have 
from New Holland, this is one of the most striking. It was 
discovered in 1699 growing on the dry, sandy islands of 
Dampier’s Archipelago. It is a somewhat difficult plant to 
cultivate, and sometimes fails even under skilful-treatment ; 
yet it may frequently be grown very satisfactorily im our 
greenhouses or conservatories. The secret of success lies in 
wintering it properly, as it is liable to damp off. Good plants 
of it may be obtained in one season, during the latter end of 
which they will produce flowers in sufficient abundance to 
amply repay any care that may have been bestowed on them. 
They should not be wintered in too high a temperature, or 
watered too freely, especially about the neck of the plants; 
and in repotting care must be taken not to injure the roots. 
The seed may be sown either in spring or autumn, but autumn 
is perhaps the best time. Prepare clean three-inch pots; half 
fill them with crocks; and fill up with a compost of one half 
good loam, to which is added another half consisting of fibry 
peat, leaf-monld, charcoal, and silver sand in equal proportions. 
Insert one seed in the centre of each pot, and place the pots 
on a dry, airy shelf of a greenhouse or pit. When the plants 
have grown about two inches, they should be shifted into 
pots two sizes larger than those they oceupy; replace them 
on the shelyes, and avoid keeping them too damp during 
the winter. In potting, keep the soil a little higher in the 
centre of the pots than at their sides, in order to preserve 
the necks of the plants from being kept so damp as they 
otherwise would be; and when water is applied it should be 
poured carefully into the pots, avoiding touching the surface 
in the centre. Towards thetend of February, or as soon as 
they begin to grow, shift again into two-sizes larger pots, 


carefully preserving the ball complete, and also the drainage. 


rocks, as their removal would cause the destruction of some of 
the rootlets, which would prove almost fatal tothe plants. ° I 
know of no plant so impatient as regards mutilated roots as 
this. About the end of April they may be again shifted, 
observing the same precautions ; or, instead of potting, they 
may be planted in a border of well-prepared soilin a pit or green- 
house, where they thrive much better, and there is a greater 
chance of their wintering successfully ; besides they grow more 
freely, produce their splendid trusses of deep scarlet and 
purple-black flowers in greater abundance and of finer quality 
than by growing them im pots, as their roots have more room 
for free and undisturbed action. The compost used throughout 
may be the same as that used at first, but rougher. 

R. Brunstrém, a Swedish gentleman, some months since 
informed me that he has seen the Clianthus Dampieri, when 
grafted on C. puniceus, do much better, and prove hardier than 
when grown upon its own roots; but, as I neyer remember 
seeing it thus treated,-I should like some information on the 
subject from some of your correspondents. 

In France and the warmer parts of thesouth of England 
this plant may be grown very satisfactorily, and made to flower 
freely in the open airin summer and autumn, by treating it 
as a greenhouse annual. For this purpose sow in a gentle 
heat in February, and keep regularly potted before the roots 
get interlaced with cach other. Gradually harden them off, 


and, for a short time previous to finally planting them out, 
they should be left without any protection further than from 
strong winds, frost, and -heavy rains. Im the first or second 
week of June plant them out in a sheltered, sunny, and 
isolated position in a peaty soil, observing that no stagnant 
water can lodge about their roots. When thus treated, they 
form very striking and beautiful objects. ~ 

A correspondent of the Field describes them, as “flowering 
vigorously on the sandy soil of New Jersey treated as an 
annual plant.” Mr. Webster, of Gordon Castle, in the north of 
Scotland, also bears testimony to haying grown them ont- 
side with good results (and this I know to be true, as I saw 
them there myself); he thus alludes to them :—* Sow the seed ~ 
early in March, and nurse them in heat until the beginning of 
June, and then partially harden by a fortnight’s exposure m a 
cold frame preparatory to turning them out in the open air 
about the middle of the month. To guard against failure, 
they are protected for at least a fortnight or three weeks 
afterwards, by placing over them an imyerted flower-pot 
during cold nights and bright sunshine. The plants treated 
in the way here described, far surpassed in beauty those eulti- 
vated in pots and kept under glass. As an illustration of 
their hardiness, J may mention that we have some plants still 
in fine flower (November 10th), having withstood, unscathed, 
three degrees of frost, while dahlias, and many of the old 
sorts of annuals usually cultivated in our gardens, were com- 
pletely destroyed.” W. 2. 


- PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from p. 313.) 

DeEsMoncus Mason (Mexico).—Plant, erect; stem, one inch thick; — 
fronds, pinnate, three feet long, growing in a distichons manner ; 
leaflets, four inches by one and a half inches; leatstalk and stem 
clothed with long black spines. Not very ornamental as a general 
decorative plant ; but, owing to its being narrow and flat, it may be of 
use to train up in a dark corner, where other plants will not grow. 
All the species of this genus get unsightly when old. - E ‘ 

_ D. uryor (Wesr Inpres.)—Fronds, eighteen inches; pinnae, two 
inches, dark green; spines, small. A useful plant when young for 
side-table decoration. 

D. wexicanus.—Fronds, five to six feet; pinnw, diminishing in 
size until at the point they are merely recurved spines, which haye 
a way of catching everything with which they come in contact. 
Not a good ornamental plant. _ , 

DICKENIA NoBILIS (SEYCHELLES).—Fronds, pinnate; pinne, two 
inches broad, regular, of a purple tint. - A metallic-looking plant, 
with the habit of an Areca; rather heavy looking, and fond of heat 
and moisture. ‘ 

EUTERPE EDULIS (SYN., OREODOXA SANCHONA: Brazi~).—Stem, 
slender when young; fronds, two to four feet, recurved; pinni, 
regular, one foot long, channeled on the underside, bright green, 
unarmed. <A graceful plant, bearing a head of elegant foliage, which 
is supported, when about four years old, upon aslender stem, from two 
to three feet high. Suitable for table, as well as for general purposes. ~ 

E. vistrera (Brazi).—Fronds, five feet long, recurved ; pinnw, 
dense, underside, white ; base of leaf-stalk, fibrous. Very elegant, of 
slow growth, and having fronds peculiarly regular. One of the best 
of all palms for the centre of a warm conservatory. 

E. syLyestris (Brazr).—For all purposes like edulis. ; 

GAUSSIA PRINCEPS (SourH Asrerica).—Habit of an Areca; fronds, 
flat, and spreading smooth; petiole, round, bright green. Rather a 
stiff plant, and a bad grower. 

GronomA.—A genus of dwarf palms, which inhabit the dense 
forests of tropical America, where they take the placeyof underwood, 
and form dense bushes. All of them are fond of heat and moisture, 
and they dislike bright sunshine, which is apt to scorch them. They 
require a moderate bottom heat, and in repotting, care must be taken 
not to disturb them at the roots. 

G. ARUNDINACEA (Brazit).—Fronds, entire, one foot long, haying 
a termination like the tail of a fish; stem, slender; height, from 
three to four feet. Shoots push up from the base, rendering it 
a tolerably nice plant for the front of a stove. 

G. BINERVIS (BRazm).—Fronds, pinnate; pinnz, near the point 
broadest ; drooping stem, single. A lax plant, unsuitable for decora- 
tive purposes. ate = 

D. conersta (BRAzit),—Fronds, entire. Larger than the last, which 
it resembles in habit- 4 a 

G, GHIESBREGHTIANA (CenTRAL AMERICA).—Plant, stemless; fronds, 
four to six feet, irregularly pinnate; pinnz, one to six inches broad. 


Marcu 16, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 369 


OEE. qq 


A fine plant for stove ornamentation, having noble spreading fronds, 
but too dense to be used for table decoration. 

G. macrosracnys (BANKS oF AMAzON).—Fronds, spreading ; 
six to seven pinnew, three to four inches broad; stem, slender. A 
nice plant, but apt to get naked, and to push shoots from the base. 

G. Mariana (Brazit).—Fronds, entire, eighteen inches long, ten 
inches broad; point, bifid, stemless. A grand plant for mixing with 
ferns and fine leaved plants, adding dignity to its associates. 

+ G. PANICULIGERA (BRaziL).—Fronds, from four to five feet, pinnate ; 
lax and irregular. 

G. pummtA (NEw Granapa).—Habit, like that of Ghiesbreghtiana; 
pinne, small. A very good plant for the front of a hot bed. 

G. SARAPIGUAYENSIS.—Fronds, entire, of a brown shade, slightly 
arched, eighteen inches long; bifid at point. 

G. Scnworvrrana (SYN., REGALIS, TMPERIALIS, and VERSCHAPFELTII : 
Brazit.—Fronds, from two to four feet long, and in number from 
ten to twenty, drooping, slender ; pinn, alternate, one inch apart, 
same in width. A truly elegant palm for the decoration of either 
table or house—for both purposes, indeed, not to be surpassed. The 
petiole being slender gives the plant a light feathery appearance. 

G. Seemwanyi.—A fine plant, very like Martiana. 

GUILOBEMIA SPECIOSA (SYN., BACTRIS: BRAZIL. 
—Fronds, erect ; pinne, regular, with small spines on the veins, and 
sharp black spines on the stem and petiole. An elegant plant, but 
‘not one of the finest of growers; fond of heat and moisture. 

HYOPHORBE AMARICAULIS (SYN., ZAMMOIDES AND ARECA SPECIOSA: 
Mavnririvs).—Fronds, dense, erect, top reflexed ; pinnz, regular, two 
inches broad, flat; petiole, stout, base forming triangle; stem, very 
thick, giving it a swollen appearance. In general habit this resembles 
an Areca, but is denser; the whole plant has a copper-green tint. 
_ It is one of the noblest Palms in cultivation, and when about six feet 

in height very useful for a central position. It has strong roots, and 
‘on that account requires a large pot. ' 
H. Verscuarrerti (Mavririvs).—Habit similar to that last- 
named, but slighter in all respects, with yellowish stripe in centre of 
‘petiole. A very elegant Palm, either for table decoration or for 
general purposes. J. Croucuer. 
‘ (To be continued.) 


. ZONAL PELARGONIUMS INDOORS. 


I NoricED in a recent number of “He GARDEN that Mr. Pearson 
advocates the cultivation of Zonal Pelargoniums for winter blooming. 
Willhe kindly name a few varieties suitable for that purpose ? I have 
upwards of fifty sorts at present, and have been unable to obtain good 
blooms at Christmas from more than three or four of them. The 
following keep my greenhouse gay from spring until autumn, but I 
am short of a few good sorts on which I could depend for winter 
blooms. My summer sorts are :— 


Douglas Pearson.—A splendid variety; habit good, truss very fine 
dark crimson. 

Lawrence Heywood.—This variety attracts attention before any other, 
on account of its novel colour and free blooming. It is a free grower, 
good in habit; colour, pinky magenta. 

Othello.—Fine truss of deep crimson, good habit, and vigorous. 

Duke of Devonshire.—A fine variety, with trusses of a splendid crimson 
colour, five inches across. 4 

Wm. Thomson.—Fine truss and habit ; colour crimson. 

Thomas Speed.—Plum colour, extra fine truss. I saw it at Chatsworth, 
where they think highly of it on account of its being such an excellent 
bedder. It isa fine variety, either for indoor culture or for bedding. 

Milton is another splendid variety; colour dark red, fine truss and 
habit. : 

Mrs. Mellows.—Good truss of dark crimson colour, fine for cutting for 
large bouquets. : ‘ 

_Bayard.—A first-class bedding variety, but no one will hesitate to grow 
it for the conservatory after once seeing what it is capable of doing under 


glass. 

Rey. John Woolley, Alfred (Pearson’s), and E. J. Lowe.—All first- 
class varieties ; the first bright crimson, the others rose-coloured ; fine 
trusses of bloom, with excellent individual flowers. 

ur Pearson.—Has fine trusses of magenta, is 2 good bloomer, and 
has a fine habit. I have seen it at Chatsworth. 

Wm. Hill—aA splendid scarlet, and most dazzling; the petals over- 
lap finely, but before the truss is half expanded they begin to fall, 
and I have never yet had an expanded truss of this kind. None of the 
other varieties do this, the first flowers holding until the truss is fully 
expanded before beginning to fall. I do not, therefore, recommend 
Wm. Hill for this reason. . 


If Mr. Pearson would only send ont a white or blush variety, with a 
truss of bloom something like Lawrence Heywood or Duke of Devon- 
shire, as good in growth and habit, and blooming as freely, the 
foregoing collection (for blooming from spring to autumn) would be 

‘ complete. Tnos. Lever, Denton, near Manchester. 


/ 


THe Praca Pavm).> 


SAND AN UNSUSPECTED PLANT-KILLER. 

Tr Mr. Fish has such difficulties’ in procuring good sand (see p- 
311), I should advise him to adopt my plan, which is to use none. 
All plants that like loamy soil are certainly better without any 
addition to the sand the loam may naturally contain; and, generally 
speaking, the best loam contains the least amount of sand. Mr. 
Fish admits that sand is chiefly used for mechanical reasons. Why, 
then, impoverish the soil with it, when similar mechanical results 
could be obtained in so many ways less objectionable? For some 
years past I have never mixed sand with loamy soil, and my plants 
have never refused to grow on that account; on the contrary, they 
grow faster, and the soil is not so quickly exhausted. There are 
many ways of spoiling good soil, and not the least of these is by 
mixing with it unnecessary ingredients. A soil naturally suited to 
a plant will last twice as long as the best of composts, and if a 
compost must be used, the simpler it is the better. For plants that 
like loamy soil—and seven eights of the plants we grow belong to 
this class—if the only loam obtainable is too heavy, a little charcoal 
or charred soil mixed with it is very often all that is needed; if it is 
too light, a little clay, dried and pounded, will make it heavy enough; 
if it is both light and close (from the absence of fibre), both clay 
and charcoal may be sometimes added with advantage. With these 
three ingredients, a soil may be prepared mechanically suited for 
growing any plant that likes loam. Of stimulants I will say nothing 
here, except that less stimulants would be required if such sub- 
Stances as sand, mortar, coal ashes, and similar applications were 
kept ont of the way, and the soil not pnt together so loosely that a 
few waterings wash out all its better qualities. It is surprising 
what may be done with common garden soil if sweetened with a 
little charred rubbish. No addition of sand to the natural soil is 
even necessary for striking cuttings of ordinary bedding plants; 
while for Azaleas, Ferns, Camellias, and many, probably most, others, 
it may also be dispensed with. Wa. Tayror, Longleat. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Potting Agaves.—When visiting Mr. Peacock’s unique collection of 
these plants the other day we could not help expressing some concern for 
the person who had to pot them. They are so variously and terribly 
armed that one would think a collection of them might be useful for 
affording hints in a bayonet or sword factory. When some of the many- 
leaved species form rosettes close to the ground, it becomes a puzzle to get 
at the plant, as the leaves are not such as may be bent about without 
injury. Mr. Croucher, however, gets over the potting difficulty easily. 
Whenever a species requires potting, it is not disrooted in the ordinary 
way, but cut right off at the collar. It is then placed on the top of a pot 
of well-prepared soil; and so quickly does it root into this, that 
Mr. Croucher assured us he had seen the roots issuing through the bottom 
of the pot six weeks from the time of decapitation and potting. The plan 
is as simple as it is excellent. 

A Deadly Plant.—Afew years ago there was in the Royal Botanic 
Gardens at Kew a specimen of probably the most poisonous plant ever 
introduced into England. It was the Jatropha urens, the properties of 
which are so noxious, that its possession is positively dangerous. The 
ex-curator of the gardens was one day reaching over it, when its fine 
bristly stings touched his wrist. The first sensation which he felt was a 
numbness and swelling of the lips; the action of the poison was on the 
heart, circulation was stopped, and he soon fell unconscious, the last 
thing he remembered being cries of “run for the doctor.” Either the 
doctor was skilful, or the dose of poison injected not quite, though 
nearly enough; but afterwards the young gardener, in whose house the 
plant was placed, got it thrust into a corner, and would not come within 
arm’s length of it. He watered the offender with a pot having an 
extremely long spout. In a-short time, however, the plant disappeared 
altogether, and another specimen of the genus Jatropha, which was 
afterwards introduced, vanished in thé like mysterious manner. It was 
presumed that the attendants were secretly determined that such plants 
should not be retained in the houses, to cause the possibility of an acci- 
dent such as that which happened to their curator. 

Culture of Neapolitan Violets.—Early in April, or as soon 
as the plants are out of bloom, if they are in a frame, lift them ; 
but if they are in pots, shake them ont, and divide them into single 
crowns, removing all runners, and choosing only the most-healthy~ 
plants. In a ‘well-prepared piece of rich ground, with an east 
aspect, plant them out nine inches apart, and press the soil firmly 
about the roots. After they begin to grow, loosen the soil frequently 
with a hoe, and in hot, dry weather ‘syringe the plants with clean 
water in the afternoon. All runners should be removed as they 
appear. In the first week of September they should be lifted, and 
potted in six-inch pots, placed in a cool airy greenhouse or pit, or a 
bed may be sunk two feet in the ground, filled up with dung, 
treading it well, to prevent too violent a heat, and placing over it a 
foot thick of good rich soil, mixed with leaf mould. Then lift the 
plants carefully, preserving a good ball of earth to each; plant them 


— 


i) 
“I 
So 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 16, 1872. f 


in rows rather closely, but do not allow them to touch each other. 
The foliage should be within two or three inches of the glass. After 
planting, give them a good soaking of water, and in October allow 
them the benefit of warm showers, by withdrawing the sashes. 
Give them air as often as there isa chance, remoying the sashes 
altogether on mild days, and tilting them up at night. They should 
not be-allowed to get frozen, as that would retard their blooming 
sSeason-—ALPHA, ‘. 
Alocasia metallica.—I have grown this for some time; but cannot 
get its beautiful leaves in such good condition as I could wish to see them. 
When should my plants be re-potted >—AtrHa.— Alocasia metallica 
should be potted as soon as it shows signs of active growth, using a com- 
post of two parts fibrous brown peat, one part old dry cow-dung, and one 
part fibrous loam, mixing through the whole a little charcoal, and using 
the compost in a rough state. After potting, place the plants in a bottom 
heat of 80°, and an atmospheric one of 65° i 
maintain a nice moist atmosphere, and shade from bright sun. 


Give air 
very cautiously. ] ; 


PALMS. 


Tun religious aspect of the Palm tree dates from a period 
long anterior to Christianity. Its economic importance among 
Hastern nations gained for it a proportionate degree of esteem 
and veneration. It is one of the earliest types of the mystical 
“Tree of Life”; and a representation of ib as such occurs upon 
an Hgyptian sepulchral tablet at Berlin, which is certainly 
older than 1400 B.C. A traditional form -of it constantly 
appears in Assyrian sculpture. 
general, belief points to the Palm as the Tree of the Forbidden 


Fruit; but, according toa Mohammedan tradition. Dates were’ 


among the three things which Adam was permitted to take 
with him when expelled from the Garden of Hden. Both 
Mohammedans and Jews employed the Palm as a sacred 
symbol; thus Mohammed ordered his followers to honour 
it as the sister of their father, and as haying been created 
in Paradise from the same earth from which Adam was made. 
It was one of the Hebrew types of a good man; and, in a 
wider sense, of man generally, having but one head, which 
cannot be replaced, and, if removed, is fatal to the’ growth 
of the tree; and branches, which, if cut off, find none to fill 
the same position. Figures of Palm trees, covered with gold, 
were prominent among the ornaments of Solomon’s Temple. 
Among the Jews, too, the Palm was an emblem of victory ; 
and thus it was’ that its branches were strewed along the 
path of Jesus on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. H'rom 
this time it may be considered to have taken its place in 
Christian symbolism; and thus the victory of the Christian 
martyr is typified by-the Palm branch, and its use in religious 
processions, as commemorating the brief triumph of our Lord, 
became general. An extended use of this symbolism is that 
given by an old writer, who, speaking of Palm Sunday, says 
it is so called “for bycause the Palme betokeneth vyctory, 
wherefore all Crysten people sholde bere Palme in processyon, 
in tokenaynge that he [our Lord] hath foughten with the 
fende our enemye, and hath the vyctory of hym.” 

It was, however, naturally impossible, especially in remote 
times, that in the northern parts of Europe branches of any 
Palm could be obtained in sufficient quantity for use in the 
ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The substitution, therefore, of 
other branches for them was at once recognized as a necessity, 
and to some of these the German lines refer which haye been 
thus translated :— 

“Tn Rome, upon Palm Sunday, 

They bear true Palms; 

The cardinals bow reverently, 
And sing old psalms. 

Elsewhere, those psalms are sung 
Beneath the Olive branches; 

The holly bough supplies their place 
Amid the avalanches ; 

More northern climes must be content 
With the sad Willow.” 

Curiously enough, the two trees which most frequently do 
duty for the Palm—the Yew and the Box—are not mentioned 
here; but before speaking further of them, an incident in 
connection with the use of the “true Palms” at Rome may 
be referred to. The village of Bordighera, near Nice, has the 
privilege of supplying them, and is indebted for the honour 
to a naval officer who was present at the ceremony of raising 
into the position which it now occupies in front of St, Peter's, 


y night, 75° by sun heat ;° 


Another, but a much less. 


the Egyptian obelisk which formerly adorned Nero’s Gircus. 
The Pope (Sixtus the Fifth) forbade anyone to speak during 
the raising of the obelisk, lest the workmen should be dis- 
tracted from their task. In the midst of the silence, the 
officer, observing the danger that the cords might take fire 
from the excessive friction, shouted out, “ Wet the ropes.” 
He was brought before the Pope, who showed his appreciation 
of his interference by asking him to choose his reward; and 
he desired that a monopoly of the Palms for the Vatican might 
be granted to him and his successors. 

The Box is used very generally in France, where it is called 
“Te bois béni.’? The demand for it is so great, that im Paris ~ 
alone the sale in the four days preceding Palm Sunday realizes 
about a hundred thousand francs. The principal supplies are 
obtained from Brittany and Auvergne, but other districts also 
contribute their quota. It would appear that in Eneland Box 
was similarly employed in former times, as there isan entry in 
“ Domesday Boke” of a person holding land on payment of a 
bundle of Box twigs on Palm Sunday. Many virtues were © 
traditionally attributed to the “palm;” and in France the 
“blessed Box,” which has been given by the priest, is kept in 
the house throughout the year. It is supposed to have the 
power of driving away evil spirits, and a sprig is placed at the 
head of the bed, and on the cradle of a new-born child. On 
the death of a member of the family, a “ palm” is placed wpon 
the body; and this is possibly the origin of the north of 
England custom of throwing sprigs of Box into the grave 
after a funeral. It seems to have been employed for temporal 
as well as spiritual benefit, and not always with the happiest 
result, if we are to believe the accounts given by Newton in 
his “ Herball to the Bible.” He says :—* I once knew a foolish 
cock-brained priest which ministered unto a certaine young 
man the Ashes of Boxe, being forsooth hallowed on Palme 
Sunday; ..... 
persuaded the standers by) had vertue to drive away the 
ague, and to kill the wormes. Well, it so fell ont that the 
ague indeed was driven away; but, God knoweth, with the 
death of the poore young man.” 

Nowadays, the Yew is most generally employed in England as 
“palm,” and is distributed as such in the London Roman 
Catholic Churches. Its use dates back to the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, or earlier. It has been suggested that the ~ 
Yew trees which we so commonly see in churchyards may ~ 
have been planted for the convenience of the Palm-Sunday 
observances; but this is very doubtful, especially as many of « 
them are probably of older date than the imtroduction of 
the ceremony into England. In the Jura, Beech twigs are 
employed; and in Proyence, and other parts of the south of 
Prance, Myrtle, Bay, and Olive are used. 

The use of the Willow, which is very old among ourselves, 
seems to be almost confined to Britain. To it, as to the 
Box, its sacred employment was supposed to give especial 
virtues. Thus Barnaby Googe speaks of those who— 


“Willow branches hallow, that they palmes do use to call. 
This done, they verily beleeve the tempest nor the storme 4 
Can neyther hurt themselves, nor yet their cattel, nor their corne.” 


Thus also in Germany “ palms”*’ laid crosswise insure safety 
from lightning and tempest. In the neighbcurhood of London — 
this is certainly the favoured representative of the Palm, and, 
on the proper day, many of the poorest peons have a spray 
of Willow in their button-hole. It is also frequently placed 
in the porches of churches, and is exposed for sale im Covent 
Garden Market. So generally is it known as “palm,” that 
even persons of average education believe it to have some 
affinity with the rightful owner of the name, and are surprised — 
on being told that it is merely a Willow. ‘ 

It would be impossible to enumerate all the customs and 
traditions attendant upon these various “palms,” and still 
more so, to enter here upon an inquiry into the tree-worship 
of old and bygone days, which, in all probability, lies at the 
root of the matter. met enough has been said to show that 
such traditions still linger among us, in spite of the prosaic 
times in which we live; and to show, too, the necessity of 
collecting and recording them ere they disappear before the 
advancing “march of intellect ’ and education. 


March 12, 1872, James Brirren, F.L.5, 


which woorthy, worshipfull medicine (as he , 


Y 


Mancn 16, 1872.) 


37) 


THE GARDEN. ; 


THE ARBORETUM. 


THE WEEPING WILLOW. 


Many families of trees in which but few-of the ‘Species 
exhibit any kind of attraction which would warrant their being 
planted as ornamental objects may yet, in the features of a 
single member of the tribe, assume a growth and habit so 


‘distinctive as to mark it out at a glance as a most valuable 


without hesitation, 


* site of the ancient 


and beautiful addition to the trees which we usually employ 
for landscape effects, either in wild scenery or in the garden. 
This applies more particularly to the Willow family, one of 
the most extensive known, which yet only possesses a few 
species which at once arrest attention on account of their 


singularly graceful aspect and elegantly drooping growth. 


The Weeping Wil- 
low appeals at once 
to the eye as a thing 
of beauty, and is, 


| having discovered it during his botanical researches in the 
Leyant in the latter half of the seventeenth century. There 
are several conflicting accounts concerning its first introduc- 
| tion to the British Islands, some giving the credit to Mr. 
Vernon, an English merchant at Aleppo, who, as recently as 
1730, sent it to his seat, Twickenham Park, where, it is on 
record, if was seen growing by Peter Colinson in 1748. In 
the “ Hortus Kewensis,” however, the date of its introduction 
is unhesitatingly stated as 1692. Another acconnt gives Pope 


. the credit of having planted the first Weeping Willow ever seen 


in England. It is well known that in the latter half of the 
last century, a noble Weeping Willow, of mature growth, 
existed in the garden of the house still called “Pope's Villa,” 
at Twickenham, the retreat in which the poet passed tt later 
years of his life. The subsequent owner of the villa, finding 
the yisits of persons requesting to see Pope's fayourite tree an 
inconvenience, cut 

“it down; and in the 

St. James’ sChronicle 


of 1801, the story 


of the destroyed 


aecepted as the un- 


tree is thus re- 


rivalled queen of 


lated: —* Being with 


weeping trees. . It 


- Lady Suffolk at the 


has received the 


time that she re- 


specific name_baby- 


ceived a package 


lonica from its sup- 


of plants from 


osed habitat on the 


Turkey, Pope 


anks of the Eu- 


noticed that one of 


phrates, near the 


Babylon. — Recent 
researches, however, 
seem toindicate that 
it is 3 Chinese 
origin. Many spe- 
cies of Salix term 
important trees in 
regard to size, but 
they cannot be com- 
pared with the 
Weeping Willow 
either for grace- 
fulness or general 
beauty. Others 
scarcely exceed the 
dimensions’ of 
shrubs—and several 
kinds are of such 
miniature growth 
as scarcely to ex- 
ceed that of herbace- 
ous plants. The 
smaller forms are 
found, among the 
last specimens of - 
ligneous growth, at 
great heights in the 
alpine ranges of 
Europe, where their Z 
stems creep along 
under the surface j : 
of the scant soil, in search of protection as well as nourishment, 
only an inch or two of the plant venturing into the keen, 
freezing air. The family is so widely distributed that afew 
of its members are found even in the Arctic regions, a dwarf 
creeping len being abundant in Melville Island. : 
By far the greater number of the Salix family are European. 
Koch estimates the species belonging to extra European 
countries at not more than seventeen, among which are the 
Salix babylonica, which is found, not only on the Euphrates, 
but on the shores of the Persian Gulf, in Asia Minor, in China, 
in Japan, and in the north of Africa. The period of its intro- 
duction into Europe is uncertain. Rauwenwolf, in the 


' itinerary of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, towards the 


close of the fifteenth century, is admitted to have been the 
first to give an unmistakable description of the tree; but pro- 
bably, Tournefort was the first to bring plants of it to Europe, 


. 
t 


The Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica). 
~ 


the withes with 
which it was bound 
was still green. He 
planted it in his 
garden, where it 
struck root readily, 
and, as it developed 
its graceful growth, 
became his favourite 


_ tree.” 
Hither the tree 
must have been 


known. in Shake- 
£ peare’s time, or else 
tue common brvok- 
side Willow, whose 
lower branches are 
often wet and drip- 
ping, must have 
been generally ac- 
cepted as an emblem 
of sorrow before the 
weeping species, 
with its more beau- 
tiful characteristics, 
displated it as a 


symbol. If this 
were not so, we 
should not find 


Shakespeare speak- 
ing of the Willow 
in connection with 
. the grief of Ophelia; 
nor should we have had the exquisite passage in the ‘* Mid- 
summer Night’s Dream,”— ; 
“Tn such a night 

Stood Dido, with a pillow in her hand, 

Upon the wild sea bank, and waved her love 

To come again to Carthage.” 


The Weeping Willow of the Euphrates is also alluded to 
most unmistakably in the Psalms, as pointed out by Sir 
Thomas Dick Lander, in the passage relating to the captivity 
of the Jews: “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and 
wept”; and itis further related that they hung their harps 
upon the willow trees that were there. It has often occurred 
to me that the drooping branches of the Babylonian Willow, 
fallmg towards earth or water ina shower of tender grass- 
green foliage, explain .very naturally the meaning of the 
“hanging gardens of Babylon,” mentioned by ancient writers, 


372 


THE GARDEN. 


“” [Maron 16, 1872. 


Some have imagined the existence of garden terraces, suspended 
one above another, from the level of the river upwards, to be 
a sufficient explanation. . Others have endeavoured to show 
that there were gardens, after their kind, on the flat roofs 
of the houses, as is not uncommon in the Hast, and that such 
gardens seen by the soft light of am eastern might, with 
human figures moying among the shrubs, nay have seemed 


to an ardent Oriental imagination like gardens suspended in . 


the air. But the supposition that the chief gardens of the 
great city followed the course of the river, and that the most 
couspicuous objects were most probably glorious Willows 
hanging down their, streaming branchlets of green till they 


swept the “waters of Babylon’—those of the Huphrates—. 


seems a more rational explanation of the yexed question as to 
the meaning of “ hanging gardens.” : 

The Chinese, it may well be supposed, were not uninfluenced 
by the peculiar beanty of the drooping Willow; and doubtless 
they have their legends concerning its origin, though we are 
unacquainted with them. At any rate, we know for certain 
that their artists perceived its beauty; for we have endless 
proofs, not only in our old blue and white “swallow pattern” 
plates and dishes, copied from a Chinese model, but in a 
multitude of their decorative designs of all kinds, im which 
it is contiiually introduced as a conspicuous feature. That 
they used it as a symbol of grief and weeping in their 
cemeteries is plainly shown by a drawing made by Newhof, 
at the village of Tonnan, while he was attached to the Dutch 
Embassy at Pekin, in 1655; while other examples of its use 
in that character are shown in the views of the “ Vale of 
Tombs,” published in Dobell’s “Travels in China.’ In the 
North of Africa it is also common as a symbol of sorrow in 
the native cemeteries near Algiers. 

The climate of England appears admirably suited to the 
Weeping Willow. The noble examples of it which ornament 
the banks of the Thames, are as finely grown as any eyer 
described in its native habitats; and they are also far more 
numerous than on the banks of the Euphrates, where they are 
becoming rare. Many of the specimens growing near the 
course of the Thames have attained from fifty to sixty feet 
in height, and it is said that some, in the broadest extension of 
the branches, measure fully eighty feet across. One of the 
largest Weeping Willows in England is that at Finborough 
Hall, Suffolk, now about a century old, which is near seventy 
feet in height, and still im full vigour. That the climate of 
Scotland is not too cold for it, is proved by the noble tree 
at Taymouth, in Perthshire, described by Loudon, which, 
when seen by him, was seventy feet high, though it had only 
then been planted thirty-six years. 

With regard to the use of this Willow in plantations, or as 
a single ornamental tree, Loudon obseryes: “The Weeping 
Willow spoils a landscape when injudiciously planted”; 
that it is not adapted for sublime effect, but better suited to 
the character of a pretty sylvan glade, with water; or in-a 
villa garden, drooping over a picturesque rustic bridge. He 
would not introduce it in close connection with majestic 
ruins; such offices, he remarks, must be resigned by it, in favour 
of “the oak, whose dignity can fitly support such contiguity.” 
He is doubtless entirely right in the broad principle; a planta- 
tion of Weeping Willows, for instance, would entirely destroy 
the effects of the glorious rayine of the Téte Noire, and of 
any scene of that sublime and majestic character. But in the 
grounds of ordinary residences, at well selected points near our 
park Jakes, and in a hundred other situations connected with 


home scenery and the general characteristics of landscape | 


gardening, it forms an element of beauty such ag no other 
tree could supply. Even in winter its delicately drooping 
branchlets form a charming contrast to the more sturdy 
ramifications of erect-growing trees, and -when they are 
feathered with hoar frost, the effect is striking in the extreme, 
drooping as gracefully as the wings of a bird of Paradise. ; 
EL Neca: 


Stone Picking.—In Mexico the custom is, when a duel has beon 
fought, to erect a cross on the spot, and everyone that passes by 
throws a stone at the cross. Some ingenious Yankees haye taken 
advantage of this custom to clear stony land, by erecting crosses 
where no duel has been fought, and in that way have succeeded in 
getting stone picking done for nothing. 


| yery much resembling that of our common mistletoe. 


- 


“colour. 


‘on the oak in a natural state; while our mistletoe (Viseum album) is 


THE MONTEREY CYPRESS AS A HEDGH PLANT. 


Tun value of this evergreen Cypress (C. macrocarpa) for — 
making hedgerows cannot be well known, or weshould oftener __ 
see it brought into use for that purpose. Wormamny years yew — 
was the only tree used for dwarf hedges. Latterly the ~ 
Siberian variety of Arborvite has been employed in many 
places for wind screens, and for divisions of plots in gardens, 
But for such purposes nothing that I haye ever seen equals the 
Monterey Cypress. Plants two years old are usually from two 
to four feet high, and this is the best size to plant for a hedge- 
row. They should be planted two feet apart, and as they grow 
the tips-of the laterals should be trimmed off periodically on 
each side of the intended hedge.’ If this is done regularly, the 
hedge will soon form thickly and evenly to any height that 
may be wished from four feet to fourteen feet high; bub if this 
side pruning is not commenced early, the trees will not always 
feather to the ground, and will thus look bareand brown below. 
Fine specimens of hedgerows of this Cypress may be seenim 
Mr. Scott’s nurseries, at Chichester. One row in particular 
is very handsome; it was planted about eight years ago (from 
seed sent from California in 1862), and is now fourteen feeb 
high and nearly three feet thick. From the pruning having, 
however, been begun at too late a period, the hedge is thicker, 
and not saevenly furnished as it might have been; neverthe- 
less it is an interesting example for reference, showing what 
todo and what to avoid. Trees from the same batch of seed 
(consequently ten years old), planted singly in the same grounds, — 
are! now twenty-four feet high, and feathered to the ground. — 
Compared with yew hedgerows of the same age, those of the 
Monterey Cypress are more than twice the height, and of a 
lively cheerful green, instead of a dull, gloomy shade of that 
As is well known, there are several varieties often — 
produced from the same lot of seed, some seedlings showing a 
closer habit of growth than others, and these of course should 
be selected for hedge-making. Idonotremember to have seen 
a plant of it in fruit before in the south-eastern counties, but 
there is one in Mr. Scott’s grounds not more than twelve feet — 
high, which has on it a quantity of fine fruits, one of which 
upon being cut open was found to be full of good seeds, though 
not yet ripe. This Cypress, I may add, is not liable tobe 
injured by rabbits. Wi ees 


T= 


eee : 
THE MISTLETOE. OF THE ANCIENTS. 


Iv isa little singular, that in an age when botanical researchhas 
spread such rich and yaried treasures before us, and when a longing 
for everything new and curious in the plant way has become the 
fashion, that so interesting a plant as the mistletoe of the ancients ~ 
(Loranthus europzeus) should still remain a stranger toourarboretums 
and pleasure grounds, especially when we consider the facility with —_ 
which it could. be transferred from the. oak forests of Austria, 
Hungary, and Italy to those of Britain. ; ane X 

The Loranthus europeus is generally considered by-writers to 
be the mistletoe of the ancients, on account of its being only found 


rarely to be seen growing on that kind of tree. The mistletoe known 
to the Greeks and Romans appears always to have been found 
plentiful on the oak, and consequently must be the Loranthus; 
while our mistletoe (Viscum album) is scarce in Greece and Tialy, 
and very rarely found growing on the oak in any part of Hurope. 
Dr. Sibthorp says that the oaks on the Arcadian mountains in Greece 
presented him with abundance of the true ancient mistletoe — 
(Loranthus europzus), whilst’ the mistletoe of England (Viseum 
album) was only seen. growing on the silver, fir, and there not 
plentiful. In Holstein and some other parts of Germany, evenat the 
present day, the peasants call the Loranthus the ‘“‘spectre’s wand,” 
from the supposition that holding a branch of it in the hand will not 
only enable a man to see ghosts, but force them to speak to him. 
The Loranthus europzeus of Linnzus is a hardy parasitical shrub, 
found plentifully in the oak forests of Austria, Hungary, Greece, ‘& 
Italy, and in parts of Germany, where it forms a glabrous, much. 
branched evergreen, two or three feet high, with a habit of growth 
The leaves. 
are spirally arranged in opposite pairs, leathery, and considerably ~ 
longer and broader than those of the Viscum album; the flowersare 
produced in May in simple terminal racemes, and mostly in sixes, 
dicecious. The petals are linear, reflexed, in sixes, and yellowish _ 
green, The berries are oval, one-celled and one-seeded, pale yellow 


‘ 


, 


- 
ag 
7 
. 


x 


THE GARDEN. 


373 


‘about the size of, or a little larger than those of Viseum album, and 
ripe in December. : a : ; 
The Loranthus europmus, like the mistletoe, possesses the remark- 
able quality of having the power of rooting on the wood of the plant 
‘at whose expense it: lives. ‘The roots of the Loranthus, however, in 
‘ alleases, only penetrate the inner bark and soft wood, where the sap 


is in most abundance; and as the tree on which it grows advanices in 


‘growth, the roots of the parasite become embedded in the solid wood, 
each fresh layer of wood covering up, as it were, the roots of the 
parasite, and “at the same time fixing the plant firmer on its foster 
parent; hence has arisen the opinion entertained by some writers, 
‘that the Loranthus not only roots into the bark, but also into the 
solid wood of the tree upon which’ it grows. The habit of our 
common mistletoe gives a very good idea of how the Loranthus 
europeus grows and is propagated in a state of nature ; for, like our 
mistletoe, it is increased by the berries being by some means or 
other made to adhere to the bark of a living branch; and the common 


+ agency by which this is effected is supposed to be birds. The sceds 


of the Loranthus, however, in a state of nature only require to be 
placed externally on the young smooth bark of an oak; but if 
artificially treated, they may be put into a cleft, or in a small hole 
bored in the bark, which seems to have been the system ‘first adopted 


_ _ by Professor von Martius. 


/ 
The Loranthus might easily be introduced into Britain by 


. “procuring a box of the fresh berries from any of the oak forests of 


Austria, Hungary, or Italy, any time from the middle of December 
to the beginning of March; afterwards treating them as we would 
those of common mistletoe—selecting of course a vigorous young oak 
for their foster-mother ; for the principal thing requisite to ensure 
success is that the bark on which the seeds are placed be young, 
smooth, and not much indurated, otherwise the seeds will not root 
into it. Failure, however, will also arise from the seeds not being 
- fecundated ; but this may in a great measure be guarded against, by 
_ collecting the berries from different plants in the Austrian forests.— 


Gedrge Gordon, A.L.S., in ‘ Field.” ‘ 
S74. Ses Se oe eRe 


SEASIDE PLANTING. 

I aw a squatter on the cliff at Westgate-on-Sea, midway 
between Birchington and Margate, on the northern shore of 
Thanet. There, between the London, Chatham, and Dover 
Railway line and the sea, is an undulating plain, rising and 
falling at short distances, about half a mile in breadth, and 
seven miles in length. There is a kind of crop tlfat flourishes 
wonderfully on that small belt of land, I mean the blooming, 
bellowing scions of the human race; together with clover, 
cinquefoil, and weeds, especially the latter; but we have few 
shrubs and no trees. Now it occurs to me that the reason 
why we have no trees is that none have been planted; and if 
the vigour of the native population of weeds and “ pusley” 
may be taken as a proof of the richness and capabilities of 
the soil, trees, if they had ever been planted, would have had 
no reason to complain. Trees can, without doubt, get a good 
root-hold; but, the north-east and north-westerly winds are 


*- ernelly cold, and take no trouble to disguise the fact. Now, 


‘I have just been “planting,” under the advice of a local 
descendant of Adam; and we have been lavish in the matter 
of Euonymus, Laurels, Laurustinus, Hollies, Bays, Snow- 


berries, &c., not forgetting our oldand tried friend the Tamarisk. 


Our ambition has atso led us on to apples and pears, currants 
and gooseberries, elms, ashes, poplars, and thorns, lilacs, labur- 
nums, Berberries, and Syringas; and some local experience 
has caused us to add larches and the Austrian Pine. 
word that touches our hearts most responsively is “hardy.” 
-We are a hardy race, and if you send us your children we make 
themhardy, and that as a matter of course. What with oxygen 
‘and ozone, both of which we import direct from tlie North 
Pole and German Ocean, our appetites are prodigious, and we 
_ renovate and strengthen accordingly. ; ; 
So much with regard to ourselves, and by way of introduc- 
tion; but now we approach Tue Garppn as petitioners. Mr. 
George Gordon appears to be the man eects made for us; 
and may we ask of him the especial favour of a few lines 
bearing on our interests ? I already see the Halimodendron 
argenteum stretching out its silvery fingers into our lovely sky, 
as if it would entangle the cheery larks that have learnt to sing 
a perpetual hymn for our enjoyment; while the dear bright 
Euonymus americanus makes us already feel warm in its 

_ glowing fires, chastens our chilly winds, and defies our hyper- 
‘borean blasts, The dwarf forms of the shrub would be the 


~ 
i. 


most likely to suit us best. But will Mr. Gordon be so kind 
as to tell us where we can get them? Will hé help us to raise 
a garden forest along onr beautiful cliff, to prove that heayen 
and earth are superior in strength to the intermediate forces 
that try to thwart our well-meant intentions ? 

To make gardens where gardens grow spontaneously were 
no remarkable phenomenon; but to raise a garden where 
nature seems to say “no,” whether coyly or truly I am 
anxious to prove, were indeed worthy of the nascent and per- 
manent celebrity of Tu Garvey. Mansu Bay. 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 


THE LARGE-FLOWERED ROSE ACACIA (ROBINIA MACROPHYLLA.) 


Tus is a magnificent deciduous, rambling, loose-growing 
shrub, which grows from six to ten feet high in any good 
garden soil, and flowers profusely in the beginning of June, 
but keeps on blooming more or less till.October.. It is a native 
of the Southern States of North America, where it-grows on 
mountains, and is quite hardy. It was first introduced in 1812. 
It requires to be trained, either to open trellis-work, or to be 
securely supported by stakes, to which the principal branches 
should be annually fastened; otherwise its brittle boughs are 
liable to be broken and disfigured by wind, when clothed with 
foliage in the summer and autumn. . 

The leaves are comparatively large, alternate, pinnate, deep 
green, smooth and deciduous, with ovate-roundish leaflets, 
mostly in eight pairs and an odd or terminal one. Bramchlets 
quite smooth, robust, tortuous, and of a purplish-brown colour. 
Flowers large, pea-shaped, deep rose, scentless, set several 
together on axillary nodding loose racemes. Fruit, a flattened 
pod, nearly stalkless, many seeded, and {brown when ripe in 
September. This Acacia is increased by means of seeds, or by 
grafting it on the common Robinia. It deserves a place in 
every pleasure ground, however limited, and if the points of 
the principal shoots are pinched off when they are about half 
grown, say about the end of June, the plant will be less liable 
to be broken by wind; the operation also tends to induce a 
second crop of flowers in the autumn. Its synonyms are 
Robinia grandiflora and rosea. G. Gorpoy, A.L.S. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Trees and Shrubs on the Chalk.—Would you or any of your 
xeaders tell me what ornamental trees and shrubs I may venture to plant 


-on the chalk ?—Sourn Downs.——[“ Peverell,” in Field, finds the fol- 


lowing to succeed well :— 


The 


Decipvovs. Tilia europea, lime 
Ailantus glandulosa Viburnum Lantana, wayfaring-tree 
Amelanchier botryapium, Snowy hy Opnlus, Guelder rose 
Mespilus 5 Opulus sterile, garden 


Baccharis halimifolia, groundsel-tree 
Betula alba, common birch 
Carpinus betulus, hornbeam 
Cornus mascnia, cornel tree 
Corylus ayellana, common hazel 
3 “i purpurea, copper 
hazel 
Crategus oxyacantha, hawthorn, and 
all its varieties 
Cytisus labummum and alpinus, com- 
mon and Scotch laburnum 
Deutzia gracilis 
sane europRus, commonspindle 
ree 
Fraxinus excelsior, common ash 
Hibiscus syriacus 
Juglans regia, walnut 
Larix europea, larch 
Lonicera, honeysuckles (all varieties) 
Lycium barbarum, tea plant 
Philadelphns coronarius, Syringa’ 
Populus alba, abele tree 
» Nigra, black poplar - 
” Gee ba =o rope 
»  fastigiata, Lombar ‘oplar 
Potentilla domtiniae io 
Pyrus Cydonia, quince 
sy ‘ucuparia, mountain ash 
Rhamnus catharticus, buckthorn 
Ribes sanguineum, flowering currant 
Sambucus niger, elder . 
Spartium junceum, Spanish Broom 
Spirea ariefolia 
Staphylea pinnata, bladder-nut 
Symphoricarpos racemosus, snow- 
berry $ 
Syringa vulgaris, common lilac 
i persica, Persian Lilac 


Guelder Rose 
Aus Tinus, Jaurustinus 
Weigelia rosea 
EVERGREENS. 
Abies excelsa, common spruce 
Arbutus Unedo, strawhberry-tree 
Aucuba japonica 
Berberis vulgaris, common barberry 


3». Darwinii — 
Biota orientalis, Chinese arborvite 
» Yar. aurea / 


Buxus sempervirens, box, and all its 
varieties 
Cerasus lauro-cerasus, common laurel 
» lusitanica, Portugal Laurel 
Cupressus sempervirens, upright 
cypress 
Eseallonia macrantha \ 
Euonymus japonicus 
Hypericum calycinum, St. 
Wort 
Laurus nobilis, bay 
Leycesteria formosa 
Mahonia Aquifolium 
Phillyrea illicifolia 
Photinia serrulata 
Picea balsamea, Balm of Gilead Fix 
»  Pinsapo 
» Pindrow ~ 
Pinus austriaca, Austrian Pine 
», Strobus, Weymouth Pine 
», Cembra 
Quercus Ilex, evergreen oak 
f Lucombiana, Lucombe Oak 
Ruscus aculeatus, butcher’s broom 
»» | racemosus, Alexandrine Laurel 
Yucea gloriosa, Adam’s Needle. ] 


John’s 


374. 


THE GARDEN. sag Ca 


(Marcu 16, 1872. 


Removal of Trees at End of Tenancy.—Does any law exist 
between landlord and ténant as to the removal of trees planted by a 
tenant where no agreement had been made between them previously to 
the tenant’s leaving ? or is it not usual for the landlord to\pay the price 
of trees and shrubs at the time when planted ?—Jzussm Woop.——([The 
landlord, we believe, can claim them withont paying for them, except 
where the tenant is a nurseryman, and the things planted are part of his 
stock-in-trade. ] 

Photinia serrulata.—This bold eyergreen shrub is not so often 
planted as it deserves to be. Its rosy-chocolate young leaves, now 
four or five inches long, clustered together at the apex of every 
branch, form a pleasing contrast to the dark green foliage of the 
previous year, which hangs just below the newly-formed leaves. 
Planted amongst other evergreens, it shows out much more advan- 
tageously than when placed by itself, since, from its growth being 
terminal rather than lateral, its “‘ bare legs’ (haying not even a fig- 
leaf to coyer them) require to be hidden by dwarfer shrubs in front. 
It is, I find, increased by grafting on quince stocks. It is said to be 
one of the most valuable seaside shrubs we possess; and I am told 
that there is at Hayling Island, near Portsmouth, a fine bush of it, at 
least forty feet in diameter, in the form of a cone, growing within 
two hundred yards of the sea, the size and vigour of which prove 
that neither strong winds nor salt spray have the slightest prejudicial 
effect on it. w. 7. 


THE LIBRARY. 


FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE.* 


Tr is not often one meets with a sportsman’s book which 
shows the author to take much interest in anything but the 
immediate objects of his search. Very rare, indeed, is the photo- 
graphic eye, with the requisite power of recording its impres- 
sions, possessed by the authors of such books as that before 
us. Of the possession of these by Captain Hardy we have 
excellent evidence in “Forest Life in Acadie.”. The author 
seems to us to have a better faculty of observation and power 
of description than many men widely known to fame as writers 
on natural history. ‘Take the) following account of that 
graceful and remarkable tree the Hemlock Spruce—too much 
neglected in these islands :— 

“The Hemlock, or Hemlock Spruce (Abies canadensis of Michaux), 
is a common tree in the woodlands of Acadie, affecting moist mossy 
slopes in the neighbourhood of lakes, though generally mixing with 
other evergreens in all situations. It is found, however, of largest 
growth (eighty fect), and growing in large groves, principally in the 
former localities, where it vies with the white pine in its solid 
proportions. 
branches some fifty feet above the ground, and the light feathery 
foliage clings round the summit of an old tree in dense masses, from 
which protrude the bare twisted limbs which abruptly terminate the 
column. Perched high up in its branches may be often seen in winter 
the sluggish porcupine, whose presence aloft is first detected by the 
keen eye of the Indian through the scratches made by its claws on the 
trunk in ascending its fayourite tree to feed on the bark and leaves 
of the younger shoots. 

“ Large groves of hemlock growing on woodland slopes present a 
noble appearance; their ta!l columns never bend before the gale. 
There is a general absence of undergrowth, thus affording long vistas 
through the shady grove of giants; and the softened light inyests 
the interior of these vast forest cathedrals with an air of solemn 
mystery, whilst the even spread of their mossy carpet affords 
appreciable relief to the footsore hunter. ‘The human voice sounds 
as if confined within spacious and lofty halls. 

“ Hemlock bark, possessing highly astringent properties, is much 
used in America for tanning purposes, almost entirely superseding 
that of the oak. Its surface is very rough with deep grooves between 
the scales. OF a light pearly grey outside, it shows a madder brown 
tint when chipped. The sojourner in the woods seeks the dry and 
easily detached bark which clings to an old dead hemlock as a great 
auxiliary to his stock of fuel for the camp fire ; it burns readily and 
long, emitting an intense heat, and so fond are the old Indians of 
sitting round a small conical pile of the ignited bark in their 
wigwams, that it bears in their langnage the sobriquet of ‘ the old 
Grannie.’ The hemlock, as a shrub, is perhaps the most ornamental of 
all the North American evergreens. It has none of that tight, stiff, 
old-fashioned appearance so generally seen in other spruces: the 


* Forest Life in Acafie. Sketches of Sport and Natural History in the Lower 
Provinces of the Canadian Dominion.” By Captain Campbell Hardy, R.A. 
London: Chapman & Hall. 


_-gracefully sketch for us trees and forests new. Such a writer 


_the subjects on which they write. . 
The "deeply grained columnar trunk throws off its first : 


which, being interpreted, say—Love one another.—Ik. Marvel. 


graceful foliage droops loosely and irregularly, hiding the stem, and, 
when each spray is tipped with the new season’s shoot of the brightest — 
sea-ereen imaginable, the appearance is yery beautiful. The tree 
has a wide range in the coniferous woodlands of North America, 
extending from the Hudson’s Bay territory to the mountains of 
Georgia.” - « Sst Sa 

More striking still—and as we can testify from personal 
experience, true as life itsel{—is the sketch of an American 
forest :— "4 fist ; 

‘* On entering the woods, the ‘first feature which naturally strikes — 
us is the continual occurrence of dense copses of young trees, where 
a partial clearing has afforded a chance to the profusely sown germs ~ 
to spring up and perpetuate the ascendancy of vegetation, though of 
course in the struggle for existence, but few of these would liye 
assert themselves as forest trees. Unhealthy situations, such as cold 
swamps, are marked by the utmost confusion. Hverywhere, and at 
every variety of angle, trees lean and creak against their comrades, 
drawing a few more years of existence through their support. The ~ 
foot is being perpetually lifted to stride over dead stems, Sometimes 
so intricately interweven that the traveller becomes fairly pounded 
forthe nonce. This tangled appearance, however, isanattributeofthe — ~ 
sprace woods ; there is a much more orderly arrangement under the ’ 
hemlocks. These grand old trees seem to bury their dead decently, and 
long hillocks in the mossy carpet alone mark their ancestor’s graves, — 
which are generally further adorned by the evergreen tresses of the 
erceping partridge-berry, or the still more delicate festoons of the — 
capillaire. The busy occupation of all available space in the American 
forest by a great variety of shrubs and herbaceous plants, constitutes — 
one of its principal charms—the multitudes of=blossoms and delicate — 
yerdure arising from the sea.of moss to greet our eyes in spring, — 
little maple or birch seedlings starting up from prostrate trunks or 
crannies of rock boulders, with wood violets, and a host of the spring . 
flora. The Jatter, otherwise rough and shapeless objects, are thus — A 
invested with a most pleasing appearance—transformed into the 
natural flower vases of the woods. The abundance of the fern tribe, 
again, lends much grace to the woodland scenery. In the swamp tlie” 
cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea, with O. interrupta, attain a 
luxuriant growth; and the forest brook is often almost concealed by 
rank bushes of royal fern (O. regalis). Rocks in woods are always 
topped with polypodium, whilst the delicate fronds of the oak feyn 
hang from their sides.” ~ - Bas ae 


We have rarely enjoyed a book more; and hope that circam- 7 
stancesmay permit Captain Hardy to again use his pen to so ~ 


is worth a dozen of mere echoers of technicalities, who 
frequently seem divested of all feeling or high intelligence on 


f Z 


The Chandos Classics. (London: Warne & Co.)—A shilling edition of — 
our great writers, each volume well printed on good paper, and in clear 
readable type. Shakespeare or Byron for a shilling has hitherto been 
considered remarkable, even though presented in the smallest type, and 
on the worst paper, but each volume of the Chandos series is really 
worthy of binding. The “ Chandos Classics”’ are, in fact, the best pro- 
duct of cheap publication we have yet Seen, and specially merit the atten- ~ 
tion of gardeners and others whdse means will not allow them to purchase 
costly editions of our greatest authors. The series.comprises up to the 
present time the works of Moore, Byron, Burns, Longfellow, Scott, and 
“The Arabian Nights,” each complete in one yolume. : ‘ 


ENGLISH FOOTPATHS. > 


y ee 
Anp there are other simple footpaths, which I remember loitering 
through day after day, in the rural districts of England, with a — 
sense of enjoyment that never belonged to saunterings in the alleys 
of Versailles. A man does not know England, or English landscape, : 
or English country feeling, until he has broken away from railways, — - 
from cities, from towns, and clambered over stiles, and lost himself 
in the fields. ss 
Talk of Chatsworth, and Blenheim, and Eaton Hall! Y 
know the pleasure of healthy digestion by eating whip-sylabub ? 
Did Turner go to Belvoir Castle park forthe landscapes which link 
us to God’s carth ? What a joy and a delight in those field footpaths — 
of England! Not the paths of owners only ; not cautiously gravelled 
walks; but all men’s paths, where any wayfarer may go; worn — 
smooth by poor feet and rich feet, idle feet and working feet; open 
across the fields from time immemorial; God’s paths for his people, 
which no man may shut ; winding—coiling over stiles—leaping on 
stepping-stones through brooks—with curves more graceful than a 
Hogarth’s—hieroglyphics of the Great Master written on the land, — 


- 


THE GARDEN. | 


GARDEN. 


HARDY CLEMATISES. 


Attow me to say a few words in praise of these beautiful 
plants, which are so remarkably effective for decorative 
purposes in general. It is, however, more particularly of 
their adaptability for parterre embellishment, or association 


with plants of picturesque aspect, that I would now speak. 


When grown in masses they flower profusely for months; 
producing crimson and purple tints unequalled by any other 
class of bedding plant. 
To grow Clematises successfully, so as to insure continuity 
of bloom, we must promote a vigorous growth, and the ground 
should bé well drained, if at all wet; it should also be deeply 
wrought, and rendered friable; and rotten manure and leaf- 
mould should be freely added, raising the beds above the 
ground level, rounding them neatly off towards the centre, and 
planting about three. feet apart. This isa good time to put 
out plants from pots, as they seldom receive any check if 
planted now. To insure a good effect the first season, it is 
important to procure thoroughly-established plants, as dis- 
appointment often accrnes from planting weakly plants; and 
_ should it be necessary to plant between the Clematises other 
‘plants to cover the ground the first season, Verbenas are 
Spee for that purpose. Timely attention to training is 
“hecessary; if that is not attended to, Clematises_soon be- 
come so tangled that it is difficult to separate them. 


Propagation is readily effected by means of cuttings at any 


time during the spring months, when cuttings may be taken 
about three inches in length and struck in heat under a bell 
glass. Propagated in this manner, I find them to do*equally 
well as grafted plants. Gxo..WestLanp, Witley Court. 


~ BARLY HARDY FLOWERS. 


Tue following list of hardy plants that have flowered here during 
the month of February may perhaps interest some of your readers, 
and perhaps induce them to send you similar lists — . 
Jasminum nudiflorum= Cydonia japonica Cyclamen Coum 


_ Forsythia suspensa Lamium fiexnosum C. vernum 
’ ¥. viridissima Borago orientalis Primula veris,garden vars. 
Galanthus nivalis, single Pulmonaria oflicinalis P. marginata 
and double P. o. alba P. helvetica 
G, plicatus Erica herbacea Aabis blepharophylla 
Rhododendron atrovirens E. codonodes Scilla sibirica 
Hepatica triloba, white Vinca major 8. bifolia 


HH. t: single & double, blue V. minor, blue and white 8. nivalis 


H. t. ditto, red Ulex europzus Orobus vernus 
Crocus susianus Garrya elliptica O. alpinus 
C. lagenwphorus , Cherianthus Cheiri O. cyaners 
C. imperati C. double yellow Arabis lucida 
C. luteus C. Bocconi A. albida 
C. 1, striatus Daphne pontica Mandragora officinalis 
C. biflorus x »D. Mezereum Calycanthus precox 
C, b. Parkinsoni D. indica rubra Potentilla alba 
_C. Sieberi. Ficaria alba Soldanella alpina 
 Gyvernys, in var. Hyacinthus orientalis Sternbergia lutea 
Maho: japonica Helleborus niger Anemone Hudsoniana 
M. Aquifolium H. n, major A. blanda . 
_ Aubrietia deltoidea H. dumetorum Sisyrinchinm grandi-~ 
A. alpina H. kamtsckatkensis (?) florum 
. greece : Hi. antiqnorum Saxifraga oppositifolia 
A, aureo reticulata H. orientalis S. 0. alba 
‘Viola canina, white & blue H. atrorubens S. ciliata 
W.Czar « > H. foetidus_ . 8. orientalis 
Erythronium Dens canis, Eranthis hyemalis Petasites alba 
white and purple Narcissus pseudo-Narcis- Omphalodes yerna 
Dondia Epipactis: sus Kerria japonica pleno 
Scopolia carniolica N. p.-N. pleno Dentaria digitata 
Tussilago ; N. minor Draba tomentosa 
Leucojum yverum N. maximus Corydalis cava alba 


Schiverckia podolica 
Carex japonica, var. 

i . = Apricot 
. Bitton Rectory, Gloucestershire. H. N. Etracowne. 


_ [We shall be greatly obliged if other readers will add to this most 
interesting list of very early hardy flowers. ] 


L. pulchellum N. white polyanthus 
i culata : 


. 


. 


THE FERN SUMACH. 
(RHUS GLABRA LACINIATA.) 


Tuts variety of the smooth or scarlet Sumach is a small 
shrub with compound leaves, growing from four to seven feet 
high, a native of North America, with finely-cut and elegant 
leaves. These leaves combine the beauty of those of the finest 
Grevillea with that of a fern frond, while the youngest and 
unfolding leaves remind one of the aspect of a graceful umbel- 
liferous plant in spring. he variety observable in the shape, 
size, and aspect of the foliage makes the plant charming to 
look upon, while the midribs of the fully-grown leaves are red, 
and in autumn the whole glow off into bright colour after the 
fashion of American shrubsand trees. Its great merit is that, in 
addition to being so elegant in foliage, it has a very dwarf habit 
and is thoroughly hardy. When the flowers show after the 
plant is a few years old, they may be pinched off; but this 
need only be practised in the case of permanent groups or 
plantings of it. To produce the effect of a Grevillea, or a fern 
on a small scale, we'should of course keep this graceful Rhus 
small and propagate it like a bedding-plant. Like most other 
shrubs, it has a tendency to branch; but to fully enjoy the 
beauty of the leaves it is best to cut down the plants yearly, 
as then the leaves given off from the simple erect stem are 


Rhus Glabra laciniata. 


much larger and more graceful. The figure, sketched early in 
August, represents a young plant little more than a foot high, 
which had been cut down to the ground during the spring of 
the past year. It may be most tastefully used in association 
with bedding-plants, or on banks in or near the rock-garden or 
hardy fernery, planting it in light sandy loam. The graceful 
mixtures and bouquet-like beds that might be made with the 
aid of such plants need not be suggested here, while of course 
an established plant, or group of three, might well form the 
centre of a bed. Planting a very small bed or group separately 
in the flower-garden, and many other uses which cannot be 
enumerated here, will at once occur to the reader. Some 
hardy plants of fine foliage are either so rampant or so top- 
heavy that they cannot be wisely associated with bedding- 

lants. This is, on the contrary, as neat a grower as the most 
‘astidious could desire. ; 


LONDON MARKET WALLFLOWERS. 


THESE are just now abundant, and their fragrant flowers are 
eagerly sought after, especially the good old.standard dark kinds, 
for none others will do for the London market. A yellow variety, or 
one approaching to that colour, is pulled up by the heels, and ruth- 
lessly cast to the rubbish heap, so anxious are our growers to secure 
the orthodox dark strain pure and unblemished. The market wall- 
flower is not so deep in colour as Young’s Blood-red kind, but itg 


376 


\ - 


[Marcu 16, 1872. : 


THE GARDEN. . 


petals are flatter, have more substance, and the colour is brighter, 
and, consequently, gayer. The habit of growth of the former is 
also better, being usually dwarf, branching, and in some cases so 
compact as to make excellent beds. I have found no difficulty in 


selecting kinds that are now, after ning months’ growth, not more 


than six inches in height, and so make capital companion plants fo 


the Belvoir Yellow variety, which makes such capital spring beds. 


The great thing with, London growers is to get them into flower 
early, and to secure this, they sow seed in March-along with their 
broccoli. The seedling plants are transplanted into quarters as early 
as possible, and, if the ground be good, a perfect mass of strong, 
well-wooded plants will be ready to endure the vicissitudes of 
winter. These will be sure to flower early, and the first cuttings are 
worth double, and even treble, what the flowers will fetch after the 
crop has become general. I cut a good handful of flowers from 
yearling plants as early as February 23rd; but these had been left 
standing where sown last spring. Generally, however, sowing in 
March, and planting out as soon as large enough to handle, is the 
best way to secure ‘very early flowers. : 

Our country cousins seldom grow such rich-coloured strains as we 
metropolitans are favoured with ; but, then, here much care has been 
exercised in the selection of the best colours, and thus good quality 

AS SDS 


is assured. ¥ 


AN OFFERING OF WILD FLOWERS 
TO “THE GARDEN.” : 


Hasre to the woods this balmy day, 
_ And mark what Nature has that’s say 
To fringe her robe of green; 
Peeping from forth dead leaves you'll sec 
The dark-eyed Wood Anemone, 
- Meek messenger of Spring. 


The Snowdrop, firstling of the year, 
While on the trees no leaves appear, 
Now cheers the wintry gloom; 

No rival whiteness now is spread, 

Tt lifts its modest, drooping head, 
And tells us snow is gone. 


The Blue-bell, on its slender stall, 
You fear to crush it as you wall, 

So thickly spread anew ; 

It bows its head to mother earth, 
Sheds on the ground that gave it birth 
A grateful drop of dew. * 


Primroses in profusion flank 

On every side the hedgerow bank, 
Sprinkled with Violets sweet ; 

In harmony their colours blend, 

How fresh the fragrance that they lend ! > 
How lovingly they meet ! : 
Daisies open their starry eyes, 

And mock the starlight in the skies, 
So bright the ground appears; 

But when the stars shine out at night, 
Dazzled by the radiant light, 

They close their eyes in tears. 


Now-tastefully a garland twine, 

And bind it round with Eglantine, 

Then seek Sylvanus’ bowers; 

Hang it upon his garden gate, 

A rural wreath to antedate ' 
The cultivated flowers, - J 


_—Etizaseru H. Coorn, Glen Andred. 


FERN COLLECTING IN DEVONSHIRE. 


BEING Wesirous of possessing a collection of British ferns, the 
season before last I paid a visit to Ilfracombe, thinking, like half 
the world, that I had nothing to do but walk out and find plants of 
Maiden-hair fern (Adiantum Capillus Veneris) growing on every 
bank and hedgerow, but I found myself mistaken; for now it is 
very hard to get a plant of. it. Indeed, it is only on the cliffs it is 
found, and-men have to be lowered by ropes, to enable them to 
gather it; so I had to content myself with getting a plant of it at a 
dealer’s fernery, Where the Maiden-hair may also be obtained 
growing in pieces of the natural cliff, which looks very neat and 
effective. Here I provided myself with one of those wonderful- 
looking weapons, afern digzer. ‘There are not, as I have said, many 
ferns to be found within a walking distance of Ilfracombe; the 


{ 


‘may be found growing in nearly every rocky place, on old walls, 


plentifully eyerywhere ; but near the Water’s Meet—indeed, close 


' gentléman who was one of the officials in the Government Dockyard 


‘a famous flower in its time. 


made quite a sensation at the time.” a. 


F wate 
Crystal Sea Pools, with their host of living creatures, being the 
attraction of other kinds of collectors at that place. 2 

I next went on to Lynmouth, where my expectations in the way of 
finding ferns were more than realisedy I shall name alphabetically 
those which I found, beginning with :— See 

Sua SrLeenworr (ASPLENIUM MARINUM).—This is a fern rather 
difficult to find hereabouts; but I was fortunate enough to get one 
small plant on Countesbury Hill, which, you may be sure, I took 
good care of. ee oy 

Brack Mariwen-nam Spneenworr (ASPLENIUM NIGRUM).—This 


amongst stones, &c., on the road to the Water’s Meet. It was 
while getting this fern ] found my digger so useful, as nothing else 
would have passed in amongst the stones and rocks as it did. f 
also found some small plants of this fern in the Valley of Rocks at” 
Lynton. 7 ee 
Cowon Mamwen-Hair SPLEENworr (ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES).— 
Of this elegant little fern I found a good deal all along the roads to” 
the Water’s Meet and Countesbury Hill, also at a place near 
Lynton called Leddy Weild. Jt is nearly always found in some 
damp spot. - rar Saf SN 
Lapy Fern (ArnyrtwM ribix re wya).— This is found growing 
on nearly every bank all. through Devonshire, and plenty of it occurs 
all 1ound about Lynmouth and Lynton. Se eee 
BrEcHNUM sPicaNr.—Of this I found large clamps on the littleisland 
at the Water’s Meet, which is rather a hard place to get at, as it 1s 
only when the river is very low one can cross over. a. Fockhowy 
Tou Many Fern (LAsrrea riuix Mas).—This is to be found all 
along the banks and dells, sometimes growing to a very large size, 
according to the age of the plant, and also the soil. f 
Buckter Fern (Lasmrma monrana).—This also is to be found 
plentifully on the hill that .rises from the sido of the river 
Lyn, on the right hand going from Lynmonth, and also here and 
there along the side of the river. pean , 
Hay-Scenrep Fern (LasrREA ©MULA).—This is nob common round 
Lynmouth; but I found two large plants near Countesbury, which I ¢ 
was told was a very rare‘occurrence, as where it is generally found is" 
much further away. ; ‘5 Be WanBI 
Common Ponyropy (PoLyPopruM VULGARE).—This grows in great 
profusion on the top of the wall all along the hill up from Lynmouth 
to Lynton, and also on the trunks of trees growing on the island at 
the Water’s Meet, ses See 
Prickty Ssrerp Fern (Potysricnum acunnarum).—This is also 
very common in Devonshire. I have found it growing inmany parts, 
sometimes of great size. “ Shee 


Common Brake (Preris Aquimina).—This, I need not say, ie 8 


i 4 ao 


it, beside the water—I have seen it more than eight feet high. me €, 
Hanv’s Tonaur (ScoLopenDRIUM VULGARE).—This isfoundon nearly 
every wall or ditch throughout this county. ‘There is one wall 
about forty-yards long, on the coach read between Ilfracombe and ~~ 
Lynton; which is literally one mass of this fern. __ td eaves: 
These include all the ferns I found, and let me hope that the 
indications of locality which I have given may serye as a guide to” 
such of your readers as, like myself, go fern collecting m Deyon- 
shire. A. BS; Upper Norwood. 


“t SS a” 
THE DEVONIENSIS ROSE. R 
Unit Mr. Hole raised the question I was not aware that therowa 


any doubt about the English parentage of this rose. In additionto 
the valuable testimony of Messrs. Curtis and Brown, that it is of 


| English origin, other correspondents haye written to me confirming 


that fact. Mr.,Rendle says:—‘‘It was raised by Mr. Foster, a — 
at Devonport. He had a very nice garden (I am speaking now of 
more than twenty years ago), and he was fond of raising seedlings, — 
He raised some excellent Dahlias, including the Glory of Plymou 
He also sent out some first-ra 
Geraniums. _He had about forty or fifty seedling Roses trai 

against a south wall, and Devoniensis was one of them. He pai 
the expenses of his garden, I must tell you, from the procee: ; 
his seedlings, and he wanted £50 for Devoniensis. I thought this 
was too much, and offered £20. However, Mr. Pince, of Exeter, 
saw it, and was so struck with it that he agreed to pay the £50 
Mr. Pinee soon set to work and raised a large number of plani 
and I have heard that he made between £2,000 and £3,000 profi 
of it. Lremember the blooms were shown under glass shade 


yee eo ee ee 


Mancut 16, 1872.) 


THE WILD GARDEN. yee 


; Tr is in scattered and unexpected places that I like my children to 
_ © ferret out the wild flowers brought down from the woods—the frail 
~ Columbine in its own cleft of rock—the Wild-turnip, withits quaint 
- ‘greew flower in some dark nook that is like its home in the 
4 forest—the Maiden-hair thriving in the moist shadow of rocks ; and 
among these transplanted wild ones of the flower-fold I like to drop 
such modest citizens of the tame country as a tuft of Violets, or a 
1 green phalanx of the bristling Lilies of the Valley. Year by year, as 
| we loiter among them, after the flowering -season is over, we change 
: their habitat, from a shade that has grown too dense, to some summer 
| bay of the coppices ; and with the next year of bloom, the little ones 
; come in with marvellous reports of Lilies, where Lilies were never seen 
before—or of fragrant Violets, all in flower, upon the farthest skirt of 
the hillside. It is very absurd, of course; but I think I enjoy this 
miore—and the rare intelligence which the little ones bring in with 


their flashing eager eyes—than if the most gentlemanly gardener © 


from Thorburn’s were to show a Dahlia with petals as regular as if 
they were notched by the file of a sawyer. Flowers and children are 
of near kin, and too much of restraint, or too much of forcing, or too 
much of display, ruins their chiefest charms. I love to associate them, 
and to win the children to a love of the flowers. Some day they tell 
me that a Violet ov a tuft of Lilies is dead; but on a spring morning 
they come, radiant with the story that the very same Violet is 
blooming sweeter than ever, upon some far away cleft of the hillside. 
So you, my child, if the great Master lifts von from us, shall bloom 
—as God is gyood—on some richer, sunnier ground!—Ik, Marvel. 


ry 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


not think it would grow in the smut of London unprotected. We have 
porn it freely in London under a clouded handlight, and also in a cold 
frame, but it is of course much more interesting seen thriving in the open 


Arundo conspicua.—I have some nice young plants of this, twelve 
“months old from seed ; can you inform me whether or not this plant will 
; bear an average English winter in the open air? or does it require protec- 
tion? May it be planted ont in a clump like Gynerium argenteum.— 
_ R.M. R.—/Arundo conspicua will thrive in the open air in our southern 
- eonnties, if on a well-drained sandy loam; but in all cold situations it 
ought to be protected. It forms a superb grass on good soils, but is more 
fastidious than Pampas grass. } i 
-_ Dampier’s Glory Pea.—Mr. Saul, of Washington, has informed us 
~ that he raises this Pea with perfect success in the open air. He waits until 
the ground is well warmed—perhaps the end of May—and then sows the 
seed in not over-rich soil, in the place where the plants are to stand. It 
_ will not bear transplanting. The planf must be guarded from red spider 
in dry weather.—American Agriculturist. , 


__ Hardy Palms.—I shall be glad to know if there is a variety of 
Palm tree which would survive all the year round in an open garden, and 
_ where it may be obtained—J. T. 'T., Guernsey—T[Yes; Chamzrops 
_ exeelsa, and in your climate probably several others. } : 
ae ‘dy Ferneries,—Being anxious to possess a fernery for native 
. Peer ane be grateful to any of your readers who would kindly help 
__me with a few hints as to its construction and arrangement, The locality 
__ isin South Carnarvonshire, where the temperature is exceedingly mild. 
The spot chosen, the corner of a wood, partially over-shadowed with 
trees. A bank about twelve feet high, extending for some distance into 
~ the wood, has at its foot a small winding brook, an old fence being on 
the other side of the brook, where common ferns now grow most 
luxuriantly. The steep bank I wish’ more particularly to make the 
Reap oe of the fernery, by having it cut mto and hollowed, &e. I 
_ have a quantity of cork bark, how can I make that available? Will 
»~ ferns grow in it if placed as a facing to small terraces ?—M. L. W. 
[Our correspondent seems already to possess a very happy home for ferns 
withont much further alteration. We should not use cork bark in such a 
position. } he : . : 
Abnormal Heaths.—Mr. Britten directs attention, in the 
Journal of Botany, to an anandrous variety of Erica cinerea, from 
Wiltshire, which has year after year brought forth similar blossoms. 
_ Their appearance is very remarkable, and due to the fact that both 
corolla and stamens were wanting. The specimens are interesting 
on account of their'apparent permanence, i 


~ 


THE GARDEN. 


377 


GREAT GARDENS OF EUROPE. 


KEW. 

In treating of this, the greatest of great gardens, we shall 
begin with its least praiseworthy feature—its design. Com- 
petent writers, conversant with the various types of vegetation 
so well represented at Kew, will speak of these in detail; to 
ourselves falls the unwelcome duty of showing that in point of 
design Kew is chiefly remarkable for indicating what to avoid. 
Let it not be supposed, however, that Kew has anything like 
a monopoly of bad design; there are many. botanic gardens 
worse laid out than it, notably the Paris gardens; but in the 
case of Kew the fault is perhaps the more glaring, as the 
great size of the place has not made necessary that over- 
crowding which is unavoidable in the numerous small botanic 
gardens scattered over Europe. <A notion prevails that good 
design is not easily secured in a botanic garden, and sometimes 
that it is not desirable. No idea can be more erroneous, or more 
fraught with danger for public gardens. Anyone who knows 
the private plant collections of the United Kingdom, is well 
aware that the finest and fullest collection is often also the 
most beautifully and effectively arranged. Take the case of 
alpine plants and filmy ferns, for example. Everybody knows 
that the finest collections of these are not only among the best 
arranged, but are disposed in an entirely nével and exquisitely 
beautiful manner; the fact is that when the true and natural 
mode of arrangement is applied, the nobler the collection the 
higher the esthetic effects will prove, provided always there 
is space on which to display them. But no really good effects 
are possible in our botanic gardens so long as the system of 
ignoring the necéssity of breadth, and of dotting about trees and 
shrubs prevails, as if the object was to preyent the free sweep 
of the poacher’s net. The objects preserved ina botanic garden 
are in themselves so beautiful and interesting that, to numbers 
of persons, the necessity for’ a radical change in their 
arrangement does not present itself. And no language which 


-we can employ can describe the enormous difference between 


a vast national botanical garden, so arranged that the various 
types of vegetation preserved therein would be seen to the 
greatest advantage, and one disposed in the ordinary manner. 

Unfortunately, well designed large places of any kind are 
very rare. Not so small and medium sized ones, however; and 
if anyone will compare the difference between such gardens 
as those at Oak Lodge, or Berry Hill, with numbers of others 
badly laid out of the same size, he may form an estimate of 
the vast difference between the present aspect of our botanic 
gardens and that which they would present were a true 
system of garden design carried out in them. 

It is, however, only fair to remind the reader of the vastly 
greater difficulties that the improver meets with in public 
gardens and gardens governed by a society or committee 
of any kind to what he does ina private one. ‘I'he difference 
is like that between paralysis and healthy and vigorous: power 
of movement. The best man of his time may, employed iu 
a public garden, be so hampered by red tape, and so out- 
manceuvred by the silly or ignorant interference of officials, 
committees, &c., that his best efforts may beneutralised. Asa 
case in point, we may mention what came under our own 
observation a few years ago in a public garden governed by a 
council and committee. The superintendent of the winter 
garden, appalled by the leggy grandeur of a gigantic and 
aged Acacia in a tub, made up his mind to cut it down. 
Had it been ina private place, it would have been beheaded 
years before. The unhappy foreman knew his men, and did 
not appeal till the plant manifested a disposition to wander 
through the panes in the roof into the free air of Britain. He 
did not get his pruning-knife to cut it down, but began with a 
smaller implement, and made a report. This was sagely 
pondered over at the next meeting by the committee, but 
notwithstanding the proverbial wisdom in the plurality of 
advisers, the momentous question could not be decided. 
One member, bolder than the rest, proposed that they 
should all proceed to the conservatory, there to finish the dis- 
cussion; and, in the fulness of their wisdom, they went. -One 
was a well-known racing lord, another a successful apothe- 
cary, another a retired merchant, another a clergyman, another 
a London police magistratt, and so on, all being utterly inno- 


[Marcu 16, 1872, 


- gpd & 


KEW GREEN. 


QWEEN ELIZABETH: 


co peen lS. 


li 


WER MASEST YS PRIVATE GROUNDS, 


o YARDE-100 * 200 300 po 


PLAN, SHOWING THE GENERAL DISPOSITION OF THE ROYAL GARDENS AT KEW. 


. 


Wes Ser he 


a2 
a 


T 


+ 
y 


asd 


, 


, 


° 


as 


‘ / 


Marcu 16, 1872.3 


THE GARDEN. — 


379 


. 


cent of any knowledge of the cultivation of plants, and all, on 


a foolish mission, trying to determine a question which any 


_ gardener would settle in a few seconds. They returned to 


their meeting room once more, held a long consultation, and 
assed a resolution, that the specimen was too large to be cut 
own; and so it remained, as seedy-looking a grenadier as ever 
adorned a badly-managed conservatory. This may seem an 
extreme instance; but it is true, and may serve to show the 


_ lengths to which misdirected interference will go. 


As we wrote a fortnight ago, we have good reason to believe 
that there is very unwise interference on the part of some 
officials in the management of Kew and some others of our 
most important gardens, not merely with their general 
management, but with details, for which the superintendent 
should be solely responsible. Be this the case or not, the 
influence of our great public perdais is so powerful, from 
their being visited by hundreds of thousands of gardeners 
and amateurs, who look to them as models, that bad or imper- 
fect arrangement in them must have a pernicious influence 
throughout the length and breadth of the land ; and we feel 
it our duty to point out their faults, so that they may be avoided. 
Our plan of Kew is necessarily drawn on so small a scale, 
that many of the details of the garden cannot be seen therein. 
But, as our object in the first instanee is to speak of the 
general disposition of the gardens only, this does not 
matter. Z : 

Total want of breadth is the most glaring fault at Kew. 
The dotting system prevails everywhere. No improvement 
has been of late manifested in this direction. The place is 
gradually getting worse in this respect, and, in all our expe- 

riences, we have never seen so bad an example of injudicious 


dotting about of myriads of small trees and shrubs as Kew at 


present furnishes. Mr. Dawson, who drew our plan, tells us that 
‘in a few small plots in front of the winter garden he counted 
1,500 small trees and shrubs, mostly ordinary kinds without 
character or manifest object. The immense importance of a 
little peaceful breadth may be seen by looking from the raised 
bed near the Palm House lake towards the group of tall 
Limes, a small bit of undotted foreground lending great 
charms to the yiew. The question of the management of the 
vista peta recently discussed by our correspondents, is of 
~ no real importance compared with that of breadth. How the 
vistas are treated will make very little difference in the 
general impression produced on the visitor. A few acres of 
cool grass here and there would be worth a whole galaxy of 
canal-like vistas, managed even after the most approved 
fashion. In consequence of these vistas forming the chief 


- feature, and of other reasons before given, it is out of the 


_ question to expect any radical alteration in the way of breadth. 
ut we are entitled to expect that attempts should be made 
' to secure it where possible, instead of destroying it whenever 
a change is made. ; 
_ A needless kind of formality is also very apparent in many 
parts of the grounds. The kidney-shaped beds along the main 
walk are being multiplied without end, Now if the garden 
were wholly geometrical there would be some apparent excuse 
for this, but not a real one, for, as is well known, intelligent 


- designers of geometrical gardens do not now hesitate to make 


one feature differ from another, although balancing ‘each other. 
_~ But these kidney-shaped beds abut right upon varied planta- 


ry 


a 


tions. Such a long and heavy repetition of them was never in 
good taste, but to add to them, as has lately been done, is a 
“Yeal misfortune to the gardens. And those oft-repeated formal 
“masses of Rhododendrons are likely to be quite surpassed in 
bad effect by a great number of formal masses of small Laurels 
bordering the walks in many directions. It is not easy to guess 
why these have been thought desirable, but no feature ever 
added to a public garden is likely to produce a worse effect 
from the point of view of design, or indeed from any other. To 
the north of the great conservatory another hideous kind of 
formality may be seen—beds, hundreds of feet long without a 
break. ‘These are occupied by shrubs, 11d no doubt the arrange- 
ment is adopted to facilitate classification. But no worse or 
more awkward system could have been devised. Except one 


_ erdsses the bed, along detour has to be made to see any par- 


ticular shrub that may attract the eye from a distance of 
twenty feet. Blanks appear much ugher thanf the natural 


a et 2 


‘alpine plants, &c., is shown in summer. 


system of grouping had been adopted; and the effect of the 
whole on the eye is detestable. No graceful arrangement of 
shrubs is possible in long, straight beds. In all cases of 
arranging trees and shrubs in a botanic garden, the system of 
irregular grouping of families on the turf is the true one. It 
permits of beautiful arrangement, of easy access to all the 
species; every kind of shrub or low tree may be fitted into a 
happy place in the group; and if deaths occur, as they 
frequently do in botanic gardens, they do not leave an ugly 
blank, as is the case where the subjects are arranged in formal 
lines or beds. 

No garden should show anything in the way of rockwork 
which is not tastefully done, and is incapable of answering 
some useful end. This rule should particularly apply to 
botanic gardens. Better a thousand times content ourselves 
with the manifold good effects we can produce with trees and 
shrubs and flowers on the level ground than add to the hideous 
piles of rubbish that go by the name of “rockwork” all over 
the country. And where these excrescences do occur in public 
gardens, if the finances or other circumstances will not permit 
of a proper: rock garden being made, the right thing to do is, 
convey the offensive pile to the rubbish yard some time when 
the ground is hard in winter, and labour plentiful. Few public 
gardens show worse examples of the traditional rockwork 
than Kew. Our sketch shows that on which the collection of 


Paste ae Ag ae ty rere tern 
aids rcs oe 5 os, 
i <Y. teh Me, WR Sh) ad 
t art he biti a td “aha hota ysh 
Ps aN Mie > ead qa ray /- W 4a 
77 rea erees = == 


“ Rockwork’”’ at Kew. 


It speaks for itself. 
What a check to progress in this direction are the “ rock- 
works” here and in the Botanic Gardens in the Regent's 
Park! And yet there is no way in which our public gardens 
would do more good than by growing well, in the open air, and 
arranging in a tasteful manner, the numerous brilliant flowers 
of the mountains of our own and other cold and temperate 
regions. ‘ 
(To be continued.) 


<— 


NOTES ON PUBLIC GARDENS. 


The Enlargement of Victoria Park.—The Victoria Park Pre- 
servation Society are renewing their efforts to obtain every available 
portion of the open spaces which remain around Me sce Park. At 
the instigation of the society, the Metropolitan Board of Works 
recently purchased avout twenty-four acres of the Crown land for the 
park, including the land on the south side, and to the east of the Queen’s 
Hotel. These portions were secured from the Government for 
£20,450. But, besides the portions of land which have been thus 
purchased on the north and north-west sides of the park, there are 
several plots of Crown land, amounting in the aggregate to about 
nine or ten acres. Some of these plots have passed into private 


- hands, and their purchase having become a matter of some. difficulty 


they were abandoned by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Last 
week a deputation waited on the Members for Hackney (Messrs. 
Reed and Holms), with a view. of influencing them to induce the 
House of Commons to repurchase these plots. Mr. Holms, however, 
gave it as his decided opinion that the attempt to obtain the land 
would be useless, as both the Government and the country members 
would oppose the motion. 
haye therefore determined to urge the various local boards surround- 
ing the park to combine for the purchase of the plots of land in, 
question. CE . 

Driving In the Parks.—At present the parks are exclusivel: 
confined in respect to carriages to the use of the wealthy who hay 
carriages of their own. This is not a condition of things whic 
will bear discnssion. I have given notice of a clause which w 
declare that persons who cannot afford the luxury of private carriag’ 


The Victoria Park Preservation Society . 


ry 


380 


shall not on that account be deprived of the use of places of recrea- 
tion supported out of the public taxation. I can see no reason why | 
sick or feeble persons who are unable to walk should not be permitted 
to take the air in the parks ina hansom at half crown an hour, as much 
as those who possess a barouche. Nor can I see why the ‘pleasure 
yans, which seem to me productive of more real enjoyment than all 
the fine carriages in the world, haye not as good a right in Hyde 
Park as the Four- in-Hand Club. They give pleasure to a greater 
number of people, and are, on the whole, I fancy, less dangerous 
to human life. I observe that one of your weekly contemporaries 
defends this distinction on the ground that the greatest enjoyment 
in life is that of gaping with wondering delight | at fine people and 
smart equipages. I don’t dispute that the wr iter accurately expresses 
his personal sentiments; but I fancy that this idle admiration of 
fashion is rather the weakness of the literary than the operative 
Spectator.—Mr. Vernon Harcourt, in “ Times? 


TREES ON THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 


TuE “rough” element of the lower stratum of our population still 
continues to. exercise its propensity for the perpetration of wanton 
mischief. Twenty years ago, anything like ‘decorative sculpture 
within reach of a formidable stick was certam to be mutilated in 
a short time after its exposure in a public situation; and this was 
all the more certain to be the case if it consisted of figures, the 
noses of which very soon disappeared, forming, as they did, most 
tempting targets to the rollicking savagery of our street Arabs, 
whenever a good opportunity eceurred. The pretty little fieures on 
the new gates of the Bluecoat School, in Newgate Street, soon lost 
their heads altogether, and the unicorn supporting one of the shields 
was docked of his twisted horn, and also of his tail, before he had 
been many months exposed to the rough favours of a certain class of 
our British youth, who are so energetically active in mischief while so 
sluggish in any kind of useful work. But our youthful gentry of 
the. pavée perceived at last that bratal depredations of the kind 
alluded to began to be visited with such heavy indignation by the 
better edueated, that the untutored ruffians found the * ‘fun” did not 

“nay,” and reluctantly refrained. Or it may be that the influence 
of international exhibitions percolated even into the stony brains of 
raw ruffianism, and partially woke it up to a dim perception of the. 
beauties of art. In whatever way the change may have been 
wrought, certain it is that it has been wrought. Nevertheless, the 
demon of mischief still holds to a certain extent his ancient sway ; 
and although sculptured marble or artistie bronze is safer now than 
formerly, he sees no harm in breaking down or mutilating a youns 
tree too trustingly placed within his reach. This fact has been dis. 
agreeably exemplified by the mjuries inflicted for mere vicious 
amusement on the newly-planted trees of the Embankment, where 
this kind of depredation has been carried on to such an extent, and so 
daringly, that their official guardians, hopeless of affording them 
efficient protection by the police or by any other means, have, i ine, 
fit of natural vexation, threatened to take them aiway altogether. 
Such a course would be, in principle, like destroying any kind of 
property whatsoever if its protection happened to become irksome ; 
and therefore the threat must only be regarded as a natural expres. 
sion of angry disappointment—a mere fagon de parler. H. N. H, 


* 


KEW GARDENS 


THE week before Christmas upwards of forty gardeners were 


_ dismissed from Kew, says a correspondent in a recent number of the - 


Standard, not because there was not plenty to do, but because from 
some muddle in the estimates, the money which shonld haye been 
arranged for their pay, was not forthcoming. In that inclement 
season these unfortunate.victims of mismanagement were, at aweek's 
notice, ejectedfrom the Royal employment, although Parliament votes 
liberal and abundant sums for the support of the gardens. ‘‘ From 
some similar miscarriage in the estimates,” says the same authority, 
no fuel was this winter forthcoming for the museum, which was con- 
sequently perfectly useless to visitors. The damp and cold were such 
that it was more like a vault than a museum. Such astate of things. 
at an institution for which is voted, I believe, £19,000 per annum, is 
‘tterly disgraceful, and yet, I suppose, we shall be told that noone is 
erresponsible orblame-worthy forit.”’ Tn reference to this state- 
the Standard of a later date, says: “ We are assuredupon ¢ good 

% 1. That not a single gardener has been dismissed from 

“ug this winter. 2. That there has been no muddle or con- 

-v description in the estimates of any of its departments 

~v week ; the payments having been rightly calculated 

ch month and week nor has any weekly or other 

“been miscalculated, or payment postponed. 3. 

“tinguished in one (only) of the three museums | 


THE GARDEN. 


weather and pbesiae any extra heat is injurious to the magnifi t 
cent collections of polished timbers it contains. The doors of this 
building are set open whenever possible to attract visitors, who are 
apt to suppose that the building is closed* when the doors ( vhich | 
resemble windows) are shut. 4. That there has been no lack of 

nor of money to buy more if required. It is only fair tate 
there never has been any attempt at floral display m 
Gardens" in winter, except in one conservatory, and in 
houses, which certainly never had more variety or gaiet; y 
winter. With regard to the dismissal of the gardeners, we 
formed that the dismissed men were not gardeners, but di 
ers, hired in excess of the staff, for the especial purpose of - 
and planting, and were all distinctly informed when hired, , that 
might not be wanted for more than a week or two, whereas the 
kept on for a much longer period.’ § 


GARDENS OF PARIS. ~ 


Tue horticultural branch of Parisian industry is 
to renew a too dong infermmtted. Isbours with vigo 


are being entirely replanted where necessary, ah 
destined for turf, which were so beautifully kept before # 
being carefully dug and levelled, and sown with suitable 2 
short, this spring ul see that favourite ‘promenade reassume 1 ea 
all its wonted beauty. The shrubs will, however, require some f 
years before they can be expected to attain to that ‘falness ant 
of growth which distinguished the old plantations., O1 
been issued for the immediate formation and planta 
square at the Tower of Jean Sans Peur, in the space w 
laid open by the prolongation of the Rue aux Ours ané th Bra 
of the Rue Turbigo. The open space is of considera) e: 
the plantation and accompanying decorations are i soe 
keeping with the importance of the site. , 
The remodelling of our London squares might } a 
undertaken in emulation of the examples Paris will 
Tn the midst of horticultural activity in Paris in man} 


plans for the fine “square” in the Place Dauphin 
nitely delayed. However, much is being done ; and 
in the bright gay Paris of old will soon look as # 
and several new features will be added during the 


To promote the study - Sapest science eee the up} 
once a week, during the months of May, June, and July, 
Commissioner will hold an afternoon Botanical Clas 
and lecture on its trees, plants and Howerme shrul 


attending the class will have the option of taking BG a 
an examination in the lectures at the end of the London § 
when prizes willbe awarded to the most proficient students, 2 

Within twelve months of the Bill receiving th Roy 
group of Achilles at Hyde Park Corner, and ene 7 


middle 6f Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest 1 
in the meantime, a requisition signed by the reside 
various incorporated Art Societies in the ‘Metropo : 
the Chief Commissioner, imploring him to retain these 1 
-anation’s gratitude in their present positions. — 

The estimates for the financial year 1872-73 will zaek 
replanting Primrose Hill with Primroses, Crocuses, Sno. 
other spring flowers. ‘To lessen the expense to the nation, co 
tions of plants and bulbs are solicited. They will bee than 
received and officially acknowledged. 

The design for any drinking fountain proposed to b 
a Royal Park or Garden, must be approved by a Commi 
to consist of a Royal Academician, a Fellow of the 
British Architects, an official of the Science and Fase 
the Editor of the Art Journal, Lord Elcho, Mr. Beresfo 
a prominent Teetotaller. — 

Smoking will be permitted in the Parks and Gardens, an 
aged in the Conservatories; but samples of the tobacco.an 
must be sent, ten days beforehand, to the Office o ot Von ae 
submit them to the Customs, which will confer with the 
will report upon them to the Treasury, which will.c 
of pg anda decision: will be even) peters thePe: 


“Wea 


“‘Mancit 16, 1872.) e THE GARDEN. 


smoking clay pipes with groom, and dram drinking with the 
rest of the company, while melodious gent, who has been 
digging all day, and has come in, .I dare say, all over worms, 
is holloaing Bacchanalian songs.” Let him sneer, as he tosses 
the volume down, and goes off with his cigar to the stables, 
for I am perfectly unconcerned and happy—happy in my 
earnest hope that they whose sympathies alone I craye, will 
recognize in our little assemblies that brotherly goodwill and 
amity, whereof themselves know from experience the excellent 
power and sweetness, and whereby the true lovers of a garden 
are united in a friendship as stedfast as it is pure, and as 
universal as Divine Beauty itself. 

These lovers of the garden know well, that as “ one touch of 
Nature makes the whole world kin,” so one truthful instance 
of a floral taste, one hearty expression of horticultural loyalty, 
is acknowledged at once and echoed instantly by a thousand 
kindred souls. They know of signs and passwords more 
powerful than those of the Free-est Masons, the Oddest Fellows, 
the most Ancient Druids—a cosmopolitan clanship, accredited 
thronghont the world. 

“Rather flowery,” I hear it suggested. Well, yes, I think 
so; and, therefore, let us put aside the figurative, and illustrate 
our theme by fact. One hit, straight and home, is worth halt 
an hour of sparring. : ; 

Returning, not long ago, from a visit to some distant friends, 
I arrived at their nearest station four seconds after the 
departure of the train; and the enyine-driver, to whom I 
bellowed piteously, not being of a floral mind, and coarsely 
refusing to come back, I was left, with another of the guests, 
to amuse ourselves for three hours as best we could. What 
was to be done? It was ten minutes’ walk to the town, and 
to the town we went. Hert was a fine old church, recently 
restored; but it was locked, of course, and both of us were 
afraid of Bedels. “ Was there a billiard-table?” we inquired 
of the postman. “No, but there was a bagatelle-board at the 
‘Cock and Trumpet,’” an alternative which did not allure us. 
So to the chief hotel for luncheon, though we had scarcely 
breakfasted two hours ago; and here we imbibed some fearful 
- sherry, the which, I verily believe, is lurking in my system now. 
A cigar ; and we seemed entirely forlorn and pgostrate; when ~ 
suddenly my thoughts emerged from their gloomiziess, like 
railway-carriages from a tunnel into sunshine. 

« Are there any nursery gardens in the neighbourhood ?” [ 
inquired of the waiter, just bringing us, with the best intention, 
a copy of the J'imes, which we had read two days ago. 

“Oh yes, sir,” he responded to my great refreshment; “‘ Budd 
& Packe’s, sir; late Twig, sir. Anybody will show you the 
way, sir.” - 

Away I sped, my companion following reluctantly, for he 
was no horticulturist, and having referred to “anybody,” in 
the person of an intelligent baker, we soon reached the 
gardens; and in five minutes I was perfectly at home and 
happy in the congenial society of Messrs. Budd & Packe. 
We sauntered through the houses; we peeped into the frames; 
we wandered among squares of ever-verdant trees, phalanxes of 
flowering shrubs, and regiments of the deciduous order. We 
admired, we denounced, we compared. “Had I seen so and 

so?” “Did they grow what d’ye call it?” Did I know 
thingembob?” I seemed to-haye been there but ten minutes, 
when my fellow traveller, first attracting my attention with a 
groan, whispered the information that he “ was slightly sick of 
those confounded sticks, and, if he could find a tank or pool, 
-he thought he shonld go and drown himself.” To which IL 
murmured, “Au Reservoir;” and we parted. The hopeless 
Hottentot! “Those confounded sticks” were the cleanest, 
strongest, straightest lot of briars I ever saw in my life, tall 
standards, and breaking beautifully ; and he groaned at them! 
Groaned at them, and when I returned to the station, with ty 
large baskets of plants, pretended painful anxicty as to 
-mental state, and entreated me to have an interview 


No alteration will be made in the existing arrangements for the 
- eustody, preservation, and maintainance of the birds on the orna- 
_ mental waters; but that the expense of keeping up the Parks may 
be reduced to the lowest point consistent with the national honour 
_ and dignity, as the present fowls die off, their places will not be 
“filled up. . 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
7 CHAPTER VIL. 


_ Uroy the occasion of our Curate’s first appearance as a 
“member of “The Six of Spades,” I derived much gratification 
. from contemplating the deportment of Joseph Grundy. No 
sooner did he see his Pastor, than he made an uneomfortable 
‘attempt to hide his pipe, which, being a Brosely of robust 
__ proportiuns, declined to ‘be concealed at any price; while his 
fet 


tures assumed, so far as their mirthful make permitted, a 
- troubled and solemn aspect. Whether he thought it probable 
_ that he should be called upon to oblige the company with a 
hymn, or whether he was under the impression that clergymen 
were painfully affected by tobacco, after the manner of the 
ereen-fly, there was but brief time to speculate ; for the Curate, 
noting his wot, forthwith proceeded to dispel it by filling 
and igniting\s: ample bowl of clay, and by. taking his seat, 
ext to Joseph, with a pleasant and friendly smile. “I met 
old Michael Willis yesterday,” he said, “and as soon as he saw 
me, forgetting, I suppose, that he has not a monopoly of eye- 
‘sight, he swiftly put his pipe in his pocket. So, after some 
. little conversation, [ suddenly expressed, to his great surprise, 
e anxious hope that he was insured. Tor if,’ I continued, 
old saying be true, that where there is smoke there is 
é, your waistcoat-pocket, Michael Willis, may soon be ready 
wr the tinder-box. And you would be rightly rewarded for 
¢ that which you are ashamed of doing, art for attempting 
to deceive a true friend.” 
_ “Tm not ashamed o’ smoking,” he answered; “but they do 
y as parsons hates it.” 


J 


Tuelly, despitefully, and with lying lips, Michael. With 


x 


nocuous pleasure. ‘They who denounce it must give up all 
their Inxuries, and nearly all their comforts, before they can 
‘so consistently; and then, Michael, we will argue the 
tter on the principles of religion and common sense. We 
smoked our pipes for three hundred years in England, 
nnine with a walnut for a bowl and a straw for a tube; 
, though a king has blown his “ Counter-blast agaitist 
aceo,” and yellow Puritans have groaned and snarled at it, 
still brings pleasant solace, throughout the land and under 
to the miner toiling for the coal, and to him who sits by 
coal-fire’s blaze; and leaves men as brave and as good, 
as when Raleigh, or whoever first brought the plant 
‘us, was as yet unborn. So I finished my little sermon; 
my friend Joseph knows why I have ventured to repeat. 


" ““There’s another little sermon, sir,” said Mr. Oldacre, “upon. 
sco and the pipe, which rescues the memory of one Puritan 
all events from silly prejudices on the subject. I mean 
Be nene old ditty which George Wither sang, 
ich Frank here” (his son-in-law, Chiswick) “will sing 

uu. if you wish.” Weel wi 
He aid rapping of the table, and a preliminary 
i and water, and a re-arrangement of limbs into 
posture for listening; and then Mr. Chiswick, 


382 


THE GARDEN. 


every garden something new to see; from every gardener 
something new to learn; and so the hours pass swiftly, 
pleasantly, and I hope wisely, onward. . 


Wisely, I believe. For, after all, my brothers, it is the 
wisdom and goodness of gardening which make it such a deep 
and enduring happiness. It is thankfulness, reverence, and 
love, which make our gardens dear to us from childhood to 
old age, for,— ; : 

‘Love is like the ocean, ever fresh and strong, \ : 
Which, the world surrounding, keeps it green and young.” _ 

Yes, it is because we cannot really love the beautiful flowers 
without loving Him “ Whose breath perfumes them, and 
Whose pencil paints;” it is because there lies deep im the 
heart-of a man a yearning to recover Paradise, and to rest 
~once more upon the Mount of God; it is because when we 


cherish tenderly, and watch adoringly, the Creator’s handiwork, 


that we are permitted to “ walk with Him through the Garden 
of Creation;.” it is because the life of a gardener is, or ought 
to be, a religious life,— é 
“Yea, holy is the gardener’s life, for unto him is given 
To be a fellow-worker with the sun and showers of heaven, 
Gently to aid the labours of the teeming mother earth ~ 
And watch and cherish tenderly her children from their birth; _ 


it is because the wisest of men, such as were Bacon and Newton, 
were happiest in their gardens, and spake of gardening, from 
a glad experience, as “the purest of human pleasures; ” it is 
because men, such as was Wordsworth, have bequeathed to us 
the certain confidence that “Nature never did betray the 
heart that loved her;” it is for these reasons, and many an- 
other as true and gracious, that the pleasures of gardening are 
so great and lasting, and that of the earnest faithful gardener 
it may be justly said,— 3 
: “Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die, 
Nor leave thee when old age is nigh 
A melancholy slave ; ; ; 
But an old age, serene and bright, 
And lovely as a Lapland night, 
Shall lead thee to thy grave.’ ic 


Thoughts like these ensured .a special welcome for the 
Reverend Francis Goodhart, our Curate, as he entered our 


room of assembly. We were glad to have our Pastor’s | | 


sympathy, and to appoint a Chaplain to our littleband. More- 
over, we ever found in him a cheerful companion and an 
enthusiastic gardener. You may see ample evidence of the 
latter characteristic in and about his cottage home; in his 
delightful garden, which seems to contain everything in 
miniature—a diminutive greenhouse, a small bed of American 
plants, a little rockery,a wee fernery, a tiny fountain, an 
intricate geometrical design on the most reduced of scales. 


Pretty creepers twining about his porch stoop to welcome you — 


on your arrival,and the Jasmine and fhe climbing Rose look 
at you lovingly through the windows as you take your seat 
within. Passing through the hall—lobby would be more 
truthful, perhaps—you sec, generally, a large bowl of wild 
flowers, gathered and admirably grouped by the children of 
the village school. In the study and drawing-room are 
choicer bouquets, either culled from his own Lilioutian con- 


servatory, or offerings from some brother Spade, and arranged, — 


as only ladies can arrange them, by his beautiful sister, Rose 
Goodhart, who shares and gladdens the Curate’s home. At 


early morn, in the sweet summer-tide, you may see him, with 


his scythe in his hand, sweeping down the dewy grass, until 


the church bells call him to his daily service (‘the wust and 


incurablest form o’ Popery,” according to Mrs. Verjuice), and 
he goes through the quiet graveyard, carefully honoured now, 
and ornamented with flower aud shrub, and through the 
‘ancel-door, by which the Rose “ Felicité Perpetuelle’\climbs 
“venward in emblematic beauty, into the hallowed courts of 
Year old church. These, too, sometimes are reverently 

by our Curate and his little band of acolytes, and “the 
sughter is all glorious within” upon her greater 

“th flower and branch, just as under the Older Test- 

“vin substance and no more in type, the chapiters 

ith pomegranates, “and upon the top of the 

ork.” LI like to see the children (but don’t 


‘ng the long ropes, coyered round with 


fresh spring flowers at Haster, the bunches of Pri 
Violets smiling at intervals upon the dark gre 
those children tell me, and this of course, that th 
is most beautiful upon their own festival, the ol in : 
‘held upon St. Luke’s Day, brings Dahlias in clothes-be ts t ee 
our Curate, until the glowing glass in our -painte Wwe 
begins to pale its ineffectial fire, and our frivolk lamst Is 10 . 
complain on Sunday that their best bonnets have not fair pli 
Our Curate is not only alover of flowers himse 
zealous missionary florist. He was instrument 
ing our Cottage-Gardening Society, which ha: 
a waste place from the weeds, many a sot f 
and brought comfort to many a home. I 
Cooper’s garden, for instance, as the favourec 


hold of Tom, by giving him work, I think | 
Jesseites,” Mrs. V. remarked), when he was nea 
and as lean as the pig which he had been compe 
then talked him into his “sober senses.” 
labourer about the place has a cleaner, neate 
than Tom. Dock and Groundsel, Thistle and Ty 
once grew as closely together as the bristles of his n 
beard, have been displaced for Lapstone Kidneys and Cot 
Kale, for Gooseberry trees and Currant trees, the 
the Sweet William, and the Rose. - It does one good 
when the daylight lengthens, digging and hoeing, ; 
setting; while Tom, junior, proudly holding 
packet of seeds, scowls at small Jacky for rm 
fayther’s legs; and mother, with her baby at the co 
looks on with a thankful heart. And you vol 
‘pleased, I am sure, if, at our last horticultural ex! 
had seen, as I saw, the Curate, with his hand on T 
congratulating him on the prizes he had wo 
ae (To be continued.) 


“ee FEEy ERO S Eee 

SAMADS Agnes: 
Every household in which a thrifty housewife pre 

some mysterious preparation with which the 
compels reluctant housemaids to rub the furnit’ 
The object of this operation is to keep the polish bri 
it answers the purpose very well. I could not give 
wonderful compound, for I do not know it, but 
describe it than by saying that, in appearance, sm 
ture taste also, it closely resembles that 1 
which will be produced in a pyramidal an 
you ask for salad dressing at an hotel or an ea 
no one in his senses expects to get anything particul: 
or drink at such places ; but in private hou wh 
‘good dinner is to be had, the same oddly-sha 
source whence the salad dressing is obt: 
of a good salad is, that not only the — 
fresh and newly gathered, but that t 
fresh and newly mixed. The art, ho ; 

is all but unknown in this country, 7 
| trouble, and requires too great a appc en 

-céndiments, for’ the broad mind of the British cook to be 
about it. Ask her to mix a salad, she simply pours ou 
allowance of the contents'of the queer shaped bottle oyer a. lc 
lettuce, endive, and watercress chopped up more or small, 
there you are., And yet salads are appreciated 
Hear what an English wit and divine—Sydn 
says of salads:— ae ee 
_.. “Oh, great and glorious and herbaceous tre: 
. ?Tiyould tempt the dying anchorite to eat. 

Back to the world he’d turn his weary soul, 
-———s« And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl! 
But my object is neither to prove that salads are 1 er 
nor that English cooks do not kn w how to prepa 


~~ y* Ot 4 


THE GARDEN. 


383 


pe y= 


_ venture #8 deny either of these propositions. My purpose is to 
expound the art and mystery of dressing salads, and I shall leave it 

to the intelligent reader who will put my precepts in practice to 
iy. . decide whether a salad is a good thing, if he has ae doubt on the 


point. 


MATERIALS, 


-_ The consideration of salads may be divided under three heads—the 
; vegetable part, or foundation; the dressing, or sauce ; and the aeces- 
sories. One of the chief requisites of a good salad is that it should 
_ be newly gathered, and, if yon can get it free from mould and gravel, 
it is better not to wash it atall; but, as is more often the case, if you 
must wash your salad, you cannot be too careful in draining all the 
_ Water from it, for every drop of water left in a salad tends to spoil 
it, no matter what amount of talent has been bestowed upon the 
aS. ‘dressing of it. Great care is also necessary in picking the salad, so 
roe to exclude eyery leaf that is the least tainted or discoloured. It 
a great mistake to cut up lettuces and endives, more Anglico; into 
fine threads. This operation at once destroys the freshness, taste, 
and character of the dizh. Of course, I do not mean that cos lettuces 
_ simply split in two should be made into asalad; but there is a happy 


3 


‘es 
or Ss medium, which is always best in most things. Besides, it is by no 
; s the largest lettuces which ‘make the best salads. The cos 
Te - Iettuce, which we call Roman lettuce, is all very well in its way, but 


- ~ the cabbage lettuce, the laitue pommée, when it is well pommée, is 
Fant _ by far preferable. This should be cut into quarters. like an orange, 
~~ and no more. — 
(a, Maidives can better bear centting up than lettuces, and may. be 
treated accordingly ; but it is a mistake to put endives and lettuces 
in the same saiad bowl. What is called corn salad goes better with 
 endives, although I think that it is wrong to put too many herbs 
to one salad as a salad ; as a condiment it is a different matter. 
‘As such, watercress, tarragon, burnet, garden (not what is called 
‘mustard. and cress), American, and Australian cress, chervil, parsley, 
sas basil, mint, balm, marjoram, &c., may be used, but they must be used 
pout diseretion. Likewise beetroot, cucumber, onions, celery, radishes, 


* 


Le Be: 
* 


Pe 
33 
* 

Ps 


Bes 


tay 


atoes, chives, garlic, can be put into a salad with success, if you 
iow how to use them. 
_ ‘That overgrown herb (mustard and cress) which is always asso- 
ciated with all salads by the British greengrdcer, should never be 
used if it can be ayoided. The American and Australian curled 
perennial cress .are much preferable in point of taste and 
_ appearance. These, as well as watercress, tarragon and burnet, must 
_ not be cut up too small, but the leaves only, especially in the case 
~ of watercress, must be ‘used, and not the stalks as well. They must 
_ be well washed, and the water may be got rid of by pressing them 
; a cloth, without injury to the freshness of the salad. Other 
~ herbs must be minced quite fine, and a'pinch or two will be about 
te the | proportion of them for an ordinary salad. Chives and onions 
must be minced small also ; but in some special cases, hereafter to ~ 
‘referre. ~~ onions in slices are used; otherwise spring onions 
ing. Garlic is only to-be used ‘with an endive salad, and 
to the taste of the probable partakers the proportion of it 
must be ade It need not, however, appear in the saladatall;a 
pe Sad of bread slightly rubbed with it will convey a sufficient amouut 
flavour if it is put into the bowl only while the operation of turning 
‘ the salad is going on. By a similar contrivance, a slight flavour of 
onion may be given to a lettuce salad. Celery chopped up small 
may be ‘used as a condiment, or it may of itself form the staple of 
» the salad. Potatoes make a very good salad (boiled, of course) of 
mselves, or associated with celery, beetroot, and other things; 
they are also used as part of the sauce sometimes. Slices of 
cumber are neyer amiss in certain salads. Radishes, whole or 
‘sliced, and slices of beetroot, help the ornamentation, if not the 
taste, of a green salad. 
Another sort of salad is what the French call Barbe de Capucin. It 
a blanched chicory, but the common -endives' are preferable. 
3 Dandelion, especially if it be cultivated, makes very good salad, 
eveither alone or with lettuces. The leaves ’and flowers of mallow and 


SY ge, te 
“cs 
a 


nek 


>: 


; 


ay 


ipon a salad with advantage. 
; ee have a way of making a ‘salad with unripe tomatoes, gathered 
just as they begin to show the least red. I cannot call to mind at 

_ the moment any other greenmeat which is eaten as a salad, but I 
Say generally that any vegetable which is not positively 
lesome uncooked can form the foundation of a salad. I have 
delicious salads in Italy composed entirely of dandelions and 
_ other wild herbs gathered by the road and the river side. There is 
£ dandelions in the rural lanes of this country, and I believe. 
wild; but-I should be puzzled to find the dozen and 
! herbs which composed my wild salads, and I have not 

confidence i in my botanical knowledge to try the experiment. 

a beetroot are by no means the only vegetables which can 


In Italy and the south of France 


be made into a salad when cooked. Dried or fresh haricot beans, 
French beans, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflowers, broccoli 
sprouts, turnip tops, &c., make very good salads. They should be 
plainly boiled in salt and water, well drained, and when quite cold 
make your salad. (To be continued.) 


THE FAIRY-RING CHAMPIGNON. 


Is our account of this (see p. 333) the references to the woodcut 
were unfortunately omitted ; we therefore reproduce our illustra- 
tion for the purpose of supplying them, in order to make clear the 
difference between the true champignon and its ally :— 


Pig. 1. Marasmius oreades (Fairy-ring Champignon). Pastures, 
roadsides, and downs, in the autumn; colour, pale buff; gills, 
broad and far apart; diameter, 1 to 2 inches. , 

Fig. 2. Marasmius-urens (False Champignon). Woods and pastures 
in the autumn; colour, pale buff; gills, narrow and crowded 
together ; diameter, } inch to 14 inches. This is poisonous. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE HOUSEHOLD. 


Why should Potatoes be Steamed in Preference to 
Boiling Them ?—Because potatoes, being a mass of flour-particles, 
become watery from being covered with a weight of water, the particles 
not being able to expand and burst into flour. With steam they are not 


_covered; bnt if steamed too long the flour-particles absorb the steam, 


and become water-logged, but, of course, they are not such awatery mass as 
when they are boiled. Baked or roasted potatoes, if cooked too much, 
absorb steam, and become unwholesome. When potatoes are boiled, 

they should be covered with boiling water and a little salt; when tlrey 
have boiled for five minutes, the whole of the water should be strained 
away, then be covered with cold water, and this also strained away, then 
about three tablespoonfuls be put in the bottom of the saucepan, and the 
potatoes allowed to simmer slowly till they are done; then the cover of 
the saucepan taken off for the steam to escape. They are best if, the 
moment they are’ done, the saucepan is turned upside down with the 
cover on, and then the latter taken ge when the saucepan is turned to its 
right place. 

Sauerkraut.—To make apakinnt, the cabbage is sliced by means of 
a knife fixed in a frame, and is something like an inverted plane. A clean 
barrel is lined with cabbage leaves on the bottom and a short distance up 
the sides. A layer of three inches of cut cabbage is put in and pressed 
down by the hand, and sprinkled with four tablespoonfuls of salt. Four 
layers are put in in this way, and then the whole is packed down hard 
with a wooden pounder. Four more layers follow, with another pounding, 
and so on until the barrel is full. Cover with cabbage leaves, and put on 
a board follower with a heavy weight, and set away to ferment. Remove 
the scum at the end of three weeks, and, if necessary, add water enough to 
keep the kraut covered. 

Currant Tomato.—I have grown this as a pillar fruiting plant, a’ 
on trellises for ornament, and for the first time it has been used t) 
autumn in many ways by our chef de cuisine. I have a notion that it eo 
be used as a winter fruit preserved in sugar syrup, as is done with all ot 
ripe fruits so cleverly by the French. It would form a very beautiful 
if the colour and the entire grappe could be preserved. The vari 
allude to is the Solanum racemigerum, which must not be confoundec 
a variety sometimes called the currant; of the size of a cherry.. T) 
is as small as a black currant, and with grappes a foot and more 
H. K., in “ Gardeners’ “Chronicle: i 


- cordons. are grown. 


384 _ 


THE GARDEN. 


The Marsh Marigold as “Spring Greens.”—Among our 
indigenous plants used as greens, none is so generally employed—at least 
in the Bastern States—as the mash marigold (Caltha palustris), perhaps 
for the reason that in its localities it grows abundantly, and is readily 
gathered. In April and May, the wet meadows and the margins of 
Brooks are made gay by the golden buds and flowers of this plant. The 
leaves are round-heart-shaped, and of rich green. The flowers look 
much like large buttereups; indeed, the plant belongs to the same 
family as the buttercup or erowfoot. The leaves and tender stems are 
gathered at or just before flowering time. The plant when fresh is 
considerably acrid, but this quality, is removed by cooking. In most 
localities the plant is known as “cowslips.”’ It is unfortunate that the 
early settlers should have applied this name, as the plant has neither 
resemblance to, nor relationship with, the cowslip: It is a native of 
England also, and there it has for hundreds of years been called marsh 
marigold, although it is nota marigold.—American Agricultwrist. . 


“THE ERUIT GARDEN: 


PEARS IN. THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
Mr. Bares says (p. 298) that the French and Channel Island 
pears are not superior in flayour to those grownin England. Pray 
pardon me if I say that I cannot allow our grand old Duchesses and 
Chaumontels to be so underrated. I have seen and grown these . 
pears in different parts of England, and I must say that I haye 
neyer found them equal, either in size or flavour, to those grown in 
France or in the Channel Islands. Let me speak first of the Chau- 
montels. Many years ago, when my father was gardener to the late 
Sir Robert Newman, Bart., Mamhead Park, near Hxeter, he planted 
fourteen trees of the Chanmontel in the gardens there, twelve of 
which were grown and trained as low flat table trees about eighteen, 
inches off the ground, much in the same way as our modern ground 
The two othertrees were grown and trained 
against brick walls; the one on an east, the other on a west, aspect. — 
All these trees, both table trained and on walls, produced, during 
most seasons, plentiful crops of fruit; as much fruit, indeed, as I 
haye ever seen produced by similar trees in Guernsey. In appear- 
ance those on walls were the finest; but as regards flavour they 
were worthless for dessert, being hard and gritty as a baking pear ; 
and indeed this was the only use that was made of them, I may 
add, too, that few pears beat Chaumontels for baking or stewing. I 
knew a Chaumontel tree grown against a south wall near Taunton ; 


~ also another ‘very large tree on a south-east wall near Lyme 


PT hoo 


Regis, in Dorset, and one at Fulham Palace, to all of which the 
same remarks apply. With these trees I was acquainted for 
years, and never once did I see a first-class fruit, either for size or — 
flayour, in any way approaching the Chaumontels grown in the Channel 
Islands, where they are rich, sugary, melting, and as juicy as a 
peach. This I would attribute not so much to the heat of our 
summer, as to its length, compared with the summer in England. 
Haying grown numerous varieties of pears under glass, both early 
and late sorts, I have come to the conclusion that late hanging and 
late keeping pears are much improved in flavour by being grown 
under glass. Iwas thus enabled to let them hang longer on the 
trees in autumn, and when they came to maturity, say in March, . 
April, and May, the improvement in flayour was very striking 
compared with fruit that had ripened on walls or pyramids in the. 
open air. I have observed, too, that these indoor fruits keep better; 
they do not shrivel so much, haying been guarded from the inclemeney 
of the weather. They are also kept safe from birds, which spoil 
much of our best fruits when left on trees late in autumn in the 
opén air. I have not much to say in favour of cultivating early 
pears under glass, as they do not ripen much earlier than they would 
outside, unless a high temperature is maintained, when the flavour 
will be found worthless; but if kept cool, as they should be, with a 
constant current of air passing through the house at all times, then’ 
I say many of our early blooming pears, as well as many of our 
first-class shy-setting pears, may be grown under glass in the 
greatest perfection. : 
Apples under glass I have had bnt little experience with, only 
having cultivated a few small trees of Ribston Pippin; these I must 
say were fine both in flavour and appearance, but I keep the house 
yery cool, with constant air in it. ; 
Rohais Nursery, Guernsey. 


A NEW ENGLANDER ON THE GOOSEBERRY. 


From the time when I read of Mistress Doctor Primrose’s gooseberry 
1e, which the Doctor celebrates in his charming antobiography, I- 
e entertained a kindly regard for that fruit. But my efforts to 

v it sueeessfully have been sadly baflled. The Hnglish climate 
, I think, will bring it to perfection. I know not how many 
res I haye made with Roaring Lion, Brown Bob, Conquerors, 


Joun RicHarp WILLIs. 


‘soil compact and deep; it should be thoroughly 


-in Ross-shire. The fruit is gather aboye medium si 


' bread. The Snow Apple was, I believe, introdu 


and other stupendous varieties ; but without infinite care, | , 
the first crop, the mildew will catch and taint them. Our native — 
yarieties —such, for instance, as the Houghton Seedling, : 6s 
a better show, and with ordinary care can be fruited well fo: 
succession of seasons. But it is not, after all, the staunchold English 
berry, which pants for the fat English gardens, for the scent o 
hawthorn, and for the lowering foe banks of Lancashire. 


English in its associations; and I never see a plump 
but I think of a burly John Bull, with waistcoat strai 
lke the bursting skin of his gooseberry, and muttering 
all the world. ‘There is, too, another point of resemblance ; 
is liable to take the mildew when removed from British soil 
John gets the blues, and wraps himself in a veil 
humours, wheneyer he goes abroad. My experie: 
this capricious fruit be planted under the shadow of a wall 
prune 
severely, watered abundantly, and mulched (if possib ys ‘ 
fresh from the sea shore. These conditions and app. i 
a clean cheek even to the Conquering Hero. But 
for any piquancy of flayour that I prize the fruit, as 
English bloat is pleasantly suggestive of little tartlets | 
clotted cream) eaten long ago under the lee of D 
Lancashire gardens, where prize berries reposed 
or swam in porcelain saucers—and of bristling thi 


evening ?> Have the little pattering feet gone thei 
Then I people the gooseberry alley with old Doctor 
danghters Sophia and Olivia; Squire Burchell comes 
the bench with me under the arbour, as I smoke my pip 
we measure our indebtedness to such pleasant books, 
solitude so many years after they are written! Olin 
thank you! Crown Bob I thank you! } 
English, are rather indigestible-—Ik. Marvel. 


THE SNOW APPLE OF CANAD 
Wuar a delightful little apple is the Pomme de Neige, 
very seldom do wesee it! It isa very old acqui 
knew it, and loved it for its intense beauty a 
long before I learned its correct name. I¢ isan 
well in northern situations. I haye seen it in admirable eo 
Deeside, Aberdeen ; and it is stated, in the Transm 
cultural Society, by Sir George Steuart Mai 


yery regularly formed, the eye closed, the stalk; 
the skin greenish-white on the shaded side, brillia 
with brilliant scarlet on the sunny-sides_at_all t 
beautiful. The flesh is pnre white—white assnow—pe 
juicy, melting, and pleasantly flavoured. Ins 
Christmas. This is in eyery respect a most i 
altogether distinct from the ordinary class. 
skin, in contrast with the pure white flesh, rende 
beautiful; and the texture of the flesh is of that pi 
character which many of the American apples possess, 
in the Melon, Northern Spy, and partly in the 1 
Blanche—firm yet short, and melting in the month, like § 

a 
Mr. Barclay, of Brompton, under the name of L aie ‘ 
given as a synonym in the Fruit Catalogue of the Hor 
Society. Ihave not been able to distinguish it from anoth 
named Pomme Liicken, in the collection of the Horticultural 
but I cannot answer for the Pomme Liicken be 
Pomme de Neige signifies the Snow Apple, being signi 
“whiteness of its fleshy this is not, however, the source wh 
derived, but from the'name of a village wh is: 
(see Horticultural Society's Transactions, vii. p. 354). I ist 
recommend the re-establishment of this truly beautiful, 
teresting, and altogether excellent apple im our gar len: 
Barron, tr“ Florist and Pomologist.”” , 


A WILD FRUIT GARDEN. 
Wrrnin this tangle-wood, I have set a few graftlings ‘ 
erab, and planted a peach or two—only to watch th es 
these artificial people will make with their wild neighbor 
various is the growth within this limited belt, that my 
there, im their seasons, luscious dewberries, hucklebe 
raspberries, bilberries, and choke-cherrie aut 
bouquets of Golden-rod and Asters, set off 


7 C 


r Tthink of the elegant education of the dapper Dr. 
) flayourless results.—My Farm of Edgewood. 


et 


POT CULTURE OF THE TOMATO. 


ease 


ae 


st part of the house, where they grow rapidly. 


* int 


Ee " 
eder. 
erage 


A CAROL OF SEED-TIME. 
_ — SUGGESTED BY ONE OF WALT WHITMAN'S. 
A sone of the glad seed-time ; 
A song of the soil and the flying March dust ; 
- A-song no more of winter’s icy breath ; ‘ 
_ Asong of the dry lea fields ; [tassels ; 
 A-song of the smell of burnt weeds and of the larches’ green 
_. Asong tasting of chives and watercresses. j 


_ For the balmy breath of spring and for Nature’s gladness, 
__ Now I return to see the daisies springing. pe 
_ Reclining on thy breast, Oh! Mother Harth, 
I feel the throb of thy sun-warmed pulse, 
_. And tune a verse for thee. : 
vf nies : 1 : 
* . Oh, earth that teems with richness when well till’d! 
Oh, ploughs and harrows, and bright tickling hoes! 
_ Oh, merry ploughmen turning up the sods! 
_ Oh, lusty ‘rs Sowing or drilling corn! MeN 


_* A-yerse to notice and to praise you all. 
Witt Tintery, Welbeck Gardens. 


~ 


ae r 
1k 2% 


nach, and the searlet of maple houghs. And when I see the 
Drilliancy of these, and smack the delicate flayour of the wild fruit, 
_ it makes me doubt if our progress is, after all, as grand as it should 
be, or as we vainly believe it to be; and (to renew my parallel) it 
‘seems to me that the old-time and gone-by thinkers may possibly 
' liave given us as piqnart, and marrowy suggestions upon whatever 
subject of human knowledge they touched, as the hothouse philoso- 
phers of to-day. I never open, of a Sunday afternoon, upon the 
owed pages of Jeremy Taylor, but his flavour and affluence, and 
ly wealth of’ allusions; suggest the tangled wild of the garden 
th its starry flowers, its piquant berries, its scorn of human 
ings, its unkempt vigour, its boughs and tendrils stretching heaven- 
“ward; and I neyer water a reluctant hill of yellowed cucumbers, and 
coax it with all manner of concentrated fertilizers into bearing, but 
, and-of the 


T'nosk who wish to stand well with the cook, yill find a weekly 
| «supply of a dozen or so of Tomatoes throughout April, May, and June, 

_ go far to secure that position. In autumn I have found the wires on 
~ which I have grown my melons useful to suspend my Tomatoes on 
pen. Any decayed ones which happen to drop I allow to remain 
e hard melon soil. The-seeds from these, owing to the genial 
th of the house (which is here appropriated after melons to 
@ plants during the winter), soon vegetate, and the soil being 
, the plants cannot root deeply in it; on the contrary, they 
on the surface, thereby inducing shorter-jcintedness, and thus 
ng the plants better suited for pot culture. When six inches 
tt they are potted three in a pint pot and plunged in the 


the early spring I repot into ten-inch pots, using a compost 
y loam, sand, and thoroughly decayed leaf-mould or old 
om-bed dung, in equal parts, and place them where they may 
all the sun and light possible, a point of much importance, as 
ise they become weak and useless; but a few days elapse 
they show signs of renewed growth, and before allowing them 
too tall I put sticks to cach plant nearly upright and almost 
the rim of the pot. As soon as they have fairly commenced 
IT water tham freely with liquid manure, not too strong nor 
mes, as sunlight is as yet too feeble to warrant too free a use’ 
stimulant. From this time the plants grow fast, and require 
in the way of tying and removing useless wood—not by 
ly removing it, but by timely stopping it so as to induce greater 
the shoots from which the first and finest fruit is to be 
. When the plants are in bloom it is well to gently draw 
flowers throngh the hand daily, an operation which assists 
eir chances of setting. Ido not consider it judicious to administer 
stimulants to any fruit-bearing plants in bloom, believing them to be 
“at time rather injurious than beneficial. As soon as sufficient 
is set I carefully remove about an inch of the surface soil and 
up. with turfy loam and bones, which greatly aid the swelling 


this treatment I have been generally able to obtain on an 
from two to three dozen fruit from each plant, the side shoots 
which I stop producing an abundant crop in succession. AMOE 


: THE GARDEN. 385 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


Asparagus Culture of the Ancients.—Having read somewhere 
that the culture of asparagus by the ancients differed but little from our 
present practice, I should be glad if any of your readers would inform me 
what the published instructions for its culture really were.—R. 

Horseradish,—If Mr. Watson (p. 340) grows his horseradish on a 
heavy yellow soil he will not obtain the length he wishes to get it. He 
is right in saying that horseradish does not increase in length in a down- 
ward direction after it is planted. ' As to planting in March, I have never 
done so in that month. ‘The reason why | choose November for planting 
is, because I have found that my young plants -have become established 
by the end of February. Horseradish is troublesome to keep within 
beunds. I grow mine at the end of one of the best quarters of the 
kitchen garden, where it is bound in by walks on three sides of the bed. 
Last November I put in plants twenty-four inches long.—THurstron 
Sovrnwortn, Castle Head Grange, Lancashire. 


Big Vegetables.—It is a common mistake of inexperienced people 


-to consider size as the most imiportantof all qualities, alike in flowers, 


fruits, and vegetables. Within certain limits, size is undoubtedly of im- 
portance, but the instant we favour size at the expense of colouror flavour 
in vegetables or fruit we encourage retrogression. Good flavour, tender- 
ness, and beauty of appearance are three most important qualities and 
should be songht in preference to size, although, as temarked above, when 
certain limitations are recognised, every advance in the size of any par- 
ticular vegetable isan advantage. In any and every case quality should 
be sought for first, and, asa rule, of two sorts equal in quality, the largest 
must have the preference. This subject is to be considered in connection 
with cultivating as wellas in the purchase of seeds. The ambition to 


‘ grow large cucumbers causes many an amateur to cut for his table, or his 


friends, coarse fruits of great size that are simply tough, bitter, and un- 
wholesome, instead of smaller fruits of tender texture and delicious 
flavour and perfect unwholesomeness. Nearly all the vegetable marrows 
in cultivation are too large. The largest beetroots are much more suit- 
able for the pig trough than the salad bowl. We have frequently advised 
the cultivation of the smallest in preference to the largest sorts of cab- 
bage, because of their delicacy of flavour. Tthe largest onions are the 
worst keepers. 3 


Native Guano Company.—<A question of some public import- 
ance was discussed the other day at a meeting of the Metropolitan 
Board of Works. Twelve months ago the Native Guano Company, 
which proposed to employ sewage in the manufacture of manure by 
what is known as the A B C process, applied to the Board for per- 
mission to erect works near the southern outfall of the main drainage 
system at Crossness On the representation that the company would 
use 500,000 gallons of sewage, or thereabouts, daily, permission was 
granted by the Board—the company undertaking to erect its works 
within three months. This has not been done, and it has been deemed 
desirable that steps should be taken to make the company carry 
ont its experiment at once, for at present an impression is afloat 
which is entirely without foundation that the A B C process is some- 
how under the patronage of the Board. It is necessary therefore to 
state that, by allowing the company to erect works at Crossness, the 
Board merely intended to sanction an interesting experiment—the 
delay in the trial of which is to be deprecated—and had no intention 
whatever of expressing an opinion favourable or otherwise on the 
plan. 


RUSTIC WORK. 

In keeping with their effect, I cansed gates to be constructed of 
the simplest material, from the cedar thickets ; varying these in de- 
sign, and yet making each so simple as to admit of easy imitation 
and to unite strength solidity, and cheapness. If, indeed, thes: 
latter qualities could not be united, the work would noé at all mec 
the end I had in view—which was not merely to produce a prett, 
effect, but to demonstrate the harmony of such decorative work with 


-true farm economy. One often sees, indeed, rustic work of most 


ceambrous and portentous dimensions oyerladen with extraordinary 
crooks and curves, and showing at a, glance immense labour in selec 
tion and in arrangement. All this may be pleasing, and often ex 
ceedingly beautiful ; but it is a mere affectation of rural simplicity 
it wears none of that fit and simple character which would at oncc 
commend it to the eye of a practical man as an available and imitable 
feature. If I can give such arrangement to simple boughs, othe: 
wise worthless, or to pine-pickets of simple cost—in the paling of 
yard, or the tracery of a gate, as shall catch the eye by its gro 
outline, and suggest imitation by its easy construction and 
feasibility, there is some hope of leading country tastes 
direction.—D. G. Mitchell. 


Tur man who has nothing to boast of but his illustr’ 
like a potato—the only good belonging to him is unde 
Overbury. 


THE PROPAGATOR, — 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 336.) 


GRAFTING BY APPROACH APPLIED TO THE RESTORING OF PLANTs. 
This is not the only method in use for the restoration of 
defective plants, but it is a valuable one when the object is to 
change the variety of. the tree, to renew its stem, or to repair 
the want or loss of branches. Of each of these cases we give 
an example :— 
1.—Cuaneine tae Varmry.—The Vine is restored in this way. 

Alongside the stock which it is desired to change to another 

variety, is planted in winter a young vine well rooted and 

furnished with a thoroughlyripened shoot. When the time for 


' grafting arrives, in April, the stock is cut down according to _ 
the height of the new plant, and as low as possible. With 


the curved eouge, a longitudinal groove is made in the top of 
the stock, into which is inlaid the shoot of the young plant, 
slightly pared on the sides. It is then cut down to two or 
three eyes above the graft, after it has been bandaged and 
coyered with grafting-wax. Instead of shortening the stock 


at once, it might be left until the graft has been perfectly | 


united and shortened in the following spring. 


2.—Revewinc tue Streu.—The subject (X) whose stem is 
cankered and which has ‘‘ gourmand” branches at the base 
can be repaired by means of these branches (Y) being 
inarched upon the stem above the diseased part. The flow 
of the sap, which has been interrupted by this, will thus be 
re-established. Should the diseased tree haye no branches 
at the base, a stout stock is planted near it. After a year’s 
good growth, the head of the stock (Z) is cut off and inarched 
into the stem ofthe other above the canker. 
single tree not be sufficient for this restoration, a number 


are planted round and grafted into the old one in the same > 


way, and when the graft is thoroughly established the can- 
kered base may be cut away. eel 

.—Restoration or Mary Brancnus.—tIn the training of fruit 

trees to any particular form there will sometimes be gaps 

* yacancies when certain parts have not been able to 

-elop themselves, or haye 

‘e obtained by close pruning, incision, branch or bud 

x, the neighbouring branches are made use of and 

v such a manner that the symmetry of the design 

«deranged. But as the branches do not always fut- 

sufficiently vigorous for this purpose, a speedy 

viring the partial loss_of a branch is shown in 


Should a | 


isappeared. Tf a branch can- |° 


THE GARDEN. 00 sa 


| 4.—FurnisHine Barr Brancuns.—On tri 


them. It -will be necessary + 


_ shoot -is taken’ and apphed 


the annexed illustration, Here a deficiency 


should be of the same ora similar 
habit and vigour ; and if the grafting: 
it should not be done for at least.a. 

of the young tree. : 


is difficult to obtain, either by me: 
branch grafting, fruiting branch 


grafting by approach, that 
suitable branches. The Peach tree, whi 
its branches, usually bears shoots whic 
grafted by approach on! the bare spots, 

is performed in June and July with | 

A vacancy exists which it is desix 
branch. In the beginning of a 
to the 


grafted by approach 
which is let i 
extremity wi 
be a good fruiti 


to the 


at least a year afterwards. Instead of n 
in the main branch, it will be sufficient to 


be sufficie 
e condition of the 


By do ae 


THE’ GARDEN. 


meee Rie ee yea IChY wey ee 
¢ the very posit ne 3 
sides, Wea 


387 


Leroy, ‘seared ‘at Antenil. Inarching is useful for fur- 
nishing branches with shoots. An eye or a shoot may be 
- ___ grafted or budded into the bare part: Sometimes we make 
~ use in Angust of grafts which were inserted in the month 
_of June preceding. If there is no anticipative branch, one 
is excited to develop itself by pinching the shoot three weeks 
before grafting. hen the young branch is developed, the 
leaf which springs from its base is partially pinched, in order 

8 to force the fruit buds of the new branch to continue at the 
base. The pruning of the fruiting branch will be afterwards 

made easier by this operation. The Vine is easily furnished 

-with shoots on vacant parts by approach grafting. It is 

best to empley herbaceous shoots in May or June. The 

bark only of the stock should be cut, without removing any 

of the wood, especially if it is old; in which case, or when 

the scion is woody and not herbaceous, the detachment is 

’ effected by degrees in two years. In 1868 we applied success- 
fully to the Vine this method of inarching in order to fill up 


* 


! vacant spaces on the stems. The shoot, headed and pared 
under an eye, was let into the stem by a | meision. A 
month afterwards the union was complete, and the bud (A) 
grew vigorously. This was the first time, we believe, in 

which this mode of grafting was used with the Vine. 

_ 5,—To Preserve tue Form or tHe ‘I'ker.—When the advan- 
tages of approach grafting are better appreciated, it will be 
more frequently used for preserving symmetry of form and 

Rye ts equilibrium of growth in trees trained in particular forms 

and shapes, and will also simplify the labour of pruning, 
pinching, and tying up. We saw in the Horticultural 
Society's Garden at Mulhouse, a*fine wall of Peach trees in 
an oblique cordon, joined at the top by approach grafting. 
The heat of the sun and the gum had injured some of them 
so much that M. Menet (professor of gardening to the 
~ society) had been obliged to cut away the damaged stems to 
the height of three and a quarter fect and burn them. The 
upper parts were left, and these continued to live and bear 

. frnit, being fed by the sap of the neighbouring trees, on 

which the shoots had been grafted by approach. Horizontal 

-eordons of Apple. trees present the same result when the 
stems of any trees which have been grafted into the 
adjacent ones are-cut away.—C. Baltet’s “UV Art de Greffer.” 


(Lo be continued.) 


ius A 


OBITUARY. 


bee. MR. THOMAS INGRAM. 
_ WE have to record, with great regret, the death of Mr. Thomas 
_ Ingram, late of the Royal Gardens, Frogmore, who died at Upton 
Lodge, Slough, on the 9th instant, at the age of seventy-six. It is only 
a few years since Mr. Ingram left the scene of his more active 
duties at Frogmore, and retired to enjoy a well earned but not 
coveted rest, at a quiet house at Slough, within sight of the Royal 
towers of Windsor. Losing the stimulus which the obligation of 
work to be done always gives, parting with his long-watched and 
cherished trees, his seedling fruits and flowers, and the many 
treasured things that haunt a home—the bright spot signalised by 
the labours and successes of a long life—he drooped and faded, and 

quietly and resignedly breathed his life away. 

Mr. Ingram was the son of a nurseryman, and was trained with 
_ Mackintosh and other eminent men in that great school of gardening 
. of fifty years ago, the nurseries of Messrs. Lee, of Hammersmith. 
He was engaged by her Majesty Queen Charlotte to superintend the 
Royal Gardens at Frogmore in 1816, and remained at Frogmore until 


‘ 


1833, when King William IV. gave him the direction of the whole 
of the Royal Gardens at Windsor. Early in the reign of our present 
Queen the ancient and widely scattered gardens were given up, and 
one grand central foreing and kitchen garden was formed on the Royal 
estate, on a spot immediately contiguous to the» Frogmore pleasure- 
grounds; this garden, thirty-two acres in extent, was formed, 
planted, and brought to that high state of perfection that has so 
long distinguished it by Mr. Ingram. 

After the passing of the Windsor Improvement Act in 1849, the 
arrangements for laying out and constructing the new walks and 
drives in and about the Home Park, the Castle Grounds, and Frog- 
more were entrusted to Mr. Ingram, and the narrow and shady walks 
of the slopes were replaced by bold open roads, whose free sweeps 
and curves, stretching away towards Frogmore, are well scen from 
the terrace of the Castle. One of the last labours of Mr. Ingram was 
the re-arrangement of the pleasure-grounds at Frogmore, rendered 
necessary by the erection of the Mausoleum within the gardens, 
the last resting-place of the illustrious Prince Consort, with whom 
Mr. Ingram was associated in many works of improyement about 
the Royal estates. \\ 

During his long life Mr. Ingram devoted himself assiduously and 
with unflagging interest to the task of originating new and improved 
varieties of fruits, flowers, and vegetables, and by careful selection 
and hybridization he was successful in adding some useful examples 
to our list of fruits and beautiful flowers. Among fruits the Frog- 
more Scarlet-fleshed Melon is still highly esteemed. The British 
Queen, Frogmore Swan’s Egg, and Golden Russet Pears are valuable 
contributions to our list of English fruits. The Frogmore Orleans, 
Bonne Bouche, and large late Greengage plums have merits which 
will make them generally appreciated, The Frogmore Bigarreau, 
F. Early Black, and I. Morello cherries are each improvements on 
sorts of recognized value. No fewer than nine new st:awberrics 
rewarded Mr. Ingram’s attention to that excellent fruit, among which, 
the Frogmore Late Pine, Prince of Wales, Mr. Radcliffe, may be taken 
as examples. Three apricots, each having special recommendations 
for precocity, size, and late-keeping properties, prove that this fruit 
was not neglected. The Frogmore Golden and Premier peaches were 
also raised at the Royal Gardens. 

The old scarlet Pelargonium known as the Frogmore Scarlet was 
obtained in 1817; and one of the very first donble Dablias about the 
same time. ‘Two hyb| 1 Begonias, an Epacris, Lonicera, and Escal- 
lonia attest Mr. Ingram’s attention to our valued garden flowers ; 
while an excellent broccoli, the Frogmore Protecting, and a hardy 
cucumber, show that vegetables were not forgotten. ' 

Mr. Ingram was fortunate enough in the course of his long 
connection with the Royal establishment to secure the approbation 
of the Sovereigns he served so faithfully ; and a just appreciation of 
his services to horticulture was exhibited by a large number of 
friends joining in a subscription to a handsome testimonial, which 
was presented to him a few years before he left the Royal Gardens. 

He was much respected by all the members of the Royal Family, 
and has been frequently visited by her Majesty since his retirement 
from active life; even as late as Friday week, the day before his 
death, the Queen is said t “sve paid hima visit. Kind and genial 
in disposition he was esteeme. y all who knew him, a man indeed 
for whom everybody had a good word; he therefore leaves a wide 
circle to lament his loss. 


MR. WILLIAM OSBORN. 


Onty a week or two ago it was our sad duty to record the death « 
Mr. Thomas Osborn, and now we have to announce that of his el 
brother and co-partner, Mr. William Osborn, which took place ° 
denly on the 7th instant. The firm of Osborn & Son is one o 
oldest in the neighbourhood of London, and has been for map 
worthily represented by these two brothers, who were 
respected by all who knew them, or had business dealings wi 
In Messrs, Osborn gardeners ever found friends able and 
help them when assistance was most required ; their 
towards all was kind and gentlemanly; and to the I 
world generally their too early deaths is a sad loss. 


= OUR WEEKLY CALEND 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 

Conservatories, Greenhouses, &¢.—These are 
brilliant with gay flowers, which the bright weathe. 
now experiencing brings forward with so much raj 
grandifolius and Wallichi, together with Odontogl« 
biums, Lycastes, and other orchids at present form ° 
objects in the way of plants for conservatory decora’ 
of all kinds now receive strict attention with 1 
tying, and training, and they are allowed plent: 


388 


THE GARDEN. . < 


¥ 


* 


(Marcx 16, 1872; _ 


above the ordinary level of their associates on 
inverted pots. Azaleas and Camellias in flower are shaded a little 
from bright sunshine. Such as have done flowering are placed in an 
intermediate temperature and encouraged to make growth. Green- 
house hard-wooded plants are being potted, as are also palms that 
will succeed in a greenhouse temperature. In most ‘cases stove 
plants haye now been potted, and with the assistance of an increased 
temperature, and plenty of moisture at the root, overhead, and in the 
atmosphere, they have commenced their summer campaign under 
favourable circumstances. Give a little air in the mornings during 
fine weather, but shut up early. Syringe freely such plants as 
Palms, Draczenas, Marantas, Anthuriums, ke. arly Gloxinias are 
now in flower, and others are ready to succeed them. Orchids are 
receiving a gradual increase of heat and moisture. 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Pines are now being cut in good 
condition, others are swelling, flowering, and coming on in succession. 
Those ripening receive little water, whilst those im a less advanced 
state are more liberally supplied with it. To suckers a temperature 
of 65° at night is given, these farther-advanced are allowed 70°, with 
a vise of 10° by means of sun heat. The bottom heat is kept at 
about from 75° to 80°. Some give weak manure water at the root, 
and also sprinkle the plunging material and paths with it; others 
only use water. Late Vines are allowed abundance of air, so as to 
keep their buds back. Vines just started are kept close and freely 
syringed; thinning both bunches and shoots also receives attention. 
Where borders are artificially heated, caré is taken that they do not 
become too dry. Figs: these now receive plenty of water overhead, 
as well as at the root. The farthest advanced haye a night tempera- 
ture of 60°. The second house has now the same temperature as 
the first; the third one is kept at 55° at night, allowingra rise of 10° 
by sun heat. Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, and other fruits are 
well syringed, except when in flower, and due attention is paid to 
thinning of fruit. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Departments.—The 
grafting of fruit trees has now commenced, more especially in the 


eleyating them 


“usual. 


- Lettuces continue to be planted ont, and Clos and others ate sown 


MARKET GARDENS. ; 
Bore fruit and vegetable crops appear to be more forward than — 
Rhubarb is now obtained in large quantities from the open 
ground. Some growers, however, still cover their Rhubarb with — 
litter, which, they say, keeps the stalks cleaner and of better =~ 
quality than when exposed. Asparagus beds continue to be earthed — 
up; young Asparagus, im many cases, has pushed a few inches os 
through the ground; supplies are still cut daily from the forcing ~ 
beds. Forced Seakale is plentiful. Potatoes are being planted 
extensively; in some cases, they are put in as digging progresses—in 
others they are dibbled in, and in some instances they are ploughed in. 


for succession. Lime is thrown over these plantations, to prevent — 
the attacks of slugs and snails. Camliflowers are planted im shallow 

drills; drawn between every two lines of autumn-planted Cabbage, 
which are about to be removed. ‘Autumn-sown red and other, Cab- — 
bages are being planted out on well-manured ground. Spent -seed- 
beds, where these haye been growing, are heavily manured and_ 
prepared for other kinds of produce. arly sowings of Cab. 
bages and other groens are now being made, and White Globe — 
Turnips are being sown extensively. -Spinach is sown largely broad- 
cast, and between lines of bushes, &e, = o a 


did groups from am 
From Mr. Douglas, 

Tiford, came a collec 
and altogether excell 


case of stone fruits. Fruit trees on walls are being protected. 
Pruning generally is finished, and the ground between lines of trees 
and bushes manured and dug. Potatoes are still being planted. 
Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, &c., are being sown in some places, 
whilst im others main crops will not be sown for a few weeks yet. 
Turnips are being sown. Autumn-sown Onions are being trans- 
planted. Lettuces are being sown for succession, and others planted 
out when the weather is damp, or failing that in the afternoons. 
Sowings of Radishes are made according to demand. Sowings of 
Broccoli, Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, and Cabbages are made 
for early use. Cabbages are being planted out. 


ful exhibition of the same showy flower. 
the amateurs’ class, which was also well 
se Primulas were in_ goo 


NURSERIES. 


Indoor Departnient.—The general repotting of stove and green- 
house plants in most cases is now all but finished, but there are 
always extra thing's that require shifting regularly according to their not large- 
respective wants. Anthuriums, Marantas, tropical Palms, and many | creditable collect 
other stove plants now enjoy a brisk moist temperature. Nepenthes 
have been repotted in loose material, such as sphagnum and very 
fibrous peat. Draczwnas and Dieffenbachias are being propagated 
from pieces of the roots and stems, inserted in -cocoa-nut fibre, or 

imilar material, in a brisk heat. Seedling Palms are being potted 

* singly. Plants of Bonapartea juncea raised from seed are also 

v being potted off singly in small pots. Aralias that have been 
+k from pieces of the root, and that are now pushing a few leaves, 
‘ng taken out of their propagating pans and potted separately. 

as raised from seed are being pricked off into pans, or potted 

ito thumb-pots. Various kinds of bedding and sub-tropical 
kept in strong heat in order that they may furnish cuttings. 

ne sorts is also being sown. 


> Department.—Though a bad season for transplanting 
numbers of them still continue to be lifted, to supply 
uons plants are being re-arranged in lines. Grafting 
more especially Cherries, is being proceeded with. 

it were budded last year are now headed back to 
four inches of the buds. Cuttings of Privet are 
hickly in lines about a foot apart. Gooseberry cut- 

o be put in, as do also suckers from stone fruits, the 
are trimmed, and the points of the shoots cut off ; 
ed for stocks. Layering of Rhododendrons, Limes, 
‘bus, continues to be done, and those well rooted from 
are separated from the stocks, and planted in lines 
baceous plants are being divided, and replanted. 
vgated by cuttings. Clematises and other hardy 
Yaced on coal ashes on sheltered borders. 


: 


. 


i "This is an art ay 


“Which does mend nature : change it rather: but 
; ‘Tue Ant irsevr 1s Nature.”—Shakespeare. coo 


SS 


ae 


TREATMENT OF BEDDING PLANTS. - 
ill soon be at hand when people begin to turn 
lants out of doors, to make room for others 
d younger. Many grow a large stock for 
in pots, and it is when these are exposed to 
ids that the stock suffers. For this reason,’ 
d-together boxes are more useful than pots, as 
soil prevents the roots from being alternately 
2 hilled, like those in little pots; the boxes are also 
er watered, and retain moisture longer than pots. 
quence is, the plants in boxes do not acquire that 
a erable aspect which some people take for 
in ff,’ and are in a much better condition to fill the 
en planting-out time has arrived, the healthy roots 
out at once into the soil. Again, long confinement in 
masses of roots to form on the vaiside oi each 
either be ruthlessiy broken off at planting 


oe 


. or the 


le they will present that fully feathered 
rhich things treated on the starving system 
er being several weeks in the open air. Some 
shading them during the middle of the day in 
sitions; but, except for a day or two after planting, we 
ertainly inure them to the full sun from earliest 


odtthas same objections do 
spring as to those filled in 
ye not time to exhaust the 
ress themselves into a dense 


-as a native of some warm latitude. 


mat around the sides, the very position in which they are most 
liable to meet with hurtful vicissitudes. In the case of things 
potted late in spring, the young roots are just coming to the 
sides of the pot when planting-out time arrives, and are there- 
fore just in a condition to root straight into the soil in which 
they are placed. , There are some few things, too, to which 
life in a single pot is agreeable—succulents for example; 
ee : generaty the box and planting-out system should be 
adopted. 

othing is so good as low turf pits, nothing so easily made 
in a country place; and even where rough turf cannot be 
had, they may be built of stiff earth. We need not repeat 
that if these pits could be arranged near the flower garden 
or scene of final planting out it would bea great advantage, 
inasmuch as all subjects planted out in pits should be care- 
fully taken up with a trowel and transferred immediately to 
the beds assigned them, no lying about being permitted, as is 
the case with plants in pots. As for the rough boxes, they 
may be brought alongside the beds and their contents planted 
at pleasure. In small places the difficulty of carriage from 
pits to beds is not noticeable, but in large ones, with the glass 
houses a long way from the flower garden or pleasure ground, 
it may become a serious matter. If the turned-out plants 
have to be carried a long way to the beds, the balls should be 
packed closely together, so as to preyent rapid evaporation, 
and covered with a shade of some kind while in trensit. 

-As for protection in the pits in spring, it should vary 
according to the plant; in the case of aes hardy things 
like the verbena and calceolaria, mucli may be done by the 
use of tarpaulin stretched on light frames, and only used at 
night, except in severe weather; glass, on the other hand, 
will be required for the geraniura race until the late spring 
arrives. Strong calico, stretched at a foot or so over the 
plants, does very well for some’ things, and sey, be left on all 
day, admitting light enough. Countless things will do 
with mere night protection by means of any light covering | 
rolled oyer them, and. not a few of the hardy breed, now 
beginning te hee much used, need no protection whatever 
once spring has fairly set in—the new bedding violets for 
example. Care must, of course, be taken not to bring a hardy 
plant, struck and raised in a warm temperature, into the cold 
at once. Raise a dock or a nettle in a warm propagating 
house, or hotbed, place it for a night in the open air, and it 
will perish ina few hours, It will suffer as much from cold 
Should circumstances not 
permit of the plants in small pots being planted out in cheap 
pits and frames, as we suggest, every means should be taken — 


to preserve them from being injured from lack of water, 


exposure to dry cold winds, or checks of any kind. iP; 


THE VINE ‘AS A HARDY ORNAMENTAL PLANT. 


Justice’ has rarely been done to the Vine as a mere object of 
beanty. We have grown it for its fruit, and while looking intent) 
for that have well nigh overlooked its high claims as a decorati 
plant. Even in this age of fine foliage plants, when we are in sr 
danger of hiding up our flowers in a thick forest of leaves, the le: 
of the Vine are comparatively neglected, or, if sought after ° 
they are more used as a garniture for desserts than for ay 
purpose. And yet, forcovering vacant spaces on walls, for y 
round trees, festooning pillars inside of houses, or coveri 
roof spaces with verdure, or clothing bald places outside v 
few plants can equal, perhaps none excel, the Grape ** 

The form of its leayes from first to last is exquisit 
colours most lovely. Who shall describe the soft, . 
of the young Vine leaf bursting from its infant bed” 
bud? During its progress it is painted by turns 
tint of green, and then, when the change comes ov: 
how varied and how beautiful are its changing hi 
bud at its base gives the old leaf notice to quit 
cessant knockings and pokings, the leaves of man’ 
the more beautiful. Feeling the tenure of th 


short, they resolve to weave for themselves a : 


they depart to be no more seen. 

Some Vine leaves, itis true, put on a dull rus 
they die; but others, such as the Barbarossa, 1 
and, last and best of all, the Claret, clothe t’ 
gorgeous robes as the sun of their life ber 


| Like the sun himself, who paints the clou 


ee" 


om ren 


SP adayihsy mage 7 


aT 4 


a KOSH SEt 

I can, perhaps, pub your corresponden sw 
| roses as readily as verbenas, if not as freely as wi 
the | are generally some pot roses forced in most gardens, and 
after flowering every eye will make a plant. In this’ 
| cuttings are put in from February until the middle of Apm 
that it is too ‘hot for them, and frequently after March 

| uncertain, unless put in a north propagating house and kept 
its | as possible. The system adopted is to thin out all the 
| required, and to shorten in any strageling growth, or to cut al, 
| shoots off tothe old wood, if plants are nob valued; break off 
t' | prickles, for convenience of handling, and cnt the shoots info sing 
ile pe. ae them ont thickly into a cutting bed, on a bottom heat 0, 


| potted into two-inch pots; placed in a warm house for a short tim 
| then into a cool one, and herdened off like other plants, and pl 
| outi n rich * ; they make nice plants, either for planti 


| beds or potting by the antumn. Another plan is, to take all the e 
x straggling shoots from roses in November, cut them into lengths with ~ 


| three or four eyes, and dibble them thickly under lights or hand. — 
| glasses under a north wall. A large proportion will root in the 


their own roots are far the best, especially in this climate, where the — 
| briax will not succeed, In England eyes of unripened wood will 

| root in meoetaly exhausted hotbed all through the summer, but 
| will require keeping in a frame until the next spring. I haye pro- 
paectl hundreds in this way. James TAPLIN, 
| South Amboy, New Jersey, U.S. wees 


SALVIA PATENS. ; 
Furry strong plants of this beautiful blue sage put out in a line ~ 
| made a grand display here all the latter part of last summer, and if 
| they had been fronted along with a row of scarlet and rose-coloured 
| Pentstemons, the effect would have been heightened. -This charming 
| Salvia is not half as much grown as it deserves to be; but the fault 
, | does not so much rest with the plants as with those who coddle and 
| otherwise maltreat them. After the blooming season is over, the | 
in | tuberous roots should be lifted, and carefully stored for the winter in» 
a dry place; but when, for purposesof propagation, renewed growth ~ 
PiGRseaaectone ose the roots will be found dead. I 
| grew my stock last year to cure seed, and from one thousand to 
| twelve hundred seeds was no 
. | but I hope to have fiye h 


4 eee oy bare Without a 
Oe : a this, the 28 ‘ebruary, take up 
| particle of bottom heat, I can-~_ >” : dee ies 
n | a hundred cuttings for a start, See eae do the same 

| weekly ximbil- my wants aife ‘Batisfies, Dep) Sattines my SeiaeS 


| together in a soil bed in a greenhouse, fast copings the mould 
| moderately moist through the winter. 


but this I found, as soon as it reached the surface, was so injured, as 
and | to prevent further growth. Although not certain, still believe this 
hasten to | was caused by woodlice, and, to make matters secure, I pave the 


ring ; one light will contain several thousand cuttmgs. Roses on | 


| roots abtts end-all Osuiber acts at Ce oping PR sane 


early every cutting will be rooted in three weeks.’ ‘They are!) | 


eat crop from fifty plants, certainly; 


“1 


i 


Before Christmas the roots had begun to throw up young growin, 


CU aay | rootsatop dressing of half-an-inch of sawdust. Through this the young — 


| beon touched, and, if I had plenty of bottom heat, I believe I could’ 


eo de 


UNDA REGALIS AND FERN COLLECTORS. 
e handsomest of our British Ferns, once eer abundantly | 
rts of Sussex and Hampshire, but unde 
collector, it is 
1e Portsmouth 


-~NOBLE ORNAMENT. 


fast disa rine. From one situa- | is utterly base—painful to every rightly-toned mind, without perhaps 
sae ae back it grew | Srncaiets sense of the reason, but for a reason palpable enongh when 


admiration, is a miserable self-complacency, a contentment in our 


artloads 0 i iden farket. Indeed, fie) 3, 
wtloads to Covent Garden Marke | own wretched doings, when we might have been looking at God’s 


| the expression of man’s delight in God’s work, Wor observe, the 
| function of ornament is to make you happy. Now in what are you 
| rightly happy? Not in thinking of what you have done yourself ; 
| not in your own pride; not your own birth; not in your own being, 


x gardens, but it is general | laced, with the Dist ad; > doe 
; eeony soils, in dry or rocky Fations whereas | what He is; and obeying His law, and yielding yourself to His will. 
er plant, loving wet, boggy places. We neyer | You are to be made happy by ornaments ; therefore they must be the 

han in a garden in Hertfordshire, at the edge | expression of all this. Not copies of your own handiwork; not boast- 


of “bloom” and its fine tuft of leaves, it | creature’s arms, but God’s arm, seen in His work. Not manifestation 


| growth is coming like a thicket of green, and Ido not find one root 
unequal se duty. Since the sawdust dressing not a shoot has — 


| convert my fifty plants into five thousand by May with comparative — 
| ease. i erie EE ce Bios 


y the ruthless | Att ornament is base which takes for its subject human work: it 
t is now entirely gone, having been torn up and | we do think of it. Wor to carve our own work, and set it up for~ 


| doings. And all noble ornament is the exact reverse of this. Ibis. 


or your own will, but in looking at God q watching what He does; — 


close to a pond, with its roots quite in the | ings of your own grandeur ; not heraldries; not king’s arms, nor any | 


Fr. P. of your delight in your own laws, or your own liberties, or your own ~ 


Marcu 23, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


391 


inventions; but in divine laws—constant, daily, common laws ;—not 
Composite laws, nor Doric laws, nor laws of the five orders, but of the 
Ten Commandments. Then the proper material of ornament will be 
whatever God has created; and its proper treatment that which 
seems in accordance with or symbolical of His laws. And_ for 
materials, we shall therefore have, first, the abstract lines which 
are most frequent in nature; and then, from lower to higher, the 
whole range of systematised inorganic and organic forms.—Ruskin. 


ARUNDO DONAX IN THE PLEASURE GROUND. 

Tus great reed of the south of Europe is a very noble plant 
on good soils. In the south of England it forms canes ten 
feet high, and has a very distinct and striking aspect; it will 
grow higher than that if put ina rich deep soil in a favoured 
locality ; and those who so plant clumps of it on the turf in 
their pleasure grounds will not be disappointed at the result. 
Nothing can be finer than the aspect of this plant when allowed 
to spread out into a mass on the turf of the flower garden 

pleasure ground, as many may have seen it at Sion. It 
seems much to prefer deep sandy soils to heavy ones; indeed 
we have known it refuse to grow on heavy clay soiland flourish 
most luxuriantly on a deep sandy loam in the same district. 
Like all large-leayed plants, it loves shelter. No garden or 
pleasure ground in 
the southern parts of 
England and Ireland 
should be without a 
tuft of itina sheltered 
spot. But, fine as it is 
foreffectand distinct- 
ness, its variegated 
variety is of more 
value for the flower 
garden proper. 

The variegated 
variety of A. Donax 
(A.D. versicolor) 
will be found per- 
fectly hardy in the 
southern counties, 
and considerably 
north of London, 
may be saved by a 
little mound of 
cocoanut-fibre, sifted 
coal-ashes, or any 
like material that 
may be at hand. 
In consequence of 
its effective variega- 
tion, it meyer as- 
sumes a large de- 


1 
ay f 


The Great Reed (Arundo Donax), associated with Conifers, &c., in the Pleasure Ground. 


velopment, like the green or normal form of the species, | 


but keeps dwarf, and yet thoroughly graceful. 
course best suited for warm, free, and good soils, and abhors 
clay, though it is quite possible to grow it, even on that 
with a little attention to the 
But it is in all cases better to avoid things that will 
not grow freely and gracefully on whatever soil we may have 
to deal with: and it is to those having gardens on good sandy 
soils, and in the warmer parts of England, that we would 
specially recommend this grand variegated subject. Fora 
centre to a circular bed nothing can surpass it in the summer 
and autumn flower garden, while numerous other charming 
effects may be afforded by it. Not the least happy of these 
would be to plant a tuft of it on the green turf, in a warm 
ne near a group of choice shrubs, to help, with many other 
things named, to fill the gap that is now nearly everywhere 
observed between ordinary fleeting flowers and the taller tree 
and shrub vegetation. 


ground, ina permanent position, than to take it up annually. 


Protect the roots in the winter, whether it be planted in the | 


middle of a flower-bed or by itself in a little circle on the 
grass. It is easily increased’ by placing a shoot or stem ina 
tank of water, when little plants with roots will soon start 
from every joint ; they should be cut off, potted, and placed in 
frames, where they will soon become healthy young plants. 


Ti is of | 


preparation of the ground. | 


It is better to leave the plant in the | 


i 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Lost Crocuses.—Since the death of Dean Herbert, whose useful 
work on Bulbous plants shonld be in everybody’s hands, this 
beautiful genus has been sadly neglected and overlooked, many 
most lovely and easily-cultivated species have been lost, and others 
have become so rare, that it is next to impossible to get hold of them. 
There is no more lovely Crocus than that little gem C. lacteus, with 
its creamy white flowers, or its still more beautiful variety penicil- 
latus, which has delicate veins of blue; but where are they to be 
had ? Then, again, there is the pale sulphur-flowered C. ochroleucus, 
a denizen, I believe, of Lebanon, and the netted-rooted C. reticu- 
latus, with its variety, albicans, the true ‘‘ Cloth of Silver.’’ Who 
will help me to reintroduce these belles of spring into our gardens ? 
—H. Harper Crewn, The Rectory, Drayton Beauchamp, Tring. 


Large Norfolk Carices.—Mr. Gorrie, forester to the Earl of 
Leicester at Holkham Hall, sent some time ago some very large plants 
of Carex paniculata to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. The plants 
measured from the base of the roots to the extreme points of the leaves 
eight feet six inches. When so large, these Carices bear some resemblance 
to the dwarf grass trees of Australia. Three men were required to lift 
each plant ; they grew in rich moist and very deep peat, and are supposed 
to be a century old. Mr. Gorrie says :—‘‘ We have some taller and heavier 
plants than any of those sent. I observe they grow strongest when the 
roots get into the water. 
I am told, where foxes 
abound, they are very 
fond of lying on the top 
of the Carex tussocks 
and basking in the sun. 
This gigantic Carex is 
very common on sodden 
peaty soil in Norfolk.’’ 


Myosotis dissiti- 
flora.—This charming 
spring flower has been 
in blossom since the 
15th of February; indeed 
I noticed some sprays of 
it showing colour in the 
last week of January. As 
to hardiness I can only 
say that out of over two 
thousand bedded out 
there is not one dead or 
even sickly; they are all 
from seed of 1871, sown 
when gathered. I men- 
tion this as I have noticed 
division recommended in 
preference to seed. Of 
course this has been a 
mild winter; but we lie 
coldand damp ona strong 
clay, and damp has been 
conidered the worst of 
the foes that assail this 
tiny gem.—R. C., Herts. 


Calceolarias.—My stock of these is somewhat deficient. Can they 
be struck now with any chance of success ? and whatam I to do with some 
I have in boxes P What is a good substitute for the Calceolaria ?—Lypra. 
——([These may be struck now ona gentle hot-bed. Your autumn-struck 
plants, if growing freely, will furnish cuttings. 'Those wintered in boxes 
should have a cool frame prepared for them, in which they should be 
planted out about six inches apart. They require a deep, rich, loamy 
soil. The best substitute for the yellow Calceolaria is Tagetes signata 
pumila. | 


Intermediate Stocks.—A hint or two as to the proper treatment of 
these will much oblige—Z.——{[A few of these, if required for early 
flowering, may now be sown in heat, and, as soon as fit to handle, pricked 
out into boxes or frames; they must be hardened off gradually, and may 
then be planted out in the end of April in well-prepared rich soil. For 
late summer and autumn flowering sow thinly under hand-glasses on a 
south border, and allow them to remain there until planted out in May, 
when they are to bloom; before planting out, the hand-glasses should be 
Seay on all favourable occasions, so as to keep the plants dwarf and 
stocky. 

Daffodils.—The Narcissus of which I send you some blooms was 
found growing in afield near the Usk. It appears to be different from 


| the common Daffodil, which is abundant in the neighbourhood, both as to 


the flower not being sessile in the sheath, the more regularly six-lobed 
crown, and also the greater length of the latter. Will you kindly say if 
it is more than a mere variety P—G. B.——[ Your Narcissus is evidently a 
small variety of Narcissus major. It isidentical in the colour of the petals 
and the trumpet, and totally different in this from any of the varieties of 
the common Daffodil. We shall be glad of a root or two. Please also to 
send your address : we have a communication for you. | 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 23, 1872. 


THE ARBORETUM: 
GAME COVERTS AND ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 


Tue ordinary system of planting shrubs out in woods, to render 
shelter and protection to game, and to give ornamental effect, is 
frequently productive of unsatisfactory results. This has been 
attributed to various causes; but I venture to say that in nine cases 
out of ten the failure may be traced toa total neglect in the pre- 
paration of the ground, to carelessness in planting, and a want of 
proper protection and attention to the shrubs for afew years after 
planting out. The most judicious system of planting evergreen 
shrubs to effect the twofold object of game shelter and ornament is 
to plant each variety in groups or clumps of from ten to fifty plants 
in each, so as to vary the sizes of the groups, and from two feet to 
six feet apart from plant to plant. No definite rule can be laid 
down as to the particular distribution of these groups. They 
should, however, be placed at irregular distances apart, a few yards 
from the wood rides, round the margins of woods near public roads. 
A few large clumps should also be placed in any open space in the 
centre of the wood. Care should be taken as much as possible to 
ayoid planting immediately under the spread of trees, as the 
encroachments from the roots of standing timber are very injurious 
to the healthy growth of shrubs, and light and air also are most 
necessary to their health. The planting of evergreens in groups or 
clumps is a great source of shelter and protection to game, especially 
during winter, when deciduous shrubs haye shed their leaves, and 
when ferns and rank weeds are laid flat on the ground. Game of all 
kinds delight in small patches of evergreen shrubs, with plenty of 
open space round, and they detest a continuous mass of under- 
covert. The life and ornamental efiect imparted to a wood by ever- 
greens planted here and there in judiciously placed groups, fully 
compensate for the trouble and expense incurred, apart from the 
benefit to the preservation of game. 

After the selection of the ground for the various groups, the first 
point to be attended to is to see that the ground is dry. If there 
is any stagnant water or superfluous moisture, open cuts or trenches 
should be made to drain it off; but the thorough preparation of 
the ground for the reception of the shrubs by turning the soil toa 
depth of from twelve to eighteen inches deep is the great secret of 
success, and the shrubs will start into growth and thrive all the 
better if a few barrow-loads of leaf mould, fibry turf well smashed 
up, or road drift be added and well incorporated with the original 
soil. Pits should be made for the reception of each plant large 
enough to admit the roots without the least bending or cramming, 
and the roots should be carefully spread evenly round the pit, then 
the finest soil should be added till the pit is about two-thirds full ; 
the plant should be kept straight and upright in its position, and the 
soil should be gently and evenly trodden round, and then more soil 
should be added round the plant till level with the rest of the ground, 
care being taken not to bury any of the lower branches. 

The shrubs must next be protected from Master Bunny’s depre- 
dations, for the only shrubs that will entirely resist the nibbling and 
barking propensities of hares and rabbits are Rhododendron ponticum 
and Daphne ponticum and Laureola. Many shrubs are putfed up as 
distasteful to rabbits, but, with the exception of those mentioned, I 
have failed to find any that are proof against their attacks, as all 
extensive planters must know that when shrubs are newly planted 
out hares and rabbits quickly detect and punish seyerely any new 
introduction into the covert; therefore, if ground game abound, wire 
netting should be fixed round eyery group; it should not be more 
than 13-inch mesh, and not less than 4 feet 6 inches high, and be 
inserted in the ground 6 inches to prevent rabbits from working 
underneath. Many planters use wire netting from 24 feet to 3 feet 
high; but I consider this too low, for hares can hop over it with the 
greatest ease, and I have seen a rabbit run up wire netting 3 feet 
high and get over, almost with the agility of a squirrel. All shrubs 
for the first two or three years after planting out should have the 
hoe kept going amongst them, to keep down rank weeds and grass ; 
this will encourage the shrubs to start into growth quicker and 
thrive much better than they can if the ground is impoverished and 
light and air excluded by a crop of weeds growing about them. 

I will now endeavour to give a list of the best evergreen shrubs 
adapted for covert purposes, with a few remarks on each which 
experience and close observation haye prompted. 

Common laurel stands pre-eminent as a covert shrub, being a rapid 
grower, of spreading habit; will bear any amount of cutting, is 
easily propagated by cuttings, and moderately cheap. This shrub is 
one of the best for extensive planting. 

Portugal laurel, a beautiful shrub, affords a striking contrast to 
the former variety, for its foliage is a bright dark green, and its 
habit more compact; it is well worth planting out, affording as 


it does variety and contrast, but it should not be exposed to cutting 
winds, as it is not nearly so hardy as the former. 

Mahonia Aquifolium is a low, spreading, hardy, ornamental shrub, 
and bears an abundance of fruit which pheasants are very fond of. 
This shrub cannot be too highly recommended for planting ont in 
coyerts; it is easily propagated like hollies or thorns by sowing the 
fruit, and is consequently becoming cheap. Special care should be 
taken to keep the ground round this plant when newly planted out 
free from weeds and grass. 

Privet, one of the most easily cultivated shrubs grown, and one of 
the fastest growers; it is cheap, very easy to shift, and not at all 
fastidious as to soil. There are, however, several varieties, and care 
should be taken in getting the true evergreen sort. It is unequalled 
as a quick growing covert shrub. 

Rhododendron ponticum, a bold, vigorous growing, ornamental 
shrub, especially adapted for peaty ground, but will thrive in a great 
variety of soils. This shrub may be classed as excellent in an 
ornamental point of view. In regard to its qualities as a’ game 
shelter shrub, I do not believe it should be considered one of the 
best. When it gets fairly established and spreads, its lower branches 
grow too much in a tangled mass, and form anything but a comfort- 
able bottom covert for pheasants, and I have observed that game do 
not run under rhododendrons so freely as under laurels, privet, yew, 
&e. Its greatest recommendation is that it may be planted out 
where hares and rabbits abound, and never suffers at all from their 
attacks. 

Common yew, one of the best shrubs grown, either for ornament 
or game shelter, is unsurpassed for planting in exposed situations ; 
it is, however, a rather slow grower, and-somewhat expensive ; will 
thrive in any ordinary woodland soil. 

Common holly, like the preceding, cannot be too extensively 
planted ; it is unrivalled for beauty and hardiness, and will thrive 
well under the drip of trees. Itisrather a difficult shrub to trans- 
plant; the latter end of April or beginning of May is the best time 
to shift it. 

St. John’s Wort, a low-spreading shrub, unsurpassed as a dwart 
covert plant, thrives best in a light, sandy, peaty soil. When 
planted out in small patches, its creeping stems will in a short time 
spread over a large space of ground. This shrub is seldom planted 
out for covert purposes; nevertheless it is one of the most useful 
grown. 

Gaultheria Shallon, another of those useful dwarf shrubs of creeping 
habit seldom planted out to any extent in woods, notwithstanding its 
good qualities. This is one of the few shrubs found to thrive im fir 
and pine plantations; thrives best in a sandy, peaty soil; it bears 
fruit eagerly devoured by pheasants. 

Berberis Darwinii, Wallichii, and japonica, Box, Aucuba japonica, 
Laurustinus, Photinia serrulata, Phillyrea, Arbutus, Huonymus 
japonicus, Rhamnus Alaternus, Ruscus aculeatus, Juniper (of sorts), 
Cotoneaster (of sorts), Kalmia latifolia, Privet (of sorts), and 
Garrya ellipticaare all beautiful shrubs, and well adapted for giving 
shelter to game; should be planted out in groups near wood rides to 
give variety. In conclusion, with regard to the proper season for 
transplanting shrubs, I do not think so much depends on the time of 
year in which this is performed as on the state of the plants, the 
condition of the ground and the weather. Asa rule the best time 
is autumn; but the planting of evergreens may go on till late in 
spring. Dull, cloudy days should be chosen; dry, windy, frosty 
weather should be avoided.—George Berry, Longleat, in “ Field.” 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 


THE SILVER BELL, OR SNOWDROP TREE (MALESIA TETRAPTERA.) 

Tus is one of the most ornamental of all the American 
deciduous small trees which we possess, and richly deserves a 
place in every collection, on account of the profusion of Snow- 
drop-like blossoms which it produces in Apriland May. In 
this country it attains a height of from twenty to thirty feet, 
grows freely in any good garden soil, and in the climate of 
London, not only flowers freely, but ripens seed in abundance. 
Tt is a native of North Carolina, where it grows on the banks 
of rivers, and was first introduced in 1756; is easily increased 
by cutting the roots, or by means of seeds, which, however, 
otten remain more than a year in the ground before they vege- 
tate. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate, sharply 
serrated, and with the middle depressed and the footstalks 
glandular. The flowers are pure white, nine or ten together, 
in lateral fascicles, drooping, and in shape and size resemble 
those of the common Snowdrop. The corolla is monopetalous, 


yentricosely campanulate, with a deep four-lobed border. ‘The 


Manon 23, 1872.] 


drupe or fruit is dry, corticate, and oblong, with four winged 
angles and cells one-seeded. For limited places or suburban 
gardens this is a very suitable little tree. G. Gorpon, A.L.S. 


NEW ORNAMENTAL PEACH. 
(PERSICA DAVIDIANA.) 

THis is a new species of Peach of no value as a fruit tree, but 
likely to take a high place in the list of ornamental shrubs. It has 
been named after Pére David, who sent some stones of it to the 
Museum about the year 1865, and is thus described in the Revue 
Horticole:—A vigorous shrub, with wide-spreading (sometimes 
weeping) branches; leaves glandular, on deep red stalks, regularly 
attenuated towards the base, with very fine short teeth not closely 
set; glands globular, small, few (wanting in most of the leaves), 
almost always solitary, and placed on the stalk or at the base of the 
leaf. Flowers of a delicate rose colour (in one variety white); 
numerous (of medium size, about three quarters of an inch in dia- 
meter), appearing before those of the Almond tree. Fruit small, a 
little over an inch in diameter, almost spherical, usually a little 
larger on one side, with a velvety skin, of a greyish colour, changing 


New Ornamental Peach (Persica Dayidiana), 


to yellow when ripe, which occurs about the middle of August. It 
is perfectly tasteless, and has hardly even the odour of a Peach. 
M. Carriére describes this as an exceedingly handsome shrub, and 
differing so remarkably in habit from all Peaches hitherto known, 
that the most skilful Peach-grower would never take it for one of 
the family, particularly if he beheld it when deprived of its leaves. 


MISTLETOE-BEARING OAKS. 

Tue following instances of the mistletoe on the oak are given by 
Mr. James Britten, of the British Museum, in the Field. The first 
seven are given by Dr. Bull in his very interesting paper upon the 
subject published in 1864. The remainder haye been still more 
recently noted :— 

1. The oak at Eastnor, mentioned by Mr. Gordon. 

2. The oak at Tedstone Delamere, Herefordshire, discovered in 
1851. Mr. Lees states that there are two Mistletoe Oaks in this 
locality. 

3. Oak at Badham’s Court, Sudbury Park, near Chepstow. 

4. Oak at Burningfold Farm, Dunsfold, Surrey. 

5. Oak in Hackwood Park, near Basingstoke. 

6. Oak not far from Plymouth, by the side of the South Devon 
Railway. 


THE GARDEN. 


393 


7. Oak at Frampton Severn, Gloucestershire. 

8. Oak at Haven, in the ancient forest of Deerfold, Herefordshire, 
figured in the Transactions of the Woolhope Club for 1869. 

9. Oak overhanging a double cromlech at Plis Newydd, Anglesey. 

10. Oak at the Hendre, Llangattock Lingoed, Monmouthshire, dis- 
covered in the winter of 1870, and figured in the Woolhope Transac- 
tions for 1870-71. 

11. Oak at Bredwardine, Herefordshire, discovered early in 1871; 
the parasite grows upon it in fifteen different places. <A beautiful 
photograph of the tree is given in the yolume of Transactions above 
referred to. 

; = Oak near Knightwick Church, Worcestershire, discovered in 
871. 

I have from time to time published, in Notes and Queries and the 
Journal of Botany, extracts from the older writers in which Mistletoe 
Oaks are mentioned ; and there is in the Kew Herbarium a specimen 
labelled ‘from the Oak near Winchester.” 

With reference to the parasitism of the Mistletoe, the Rev. R. 
Blight publishes in the Woolhope Transactions a very valuable paper, 
illustrated by diagrams, which should be carefu!ly consulted by anyone 
engaged in investigating the subject. The specimens from which the 
drawings were made have been presented by Mr. Blight to the 
botanical department of the British Museum, and are there exposed 
to view in the public room. 


ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 

Ir is after all more in the disposition of the shrubbery, than in the 
varieties, that a rational pleasure will be found. It is not a great 
burden of bloom from any particular shrub that I aim at. I do not 
want to prove what it may do at its best, and singly; that is the 
office of the nurseryman, who has his sales to make. But I want to 
marry together great ranks of individual beauties, so that May 
flowers shall hardly be upon the wane when the blossoms of June 
shall flame over their heads ; and June in its turn have hardly lost its 
miracles of colour when July shall commence its intermittent fires, 
and light up its trail of splendour around all the skirts of the shrub- 
bery. I want to see the delicate white of the Clematis (virginiana) 
hanging its graceful festoons of August, here and there in the 
thickets that have lost their sammer flowers; and after this I wel- 
come the black berries of the Privet, or the brazen ones of the twin- 
ing Bitter-sweet. Or, it is some larger group with which we deal— 
half up the hill-side, sereening some ragged nursery of rocks—and a 
tall Lombardy Poplar lifts from its centre, while shining, yellowish 
Beeches group around it—crowding it, forcing all its leafy vigour 
(just where we wish it) into the topmost shoots; and amid the 
Beeches are dark spots of young Hemlocks—as if the shadow of a 
cloud lay just there, and the sun shone on all the rest ; and among 
the Hemlocks, and reaching in jagged bays above and below them, are 
Sumachs (so beautiful, and yet so scorned), lifting out from all the 
tossing sea of leaves their solid flame-jets of fiery crimson berries. 
Skirting these, and shining under the dip of a Willow, are the glossy 
Kalmias, which at midsummer were a sheet of blossom; and the 
hem of the group is stitched in at last with purple Phloxes and 
gorgeous Golden-rods. I know no limit indeed to the combinations 
which a man may not effect who has an eye for colour and a heart 
for the light labour of the culture. There is, unfortunately, a certain 
stereotyped way of limiting these shrubberies to a few graceful 
exotics, and of rating the value of foliage by its cost in the nursery. 
It is but a narrow and ungrateful way of dealing with the bounties 
of Providence.—My Farm of Edgewood. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Pruning Conifers.—I have a Picea Nordmanniana in which the 
leader has not grown six inches during these last two years. Will you 
inform me how the pruning of the side branches, as recommended by Mr. 
M‘Nab, should be done? Should the wood be eut back ? and if so, how 
far? or would it be sufficient to rub off the buds at the extremities of the 
branches? Lastly, should all the branches be pruned ?—A Supscriper. 
[ Mr. M‘Nab, to whom your query has been submitted, says you will have 
to wait till August, when all the side branches of your plant may be freely 
cut, so as to giveita pyramidal shape. As you have not given the height 
nor the diameter of your tree, it is impossible to say exactly how much 
ought to be cut off. If the plant is small, you should ent the branches by 
putting the knife below them, and cutting upwards and outwards; and if 
large, the upper branches, or those above the eye line, should be cut by 
putting the knife above, and cutting downwards and outwards; the inter- 
mediate ones being straight. After the points have been taken off the 
main branches, whether it be one, two, or three feet, the side branches 
should also be shortened. After being cut, cover the surface of the 
ground below the branches with some good soil. The plant will be dis- 
figured for a year or so, but it will soon recover, and the leader rapidly 
increase. | 


394: 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marci 23, 1872. 


Shrubs and Flowers which Thrive under the Drip of 
Trees.—Asmany of ovr readers are likely to take an interest in these, 
we enumerate a few, and shall be much obliged to anybody who will add 
to them :— 


Laurustinus Buxus sempervirens Leycesteria formosa 
Philadelphus Daphne Lanreola Box, of sorts 4 
Hollies Ruscus racemosus Juniperus communis 


R. aculeatus 
R. Wypoglossum 
Ivies 
Privet, in var. 
Japanese Privet 
Common Laurels Gaultheria Shallon 
PortugalLaurels Ribes, of sorts 
Rhododendron ponticum Weigela rosea 
Azalea pontica Enonymus europzus 
Taxus baccata Berberis aquifolium 
Cotoneaster buxifolia B. dulcis 
C. microphylla B. Darwinii 
C. Hookerii B. yulgaris 
Pernettya mucronata, for Hippophe rhamnoides 
peat soils H. augustifolia 
Phillyrea, of sorts Arbutus Unedo 
mosus Rhamnus Alaternus Garrya elliptica 
Aucuba japonica Broom Symphoria racemosa 
In planting shrubs with a view to produce shelter, ornamental effect, or 
game coyerts, I would advise that they should never be scattered promis- 
cuously over the ground as single specimens at wide distances apart, but 
should be planted in groups, say each plant three to four feet apart, and a 
mixture of a few kinds in a mass, taking care to keep the low-growing 
and less rambling sorts next*to the wood rides. Of rough-growing her- 
baceous plants suited for covering the ground in summer, the following 
are good :— 


J. sabina 
Potentilla fruticosa 
Buddlea globosa 
Viburnum Lantana 
V. Opulus 


Cornus alba 

C. sanguinea 
Corylus avellana 
Daphne Mezereum 
Euonymus japonicus 
Lonicera tatarica 
Xylosteum 

Mespilus germanica 
Rosa arvensis 

R. rubiginosa 

Rubus odoratus 
Sambucus nigra 

S. racemosa 

Spirea sorbifolia 

S. thalictroides 
Symphoricarpus race- 


Periwinkles, in vars. 
Saponaria officinalis 
Spirea Aruncus 


Ribbon Grass (3 varieties) Asperula odorata 
Carex pendula Digitalis purpurea 
Willow Herb Lobelia syphilitica, 
Vicia sylvatica, and its Perennial Sunflowers, 
varieties double and single 
V. major, andits varieties Phytolacca decandra 
V. minor, andits varieties Siberian Cow Parsnip 
Pampas Grass Acanthus mollis 
Sand Lyme Grass Asclepias Cornuti 


Strong coarse ferns, like— 
Lastrea Filix mas 

and 
Common 


shade-loying 
Ferns. 


G. B. 


HES tNDOOR GAR DIEM: 
LILIUM AURATUM. 


‘Hs being the season for starting this charming Lily into growth, 
perhaps a few hints on its culture may not be uninteresting. Itis a 
plant which no one fond of flowers should be without, whether they 
haye a greenhouse or not. 

The season before last IT bought forty fine bulbs of this Lily, 
which gave me the utmost satisfaction. I planted them as soon as 
they arrived, in pots, in a mixture of peat loam, a little manure, and 
sharp sand. I put them first into small pots, and then, as these 
became full of roots, shifted them into larger ones, and so on, till 
they got into the large pots, in which they were to bloom for the 
season. Being rather pressed in the houses for room, I determined 
to try how some of them would do in the open border. Accordingly, 
I planted some of them out along with some lance-leaved Lilies, 
and they did splendidly; I, however, took the precaution to take 
them up as soon as they were well out of flower. 

I had heard some people say that this Lily should be dried off; 
while others, on the contrary, said, ‘‘ No; keep them in pots, and let 
them grow on ;” so I tried half one way and half the other: I dried 
twenty, and kept the other twenty in pots. 

Last season I started them into growth, but I only kept a dozen 
back for the conservatory, and, in place of plunging them in the 
pots, I turned them out. When they came into bloom, I found that 
those which I had kept growing on in the pots were twice as strong, 
and the flowers much larger than those I had dried off; I, therefore, 
made up my mind that for the future I should always leave them in 
the pots. Last season three or four were rather late in blooming, 
and, as I was afraid to leave them out of doors any longer on account 
of the frost, I thought I would try and lift them with a good ball, 
pot them, and see if they would bloom in the house later in the year. 
Iwas afraid that the lifting would give them a sad check; but it 
did not, and I had them in full flower on Christmas Day. 

When my plants are growing I give them plenty of water; and 
when they are out of bloom, I do not dry them off suddenly, but keep 
giving less and less, till the stems are brown and decayed, when I 
stop watering altogether, and place the pots under a stage in one of 
the houses out of the way till I want to start them into growth next 
season. 

Anyone who will treat the bulbs of this Lily in the manner just 
described will find no difficulty in inducing them to bloom satisfac- 
torily, even if they have no greenhouse; for they can be kept very 
well in the winter in a cold frame. A. H. 

Upper Norwood. 


. MONSTHRA DELICIOSA. 


For striking effect in warm conservatories arranged in 
the natural style this is a plant well worth attention on account 
of the size and singular appearance of its leaves, which, as our 
illustration shows, are cut and slashed full of holes in a peculiar 
manner, as well as divided into broad straps at the edges. Its 
habit is a good deal like that of a Philodendron. If grown for 
its fruit, it requires a brisk moist stove heat. The fruit is as 
peculiar in appearance as the leayes. It is about a foot long, 
and curved a little towards one side. Like that of the pine- 
apple, it consists of numerous “ pips,” which are arranged in a 
spiral manner round a central column, from which they separate 
readily when ripe. They are full of juice, the flavour and 
aroma of which is something like that of a pine-apple, luscious 
and pleasant to the taste, but soon satisfying ; and being fur- 
nished with harsh papillee, they leave a disagreeable prickly 
sensation in the mouth, which is disliked by many. Never- 
theless, some day or other this fruit may—nay, probably will— 
be introduced to our dessert as one of its choicest luxuries. 

It is, however, with the uses of this plant in au ornamental 
point of view with which we have now to deal. Placed in 
conspicuous situations, where its great deep green, holed leaves 
could be seen to advantage, this simgular Mexican Arad could 
not fail to excite curiosity and admiration. It should not be 
planted out, but kept in pots, which could be lifted from the 


Monstera deliciosa. 


positions in which they have been plunged and returned to 
the stove during winter. When grown luxuriantly it acquires 
a somewhat scrambling mode of growth, especially adapting it 
for creeping over or about massive rockwork, or rustic work, 
or over the back wall of a warm house. Trailing round a 
tropical pool where its ample foliage would be reflected by 
the water, its effect could not fail to be most satisfactory. 


THEOPHRASTAS. 


THEOPHRASTAS rank amongst the grandest of plants that 
are grown under glass for the beauty of their foliage. T. 
imperialis is unrivalled in its way, so much so indeed, as to 
make it a fit companion for medium-sized Palms, with which 
its ample, massive leaves contrast admirably. It also possesses 
the excellent property of being easy to cultivate, and by no 
means liable to the attacks of msects. Nor is it particular as 
to temperature. I have had it growing in the stove during 
the summer under a day temperature of 80°, and the same plant 
has been wintered in a house the night temperature of which 
has rarely been above 45°, without suffering in the least. It 
has one fault, and that is the difficulty—I might, indeed, say 
impossibility—of increasing it by amy means except from 
seed. I have had cuttings, apparently in the best possible 
condition, taken off with a heel, that have lived for a couple 
of years, but have never made a single root. 

Those commencing its culture should procure a plant at 
once, selecting such as has not been too long confined ina 


Marcu 23, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


395 


small pot, for when that is the case this Theophrasta never 
makes a handsome plant; as it loses its bottom leaves sooner 
than it otherwise would do. Supposing the plant to be in 
a six or eight inch pot, full of healthy roots, remove it at once 
into a twelve or fourteen inch pot, well drained; using good 
turfy loam, with about one-seventh sand to insure good 
drainage, as it is a water-loving subject. It will succeed in 
a cool greenhouse, but its foliage is never so fine as when 
grown in the stove, with a night temperature of 70°, with 
a rise of 10° by day during the growing season. By next 
summer it will have filled the pot with roots, when it may 
be moyed into an eighteen or twenty inch pot, using similar 
soil to that recommended at the first potting. During the 
growing season, syringe once a day and shade from bright sun. 
In the autumn it may be removed to a lower temperature, and 
it is not necessary to give it a larger pot, as the second season’s 
growth can be assisted with manure water once or twice a 
week. By the end of the second summer, if all has gone 
well, the plant ought to be six feet high by six feet through. 
It will retain its bottom leaves about three years, when a few 
will begin to decay. As this goes on, if a portion of bare 


Theophrasta. 


stem is objectionable, the plant may be headed down, cutting 
the head off about three feet from the top; then, with a sharp 
knife cut out all the eyes down to within four inches of the 
base, which will induce it to break at the bottom, throwing 
out several shoots; remove these, all but one. When this 
has grown ten inches or a foot, the upper portion of the stump 
may be cut off just above where the young shoot has sprung. 
The reason for not heading the plant down to the base in the 
first instance is this: in all vegetable life there exists a 
perfect sympathy between the roots, the trunk, the branches, 
and the leaves ; one cannot be mutilated or injured in the least 
degree without affecting the others; consequently, when the 
head of a plant is reduced, or altogether cut away, the roots 
die proportionately with the amount of head removed. There- 
fore, by retaining a considerable portion of the stem, we 
preserve a greater portion of roots, which, in their turn, are 
better able to assist nature in re-establishing the balance 
destroyed by removing the head of the plant. 

When the young growth is a little further advanced, the 
plant may be taken out of the pot, the greater portion of the 
old soil removed, all the dead portion of roots cut away, and 
then placed in a smaller-sized pot, and subsequently treated as 
has just been directed. Brown scale is the only insect I have 
found troublesome, and this can be remoyed by sponging. 

Southgate. T. Bares. 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 369.) 


HypxH#Ne TuHepatca (Doum Patw: Ecyrr).—Fronds, palmate, 
glaucous, with small spines on margin, also on petiole. A coarse- 
growing plant, quite unfit for pot cultivation. 

H. NATALENSIS.—Similar to the last, but smaller. 

TRIARTEA GIGANTEA (PERU).—Fronds, six to eight feet long, 
bipinnate; pinnze, triangular, six inches long, four inches broad, 
spreading. A noble Palm, resembling a gigantic Adiantum; roots 
strong, often cropping up above the ground, three-quarters of an inch 
thick. Well adapted for a large house, where it contrasts well with 
other plants; fond of heat. 

JUB£A SPECTABILIS (SYN., Cocos CHILENSIS: NEW GrENADA).— 
Fronds, pinnate, spreading, channeled on upper side, eight to ten 
feet long, shining green. This plant has the habit of a Phoenix, and 
being nearly hardy is useful either for cool conservatory or outdoor 
decoration. It is reported to stand our winters ; but it does best when 
slightly protected. 

KENTIA CANTERBURYANA (NORTH QUEENSLAND).—Fronds, spreading, 
pinnate; pinnw, flat, regular, acuminate; leaf-stalk, round ; habit, 
that of the Areca, but stiffer. We have three species of this genus 
from the same district, differing in habit and width of pinnz. All 
of them are of noble port, and should withstand greenhouse treat- 
ment. As they grow old, the fronds form a beautiful plume-like 
circle of foliage, borne upon a stem about one and a half inches in 
thickness. 

K. Moorgkana.—Smaller than the last ; fronds recurved. 

K. Wrenpiannu.—tThe dwarfest of the three ; habit, denser ; pinne, 
broad. 

KORTHALSIA DEBILIS (BORNEO).—Fronds, erect, pinnate; pinne, 
flat, two to three inches broad, dark green. When young this has 
the habit of Areca catechn, but is slighter. A good vase plant for 
table decoration. 

LatTaNntaA COMMERSONII (SYN., RUBRA: Mauritius).—Fronds, palmate, 
three to four feet broad, points acute, cut about six inches, margin 
red; petiole, glaucous, with small spines on margin; underside 
round, upper, flat. A good table plant when young, at which period 
it is of a red tint; with age the colour goes off, when it becomes a 
truly noble object for a large house, throwing magnificent foliage. 
Where there is room this is the palm of palms. 

L. GLAvcoPpHYLLA (syN., LoppiGEsil: Mavuririvus).—Habit, exactly 
that of the former; differing in the absence of the red margin and 
the whole plant being glaucous. A noble plant. 

L. VERSCHAFFELTI (SYN., AUREA: Mauririvs).—Plant laxer than 
the above; petiole, unarmed, slightly recurved, with a yellow tint 
which pervades the whole plant; leaf, cut nearly half way. A good 
plant to mix with other foliage plants for contrast. Whensmall, a 
very good table plant, though not fond of cold. 

LEOPOLDINIA PULCHRA (BRAzIL).—Fronds, pinnate; pinne, re- 
curved, purplish in tint; unarmed. A good Palm, on account of its 
purple shade for mixing with fine-foliaged plants, though not so good 
as its name would denote. 

Licvata acuririma (Motucca).—Fronds, forming a circle, cut 
into segments about half way ; points, acute, drooping; stiff spines 
on margin of petiole. The whole of this genus are round-leaved 
plants, of more compact habit than Latanias, therefore more useful 
for small houses and table decoration. This is the best species; all 
are fond of heat and water. 

L. ELEGANS (SuMAtTRA).—Leaf, cut into eight or ten segments; 
point, abrupt; a good plant; when young it has eight to ten fronds, 
and spreads from three to four feet. 

L. Horripa (Java).—A stiff-looking plant, with dark-green foliage ; 
strong, dark spines on margin of petiole. Not very desirable. 

L. petrata (InprA).—Leaf, very round and flat; end cut abruptly; 
petiole, spinose. This is a very elegant plant, gaining beauty with 
age. 

L. spinosa (Java).—A stiff, short-leaved plant. Not decorative. 

LIVISTONA ALTISSIMA (SYN., SUBGLOBOSA: JavA).— Fronds, fan- 
shaped, nearly round; points, pendent ; petiole, long, erect ; spines 
on margin. A slighter plant than L. chinensis, but not so hardy. 
A very useful palm. 

L. CHINENSIS (SYN., BORBONICA: IsLE OF Bourbon). — Fronds, 
spreading, dense; points, pendent; spines on petiole recurved. 
This plant is a general favourite, though not the best of the genus. 
A good plant for subtropical purposes and a large house; but fora 
small one it is too dense. 

L. HoccEnporri (JAava).—Petiole, set with strong black spines ; 
fronds, larger and more erect than L. chinensis. Fond of heat. 

L. numimis (N. Horranp).—Erect and spreading spines on petiole, 
half way from base; leaf forming three-quarters of a circle, dark 
green. Good for conservatory, though rather dense. 


396 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 23, 1872. - 


L. werwis (N. Hornanp).—This resembles, in general appear- 
ance the aboye; but the leaves form a circle, and are denser. 

L. Jenxkiysit (Assam).—Fronds, forming three-quarters of a 
circle ; ends, pendent; spines on petiole, distant. A light-looking 
plant, which when young is very elegant, spreading from three to 
four feet. One of the best for stove purposes. 

L. ontyzFormis (JAVA).—Very like lu. chinensis, but not so hardy. 
- L. ROPUNDIFOLIA (SYN., Sarreus: JAya).—A compact plant, with 
short, round leaves, bright green; spines on petiole, black. When 
young, it forms a good-shaped plant, at the height of two feet, and 
one foot wide; in fact it is the gem of the genus. Though rather 
dense for table purposes, it is gocd for mixing with ferns in a small 
house. ; 

L. MAURITIANA.—There is a plant in cultivation under this name, 
but I haye not been able to distinguish it from I. chinensis, either 
by seed or plant. J. CROUCHER. 

(Lo be continued). 


DARLINGTONIA CALIFORNICA. 


TuIs, in some respects, extraordinary plant has probably not 
yet become common in England. When first introduced, I 
remember it was considered a difficult plant to manage; it 
frequently refuses to grow, and, in some cases, dies outright, 
probably from over kind treatment. Some account, therefore, 
of the way in which we manage it in America may not be 
without interest, showing, as it does, that we experience no 
difficulty in the least in making it grow satisfactorily. The 
first lot of plants which I received was during the hottest 
part of the summer, and although taken up when in full 
growth, sent five hundred miles to San Francisco, and after- 
wards 3,300 miles by rail to this place, they came to hand in 
capital condition. I potted them at once in rough peat and 
live sphagnum, and placed them outside ina small stream of 
water, shading well for a few days, and then left them exposed 
until quite a sharp frost occurred at the end of October, when 
they were removed to acold house, or rather, to the cold end of 
a very cool house, with such associates as Sarracenia purpurea, 
the variegated New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax variegatum), 
young Thujopsis, &c. Here they were plunged in sphagnum, 
kept wet, and sprinkled overhead every day. Thus treated, they 
succeeded to my entire satisfaction; but I expect even better 
results from plants taken up in the autumn; for a large batch 
which I received last autumn made a greater number of fresh 
roots in less time then did those received in summer. 

I would strongly recommend plantations of this plant and of 
Sarracenia purpurea to be made round ornamental waters. The 
Sarracenia will withstand a temperature 10° below zero, and 
probably one even more severe; but I can youch for its 
enduring that amount of frost, and I have no doubt that the 
Darlingtonia will, at least, withstand the vicissitudes of an 
English winter. It would only be necessary to make for it a 
bed of rough peat, and to allow the roots to reach the water. 

South Amboy, New Jersey, U.S. James TAruin. 


ROSES ON ORANGE TREES. 


In the month of March I procure orange trees about one to two feet 
high, and two to three inches in diameter, take them out of their boxes 
or pots and shake the soil entirely off their roots; then I wrap the 
stem in a thick woollen cloth and screw it into a vice, cut off its tap- 
root, get an augur a little longer than the stem of the tree, and begin 
to bore from the place where the tap-root was cut off through the 
pith of the stem, exactly through the very centre of the tree, until 
the point of the augur appears through the crown. The cavity, after 
I haye withdrawn the instrument, I clean out with a small brush 
fixed to a stick, so that no loose wood remains. JI then melt a little 
beeswax and turpentine together, and with this mixture I paint the 
interior of thetree. After this I get a dog-briar with good roots, and 
nearly as thick as the cavity in the orange tree, but about two or 
three inches longer than the tree itself, remove all thorns from it, and 
pass it through the tree from the root upwards, so that the roots of 
the tree and the briar mingle together. Around the top and the 
bottom of the rose tree I place a little grafting-wax to prevent the 
air and soil getting into the cavity. Then I pot the tree again, 
and prune it closely, and ‘place it into bottom heat. In four or five 
weeks I bud the top of the briar, and very often the same year I haye 
had orange blossoms and rose-flowers together. The orange tree 
does not take the operation amiss, but goes on flowering and fruiting 
a3 if nothing had happened. Last year I saw some of these orange 


trees I had united to rose trees fifteen years ago on the Continent 
full of flowers—roses and orange blossoms, mingled together. In a 
year afterwards it is impossible to detect how the operation was per- 
formed, and the tree looks exactly as if a rose had been grafted 
upon it. G. S., Cheltenham. 


MAMMILLARIA ELEPHANTIDENS. 


TuIs is one of the most distinct of the elegant section of 
Cacti to which it belongs. In July, August, and September, 
it produces a quantity of purple and violet-shaded flowers, 
two inches in diameter. It is beset with strong spines, 
which are reflexed ; they are, therefore, not so formidable- 
looking as those of some of the species. The plant itself is 
bright green in colour, and very free growing. It may be 
used as a rock-plant in summer in an exposed situation. It 
will even standa temperature as low as 35° in winter, and 
may be kept out of the soil in a perfectly dry state until 
next season. It increases very fast by means of offsets from 
the points of the mammz. Many others among dwarf Cacti 


Mammillaria Elephantidens. 


would show to advantage if they were used for bedding pur- 
poses, or on rockwork, as, for instance, Echinopsis Hyresti, 
which may be increased to any extent, and would be an 
improyement on H. sempervirens. J. CROUCHER. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Palms for Table Decoration.—Kindly name a few for this pur- 
pose.—A. D.—[The following are very ornamental in a young state, 
VIZ. <— 

Areca Intescens 

A. rubra 

Chamedorea Hartwegii 
C. Sartonit 


Latania borbonica 
Livistona rotundifolia 
Rhapis flabelliformis 
Seaforthia Baueri 


Calamus ciliaris 
C. viminalis 

C. Lewisianus 
C. leptospadix 


C. elegans Thrinax, in yar. Caryotaurens 
Deemonorops fissus Wallichise caryotoides Huterpe sylvestris 
D. periacantha Veitchia Johannis E. edulis 


Hyophorbe Verschaffeltii 
Licuala elegans. | 


Elis guineensis V. australis 
Geonoma pumila Kentia canterburyana 
G. Verschaffeltii Cocos Weddeliana 
Plantains and Bananas.—What is the difference between Plan- 
taingsand Bananas? Kindly say, and oblige—Musa.—T[ The fruit of the 
plantain is about an inch in diameter, from five inches to eight inches in 
length, and bent a little on one side. The fruit of the banana is much 
shorter and rounder in form, and more agreeable in flavour, though not 
so luscious as that of the plantain. The trees of both species grow from 
fifteen to twenty feet high, and are readily distinguished from each other, 
as the stem of the plantain is entirely green, while that of the banana is 
spotted with purple. The one generally grown and often fruited in our 
stoves is the Duke of Deyonshire’s Musa, M. Cavendishii, or chinensis; it 
may be called the dwarf banana, as it is more stocky in habit than cither 
the true plantain or banana. It is indeed so compact in habit that it may 
be easily fruited in a common stove or cucumber house. | : 


Marcu 23, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


397 


Draceenas and Caladiums.—Which are the best Draczenas and 
Caladiums for a cool greenhouse or a room window P—J. V. R.—[Cala- 
diums dislike draughts or a too dry or cool atmosphere. Dracwnas will 
do. ‘Try the following :—Dracwna australis, Draco, indivisa, braziliensis, 
nutans, Rumphii, erythrorachis, cannzfolia, lineata, excelsa, robusta, 
ferrea, nigricans. 

Hybridising Pelargoniums.—Will any of your readers acquainted 
with hybridising Pelargoniums be so obliging as to state how the opera- 
tion is effected, and at what stage the flowers must be when operated on ? 
Inquirer.ml[A raiser of new varieties, who has had twenty years’ 
experience, informs us that the process of cross-breeding must be learnt 
by practice ; it cannot be taught in books. But he gives these hints as 
aids to beginners: Pollen is usually to be had from any variety, so do not 
be anxious about that. Your first care should be to fix on the seed- 
bearing flower, and the moment it begins to open, and before it is open, 
take a tiny pair of scissors, and eut out the stamens. This is to prevent 
its being fertilised by its own pollen. Now you may think of the pollen 
to fertilise it with; and on the second day after the flower opens the 
stigma is usually fully developed, and the cross will take. The smallest 
particle, applied by a camel’s hair pencil, is enough, and it should be applied 
at mid-day. 


TOWN GARDENING. 


“OUR SQUARE” AND ITS HISTORY. 


TE open spaces in London devoted to a little greenery of 
trees, grass, and flowers, are such invaluable oases in our 
great desert of bricks and mortar, that an interest in the 
methods of their planting and “ keeping up,” so as to insure 
the greatest amount of enjoyment, becomes the duty of every 
citizen who can now and then spare a stray half hour from 
the absorbing duties of ordinary life routine. If such men, 
and women too, who are residents in London, and yet have 
had opportunities of cultivating a taste for gardening, would 
devote a few of the above-named half hours in endeayouring 
to influence stolid vestrymen and others to a sense of 
duty in such matters, we should soon see a vast improvement 
in fess green features of the great city, which ought to be so 
attractive, but which are often so much the reverse, as in the 
the unfortunate example of Leicester Square. ‘“ Our Square” 
is but a comparatively small open space; but yet, properly 
treated, might be made very pleasant to the eye from our 
drawing-room and dining-room windows, enabling us to look 
gratefully upon a small expanse of green, chequered in 
summer with the many vivid hues of gay flowers, instead of 
compelling our outward gaze totravel right across the open space 
and meet the dingy facade of houses on the opposite side, which, 
though not quite so close upon us as those of an ordinary 
street, are yet somewhat too near; while their architecture, 
though tolerable enough for the stucco school of domestic 
Corinthian, does not call for a continual study of its decorative 
features. . F 

The pleasing temptation to the eye to rest half away across, 
among the green turf and gay flowers has not, however, 
been realised by the speculative builder who assumed to him- 
self the position of arbiter elegantiarum in the matter of this 
town garden, the result of his inscrutable design being that 
which is about to be described. First: he wisely enough 
considered that, as the space was not large enough to 
serve as a promenade to the inhabitants of the square, it 
would, if left open, be made a mere playground for nursemaids 
and children, to the rapid destruction of any floricultural 
attempts he might feel disposed to make, in his natural 
wish to impart an agreeable aspect to his property. With this 
view, it was determined that the inhabitants should not be 
admitted within its railings, and that there should be no walks, 
in order not to encourage any latent wish to lounge forth in 
the cool of a summer evening among the flowers and shrubs 
of the square. The whole of the enclosure was, consequently, 
laid down in turf, in which were planned certain geometrical 
flower-beds, to be filled in summer with Geraniums and other 
“bedding plants.” So far, the plan was consistent enough; 
but what was the subsequent “move”? Why, incredible as 
it may seem, the tasteful builder-proprietor, in order to 
guide his next step, looked to the example of other squares 
and their arrangements, not wishing, as it would seem, 
to run too much in the face of established custom all at 
once; and finding that they were almost invariably planted 


inside the palisades with close hedges of Privet or Holl 
where either would grow, he at once went and did likewise. The 
effect of this last stroke of genius being, that our grass and 
flowers, which we were only allowed to inspect from the 
outside, were thus entirely concealed from us by a thick 
hedge of Privet and Holly; which soon became a ragged soot 
reservoir, that effectually hid the flowers from us, as by the 
interposition of a murky, smoke-blackened veil. 

It should be remarked that the concealment only took effect 
when the spectator sought a glimpse of the flowers from the level 
of the street; and that it merely prevented him from standing 
and staring at the Geraniums on his road home to dinner, 
which perhaps might be getting cold while he was indulging 
in flower-admiring ecstacies; and so, it might be argued, the 
enchantment was wisely shut out from his view. 

It may be urged, on the other hand, that lovers of flowers 
and of the soft and soothing aspect of a bit of green turf, 
might deem a glimpse of them agreeable from the dining- 
room windows, and might consider that their being shut out 
from that point of view was, in a small way, a kind of hard- 
ship. But to this aspect of the case the advocate of the 
tasteful builder might again reply by telling us that when in 
the dining-room, instead of strainmg the sight after the 
distant flowers in the enclosure, it would be far wiser to 
concentrate the powers of the visual organs on the cauli- 
flowers close at hand on the table. This, for a moment, might 
appear tolerably conclusive : and, it might be further remarked, 
that from the drawing-room windows (a much more suitable 
position for the indulgence of .reveries about flowers), we could 
obtain a nice comfortable view over the top of the black and sooty 
veil of Privet and Holly. But that ingenious form of advocacy 
was carefully provided against by the ingenious plotter and 
planner of our little oasis; for, in addition to the hedge of 
Holly and Privet, he also surrounded the enclosure with the 
tallest young Limes and Planes that he could get; and they 
have thriven sufficiently well to form a tolerably dense sereen, 
which obscures the view of the grass and flowers as effectually 
from the level of the drawing-room windows as the black 
hedge did from the pavement and the windows of the dining- 
room. It is true that from the upper rooms of the house a 
sort of bird’s-eye glimpse could be obtained; and the housemaids 
told their mistresses that from the attic windows the summer 
view of the Geraniums in the square was beautiful. It might 
be so, and it was no doubt 2 source of gratification to know 
that the maids had a nice view from the top of the house, 
but it did not quite satisfy the denizens of the drawing-room. 

Such was the state of things up to Christmas last, when 
our garden Miecenas was induced, after many struggles against 
deep-rooted convictions, to take away the dingy hedge, bring 
the turf close up to the palisades, and allow us to get a peep 
at the flowers and grass. But he persistently retained the 
Limes and Planes; and it will evidently require another little 
revolution, “all on the square,’ before his opposition to 
our views is thoroughly uprooted. In the meantime we have 
just induced him, en attendant the season of Geraniums, &c., 
to fill the great round central bed with Wallflower plants, 
which already form a pleasing mass of fine deep-green in 
place of a bare patch of black earth, and in a short time 
masses of bright golden flowers will mingle with the sober 
foliage, and fill the atmosphere of our little square with grateful 
fragrance. These are steps in the way we want to go, and 
we must patiently await others. Garden reforms, like the 
trees themselves, must grow; they cannot be effectually secured 
per saltum, for if done all at once, reaction is always to be 
dreaded. In our horticulture, as in our “glorious constitu- 
tion,” we must be:content to train and develop, for that has 
proved the secret of permanence in our institutions of all 
kinds, from gardening to politics; and so, we of the square 
have full faith in the uprooting, in due time, of the objection- 
able Limes and Planes of our little enclosure, and the removal 
of one or two of them to a central mound, where with a third, 
fourth, and perhaps fifth additional tree of different kinds, 
the group may form itself into a pleasing mass of foliage, and 
prove an admirable nucleus from which the other garden 
features should radiate in graceful and not too regular lines; 
the whole composition becoming uninterruptedly visible to the 
inhabitants from the dining room to the attic, Ae Nes 


398 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 23, 1872. 


THE PICTURESQUE SPRINGS OF FLORIDA. 


THE springs of Florida, as described by a newspaper correspondent, 
appear to be so copious and so picturesque, that, while there is yet 
time, they ought to be secured as national property, never to be 
vulgarised by cotton mills or other commercial undertakings, but 
made the central objects of national parks, as in the case of the 
magnificent Yosemite Valley in California. These springs in the 
State of Plorida are so wonderful as almost to surpass credibility. 
One of these, called “‘ The Big Spring of Chipola,” is literally a river 
bursting ont of the earth from under a high bank covered with large 
oak trees. The orifice is thirty feet by eight wide, and the stream 
forms a river six rods wide and eight feet deep, which joins the 
Chipola River and makes its way to the Gulf. Another, named 
“ Silver Spring,” in the county of Marion, is perhaps more accessible 
to the tourists on the St. John’s River, and is large enough to admit 
to its very source the steamers that navigate the Oclawaha River. 
Within a hundred yards of my present residence, from a wide cleft 
in a rock some eighteen feet down, breaks forth a living stream, 
which, with lavish generosity, pours out its tide at the rate of three 
thousand gallons per minute. Another hundred yards, and the 
stream is lost in the dark solemn waters of the St. John’s River; 
but if it rose on high ground, and in the interior, it would be suffi- 
cient I fancy to turn all the mills of Lawrence or Lowell. And yet 
Green Cove Spring does not take high rank in Florida for its magni- 
tude, though in beanty I should say that it yields to none. The 
waters are beautifully clear, and the bottom, which is some twenty 
feet square, is covered with a rich emerald. All around the spring, 
and almost overhanging it, are the graceful forms of semi-tropical 
vegetation, both trees and shrubs, in richest profusion—the magnolia, 
water oak, dwarf palm, &e.; the trees all decorated with the solemn 
yet exquisite drapery of the trailing moss. Birds, quite secure, flit 
about and lend their forms and song to fill up the picture. The 
trees and shrubs are mostly evergreen. In a week more (Hebruary 20) 
all those not now in leaf will be putting forth their foliage, and 
flowers will be springing up in every direction. In short, one here 
enjoys summer in the month of February. 


Grass.—Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a minute 
quietly, its narrow sword-shaped strip of fluted green. Nothing, as 
it seems there, of notable goodness or beauty. A very little strength, 
and a very little tallness, and a few delicate long lines meeting in a 
point—not a perfect point neither, but blunt and unfinished, by no 
means a creditable or apparently much-cared-for example of Nature’s 
workmanship ; made, as it seems, only to be trodden on to-day, and 
to-morrow to be cast into the oven; anda little pale and hollow 
stalk, feeble and flaccid, leading down to the dull brown fibres of 
roots. And yet, think of it well, and judge whether of all the 
gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and of all strong and 
goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes or good for food—stately palm and 
Pine, strong ash or oak, scented citron, burdened vine—there be any 
by man so deeply loved, by God so highly graced, as that narrow 
point of feeble green. It seems to me not to have been without a 
peculiar significance that our Lord, when about to work the miracle 
which, of all that He showed, appears to haye been felt by the 
multitude as the most impressive—the miracle of the loaves—com- 
manded the people to sit down by companies ‘‘upon the green 
grass.” He was about to feed them with the principal produce of 
earth and the sea, the simplest representations of the food of 
mankind. He gave them the seed of the herb; He bade them sit 
down upon the herb itself, which was as great a gift, in its fitness 
for their joy and rest, as its perfect fruit for their sustenance ; thus, 
in this single order and act, when rightly understood, indicating for 
evermore how the Creator had entrusted the comfort, consolation, 
and sustenance of man, to the simplest and most despised of all the 
leafy families of the earth. And well does it fulfil its mission. 
Consider what we owe merely to the meadow grass, to the covering 
of the dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of 
those soft, and countless, and peaceful spears. The fields! Follow 
but forth for a little time the thoughts of all that we ought to 
recognise in those words. All spring and summer is in them—the 
walks by silent, scented paths—the rests in noonday heat—the joy 
of herds and flocks—the power of all shepherd life and meditation— 
the life of sunlight upon the world, falling in emerald streaks, and 
failing in soft blue shadows, where else it would have struck upon 
the dark mould, or scorching dust—pastures beside the pacing 
brooks—soft banks and knolls of lowly hills—thymy slopes of down 
overlooked by the blue line of lifted sea—crisp lawns all dim with 
early dew, or smooth in evening warmth of barred sunshine, dinted 
by happy feet, and softening in their fall the sound of loving voices: 
all these are summed in those simple words; and these are not all. 
—John Ruskin. 


THE LIBRARY. 


FLOWERS AND GARDENS.* 

A PLEASANT and singular little book, discoursing agreeably 
about some of our old garden favourites. The subject is 
approached from the zsthetie ‘side, and the author appears to 
us to take a true and just view of most of the subjects upon 
which he touches. The following extract will serve to give an 
idea of the style and aim of the book, to which we shall pro- 
bably again advert :— 

“T believe that nearly every plant has an especial loveliness of its 
own—a something distinctive, that is, which is capable of endearing 
it tous. And though such degraded forms as Torilis nodosa may 
attract us chiefly as curiosities in all but exceptional instances, this 
loveliness founds itself upon some form of genuine beauty—beanty, 
I grant, which, as a whole, is often of an inferior order ; thus there 
is nothing to strike the eye in the common wild Mignonette, or in 
many of the Galinms, Willow-herbs, Groundsels, Rushes, Sedges; 
and yet it frequently happens that these plants, not generally 
attractive, excel at particular times and in particular ways. Usually 
few people would admire the Yellow Charlock, yet what splendour it 
often casts over the yet green corn-fields when blended with the 
scarlet of the Poppies! Anthriscus vulgaris, sylvestris, and many 
of the Umbelliferze are remarkable for the beauty of their earliest 
leaves; those especially of the great Cow Parsnip might serve as 
models for the stone carver; and the coarse insignificant Goosegrass 
(Galium aparine), which children rub over their tongues to make 
them bleed, fills every hedge bottom in January and February with 
a host of tiny star-crosses as delicate as the work of fairies. Then 
observe that tall Anthriscus sylvestris later on in June, how it varies 
the long level of many an unmown meadow with the dull misty white 
of its flowers, giving, by the looseness of its growth, a wild, indefinite 
look, here and there almost reminding us of tumbled foam, an effect 
which is greatly aided by the meanness and unimpressiveness of its 
foliage. Then the two common Dead Nettles (Lamium) are very 
undeservedly depreciated. The red Dead Nettle is one of our ear- 
lest spring flowers, and there is a soft vividness in the red, especially 
in the earlier blossoms, which leads off most exquisitely through the 
purplish tints of the upper leaves. As to the white Dead Nettle, I 
will say nothing of it in the spring-time, when it is outshone by more 
brilliant rivals. I always prefer it when the November mists are 
falling, and its large soft flowers, undamaged by the weather, look 
forth here and there from the hedge. ‘Truly, they have a wonderful 
fascination then. In early spring the plant has a too excessive 
vigour—an air of rude health, which often spoils it, partly, I think, 
by affecting the leaf colour; besides, the stems are apt then to be 
far too numerous. It is otherwise in November. 

“Plants are thus far more universally beautiful than animals, because 
plants can never disgust or repel—animals can. And though it were 
easy to name plants in which one feels no vivid interest, as, for 
instance, Senecio sylvatica, I find, on running through our native 
lists, these to be comparatively so few, that the fault lies most 
probably with the observer.” . 


THE CULTURE OF THE PEAR.+ 


Tats is one of those thoroughly practical, and therefore scientific, 
little books on fruit culture which one so often meets with in France. 
In it the culture of the pear is concisely and lucidly given, together 
with full descriptions of select kinds and their special wants, if any. 
M. Baltet is im all respects an excellent writer. There are some 
who ridicule gardening literature, and if they confined their ridicule 
to that which is bad they might be right; but a good book is the 
harvest of a good man’s thoughts so arranged as to be easily 
digested, and, therefore, like that before us, commends itself to our 
favourable notice. We have no doubt that such publications as this 
have had much to do with the excellent pear culture one sees in 
every part of France. 


Garden Flowers. (london and Edinburgh: Nelson & Sons.)—A 
packet of twelve small coloured plates, each representing a group 
of garden flowers, the whole in a neat packet. ‘The flowers are charmingly 
grouped, and for the most part well coloured. We particularly admired a 
group of Foxglove and Harebells. We heartily welcome this effort to 
popularise such pretty objects. The packet forms a suitable little pre- 
sent, and the plates will give pleasure in many a home where living flowers 
are never seen; while in the home blessed with a garden, where flowers 
are “alla blowin’ and a growin’,” they will testify how well the artist 
has expressed their beauty in these cheap little pictures.- 


* Plowers and Gardens: Notes on Plant Beauty.’’ By A Medica Man 
London: Strahan & Co. 
+ ‘‘ Culture du Poirier.” Par Charles Baltet. Paris: Victor Masson & Fils. 


Marcu 23, 1872. 


399 


FAMOUS TREES. 


DRAGON TREE. 
(DRACENA DRACO.) 

Tre giant specimen of Dragon Tree, growing at Orotava, in 
the island of ‘Teneriffe, was entirely destroyed during the 
antumn of 1867 bya gale of wind. It was first brought into 
general notice by Humboldt, some sixty years ago, and was 
computed by him to be 6,000 years old. It had, however, been 
previously noticed in 1797 by Sir George Staunton, and in 1771 
by T. C. Borda, a Frenchman, whose drawing of the tree was 
subsequently published by Humboldt. In July 1819 a storm 
deprived it of part of its crown, and a large and good English 
engraving of it was published after its mutilation. Webb, in 
his “ Natural History of the Canaries,” describes it and gives its 
measurements, and it has since afforded a theme for the pen of 
almost every traveller who has visited Orotaya. 


TH 


not to be wondered at, for even in their native country they 
attain the age of thirty years before they emit branches. 

This tree is usually known by the name of Dragon’s-blood Tree, 
on account of a resinous exudation which it emits at certain 
times from cracks in the trunk. At one time the resin formed 
a considerable branch of commerce, being highly esteemed in 
medicine, but it has now almost fallen into disuse. 

As a type of tropical vegetation it is peculiar, and worth 
attention on account of the contrast it makes with other forms 
of plant-life with which it is associated. Young plants of this 
species are valuable for the conservatory at all seasons, and for 
placing out of doors in summer in the warmer parts of these 
islands. 

The Looshai Highland Flora.—Now that the Looshai 
mountaineers haye been punished for their raids on our Assam tea 
plantations, and the prisoners they had carried off recovered, science 
will probably derive unexpected advantages from the opening-up of 


The Dragon Tree (Dracwna Draco). 


The trunk was hollow, and in the interior was a staircase, by 
which one mightascend as faras the part from which the branches 
sprung. It was said to be seventy feet in height, and, according 
to Le Duc, seventy-nine feet in circumference near the ground ; 
it was supposed to be one of the oldest vegetable inhabitants of 
the world. We have plants of Dracwena Draco in our stoves; 
but so unlike are they to the wonderful specimen represented 
by our illustration, that nobody would imagine for a moment 
that they were one and the same thing—so wide is the con- 
trast between youth and age. 

Dracwena Draco is a native of the East Indies, but the Canary 
Islands seem to have suited its growth admirably. It 
has a tree-like stem, much branched at the top, where they 
form a crowded head of lanceolate linear entire leaves, of a 
glaucous green colour. The leaves embrace the stem at their 
base, and on falling off at maturity leave a scar on the branch. 
In our stoves the plants are usually unbranched, a circumstance 


the Looshai highlands. The fauna and flora of those extensive 
mountain ranges are almost entirely unknown to science. Of the 
former it is true we know something through the skill of the native 
tribes in trapping several kinds of birds of beautiful plumage which 
are found in the forests, and which they bring for sale to our 
frontier stations; but of the plants of that region we know next to 
nothing. Communications are now, however, opened-up, which will 
doubtless lead to successful explorations; and beautiful plants, 
hitherto unknown, may possibly reward our researches. It was, 
comparatively speaking, but the other day that the magnificent 
Himalayan Rhododendrons were discovered by one of our most justly 
celebrated botanists, and though letters received during the Looshai 
expedition may, perhaps, have raised our expectations too high, yet 
it is but fair to suppose that some valuable additions will be made to 
our exotic flora, which will add many new and attractive features to 
our gardens—the more especially as coming from a mountainous 
region many of them may prove fully as hardy as some of the new 
Rhododendrons and other pants received from the Himalayas. 


400 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcr 28, 1872. 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


WATER. 


Ty considering the subjects of gardening, ground and wood 
first present themselves; water is the next, which, though not 
absolutely necessary to a beautiful composition, yet occurs so 
often, and is so capital a feature, that it is always regretted 
when wanting; and no large place can be supposed, a little spot 
can hardly be imagined, in which it may not be agreeable; it 
accommodates itself to every situation ; is the most interesting 
object in a landscape, and the happiest circumstance in a re- 
tired recess; captivates the eye at a distance, invites approach, 
and is delightful when near; it refreshes an open exposure; 
it animates a shade, cheers the dreariness of a waste, and en- 
riches the most clouded view: in form, in style, and in extent, 
may be made equal to the greatest compositions, or adapted to 
the least; it may spread in a calm expanse, to sooth the tran- 
quillity of a peaceful scene; or, hurrying along a devious 
course, add splendour to a gay, and movement to a romantic 
situation ....A gently murmuring rill, clear and shallow, just 
gurgling, just dimpling, imposes silence, suits with solitude, 
and leads to meditation: a brisker current, which wantons in 
little eddies over a bright sandy bottom, or babbles among peb- 
bles, spreads cheerfulness all around; a greater rapidity, and 
more agitation, to a certain degree are animating; but in ex- 
cess, instead of wakening, they alarm the senses; the roar and 
the rage of a torrent, its force, its violence, its impetuosity, 
tend to inspire terror; that terrror, which, whether as cause or 
effect, is so nearly allied to sublimity. Abstracted, however, 
from all these ideas, from every sensation, either of depression, 
composure, or exertion; and considering water merely as an 
object, no other is so apt soon to catch, and long to fix the at- 
tention .... Ina garden, water is generally imitative. That 
which in the open country would be called a great pond, there 
assumes the name, and should be shaped as if it had the extent 
of a lake ; for it is large im proportion to the other parts of the 
place. Though sometimes a real river passes through a earden, 
yet still-but a small portion of it is seen; and more frequently 
the semblance only of such a portion is substituted instead 
of the reality. Im either case, the imitation is lost, if the 
characteristic distinctions between a lake and a river be not 
scrupulously preserved. 

THE LAKE. 

Space is essential to a lake; it may spread to any extent ; 
and the mind, always pleased to expand itself on great ideas, 
delights eyen in its vastness. A lake cannot be too large as a 
subject of description or of contemplation: but the eye 
receives little satisfaction when it has not a form on which to 
rest: the ocean itself hardly atones by all its grandeur for its 
infinity ; and a prospect of it is, therefore, always most agree- 
able, when in some part, at no great distance, a reach of shore, 
a promontory, or an island, reduces the immensity into shape. 
If the most extensive view which can be the object of vision, 
must be restrained, in order tobe pleasing; if the noblest ideas 
which the creation can suggest, must be checked in their 
career, before they can be accommodated to the principles of 
beauty; an offence against those principles, a transgression of 
that restraint, will not easily be forgiven ona subject less than 
indefinite : a lake whose bounds are quite out of sight, is cireum- 
scribed in reality, not in appearance; at the same time that it 
disappoints the eye, it confines the imagination; it is but a 
waste of waters, neither interesting nor agreeable. If the 
length of a piece of water be too great for its breadth, so as to 
destroy all idea of cireuity, the extremities should be considered 
as too far off, and made important, to give them proximity : 
while at the same time the breadth may be favoured, by keeping 
down the banks on the side. Onthe same principle, if the lake 
be too small, a low shore will, in appearance, increase the 
extent. But it is not necessary that the whole scene be 
bounded: if form be impressed on a considerable part, the eye 
can, without disgust, permit a large reach to stretch beyond its 
ken; it can even be pleased to observe a tremulous motion in 
the horizon, which shows that the water has not there yet at- 
tained its termination. Still short of this, the extent may be 
kept in uncertainty; a hill or a wood may conceal one of the 
extremities, and the country beyond it, in such a manner, as to 


leave room for the supposed continuation of so large a body of 
water. Opportunities to choose this shape are frequent, and 
it is the most perfect of any: the scene is closed, but the ex- 
tent of the lake is undetermined; a complete form is exhibited 
to the eye, while a boundless range is left open to the imagina- 
tion. But mere form will only give content, not delight; that 
depends upon the outline, which is capable of exquisite beauty ; 
and the bays and the creeks, and the promontories, which are 
ordinary parts of that outline, together with the accidents of 
islands, of inlets, and of outlets to rivers, are in their shapes 
and their combinations an inexhaustible fund of variety. A 
straight line of considerable length may find a place in that 
variety; and it is sometimes of singular use to prevent the 
semblance of a river in a channel formed between islands and 
the shore. But no figure perfectly regular ought ever to be 
admitted ; it always seems artificial, unless its size absolutely 
forbids the supposition. A semi-circular bay, though the shape 
be beautiful, is not natural; and any rectilinear figure is abso- 
Iutely ugly; but if one line be curved, another may sometimes 
be almost straight ; the contrast is agreeable; and to multiply 
the occasions of showing contrasts, may often be a reason for 
giving several directions to a creek, and more than two sides 
toa promontory. Bays, creeks, and promontories, though ex- 
tremely beautiful, should not, however, be very numerous ; for 
a shore broken into little points and Hollows has no certainty 
of outline; it is only ragged, not diversified; and the distinct- 
ness and simplicity of the great parts are hurt by the multiph- 
city of subdivisions: but islands, though the channels between 
them be narrow, do not so often derogate from greatness; they 
intimate a space beyond them whose boundaries do not appear ; 
and remove to a.distance the shore which is seen in perspective 
between them. Such partial interruptions of the sight suggest 
ideas of extent to the imagination.— Thomas Whateley. 


ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE. 


We are forced, for the sake of accumulating our power and know- 
ledge, to live in cities: but such advantage as we have in association 
with each other is in great part counterbalanced by our loss of fellow- 
ship with nature. We cannot all have our gardens now, nor our 
pleasant fields to meditate in at eventide. Then the function of our 
architecture is, as far as may be, to replace these; to tell us about 
nature; to possess us with memories of her quietness; to be solemn 
and full of tenderness, like her, and rich in portraitures of her; full 
of delicate imagery of the flowers we can no more gather, and of the 
living creatures now far away from us in their own solitude. If eyer 
you felt or found this im a London street—if ever it furnished you 
with one serious thought, or one ray of true and gentle pleasure—it 
there is in your heart a true delight in its grim railings and dark 
casements, and wasteful finery of shops, and feeble coxcombry of 
club-houses—it is well: promote the building of more like them. 
But if they never taught you anything, and never made you happier 
as you passed.beneath them, do not think they have any mysterious 
goodness nor occult sublimity. Have done with wretched affectation, . 
the futile barbarism, of pretending to enjoy: for as surely as you 
know that the meadow grass, meshed with fairy rings, is better than 
the wood pavement, cut into hexagons; and as surely as you know 
the fresh winds and sunshine of the upland are better than the choke 
damp of the vault, or the gas-light of the ball-room, you may know, 
as I told you that you should, that the good architecture, which has 
life, and truth, and joy in it, is better than the bad architecture, 
which has death, dishonesty, and vexation of heart in it, from the 
beginning toend of time.—The Stones of Venice. 


PARC DE COURCELLES. 


Tar grounds of this domain slope very much from the 
point where the waters which descend from the mountain 
emerge, to the river which runs through the property. The 
total area is about twenty-five acres. The bounds of the 
property are concealed by thick clumps of large trees and 
underwood shrubs. At the crossings of the walks other 
clumps hide the great sandy spaces, which are always so dis- 
agreeable to the sight. A marked centre depression of the 
surface extends through the entire property to the ad- 
jacent meadows, from which the domain is separated by a 
sunk fence, so that no appearance of an inclosure is presented. 
The roundish points mark isolated groups or single trees 
standing on the slopes,while the position of conifers is denoted, 


401 


THE GARDEN. 


Marcu 23, 1872.) 


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PLAN OF COURCELLES, 


402 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 28, 1872. 


by an asterisk-like mark. The kitchen garden and the flower 
garden haye been laid out behind the dwelling-house, so as 
not to spoil the general effect of the park landscape; they 
are joined by a bridge which crosses the stream. The incline 
on the left bank is very steep and picturesque. The walks on 
that side run in a cross direction, or length-ways. As the 
soil is for the most part moist, the trees which have been 
selected for the plantations are principally deciduous kinds, 
which do best in cool moist ground. The garden is the 
property of M. Boivin (Haute Marne), and was laid out by 
M. Hd. André. The straight lines indicate the points of view. 

There is much to admire in this garden, and only one radical 
fault—the senseless semi-geometrical walks which, as usual 
in the modern French garden, thrust their ugliness through 
the fairest parts of the garden. Just look at them where 
they meet towards the central portion of the grounds! There 
is no more occasion for this violation of the repose of a 
private garden than there would be for placing analogous 
bands of yellow through some charmingly painted landscape. 


PUBEIC GAR DIENS: 
KEW GARDENS AND OUR PUBLIC PARKS. 


THE management of the Royal Gardens at Kew, as well as of 
the public parks, is not so simple a matter as some of your corre- 
spondents seem to think. It is easy enough to point out defects 
and to complain that there are details very ill-carried out, but if 
your correspondents knew the difficulty with which every alteration 
is made that involves expense, they would be surprised—not that 
so little has been done, but so much. I perfectly acknowledge the 
debt which is owing to you, for urging the true principles of 
gardening, and endeavouring, as you have done, to introduce a 
system founded on what makes all art good—nature. In public 
establishments, however, under the control of shifting Governments, 
it is impossible to act in the same manner, as is easy where the 
establishment is private and the purse thatfeedsit large. There may 
be obvious improvements, which yet cannot be made. The result of 
what is done may be marred by injudicious economy. The Royal 
Gardens at Kew are under the management of a gentleman not only of 
high scientific acquiremeuts, but of excellent knowledge in ornamental 
detail. Their object has never been either to give lessons in land- 
scape gardening or to produce picturesque effect. Their establishment 
was principally for a scientific purpose, and they present facilities 
for study perhaps unequalled in the world. The plants in the con- 
servyatory are not arranged in the manner most pleasing to the eye, 
but the best for instruction, the products of each country being 
kept, as far as possible, together; and the same principle is maintained 
in the grounds. In the open air there are great difficulties to 
contend with. Neither the soil, climate, or atmosphere is well 
adapted to the growth of what may be most valuable. 

The avenue of Deodars has not succeeded, and in place of each 
Cedar three deciduous trees have been planted, in the hope that one 
at least may thrive. None of the Coniferze seem likely to make fine 
trees at Kew, though it is necessary there should be specimens of 
as large a number as is possible, not for ornamental effect but in 
order that the student may study, the gardener learn, and the 
amateur choose. 

There is another obstacle at Kew. The collection is constantly 
increasing by gifts or exchanges from all parts of the world, while 
no increase is made in the resources of the garden. 

The management of the Parks is beset by perhaps greater diffi- 
culties than are the Royal Gardens at Kew, for the latter are 
acknowledged to be of great scientific use to the nation at large, 
while there is a growing indisposition in the House of Commons to 
vote money for the exclusive enjoyment of Londoners. At the same 
time there is a zealous opposition to the proper control of the Parks, 
essential, if they are well kept. The progress of the Bill affecting 
them, lately introduced by Mr. Ayrton, and the vacillation of the 
Government points this out. Many, I believe, think that the Parks 
had better be left to a variety of gravel paths, with the occasional 
grass the “people” choose should not be laid bare; and that they 
ought to be deyoted to the exclusive enjoyment of the lowest class. 

The principal improvements which have been of late effected in 
the Parks are owing to Mr. Cowper Temple, who acted with an 
independence and liberality that exceptional circumstances enabled 
him to assume. Had his Italian garden in the Regent’s Park been 
carried up to the Zoological Gardens, a very fine result would have 
been achieved. 

The Office of Works is, in reality, under the control of the 


Treasury, which, having to pass, can refuse any of its estimates. 
The object of the Treasury is naturally to keep down expenditure, 
and it is seldom the Office of Works is not required to reduce its 
accounts as far as can be done. When the Army and Navy estimates 
grow big, the estimates for the Parks and Public Gardens are 
expected equally to grow small. The whole constitution, too, of the 
Office of Works is wrong, if it is intended to be an important 
department of State, and control in any degree the public taste. 
It is very doubtful, however, that the country wishes for more than 
is already done, and that any increased expenditure, whatever the 
result, would not be decidedly unpopular. If I was to venture to 
give any opinion, I should suggest that the First Commissioner be 
made independent, that he should moye his own estimates, and be 
alone responsible for what he spent and what he did. It is im- 
possible under our present Parliamentary system to make him a 
permanent officer, or prevent political considerations, rather than 
personal fitness, from having great influence in his appointment. 
He might, I think, be assisted by a permanent board, who would 
have the professional knowledge he might lack, assist him with their 
advice, and be responsible for carrying out works begun during one 
and finished during another Government. But if London is to be 
regarded only as a huge workshop out of which everyone is to get 
as fast as possible, and that the principal merit of a Government is 
to pare down as much as they can, I do not think it hkely any 
Parliament will be found to yote money for the embellishment of 
London, or a ‘‘ Minister of Public Taste” be ever appointed. 
BRINSLEY MARnAY. 


Val de Travers Asphalte Paving Company.—This com- 
pany announces a dividend of twenty-five shillings per share, being 
at the rate of fifteen per cent. per annum. At its recent annual 
meeting, the chairman said a large amount of work had been done 
during the ten months the company had been established. It had 
laid down 47,000 yards on footpaths, and had also done a considerable 
extent of private work in laying down floors for stables and in 
manufactories, The profit for the period mentioned was £16,162 
on works executed. It had established subsidiary companies in 
Great Britain and Ireland. The Scottish Company expected a great 
deal of work, the Birmingham Company was in active operation, 
and the Manchester Company had already laid down the asphalte 
pavement in two streets. 


AMERICAN ALOE SPIRIT. 


A CORRESPONDENT of the Tribune, accompanying the Seward party 
in their yisit to Mexico, thus relates his experience in drinking the 
liquor of the Mexican Aloe :—‘‘ A bottle of the fiery liquid distilled 
from the mescal plant, otherwise called the ‘American aloe,’ or 
‘century’ plant, which blossoms in this latitude once a year, instead 
of once in a hundred, as is commonly believed at the north—called 
‘ mescal,’ or ‘ tekala ’—is sold at the little wayside stands for six and 
a quarter cents, and it will produce as much drunkenness as a barrel 
of North-American whisky. I took one drink of it, under the sup- 
position that it was anisette or some other light liquor, swallowing 
possibly about an ounce, druggist’s measure, before I smelled the 
burning flesh as the lightning descended my throat. As I set down 
the glass, my head began to increase in size so rapidly that I saw at 
once that unless I got outside immediately, the door would be too 
small to admit of my passing through it. Seizing my hat, which ap- 
peared to have become about the size of an ordinary umbrella, I 
turned it up edgewise, and succeeded by a tight squeeze in passing 
through the door; the street then appeared funnel-shaped, and I 
remember an odd fancy that I was to resemble the man who ‘ went 
into the big and came out at the little end of the horn.’ Curiously 
enough, my legs decreased in size as my head enlarged, and my last 
recollection of the affair is that my person resembled a sugar-hogshead 
walking off on two straws; body I had none. No more tekala for 
me, please! The teamsters and muleteers drink this clear, colour- 
less, harmless-looking concentrated lightning with apparent im- 
punity; but a single bottle of it will cause a rebellion among an 
entire regiment of soldiers, and very likely result in a pronunciamiento 
on the spot.” 


Carbolie Acid versus Moulds.—A contemporary states that the 
decomposition of paste may be prevented by adding to it a 
small quantity of carbolie acid. In the same way, the disagreeable 
smell which glue often has may be prevented. If a few drops of the 
solution be added to ink or mucilage, they will not mould. Jor 
whitewash, especially when used in cellars and such places, the 
addition of one ounce of carbolic acid to each gallon will prevent 
monld and disagreeable adours. 


Marce# 23, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


403 


GARDEN STRUCTURES. 


A NEW WINTER GARDEN. 


Tur structure represented by the annexed illustration 
measures one hundred feet long, thirty feet wide, and twenty- 
two feet high inside. ‘The foundations on which the iron walls 
rest, and also the corner columns, are of polished freestone. 
The central block, in which the principal entrance is placed, 
extends fifty feet ina northerly direction, and is surmounted 
by a graceful dome thirty-four feet in height. The wings at 
either end of the main building, and which are shown in 
the illustration, measure fifteen feet wide, and are used for 
waiting and retiring rooms. 

At right angles to the main entrance the pathways branch 
off, and are carried round the interior of the building. These 
pathways are six feet wide, in the centre of which are placed 
the hot-water pipes for heating the building, the heat escaping 
through gratings two feet wide. At either side of the 


HEATING BY GAS. 


WHEREVER gas is to be had at a reasonable price I am convinced 
that it is much more economical to heat a greenhouse with it than 
with an ordinary boiler ; and where a large greenhouse is in question 
it will pay anyone well to make his own gas. Outside a room, 
seventeen feet by ten feet, and ten feet high, I have a small conser- 
vatory, seven feet by three feet, just covering the opening of the 
window, which has been taken entirely out. Round this little green- 
house runs an inch and a half iron pipe, communicating with a copper 
boiler outside on the leads. This boiler is broad and shallow, and 
during the last two winters I have maintained a temperature of 50’, 
without any fire in the room, by merely lighting the gas under the 
boiler from eight o’clock at night until the same hour the next 
morning. Of course the boiler is sheltered from wind and rain. The 
burner, which is one of those known as a “roarer,”’ is five inches 
high, and shaped like the chimney of an ordinary paraffin lamp, 
rising up through a globe. The gas enters the gaspipe and passes to 
the globular part of the burner, where the pipe is closed, except at 
an orifice considerably smaller than an ordinary sized pin’s head. 
Through this hole the gas rushes upwards towards the tube or 
chimney, and before entering it becomes completely mixed with air 


Winter Garden at Edinburgh. 


gratings mosaic tiles are laid to form the full width of the 
pathway. A line of ornamental iron tabling, thirty inches 
wide, is placed along the front, next to the pathway, for the 
display of plants in pots. The centre of the house is devoted 
to the culture of large Camellias, Azaleas, Aloes, Palms, and 
other types of exotic vegetation. At either end of the main 
portions of the building are placed large mirrors, by means 
of which plants in bloom are reflected. 

Ample ventilation is provided, without which, in a house of 
this description, all attempts in the way of successful culti- 
vation would end in failure. The ventilators are made to 
move by means of rods and levers, and the whole of them 
may be opened, or shut, or regulated in afew minutes. Though 
this is a great improvement upon old modes of ventilating, 
yet one now and then finds the old-fashioned plan in operation 
even in places in which we might expect better things. 


_ The heating apparatus consists of one of Shanks’s malleable 
iron boilers of improved form, so placed that it heats 
effectively both the winter garden and a range of stoye and 
propagating houses adjoining it. The structure itself, which 
is a composite one, built of iron and wood, was designed and 
erected by Messrs. Shanks for Messrs. Downie, Laird, & 
Laing. 


in its passage through the central opening. On applying a light at 
the top of the chimney, the mixed gas and air unite to form an 
almost colourless flame, which emits intense heat, accompanied by a 
‘roaring’ noise, which, however, paradoxical as it may appear, is 
very slight. 

If the boiler were a large one it would require several such burners, 
and it should in all cases be as shallow as possible, and well “‘ packed.”’ 
The products of combustion could of course on a large scale, be 
carried through the hothouse by the ordinary flue, and thus the whole 
of the heat would be utilised. There is not the slightest soot produced 
by these burners, nor smell of any description, even when the gas is 
impure. I may perhaps here mention that if owners of greenhouses 
were to place the heating pipes so that they could be regularly black- 
leaded, they would find a saving in fuel of at least fifteen per cent. 
after all expenses attending the process were paid. 

W. M., Swansea. 


Stove for Small Greenhouses.—What is the best stove to heat a 
small greenhouse ?—QueErist.—[We hear a very good account of 
Walker’s, 58, Oxford Street, Birmingham ; but know nothing of it per- 
sonally. There is also one advertised by a manufacturer at Hounslow, of 
which we have had favourable reports. The point requiring attention is 
to keep the gas from escaping into the house, and thus injuring the plants. 
This remark, as a matter of course, does not apply to cases in which the 
gas is merely used to heat a boiler furnished with hot-water pipes. | 


404: 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 23, 1872. 


DHE KITCHEN] GARDEN: 


THE ASPARAGUS CULTURE OF THE ANCIENTS. 


Wiru reference to the inquiries on p. 385, on this subject, 
the following may furnish the information which your corres- 
pondent requires :— 

CATO “DE RE RUSTICA,” CHAP. CLXI. 

Dig up ground that is moist and rich: after it has been dug, make 
beds, so as to be able to hoe and weed, right and left, without treading 
on it. To this end make spaces half a foot broad betwixt them 
in every direction, and then sow. With a stake deposit two or three 
seeds at a time in line, and with the same stake cover the hole with 
earth. Afterwards scatter manure over the beds. After the yernal 
equinox, where it (the crop?) shall have sprung up, frequently clear 
the weeds,* and take care that the plant be not plucked up along 
with them. In the year after sowing, cover it with litter during 
winter, that it may not be pinched or nipped. Then in early spring 
uncover the beds, hoe and weed them. Three years after sowing, 
burnt the soil or surface at the beginning of spring. After this, do 
not hoe before the asparagus has sprung up, lest in hoeing you should 
injure the roots. In the third or fourth year gather the asparagus 
close to the root ; for if you break it off, sprouts will arise, and die 
off. You may pull continually, till you see the plants go to seed. 
Beware of breaking off the shoots. Take care to lay on as much 
sheep manure as possible ; it is best for this purpose. Other manure 
engenders weeds.* 

Elsewhere (chap. yi. s. 3) Cato recommends sowing the wild 
asparagus (corruda) in a reed-bed, because it is dug and burned and 
shady at times, and so suitable for the wild asparagus, ‘‘ from 
which come the cultivated sorts” (unde asparagi fiant). 

It would seem that the “ corruda’’ was what Columella refers to in 
his line,— 

“ Ht bacca asparagi spinosa prosilit herba,” 
one of a prickly species acutifolius, aphyllus, and horridus, which 
occur in Greece, Italy, and Sicily. (See Dr. Daubeny’s “ Lecture on 
Roman Husbandry,” p. 250.) 

The doctor adds: ‘‘ That the Romans cultivated asparagus for the 
table appears from Pliny, who calls it altilis (fatted), but it does not 
appear whether what is intended by Columella in the yerse quoted 
is the latter, or the prickly ‘corruda.’ Dr. Sibthorp, however, in 
his MS. notes on ‘ Dioscorides’ adds that the young shoots of the 
Asparagus acutifolius, and perhaps also A. aphyllus, are boiled and 
eaten in Greece, as the garden asparagus is with us.” (Ibid. p. 251.) 

Pliny’s notices of asparagus are to be found in his Nat. Hist. xix. 8 
and xix. 4. Juvenal, in a description of a dinner toa friend, supplied 
from the produce of his farm, mentions ‘mountain asparagus,” 
*“posito quos legit villica fuso,”’ xi. 69. 

** Asparagus beside, 
Pick’d by my bailiff’s plain but cleanly bride ; 
Who, when the wheel’s domestic task is o’er, 
Culls on the hills my vegetable store.””—Hodgson’s Translation. 

Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus (c. 87) says that that emperor 
was very fond of it, and that there was a Roman proverb of things 
done with haste :—‘‘ Quicker than the cookery of asparagus.”’ 

Columella (xi. iii. 48-47) goes over much the same ground as Cato, 
with a few additional directions. JAMES Davins, M.A. 


POTATOES. 

Poraro planting-time has again arrived, and with it we must take 
into consideration what sorts we shall plant. But why do people so 
persistently leave the ordering of their seed tubers until the spring, 
instead of getting them in the autumn? For small gardens a few 
shallow boxes would hold all the “‘seed” that is needed, and but 
little care is required to keep it from frost; then the purchaser has 
this adyantage, that when his sets begin to grow he can expose them 
to light and air, and thus secure for planting tubers in the best 
possible condition. But if “seed” orders are left till the spring, 
what is the difference? Why this, that probably the tubers sup- 
plied have already pushed shoots which have been rubbed off, thus 
weakening the tuber, or else, if the shoots remain on, then the bulk 
in measurement is reduced to the detriment of the purchaser. Some 
early kidneys must be secured. In this particular section we have 


* “ The weeds.’ The Latin word here is *‘ herbas,”’ which more strictly means 
*‘orass” or ‘‘herbage.’’ It may mean green shoots. 

+ Burn the soil or surface.” The Roman author merely says incendito—‘‘ burn,”’ 
by which I conelude he means to refer to the practice of burning the soil and 
the plants on its surface, to which Virgil alludes in Georgic I. 84, &c., for the 
purpose of giving back to the soil the essential ingredients of its decomposed 
vegetable matter, and of correcting sourness of soil, or perhaps of improving 
soil thatis over-moist and too adhesive. (See Dr. Daubeny’s ‘‘ Lecture on Roman 
Husbandry,” pp. 92, 93.) 


in the matter of earliness as yet made no great advance, but in 
regard to both quality and cropping there is decided improvement. 
Myatt’s Ashleaf, as a first market kidney, still holds its place, but 
private gardeners adhere to the Royal Ashtop, Veitch’s Improved 
Ashleaf, Alma, Gloucester Kidney, and Harry Kidney, all of which 
are certainly good. In succession, then, let us take Webb’s Imperial, 
Sutton’s King of Potatoes and King of Flukes. And for long keeping 
kinds, such sorts as Yorkshire Hero, Rixton Pippin, Belgian Kidney, 
and Yorkshire Hybrid, any and all of these are fit for any gentleman’s 
table, and may be recommended with perfect confidence. With 
respect to round kinds there is not so wide a choice, but still enough 
that are really first rate from which to select. For earliness and quality 
combined none will be found to exceed Turner’s Union and Hoge’s 
Coldstream ; then follow with Scotch Blue, Harly Hmperor, alias 
Carter’s Main Crop (for it is the same thing), and Onwards; or, if 
that is not obtainable, take Dalmahoy, which is the best of all the 
Regent section. To succeed these for a late crop, take Victoria, 
Alexandra, and Wellington, these latter being not only the best of 
croppers, but also excellent late keepers. 

If tubers for exhibition are wanted, select them from among those 
just named, which will furnish some of the handsomest obtainable 
for that purpose; and if itis desirable to secure a sound, healthy 
crop of moderate-sized tubers rather than a heayy crop of large 
roots, it will be found that judges will invariably award prizes to 
samples that, are clean and handsome rather than coarse. 

If the soil be naturally free, and the situation warm, planting 
should commence at once; but if the soil be stiff, and still full of 
moisture, then wait patiently a week or two longer until the dry 
winds of March haye freed the earth from its superabundant wet. 


“If the soil be deeply cultivated, and the application of manure be 


early, dry situations will invariably produce sounder and better 
flavoured tubers than moist soil, howsoever good otherwise it may 
be. Lime applied to the soil before the planting, and in a dry- 
slacked state, not only sweetens the earth, but adds materially to 
the quality of the tuber. It is an exceedingly cheap manure, and 
should be much more generally used. ASD: 


SINGULAR FREAK OF A POTATO. . 


SEVERAL potatoes have been sent to us in which a new potato had 
formed within an old one, and, by its expansion in growing, broken 
the potato apart. It is either the case that the potato has deeply 
seated dormant eyes, or that ib possesses the power, under fayonring 
circumstances, of forming buds where none previously existed. Dr. 
Hexamer has found that potatoes which were pared and eyery visible 
trace of eyes removed, would sometimes produce shoots and tubers. 
We present an engraving of a re- 
markable instance of the abnormal 
growth of which we have spoken. 
The specimen, as it came to us, was 
a partially cracked tuber with a 
small one just forcing its way out of 
the fissure. Upon breaking open this 
old tuber we found within a distorted 
mass of branches, upon which several 
small tubers were forming, as shown 
in the accompanying reduced illus- 
tration. Upon all the specimens of 
this singular growth that we haye 
seen, the outer surface of the old 
tuber was dry and hard, and it is 
probable that when the bud or eye 
started into growth it found less 
resistance towards the centre of the potato than it did in pushing 
towards the circumference.—American Agriculturist. 


Abnormal Potato. 


OUGHT I TO COMPETE? 


AFTER marking out my seed order, I saw that several 
seedsmen had offered special prizes for yegetables at the 
forthcoming show of the Royal Horticultural Society. I am 


young and enthusiastic, and pride myself that I can grow 
vegetables; and I also have a good garden of eight acres to grow 
them in. On seeing the announcement my pulse started beating 
more rapidly than usual, as I thought, Here is a chance to exhibit 
to the world the fruits of my cultural abilities, and perhaps gain a 
prize that will cover my expenses to Birmingham; but on reading 
the conditions I find I haye not ordered a single thing that the - 
above-named seedsmen insist on haying. Well, I am in no way 
indebted to my present seedsman, except it be for his honesty in 
supplying me with seeds good and true before the law attempted to 
force him to do it, and his strict attention to small orders for things 


Marcu 23, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


405 


wanted in a hurry. Iam at liberty to deal where I choose, and my 
employer will not look at the details of my garden account provided 
the grand total is not too high; why not then change my seedsman, 
and procure new peas and cucumbers direct from the growers? 
But there is another consideration: there are required, in the first 
place, six varieties of peas to be exhibited all at once. I must make 
two sowings at least of each to have a chance of getting a dish at 
the right time, as most of the sorts are strange to me; and all 
varieties of peas do not take ewvactly the same length of time to 
grow. This would take up a good bit of my garden, as well as 
time and money, and it would also be a radical change for me, who 
only grow two kinds to supply the table from the middle of May to 
November with good marrow peas, which are Little Gem for early 
and late, and Veitch’s Perfection for general mid-season crops. 
There may be better peas than these, but on consideration I think 
I had better not discard my old and tried friends till I am sure 
one or two of the new ones are better. I do not want many sorts— 
they do not cook well mixed. I must have marrows when they are 
to be had, and I cannot waste my ground with tall-growing kinds. 
These thoughts make me decide not to try for the Challenge Cup. 
But what about the cucumbers ? I grow cucumbers successfully, 
a week has never passed for the last three years without my having 
at least half a dozen to cut; but here again I have an old and 
tried friend staring me in the face, one that would not be noticed 
on an exhibition table, but which is always ready for my employer’s 
table when wanted, and its flavour is pronounced excellent. (By the 
bye, why do not judges taste cucumbers? is it supposed they are 
only grown to be looked at? they are grown here to be eaten as 
the most recherché of second-course vegetables.) So, taking all 
things into consideration, I have made up my mind, for this season 
at least, to stick to my old and tried friends—peas, cucumber, and 
seedsman. J. Wittiams, Chippenham, Wilts. 


TRUFFLE CULTURE AT WELBECK. 


WueEn I first came to Welbeck in 1837, no truffles were ever found 
or heard of in the locality, but they afterwards appeared in a young 
oak wood near the pleasure-ground, and close by the lake. The 
oaks in this wood had a growth of about twenty years, and I thought, 
from the nature of the soil, that truffles were likely to grow in it, if 
I could manage to introduce them. I had, therefore, the over-ripe 
trufiles and the parings of the skins of others from the kitchen 
planted there for a’series of years, and was agreeably surprised one 
autumn by one of the men bringing me a fine truffle that he had 
found when mowing the grass near the verge of the plantation. 
This tuber had grown near the surface, for he had cut a small portion 
of the top off with the scythe. This discovery was amply rewarded 
by the then Duke of Portland, for the man got a gratuity, and was 
ordered to point out the place, which was not disturbed afterwards 
for a year or two. The oak leaves were not raked off, but allowed to 
rot on the surface, and afterwards I found plenty of truffles every 
autumn, not by a dozen or two, but sometimes as many as six pounds 
at atime, when wanted for particular purposes. I sent oncea tuber of 
the weight of six ounces to the late Dr. Lindley, who wrote me back 
that it was a very fine specimen of the true truffle, Tuber westivum. 
From not haying truffle dogs to scent out the ripe ones, a great many 
young or only half-grown tubers were taken up every autumn, 
which was, of course, against the supply. The squirrels were the 
best purveyors for finding the tubers; for as soon as they began to 
ripen, Mr. Squirrel scented them out, and, if not disturbed, scratched 
dowa to the truffle, and had a good feast on it. The soil of the oak 
wood which produced these truffles was of a calcareous nature, and 
had evidently been originally excavated from the bottom of the lake, 
for it was full of small fresh-water shells. This plantation pro- 
duced truffles every year till some alterations in the pleasure- 
grounds were planned, when all the young oaks were cut down, and 
the ground raised four feet higher, which, of course, settled all the 
interesting colony.— William Tillery. 


NEW KIND OF SEAKALE. 


‘Por a century or more,” says Mr. W. Prestoe, in the Field, “we 
have been plodding on with little orno improvement in the varieties 
of seakale which we cultivate. Ten or twelve years ago, I found 
one plant pushing much earlier than any of the others, and, on more 
minutely examining it, it proved to be distinct from the old purple- 
crowned variety, and much more robust. It also came into bloom 
much earlier. I carefully saved all the seed, and in the following 
April sowed it in the usual way. All went on satisfactorily, the 
produce being strong plants fit for forcing the next season. From 
this first batch of seedlings Iselected afew of the very strongest for 
seed another season. Thus I went on until I could readily perceive 


a new character in the plant altogether. It became unusually large, 
of a pink colour when blanched, and a fortnight earlier than 
the old sort. Having thus determined on my selection, I again 
saved all the seed I could, and from this stock I again selected 
twelve of the strongest. From these I saved enough seed to sow a 
quarter of an acre of ground. I next made choice of a very poor 
piece of gravelly land in an open field, to which not one ounce of 
manure was given. I sowed the seed about the middle of last April. 
With this I send youa fair sample of the plants. This is not all. 
I cut excellent seakale fit for any nobleman’s table in February, with- 
out artificial heat of any kind; no forcing whatever, but simply cut- 
ting the old plants to pieces, with three or four inches of root ; placing 
them in a trench—just such a trench as one would dig for celery— 
ranging the “sets” regularly in the bottom, with a few leaves 
and a little packing fern as a blanching material. With the sample 
of plants Lalso send a sample of the kale. You will perceive it is 
pushing up for bloom, a proof it ought to have been cut for table a 
fortnight ago. I think I may now lay claim to a new and distinct 
early variety of seakale, in which there is just the same difference 
as is to be found between the old Tobolsk rhubarb of forty years ago 
and the Victoria or Prince Albert rhubarb of the present day. One 
thing is certain; I haye no need in future of using any artificial heat 
for seakale after January.” 

{This communication was accompanied by a parcel of seakale of 
fine quality and size.—Ep. } 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


Long Asparagus.—I would suggest that when you see asparagus 
grown up eighteen inches or two feet, do not let it—for that reason at 
least—be wasted ; snap it off (do not cut it, but snap it off as low down as 
it will snap), cut it into half-inch lengths, and treat it as you do peas, boil 
it and serve it with melted butter; and if you do not find it by far the 
aes macemple you ever tasted, why, then put no more faith in me.— 

1 

Pea Growing.—My method of growing peas may not perhaps be 
altogether without interest, especially asin this neighbourhood gentle- 
men who have gardens wonder how my peas always do so well, and never 
seem affected by dry weather. I dig a trench, and in this trench laya 
good coating of manure; this is then dug into the trench and levelled with 
the spade. The peas are then put in one by one, at about two and half 
inches apart, the row being the width of the spade ; this is rather tedious, 
but well repays the labour. They are then covered with sifted ashes, and 
over that the leeward side of the trench is drawn over, covering the peas 
about three inches. They are thus protected by the ridge until high 
enough to have sticks, and all through the winter’s frost and snow the 
pea never bleaches or withers.—Amatewr. 

Planting Early Potatoes.—I would warn intending planters of 
this kind of vegetable to defer planting until from the first to the second 
week in April. Many plant early, thinking to be before their neighbours. 
Never wasa greater mistake. ‘The proper plan is to lay them out singly 
in a late vinery about Christmas, or in any outhouse protected from frost. 
By planting-time they will have made fine strong green shoots, when 
they should be taken up carefully, putting them into drills about three 
inches deep, when they go on growing at once, and will all be fit for 
lifting at the same time.—Delta. 

Earliness of the Season in Dorsetshire.—<According to your 
article on Market Gardening about London, page 365, I find—althongh 
this is a cold climate for a southern county—I have produce more* 
advanced than I should have thought : for instance, I cut asparagus to-day 
four inches long; and for the last three weeks have pulled rhubarb— 
Dancer's Early Scarlet and Linnzeus. Both these are grown in the open air, 
without any protection beyond that afforded by a walled garden. I have 
not heard that any others are so forward in this neighbourhood. The 
asparagus beds were made and planted last year with three-year-old plants, 
and are composed of sea sand and horse dung to a depth of three feet, 
with a top dressing of sea weed. Therhubarb bedis composed of sea sand, 
horse, cow, and pig manure.—James Ker, Portville, Bridport. 

How to grow fine Parsley.—Sow it towards the end of August. 
Let the soil be comparatively poor but well drained ; but if circumstances 
prevent such selection, choose the ground which comes nearest to it. 
It may be sown either in lines where it is to remain, or in seed beds; but 
in any case it must be transplanted, for parsley does much better, and 
lasts longer in that way than by the usual mode. Spring-sown parsley 
runs to seed much sooner than that sownin autumn. It will be fit to 
transplant in March, and should then be put in whatever positions you 
wish it to remain. ‘The plants so transplanted will be found excellent to 
pop into pots and boxes for the winter, as is the rule in gardens where a 
winter supply of parsley is indispensable in all weathers, or for any other 
purposes for which parsley is used. Edgings of parsley near a dry walk 
oralley are desirable for the convenience of picking when the ground is 
sloppy in winter. 

Stringing the Beans.—“ What do you want a needle and thread 
for, Bridget 2” ‘‘ Well, mum, cook has jist towld me to sthring the beans, 
an’ sure an’ I want a neydle an’ thrid for that.” 


4.06 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 23, 1872. 


THE PiRORAGAGOIR: 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 387.) 

Approacn GRaArrine IN Ficurn Tratwime.—In order to show 
the happy results of grafting by approach, we have here 
fizured some specimens of espaliers tramed in the garden of 
M. Nallet, at Brunoy. The trainer, M. Forest, has employed 
grafting either to complete their construction or to preserve 
the equilibrium of growth. MM. Van Hulle and Burvyenich 
described these trees, in 1867, in their reports to the Belgian 


Goyernment. Annexed is a representation of an espalier of 
Pear trees, formed with small palmettes, the branches of which 
interlace and touch each other. The trees are grafted at the 
points of contact in the centre of the design, where the 
branches touch back to back, and not where they cross and 
diverge. The slight curvature of the branches, which gives- 
each tree an elliptical outline, is favourable to the development 
of fruiting branches; the extremities are inarched into the 
leading shoot formed by the union of the branches of the 
third series. The next illustration is a variety of the preced- 


“ing arrangement, anda preferable one. It requires only pal- 
mettes of two series, and the sinuous form of the branches 
permits long pruning, and maintains the fruit spurs regular. 
The leading shoots are crossed in lozenge form, and are grafted 
by approach at the top. This charming design, which is less 


chandeliers are united and support each other mutually. The 
extremities of the branches of the horizontal palmette are 
imarched into the outer branches of the chandeliers. It is 
better not to graft the branches where they cross each other. A 
group like this should be grown in the open ground, and not 
against a wall. The next figure represents a palmette-chan- 
delier, of which the branches—following a regular curve and 


| Pe 
grafted together at the ends—represent a target. In the 
centre, M. Forest has formed a letter by approach gratting. 
A row of six such trees exhibits the name of M. Nallet. In 
designs of this kind we prefer that the letters should take the 
most prominent part and not be merely accessory ; accordingly 
we have formed the name of our establishment in one of our 
borders. Hach Pear tree forms a letter, so that im case of 
damage the injury can be more speedily repaired than in the 
case of a tree which forms several letters. The different 
modes of grafting by approach are useful here, A similar 
design has been formed with Peach trees on a wall. The fruit 
gardens of M. Alexis Lepére, at Montreuil, and of others, 
contain handsome specimens of trees jomed by approach 
grafting, and representing inscriptions or designs accurately 
completed, according to the method of M. F. Simon, an 
amateur at Crecy-en-Brie. The accompanying representation 


SS 


shows two halves of Peach trees trained in the form of double 
U, or a small four-branched chandelier by means of their 
sub-division the arms of which are united at their extremities 
by means of approach grafting. We have also proved 
the good effect of approach grafting in forming winged 
pyramids, vases, harps, &c., either isolated or on trellises in the 
fruit garden of M. A. Mas, pomologist, of Bourg, and in the 
orchard of the Agricultural School, at Saulsaie (Ain), made by 
Verrier. The single cordon (improperly termed horizontal on 
sloping grounds), which is especially adapted to the Apple 
tree, should have the trees which compose it grafted one upon 
another. The end of each is cut with a sloping or splice cut » 
and inarched or inserted under the bark of the next tree at the 
bend. A continuous even line of small trees is thus obtained. 
It may happen that from want of vigour, or in consequence of 


a a Oy . . 

an accident, one tree cannot reach its neighbour. In such a 
‘case we have recourse to the method of lengthening or joining 

_ shown in the accompanying figures, which were communicate 


tous in 186) by M. Jules Ricaud, of Beaune. The subject (A) 
not being long enough to reach its neighbour (B), we take a 
well grown branch (C), of the current year if we operate in 
August, and of the precéding year if we graft in April. The 
base of this is cut with a double slopg, and is introduced into the 
incision on A, which penetrates the alburnum by the process 


of side cleft grafting. The other extremity is cut with a 
noteh in the part which will bear upon the other tree, 
in which a corresponding cutting is made. The parts, 
2ing fitted into each other, are bandaged and covered with 


grafting wax. The method of inarching: might also be used — 


here with equal advantage.—C. Baltet’s “UV Art de Greffer.” 
(To be continued.) f 


s LAW. 
Poisoning by Means of Yew Tree Clippings.—A case of this 
_kind was tried at Maidstone the other day. The plaintiff and defendant 
were two gentlemen who live at Lewisham. Their premises adjoin, and 
are only separated by a kind of lane or passage. In this lane, against the 
fence of the plaintiff, was a rubbish heap, on which garden cuttings, dung, 
and other refuse were thrown. On the défendant’s premises, near his 
_ fence, was a yew tree, which, in the autumn of 1870, was clipped, and the 
cuttings were thrown by his gardeners on to the rubbish heap against the 
ae: sfence. The plaintiff observed the heap gradually rising to the 
eight of his fence, and complained of it, thinking that the defendant 
ought to cast his rubbish against his own fence. However, the heap was 
continued, and a day or two afterwards two colts of the plaintiff's, which 
" were\in a paddock bounded by the lane, put their heads over the fence 
and ate of the yew tree cuttings and were killed. The plaintiff wrote to 
the defendant claiming compensation, and setting the value of the colts 
at £1,000, but offering to take £500 if paid withina week. The defendant, 
however, denied his responsibility, and the claim was resisted. In the 
laintiff’s evidence it was stated that the defendant first raised the rubbish 
eap, and it was admitted that it was well known that yew tree cuttings 
would poison horses or cattle. A few days before the accident the 
gee wrote complaining of garden cuttings being put upon the rubbish 
eap. He did not, he said, notice yew tree cuttings, but he admitted that 
he was well acquainted with the defendant's garden, in which the yew 
tree was. It appeared that the defendant had employed a jobbing 
~ adie at Sydenham to put his place to rights, and two men were sent 
wo 
wit 


for the purpose, who had orders from both the defendant and his 

ife. The latter directed them to eut the yew tree down, though the 
defendant did not wish it, and when his back was turned the lady gave 
the order, and it was cut down and the cuttings were thrown into the 
lane on the rubbish heap. It was submitted on the part of the 
defendant that there was no evidence of »authority to cut the tree 
down, and even if there was, there was no evidence of negligence on 
the part of the defendant, as both parties were equally cognizant.of the 
nature of yew tree cuttings. It was urged that it was very hard that 
man should have his yew tree cut down by his wife’s order against his own 
will, and that then he should be held Kable for consequences which could 


2 “Manou 25, 1872.) ‘THE GARDEN, 


407 


, 


it. (The jury, after some hesitation, said that on the evidence they could 
not say otherwise.) Then were they satisfied that the defendant was 
aware of it? (The jury said, “ Decidedly not.”) Then, thirdly, if not, 
was it so notorious that he ought to have known it? (The jury said, 
‘€ Certainly not.) Fourthly, was the gardener the servant of the defend- 
‘ant in the matter, or of the jobbing gardener, who paid him? (The jury 
said, “The jobbing gardener’s.”) Fifthly, were there any orders given 
either by the defendant or by his authority for doing the act com- 
plained of ? Most people, the Lord Chief Justice observed, had a notion 
that a wife had her husband's authority; but that was only so as matter 
of law in the ordinary affairs of a household. As to other matters, an 
express or implied authority, in fact, was necessary; and certainly there 
was no legal authority to cut down his trees. Then’ the husband would 
not be responsible for the act of his wife without his authority. In the 
present case there was not only no evidence of authority to cut down the 
tree, but it appeared rather that it was cut down against his will. How- 
ever, what was the opinion of the jury on the point? (The jury con- 
sulted together and said that the tree was cut down without his authority.) 
Next, were the yew elippings placed on the rubbish heap by the authority 
of the defendant or any authorised agent of his? (The jury said they 
were not satisfied of this). Upon these findings the Lord Chief Justice 


) said the verdict must be for the defendant, but it might be well that the 


jury should say what they thought the value of the colts was. (The jury 


| said £75.) The verdict was entered for the defendant. 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) - 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 


Indoor Plant Department.—In conservatories, which are now 
as gay as they will be at any time during the whole year, and in 
which the young shoots of many of the inmates are pushing freely 
into growth, cold draughts are carefully guarded against; for should 
such be allowed to pervade these structures, what would become of 
the many cool Orchids now in bloom in them, together with Medinillas, 
Francisceas, Begonias, Aischynanthus, Hranthemums, Thyrsacanthus, 
early Gloxinias, Coleus, and other introductions from warmer houses? 
Specimen Boronias, Chorozemas, Genethyllis, Heaths, &c., now add 
to the beanty of conservatories, whilst specimens of other things 
are being forced, or have their blooming season retarded by removal 
to houses with a north aspect. Balsams and Celosias, of different 
sorts, for early flowering, are shifted before they get pot-bound, 
using for them an open rich soil. Coleus, for indoor work, are also 
kept shifted, and pinched to keep them shapely ; they enjoy being 
plunged in bottom heat. Mignonette is, in some cases, neatly trained 
on wire trellises. Both Show and Fancy Pelargoniums for early 
flowering get a little manure water, applying more to the weaker. 
than stronger varieties. To those for later flowering abundant 
ventilation is given. Camellias and other plants done flowering and 
pushing afresh, are syringed regularly, sufficiently early in the after- 
noons to admit ,of their foliage becoming dry before night. Stove 
plants which are syringed freely, enjoy a moist atmosphere. 
Stephanotis floribunda, in some places is in flower; in others it 
is now in full growth. It requires plenty of moisture, and whether 
grown in pots or borders, on pot trellises or on wires along the 
rafters, it must be regularly tied and shifted. Allamandas, Clero- 
dendrons, Bougainyilleas, and Dipladenias require similar treatment, 
and have the benefit of being plunged in bottom heat. Ardisias, 
Gardenias, Durantas, Lagerstremias, Plumbagos, Rondeletias, &c., 
are well syringed morning and afternoon; an operation which keeps 
down insects. Poinsettias that flowered early and now breaking, are 
pruned back to within a few eyes of the base, and started afresh ; 
in some instances cuttings are only retained, the old plants being 


thrown away. Among Orchids, Calanthes, Odontoglossums, Czelo- 
gynes, and others belonging to the Mexican house, are still being 
repotted, top-dressed, and placed on new blocks where necessary. 
Water at the root is as yet given only sparingly. Ferns are allowed 


no more be foreseen by one party than the other. The Lord Chief Justice, 
in sum up the case to the at rng it was one of some novelty, and 
- would involve various questions. — were yew tree cuttings dangerous 
_ and poisonous to cattle and horses? He supposed they would not doubt | 
% - : 
Pe : r 2 ; 
a ‘ 


= 


A 


c 
plenty of water, ana the greenhouse and hardy kinds are being 
repotted. af : : 
Pits and Frames—The propagation of bedding plants now 


requires particular attention; plants of Coleus, Alternantheras, and 


others are being subjected to a high and moist temperature in order 
to induce them to yield cuttings, which are struck and potted off 
singly in great quantities. Centaureas, Lobelias, Petunias, &e., are 
being now sown in heat, and as soon as fit to handle are pricked off 
into pots, pans, or boxes. Jiliums are kept near the glass in cold 
frames; no water is, however, given them until they appear above 
the surface. Semperyivums and many other hardy things kept 
during winter in cold frames and houses are ‘being placed outside. 
Calceolarias from cuttings kept in frames are now lifted and re- 
planted in good mould further apart. In forcing pits regular supplies 
of Lily of the Valley, Spirzas, Dielytras, Roses, Azaleas, Kalmias, 
Callas, Deutzias, Lilacs, Cytisus, &c., are being kept up for the 
decoration of the conservatory. _ ; ; 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Beds of spring flowers, 
which are kept neat and clean, now’ prove yery attractive. Borders 
in front of shrubberies are being manured and dug, and where hardy 
edgings, such as Stachys lanata, Cerastium, variesated Polemonium, 
Semperyivums, are to be used, they are lifted, divided, and replanted. 
Lawns and grass everywhere are now being mown. Hyergreen 
shrubs suill continue to be lifted and transplanted (though the present 
is not nearly so good a time for that operation as September), and 
large plants intended for removing next season are haying their 
roots pruned. Pruning of roses, evergreen, and other shrubs is 
being proceed with. Where conifers throw up more than one leader, 
the contending ones are being removed, leaving that which is most 
promising. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—In the case of Pines, new tan- 
beds are being prepared for plunging those about to be potted. 
From those fruiting suckers are being removed, their ends dressed 
with a sharp knife, and potted. Smooth Cayennes done fruiting, 
have their leaves shortened to induce them to produce suckers. Vine 
shoots are being thinned and tied, and a steady moist temperature 
maintained. Peach shoots are being tied in, and superfluous ones 
remoyed. The syringe is freely used amongst the foliage. A 
rather low and equable temperature is maintained until the stoning 
process is over, a kind of treatment which is especially applicable 
to Cherries. Figs are liberally watered both at the root and oyer- 
head. Strawberries in bearing are kept rather dry, and too many 
are never allowed to ripen on one plant. A regular succession is 
kept up, by which means there is never any scarcity. Cucumber and 
Melon beds have their heat maintained by means of renewed linings. 
Succession crops are being sown, and when the plants have formed 
two rough leaves they are potted off singly, and kept near the glass 
ima warm, moist pit or frame. Beds in which bearing Cucumbers 

-haye been kept throughout the winter, are being renewed and 
furnished afresh with young plants. French Beans are being sown, 
and those about to flower earthed up. They are frequently syringed. 
Tomatoes are being potted off, and others sown. Chilies are sown 
in heat. Celery is pricked off into boxes of rich mould. Asparagus 
and Seakale continue to be forced. Potatoes in frames have plenty 
of air, and are earthed up as they require it. ; : 


Outdoor Fruit and Kitchen Garden Departments.— 
Trees on walls are being protected. A dusting of lime over fruit 
trees and bushes is found to be beneficial where birds, insects, and 
moss are troublesome. Cauliflowers are lifted with good balls, and 
planted in rows two feet apart each way. A little protection at 
night, if practicable, is of great benefit to them. Small sowings are 
also being made. Savoys and Brussels Sprouts are sown to succeed 
those put in in the first of the month. Of Borecole or Kale main 
sSowings are made. Parsley is being sown in rich soil, in lines along 
the sides of plots of ground, for which it acts as an edging. Radishes 


and Lettuces are sown as required. Peas are being sown in suc- | 


cession in drills three inches deep; those that have come up a little 
have some earth drawn to them and are being staked. Where 
stakes are scarce, the dwarf kinds of Peas are sown. Peas are 
also sown in boxes in heat, for cutting when three inches high for 
use in soups.. Between lines of Peas early Cabbages are being 
planted one foot apart, so that when too close eyery alternate one’ is 
drawn, leaving the others two feet apart for hearting. “In ground 
where ‘ clubbing’” prevails, the roots are dipped in a mixture of 
earth, soot, and water, about the consistency of paint. Potatoes 
are being planted, excepting in cold or heavy soils. Main crops of 
Parsnips and Leeks are being sown; also of Onions where not 
already done. Dustings of lime, or finely sifted coal ashes scattered 
over the surface of the ground, act as good preventives of slugs 
oe snails. The hoe is used freeky amongst growing crops of 
all sorts. . 


“THE GARDEN. 


training of fruit trees is now receiving attention. 


is now plentiful out of doors. 


NURSERIES. 3 
Indoor Department.—Propagating constitutes the chief we 
in nurseries at present. Clematises are being struck from eyes a 
short jointed cuttings containing two eyes. Dahlia roots, placed ; 
heat, are now furnishing young shoots in abundance, which aro — 
taken off and struck, and as soon as they are rooted they are potted © 
off singly ; when fairly established they are placed in a cooler house 
Hollyhocks are started in pots in heat, the shoots slipped off witha | 
heel and struck. Young Dracenas from pieces of the stem and 7) 
roots are being potted and, kept close. Allamandas, Clerodendrons, ~ 
Dipladenias, &c., are being raised from cuttings, to which is attached — 
a “heel” of the old wood. Begonias are being increased by laying 
good, firm, well-matured, healthy leaves on the surface of a pam or 
pot of silver sand, and pegging them down; the main ribs being —— 
first broken to encourage the production-of young shoots. Heaths, — 
Epacrises, Boronias, Diosmas, and many other hard-wooded green- 
house plants, likewise conifers, such as Cypresses, propagated — 
in autumn are in some cases kept in gentle heat, and in others 
placed in cold frames coyered witli bell or hand glasses. When there 
is time to spare, and the plants are well rooted, they are potted 
singly, and kept for a time under hand lights in warm pits. — Ferns. ‘ 
are raised from spores sown in pots and just pressed gently in on a 
fine surface, over which a piece of glass is placed, or the pots are 
kept in close frames within the propagating pit. Such as hay 
covered the surface of their pots with young plants are ent into” 
pieces about half an inch square, and these are planted in small 
pots, or in pans, keeping them about an inch apart. Farther 
advanced seedling ferns are being potted, and kept in a warm, close, 
and equable temperature. Hardy ferns are being potted. Somie of 
the finer sorts of Lilies are being put into small pots, and kept — 
without water until they appear above the surface, when they are 
plunged in cocoa-nut fibre in cold frames, protected merely fron — 
frost. Grafting of evergreen shrubs, such as Yews, Cypresses, 
Hollies, &c., is being carried out; the more tender varieties beme 
worked on the hardier kinds of stocks; they are kept in a close 
gentle heat and shaded. Rhododendron seed is being sown; a layer’ 
of damp’ moss is placed on the surface to preyent evaporation. 
Young hybrid varieties are being potted off. Grafting of Roses and 
Rhododendrons is likewise being proceeded with. sts 
Outdoor Department.—Herbaceous plants in pots continue t 
be divided and ‘potted singly. Primulas from seed are being potte' 
off. Hollyhocks from seed are transplanted from’ their seed beds 
into borders. Carnations are being transferred from pots into beds 
Foxgloves in seed beds are being transplated into lines a few inches” 
apart. Phloxes, Pentstemons, and other choice hardy plants wintered 
under cover, are now being moved to beds of coal ashes ont of doors 
Young Figs in pots are kept-in cold frames uncovered. Vines i 
pots are being cut back and taken indoors. In the open ground, ~ 
Roses, both- standards and stocks, are being laid im in lin 
Deciduous and evergreen trees are, likewise being laid in, and th 


MARKET GARDENS. — 2am et 
No sooner is a piece of ground cleared of one crop than it is — 
heayily manured, dug, and at once prepared for another. Rhubarb 


A variety named Champagne is that 
most used, on account of its fine deep red colour. The Linnmas is 
also much grown because of its productiveness, and the Victoria, — 
which is a late variety. Seakale, like Rhubarb, is now also ob ed . 
from the open ground. Seed of it is now being sown th 
four-foot beds, and plants of last year’s sowing are being t 
planted in lines a foot apart each way. Celery ground, as it hee 
clear of its crop, is levelled, manured, dug, and plante: 
Lettuces, Cauliflowers, &c. Strawberry plantations are still b 
made; Stirling Castle seems to be the favourite early variety. Bord« 
in warm situations are being prepared for French Beans, which. 
however, will not be sown for some weeks yet. Globe Artichoke — 
plantations are still being made on deeply-worked well-manum 
ground. Peas are sown in succession in single lines, which, in’ 
case of dwarf varieties, are about three feet apart. Taller varieti 
are put in at considerable distances apart, so as to allow s Se 
between the lines for crops requiring some: little protection. A 
second main crop of Beans is now sown, and plantations of Horse- 
radish made, the pieces of roots being set twelve inches apart, and 
fifteen inches deop. The produce is generally allowed to remain 
undisturbed till the second year after planting. Skirret, Salsafy 
and Scorzonera are sown in small quantities for early use, but 1 e 
crops not yet, as they are apt when sown early to run to seed. 
Successional sowings of Radishes are regularly made, in many — 
cases without covering the beds with litter. Those above 
ground have the litter raked off them during the day 


THE GARDEN. 


4.09 


ae 
~ wooden-toothed rake. Tomatoes, Vegetable Marrows, Cucumbers, 
Celery, &c., are raised in great quantities in hot frames. Frames 


containing Lettuces and other crops are being held in readiness for 
their reception, and trenches are dug in the ground, filled with hot 
_ dung, over which some light mould is placed, in which Marrows ave 
- to be planted. : 

While we write (March 21st) snow is falling heavily, destroying 
_ the hopes which the brilliant weather of the last few weeks was 
calculated to inspire, and doubtless rendering considerable modi- 
' fication necessary as regards many of the operations named above. 
-Half-hardy plants especially will require increased attention. 


_ SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. _ 


AN interesting meeting of this Society was held last Wednesday, in 
the Conservatory at South Kensington. The weather wus fine though 
cold, and there was a grand display of spring-flowering plants. Hyacinths, 
as heretofore, formed the principal feature of the exhibition, which was 
well supported by Messrs. Veitch, who furnished no fewer than 275 plants 
of extremely well-grown Hyacinths. The same exhibitors took the first 
prize for eighteen distinct kinds, which consisted of Von Schiller, Blafiche 
Formidable, Cavaignac, Vuurbaak, Haydn, Macaulay, De Candolle, 
Blondin, Solfaterre, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Grandeur a Merveille, 

_ Blocksberg, La Grandesse, Koh-i-Noor, King of the Blues, Ida, and Lady 
Palmerston. Another fine collection of Hyacinths, consisting of 114 


plants in excellent condition, was staged by Messrs. Paul, of Waltham ~ 


_ The amateurs’ class contained- Banh in every way commendable, 
- being distinct in colour and kind, and wellgrown. Several new Hyazinths 
_ Were exhibited, some of them distinct in colour ; amongst them Chapeau 
_ @Orange, Lady Mayo, Excelsior, Prince de Naples, and ]’Ornement de 
Rosa, are pinks of different shades; Sylvia, J. H. Veen, Mrs. Radcliffe, are 
pale blues; Lila Major, Tricolor, Lord Mayo, and Yescho, are dark 
- eoloured ones. ‘These were contributed by Messrs. Veitch, Mr. W. Paul, 

i a Donglas, gardener to F. Whitbourne, Esq., Loxford Hall, 

ord. = § 

Of Tulips over seventy pots were staged by Messrs. Veitch, who carried 
off the first prize with Pride of Haarlem, Rouge Luisante, Brutus, Rose 
Miniature, Duc de Holstein, and Fabiola. Some fine Tulips were also 
shown by amateurs, more especially by Mr. Rowe, gardener to Mrs. Lewis, 
Roehampton, who received the first prize. 

About fifty pots of well-bloomed plants of Narcissi were staged by 
Messrs. Veitch. There was likewise exhibited a collection of cut blooms 
of Narcissi, of more interest, perhaps, to botanists than to horticulturists ; 
but still valuable to the latter as types of what they grow in that way, in 
which there is generally much confusion. 

Orchids were shown more abundantly, in greater variety and in better 
condition than on previous occasions. Amongst them we noticed Lycaste 
Skinneri, a variety of Odontoglossum hystrix, with three fine spikes of 
flowers; O. luteum purpureum, a fine variety with two flower spikes; 
furnished ats ae with fourteen and twenty-two blooms, in fine con- 

_ dition ; O. Uro-Skinneri, and O. pulchellum, both well-flowered. Of 
" Cattleya Trianz, there was a fine plant; also an Angraecum sesquipedale 
in fine condition, Cyprepediums of various sorts; Trichopilia suavis, to 
which an extra ee was awarded; Lelia cinnabarina, in unusually good 
condition ; Dendrobium lassioglossam, with light coloured flowers; D. 

- Devonianum, a charming yas with two fine spikes; D. Wardianum, 
with four flower spikes; D. Farmeri, with three charming spikes; D. 
lituifloram, a species in the way of D. nobile; D. albo-sanguineum, pro- 
fusely bloomed, and others, all from- Mr. W. Denning, gardener to Lord 
Londesborough, at Grimston Park, Tadcaster.- The same exhibitor also 
showed two plants of Dendrobium Devonianum, raised from seed ripened 

_ in this country three yearsago. This fact should stimulate cultivators to 
sa hg in the same direction, it being evident that there is less 
difficulty in raising Orchids from seed than is generally imagined. Among 
other collections we noticed Dendrobium fimbriatum occulatum, with 
~ begntiful yellow flowers, haying a distinct dark spot on their under lip. 
_ A fine variety of Phalnopsis Schilleriana, with very broad flowers, of fine 
quality, was shown by Mr. Williams, of Holloway. A purple variety of 
mtoglossum Alexandre, called roseum, received a first-class certificate, 

as did also an excellent kind called C. Andersonianum, the result of a cross 
between O. gloriosum and O. Alexandr». The beautiful Masdevallia 


Harrya deep magenta-coloured kind, previously named amabilis, 
was shown by Messrs. Veitch. A large pan of the beantifal Anctochilus 
imperialis, in ition, was exhibi' by Mr. W. E. Dixon, 


é great 
Mr. J. Chambers, gardener to J. Lawrence, Esq., Eddington, Surrey. 
j j ‘ considered difficul to cultivate—an idea which ae 
SP aes Sip user atdvantiee olsen ex tie aed 
Perhaps the most ive plant in the exhibition was a magnificent 
7 specimen of Medinilla magnifica, fully eight fect in diameter, and orna- 


oes . - 


mented with some half hundred glorious pendent racemes of rosy pink 
inflorescence. This was shown by Mr. Williams. Six pots of Mignonette 
trained as pyramids, about two and a half feet in diameter, received a 
first prize ; these, together with three plants: of tree Mignonette, filled 
the house with fragrance, and formed objects of great attraction. These 
were shown by Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting. A cultural commendation 
was awarded for a fine basket of Clematises, from Mr. Noble, of Bagshot. 
A cultural commendation was likewise awarded to some splendid varieties 
of Cyclamen persicum from Mr. Wiggins. A collection of Cyclamens 
was also exhibited by Mr. Goddard, gardener to H. Little, Esq., Cambridge 
Villa, Twickenham, to which an extra prize was awarded. Roses in pots 
and eut blooms were unusually fine, and largely exhibited by Messrs. 
Veitch, Mr. Wm. Paul, and Messrs. Lane & Sons. <A very fine tea- 
scented variety in Messrs. Veitch’s collection, named Belle Lyonnaise, 
received an extra prize. Prettily flowered young plants and cut flowers of 
Camellias were also shown, as were likewise some nicely flowered Rhodo- 
dendrons and Azaleas. Of the latter we noticed the singular variety 
called A. linearis, which is more interesting in a botanical than in a 
cultural point of view. Fora well grown Caladium, Prince Albert Edward, 
a cultural commendation was given to Mr. Dixon. A cultural com- 
mendation was also awarded to Agave gemminata Williamsii from 
Mr. Williams ; likewise to Eurycles amboinensis, from Mr. Bull. Amongst 
other things were several very fine palms, such as Kentia australis und 
Forsteriana, Veitchia canterburyana, Calamus verticillaris, a variegated 
form of Rhapis flabelliformis, Uncespermum vanj Houttei; and to one 
named Ptycosperma Alexandr, from Messrs. Rollisson, an extra prize 
was awarded. : 

Amongst Dracenas we noticed D./Macleayi, a fine dark coloured 
variety, with broad drooping leaves, in the way of D. Cooperi. A fine 
pan of Trichomanes radieans from Mr. Dixon received an extra prize ; 
from the same exhibitor also came a grand specimen of Gleichenia 
Spelunce, anda large plant of Platycerium grande, growing on an old 
we fern stump. We also observed Philodendron Lindeni, a noble leaved 
plant. 7 

Cinerarias distinctly coloured, and otherwise in beautiful condition, 
were furnished by Mr. Cutbush, and some of good form and substance 
came from Messrs. Standish & Co. To Epimedium lilacinum, a charming 
little plant, an extra prize was awarded. Associated with it were double 
and single Primroses with white and lilac; also the lovely P. nivalis, 
Lily of the Valley, Polemonium reptans, Adonis vernalis, Trillium grandi- 
florum, Pansies, a pretty dwarf Fritillaria, and a variegated form of 
F. imperialis, the exquisite little Iris pumila, Funkias, Pinks, &c., all 
from Mr. T. Ware. A basket of a fine tricolor Pelargonium, named 
Mrs. Headley, two baskets of Auriculas, and a collection of the new 
white forcing pink, named Lady Blanche, were exhibited by Mr. Turner, 
of Slough. From Mr. Cutbush came a group of Aucuba aureo-maculata’ 
with large yellow blotched leaves. 

Fruit was shown in good condition; a cultural commendation was 
awarded to a box of Lady Downe’s Seedling Grape, in fine plump con- 
dition, from Mr. J. Hudson, gardener to J. C. Imthurn, Esq., Champion 
Hill, Camberwell. Apples, both dessert and kitchen kinds, were con- 
tributed ; of dessert sorts, the.winning varieties were White Nonpareil, 
Claygate Pearmain, Cornish Aromatic, Cockle Pippin, Cox’s Orange 
Pippin, Scarlet Nonpareil, Ribston Pippin, and King of the Pippins. 
Among kitchen varieties the following were the successful sorts, viz., 
Northern Greening, Lewis’s Incomparable, Striped Beefing, Wellington, 
Alfriston, Kentish Fillbasket, Blenheim Orange, and Damelow’s Seedling. 
A dish of good Chaumontel Pears were also shown by Mr. C. Ross, 
gardener to C. Eyre, Esq., Welford Park, Newbury. For three fine 
heads of Snow’s Winter White Broccoli Mr. Ross also obtained a first 
prize. Three large heads of white Broccoli, called Matchless, came from 
Mr. Cooling, Bath. A brace of Seedling Cucumbers, called The Winter 
Supply, was shown by Mr. T. Record, gardener to the Marquis of Salisbury, 
Hattield ;-as were also three dishes, oné of limes, one of citrons, and the 
other of Sweet Lemons, from Mr. EH. Elworthy, gardener to Sir W. C. 
Trevelyan, Bart., Nettlecomb, Somerset. An interesting collection of 
ae Indian Yams (Dioscorea sativa) was exhibited by Messrs. 

Sson. 


BIRMINGHAM EXHIBITION. 


Tue local committee of the Royal Horticultural Society held a 
meeting on the 14th inst., the Marquis of Hertford in the chair. There 
was a large attendance, to whom it was announced that H.R.H. Prince 
Arthur had signified his intention of opening the show to be held at the 
Lower Grounds, Aston, in June next. It was stated that the sum of £100, 
placed at the disposal’of the implement committee for prizes, should be 
appropriated to the award-of medals as under:—Five gold medals, 
one to be given for the best horticultural buildiig; one for the 
best heating apparatus; one for the best collection of vases or other 
garden decorations; one for the best collection of garden machinery, 
tools, &c.; and one for the best collection of garden wirework. 
It was farther recommended that the judges should be empowered 
to award silver and bronze medals, not only to any meritorious 
exhibits in the classes just enumerated which might not obtain gold 
medals, but also to any others besides those which might appear to 
them to deserve such a distinction. They were of opinion that the funds 
at their disposal would enable them to offer five gold medals, thirty silver 
medals, and forty bronze medals. It was also reported that Mr. Joseph 
Moore had been commissioned to prepare designs tor the medals. 

The draft of the schedule of prizes was then submitted and agreed to, 
but as contributions to the special prize fund were reported to be coming 


410 


in daily (it amounts at present to £880, including £100 subscribed by the | - 


Birmingham Rose Show), a sub-committee was appointed with full 
authority to revise, amend, curtail, or extend the special prize list as cireum- 
stances may necessitate. A class is set apart for dinner-table decorations, 
to be exhibited and judged by gas-light. Each exhibitor will be required 
to completely furnish a table for fourteen persons, and the decorations 
must be so arranged as to show the best means of utilizing fruit and 
‘flowers in its adommment. The prizes offered are £20, £15, £10, and £7, 
which should secure an attractive exhibition. The local committee of the 
Royal Agricultural Society’s show of last year have contributed a 
special prize of £10. 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


THE CREEPING MYRTLE (MYRSIPHYLLUM 
ASPARAGOIDES). E 

In the interesting notice of this plant in No. 15, p. 324, 
the writer expresses an opinion that its application 
for ornamental purposes must be peculiar to America, as he 
did not find it in European plant catalogues, nor mentioned in 
any foreign works on floriculture. Iam glad to learn, from 
the editorial note appended, to the description which you have 
given of this interesting plant, that it is occasionally to be 
met with in botanical or rare collections in this country; but’ 
I wish to remark that it is well known in Sicily, and that it is 
cultivated and largely used for ornamental purposes in 
Palermo. The Palermitan belles find, from experience, that 
its delicate graceful sprays outlive all other green foliage in 
the heated air of a ball-room, and they arrange it with great 
taste for personal decoration, adding some of their splendid 
camellias, or other brilliant flowers, which grow in profusion 
in what is literally a land of flowers. I made an experiment 
some years ago.at Palermo with a branch of the Myrsiphyllum 
asparagoides, which was brought to me as a specimen of the 
plant so much used by ladies there for the decoration of the 
hair, on account of its long retention of greenness and fresh- 
ness. It was laid on a table in a room without water, in order 
to ascertain how many hours it was possible to keep it fresk. 
Unfortunately, no record was kept of the actual length of 
time, although it impressed all of us at the time. I have long 
wondered why our English ladies did not adopt this very 
beautiful and delicate plant as an addition to their ball-room 
toilette. I can only surmise that its merits have been com- 
paratively unknown in England, and I trust that your 
interesting notice, coming, as it does, all the way from across 
_the Atlantic, will-eventually lead to its universal cultivation in 

greenhouses in this country. ; G. 


ARRANGEMENT OF VIOLET BLOOMS. 


VIOLEts are not easy flowers to arrange well; their heads are too 
heavy for their legs, I never like to see them stuck into a vase in 
a bunch, just as they are sold. Often we find them in vases without 
any leaves or foliage of any kind. Then I am uneharitable enough 
to consider that those who so arrange them, if arrangement it can be 
called, have less taste than the. children who gather them and make 
them up into bunches, encircled with a few of their own leaves. 
Where time is not an object, and fine blooms of Neapolitan Violets 
are at your disposal, it is worth while to pass a piece of fine soft 
wire (called by bouquetieres, binding wire) through the back of the 
flower and to curve it oyer in the direction of the flower-stalk, giving 
it one or two turns round the stalk to keep it in its place. Flowers 
so treated, can be stuck one by one into a vase or saucer full of moss, 
and thus preserve the position in which they were when on the plant. 
A dozen blooms thus prepared and arranged amongst a sufficient 
supply of their own leaves, have a natural effect, and their appear- 
ance commends itself, even to those whose taste has not been, so to 
speak, educated. But many have neither the time nor the inclination 
for such fidgetty work. To them I would recommend the use of 
Aconite leaves, or of any other similarly constructed leayes that are 
out thus early; tie two or three of them together by their stalks, 
which should be cut two inches long, and place the bunch into a 
saucer with the tips of the leaves resting upon its edge. The violets 
may then be placed between the divisions of the leayes, and will be 
supported by them in a natural position. If near the sea, small 
plants of Plantago coronopus might be used, instead of the finely’ 
divided palmate leaves of the Ranunculaceous plants to which I haye 
veferred, or other leaves from plants of the same natural order. 

= Woks 


THE GARDEN. 


- numbers of “The Garden” to be out of print, we beg to state that 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—March 22nd. : 
Flo wers.—These chiefly consist of Hyacinths and Tulips; Cinerarias, 
among which dark blues prevail; Spring Heaths (EH. gracilis) ; Epacrises 
Azaleas; Spiraea japonica; Cyclamens; Fuchsias; Pelargoniums, ¢ 
many kinds. Cut-flowers of Orchids and other things are also abundant. 


a centre piece, about which are tastefully arranged Lily of the Valley, 
Cyclamens, Mignonette, light-coloured Orchids, wired “pips” of whit 

Hyacinths, Heliotropes, the_jasmine-flowered Bouyardia, blue Cin 
yarias, and Pelargoniums, edged with Maidenhair Fern, sprays of whic 
also pervade the whole of the bouquet. ] ] 
sprigs of Ferns, consist of pink, white, and yellow Tea-roses,m front of © 
which are placed double red Pelargoniums. In others are sprays of 


Spireea,a white rose-bud, and a bit of red Pelargonium, or some red- ma by 


coloured Pink; others again consist wholly of a white Pink set on a 
green background. ; i SW = ie 
Sa: PRICES OF FRUIT. 


ee 


eee : 
Pears, kitchen 


s, ds d, 
Apples ... | . 2 Oto4 0. 
Chestuu' “0 20° -07) dessert * pee tee Nate te) 4) 
Filberts «lb. 0 6 --1 0} Pine Apples 13 Oi 0 OO 
Cobs ..... lb. 0 6 1 0 | Strawherries. 0Ze, 7 20. SSelOae 
Grapes, hothouse ...lb. 15 0 20 0 | Walnuts bushel 10 0 25 0 | 
.100 7 0 #10 0 (Obi dnoyrePea mee per 100 1 0 2 0 
Oranges .... 4 0 10 0 : . 
yu PRICES OF VEGETABLES, cag ~ 
Artichokes 4 0 to 6 0 | Mushrooms . pottle 1 0to2 0» 
Asparagus. 6 0 10 0 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 0 0 ~ 
Beans, Kadn 3.0 5 0 | Onions..... bushel 2 0 £ 0 — 
eet, Red... ele 03520. pickling......... quart 0 6 0 0 ~ 
Broccoli .... 0 9 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz.bunches 3 0 4 0 
Brussels Sprouts $sieve 1 6 3 0 | Parsnips ......07...... doz: 0492. 40) 
abbage doz. 1 0 1 6 | Peas, Continental,quart 0 0 10 0 
0 6 0 0 | Potatoes ......5:.., bushel 2 0, 3 0 © 
Cauliflower Peet AO) 3 1D GaO) Kidney .....:...00 do, 3 0 5 0 
- Celery .... : 16 2 0 | Radishes doz. bunches 0 6 1 6 
Ohilies . Ji... per100 1 6 2 O-| Rhubarb O2615 tizey 
Coleworts doz. bunches 2 0 4 0 | Salsafy Medi bal (baeticl aii 
Cucumbers . os 10. 3 0 | Sayoys Oe ee. 
Endive ... . 2.0 0 0 | Scorzone: 10; asters 
0 3 0 O | Seakale LEER 2S) 
2 0 4 O |} Shallots 2 ORB Et) 6 
. 0 8 O 0 | Spinach 3.0 46 
0 3  O 0 | Tomatoes...small puneb 3 0 O 0 
BYPR ae fic. 'haet Os) Pad Veta 0)=hear in Prev unch 0 3 0 9 
0 2 0 6 | Vegetabie Marrows,doz 00 0 6 
AVCLLUCE wanesraey nena peli) 24 ~ Paes os 


—————————— ee 5 Re ee: 
Early-leafing Horse-Chestnuts.—The hest known tree in Paris 
is an early-leafing horse-chestnut in the Tuileries Gardens—the 
“ Marronnier du vingt Mars.” It comes into leaf afew weeks earlier than 


S 


Bouquets consist of white Camellias or some light coloured Tea-rose as ‘4 


“Button holes,” backed by 


~ 


a 


the other trees in the gardens, and is popularly supposed to be im good by 
leaf on the 20th of March every year, though we saw it behind its time 


in the spring of 1867. It is not generally known that Such trees are by 
no means rare. In,Kensington Gardens on the 6th of March this year 
we saw half a dozen within sight at the same time, and all with partially 


unfolded leaves. The majority of the trees of the same kind were quite ~ 


bare, and we have since observed the same thing in several of the London : 
parks. : OST ae ae 

Pansies in Bouquets.—In passing through the central row in ~ 
Covent Garden the other day I was surprised and pleased to see dark 


coloured Pansies tastefully worked into bouquets. The bouquets werefor — 


the most part composed of white Camellias, and other pure white flowers. 
The effect of the rich dark pansies among these was very charming as 
well as quite novel—H. VY. : Fe ‘ 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. — 


Y. (Exhibitions of Hyacinths may now be seen at the nurseries of both 


Messrs. Veitch and Cutbush.)—J. T. T., Gurrnsry. (From any of the ee 


Paris nurseries where herbaceous plants are grown. If you get plants in 
pots they may be planted out at any time.)—BircHrinLD “(Chrough, 
any good nurseryman.)—M. (Next week.) —Mxrssrs. M. (The CG 
Parsnip.)—C, G. (Tobacco smoke will kill green and other fly indoors; 
outside try applications of tobacco water, sulphur, and Scotch snuff, — 
washing them off on the second or third day with clean water applied 
with force from the garden engine or a powerful syringe.) a ee 


NOTICE.—Country booksellers having reported some of the earlier — 


£ 


every pagehas been stereotyped, andconsequently “ The Garden ’can 

neverrunoutof print. — aston 
Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 

through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from, 


the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum 9s, 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 


quarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained — 


through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the — 


Office. fy Ate 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed : ’ 
to Wiztram Roprnson, “THE GARDEN ” Orrice, 87, Southampton — 


rs; 


A 


sy 


is 


Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters refering to 


Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tus PusiisuEr,at the same Address, hy 


THE GARDEN. 


411 


Marcu 30, 1872.] 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITSELF Is NaturE.’’—Shakespeare. 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER VIII. 


Inveep, I think that there are few institutions more health- 
ful, and few sights more pleasant to the eye and heart, than 
that of a village flower show. It induces first of all that 
communion of classes which teaches men, more forcibly than 
schools or sermons can, to recognize their place and duty ; and 
does this with a cheerful ease and freedom very sparse (please 
to observe the fashionable adjective “sparse,” a new shilling, I 
assure you, in the coinage of etymology) in the assemblies of 
Englishmen, Orchids, delicately reared in heat, are gathered 
under one tent with the hardy wild flowers of the field; the 
luscious Grape from my lord’s vinery rests upon the same 
table with the Gooseberry, hirsute and corpulent; and as the 
question is, not which of these is more beautiful or better than 
its neighbour, but which is best of its kind, which has been 
most carefully and wisely cultivated; so when men meet 
together, lawmakers and brickmakers, coronets and “ billy- 
cocks,” the consideration for each to take home with him is 
this, not whether he is richer in purse or higher in grade than 
another, because God has put all men in their places, but 
whether he is useful and good in himself. It concerns every 
man, and vitally, to reflect, not whether he is a duke or a 
ditcher, for that is pre-arranged and fixed, but whether his 
dukery or his dike are in the best available condition. 

If it be said that very few will make this inference, or note 
my obscure analogy, 1 may lay stress at all events upon the 
fact that there is the communion of classes, pleasantly estab- 
lished, and that from this kindly genial intercourse new 
sympathies cannot fail to spring. All are in good spirits and 
good temper to begin with. The Duke congratulates Mr. 
Oldacre upon that glorious basket of forced fruits, Grapes, 
Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, worth a hundred guineas in 
Covent Garden Market ; and Mrs. Cooper is still more delighted 
with a long-legged dusty Geranium, which would soon put 
an end to the Pelargoniums at Slough, by causing them to die 
with laughter, but which, nevertheless, has achieved to-day 
the third prize for window plants 

Then comes a friendly fusion of exhibitors. The owner of 
the soil has hearty words for that occupier who proves to-day 
that he is not abusing it, and whose neat garden proclaims to 
the landlord, eyery time he passes in his carriage, industry, 
happiness, and the rent gradually accumulating in the recesses 
of an old stocking. Again, I say, it isa goodly sight. The 
people of a village ought to be as one family, and to-day they 
seem to be so; and when the band of our Volunteer Riflemen 
—a good band, too, though the performer on the trombone 
might be accounted podgy for military purposes—concludes 
with “God Save the Queen,” we feel every one of us that we 
haye met for good, that there are refreshments in life which 
can cheer and strengthen for many a toilsome day, and that 
the surest purest ene is that of men working with the 
means which are at hand, so ample and so apt when charity 
seeks them, to make those around them |happy. I remember 
to have heard from an elderly colonel of my acquaintance, that, 
when a young man, he was in the habit of going frequently for 
tea and picquet with an invalid aunt, because he thought it his 
duty. it was an awful bore at first, he said, but he afterwards 
found in his kinswoman a most genial companion and excellent 
friend. “T learned more wisdom from that gentle sufferer,” 
he told me, with an earnest thankfulness, “than could be 


extracted from a platform-load of Spurgeons; and, though I 
give you my honour that I always thought, until the day of 
her death, that she was in straitened circumstances, she left 
me ten thousand pounds.” Oh!” exclaims the sceptic, with 
his unbelieving sneer; and I only wish the colonel could hear 
him. He would repeat his small observation in a very 
different key. 

But where’s the Curate? We left him communing with 
Cooper pere—he is now with Cooper fils. And there can be no 
question whatever that Tom junior is at this moment the 
happiest individual out. He has won the first prize for,a posy 
of wild flowers (we call it a bouquet in our schedule, but I like 
the sweet old English word far better, and so do the little florists), 
achieving this victory over thirteen competitors, and sur- 
mounting obstacles of a stupendous magnitude; for it is 
currently reported, not only that Billy Jenkinson’s mother had 
been seen, on her return from weeding, with large contributions 
of field flowers for her sweet William, but further that Tim 
Norris’s big brother “got all his, and tied ’em up for him.” 
Against these fearful odds, these grand advantages, Tom 
Cooper has won the day; he has utterly discomfited the 
mother of Jenkinson and annihilated the large fraternity of 
Norris. There he stands, reading the card, which proclaims his 
conquest, for the ninety-third time, and merrier than Mr. 
Merry himself when Thormanby shot forward opposite the 
stand, and all that he wished was won. 

Whence came, I wonder, Tom’s taste for wild flowers, and 
his cleverness in grouping them so prettily? Ask him, and 
he will look up witha smile at the Curate, who is even now 
suggesting to him how he might have made some little im- 
provements ; and if you would know furthermore how and 
when the lesson is learned, ask the Curate, as I have asked, 
and you will hear his system. 

On Sunday evenings, in the summer-time, some twenty boys 
from the village school assemble, when the weather is fine, at 
his Reverence’s garden gate. They have been good lads in 
church and school, or they would not be there; and as our 
ecclesiastical Spade comes out, with some books on wild flowers 
in his hand, little blue-eyed Joe Birley plucks him by the coat, 
and whispers proudly into an ear very promptly inclined to 
receive the information, “If you please, sir, I said all that big 
cholic” (collect for the day intended) “to Miss Rose, and never 
made no mistak.” Whereupon Joseph is permitted to carry 
one of the volumes for reference, a dignity esteemed in that 
boy brigade as highly as the Victoria Cross by a soldier; and 
off they go for the fields. At the first stile, which leads to the 
inclosures, there is a halt for choosing sides, the Curate 
nominating two of the most experienced artists as leaders, and 
these electing their forces alternately. Then the subordinates 
receive from their commanding officer their special orders and 
instructions ; some are to remain with him to help in arranging; 
these are to gather white flowers, those pink, and so on; while 
others must bring “totter-grass,” fern, or variegated leaf, to 
complete the outer circle of the collection. 

Each company has a librarian, whose office it is to find in 
his illustrated works the flowers brought in by his brothers, 
and to communicate their name and history. Their English 
names, mind you, for our Curate wisely declines to muddle 
their small brains, and weary their young jaws, with botany. 
Inever saw him angry but once, and then with a bilious old 
gentleman, who proposed that all wild flowers exhibited at our 
show should ,have their Latin names and classification. “I'l 
tell you my mind,” quoth the curate, “botany isa grand science 
for those who have the head and the time for it, but it’s about 
as useful to a ploughman’s child as a ball-room fan to an 
Arctic voyager; and, therefore, so far from rewarding any of 
my young rustics for Latinizing our dear old country flowers, I 
should be inclined to award for the precocious pedant trans- 
portation to Botany Bay. Carry out your idea, and we shall 
have the labourer’s child no more exclaiming, ‘Oh, faythur, 
there’s a Dandelion !’ but ‘Aspice, O paterfamilias dilecte, ubi 
Leontodon Taraxacum flavescit !’ while his sister, pointing to 
a Buttercup, shall astonish its mammy by requesting her to 
‘employ her optical apparatus in the direction digitally 
indicated, and to admire the Ranunculus bulbosus, of the class 
Polyandria, and the order Polygynia.’” 4 

“T try to teach them something better about Buttercups,” 


412 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 30, 1872. 


he said to me, as I met him one evening with his boys, and he 
referred to the subject; and plucking one of the flowers in 
question, he held it before a charming little fellow, who could 
scarcely have seen half-a-dozen summers, and asked him if he 
had learned any verses about it. The answer came promptly, 
in that soft reverential tone which makes a child’s recitation so 
very touching :— 
“Tt would be wrong on pomp or dress 
To spend our thoughts or hours; 


Another lesson Christ has taught, 
Showing the simple flowers. 


There’s not a yellow Buttercup, 
Returning with the spring, 

But it can boast a golden crown 
As bright as any king.” * 


“That will do,” said the Curate. “Now, Johnny,’ and he 
called another of his pupils, “Tell this gentleman about ‘all 
things bright and beautiful’” And Johnny began forth- 
with :— 

“All things bright and beautiful, 
All creatures great and small, 


All things wise and wonderful, 
The Lord God made them all. 


Hach little flower that opens, 
Hach little bird that sings, 
He made their glowing colours, 
He made their tiny wings, 


The rich man in his castle, 
The poor man at his gate, 
He made them, high or lowly, 

And ordered their estate.’ + 


And Johnny was commanded to cease firing. “They love 
these verses,” our pastor continued, “as they love the flowers; 
and my hope is, that through life they may connect the one 
with the other. 

“Thereis a wondrous revelation in these earth-stars, blue 
and golden, as Longfellow has told us in his grand melodious 
rhymes, and I trust we are reading it together. I love to 
imagine that when these boys are men, the labourer, going to 
his work and from it, may be reminded, as he looks upon 
these old familiar friends, of the lessons we are learning now; 
that “the hewers of wood ” may stop to recognize, with pleasant 
memories of the past and brighter hopes of the future, the 
Anemone, the Primrose, the Violet, the Lily, or the Hyacinth; 
that pale mechanics, in their Sunday walk, may repeat to their 
little ones the precepts which are taught by the flowers; and 
that soldiers and sailors far away may dream of the meadow 
and the grove, and awake with a deeper affection for their 
beautiful Hnglish birthland, a braver heart to maintain its 
freedom. Yes, I love to imagine that the recollection of these 
happy wanderings among the summer flowers may help to 
revive in weary men the freshness of boyhood’s happiness; 
that some of these lads may hereafter be of that company of 
whom our greatest sacred poet} has said :— 


«There are, in this loud stunning tide 
Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 
Of th’ everlasting chime ;. 
Who carry music in their heart, 
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
Because their seeret souls a holy strain repeat ;’ 


and may know, to quote the words of our greatest divine 
since the Reformation,t how to ‘reconcile Martha’s employ- 
ment with Mary’s devotion ; in the midst of the works of his 
trade to retire from time to time within the chapel of his 
heart; and to conyerse with God by frequent addresses and 
returns. 

“T want these little men to be what Mr. Kingsley calls 
‘minute philosophers ;’ to find by the roadside and by the 
brookside some of ‘the riches which God has given the poor;’ 
to feel, as it is wisely said by Alphonse Karr, in his deli¢htful 
‘Tour round my Garden,’ ‘Le bonheur n’est pas une rose bleue, 
* From “‘ Hymns for Little Children.” 


+ Keble, } Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 


le bonheur est l’herbe des pelouses, le liseron des champs, le 
rosier des haies, un mot, un chant, n’importe quoi.’ ” 

And much more pleasant converse had I with our Curate on 
that sweet summer’s eve, what time the happy boys were 
racing toand fro with the pretty posies in their hands; and 
the gorgeous kingfisher shot down the brooklet, like a meteor, 
at the sound of their merry voices; and the swift trout darted 
to his hole, as they plucked the campions from the bank; and 
the landrail craked in the mowing grass, complaining, I infer 
from his harsh tones, that, bemg long-toed and formed for the 
swamps, as a great naturalist tells us (Darwin ‘‘ On Species,” 
page 186), he should be thus uncomfortably located in the 
meadows; and far in the distance “the cuckoo told his name 
to all the hills,” some of them distinctly repeating it, as though 
Mr. Cuckoo were going upstairs to a party ; and we wandered 
and wondered,until the dews wept for that gentle day; and 
the two floral armies fought the battle of the bouquets, and 
victory was adjudged; and victors and vanquished supped, 
“as only boyhood can,” upon the Curate’s bread and cheese 
and beer; and we all went thankfully home, and “ bedward 
ruminating.” S. R. H. 

(Lo be continued.) 


HORTICULTURAL TOASTS IN AMERICA. 


Cartes DicKEns, in one of his letters from America to his 
friend Forster, wrote :— The general talent for public speaking 
here is one of the most striking of the things that force 
themselves upon an Englishman’s notice. As every man looks 
forward to being a member of Congress, he prepares himself 
for it, and the result is quite surprising. The old custom of 
drinking sentiments is quite extinct with us; but here eyery- 
body is expected to be prepared with an epigram as a matter — 
of course.” 

A yather remarkable display of the kind of epigrammatic 
toast-giving alluded to by Dickens took place at the anniver- 
sary dinner of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society some 


_few years ago, from which, suppressing the names of the 


epigrammatists, a few examples may be given, which will not 
be altogether out of place in the pages of Tim Garpen. 


Isr Toassr.—Horvicunrure—that rational and noble art which 
regales and delights all the senses; which nourishes a generous 
gratitude to the Author of all Blessings, and enables man to 
create a new Hden in place of that which his first ancestor 
forfeited. 

2nD Toast.—TuEe Men or Sxitt in enlightened cultivation, who 
have changed the Crab into the Newtown Pippin, and the Hog- 
peach into the Noblesse and Vanguard. 


3rp Toast.—THE Arr which makes all climates one, making the 
tropics tributary to hyperborean regions, and giving eyen to 
snowy Russia the Pine-Apple and the Mangosteen. 

dort Tosst.—THE ENCOURAGEMENY or A TASTE FoR FLOwERs.—God 
gaye them for our delight, and it should be one of the signs of - 
a cultivated age to love and study them. 

5H Toasr.—AGRICULTURE AND HorricunrurE.—The allied powers 
that make the Desert teem with abundance, and bid the Wilder- 
ness exhale the perfume of Roses. 

6rH Toast.—THE Two Great Facts.—God made the first GARDEN ; 
Cain built the first city. 

71H Toast.—Tur Rising GENERATION.—May these young Twics be 
so TRAINED as to need but little Trimmine; may they become 
valuable Sranparps, produce Frurrs worthy of a Premium, and 
receive prizes at the great Finan EXHIBITION. 

8rH Toast.—GarpDENING.—The art by which Nature is made to 
improve her own productions. 

9rH Toast.—May we henceforward deem it more honourable to 
crown with garlands the successful cultivator than to gather 
laurels on fields of battle. 

10rH Toasi.—THE GrearEest HAPPINESS OF THE GREATEST NuMBER. 
The whole world a Garprn: hands enough to cultivate it, and 
mouths enough to consume and enjoy its abundant produce. 


It is needless to add that each of the foregoing toasts was 
received with uproarious and long-continued applause, or that 
many other toasts were spoken and drank to on that “ festive 
occasion,” some of which may possibly be reproduced in these 
pages at some future opportunity. H.N. H. 


Marcu 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


413 


THE LIBRARY: 
NATURE; OR, THE POETRY OF EARTH AND SEA* 


Iutustrations that make hideous the subjects which they 
attempt to “illustrate” are unfortunately not uncommon. 
But in the book before us there are illustrations in which the 
yery life and spirit of vegetation are expressed so truthfully that 
one obtains a new idea 
of the exquisite power 
of good engraving as a 
teacher. The things 
represented seem to 
live—to toss on the 
breeze, to bathe in the 
glorious sun; yet all 
is in black and white. 
By such art as this 
we teach in the highest 
sense. Numbers haye 
no opportunity of see- 
ingat their best many 
of the subjects with 
which they haye to 
deal. This particularly 
applies to gardeners, 
who are debarred 
from seeing many of 
the noblest objects 
of their charge in 
their native habitats 
or in the places where 
they happen to attain 
perfect beauty and 
vigour in this 
country. To such, 
illustrations which 
fully render the 
beauty and the dig- 
nity of the subjects 
they represent are a 
priceless boon. 

The present 
volume, and some 
other books recently 
published by Messrs. 
Nelson, seem to in- 
augurate a new era 
in the art of faithful 
and artistic rendering 
of the most beautiful 
objects in nature. The 
illustrations are 
mostly drawn by 
Giacomelli, who seems 
the prince of graceful 
designers on wood. 
To give some idea of 
Madame Michelet’s 
style, as well as of the 
charming illustrations 
with which the book 
abounds, we quote a 
portion of her intro- 
ductory chapter on 
the garden, accom- 
panying it by one or 
two of the beautiful 
engravings :— 

How many meanings in that one single word! 
But remember 


Waterside Vegetation. 


“The garden! 
Tlow many interpretations have been given to it! 
that the garden which our hearts really love is no vast space in 
which the vision is utterly lost, but rather that limited enclosure 
which retains the sonl half captive; its concentration acts all the 
more powerfully as an inspiration, and lends wings to our dreams. 


A limited enclosure, and eyen something less. Who does not 


* “Nature ; or, The Poetry of Earth and Sea.” From the French of Madame 
Michelet, With 200 Designs by Giacomelli, Tondon: T. Nelson & Sons. 


remember the pathetic history of the prisoner of Fenestrella, all 
whose garden was a tiny lowly herb, which had sprung up between 
two stones in the lonely courtyard? And this herb took entire 
possession of him, linked him to heaven and space, and so firmly 
held his soul that even liberty would have been nothing to him 
without it. What more could he need? He who has loved most 
truly, he it is who alone has thoroughly comprehended the povera 
Picciola. 

“Fortune does not allow all of us to see the globe—the wide, wide 
world. But all of us may wander in this garden—the miniature of 
a world, which furnishes us with a little turf, a limited degree of 
cultivation, something of the shade of woods and the freshness of 
waters—sometimes the sweet illusion of a fair perspective—and the 
vague uncertain murmur as of distant seas and dying waves. 


<T do not speak here of those monumental gardens which are the 
pride of great cities; or, rather, their saloons, given up to noisy 
and thoughtless crowds. Much more heartily do I love that little 
plot of ground of which Virgil speaks ; the quiet retreat of the 
good old man to whom War had left but a small portion of his 
demesne, and that not the best. Yet not the less did it contain 
everything—the agreeable and the useful—grass, vegetables, fruits, 
and even bees, with a few tall and venerable trees, rich in so many 
pleasures for him who sat beneath their shade. 

“Those great and noble trees, in the potent magic of sunshine and 
shadow, possess all the charms of memory. How many souls, souls 
(as we feel) akin to our own, have passed away, never to return 
again! In spite of ourselves we dream of them: all life seems 
informed with regret. 


English Palace and Gardens. 


* But sweet friendships are more easily formed with secondary and 
less imposing lives—with lives, that is, within our own range of sym- 
pathy. The fruit tree which mounts no higher than ourselves, and 
droops its fruit into our grasp—and, still lower, the humble flowers 
of the field—these are our true friends. And the latter—so small 
and so exquisite !—seem to breathe forth in their fragrance the subtle 
soul of the earth; one might almost say, its thougiits. : 

“The famous ‘Paradises’ of Persia were no more than this—an 
agreeable confusion of fruit and flower. Even the kings in their 


414 THE GARDEN. 


(Marc 30, 1872. 


royal gardens were desirous of nothing more. Not an inch of ground 
was wasted on an empty effect of grandeur. No trees everywhere 
displayed their barren majesty. There were few broad alleys, but, 
on the contrary, a maze of narrow paths wound here and there 
among the orchard-growth. TFlowers—everywhete flowers! In that 
land of light they seem a coruscation, and it is with them that 
nowadays we have awakened a glow of warmth im our pale West. 
In the few openings of our mighty forests, what have we? The 
French vervain, whose sombre leafage is scantily brightened by a 
sinele and almost imperceptible flower. 

“Byom Persia we have derived all the adornment and wealth of 
spring. It seems as if its sunshine were not so much warm and 
genial, as fresh and youthful; it is, so to speak, a ray of dawn. 
Tulips, anemones, jonquils, and all the variety of ranunculi, were 
its gifts; aye, and those violets, lilies of the valley, pinks, and 
narcissi which seem so thoroughly our own. The delicate lilac, the 
peach with its shower of virgin snow, and finally, supreme above 
all, the rose in its close sympathy with the bulbul—song mingled 
with sweet odours. All this, too, for the first innocent hour of the 
young year! later on, with the languishments of summer, the 
daughters of India come to greet us, and the children of Tropical 
America.” 


“Nature”? is divided into seven “ Books,” as follows :— 
I. The Garden; IL. Pastoral Scenery ; IIL. Woodland Scenery; 
IV. Mountain Scenery; V. River Scenery; VI. Lake 
Scenery; VII. The Sea; each of these being again divided 
into from three to twelve chapters. Our extracts and illustra- 
tions speak sufficiently of the merits of the book, though they 
tell nothing of its excellent finish in printing and paper. We 
strongly recommend it to every lover ofnature. 


” 


Wels GRU A Sibi iNe 
CHOICE APPLES ON WIRE FENCING. 


Many years ago, on taking charge of the gardens here, I 
found the slip of ground outside the kitchen garden protected 
with a rabbit-proof fence. The fence consisted of a dwarf 
wall and wire netting in these proportions: on the wood side 
the wall was a little more than two feet high, on the garden 
from eight inches to one foot; on the top of this wall wire 
netting two feet high was fixed to a strained wire at top and 
another at bottom. Thus the fence was four feet high from 
the outside, and a little less than three from the inside. The 
height so made up has proved sufficient for the exclusion 
not only of rabbits, but also of hares. Its bare and naked 
appearance was, however, anything but pleasing. Therefore 
for that reason, as well as on economic grounds, it was resolved 
to cover it with fruit trees. The east side was consequently 
at once deyoted to pears, the north to apples, and the west 
partly to apples and partly to plums. I will, however, now 
only allude to the apples, which have done best, although the 
pears haye done well. ‘The plums haye not succeeded satis- 
factorily—the cold spring winds, against which the net affords 
no protection, generally blighting the blossoms, in spite of 
other protecting expedients. Hor this reason I would not 
recommend plums for such positions. But such a fence has 
proved itself one of the very best places for apples and many 
of the hardier varieties of pears. 

Having planted the young trees at about eighteen feet apart, 
the next process is the training. If the tree is intended for 
horizontal training, little cutting will be needed. The main 
shoot might be bent and twisted in various forms, to compel 
the dormant buds to break throughout its entire length. A 
simple removal of the terminal buds, and the proper amount 
of divergence from the straight line, will generally sufiice. 
The space at command may thus be furnished in less time. 
There is attending this mode just the risk of breaking the 
buds; occasionally some one or more of them refuse to yield 
to such compulsory practice, and then the form of the tree 
is marred for life. For this reason, and for very dwarf trees, 
it is safer and surer practice to cut them boldly back, say, two 
or three months after planting, to within six inches or a foot 
of the stock. From the very bottom of the tree four or six 
shoots will then spring forth. The lower ones on each side 
must then be carried to the right and left horizontally, and 
the others ranged above them in regular order, and at regular 
distances. The width of the branches from each other is an 


important point. The object beimg a screen, the branches 
should be closer than usual. Ona space not quite three feet 
high six or seven branches are arranged; thus close, of course 
the screen is complete; but perhaps for general purposes, one 
foot between the branches would be a safe rule. Hayinge 
started the trees on the right track, the next consideration is, 
when are they to be stopped in their growing career? This 
brings me to the question of summer pruning, about which 
there are two important points. The first is the best time, and 
the second the proper extent to prune. In reference to young 
trees of this kind, don’t prune them at all the first summer. 
Having relieved them from the knife in spring, let them not 
afterwards be meddled with until the autumn. Started on 
the right track, the further they run, within reasonable limits, 
the better for their future yigour. A yard or four feet will 
not be an excessive distance to have traversed. ‘Towards the 
middle or end of September, however, it will be necessary to 
examine into the character of the growth made, and to bend 
it into the direction of fruitfulness. This will be best ac- 
complished by lopping off probably one-third from its length, 
and, if so much labour can be bestowed, by bending the shoot 
left as much back upon itself as it will endure without 


breaking. The tendency of this will be to equally develop all _ 


the buds on the shoot, to prevent the terminal ones breaking 
into new growth, and to store up in them all alike the germs 
of fertility. All these highly essential objects will be more 
effectually promoted if, towards the beginning or middle of 
October, the roots of the tree are carefully examined, and a 
few of the largest pruned. If any are found, notwithstanding 
the horizontal spread at planting, to have acquired a vertical 


bend, they must be boldly removed. ‘his first examination — 


of the roots must be performed with skill. Growth must be 
tenderly checked. 1f these operations are properly performed 
at the right period, no more wood will be made the first 
season, but many more of the thin angular wood buds will be 
developed into plump roundish fruit buds; and from this 
period in the history of the tree the production of such buds 
is to be the chief object aimed atin all future prunings of 
either root or top. With such a mode of planting as is here 
described, wood will be produced in abundance. The knife 
may occasionally be useful to give it the proper form, but the 
chief use of pruning henceforth will be as an aid to fertility. 
And it must ever be borne in mind that fertility is chiefly 
secured through pruning the root rather than the top of the 
tree. Root pruning may have for a time to be repeated 
annually, or biennially. If the trees show a tendency to run 
too much to wood, pruning is the remedy. After a time, 
however, the necessity for this will cease. 

Tf these preliminary prunings have answered their proper 
purpose, the shoots next summer will be covered with fruit 
buds. From or near the clusters of fruit, a wood bud will 
also spring forth into a shoot. What is to be done with this 
side shoot ? Let it grow until June, and then shorten it back 
within four or six leaves of its base. It will soon break ont 
into new growth, and this growth may either be persistently 
pinched off—say every three weeks—or allowed to grow freely. 
I prefer this mode until the end of September, and then to cut 
clean off, back to and beyond the point cut to in June. The 
exact point must be regulated by the condition of the buds at 
the base of this shoot. These are our reserve for fruiting next 
year. Sometimes, if they are very plump, cutting close to 
them, even at so late a period, will start them into growth, If 
this happens, next year’s crop is ruined; so, if fully developed, 
it is safer to leave a few buds of the second growth than to eut 
up to or beyond it. On the other hand, if the base buds are 
backward, cut back fearlessly to one or two buds only. This 
will concentrate the remaining energies of the tree upon the 
organization of fruit buds. However, unless well versed in a 
knowledge of the two kinds of buds, and the growing habits 
and peculiarities of different trees, it will be safer practice 
merely to cut back to the point shortened to in June than to 
go beyond it. This final shortening completes the summer 
pruning. 

The extending growths on each shoot should he treated the 
same as last year, until the whole space devoted to the tree is 
covered; after that all growths should be stopped, pinched, or 
pruned, in the manner described, for the side shoots, ‘There 


Marcu 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


415 


will be no want of shoots for furnishing the top of the tree. 
If a straight stem is chosen, its leading shoot must be cut in 
year by year, as recommended for the maiden tree, until enough 
branches are formed for the furnishing of the sides. Its fur- 
nishing mission is now ended. In fact, the difficulty with 
liberal culture is not the want, but a redundancy, of wood, and 
the needful skill to turn this wood to fruitful account. By the 
modern improvements in fruit culture, winter pruning is re- 
duced to a minimum. It consists in merely completing the 
muck more important process of summer pruning. Its amount 
is regulated by the extent to which the shortening process 
was carried during the growing period. ‘The spurs should 
then, if any have been left to shorten, be cut back to within a 
bud or two of their base. After the trees are fairly established 
such a shortening often becomes unnecessary. Nevertheless, 
the proper time of this final pruning is of the utmost conse- 
quence. Fyrom what has been said about summer pruning, it 
will be obyious that the trees which need most cutting now are 
those that were then in the most excitable state. For this 
reason the spurs were left longer upon them. Now this fact 
affords the proper cue to their finalpruning. ‘he great danger 
to be most sedulously guarded against is the early flowering of 
fruit trees. Spring frosts are the greatest destroyers of fruitful 
prospects. Consequently our interest is to keep the buds 
dormant as long as possible. With this object in view, the 
final pruning must be deferred to the latest moment. ‘There- 
fore, instead of performing the winter pruning at the fall of 
the leaf, leave it until the middle or end of March; for the last 
cut of the knife is the startling summons for the bud to come 
forth and bloom. 


When the trees are thoroughly established, and a fruitful 
habit induced, less pruning of any kind is needed afterwards. 
It thus happens that the induction of fruitfulness speedily 
supersedes the necessity of much, or any pruning; for, like 
any other good habit, once established, fruitfulness repeats 
itself readily; and this habit is the most powerful agent that 
can be employed either by nature or art for reproducing fertility 
in continuity. Vegetable life indeed seems to have no choice 
in this matter; and herein consists a danger to inexperienced 
growers. <A fruitful state of a tree demands modifications of 
previous practice; an excess of fruitfulness may become a real 
danger. It is easy of course to remove part of the crop; and 
this ought at all times to be attended to. In the thinning of 
fruit it should be remembered that one fine fruit is of more 
value than six small ones; but I do not chiefly refer to thinning : 
the whole culture that induced the fruitfulness will require 
modification. The restrictions upon the growth of wood must 
be relaxed. Root pruning will not only become unnecessary, 
but injurious. Prunings and toppings in June may be com- 
pletely dispensed with; in fact, Nature will often take this 
matter into her own hands by offering no growth to stop. Any 
young shoots that are produced may be cnt close back in 
September without the slightest danger of the dormant buds 
at their base bursting into growth; but for the evil of an early 
bloom such is the best course to pursue, as the whole power of 
life should now be carefully husbanded for the manufacture of 
fruit. In such cases there is literally no winter pruning; the 
sole pruning being confined to the removal of any young 
growths in September. 


Trees thus bent upon fruitfulness require feeding. Two or 
three good soakings of sewage in the course of the summer, or 
top dressing three inches or four inches thick of well rotted 
manure in the winter, will keep them up to their work for 
years. The fence here described has now got into this state. 
‘The whole care it noeds is summer pruning and winter nourish- 
ing. A determined fruit-bearing habit has been secured, and 
the duty of the cultivator consists in promptly and discrimi- 
nately thinning, carefully feeding, and complacently gathering 
the regularly displayed and tempting produce. That produce 
is extraordinary in quantity and fine in quality. The trees 
stretch right and left along the fence to a distance each way of 
nine feet, and the branches are arranged one above another six 
or seven rows deep. Their ropes of fruit are so massive in 
themselves, and are placed so close together, as to form a 
complete screen that renders the fence invisible. It is literally 
a fruit screen, set off to the highest advantage by the fine 


foliage that struggles through, between, or out from among 
the continuous clusters of fruit. 

Singular enough, too, although rabbits occasionally get upon 
the edging of the dwart wall, and hares can reach to the lower 
branches by standing on their hind legs, they seldom attack 
the produce. They seem to dislike nibbling at the apples 
through the wire netting of 1} inch mesh. All who have seen 
this fence are charmed with these dwarf fruit trees, and it 
would be difficult to find a more profitable boundary to a kitchen 
garden. It combines in a high degree the merits of utility 
and beauty, and is just as efficient as an unclothed fence for 
the exclusion of vermin. F, 


PEARS IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 


Iy reply to Mr. Willis (p. 384), allow me to say that the evidence 
as to quality of British v. French or Channel Island pears does not 
rest upon the two varieties he names, viz., Chaumontel and Duchesse 
@Angouléme. What he says respecting these two sorts is simply in 
accordance with what is well known to all who have given attention 
to the subject of pear growing—viz., that the large, coarser varieties 
of pears are of better quality grown in France and the Channel 
Islands than we can produce them in England ; and the further north 
the worse they are. Two hundred and fifty miles north from this 
place, Chanmontel is very inferior, and the Duchesse is no better than 
aturnip. But this is no evidence as to the point at issue. I main- 
tain that, for all qualities, size excepted, I have grown, and seen 
others grow, the best varieties of pears, such as Marie Louise, 
Louise Bonne, Seckle, and Winter Nelis, and other good sorts, of 
better quality than ever I have seen grown in France or the Channel 
Islands, T. Baines, Southgate. 


COLD MASTIC FOR GRAFTING PURPOSES. 


Tue inconyeniences that always attend the use of warm 
compositions, and the trouble of making them, have brought 
very much into fashion cold mastics, which soften under 
the heat of the hands, or remain unctuous from the nature 
of their composition. Up to the present time, no cold mastic 
can compete with that of M. Lhomme-Lefort, manufac- 
tured by his son at Belleville, Paris. This mastic is sold in 
tin boxes, in which it preserves its pliability, even after the 
box is opened. It is spread on the graft with a spatula, and 
should it be necessary to touch it with the fingers, these 
should first be wetted. Once exposed to the air, it hardens a 
little. It does not crack with frost nor run in hot weather, 
and is the best composition that can be used. We have seen 
in Germany a cold composition invented by M. Lucas, pomolo- 
gist. This is made of Burgundy pitch melted over a slow 
fire. Into this is poured the third of its weight of alcohol of 
90°, stirring the mixture constantly with a stick. The only 
drawback with cold mastics is that they do not harden suffici- 
ently in winter when they are applied in autumn, then the 
frost, having an advantage over a soft substance, can reach 
the tissues of the tree thus insufficiently protected. 

C. Barer. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Moss on Fruit Trees.—How am I to get rid of moss on my apple 
trees P—J. B., Hertford. {Many scrape it off, but neither scraping, 
washing, nor painting have any permanent value. The ground in the 
neighbourhood of the trees must be thoroughly drained and enriched so 
as to induce a more healthy growth. The existence of moss and lichen on 
fruit trees is simply an indication of decrepitude, removable in the case 
of young trees, whose growth may be improved under more liberal treat- 
ment; but generally irremovable in old ones, on which, however, the 
moss does little harm beyond, perhaps, that of harbouring insects. } 


Neglected Orchards.—I have lately come into possession of an 
orchard which has been so neglected as to be literally a thicket of weeds and 
rubbish. How ought I to proceed to improve it >—B.—TIn the first place 
pare and burn the surface, then spread the ashes over the ground and dig 
them in along with a good dressing of manure. The burning is effected 
as follows :—A heap of faggots, prunings, and other garden refuse is piled 
up together, so as to form a cone; this is covered, to the thickness of 
some eighteen inches, with the surrounding soil, which is charred and 
burned by setting fire to the wood in the middle of it. One ton of wood, 
it is said, will burn three tons of soil; therefore by erecting and firing 
several mounds simultaneously in the way just described a large amount 


416 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 30, 1872. 


of burnt earth may soon be obtained, and if saturated with liquid manure 
it becomes an excellent fertiliser. Paring and burning is also a good plan 
for getting rid of slugs and other vermin. | 

Vines Shedding their Fruit—tThe startmg of my vine this 
year has reminded me that last season, although it started well, and was 
well furnished with incipient bunches, the bunches themselves, after a 
short time, turned yellow, and fell off. Can you tell me what was the 
cause of the bunches thus falling off? I should, if possible, like to take 
means to prevent a recurrence of it this year.—SuBSCRIBER. {It is 
difficult to state the cause of your vine failure without some acquaintance 
with the condition of the borderin which it grows, and likewise the tem- 
perature at which the house was kept during the time it showed its 
bunches. When forcing commences at this time of the year, if the border 
is properly draimed, and the temperature kept at about from 60° to 65° at 
night, ranging by sun heat to between 75° and 80°, there ought to be no 
failure such as you complain of. Last year, in March, April, and May, 
the season was wet, and if your border, if outside, was not well drained, 
and if a too high temperature was kept up during the time your vine 
showed fruit, it would most likely fail in the way you describe. If you 
are in doubts about the state of the border and your vine roots, some 
wooden shutters, or a piece of tarpaulin, might be used to cover the 
border till dry summer weather sets in, and be sure not to keep the tem- 
perature too high, unless your vine is of the Muscat or the Frontignan 
section —T. ] 

Select Pears.—Will you kindly fayour me with the names of a 
few good Pears, such as will succeed both on walls and in open 
quarters >—CHATTERIS. [The following may perhaps answer your 
purpose. Those marked with an asterisk do best on a wall :—Citron 
des Carmes, Baronne de Mello, Beurré Diel, *Beurré Rance, Beurré 
Hardy, *Beurré Sterckmans, Beurré d’Amanlis, Beurré Superfin, 
*Bergamotte d’Esperen, *Duchesse d’Angouléme, *Haster Beurré, 
Flemish Beauty, *Glou Morcean, Jargonelle, Josephine de Malines, 
Knight’s Monarch, Louise Bonne of Jersey, *Marie Louis2, Thomp- 
son’s, Urbaniste, Williams’ Bon Chrétien, and *Winter Nelis. 


GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


LILACS FOR INDOOR DECORATION. 


Linacs stand entting admirably; a branch is a bouquet in itself, 
and several branches are furnishing fit for any vase, glass, or basket. 
The Persian lilacs, of which there are three or more varieties—-the 
Persica, P. alba, and laciniata, or cut-leaved—are the neatest in 
flower and foliage. Next in order of value for cutting are the two 
white varieties of the common lilac, a large and smaller one, of 
spotless purity, which is more than can be affirmed of the so-called 
white Persian variety. This common lilac is perhaps the least useful 
for cutting. Ofa bluish tinge, it is less effective than many of the 
other and newer sorts. Charles X., Coccinea rubra, insignis, grandi- 
flora, and spectabilis are among the best varieties for colour and 
size of bloom. These or any other high-coloured and fine sorts 
produce a fine effect mixed with the white and plentifully relieved 
with fine foliage. The latter is no figure of speech, as the leaves of 
the lilaes differ almost as much as the flowers, and range from pur- 
plish tints to a faded-looking green. For bouquet work no leaves of 
lilac are admissible but those of the Persian varieties, and_of those 
the ecut-leaved is the most effective, either interspersed with other 
flowers or as an outer fringe. Lilac flowers are largely employed, 
chiefly ont of season, in bouquet making. When seen in every town 
square and cottage garden, and sniffed in every breeze, they are very 
generally discarded as too common for these purposes. But the mode 
of making up into hand bouquets is at all seasons alike, and may be 
briefly adverted to. 


The flowers of lilac, unless it be on weak plants of the Persian 
varieties, are far too large for bouquet work. Each branchlet of the 
bunch of blooms must be separated and mounted on an independent 
stem formed of small stick or wire. These artificial sprigs should be 
alike in size and form as near as may be. Two general styles will 
be needed, according to the place they are intended to occupy. Stiff 
compact little branches—that is, comparatively, always retaining 
more or less of the natural shape—should be made up for the central 
portions, and thinner, more slender sprays for the onter edges of 
bonquets. The lilac is almost equally adapted for any part of 
bouquet making. They form a good foundation to be dotted over- 
head with other more showy or contrasting flowers, such as white 
Camellias, Azaleas, and Hucharis. Ona red ground of lilac, throwing 
up a few dividing sprays between white flowers have a grand effect. 
They mix well with most other material, and hardly ever seem ont of 
place; and few flowers, except those of Spiraea, can exceed lilacs for 
fringings and finishings. Elegant drooping sprays of white lilac, 
partially hidden on a green ground of maidenhair fern, the double 
fringe contrasting with a bouquet containing three or five high- 


coloured Camellias, is a bouquet as near perfection as may be in a 
certain style of arrangement. 

Scarcely anything need be added about the culture of the lilac. 
The plants grow anywhere and anyhow. In the dark sunless courts 
of great cities, half choked with dust and wholly begrimed with 
soot, the lilac lives and opens its fresh treasury of sweets every May. 
Its home is the shrubbery or thin wood, though in the commonest 
gardens, on waste places, hedgerows, the lilac, is found. Still the 
plant pays for culture. Give it good soil and a clean rich root run, 
enriched with well rotted manure, and the leaves and flowers will 
well repay the trouble. They will reach a size, acquire a substance, 
put on a glow of colour, and diffuse a fragrance far beyond the reach 
of commonplace lilac, if indeed any lilac can be properly called 
common. lilacs have a tendency to oyvercrowd themselves into 
weakness from below, and over-flower themselves into weakness from 
above. For remedy the first, thin out or remove all the suckers ; for 
the second, behead the plant and start afresh. It is well to keep up 
the stock by planting a few suckers a yard or so apart every year. 
To cut the largest amount of bloom from the smallest area of leaf or 
branch, lilacs ought to be kept to a single stem like huge standard 
roses. Allow no suckers from root or stem; prune back any irre. 
gular branches that may break away from the head. Trained and 
managed thus, the plants become highly artistic, and will yield many 
more and far better flowers for cutting. D. Bury. 


HANGING BASKETS AS HOUSEHOLD ORNAMENTS. 


In our large cities, one of the most fashionable diversions of 
the ladies is to fill their windows with pretty plants, either 
planted in jardinieres of costly tile, or else in hanging baskets 
of mostrustic make. After a little time, when they have grown 
toappropriate height, and the doooping plants haye attained suf- 
ficient length, the beauty of the window garden is apparent. 


Fig. 1. Suspended Window Basket. 


Every visitor on the very moment of entrance into the room 
is pleased at the simple beauty of the Howers and plants, and 
even the passer-by on the side walk will stop for a moment in 
his hurry, and look upon the cozy bower of bloom just inside 
the glazed window panes. 

Fig. 1 isa design fora hanging basket. The box is made of 
handsomely carved wood, the inside lined with zine or clay; 


Marcu 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. A147 


the basin is filled with earth, and in it are planted Begonias, 
Caladiums, Coleus, Geraniums, Ivy, Callas, and quite a variety 
of other flowers. The size is about 2 by 34 to 34 feet. Few or no 
hanging baskets we have ever seen surpassed this. Fig. 2is an 
illustration of a large, deep basket filled with a dense growth of 


Fig. 2. Blue Conyolyulus, 


the Convolyulus mauritanicus. This isa highly ornamental 
plant of drooping, half shrubby character, slender habit, with a 
profusion of elegant light blue blossoms, upwards of an inch in 
width, forming an admirable plant for suspended vases or 
baskets. It continues long in blossom, and thrives very weil 
in a room.—Lorticultwrist. 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


THE LACKEY MOTH. 
BY EDWARD NEWMAN, 

Tuts lackey is only too familiar to all who possess gardens or 
orchards. In insect biography we always begin with the egg, and 
this, the first stage of its existence, is in the present instance the 
most interesting stage, because the most abnormal. We are ac- 
customed to see some insects’ eg¢s shaped like ninepins, and set up 
on end as if for a game at skittles, and we constantly find others 
shaped like a Dutch cheese, and glued fast by the base to the upper 
surface of a leaf; but it is not common to find a hundred or more 
of the eggs of any insect arranged with symmetry in a circle, round 
a twig, and united together so as to form a compact broad band 
like a bracelet or armlet; and this is exactly the manner in which 
the female lackey deposits her eggs. When you have cut the twig 
in order to preserve this curiosity, which must attract the notice of 
even the most incurionus, and the twig has shrunk in drying, the 
bracelet can be moved up and down, round and round, with the same 
facility as a real bracelet on the wrist of its wearer. Each individual 
egg is fashioned something like that production which for some 
oceult reason is called a pork pie, a delicacy supposed to be par- 
ticularly attractive to the frequenters of the Crystal Palace and of 


railway ‘“‘refreshment rooms’’; there is a slight depression on the 
top, and round this a raised rim. Such is each ege per se. 

It appears that the parent female is possessed of two pear-shaped 
reservoirs, situated in the lower part of the abdomen, and filled with 
liquid glue, or at any rate with something that has the appearance 
and properties of liquid glue. Each of these reservoirs or glands 
has a passage connected with the oviduct, and at the moment of the 
passage of the egg through the oviduct a portion of this glue is 
discharged, and completely envelopes the egg, not only fixing it to 
the twig, but forming a coating or shell exterior to the ordinary 
ege-shell. The glue of which this top coat is formed instantly 
becomes hard by exposure to the atmosphere, and is so tenacious 
that two pieces of cardboard-once cemented together with it cannot 
be separated without tearing. The glue is perfectly insoluble in 
water; it is neither dissolved nor disintegrated by the influence 
of rain or frost. Immersed in this glue, the eggshells remain 
compactly united together for years, like jewels set in some not 
very showy metal; a circular hole in the crown, when present, 
revealing the secret that the infant caterpillar has escaped. The 
united band or bracelet of eggs is as hard and as compact as 
porcelain; and when we reflect how feeble, how minute, how 
excessively soft, and how liable to injury is each infant caterpillar 
on its emergence from the eggshell, it is difficult to conceive by 
what means it escaped. 

No sooner have the little dingy hirsute beings made their appear- 
ance and breathed the invigorating air than they set to work spin- 
ning and weaving, and very speedily indeed do they manage to 
construct a silken tent, and to enclose a few leaves of the apple tree, 
and on these they feed until entirely consumed. All the caterpillars 
contained in one band or bracelet of eggs unite in the construction 
of one tent, under which they reside in harmony, a happy family. 
As soon as the leayes originally inclosed are consumed, the cater- 
pillars take in other leayes, which they consume in the same way ; 
and so they go on, continually enlarging the field of operations, until 
the bough fayoured by their selection presents the appearance of a 
disgusting mass of clammy web. 

When about to change their skins—a process all caterpillars are 
doomed to undergo—they creep from under this tent, and each, fixing 
itself firmly on the outside by means of its claspers, crawls out of 
the skin that it has outgrown, and leaves it adhering to the roof of 
the dwelling. Ihave seen more than fifty of these cast-off habili- 
ments decorating the roof of a single tent. It must not, however, 
be supposed that the lackeys continue very long under shelter of 
their tents. When they haye grown old enough, and strong enough, 
and bold enough, they take advantage of the shades of evening to 
see—or perhaps, more correctly, to feel—a little more of the outer 
world. But then this difficulty occurs to them: ‘ Supposing we 
wander about in the dark, how are we to find our way back at day- 
break to this safe and comfortable retreat ?’’? Who has not heard of 
**Rosamond’s Bower,” and the “labyrinth,” and the “ clew of silk 2” 
Of course, caterpillars know all about it ; and so, to guard against all 
possibility of losing his way home, each caterpillar before leaving 
home spins for his own guidance a silken clew; he produces it as he 
crawls, just as a boy’s kite as it goes farther and farther takes out 
more and more string. It matters not how far he travels, or how 
tortuous his course; the clew he has provided remains where he left 
it, and by its guidance he can at any time find his way back to his 
bower through the labyrinth of leaves and twigs. After these ex- 
perimental excursions the caterpillars rapidly increase in size, cease 
to live in company, and each enters on a solitary and independent 
state of existence, 

In gardens, this species feeds on apple, plum, and many of our 
ornamental trees and shrubs, even including laurel, although this is a 
taste rarely exhibited, and we might have supposed, from the deadly 
effect of chopped or bruised laurel leaves on mothkind generally, 
that this would be a diet rather to be eschewed than chewed; and 
yet, so impartial is the lackey in the distribution of its favours, that 
it may occasionally be seen munching laurel, and weaving its web 
over the polished leaves asif it were the most innocuous dainty. As 
for standard roses, it will occasionally envelope them, if neglected, 
with such a mantle of web as to mystify the uninitiated gardener, and 
cause him to talk profoundly of the deleterious effect of east winds 
generally, and last night’s frost in particular. In hedges it delights 
in the hawthorn, and in woods may occasionally be seen on aspen, 
abele, hornbeam, elm, and beech. 

When full-grown this caterpillar rests at length singly among the 
leaves and twigs, and if the tree or bough be shaken, it falls help- 
lessly to the ground; it does not feign death, but immediately crawls 
to the stem of the tree or shrub whence it has fallen, and sets itself 
toreascend withont loss of time; it never rolls in a ring, being of a 
feeble and flaccid habit, and betraying a most evident absence of 
vertebral column. The head is quite as broad as the second 


418 


THE GARDEN. 


seement; the body is long and almost uniformly cylindrical, but fur- 
nished with a conspicuous skin-fold all along each side just above the 
lees; the twelfth segment has a dorsal elevation, scarcely amounting 
to a hump; every part of the body emits fine soft hairs, but these 
are not sufficiently numerous to conceal the bright colours hereafter 
described. The head is bluish lead colour, with two conspicuous 
black spots on the forehead, which have a superficial but striking 
resemblance to eyes; the second segment of the body is dull orange, 
with two nearly square black spots on the back ; the rest of the body is 
beautifully striped; there is a narrow stripe down the very middle 
of the back of a snowy whiteness, but bordered on each side with 
black; outside this on each side is a broader orange-coloured stripe, 
intersected throughont its length with black, and also bordered with 
black; this is followed by a broad side-stripe of a bluish lead-colour, 
sprinkled throughout with minute black dots; this broad stripe in- 
cludes four large black spots; these are on the third, fourth, twelfth, 
and thirteenth seements, one on each. This is again followed by a 
narrow orange stripe, bordered with black; below this is a narrower 
and very irregular lead-coloured stripe, reticulated with black, and 
ineluding the blackish spiracles; and below the spiracles is a faintly 
indicated andirreeular orange stripe; the belly is smoky lead-coloured, 
variegated with black; the legs are black, and the claspers lead- 
coloured and paler towards the feet. 


Transformations of the Lackey Moth. 


About the middle of June this caterpillar ceases 1o feed, and 
wanders about for a while apparently aimless and objectless, but 
eyentually takes up its station on some fence, railing, tree trunk, 
stone wall, or other durable object, or even spins together the leaves 
of its food-plant. Im either case it forms a cocoon of yellow silk, 
the outer portion of which is loose and thin, the inner compact oval, 
and much resembling the cocoon of the common silkworm. This 
cocoon is remarkable, inasmuch as it contains a large quantity of a 
dry yellow powder a good deal resembling sulphur; the nature and 
object of this, and the source when it comes, haye neyer been 
discovered, and I have attempted in yain to gain any information on 
these points. Within the cocoon, in six or eight days the caterpillar 
turns to a dark brown or even black chrysalis, without gloss, and 
beset with short brown hairs, which are particularly abundant towards 
the two extremities. 

The moth appears on the wing in July, the males being smaller 
than the females. The fore wings are bright red, brown, or yellow, 
with two pale oblique transverse lines, the first being situated rather 
before the middle of the wing ; the space between these oblique lines 
is frequently darker than the rest of the wing; the fringe is alter- 
nately pale and dark. The hind wings are red-brown, generally 
paler than the fore wings, and have an indistinct straight broad bar 


[Marcu 30, 1872. 


across the middle. The head, thorax, and body are of the prevailing 
red-brown colour of the wing. It is a variable insect, scarcely two 
specimens being exactly alike. The male is distinguished from the 
female by having pectinated or fringed antenne. 

The intermittent visits of this insect are very curious. Ten years 
ago, and indeed for many years previously, the few apple trees I 
possess were annually devastated by it, but subsequently to that date 
not a web was to be seen until 1866, when it again made its appear- 
ance. During the intervening years its destructive mission appears 
to haye devolved upon the small ermine moth, Yponomeuta padella, 
which year after year completely stripped the apple trees. In 1866 
the Jackey returned in force, and this was not only the case at Peck- 
ham, but all the southern environs of London suffered from its visit ; 
a correspondent of the Entomologist says that in the neighbourhood 
of Hounslow and Harlington its depredations were so extensive that 
considerable alarm existed among the market-gardeners lest the apple 
trees should be entirely denuded of their leaves, and the crop thus 
ruined. It may be worthy of notice that during this year they were 
particularly attracted by the better kinds of fruit, as Quarendens, 
King of the Pippins, Nonpareils, Keswick Codlings, Ribston Pippins, 
and Hawthorndens. Many thousand of the caterpillars were 
destroyed by shooting them with a mixture of sand and gunpowder, 
bnt no observation appears to have been made as to the effect of this 
treatment on the trees; and it will scarcely do to recommend a 
remedy which may prove too thorough. - 

It is certain that the egg bracelets are manufactured in early 
autumn, and it is equally certain that the eggs remain unhatched 
during the winter. I am unable to suggest a better remedy than 
shaking the boughs of the trees when the caterpillars are feeding, 
and picking them up as they fall limp and helpless to the ground, 
and this, it must be confessed, is very like locking the stable door 
when the steed is stolen; but this process carefully conducted must 
diminish the numbers for the ensuing year. Haworth says that 
poultry will deyour the caterpillars with avidity if admitted while 
the Operation of shakirg down is in progress.—Field. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


DESERTED FAYVOURITES.—THE IRIS. 


ANY flowers that may be justly termed 
“old garden favourites,’ are now either 
lost altogether or comparatively neglected. 
Among these the Ivis stands in the first 
rank. It is not inferior even to the stately 
Lilies themselves. The distinct and pictu, 
resquely graceful form of the corolla not 
only delighted the mere loyers of garden 
flowers, simply for its positive beauty, but 
has formed the model for graceful designs im 
many branches of decorative art. The Iris, for 
its beauty, has been worn as a badge by stalwart 
knights in the days of chivalry, as was the Genet, the 
Lily, and other flowers, often the last gift of some 
fair hand, and which, if worn under a fortunate star, 
and borne to victory, became permanent badges of a family or 
a city. Heraldic artists wrought the elegant form of the Iris 
into the exquisite device of the Florentine Lily, as it is called, 
into the adopted badge of Florence and of the Medici, and 
also into the three “ Lilies” of France, gold on a field of azure ; 
a device so long quartered with the arms of England. Flower- 
de-luce, or Fleur-de-lis, are both names inferring the plant to 
be a Lily—a kind of generic term by which the fairest and most 
stately flowers seem to have been distinguished from the 
“common people of the field,” as a poet has styled the humbler 
flowers. ‘ Behold the lilies of the field,” is the exclamation of 
the Preacher on the Mount, “they toil not, neither do they 
spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like one 
of these.” The conspicuous beauty of the Iris tribe leads to 
the inevitable con¢lusion that it must haye been included among 
those “lilies of the field” with which the royal garments of 
Solomon were not deemed worthy of comparison; for in the 
glory of their spring-tide reign it may be said literally, and 
without exaggeration, that— 
“Their cohorts are gleaming with purple and gold.” 

What floral effect in our garden scenery can be finer than 
amass of the common purple Ivis, such as that shown in the 
illustration on next page ? Its erect leaves, like green sword- 


THE GARDEN. 


419 


Mancu 30, 1872.) 


blades, seem to protect the galaxy of gorgeous beauty which 
the profusion of flowers exhibit within and among the bristling 
defences; the contrast of that erect and massive assemblage 
of leaves, with the soft colours and elegance of the flowers is 
not one of the least charms of the exquisite Iris, which shares 
its name in common with the rainbow, the name given to it by 
Theophrastus, the eldest of the grand old race ot early 
botanists, and which signifies, according to Plutarch, “the 
eye of heaven.” 

There is nothing more delightful than to lose oneself in 
dreams among the wild flowers that bloomed when the world 
was younger, and the graceful names which were given to 
them out of pure love for their beanty, and in dreaming and 
imagining all kinds of graceful stories of the fair hands that 
gathered them as the fairest gifts they could bestow on those 
they loved best, gifts to which jewels of gold would have 
been vulgar dross. There is nothing more delightful than 
such imaginary ramblings among the flowers of the past, 
except actual and active rambling, and trimming, and planning, 
and planting among the flowers of the present. 

To the noble mass of purple Iris, so accurately represented 
in the annexed illustration, how pleasant it would be to add 
a noble group of Ivis variegata in close juxtaposition, 
flashing its glittering contrast upon the royal purple of its 
neighbour—or, shall we divide the two with a noble clump of 
I. susiana, with its great bronze-pencilled flakes of erect petals ? 


Ivis germanics. 


But we must decide quickly, and stick to our decision firmly, 
or the choice, if we begin to hesitate, will become extremely 
difficult among the various charms of this beautiful and 
exclusive floral race. Its original species afford almost endless 
variety, both in form and colour, some bearing flowers both 
elegant and drooping. Such are the majority of the fibrous- 
rooted section of the family, others of the tuberous and 
bulbous-rooted kinds are crisp, glistening, and sculptural-like 
flowers carved in jasper or in Opal. In colour, almost every 
shade and hue adorn these gorgeous flowers, from the most 
delicate agate to the richest and deepest purple, from the 
palest silyery yellow, like that of the rising moon, to the 
richest orange, with modifications of each of these leading 
hues yarying sometimes to nearly pink, sometimes to dusky 
brown; and then the superadded markings, both in the 
original species and in the exquisite new varieties, are often so 
remarkable, that they at once rivet attention, and compel 
admiration, tempting one to compare them—here with the 
splendid sable slashes on the flank of the tiger—there with 
the exquisite brown embroidery of the skin of the hunting 
leopar —and, in some other charming flowers, to the cerulean 
mottlings on the wing of a jay. In short, how is it that 
the Iris family is not made a much more conspicuous garden 
feature ? It presents a whole host of advantages—splendour 
of colour and form, endless variety, and a degree of hardiness 
in most of the species not exceeded by that of the wild 


I. pseud-acorus, whose conspicuous flowers fleck the waving 
sedges of our native brooks, with glittering dashes of golden 
yellow in the first weeks of May. Nort Humrureys. 


MY DAFFODIL GARDEN. 

Ir is now upwards of two hundred and forty years since 
Parkinson described the Narcissus. At that period he found 
the nomenclature in great confusion. Since then Haworth 
has devoted much attention to the same subject and prepared 
a monograph of the genus; and within the last two years 
Mr. Baker, of Kew, has thrown it into sections. 

Those who are interested in spring-flowering bulbs—and 
who is not?—could not do better than secure an entire col- 
lection of them, confining the more rare sorts to the select 
flower garden, and consigning those which can be purchased 
in large quantities at « moderate price to the wild garden, 
planting them amongst the grass, in the shrubberies, or 
wherever a floral display is a desideratum in the early spring 
months. 

In treating of the contents of my bulb garden, I shall 
follow the sectional arrangement, and the first that presents 
itself is the Ajax of Haworth, or the Magnicoronate section 
of Baker, with their time of blooming in the neighbourhood 
of London in 1872. 

1. Psevpo-Narcissus.—Crown deep primrose, divisions of the 
perianth sulphur. In flower end of February. 

2. Psrupo-Narcissus MiNoR.—Similar to No. 1 in colour, but 
dwarfer and finer shaped as regards the flower, and in blossom at 
the same time. 

3. Psevpo-Narcissus MINIMUS.—Resembling in all respects No. 2, 
and flowering at the same time, but more slender and smaller in the 
flower. Height two to three inches. 

4. Srernorri.—I take this to be Obvallaris; golden yellow, re- 
sembling the well-known Maximus, but in flower end of February. 

5. Maxmus.—Golden yellow ; in flower middle of March. Under 
this name I have grown major, lobularis, and propinquus; but the 
difference, if any, of the specimens in my grounds was trifling. I 
have reason, from one or two specimens of flowers sent to me, to 
suppose that there are, as in Pseudo-Narcissus, a gradation in the 
size of the flowers of this species, and I shall be glad if any one 
possessing such will send specimens to the office of THE GaRDEN 
in exchange for others. 

6. Bicoror.—What I have grown under this name has a yellow 
crown, with the divisions of the perianth white; but the Rev. Mr. 
Ellacombe has sent me under this name a flower with a yellow 
crown and a sulphur perianth, and a flower such as I have described 
as bicolor under the name of Horsfieldi. Messrs. Backhouse, of 
York, a few years ago sent out two new Narcissi, counterparts of the 
two flowers sent to me by Mr. Ellacombe, but much larger. The one 
with the sulphur perianth they named Empress, and that with the 
white perianth, Emperor. This group is the most beautiful of the 
section. In flower third week of March. 

7. Cernvus.—I have grown this also under the name of moschatus 
and albicans. If there is any distinction between them, it is very 
trifling. Colour, light sulphur, approaching to white. In flower third 
week of March. 

8. CERNUUS FLORE PLENO.—This is the double form of No. 7, and 
is scarce at present. 

9. Pspupo-NARcIssUS AUREUS ANGLICUS MAXIMUS (Master WILLMER’S 
GREAT DOUBLE Darropit).—TI give this name to the well-known double 
Daffodil on the authority of Parkinson (p. 101, fig. 7), and of this 
there is a lesser variety, which I have grown as minor flore pleno, 
not more than two-thirds the height. A flower which I have 
received from Mr. Ellacombe as plenissimus major I find described by 
Parkinson as ‘‘Pseudo-Narcissus maximus aureus, fine Roseus 
Tradescanti—John Tradescant’s great Rose Daffodil.’”’ This latter is 
a monstrosity, apparently a number of flowers in one, as the speci- 
men in question has several centres. This same variety is sold by 
the Dutchmen as’Tradescanthus. Thesingle forms of these varieties 
I have not been able to identify, unless it be that a flower which I 
met with in Covent Garden Market some days ago, as large as maximus, 
and of the sulphur colour of the divisions of the perianth in No. 8 
is the single form. Information on this subject will be acceptable. 
The flower in question comes in with the double yariety above 
named. 

10. ‘‘QuEEN AnNr’s Darropr.”—This flower I received from 
Mr. Ellacombe. It is a double self-sulphur-coloured Narcissus. He 
thinks it is the double variety of Pseudo-Narcissus minor ; but, to 
me it looks more like a small form of incomparabilis. I put it, 
however, in this section on Mr. Ellacombe’s authority. 


420 


11. Burzocoprum, or CorpuLarta of some ; yellow. A very distinct 
species, with rush-like foliage. In flower in May. 

12. BuLBocopIuM TENUIFOLIUS.—This species has not yet flowered 
with me. 2 

13. Narcissus Minor (or Liynmus).—This resembles Pseudo- 
Narcissus minimus in height and size, but is yellow throughout. 
Flowers beginning of March, and is a scarce species. 

14. Busocopium MONoPHYLLUS.—A species recently introduced 
from Algiers, but not yet in commerce. The flowers resemble the 
yellow variety in all respects except in colour, which is a sulphury 
white. P. Barr. 


P.S.—Readers are inyited to send specimens of flowers of 
_ anything uncommon. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Coleuses.—l have some old plants of these. Can I bed them ont this 
season >—Drtra.—| We would not advise you to retain your old plants 
for bedding purposes; place them at once in heat, and they will yield 
abundance of cuttings, which are very easily rooted under a bell-glass in 
a warm frame or pit. Coleus Verschaffeltii is very effective out of doors. 
Coleuses require a temperature of 50° during winter. | 

Amarantus salicifolius.—This beautiful Amarant is now so well 
known to most of our readers, that description is needless. We merely 
allude to it for the purpose of pointing out how it may be employed with 
best effect in the flower garden. The plant, in all respects, is extremely 
graceful, and is, when well grown, fully furnished at the bottom, hence it 
will not be wise to use it as a central figure among a crowd of 
other subjects, unless they are very dwarf im stature. As an isolated 
plant, it will prove most effective ; also as a vase plant, either indoors or 
out. Asa “sub-tropical plant,” it will, of course, prove very popular, 
and may be considered the most striking annual in that way.—H. Y. 


Sarracenias.—Kindly name the bit of Sarracenia I have sent you, 
adding at the same time the kind of treatment I must give it—S. P.— 
{Your plant is Sarracenia purpurea. Towards the end of next month shake 
it out, removing some of the old soil, and re-pot in a mixture of sphagnum 
and peat; and bear in mind that good draimage is of the utmost im- 
portance. Give abundance of water at the root, and allow the pot to 
stand ina saucer of water. This plant is perfectly hardy, and its culture 
quite possible in the open air in England, either in the artificial bog or by 
the margin of ponds. A sunny position, with plenty of air, in a cool house, 
is then all that is required. ] 


Carnations and Picotees from Seed.—Permit me to advise your 
readers to make a trial of those collections of Carnation and Picotee seeds 
that are now offered by most of the principal seedsmen. They answer 
beautifully for mixed borders and cut flowers ; few things except the Rose 
can equalthem. There is an amount of vigour too about seedlings, that 
is absent in many of the named varieties; they will flourish in any ordi- 
nary garden soil, and a great proportion of the flowers will come double. 
There is also a considerable interest attached to raising seedlings, even 
when we know beforehand that there is not much chance of getting any- 
thing very superior from them, measured by a florist’s standard of merit. 
To most people, however, a flower that is bright, sweet, and beautiful will 
give satisfaction. H. 


EARLY VIOLETS. 


Hiau through the blue of noon 
The clouds move sweet with rain, 

Fleecy, and white, and pure, 
Sheep in a sunny plain, 

While sudden drops are blown 
And splinter on the pane. 


O, for the April woods 

That never shadows hold, 
Fresh with the shining leaves, 

Sweet with the odorous mould! 
And O, for Primrose nooks 

Of greenness starred with gold! 


But dearer far than all 
The breezy wold, where hide 
In softly nested nooks 
_ The violets, April’s pride, 
Of their own breath betrayed 
Ere in sweet gloom deseried. 


And, season bright and brief, 
Betwixt the bud and bloom; 

Thoughts of thy violet nooks 
Will darkest hours illume, 

Will yield thy brightness light, 
And sweeten all thy gloom ! 


—Cassell’s Magazine. 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marcu 380, 1872. 


DHE ARBOR Emus 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 
THE HEART-LEAVED CUCUMBER TREE (MAGNOLIA CORDATA). 


Tus forms a handsome deciduous tree from thirty to forty 
feet high. In Juneand July, when decorated with its numerous 
tulip-like flowers, it makes a fine display, especially if planted — 
singly on a lawn. It is a native of South Carolina and Upper 
Georgia, where it grows on the sunny banks of rivers; conse- 
quently it succeeds best when planted in a deep loamy soil 
and in arather moist situation; but it will nevertheless thrive in 
any good garden soil, if not too dryinsummer. It is increased 
by means of layers or imported seeds, the first of which reached 
this country in 1801. The leaves are alternate, and either 
broadly heart-shaped or ovately subcordate, entire, and on 
longish footstalks; the upper surface is smooth and the under 
one tomentose, and they measure from four to six inches long, 
and from three to five inches broad; just before they fall off 
they become dark brown. The branches are rather stout, stiff, 
and somewhat erect, with the naked young wood hoary and 
brown. The flowers are yellow, terminal, solitary, erect, and 
from three to four inches in diameter, but they seldom expand 
fully. The petals are from six to nine in number, oblong and 
incuryved, with their inner surface slightly streaked longi- 
tudinally by several reddish lines. The fruit is nearly cylin- 
adrical, three inches long and about three-quarters of an inch 
in diameter, and when young green, and very much resembling 
a gherkin or small cucumber, and hence the name; but when 
ripe, rose coloured and somewhat cone-shaped. 


THE-LONG-SPIKE FLOWERED PAVIA (PAVIA MACROSTACHYA), 


Tus forms an elegant deciduous small tree or large bush from 
ten to fifteen feet high, with seyeral stems and stoloniferous 
shoots and slender spreading branches, whose extremities turn 
up, but whose points wherever they happen to rest on the 
soil root into it freely. It is a native of Georgia and South 
Carolina, where it grows on the banks of rivers. It succeeds 
in any good garden soil, but thrives best in deep loam, and in 
a situation which is rather damp. It is readily increased by 
means of layers. The Pavia macrostachya, which was intro- 
duced to our gardens in 1820, forms, when in flower, one of 
their chief floral ornaments. It produces long spikes of frag- 
rant white blossoms in July and August, a season when 
nearly all other kinds of trees and shrubs are past flowering. 
The leaves are comparatively small, opposite, palmate, and set 
on long footstalks, with five oblong-lanceolate leaflets, which 
are bright green above, downy beneath, and distinctly stalked. 
The flower spikes, which are terminal, consist of blossoms 
having four erect narrow petals and numerous long projecting 
stamens, which give the spike a fringed appearance. The 
fruit is small and smooth, and is free from prickles. It has 
the following synonyms:— Aisculus parviflora, Pavia alba, 
edulis, and spicata. Grorce Gorpon, A.L.S. 


SEASIDE PLANTING. 


In veply to ‘‘ Marsh Bay” (p. 373), I can only state that the 
principal thing to be attended to in forming an ornamental planta- 
tion is, always to allow sufficient space for each of the permanent 
plants to develop its natural character. Therefore, instead of 
planting indiscriminately, as is so frequently done, plant upon a 
regular plan, and fill in with plants which can afterwards be cut 
back or removed as the permanent ones increase in size. Half the 
plantations formed for ornamental purposes are planted too thickly 
at first, and afterwards allowed to remain without thinning, until 
they are rendered comparatively useless. Large and small-growing 
trees and shrubs are intermixed without regard to proper position. 

I must also caution ‘‘ Marsh Bay” against what is misnamed cheap 
planting, that is, merely loosening the earth, and sticking the plants 
in holes barely large enough to receive their roots. He will find 
trenching and properly preparing the ground before planting to be, 
in the end, true economy. With respect to the Halimodendron and 
Euonymus, both can be obtained from any nursery where a collection 
of hardy trees and shrubs is kept. ‘‘ Marsh Bay” should plant the 
common evergreen oak, which he will find to be decidedly one of the 
best trees for this purpose. Grorce Gorvony, A.L.S. 


Marca 30,41872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


421 


“THE BIG BARKED 
TREE.” 


“Tue Big Tree,’ Sequoia 
(Wellingtonia) gigantea, from 
which the bark was stripped to 
the height of 116 feet some few 
years ago, for exhibition in 
Europe, is still standing in the 
famous Calaveras Grove. When 
first discovered, this grove con- 
tained more than a hundred 
such trees, the largest of which 
towered to the extraordinary 
height of 325 feet, while the 
least of them reached an alti- 
tude of 231 feet. The diameter 
of the trunk, six feet above 
the ground, was fifteen feet in 
the largest, giving a circum- 
ference of forty-five feet, and 
over ten feet in the smallest of 
these enormous trees. The 
accompanying woodeut is a 
faithful portrait of the barked 
giant. Itis the third in regard 
to size in the Calaveras Grove, 
and, like its big relatives, it has 
received a distinctive name, 
which is, “‘ Mother of the Forest.” 
The largest specimen of Sequoia 
in this grove is honoured with 
the name of “ Keystone State,”’ 
and the second, which is 319 
feet in height, is called “General 
Jackson.” The bark of the 
“Mother of the Forest,’ put 
up in the form in which it 
grew, was exhibited in many 
places .in America before it 
reached Europe, and eventually 
found what promised to be a 
permanent resting-place in the 
Crystal Palace. It might indeed 
have proved so, but for the 
oceurrence of the ever-to-be- 
regretted fire which destroyed 
so many objects of interest, 
and, among others, the colossal 
shell of the “Mother of the 
Forest.” It will be interesting 
to observe the effect of the 
_barking of this enormous tree, 
and to ascertain whether or not, 
Nature will be able to replace 
the bark stripped off. It was 
proposed some few years ago 
to bark the trees of the Boule- 
vard des Italiens, at Paris, in 
order to get rid of numerous 
colonies of a small bark-feeding 
beetle, whose ravages threat- 
ened to destroy the trees. Ex- 
periments of the kind haying 
been tried elsewhere with entire 
success, a trial upon the trees of 
the Boulevard was resolved on. 
It was objected at the time, 
that, while the destruction of 
the trees by the ravages of the 
beetle was slow, and by no 
means certain, the barking 
system would prove almost 
immediately fatal. In support 
of this assertion it was argued 
that the ringing process was 
one resorted to for killing trees 


— 


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j 
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] 


ara 


aN 
= 


wanes 


Nein 


where forest clearings were 
being effected, and was fatally 
certain in its results. The 
answer was this, that the ring- 
ing system, to be successful, 
must cut through the soft coat- 
ing of inner bark next the 
ripened wood, as well as the 
hard external bark, which, in 
such barking as that resorted 
to in the case of the “ Mother of 
the Forest,” or in that about to 
be adopted to get rid of the 
bark beetles in question, the soft 
inner bark may be left unbroken 
and in a condition to develop 
itself into a hard protective 
coating over the next year’s 
formation of new bark. 

Our figure serves to indicate 
the amazing stature of a full 
grown Sequoia in comparison 
with other conifers, many of 
which, measured by the same 
scale, are from eighty toa hun- 
dred feet high. A Sequoia of still 
greater dimensions was cut 
down about the time when the 
barking of the “ Mother of the 
Forest” occurred, andif the last- 
named should perish from the 
loss of its magnificently thick 
overcoat, two of the veterans of 
the Calaveras Grove will have 
perished prematurely by the 
hand of man, after a life of 
some fifteen or twenty cen- 
turies, which might otherwise 
have defied the wear and tear 
of time for still a few centuries 
more. Seyeral have fallen since 
the first discovery of the grove 
in 1852, just twenty years ago, 
which has tended to reduce 
still more the number of these 
patriarchs of the forest, but a 
considerable number of young 
trees, in different stages of 
growth, are coming on in the 
outskirts of the grove. It has 
been considered that Sequoia 
(Wellingtonia) gigantea will not 
attain gigantic size in this 
country; and that opinion is 
founded upon the observed fact 
that while the health of the 
trees raised from seed in 
England is exuberant, and their 
growth rapid during their early 
years (in fact, till they attain a 
height of twenty or thirty feet), 
after that they appear suddenly 
checked, and make but little 
progress, the leader appearing 
less and less vigorous eyery 
year. This, howeyer, may be 
the nature of the tree; which in 
its native climate makes much 
more rapid growth in its early 
years thanafterwards. If this 
were not so,and its early growth 
at the rate of from one to two 
feet each year were continuous, 
the tree whose age-rings indicate 
an existence, say of 1,300 years, 
ought to be more than a 
thousand feet high, instead of 


422 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 30, 1872. 


from 300 to 330 feet, which appears to be the limit of its 
growth. If there be anything in this argument, our descend- 
ants may perhaps behold in this country towering Sequoias 
as gigantic as those of California. H. N. H. 


CHEAP TREE GUARD. 


A CHEAP, easily erected tree guard has been long a want to gentle- 
men who plant a considerable number of specimen trees in woods 
and other places where cattle cannot get at them. We use one here 
which has many adyantages; it is cheap, put up in a few minutes, 
and not only guards the young plant from damage by rabbits and 
hares, but gives it, for the first few years after planting, protection 
from wind. We get palings cut at the sawmill three feet long, two 
inches wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick; these, slightly 
pointed, are driven into the ground all round the young tree, the 
tops gradually sloping outwards. We then twist strands of tarred 
cord in and out between the palings ; this makes it exceedingly firm, 
and it will require no further attention as long as the paling lasts. 


Re) 


Tree Guard. 

When we first began to put up these guards we used unravelled 
strands of galvanised wire fencing rope, which makes perhaps a 
stronger job ; but the tanned cord is quite enough. We send anyrubbish 
to cut into palings to the sawmills—remains of slabs left when cutting 
post and rails, spruce fir (fit for little else), or any waste wood pretty 
free from knots. If in a very exposed situation, one stronger paline 
can be used (part of a rail), and by driving it further into the ground 
any chance of the wind blowing the whole thing oyer would be pre- 
vented, otherwise the palings merely want avery slight tap to fix them 
firm enough; though from the palings being inclined outwards there 
is considerable space between the tops of them, still no rabbit dare 
leap in. 

Tt takes from sixteen to twenty palings to each guard, according to 
the size of the plant to be protected; thus, at 2s. 6d. per hundred 
feet of sawing, they will cost, all told, labour included, about 64d., 
each, whereas the cheapest wire netting tree guard will be 1s. 6d., 
the same size; and if made of strong wire they would cost 2s. 6d., 
making a considerable saying, if a quantity of young pines have to 
be planted ont.—A Soldier, in “‘ Field.” 


DRAINAGE. 
(Concluded from page 363.) 
INCLINATIONS OR_ SLOPES OF DRATNS. 

Owrxe to the constantly varying slopes of the country, 
scarcely any rule can be absolutely laid down for the inclina- 
tions at which the pipes should be laid. The greatest attention 
is required in laying the main pipes, into which the smaller 
branch pipes run. In flat countries they should always be set 
out with the spirit level, and the depths from the surface 
given to the men at every one or two chains along the line. 
Water will run freely at inclinations of one foot fall to one 
thousand, two thousand, or three thousand feet of length, 
where the pipes are well laid; but it must be observed that 
at every junction of a branch pipe the flow will be impeded 
in the main pipe by the water entering from the branch pipe, 
sometimes running with considerable yelocity. So that as much 
inclination as possible should be given to the mains, in order 
that the hydraulic pressure may force the current towards 
the outlet. The inclinations of the minor or branch pipes 


must, necessarily, be controlled by the natural slopes of the 
ground. Ina general system, laid out on a definite plan, it 
is better to have as few outlets as possible, and I need hardly 
say that all the minor or branch pipe drains ought, at their 
lowest ends, to be united or jomed up to one main pipe of 
such larger dimensions as may be proportioned to, and capable 
of discharging the water from a given area of land; these 
larger pipes bemmg conducted to the lowest extremity of the 
area to be draimed, and there discharged into an open drain 
or stream. The cost of long lengths of large pipes, mcreasing 
in size as they go, raises a question as to the expediency of 
using them; but the work is easier to maintain than when a 
large number of outlets is used. I have frequently found it 
most useful, in laying both large and small pipes, where the 
bottoms of drains are in soft, bogey, or sandy soils, and there 
is every probability of the pipes sinking or getting out of their 
proper inclination, to lay them on strips of wood cut out of 
three planks of elm, or other timber as durable in water, from 
=z inch to $inch thick. The cost is very trifling, and is as 
nothing compared to that of haying to re-open and re-lay the 
drains, while doubt of the success of the work is thereby to a 
great extent avoided. 
: OUTLETS. 

The pipe at the outlet or head should be raised above the 
ditch or stream, which should be cleared, and, if required, 
deepened for some distance, so as to ensure the water not 
being backed up into the pipes. I have adopted self-acting 
iron traps at the outlets, in cases where the tide has occasionally 
risen against them; but the chief object was to prevent the 
mud, of which there is generally a large quantity in tidal 
waters, from being take up the pipes, and there left to deposit 
itself. All outlets should be protected by brick or stonework, 
set in mortar or cement, the foundations being sunk from one 
to two feet under the bottom of the ditch or stream, which 
should be payed to receive the water from the pipe. Referrmg 
again to the depths of the drains, it is frequently necessary to 
lay the main drains six, seven, eight, or even ten feet deep in 
places, in order to drain land to an outfall which lies at too 
low a level to allow of the ordinary depths being employed. 


SIZES OF PIPES FOR CERTAIN AREAS. 

In the early period of land drainage, pipes of one inch in 
diameter were commonly used, but they were not continued 
for any length of time, and they were seldom, if ever, sunk in 
the ground deeper than two feet or two feet six inches. Pipes 
of 14 inch diameter succeeded them, and more recently, 
two-inch pipes haye been almost universally adopted for 
the branch drains. There was also the horseshoe pipe, laid 
ona tile asa sole; but these have totally failed and become 
obsolete. The adoption of two-inch pipes (the area of which 
is 3°14. square inches), has been a great improvement, inasmuch 
as, besides being in nearly all cases large enough for the water 
to run out, they allow the air to pass up when they are not 
full, and thus ameliorate the condition of the soil above and 
around them. No single rule can apply as to size; but, as 
regards the sizes of main pipes, into which the minor pipes 
discharge, some attention is required to regulate them, and, 
if possible, their inclinations. These main pipes vary from 
three inches up to twelve inches, and two feet in diameter, 
in proportion to the area which will discharge into them, and 
the inclinations at which they are laid. The several degrees 
of porosity of soils between the extremes, must be treated 
as experience may dictate, and the inclination at which the 
drains are laid will affect the question; for instance, a rapid 
fall of the branch pipes into the main pipe would necessarily 
require that the latter should be increased in size; but a slow 
discharge does not require larger pipes than twelve inches in 
diameter. 

DIRECTIONS OF DRAINS. 

In uniform soils, whether dense or free, the usual practice 
is to lay drains parallel to each other, on what is commonly 
called the gridiron system. In stiff clays, where the drains 
are more frequent, this plan is undoubtedly to be preferred, 
for the reasons before stated—that the water may be equally 
drawn off from all parts, and the land uniformly aérated. In 
free soils, such as gravel, sand, and the like, where there are 
springs which rise to the surface, and are visibly saturating 


Marcu 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


4.23 


large or small areas, the drains may be run in such directions 
as will enable them to tap those places, and ultimately to 
drain a larger area. : 

ROOT CHOKING. 

Deep as drainage may be laid, it is never altogether free 
from the possibility of being put out of order by the roots 
of trees, or of certain kinds of crops which may penetrate the 
drains, and form a hindrance to the free passage of the water 
through them. The roots of the elm, ash, willow, and other 
trees, are known to enter the pipes, and even pass through 
the ground for several yards to reach them, as if they were 
attracted by the moisture and air which they find in the pipes, 
and by the nourishment afforded them there. To obviate this 
difficulty it is advisable, where it occurs or is apprehended, to 
use socket-pipes jointed with cement, or to lay the pipes as 
far as possible from the trees. I haye found that embedding 
the pipes in lime, mortar, or concrete, has prevented them 
from being choked, although close to trees which it was 
impossible to avoid, and has kept them clear for some years. 
The roots of some crops, if they should penetrate the pipes, 
die away when the crops are removed, and are frequently 
washed out at the mouths of the drains by the strong flow of 
water through them. Other substances give the drainer a 
vast amount of trouble in obstructing pipes. Ochreous water, 
depositing oxide of iron, is a common source of obstruction. 
Tt appears to harden and consolidate as it receives air through 
the pipes, and ultimately chokes them. I have found it best 
to get at the source of the spring or springs, and conduct the 
water away by large pipes independent of the general system. 
Confervee and parasitic plants will also get into the pipes, 
grow, and ultimately stop the flow of water through them; 
another source of trouble is the percolation of sand into the 

ipes, which necessitates patience and care in taking them up 

requently after being first laid and relaid, until all the water 
has run out of the bed, and then laying them in straw and on 
strips of wood. 
cost. 

This must vary in different parts of the kingdom, according 
to the soil, the rate and quality of the labour for this kind of 
work, the seasons, and the price, quality, and cost of carriage 
of the pipes. Sometimes the cheapness of one or two of 
these items will counteract the dearness of the others, so 
that something like an average may be arrived at. I have 
kept a register for some years past, which shows the rate of 
cost per acre and per rod of drainage works, executed under 
my supervision, in localities distributed over a large part of 
the kingdom. This summary includes about 120 distinct 
works, representing every variety of soil, every degree of 
difficulty, and ranging in quantity from 10 to 1,900 acres. 
The rates of cost extend from £3. 6s. 8d. to £9. 5s. 4d. per 
acre, and from 14 to 36 pence per rod, whilst the number of 
rods of drains to the acre varies from 39 to 115. Where the 
rate per rod is high the rate per acre may be low, and vice 
versé. Ihave arranged the following table, which gives the 
general prices of work under the various conditions :— 


Ordinary cost of cutting and filling minor drains, using 2-in. 
pipes at, say 25s. per. 1,000. 


Rate per Rod 


) * Rate per Rod 

| Depth. for amen and for Pipes. Total. 

2 

| 8s. d s. d. s. d. 
4 feet 08 05 wry 
rope 0 10 05 Te3 
Ce i ee 05 16 


DURATION OF PIPE DRAINAGE. 

_This depends almost entirely on the manufacture of the 
pipes. Whereall the work has been well done, drainage executed 
thirty years ago is known to be in an efficient condition, 
although pipes were not then so deeply laid as they are now, 
and it may be fully expected that the deeper they are laid the 
less liable they will be to be injured or disturbed—a strong 
argument in favour of deep draining. I may add that farm 
bailiffs, who have other work to attend to, ought never to be 
employed to superintend drainage, as it requires the whole 


attention of the foreman to conduct a work cheaply and 
securely, and it is only men who are specially trained in 
drainage construction who can properly superintend it. There 
should not be larger bodies of men than from thirty to forty 
under one man’s charge. Another practice which should be 
condemned by all who are interested in the success of these 
works is that of giving pipes to tenants to lay themselves. 
Such work is never well done, and is just so much money 
thrown away. R. B. Grantuam, C.E. 
One of the members who was present at the meeting 
when the above paper was read said he would be glad to 
have more precise and detailed reasons for the assumption 
that four feet should be the minimum depth for draining in 
stiff clay soils. There were to be found intelligent men 
possessing a practical knowledge of the subject, who con- 
curred in saying that from three feet to three feet six inches 
was deep enough; and many could point to drainage work 
done four feet which was. said to have proved a failure. 
Between the two opinions he had had some difficulty in 
deciding which was the right one. He was speaking otf the 
stiffest clay soils only. In attempting to decide which was 
the proper depth, he had come to two conclusions :—One was, 
that four feet drains, if near enough together, were always 
quite satisfactory; the other, that if it were attempted to 
make deep as economical as shallower draining, by putting the 
drains further apart, the result was apt to be unsatisfactory. 
If a stiff piece of land were drained three feet deep and eight 
yards apart, the result was tolerably good; if, however, it 
were drained four feet deep and twelve yards apart, a wet piece 
was apt to be left in the middle. To drain eight yards apart 
and four feet deep would, of course, be additionally expeusive. 


NEW, RARE, OR NEGLECTED PLANTS. 


EURYCLES AMBOINENSIS. 

A pistincr and valuable Eucharis-like stove bulb, producing pure 
white flowers in large showy umbels, on stems from fifteen inches to 
two feet high. It flowers freely in early spring, and placed among 
ferns here and there has a charming effect. It flowers the better 
for being dried off after blooming and making a good growth, and 
in other respects will succeed with the treatment usually given to 
that now popular stove plant, the Eucharis amazonica. It is anative 
of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the Philippines, &c. Its 
leaves are roundish-cordate, concave, strongly-nerved, and pale green. 
The perianth is about three inches long, including the tube, the limb 
spreading, and the corona white, about three times shorter than the 
limb, and having twelve marginal teeth, two between each of the 
six stamens. 

GILIA LINIFLORA. 

THE genus Gilia is already represented in our gardens by numerous 
handsome varieties, but this one is quite different from any yet 
cultivated. It forms bushes which are very much branched and 
dwarf ; the branches being very slender and the leaves narrow and 
elegant ; the whole plant being completely covered in the flowering 
season with large blossoms, like those of Phlox Drummondii or a 
large Linum, of a pure white, with yellow stamens. It is a 
charming acquisition for groups, edgings, and contrasts; and if 
required to flower in the end of spring, should be sown in autumn, 
and the seedlings kept under cover during the winter; but for 
summer flowering, it should be sown in March or April of the same 
year. 

MATRICARIA EXIMIA GRANDIFLORA, 

Tus fine and remarkable variety, which reproduces itself freely 
from seed, and which, when sown early in spring (March and April), 
and planted out when a few leaves have grown on the seedlings, 
flowers abundantly (even in the first year) thronghont the summer 
and until the first frosts appear. The flowers, which are very double, 
and as large again as those of the old Matricaria eximia, and also 
fuller, are of a very pure white. They are particularly adapted 
for bouquets, and as the plant is exceedingly floriferous and vigorous, 
it cannot fail to be much in request for flower beds and groups. Its 
height varies according to the soil (which should be sweet and 
well-drained), from twenty inches to two feet, but by means of 
judicious pinching it may be kept dwarfer, should that be desired. 
—Revue Horticole. 

GODETIA NIVERTIANA. 

CinoruEnas are beginning to be very generally cultivated in all 
private gardens, from which annuals are not excluded to make room 
for what are called bedding-plants. This new variety, named after 


4.2.4, 


THE GARDEN. 


(Marc 30, 1872. 


its raiser, M. Nivert, is remarkable for its large, widely-cup-shaped, 
erect flowers, which are white (seldom flesh-coloured, like those of G. 
Schanimii), with a large spot of bright carmine (sometimes cherry 
colour) at the base of each petal, producing a fine effect. The usual 
culture and treatment for annuals is all that is required for these 
plants. 

(Lo be continued.) 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


THH CUCUMBER—ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 


Tne Cucumber is a native of the Hast Indies, and is said to 
have been introduced to British gardens in 1573. Whether at 
that early period it was cultivated for culinary purposes ornot we 
have no means of ascertaiming, but certain it 1s, that so recently 
as the commencement of the present century, its cultivation 
for early use—say to cut in March—was regarded as a master- 
piece of the gardener’s art. Then its growth was confined 
almost exclusively to small frames placed upon a bed of fer- 
menting material, such as stable dung, leaves, &c., or it was 
cultivated im brick pits, heated by the same materials. The 
original species was a short, thick, rather warty fruit, closely 
covered with spines. It rarely exceeded four to six inches 
in length, and was produced in clusters of from four to six at 
a joint. From this, nevertheless, all the long Cucumbers of our 
gardens haye sprune—a bright example of the ennobling in- 
fluence of cultivation, and even now an inducement to us to 
try and improve other unpromising subjects in a similar 
manner. In our early days the best grown Cucumbers rarely 
exceeded a foot to eighteen inches in length, the varieties 
being few, and known by such namesas Long or Short Prickly, 
Patrick’s Frame, Flanagan’s Harly, &c. Still such as these and 
other varieties continued to improve, and by sowing seed from 
the largest and handsomest fruit our present kinds have come 
into cultivation. The Manchester gardeners were, we think, 
the first to devote attention to the production of Long 
lands; and to Mr. Walker, a gentleman of that town, belongs 
the credit of raising some of the longest and most useful 
varieties. Walker’s Black and Walker’s White Spine, thirty 
to forty years ago, were special favourites, growing to the 
length of twenty to thirty inches without losmg much of the 
proportion necessary to suit them for table use. Then My. 
Hamilton, of the same neighbourhood, but now of Stockport, 
was, and is, a very successful raiser of the long kinds; and 
here (at Nottingham), as coeval with the date referred to, may 
be mentioned the varicty called Pearson’s Long Gun, still 
grown exclusively by Mr. J. R. Pearson, of Chilwell. and cer- 
tainly one of the largest and best flavoured varieties in 
cultivation. This kind is much esteemed by cooks for 
stewing. 

SMOOTH VARIETIES OF CUCUMBER. 

About the period above adverted to, the Smyrna, a nearly 
smooth pale green variety, and the White Turkey, a yellowish 
white kind with strong black spines, came into cultivation ; 
and we well remember the surprise which a fruit of the latter 
occasioned in our market when first exposed there for sale. 
“Had it been blanched?” ‘Was it fit to eatP” and other 
questions followed, while few felt disposed to put its eating 
qualities to the test, as it remained unsold at the close of the 
market. rom these two varieties, crossed with the prickly 
kinds, originated, after a few years’ cross-breeding, the Sion 
House or Lord Kenyon’s Favourite, said by some to be raised 
at Sion House, near Brentford, and by others at Lord Kenyon’s 
seab in Yorkshire; while some contended that they were 
distinct varieties, and, if so, both claimants were entitled to 
the credit of raising them. The difference, if any, was 
external, and we have always had the impression that Lord 
Kenyon’s was in colour a much darker green. Be that as 
it may, the two varieties may be said to have been identical 
in their good qualities—vigorous constitution, hardiness, 
prolificacy, and, above all, fine flavour and suitability for culti- 
vation in winter. The same qualities still apply to the Sion 
House, so much so, that at the present time there are many 
connoisseurs in the country who will not allow any other kind 
to be grown in their gardens, or be sent to their tables. In 
this they are quite right, for we haye never tasted any varicty 


equal to it in flavour, Pearson’s Long Gun being the next. 
From the Sion House has sprung the Telegraph, now a most 
popular favourite, and many other varieties of similar character. 
If we were called upon to name the two most useful cucumbers 
in cultivation, we certainly could not pass over the Sion House 
and Telegraph, nor do we expect they will eyer, for table use, 
be surpassed. Of the character of Sion House, short but very 
prolific and good flavoured, may be mentioned Munroe’s Prolific 
or Rabley, Master’s Prolific, Glory of Hants, and one recently 
brought into notice by Mr. Dean, late of Shipley, near Brad- 
ford, viz., Dean’s Winter Prolific. This is represented to be a yery 
excellent variety for winter forcing, large enough for private use, 
hardy, and, asits name implies, very prolific. The long varieties 
of Cucumber are rarely free bearers, not continuous, and gene- 
rally cease bearing much sooner than the moremoderate growing 
kinds. From a well-established plant of the Sion House, say 
twenty feet long, and strong in proportion, we haye frequently 
seen, in the height of the season, twenty to thirty fruit per 
week cut; while, on one occasion, we saw forty feet of Cucum- 
bers, varying from nine to eighteen inches each, cut at one time 
from one plant. The plant in question was not less than twenty 
feet in length, strong in proportion, with a stem six to seven 
inches in circumference at the surface of the soil. For this 
reason, and for family use, we say grow the short or medium 
varieties ; they will give fruit every day, while the long kinds 
will sometimes be quite destitute of fruit. With these remarks 
we must close our history of the origin of the cultivated 
Cucumber, merely remarking that if we are wrong in our 
estimate we shall be happy to be corrected. 
SOILS. 

The Cucumber is not a fastidious plant in its choice of soils. 
Tt will grow in almost any soil that is free, open, and moderately 
rich, but, of course, there are soils, or rather composts, which 
when properly prepared, are more suitable to its perfect growth 
than others. Mills, who wrote upon this subject some thirty 
years ago, recommended especially for its growth in winter a 
light porous peat. In that, as he grew the plants either in dung 
heated pits, or upon hot beds composed of the same material, 
he was quite right. With such a heating material there must 
be a large and constant generation of ammonia, and the peat 
in itself, being poor, would absorb and fix a large portion of 
that gas which, though necessary to the perfect growth of the 
plant, is, when present in excess, highly injurious to vegetation 
of all kinds. Hamilton, a very successful grower, proposes a 
preparation of loam, rotten dung, and leat mould m proper 
proportions, pressed between the hands into compact balls. 
These he recommends to be placed in layers upon the surface 
of the soil, and, of course, in close contact with the roots, the 
object being, as explained by him, to get the largest quantity 
of rich pabulum into the smallest possible space. Others 
prefer pure turfy loam, leaf mould, or even decayed mushroom 
dung. Some of the finest crops we ever saw were grown in the 
latter material, and moss in alternate layers, a system that will 
be explained in detail im another chapter. Tor choice, we 
prefer a light turfy loam from an old sheep pasture or the face of 
a rock, with the grass on, cut about two inches thick, when 
the ground is ina dry and healthy condition. ‘This should be 
stacked in a narrow ridge, but quite waterproof, for some 
months prior to its bemg used for the plants, so that the fibre 
may be im a decayed or decaying condition. This soil should 
be of tough, rooty nature, so. that ib may be thrown about for 
a long time without the soil being knocked out of it. In this 
the Cucumber delights to root, and it will be found rich in 
nutriment. 

Tf there is not time for the preceding preparation take the 
turf fresh from the field, and chopping it into pieces from four 
to six inches square, prepare a fire with any pieces of wood that 
may be about, augmented by such old pea sticks, prunings of 
trees, brush wood, and similar material, packing it into a close 
compact cone, but leaving a space at the bottom through 
which it may be lighted. Then take the chopped turf and 
pack it upon the fire cone nine to twelve inches thick, and 
cover the whole with litter of some kind to throw off the rain 
should any fall. The fire may then be lighted, forming a vent 
for the smoke by thrusting a stake or crowbar through the 
soil at the apex of the cone. When the fire is fairly established 
the vents may be stopped up, as the object is to char or 


Marce 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


4.25 


thoroughly heat the soil through, and not to burn it. When 
the fire is exhausted, and the mass cooled down sufficiently, 
open the heap and pick the charcoal out and mix the smaller 
pieces and the ashes with the charred soil; this, of itself, 
would grow the Cucumber excellently, but mixed with about 
one-third of half-decayed leaf mould or dung it forms an un- 
exceptionable compost. To the decayed turf first mentioned, 
the same proportion of dung or leaf mould may be added; but 
previously to mixing, it will be wise to sprinkle the heap with 
soot in the proportion of half-a-pint to each bushel of soil. Then 
mix all together, taking care not to break the pieces of turf 
smaller than a large hen’s egg, and it will be in a fit state 
for use. 
CUCUMBERS IN MOSS. 

The cucumber may be very successfully grown in fresh 
moss, or, where it can be procured plentifully, in sphagnum or 
bog moss. This must be procured, and before using it should 
be subjected to sufficient heat to destroy any grubs, snails, 
insect larvae, or seeds that may be in it. ‘This may be effected 
by placing the moss on the top of a hot flue or hot-water 
boiler, or it may be scalded and then dried, but that is a slow 
and unnecessary process—simple heating will be sufficient. 
The moss will be used in alternate layers with leaf mou?d or 
decayed mushroom dung, as will be described hereafter. 


MANURES. 

Of these there is nothing better than old, decayed cow 
dung reduced to a fine mould, but as this cannot always be 
procured, a good substitute may be extemporised by placing 
recent cow dung upon a hot flue until it is thoroughly dried. 
This, when broken into pieces about the size of walnuts, will 
be found, when mixed with the turfy soil, an excellent stimu- 
lant. Of stronger manures, a few bushels of sheep’s or deer’s 
dung should always be at hand to make, with soot and fresh 
horse dung, manure water. 

(To be continued.) 


GARDEN DESIGN. 


THE BOIS DE VINCENNES. 
By Enovarp Anpre. 


Tue Bois or Park of Vincennes is the great eastern promenade of 
Paris, as the Wood of Boulogne is that of the west, and les Buttes 
Chaumont that of the north. Had it not been for late events, 
the park of the south, called Montsonris, would have been finished, 
and thus would have completed the graceful quadrilateral of shades, 
verdnre, and flowers, which so agreeably surrounds Paris. 

The River Marne waters the base of the Bois de Vincennes, which 
rises from it to the summit of a plateau terminated by a steep hill. 
The extensive views from this point upon a vast horizon, comprise 
St. Maur, Creteil, Charenton, St. Maurice, and Joinville—all those 
charming villages, so esteemed by the young Parisians—by the rowers 
of both sexes—by the artisan and the workman, who there find a 
resort for enjoyment to the extent of their moderate resources, and 
which has given to the shades of Vincennes the name of ‘“ Bois du 
Peuple.” Vegetation there is more abundant and more vigorous 
than in the Bois de Boulogne; the embellishments have been 
carried out with more harmony, with a larger expansion of ideas, 
and means; and in point of landscape also the Bois de Vincennes 
is superior. 

The works have been divided into two distinct parts. In the neigh- 
bourhood of St. Mandé, which abuts upon the ancient dungeons of 
Vincennes, yet existing after having gone through a history so 
fertile with tragical events, close to the station of St. Mandé and 
the Avenue of Vincennes, which leads from the Barriére du Tréne, a 
point of cheerful landscape presents itself, arranged with most 
pleasant taste. Itis the Lake of St. Mandéandits environs. At 
the bottom of a hollow, formerly dark and dried up, the waters of 
the high ground of the wood haye been brought together into a 
reservoir, afterwards being pumped into the Marne. In the middle 
of the lake a large island of poplars is reflected in the clear water; 
paths wind round the sides of the hill, rocks overhang the head of 
the pedestrian, and this ensemble, fringed by a green girdle of 
vigorous trees, gives one the sensation of an enchanted spot. 

Tf, from the little Lake of St. Mandé, we pursue our walk on foot, 
by ascending the little rivulet, we shall pass over the Avenue 
Napoleon III., which leads from the fort to the Plain of Charenton ; 


and passing by the Pyrotechnic School, inclosed in a dense clump of 
trees, we come out upon the plain, where the artillery exercise their 
manceuyres. Here there is nothing but barren fields of vast extent 
occupied by butts for cannon practice ; but further on is the Hippo- 
drome, where the races take place, in imitation of those of England, 
which have become so popular in France. From this point is seen in the 
distance, through a vista of trees, the Pyramid ; and further on that 
part of the Wood of Minimes and the Napoleon Farm which reaches 
the counterfort of the Redoubt of Gravelle above the Marne. But, 
in taking an oblique course to the right, and still ascending the 
rivulet, which winds, and here and there rebounds upon the rocky 
points, you arrive at the summit of the plateau of Gravelle, 
which looks down upon the Marne, and where a restaurant, 
much esteemed for its extent and the variety of its views, 
attracts daily a great number of visitors—lovers of a fine prospect. 
The little Lake of Gravelle, which serves as a reservoir for the 
water drawn from the Marne by means of an immense steam pump, 
leads us close to the farm arranged by the ex-Emperor, where the 
buildings, designed with much taste, contain comfortable accommo- 
dation for those visitors who come to partake of the milk. The walk 
continues up to the Lake of the Minimes. There embellishments 
have been carried out already on this charming spot, well known, under 
the name of La Sorte Janne, to Parisian pedestrians, and where 
numerous restaurants attract on Sundays many visitors. The lake is 
sufficiently extensive for boating, the three islands it contains are full 
of shade and freshness, and the Nogent Station, close by, renders easy 
access to it. The wood is there very thick. It iscomposed of massive 
clumps of oak and beech trees, to which are added conifers, lightened 
up here and there by judicious openings. That part of the wood 
between Gravelle and the Donjon which bounds the railway has been 
cut off from the main park by the city of Paris having bought up the 
wood; and there establishments for entertainment have been con- 
structed within the last few years. 


At present we have only alluded to those parts of the wood pene- 
trated by strategic roads, or by the great roads of communication 
which existed prior to the improvements, and which it was necessary 
to maintain. The landscape architects of the city of Paris (of whom 
I formed one at that period), under the direction of Messrs. Haussmann 
and Alphand, without altering the general design of the wood, could 
only enter into secondary modifications. So that, in a landscape 
point of view, the effects obtained have been but partial, and more 
than one defect may be noticed; but the difficulties and trammels 
imposed by its original situation must be taken into account 


It is not the same with the new portion of the wood, called the 
Plain of Charenton, which extends between the fortifications of Paris, 
that part comprised between the gates of Charenton, Ruelle, and 
Picpus, the base of St. Mandé, the Imperial Asylum, and the road 
from Paris to Charenton. It was, even in 1865, a sterile plain, where 
only thistles and nettles flonrished. We must freely admit that now 
it is the most beautiful part of the wood. A lake, upwards of twenty- 
five acres in extent, with two large islands connected by two 
bridges, ornamented by a temple, rocks, and well-planned clumps of 
trees, occupy the central part. The area of this new park altogether 
is more than one hundred and eighty acres. It was finished in two 
years. The plan of it is extensive, well conceived, vastly developed, the 
views well preserved, and of sufficient extent. The works of the 
canal and rock construction, directed by M. Combaz, are remarkable 
in more ways than one. The great Avenue Dausmenil, which forms 
the principal route from Paris to the new park, and which stretches 
from the Place de la Bastille to the Picpus Gate, is truly majestic by 
its width of forty-four yards, its length of several miles, and its 
double row of beautiful plane trees. 


Everybody admits the vastness of the landscape conception of 
this grand wood. If one, however, could be captiously critical it 
would be, in our opinion, upon the plantation. Large clumps 
of trees have been planted; and, in order to add to the grandeur 
which it was sought to attain, many trees of the same kind have 
been planted there, reckoning upon the effect of uniform colour 
to produce an harmonious result. The underwoods have been planted 
in the same manner—one or two kinds only in certain parts. How- 
ever, we find that a contrary effect has been produced to what had 
been desired. A uniform clump of Austrian pines is very large 
when covering eleven hundred or twenty-two hundred square yards 
but trifling for an area of some thousand acres. In order to create 
perfect harmony it was essential to plant the Plain of Charenton 
with a depth of forest uniform in all its points, and which time 
alone can improve, and to work out this with five or six kinds 
of trees, equally mixed throughont, and to reserye only for 
the inner portion some rare groups of choice plants, which would, 
above all, throw out signs of vigour, and form a harmonious 
background, 


[Marcu 30, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


426 


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Marcu 30, 1872.1 


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THE GARDEN. 


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THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 30, 1872 


THE HOUSEHOLD. 


SALADS. 


(Concluded from page 383.) 

It is in the proportion of the ingredients which are used to 
make the dressing or sauce of the salad that lies the great 
difficulty. A Spanish proverb says that, to make a good 
salad, a miser should pour out the vinegar, a spendthrift the 
oil, a wise man the pepper and salt, and a madman should turn it— 
travailler is the technical expression. This may give some idea of 
the principle upon which one is to mix a salad; but oil, vinegar, 
pepper, and salt, are not the only things which are used to produce 
what I should call a good salad, and to make one such it will take 
not only a wise man, but a practical one as well, with plenty of 
experience in his business. What Ihave often said before of cooking 
“apples applies still more forcibly to salad-making, for in this you haye 
no action of the fire, which sometimes corrects the mistakes of the 
operator ; it is like fresco-painting and oil-painting—once you haye 
mixed your salad, there it is, for better or for worse. A sauce or a 
ragout you may modify, correct, and alter in many ways as you go 
on; asalad you cannot, without making a mess of the whole thing, 
once you have mixed the greenmeat with the dressing. Practice is 
the only master to learn salad-making of. JI do not pretend to 
teach anyone to make salads. All I can do, is to point out to those 
who wish to become adepts in the art how to set about it. 

Oil, which plays the most important part in the business, should 
be of the very finest quality, but it ought by no means to be the 
almost colourless and insipid liquid which is, I believe, called Jew’s 
oil. There should be a taste of olive init, but not so strong as to 
be disagreeable. Itis a quasi-nutty flavour which it should have, 
and the colour should be golden. 

The artistic salad maker could not be too particular in the choice 
of the vinegar to be used in his preparations. The British vinegar 
of commerce may be all very well for cooking purposes, pickling, 
&e.; but, for salads, vinegar made from wine should be used, and it 
should be clarified, so as to be almost as clear as water. The 
stronger the vinegar is, the better. At some first-class Italian ware- 
houses good French vinegar is procurable for the asking ; but it may 
not be out of place here if I describe the process by which a 
constant supply of wine vinegar, after the Gallic fashion, can be 
obtained :—Get a small cask made of oak which has contained wine. 
Heat to boiling point half a gallon of the best French vinegar, pour 
it into the cask, and roll it about in all directions, after which half 
fill it with some good white wine. Place your cask by the side of 
the kitchen fire, or, if in summer, in the open air, in a place well 
exposed to the sun. At the end of a week or so, throw in another 
half-gallon of boiling vinegar, and nearly fill up the cask with white 
wine. Leave the bung partially open, and in six weeks you can 
begin to draw as good vinegar aS can be wished for. If every time 
any vinegar is drawn it is replaced by an equal quantity of white 
wine, the supply will never fail; and if at the outset a certain 
quantity of brandy be put into the cask, the quality and strength of 
the vinegar will be improved thereby. Vinegar greatly improves by 
age, especially when a vinegar plant—or ‘‘mother,” as we call it— 
forms in the cask; but this can be insured by procuring a vinegar 
plant, and putting it into the cask. None but wooden taps should 
be used to a vinegar cask, and the bung-hole should be covered 
with a piece of muslin—or the bung-hole may be stopped up, and 
an air-hole made in the head of the cask, and covered with muslin 
—for, in spite of the proverb, flies will be caught by vinegar. 

When the acidification is complete and the vinegar ready for use, 
the cask can be removed from the side of the fire or exposure to the 
sun; but it should be kept ever after in a warm and dry spot, never 
inacellar. To clarify vinegar, a wineglassful of milk should be 
mixed with a bottle of vinegar; then make a cone or filter of 
filtering paper, which you place ina glass funnel ; pour the mixture 
into this very carefully, and in due course the vinegar will come out 
as clear as can be desired. For purposes of salad-making and 
cooking generally, vinegar is flavoured in a variety of ways. This 
is done by putting some good strong vinegar into a wide-mouthed 
bottle, and adding to it any of the following: 1. A couple of hand- 
fuls of tarragon leaves, gathered the day before. 2. Twenty or 
thirty green capsicums, previously bruised. 3. Four or five pods of 
garlic, also bruised. 4. A cupful or more of celery seed, well 
bruised ina mortar. 5. The same quantity of cress seed, similarly 
treated. The above proportions are for one quart of vinegar. The 
bottle should be corked up and exposed to the sun, or kept in a very 
warm place, for two or three weeks, when the vinegar should be 
strained and filtered, and it is ready for use. By a similar process 
vinegar is flavoured with mint, horseradish, cucumber, &c. The 
following are more elaborate forms of aromatised vinegar. 

TaRRAGON VINEGAR.—Fill up a stone jar or wide-mouthed glass 


bottle with as many tarragon leaves, not newly gathered, as it will 
contain without pressing them down. Add a small quantity of 
cloves, and the rind of two or three lemons. Fill up with vinegar, 
cork well, and expose to the sun fora fortnight at least. At the 
end of that time, strain the vinegar, squeezing it well out of the 
leaves, filter, twice if necessary, through paper, and bottle up for use. 

Fines Herpes VINEGAR.—Take equal parts of tarragon, garden 
cress, chervil, and burnet (all gathered the day before), one green 
chili, a couple of pods of garlic. Fill your bottle or jar with this, 
without pressure; cover up with vinegar, and treat as the above. 

Another form of the above is this: Hqual parts of tarragon, 
burnet, and chives, one or two lemon rinds, a few cloves. Proceed 
as above. Some people add to this a handful of fresh elder flowers. 
It is better, in making these vinegars, not to make too much of 
them, but just enough to last the season. 

Although plain English mustard is often used in making salads, 
French mustard is undoubtedly better. The moutarde de Maille a 
Vestragon or a la ravigote is the best to use. Thefollowing recipe is 
the homely Gallic form of mixing mustard, which produces not a bad 
imitation of that of the celebrated Maille. Take about one quart 
of brown mustard seed, and mix with it the following ingredients : 
parsley, chervil, tarragon, burnet, about a handful of each finely 
minced; some celery seed, cloves, mace, nutmeg, garlic, and salt in 
such proportions as taste may suggest. Put the whole in a basin, 
with enough vinegar just to cover the mixture. In twenty-four 
hours’ time proceed to pound it in a mortar, or, better still, grind it 
on a stone as colours are ground. When thoroughly ground or 
pounded pass through a fine hair sieve; add enough vinegar to make 
the mustard of the proper consistency ; make a poker red-hot and 
stir your mustard with it; repeat this mysterious operation once or 
twice, and proceed to fill up your pots or bottles, cork and seal them. 
The pepper and the salt used for salad-making should be in the finest 
powder. Hvery kind of sauce, such as Worcester, Harvey, anchovy, 
ketchup, soy, &c., is used in salads, but they are dangerous things in 
the hands of novices. 

Heggs, either raw or hard-boiled, should nearly always enter into 
the composition of a salad-dressing. In the former case the yolks 
alone are used; in the latter the yolks are applied to the same pur- 
pooe, and the whites are put into the salad, or on the top of it, either 
chopped up small or cut in rounds. In some eases, besides the yolks 
which go in the dressing, whole hard-boiled eggs, cut into quarters 
or rounds, are used in the ornamentation of the salad. As a general 
rule I may say that the proportion of the oil to the vinegar should he, 
supposing the latter to be of average strength, as two to one; but 
due regard must also be given to the mustard and strong sauces, 
such as Worcester, which may be used. A couple of yolks of ege, 
either raw or hard-boiled, will be enough for an ordinary salad. The 
proportions of the other ingredients are a matter of taste, which can- 
not be defined. 

Lastly, the proportion of the dressing to the salad must be such 
that when the two have been thoroughly mixed together no dressing 
shall remain at the bottom of the bowl. This will invariably not be 
the case when there is too much dressing in proportion to the salad, 
and also when the salad has not been properly freed from water, 
when too much vinegar has been put into the dressing, and when the 
ingredients kaye not been properly and artistically mixed. There- 
fore will it always be an indication of failure. It takes from forty 
to fifty minutes to mix a salad secundwm artem; and although it is 
better to eat it as soon as the dressing and the greenmeat have been 
“worked” together, still it will keep good for an hour or so; after 
that it will rapidly deteriorate.—The G. C. im “ Queen.” 


POLISH MODE OF PRESERVING CUCUMBERS AND 
PICKLING MUSHROOMS. 


In Poland cucumbers are preserved on a large scale, and consti- 
tute part of the winter provisions of the inhabitants. The following 
is the mode in which they are prepared :—They are gathered before 
they are too large (when scarcely one-third of their full size), 
carefully washed, well wiped, and placed, uncut, in layers in large 
earthenware pots, or in barrels, according to the quantity to be 
prepared. Wach layer receives a suitable proportion of salt, and is 
then covered with a layer of cherry leaves mixed with fennel and a 
few oakjleaves. ‘The addition of vine leaves, in proportions of about 
one-half, produces a very good effect. The last layer is similarly 
covered with leaves, after which, the vessel being quite full, water 
(river water if possible) is poured in so as to cover the cucumbers 
completely (this is absolutely necessary). In about ten or fifteen ~ 
days the cucumbers thus pickled may be used; before which they 
should be carefully washed, and then they may either be employed 
as pickles with other dishes, or eaten by themselves. As they do 
not keep long after they are taken out of the brine, not more than 


Marcu 30, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 429 


the quantity required at the time shonld be removed. I make 
preserves of this kind every year, and use only the green Gherkin 
cucumber for the purpose, as I find the white kind does not keep 
so well. 

Pickled mushrooms are also very much in use in Poland. Several 
kinds are thus preserved, but principally the sort called Rydzés 
(perhaps Agaricus deliciosus?). This mushroom, which grows in 
sandy districts in Fir woods, is excellent when fresh, and equally 
good when pickled. It is very abundant in Poland. Care should be 
taken to salt the mushrooms immediately after they are gathered. 
They should then be placed in earthenware pots, heaping them up 
as much as possible. Brine is then poured into the vessel, and the 
mushrooms are kept constantly covered with the pickle by placing 
over each pot a small board with a weight on the top. Before using 
the mushrooms thus pickled, they should be washed for some time 
in clean cold water, or even allowed to soak for a few hours in order 
to remove the salt. They may then be used in salad, and form a 
very agreeable dish—L. Paskiéwicz, in “‘ Revue Horticole.” 


GREAT GARDENS OF EUROPE. 


KEW. 
THE SUCCULENTS. 

Tue Succulent House, a fine span-roofed building, is 
two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, The central 
bed is on a level with the walks, and a series of arches support 
the side shelves, which contain soil, covered with sand; a plan 
in all respects excellent, both for partially concealing the hot- 
water pipes and for the health of the plants. There is, 
moreover, a good depth of soil secured in this way for 
climbers. Though this arrangement for side shelves is not 
adopted in any of the other houses, I have no hesitation in 
saying that for all kinds of plants in pots it is the best I 
have yet seen, especially where climbers are employed for the 
decoration of the roof, it often being the case in small houses 
that the pipes run round the sides, making it difficult to plant 
there. Besides, the warmth excites them the most when they 
should be at rest. By the arrangement I allude to, as carried 
out at Kew, the plants are entirely under control, water being 
given or withheld at pleasure; and the surface affords a 
natural and good resting-place for plants in pots, much 
superior to stone, slate, or wood, which can neyer be kept 
in so regular a state as to moisture. 

The contents of this house form one of the chief features of 
Kew. Here may be witnessed Nature in a grotesque and 
somewhat capricious mood, as well as sullen and fierce. Now 
a gigantic Cactus or Agave seems to say this spot of earth is 
mine ; Nemo me impune lacessit says another; and then there 
are the deadly milk-yielding Euphorbias; all of which are 
wonders in their way to sight-seers. Entering from the 
north, are some large plants of these Euphorbias; E. can- 
ariensis, neriifolia, abyssinica, Tirucallii, and grandidens, 
indicate the large amount of variety which exists among 
the different members of this genus. They are natives of 
Africa, India, and Tropical America principally; but the 
genus is found all over the world. They are interesting as 
showing a gradual leaf development, which is nearly perfect 
in E. nerifolia, very rudimentary in canariensis, and absent 
altogether in aphylla. 

Turning to the right we come upon the Opuntias (Prickly 
Pear, or Indian Fig), the large-growing species of which 
come from Mexico, but there are many dwarf kinds that come 
as far north as the Northern States, The Gibraltar Prickly 
Pears are produced by monocantha and elatior. Next is a 
group of tall Cereus, or Torch Thistles, many of which have 
fine flowers, but the majority of them open only in the night. 
The most distinct are C. Jamacaru, peruvianus, grandis, and 
glaucus ; natives of Tropical America. Among the climbing 
species, in spite of the reputation possessed by C. grandi- 
florus for beauty and size of flower, C. Macdonaldie, 
triangularis, and rostratus are superior. These in their native 
countries climb the stems of trees; they therefore stand more 
shade than other sorts. 

On the side shelves are arranged the dwarfer-growing 
species, many of which have fine flowers, and make good 
plants for rockwork in summer. On opposite shelves are 


quantities of Echinocactus, Echinopsis, Mammillaria, and 
Pilocereus, or “Old Man” Cactus. Though some of the species, 
as Echinocactus Stainesii and electracanthus attain a height 
of from six to eight feet, the majority of the sorts here are 
of humble growth. They are mostly Mexican, though some 
of the Echinopsis and Mammillaria are found as far north as 
the Rocky Mountains, just below the snow line. 


Though the Kew collection contains many large and striking 
plants, yet the number of species is much below that of some 
private collections. In the central bed are the African or true 
Aloes; Barbadoes Aloes being, anomalous as it may appear, 
also obtained from South African species. Many of these Aloes 
are noble plants, as, for example, A. africana, arborescens, 
pluridens, ferox, and supraleyis. Those which furnish the 
Aloes of commerce are A. soccotrina, A. vulgaris (Barbadensis, 
or Barbadoes Aloes). What are termed Cape Aloes are the 
produce of A. africana, arborescens, and others. In books on 
medicine, A. spicata is said to be the plant that yields the Cape 
Aloes, but this is not to be found at the Cape, and is the 
scarcest of all the species of Aloes. 


On the shelves are many small species, some of which are 
beautifully marbled. Gasterias and Haworthias are sub- 
divisions of the Aloe tribe. Many of the Gasterias are 
remarkable on account of their distichous growth and exceed- 
ingly handsome foliage. Haworthias are a stemless class, 
growing in rosettes. They are very variable in form, but 
peculiar, inasmuch as their flowers are all alike; all of 
them are South African. Of Haworthias and Gasterias the 
collection is complete. 

Opposite these are the Agayes (American Aloes), a group 
of noble plants from Mexico and Chili, where the natives call 
them “ Karatto,” and extract from them an intoxicating drink 
called “ pulk.” ‘This is obtained by tapping the plant when 
the flower stem has grown a few feet, which happens when 
the plants are from seyen to nine years old. It is a common 
belief that these plants flower only once in a hundred years, 
which is true in a certain sense of one section, the candelabra 
form, inasmuch as they die when they have flowered. 
To this section belongs the common American Aloe; the 
other section, of which A. filifera is a type, has a spicate 
inflorescence. Plants belonging to this class push a new 
centre and grow again after flowering. Amongst them is 
the nearly allied genus Fourcroya. When they flower they 
form numbers of young plants in the axils of the flower 
stalks, like small onions. These grow, and thus perpetuate 
the species. It is mentioned in the guide to Kew that two 
plants of Fourcroya gigantea, which flowered in 1844, pushed 
up flower stalks at the rate of ten feet in twenty-four hours! 
They certainly do grow very fast. I have myself known them 
make one foot in that time, but never so much asten. ‘The 
Agave collection here is very incomplete, many of the more 
recent introductions not being represented. We come now 
to some noble specimens of Dasylirions and Beaucarneas. 
D. longifolium, especially, with gracefully drooping foliage 
from eight to ten feet long, isa néble plant for a cool con- 
servatory, as is also Beaucarnea glauca,a plant peculiar on 
account of the large corrugated tuber to be found at its base. 
They are natives of Mexico, where they grow at high elevations, 
and will stand several degrees of frost with impunity. Mixed 
with these are some of the coarse Australian grasses, as 
Arundo conspicua, Xerotes longifolia, and the Xanthorrheea ; 
also the Dianellas, Liliaceous plants with beautiful blue flowers 
and berries. On the side shelf here is a grand collection of 
the arborescent semperyivums from the Canary Islands. 

Passing the south door, we come to the Crassulas, Cotyledons, 
and Kleinias, South African plants. Among them are many 
useful subjects for ornamenting outdoor rockwork in summer. 
Next come the Echeverias, the Mexican type of Crassulacez. 
Though several of the genera in this house are not so well 
represented as they might be, still this is one of the most 
interesting houses in the garden, and it is also one of the 
best arranged for public inspection, the whole of the plants 
being easily seen from the walks, a point of much importance 
in a public garden. 

In the north end of the new range of houses at Kew will 
be found the collection of Mesembryanthemums, which is 


430 


THE GARDEN. 


[Marcr 30, 1872. 


very extensive, containing no fewer than 212 species. They 
are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, where they grow on 
rocks, into the fissures of which they get their roots, a cir- 
cumstance which enables them to stand seyere droughts. 
Some found in Australia are evidently Cape species that 
have naturalized themselves there. M. spectabile, polyanthum, 
retroflexum, roseum,formosum, blandum, and aureum, together 
with several allied species, are all beautiful, and have a grand 
effect on rockwork. M. felinum, tigrinum, and lupinum are useful 
as margins to beds. The genus Mesembryanthemum may be 
said to be one of the most interesting and variable among 
Succulents, both on account of form of foliage and regularity 
in regard to the periods of opening and closing of the 
flowers. 

The following summary will show what are at Kew, in the 
way of species belonging to certain genera, compared with 
what haye been introduced into this country :— 

Cereus 


at Kew ... 87 Introduced 148 
Mammillaria do. ... 17 do. 174 
Kchinocactus do. ... 44 do. sae 116 
Kchinopsis Glos © 450 22, do. on 22 
Opuntia Gh ene 62 do. Bhs 91 
Agave do. 46 do. 140 


Although there is room for improvement as regards the col- 
lection, this singular and wide-spread type of vegetation is never- 
theless nobly represented at Kew,and the large Succulent House 
there, is, on the whole, as satisfactory from every point of view 
as any similar structure yet erected. J. CROUCHER. 

(Lo be continued.) 


NOTES. 


Tpecacuanha Plants.—Those in the Neilgherries are reported to 
be flourishing. Two have blossomed, but haye yielded no seed. 
Twelve plants in good condition were received at the Calcutta 
Botanic Gardens from England in August. 


Daffodils.—In our report of the last meeting of the Royal Horticul- 


tural Society we accidentally omitted to allude to the fine collection of 
Daffodils shown thereat by Mr. Peter Barr, in whose experimental 
ground at Tooting there is now the most interesting collection of Daffodils 
we remember to haye seen. Mr. Barr deserves great credit for the 
thorough and enthusiastic way he has taken up this fine family, which, 
considering its immense variety, its thorough hardiness, and its flourishing 
on any soil, is second to none in its importance. 

Caution to Haters of Water-cress.—A correspondent of a 
Bristol contemporary writes :— On Saturday last a man passed my 
house crying ‘fine fresh water-cresses.? One of my boys ran after 
him and bought a pennyworth. Fortunately, before being placed on 
the table my attention was called to them, and I found that three- 
fourths of the lot were composed of water cowbane (Cicuta virosa), 
one of the most virulent of English vegetable poisons.” 


Australian Mahogany.—The Jarrah Jarrah, or western Aus- 
tralian mahogany, is becoming famous, and its value has been 
greatly enhanced by recent Government tests, showing that the dura- 
bility of the wood is dependent not so much on its density as on a 
certain astringent vegetable acid, which appears to be so peculiarly 
disagreeable and eyen poisonous to insects that they avoid the 
timber. 

Trees bad Dentists.—An economical Iowan, who had the tooth- 
ache, determined to remove his tooth in the Indianfashion. Accord- 
ingly he bent down a sapling in the woods, lay down himself, and 
attached a stout cord to his tooth and the sapling. Then he touched 
the spring, and the next thing he knew was that he had jumped over 
a grove of about forty small trees, and was trying to get out of a 
small pond into which he happened to alight. 

Victoria Park Extension.—The Victoria Park Preseryation 
Society have abandoned their intention to attempt the purchase of 
the nine or ten acres of building land which skirts Victoria Park, 
insurmountable difficulties having presented themselves; and they 
have decided to confine their attention to that portion consisting of 
about five acres, which is situated opposite the fountain erected by 
the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The eastern portion of this strip of 
ground immediately adjoins Hackney Common, being only 
separated by a roadway. It has, therefore, been suggested that 
Hackney Common should be joined to Victoria Park, and the two 
spaces made into one large recreation-ground under one management, 
The secretaries of the Victoria Park Preservation Society have there- 
fore again addressed Lady Burdett-Coutts on the subject, with the 
view of inducing her to purchase the small strip of land referred to, 


Gardening in Elementary Schools.—A very important 
development in the organization of the teaching of agriculture and 
horticulture is to take place in France. It has just been decided 
that these studies, so useful for the populations of rural districts, 
will have a piece of ground devoted to them, in the vicinity of each 
school, which will be under the superintendence of the teachers. 
In this, the best systems of garden cultivation will be shown, and in 
particular those which relate to fruit culture and arboriculture. A 
circular is soon to be addressed to the communes, asking their active 
co-operation in this matter. 

Parrots as Fruit Haters.—locks of green parrots, says the 
Kyneton Guardian, are committing sad hayoc in the fruit gardens and 
orchards around Kyneton. Nothing comes amiss to them so long as 
it is ripe. We know of one instance where gooseberries, from which 
it was calculated that three hundredweight of jam would be made, 
have been entirely destroyed. Plums and other descriptions of stone 
fruit are greedily devoured, and as soon as an apple or pear ripens it 
is seized upon by these ravenous fruit eaters. Quite recently thirty- 
eight parrots were shot on two or three trees, the birds particularly 
affecting a yery choice jargonelle pear now ripening. 

Presentation to the late Curator of the Liverpool Botanic 
Gardens.—On the occasion of Mr. Tyerman retiring from the 
curatorship of these gardens, which he has lately done, a number of 
his botanical colleagues determined to present him with a small ex- 
pression of their personal esteem. A handsome silver centre piece, 
composed of the main stem of a vine, supporting a cut glass dish, 
with three branches, decorated with vine leaves and grapes beneath, 
was purchased by means of a liberal subscription list, and has been 
presented to Mr. Tyerman. It bears the following inscription :— 
“Presented to John §. Tyerman, Hsq., on his resignation of the 
curatorship of the Botanic Gardens, Liverpool, by a few friends, to 
mark their high personal esteem, and in recognition of his scientific 
attainments, 1872.” 

A Wew Idea in Planting.—A pereat discoverer, whose name 
cannot be long concealed from a grateful world, has invented a plan 
of replanting the hair where it is lost. As plants grow so does the 
hair ; itis rooted, and thrives like a vegetable. The operation of 
restoring hair is very simple; put healthy hairs into the eyes of — 
needles and draw the needles through the upper skin, the epidermis ; 
being drawn through, the hairs are left in the skin, as a thread, may 
be left in any material by a stitcher. The roots, which haye been 
extracted with their bulbs complete, are brought under the epidermis. 
The surface so operated on is protected at first by a linen band, but 
the hairs soon take root, grow, and flourish. It is not stated whether 
having the skin punctured in this way is disagreeable, and how often 
it is fatal. If it is a success, the plan has many advantages: one can 
have any colour of hair he may select, and he can plant a variety of 
colours, and thus make his appearance striking and beautiful. 
American Paper. 

Botanical Ponies.—According to the North Wales Chronicle the 
quadrupeds in the neighbourhood of Snowdon are more highly educated 
than lots of bipeds we mow. It says that an hotel-keeper in that dis- 
trict— 

“‘Wurnishes guides and ponies, who are perfectly acquainted with all the rare 
plants in the locality.” 


A pony that thoroughly understands botany is indeed a highly-trained 
steed, before which the gifted of the circus must how.—F'un. 


THE SEASON. 
Tuer East wind blows cold, and Jack Frost lays his hold 
On noses and fingers and toes; 
In dull leaden grey scowls the sky all the day, 
And at last weeps its sulks out in snows. 


And the pretty pink blossoms of almond and peach, 
And the apricot’s petals so pale, 

Of cruel Jack Frost vainly mercy beseech, 
Or of crueller Easterly gale! 


And they piteously cry with a shudder and sigh, 
As they shrivel and shrink on the wall, 
“ Poor fools to be lured by a blink of blue sky, 
But to flush, and to fade, and to fall!” 
—Punch. 


FLOWERS OF FASHION. 

Lady.—* And why did you leave your last situation?” _ 

Coachman.—* Well, ma’am, me and her ladyship ’ad a difference about 
a bokay. We was going to a Drawing-Room, and her ladyship wanted to 
put me off with a bokay made up in the ’ousekeeper’s room!~ Well, 1 
couldn’t stand that, so I went and ordered a bokay at Covent Garden ; 
and, would you believe it, ma’am, me and her ladyship ’ad a difference 
about the payment? sol give warning !”—Punch. 


Marcu 30, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


431 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 


Indoor Plant Department.—By way of compensation for the 
winterly weather which we are now experiencing out of doors, con- 
servatories everywhere are being kept as attractive as possible. Cycla- 
mens, those charming early flowers with which everybody is pleased, are 
now getting past their best ; but, owing to the forwardnessof theseason, 
there is no lack of flowering plants to fill their place. Young and 
tender shoots, as well as blossoms, are carefully guarded from frosty 
winds. Camellias, Acacias, Rhododendrons, and other shrubs, with 
the exception of such as are in flower, are syringed every morning, 
the afternoon applications being for the present discontinued on 
account of the coldness of the weather. Camellias and Azaleas that 
have been headed back are placed in vineries, or other moist, warm 
houses, where they are breaking admirably ; they are frequently 
syringed overhead, but water at the root is given but sparingly. 
Small-growing plants of these are not allowed to suffer from being 
pot-bound. Among Calceolarias, the most forward receive a little 
weak manure-water occasionally, which strengthens the flower-spikes, 
and improves the quality of the bloom. Balsams, Cockscombs, and 
similar plants, are regularly shifted, so as to obviate anything in the 
way of a check, and gentle bottom heat and plenty of air promote 
compact and stocky growth. Fuchsias, Aloysias, and Plumbago 
capensis are pruned back, potted, and started, to succeed those pre- 
viously placed under growing circumstances. Hyacinths, Tulips, 
and other bulbous plants done flowering are being placed in cold 
frames, and kept rather dry. Zonal Pelargoninms intended for 
blooming indoors are shifted into two-sized pots larger than those in 
which they were wintered. Fancy and show Pelargoniums are 
neatly staked, and kept near the glass ; air is freely admitted, except 
when the weather is frosty. Stoves are allowed a little extra heat 
and moisture, and care is taken to guard against undue ventilation 
whilst the weather continues so cold. Climbers, such as Allamandas, 
Bignonias, Clerodendrons, Dipladenias, Passifloras, Stephanotis, and 
Thunbergias, are now in full growth, and receive strict attention as 
to thinning, stopping, and tying. Russellias, old-fashioned plants 
not half so often met with as they should be, are being potted in 
_ light rich mould, and staked, allowing them to retain, to some 
extent, their natural pendent habit. Ixoras are pruned into shape, 
and are growing fast. Rivinas, well-known little berry-bearing 
plants, are pruned rather closely back, and are starting freely— 
others are raised from seed. -Aischynanthuses, which are repotted, 
are, for the most part, grown in baskets. Gardenias receive a liberal 
supply of water, both at the root and overhead. The prunings of 
Cissuses, which are cut back, are being used for purposes of propa- 
gation. Begonias, charming winter and early spring-flowering 
stove plants, are now everywhere in great beauty. The old-fashioned 
red and white Vincas are cut back to good eyes, potted, and started. 
Orchids, especially those in flower, and such as are rapidly advancing 
in growth, receive a little shade during the brightest part of the 
day; asteady, moist, and warm temperature is maintained, and, to 
such as are in active growth, water is freely given. 


Pits and Frames.—The propagation of bedding-plants is being 
pushed forward vigorously, cutting the shoots off at a joint, from 
which, ina short time, two other shoots push forth. There is thus 
no scarcity of cuttings, which as soon as rooted are potted off singly, 
and kept until established in warm quarters. As soon as they begin 
to emit fresh roots, they are transferred to a colder frame, where 
they are gradually hardened off. This treatment does not, however, 
do for Alternantheras and similar plants ; for unless these are kept 
in heat, and well established before being placed in cold frames, 
which should not be done till the first of May, they will not make 
good plants. Stocks, Asters, and Marigolds are being sown in 
gentle heat, the seeds being shaded to prevent undue evaporation. 
Sweet Peas, favourites with everybody, are being sown in pots and 
boxes for filling up vacant spaces that may occur amongst those 
sown outside. 
them free exposure during fine weather; their foliage is kept as dry 
as possible. Dahlias are being propagated in heat. Carnations and 
Pinks for flowering in pots are repotted, and those not required for 
pot culture are planted out, or are set for the present in some 
sheltered place and protected with mats. Heartsease are repotted 
and placed outside, protection being afforded them at night by 
means of hoops and mats. 

Flower Garden and Shrubberry.—Notwithstanding the in- 
clemency of the weather, well-managed flower gardens present just 
now a neat and attractive appearance. Among the more striking 
plants now to be seen in flower in them are Daisies, Heartsease of 
different sorts, Arabis, Violets, Squills, Anemones, and Daffodils. 


Auriculas in frames are protected with mats, giving | 


\ 


The Golden Feverfew is also very pretty. Annuals required for 
early flowering, suchas Mignonette, Nemophila, Saponaria, Collinsias,. 
and Candytufts, &c., are being sown, and various hardy annuals, 
such as the Nemophilas and Candytufts, from late autumn sowings 
are being transplanted. Sweet Peas, sown where required, are 
sharply guarded from mice and wood pigeons. Auriculas, Pansies, 
Carnations, Pinks, and Picotees are being bedded out. Sweet 
Williams and Wallflowers from seed are also transplanted. Gladioli, 
if not grown in pots, are planted out where they are to bloom, 
placing a little sand around the bulbs; any of them in previous 
plantings likely to be pushing, have some litter laid over them to 
preserve them from frost. Hollyhocks are being transplanted to 
their blooming positions, using for them a rich compost. Ponies, 
the young shoots of which are beginning to grow, are protected by 
having mats or straw laid over them at night. Rose pruning, in 
most cases, is now finished. Flower beds not planted with spring 
flowers, are pointed over and neatly raked. Edgings to beds and 
borders, such as Cerastiums, Stachys, variegated Polemoniums, 
Arabis, Ivies, and grass continue to be made. Lawns in which 
grass is deficient and moss prevalent, are top-dressed with rich, 
finely-sifted soil, raking off at the same time any rough material 
that may be disfiguring their appearance. They are then rolled. 
Conifers which seem inclined to produce contending leaders, have 
the worst of them rubbed off, leaving only the strongest and 
most promising. Evergreen shrubs are pruned into shape, using 
only the knife in the operation, except in the case of strong limbs, 
when the saw is employed. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—To Pines a steady temperature is 
maintained, and they are never allowed to suffer from want of water. 
Those colouring fruit are kept rather dry, as are also those in flower. 
Suckers potted are plunged in tan beds. Succession plants are in 
some cases shifted into their fruiting pots, and plunged in brisk 
heat. Vines are thinned as they require it, at the same time 
pinching and tying the young shoots. Borders heated artificially 
are frequently examined so as to prevent their ever becoming too 
dry, and atmospheric humidity is maintained by frequently syringing 
the floor, walls, and stages; but it is not advisable to syringe vines 
after they show fruit, except for the purpose of keeping down red 
spider. Peaches and Nectarines while stoning are kept at about 60° 
at night. More fruit than enough for a crop is allowed to remain on 
the trees until after the stoning period has been passed, when they 
are thinned to the required distances apart. No more young wood is 
left than is absolutely necessary for next year’s crop. Tying and 
thinning the shoots are attended to, and the syringe is used freely 
amongst the foliage to prevent red spider. Figs have plenty of 
moisture both at the root and overhead; attention is also paid to 
pinching the shoots at the fourth or fifth joint. Where Cucumbers 
have been grown throughout the winter and have become exhausted, 
the borders are partially renewed and young plants put in between 
the old ones. As soon as roots appear outside the soil, they are top- 
dressed with rich mould, and well watered both at the root and 
overhead. Melons are thinned and tied as they advance; they are 
not allowed to set fruit until the plants have attained sufficient 
strength to bear it, and all superfluous blooms and growths are 
remoyed. Vegetable Marrows and Gourds are being sown, and plants 
from some of the earlier sowings are potted off. Strawberries are 
now in full bearing, those ripening being kept rather dry and near 
the glass; successional plants are being introduced. Mushroom beds 
are at present kept moist enough by the straw with which they are 
covered, and attention is paid to prevent the attacks of mice, slugs, 
and earwigs. Fresh beds are being spawned. Of Chicory, Dan- 
delions, and Endive a supply is taken into the mushroom-house to 
ble~ch and force. Mustard and Cress are still sown indoors. 
)asturtiums for salading are sown in gentle heat for transplantation. 


‘Onions raised in heat are freely exposed whenever the weather is at 


all favourable. Celery is pricked out on a compost consisting of 
well decomposed manure two parts and light soil one part. This is 
placed about six inches deep on a hard bottom covered by a frame 
and sashes, over which are placed at night straw or mats. Capsicums 
are shifted and kept near the glass. Ugg plants are trained to one 
stem, pinched, and well syringed, and kept near the light. Endive 
is sown in brisk heat. Kidney Beans are sown for succession. 
Potatoes requiring earthing up are well watered, after which, when 
the surface is dry, the earth is drawn to them. 


Outdoor Fruit and Kitchen Garden Departments.— 
The sudden and winterly change which the weather has assumed 
has greatly altered the character of operations in this department at 
present. Fruit trees seem to haye suffered considerably, especially 
the earlier kinds of Pears and Plums, whose blossoms had opened. 
The snowstorm which occurred on the 21st instant blackened those 
on standards at the base of the pistil; those on walls, though 
in some cases unprotected, are not so badly injured. Grafting for 


432 THE GARDEN. 


[Marcu 30, 1872. 


the present is postponed, the frost causing the clay to expand and 
fall off. In the kitchen garden the transplanting of vegetables and 
sowing of seeds are also deferred till brighter days make their 
appearance, as it is considered nothing is gained by sowing seeds in 
cold wet soils. Crops that must be forwarded had better be sown 
under cover, and transferred, after having been properly hardened, 
to the open quarters, when the weather shall’ haye become more 
favourable. 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.— Propagating soft-wooded plants still 
occupies the chief attention in this department. Coleuses, especially 
the newer kinds, are being largely increased, potted, and grown on. 
Amarantus salicifolius appears to come freely from seeds; the 
young plants from these are pricked off into pans as soon as fit to 
handle. Chironia frutescens is being sown on rough peat in pans, 
covered with glass, and set in gentle heat. Plants of Eucalyptus 
globulus from seed are being potted off singly. Mesembryanthemum 
linguizeforme is found tocome true from seed, from which abundance 
of plants may be raised in a shorter time than from cuttings. Musa 
Ensete is also raised from seed, one of which is put into a small pot 
with a little silver sand around it, and the pots are plunged in gentle 
bottom heat. Daturas are propagated from portions of theold wood, 
each piece containing one or more eyes being placed in silver sand 
in heat. Cestrum aurantiacum is obtained from cuttings, as are 
also Bouvardias, which are easier to strike now than in autumn. 
Cassias, Cytisus, Prunus, and Melianthus, are likewise being raised 
from cuttings in heat, and those rooted are potted off singly. Seeds 
of hybridized Begonias are being sown in pans of light soil plunged 
in bottom heat. Variegated Maize is also sown thinly in pans, in 
heat. Ornamental grasses are sown in pots, and kept in cool pits or 
frames. Primulas are also being sown and kept in cold frames. 
Tacsonias raised from seed and now well established, are placed in 
cold frames, protected by extra coverings at night and during severe 
weather. Hibiscus, Coronillas, Matricarias, Sedums, Solanums, 
Vines, &c., that have been raised from seeds and from cuttings, 
and now pretty well established, are transferred to cold frames. 
Cyclamens, from December sowings, are being potted off singly 
into small sixty-sized pots, and kept in a gentle heat. Young 
Camellias are being pruned into shape,-placed in a higher tempera- 
ture, and frequently syringed. Grafting of young Conifers, Ivies, 
Hollies, Roses, and Rhododendrons is still proceeded with, keeping 
them closely shaded, and in gentle heat. 

Outdoor Department.—Herbaceous plants have not been injured 
apparently by frost, but where the soil is heavy they seem to have 
suffered a little from damp. Such as are in pots are examined, 
divided, and re-potted, and kept in frames, or placed along the foot 
of walls or hedges, protecting them during severe weather by means 
of mats supported on stakes. Nymphzeas and other water plants 
are being re-potted and placed in tanks out of doors, and some of 
them are beginning to grow freely. Preparation is being made for 
seed beds of hardy conifers, such as Scotch firs, larch, &c.; those in 
last year’s seed beds are being loosened with a fork and trans- 
planted in lines eight or ten inches apart. Two and three year old 
plants are also transplanted, the strongest being selected from 
amongst the others, and according to their strength the distances 
apart are determined. Three and four year old plants of these are 
those most in demand for permanent plantations. Seeds of deci- 
duous trees are now being sown. All trees and shrubs remaining 
after the winter sales are now being transplanted and re-arranged. 


MARKET GARDENS. 


Here the weather has also checked ordinary operations to some 
extent. Besides some injury done to fruit trees, little else however, 
has suffered, except perhaps the later planted Lettuces, some of 
which are a little browned. In many cases they are much eaten 
by slugs, which shows the necessity of sprinkling a little soot or 
lime oyer the ground. The crowns are, however, safe. Radishes of 
first sowings are now pretty strong; the younger ones are still 
covered over with litter during the night and in severe weather. 
Litter is also placed oyer Rhubarb by way of protection. Spinach, 
Onions, and a few other crops coming up amongst bushes and under 
trees, are apparently unhurt. Over Gooseberry bushes, and amongst 
some of the other crops, is sprinkled a dusting of lime, to act asa 
preventive of insects. Beds are being made up for Cucumbers, by 
taking out a trench about 2} feet deep, and filling it up with hot 
dung, over which is placed a few inches of soil. On this the frames 
are placed, and along the middle is put a ridge of prepared soil on 
which the Cucumbers are planted. Beds are also in course of con- 
struction for Vegetable Marrows, but to these not quite so great a 
depth of dung is given. Seeds of these are also being sown on a 


little heat, and some of the further adyanced are nearly ready for 
planting. Tomatoes are potted and kept in frames covered oyer at 
night with litter. In the open ground, besides collecting vegetables 
daily for market, manure is being carted on to yacant ground, which 
is also being dug. 


HOW PLANTS ARE FERTILIZED. 


A LECTURE on this subject was delivered at the London Institution, 
on March 21st, by Mr. Alfred W. Bennett, F.L.S. The lecturer 
commenced by stating that there are two modes in which plants 
may be propagated: the vegetative, in which a portion of the mother 
plant, containing a leaf-bud, is placed under suitable conditions 
to make it develop into an individual in every respect resembling 
the mother plant; and the reproductive, by the agency of seeds. 
The different organs of a perfect flower were then described; the 
non-essential whorls constituting the calyx and corolla, and the 
essential whorls formed of the stamens and pistil. The difference 
was then pointed out between the unfertilized ovule contained 
within the ovary, and the perfect seed containing a distinct embryo; 
the form of the embryo in different seeds being illustrated by 
drawings. After a more minute description of the structure of the 
ovule, and of the stamen and pollen grain, a detailed account was 
then given of the process of emission of pollen tubes, which results 
in the fertilization of the oyule. The lecturer then proceeded to 
explain that although a perfect flower contains both stamens and 
pistil, the male and female organs, yet this by no means necessarily 
occurs, the sexes being sometimes separated. When this is the 
case, the male and female flowers are sometimes similar in appear- 
ance, as in the cucumber tribe; sometimes entirely different, as in 
the hazel. When the sexes are thus separated, some foreign agent, 
as the wind or insects, is obyiously necessary to insure fertilization ; 
but ever in hermaphrodite flowers, the researches of Darwin and 
others have shown that self-fertilization is the exception rather than 
the rule. In many plants, self-fertilization is preyented by the 
fact that the anthers and the stigmatic surface of the pistil are not 
fully developed at the same time; but either the anthers haye 
discharged their pollen and dropped before the stigma is ready to 
receive it, or the reverse. In other plants we find special con- 
trivances for cross-fertilization by insect agercy, the two which 
were specially dwelt upon being the cases of Salvia and Orchidaceous 
plants. The arrangement was described at length by which the 
pollinia of Orchids are removed by the proboscides of moths and 
butterflies, and contrived for the fertilization of the next plant 
visited. It was mentioned in this connection that the limit of 
latitude which annual plants attain in their native state is determined, 
not so much by the temperature which is required for their 
growth, as by the presence or absence of the insects which are 
necessary to their fertilization. The abnormal phenomena of par- 
thenogenesis were referred to, and specimens shown of the 
Zanthoxylon, described by Mr. Hanbury, in the Jownal of the 
Linnean Society, which bears only female flowers, and yet produces 
perfect seeds, one in five of which are found to germinate. In 
conclusion, the lecturer alluded to the practical importance of the 
subject, especially with reference to the ‘‘setting” of fruit, the 
failure of which in cold weather he believed to be due not so much 
to the actual injury to the flowers as to the destruction of the 
fertilizing insects. The lecture was copiously illustrated by diagrams 
as well as by living specimens. 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, 

Norron (We shall shortly publish an article on the subject.)—E. F. W. 
(We have no personal experience of the working of the stove you name.) 
—M. (Next week.)—O. G. W. (We know nothing of the material men- 
tioned in Public Opinion. Thin muslin bags will preserve grapes from 
wasps.)—W. J. C. (Ammoniacal liquor is a powerful fertilizer, but it 
needs diluting with at least six times its bulk of water. In this state it 
may be applied to most kinds of vegetables with advantage. 


NOTICE.—Country booksellers having reported some of the earlier 
numbers of “The Garden” to be out of print, we beg to state that 
every pagehas been stereotyped, andconsequently “ The Garden ” can 
never run out of print. : 

Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum Qs. 9d, for six months, or 5s. for a 
quarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. 

All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Witt1Am Rosinson, ‘‘ THE GARDEN ” Orrice, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tor PustisHER,at the same Address, 


— 


Arri 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


433 


“This is an art 


Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr rtsELF 1s Nature.’’—Shakespeare. 


THE HISTORY OF ROSE DEVONIENSIS. 


I wAve often intended to write the history of this well-known 
rose, and “‘D. T. F.’s”’ version of it in your columns, which is the 
only one I have seen, induces me to offer mine. 

Mr. G. Forster, who was a retired clerk of the Devonport Dock- 
yard, and with whom I had a rather intimate horticultural acquaint- 
anceship, had quite a passion for growing seedlings of all kinds, his 
chief hobbies being Dahlias and Pelargoniums. As all, or very 
nearly all, the care of rather large gardens and conservatories devolved 
upon him and his brother, ‘‘ high” horticulture was not carried out, 
and I have seen fully one thousand seedling Pelargoniums spindling 
up in sixty-sized pots, ranged out against a wall, and afterwards run- 
ning up ona single hard-wooded stem to three feet or more before 
they bloomed. The consequence of this hard treatment was, that 
whilst, undoubtedly, many good flowers were thrown away, those 
that turned out well generally proved gems. 

One day I chanced to meet Mr. Forster near his house, when, in his 
usual quiet, dry manner, he said, “‘The next time you are at leisure 
to come to my garden, I hope to have something to show you.” To 
this I replied, that if the something was then to be seen, I would go 
at once. Thinking that he referred to a Pelargonium or a Cineraria, 
T expected to see nothing until we reached the greenhouses, when, 
stopping at a frame, he lifted the light, from which rushed a gush 
of scent, and there was Deyoniensis, a small plant with a solitary 
bloom, but which measured 5} inches in diameter, and I am not 
quite sure whether it was not a quarter of an inch more. 

And here I may say of my old friend, that he was a man of con- 
siderable native intellect and force of character, and would probably 
have made his mark in the world if he had had the opportunity. 
Like most thoughtful men, he was very reserved, though in that 
respect he improved considerably on acquaintance; but he had the 
organ of “ secretiveness”’ developed to an extent, which even all his 
natural amiability failed to counteract, and, kindly as he always 
received me, he never offered me a cutting of a plant, or evena 
specimen bloom. Knowing his ways so well, I was somewhat sur- 
prised at his exhibiting the infant prodigy, and felt somewhat vain 
in the thought that I had succeeded in getting into his confidence. 
But I was undeceived ere long, for I found out afterwards that the 
seedling was then two years old, had been propagated largely 
during the preceding summer on all sorts of stocks, andas they were 
near flowering, and the secret could not be kept much longer, I had 
been let into it. 

All my attempts to urge him to advertise the plant appearing to 
be useless, I thought I would try the effect of sending a customer to 
him, and accordingly, when next in Exeter, I spoke to the late 
Mr. Pince on the subject, who said carelessly that what were swans 
in raisers’ hands proved often to be geese in his. Heso far, however, 
yielded to my representations as to say that he was going to send 
some plants to the autumn Horticultural Show at Plymouth, and he 
would tell his foreman to inquire about the matter. Shortly after 
the show just mentioned I called on Mr. Forster, when he told me 
that he had sold the plant, and that Mr. Pince’s foreman had gone 
off with a faggot of boughs to bud from at once; and then for the 
first time did I learn how long the stock had been in the raiser’s 
possession. And here I may observe that there isa slight difference 
between “D. T. F.’s” account and mine, for my version is that 
Mr. Forster got only £20, and when (as I believe) he told me so, I 
remember exclaiming that I would have either given it away or else 
had £100. I mayalso add, on Mr. Forster’s authority, that Mr. Pince 
did not send out the rose till he had a thousand one guinea orders for it. 

I shall now proceed to give you the early history of the plant, 
which is a somewhat curious one, and I will do so as nearly as I can 
in Mr. Forster’s own words :— 

“The mother plant was a Smith’s Noisette, which I was chiefly 
induced to buy because it had a pod of seed on it nearly ripe. I did 
not expect much from it, as I had heard that French rose-. wers 


had discarded it as a bad breeder, but I thought I would give it a 
trial. When I sowed the seed I did not think it would germinate 
the first year, and thought very little about it. But one day I 
observed traces of a slug over the mould, and suspecting that some 
mischief was afloat, I got a magnifying glass, and found that the 
seeds had germinated a year sooner than I had anticipated, and that 
all of them had been eaten off but two. Those two I saved; no others 
came up, and that is the history of Deyoniensis.”’ 

I said at the outset that Mr. Forster’s mode of gardening awas 
rather rough, and I may also add that he did not grow seedlings for 
the market (though many of them ultimately found their way there), 
but purely for the pleasure of rearing novelties, which he was 
always reluctant to part with. To these two causes I attribute the 
fact which will, I suspect, be new to most of your readers, that 
there are two kinds of Devoniensis. Both of the surviving plants 
turned out gems, and haying a general family likeness, have always 
passed as one. This to my mind accounts for the different characters 
given of the plant, some calling it very delicate, others reasonably 
hardy of its kind, whilst occasionally I have heard the difference 
in the growth or bloom attributed to soil or aspect. 

The two plants may be thus described, if my memory serves me 
rightly :— 

No. 1, which I call the Devoniensis, it being the one that I first 
saw, is the larger flower of the two, and is of a pale uniform colour 
throughout, whilst the petals haye a much thicker substance, and 
the growth of the plant is weaker than that of the other. 

No. 2 is hardier, strong growing, almost if not quite a climber; has 
somewhat smaller but more compact flowers, the centres of which 
are of a darker tint than the outer petals, being almost of a salmon 
colour, and the petals are slighter in substance. 

Between the two there is not much to choose, but I should re- 
commend the former for the greenhouse and the latter for the open 
wall, though I have seen No. 1 answer very well on a briar stock 
under the deep sheltering eaves of a low wall. I think it would be 
worth some nurseryman’s while to procure the two sorts and keep 
them distinct. 

I may add that the foliage of No. 1 is larger in its indi- 
vidual leaves than No. 2, but has not so many on a leaf stalk. 
The test, however, between the two kinds is the presence or absence 
of the salmon-tinted centre. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


— A vasr amount of damage has been caused to the early 

potato crop in Jersey by reason of frosts suddenly succeeding fine 
open weather. The plants had grown strong and healthy, and gaye 
promise of an early and abundant crop. The damage is estimated 
at many thousands of pounds. 
Tne directors of the Alexandra Palace Company have 
appointed Mr. Gilbert R. Redgrave to be their manager. The railway 
into the building is nearly completed, and the works are in a very 
forward state. The palace and park, comprising nearly two hundred 
acres of land, will, it is said, very shortly be thrown open to the 
public. 


A MUSHROOM, measuring four and a half inches across, was 
found last week on the open downs, at Wiltshire Corner, on the Earl 
of Craven’s estate at Ashdown. It is an unusual occurrence to find 
such a fine mushroom so early in the season, adding as it does, another 
testimony to the forward state of vegetation previous to the recent 
severe cold.—Newbury News. 

We have all heard of poisoned sugar plums, but the German 
newspapers are now discussing the various cases of poisoning by 
Vanilla ices, which have occurred of late years in Paris, Altona, Munich, 
Vienna, and other places. According to one doctor the poison is in the 
Vanilla, and it is produced by the use of cashew-nut oil to besmear 
the Vanilla pods.—Graphic. 

Iv is proposed to form a new road from Victoria Park to the 
East London Museum on Bethnal Green. The road would run from 
the south side of the museum in a north-easterly direction to a 
junction with the Approach Road at its south-western end, and thus 
a broad thoroughfare would extend from the museum to the gates of 
the park. 

Tur urgent representations made respecting the foul con- 
dition of the bathing lake in Victoria Park have at length influenced 
the Office of Works to take remedial measures. With this object an 
artesian well is now being sunk near the lake, which will not only 
be ample enough for the supply of water for bathing purposes, but 
will also suffice for the other requirements of the park. As the foul 
state of the lake was due to the extremely meagre supply of water, 
it is anticipated that the steps which are being taken, together with 


43.4, 


THE GARDEN. 


(Arrin 6, 1872. 


an efficient dredging of the bed, will restore the lake to a satisfactory 
condition. 

Dr. M‘Nas, Professor of Botany and Geology at the Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester, son of Mr. James M‘Nab, of the 
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, has received the appointment 
of Professor of Botany to the Royal College of Science and Art, 
Dublin. 


Mr. Atrrep Sex, F.R.S., has in the press a yolume entitled 
“My Garden,” in which he gives a description of his garden in 
Surrey, and details the results of his experience in the culture of 
flowers and fruit; of these nearly seven hundred species and genera 
are described. The yolume also treats generally of the natural 
history, geclogy, and antiquities of the neighbourhood. 

M. AupHanp has retired from the superintendence of the 
Paris improvements. Appointed to his post in 1854, after a very 
successful career of engineering at Bordeaux, M. Alphand remained 
in office amid all prefectoral changes, and was the virtual author 
of the rapid, costly, and beautiful transformation which will stand 
to the credit of the Second Empire so long as Parisians love bright 
streets, showy gardens, and fresh air. 

WHEN the Queen of Denmark paid a visit to the Pope the 
other day, she asked him, as a sonyenir of her visit, for a flower 
from his own gardens, the only thing one could possibly ask from so 
poor a man as Pius IX. But Pins 1X., perhaps to throw discredit on 
the assertion of the Archbishop of Paris that his Holiness possesses 
not so much as a stone on which to lay his head, sent the Queen of 
Denmark a most beautiful bouquet in a rich Sevres vase. 

SINCE the great snow blockade occurred on the Union Pacific 
Railroad, there appears to haye been an increased interest awakened 
in regard to planting trees near the railroad lines that cross the 
great prairies. High board fences will never answer as obstructions 
to snow ; in fact, they usually cause high drifts, and do more harm 
than good. What is wanted is something that will partially check 
the wind and break its full force. A wide belt of compact-srowing 
evergreen trees and shrubs is the one thing required. 

THE game preservers in Kent and Surrey haye determined 
for the future to exclude from the coverts, &c. a class of men who 
migrate from London during spring into the country districts under 
the pretence of collecting wild flower roots, moss, &c., but who are 
victually in search of eggs of pheasants and partridges for sale. A 
general order has been given to gamekeepers to drive off all tres- 
passers found in the woods, whether actually gathering or pretending 
to gather wild flowers, as the only means of checking the traffic in 
game eges. 

A CoRRESPONDENT of the Times says :—In the Dublin Botanic 
Gardens on the 24th of February last I took down the names of 
seventy-five different sorts of flowers in bloom. I have since that 
time seen cottagers’ gardens in different parts of this conntry 
smiling with the bloom of beautiful, yet common hardy plants. To 
day (March 28th) passing along the Thames Embankment, and by 
the garden in the Westminster Palace Yard, and the neighbouring 
enclosure, I notice not one blooming plant. It may be that those 
who have control will be able and willing to arrange to haye a 
different appearance by next March, and thereby gladden the hearts 
of many, to whom flowers in spring are eyen more than at other 
times pleasing. 


The Professorship of Botany at Strasburg.—The new 
Imperial régime in Alsace has secured tothe University of Strasburg 
an efficient Professor of Botany in the person of Count Solms-Laubach, 
the first Prussian Kavalier who has condescended to prefer the 
pursuit of science, with the view of making a living by it, to a 
career in the army. 

Sea Pine Plantations in France.—We learn that extensive 
plantations of the Sea Pine (Pinus maritima) have been made on the 
peaty plains and sandy downs of the coast of Bordeaux ; this has 
been effected for the purpose of supplying railway sleepers, pit-props 
for mines, smaller wood for fencing and firing, as well as for the 
resin furnished by these trees, all articles of value and in consider- 
able demand. 

Erection of the Kibble Conservatory in the Glasgow 
Botanic Garden.—This conservatory, we understand, is to be 
moyed from Coulport, and put up in the east end of this garden, 
where for the future it is to be called “The Kibble Crystal Art 
Palace and Conservatory.” At Coulport Mr. Kibble has a staff of 
workmen engaged in taking down the conservatory. The contents 
of the large dome are now being displaced, after which the removal 
of the structure itself will be proceeded with. When this has been 
accomplished, it is intended to go on at the Botanic Gardens with 
the erection of the two refreshment-rooms attached to the conserya- 


tory, in which the statuary and plants will at first be placed after 
their removal from Coulport. Then the large dome will be raised, 
and afterwards the smaller dome. Both will have a height of about 
forty feet ; the large Dome will be 150 feet in diameter, and 450 feet 
in circumference, and is intended to accommodate from 6,000 to 8,000 
persons. At the Gardens, the foundations of the conservatory have 
for some time been in course of construction, and will probably be 
completed in a fortnight or so. The conservatory is to be erected 
near the main entrance gate, and it is expected that it will be opened 
in time for the forthcoming international show of fruit and flowers 
to be held in it early in September next. 


Garden Plans.—The Scarborough Cliff Bridge Company offer 
premiums for designs for laying out their recently-acquired property 
beyond the Spa, in connection with the existing grounds of the 
company. A hundred pounds are offered for the best, and fifty pounds 
for the second best design, to be determined by the committee of the 
company—the first premium to merge in the successful competitor’s 
commission if his design is carried out. : : ; 


Monsieur Goutier.—This excellent French gardener died the 
other day, at the age of seventy-two. It was he who first pointed 
out the use of sulphur as a remedy for grape mildew, a fact in itself 
sufficient to make his name remembered with gratitude ; but that 
is not all, he also was the means of improving many of the garden 
implements employed in his time, as well as an i iventor of heating 
apparatus.—Revue Horticole. 


Simpson’s “Wortley” Celery Collars.—These are designed 
as substitutes for the various unhandy contrivances in the shape 
of hay-ropes, moss, tiles, rags, &c., that are frequently resorted to 
for protecting Celery before earthing up; they are made of stout 
brown paper that will last for months in the ground, and which may 
be afterwards incorporated with the soil as manure. They are 
furnished with a hook at one end and a row of holes into which it 
clasps at the other. When put on and hooked they prevent the 
Celery from coming in contact with the soil, keep it clean, greatly 
lessen its liability to rot, protect it from slugs, and secure a better 
blanched and more compact head, containing a much greater 
eatable bulk. They are easily and expeditiously fixed, and greatly 
facilitate the earthing-up process, but they will also blanch Celery 
effectually without earthing up; so that the earlier batches that are 
used before severe frost sets in need not be soiled up at all, unless 
desired. These collars will yield to the plant as it imereases im 
thickness, by the hook pulling through into the next hole; but it 
will be found, in practice, that the paper resists considerable 
distension, keeps the leaf stalks firmly in their places, and secures a 
clean, compact, and well blanched sample, that more than repays 
the small outlay in collars. As regards application, while one man 
gathers the leaves up firmly in his hands another slips the collar on, 
taking care to slip the hook into the hole that secures the proper 
degree of tightness. A collar should be put on each time the plants 
are soiled up, and about half an inch should be left above the soil for 
the next collar to lap over. It is recommended to use the narrow- 
sized collars for the first earthing, and not to hook them so tightly 
as those put on later in the season. The first size measures 
32 by 9 inches, the second, 43 by 9 inches, and the third 5 by 9 
inches; the low price at which they can be sold brings them 
within the reach of everybody. 


LAW NOTE. 


Hemsworth v. Mann.—This suit was instituted by a gentleman 
who was lessee of the right of shooting over a farm in Suffolk, 
containing about forty acres, of which the defendants were tenants. 
The tenants had entered into a covenant by which they undertook to 
preserve the game, and had raised a bank three feet high around 
a considerable portion of the farm. On the bank they had put 
up a wire fence, two feet high, on every part of which they had 
twisted a quantity of fern and cuttings of fir, so as to make it 
impossible for any running game to jump over it. In the bank they 
had dug burrows in which they had set up traps. The plaintiff 
alleged that the raising of this bank, &e., was a violation of the 
covenants into which the tenants had entered. Lord Romilly was of 
opinion that in respect of the raising of this bank, &c., the tenants 
had not violated their covenants. The court saw nothing whatever 
in the lease granted to the tenants to deprive them of the right of 
putting up a species of fence, which they said was put up to protect 
their crops, and not at all with the view of injuring the game. The 
court was of opinion that under these circumstances this was a suit 
which ought not to have been instituted, and’ the bill must be 
di> >issed with costs. 


Apri 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


FAMOUS TREES. 


THE PAGODA FIG OF INDIA. 


(FICUS RELIGIOSA.) 


EFORE—very long before 
,modern botanists had classed the 
q vegetable productions of India— 
separating them into genera and 
species, according to our present 
scientific methods—the ancient 
{¢ priests of the land had given 
$* native names and attached popu- 
BS lar legends to many of the more 
remarkable trees of that teeming 
soil. The Ficus religiosa, whose 
vast and far-spreading limbs 
(put forth subsidiary branches 
which descend to the earth, and 
form additional trunks for their 

Sere a support, often assumes the aspect 
Be GLENDOWERSOAK #& of a vegetable temple, formed by 
‘a roof of dense foliage, supported by countless columns; 
{producing a far extending and grateful shade, which, in 
a tropical climate, is so desirable, and so greedily sought 


| 


fittingly designated as that of the earthly birth of their pagod 
Vishnu, than one situated beneath the shades of the columned 
fig tree? It was, in fact, beneath the green roof of the Ficus 
religiosa, as carefully recorded in the sacred books, that the 
birth of Vishnu was made to take place; the tree itself being 
pronounced holy, and the breaking of a branch, or the plucking 
of a single leaf, declared a sacrilegious act of the most 
heinous character. Hence it was called Pippul, or the Pagoda 
tree. This sacred legend was well-known at a very early 
period, even to Western nations, and is mentioned by Herodotus ; 
to whose industrious researches, more than four hundred ye 
before the Christian era, we are indebted for so many inte- 
resting facts connected with the history, the arts,and religious 
institutions of the early races of man. It is also referred to by 
Pliny and Strabo. 

The trunks of the Sacred Fig, when young, are round and 
smooth, but in age they exhibit perpendicular ridges and hollows 
alternately, presenting the appearance of the clustered columns 
of Gothic cathedrals ; the ashy colour of the bark tending to 
favour the illusion, as resembling that of grey stone. ‘The 
leaves are about six inches in length, and of a dark shining 
green; their stalks being long and slender, cause them 
to have a tremulous motion with the slightest breeze, like those 
of the Aspen—the rustling sound thus created adding to the 
impressive effect produced by the aspect of the columned 
shades of these tree-cathedrals. 


The Pagoda Fig. 


by the wayworn traveller. An imaginative priesthood, 
with the lively perceptions of an Eastern race, was not 
slow to perceive the singular and impressive aspect of 
this many-stemmed tree, in the deep shadow of which the 
camel driver rested with his beast during the burning heat 
of the midday sun. Beneath which, in fact, a whole caravan 
might repose, and enjoy the refreshing coolness afforded by 
the natural canopy formed by the foliage of its matted branches; 
for thousands of yards are covered by some of the larger speci- 
mens of this giant tree. What spot could they have more 


The fruit is not larger than a cherry, and of a purple 
colour when ripe. But, though not unwholesome, it is not 
esteemed edible. Roxburgh, in his “Flora Indica,” speakst 
in terms of wonder of the great size of the Ficus religiosa , 
stating in the same place that it is found all over India, even 
on the mountains; but that it is most common near houses, 
where it is systematically planted for the sake of the ceep 
and grateful shade which it yields. : 

The Pippul, or Sacred Fig, may be easily 
the Banyan, which it resembles in general aspect, 


distinguished from 
by the 


436 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprit 6, 1872. 


manner in which the new trunks are formed. In the Banyan, 
slender roots are shot down from the horizontal branches, 
which do not become branch-like or tree-like till after haying 
struck into the earth; while the Pippul sends down true 
branches earthward, the rounded ends of which are furnished 
with a large spongiole, which becomes the nucleus of a new 
set of roots as soon as, by the continued downward growth 
of the descending branch, it reaches the ground. Blume 
describes a gigantic specimen of Ficus religiosa in Java, 
near a place called Bata Tulies, from the branches of which 
he gathered thirty-four species of parasites and epiphytes— 
stating that he might easily have collected full as many more. 

Some of the trees belonging to the species Ficus, especially 
the Pippul and the Banyan, furnish (with the sole exception 
of the Palms) the most characteristic features of tropical 
scenery. Their complex appearance—with their far-stretching 
horizontal branches supported by additional trunks im every 
stage of growth, from the slender proportions of a Byzantine 
column to the massive proportions of the imposing Doric, 
at once arrests the attention of the spectator; while embryo 
columns, still pendent from the parent branch, furnished 
with their enormous spongioles, ready to fix themselves 
in the solid earth and secure a permanent foundation, are very 
remarkable, and never fail to produce a striking impression 
upon travellers who witness their aspect for the first time. 

The milky juice of many of the fig family has caused the 
name of Cowtree to be given to some species, especially the 
Ficus elastica, the coagulated “milk” of which forms the 
india rubber of commerce. 

The Ficus religiosa has been cited as an emblem of the 
vastness and unchangime character of India. Its extreme 
longevity is extended ad infinitwm by the continuously created 
new stems as sources of fresh and additional vigour, rendering 
its destruction by age seemingly impossible. The duration of 
the Oak, and of other “long-lived” forest trees is, in fact, but a 
span compared with the perennial life of the Sacred Fig; several 
well-known specimens of which are calculated to have endured 
for at least three thousand years. It may, indeed, be con- 
sidered to rank among the foremost marvels of vegetable 
creation. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. : 


Coning of the Umbrella Pine.—It may interest your readers 
to know that the Sciadopitys verticillata (Umbrella Pine) has cones upon 
it in the Knap Hill Nursery, Woking. They are produced singly at the 
points of the shoots. Haveany of your correspondents heard of its coning 
in otlier parts of the country P—G. T 

Absence of Mistletoe in Devonshire.—Would Mr. Gordon have 
the kindness to state whether he can assign any reason for the remark- 
able absence of Viscum album from the orchards of Devonshire? From 
my own personal observation, as well as statements of others, it seems to 
be almost unknown, whereas the parasite can be seen in countless numbers 
upon the apple trees of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. I have before 
drawn the attention of naturalists to this subject, but they could throw 
no light upon the matter. I suppose the geological conditions of these 
three counties are pretty similar as far as regards the red or Devonian 
sandstone.—C. 

Remarkable Yew Tree.—The following are the dimensions of a 
grand old Yew tree growing on the Marquess of Bath’s estate in 
Wiltshire :—Height, 50 feet ; cireumference of branches, 164 feet; spread 
of branches from north to south, 53 feet; and from east to west, 60 feet ; 
girth of stem atone foot from the ground, 32 feet; smallest girth of stem, 
24 feet 6 inches; length of stem, 7 fect. Under ordinary circumstances 
the age of Yew trees may be approximately guessed at, by allowing a 
century for every foot in diameter of stem, thus this famous 6ld tree may 
safely be calculated at from 1,100 to 1,200 years old. It is a growing 
healthy tree, rather cone-shaped, and is very dense in foliage. I should 
be glad to learn through your columns whether any of your correspondents 
know of a larger Yew tree than the one I have just recorded Guoren 
Borrry, Longleat. 

Planting in the Yorkshire Moorlands.—Will you kindly 
furnish a list of the better sorts of forest trees for planting in a park, 
with a view to the improvement of the landscape? I want really 
hardy trees, and not those so called, as half the kinds named hardy in 
“ Loudon’’ fail here in the wilds of Yorkshire, on the limestono soil. 
OF course, I now the commoner sorts, such as purple Beech, variegated 
Sycamore, Acer Negundo variezatum, red Horse Chestnut, but what I want 
are the more rare sorts which have been proyed hardy.—Cravmn. [We 
presume you are located in close proximity to some of the high Yorkshire 
moorlands; and, judging from your inquiry, it would appear that your 
endeavours towards landscape effect have hitherto been somewhat unsuc- 
cessful. Perhaps, however, your want of success should not in all cases 


be attributed to the tenderness of the plants selected; there are various 
other causes which possibly may have had a share in the matter. In 
offering the appended selection—which we do from a pretty extensive 
Yorkshire experience—we would venture to offer a word of advice, namely, 
prepare the ground well—do not starve your plantations. ‘Trees like a 
liberal diet as well as other plants. Plant small material, rather than aim 
at effect at once—have faith in nature’s power to adapt the growth of a 
young plant to its new locality, mind we donot say acclimatise; and when 
you do plant, select nice damp autumnal days for the operation; see that 
your men know how to plant, not to “‘ stick them in” at so much a thou- 
sand. Care and dispatch in this process are not inimical to one another; 
finally, remember that weeds grow during summer, and that they may, 
under the name of protecting, be really smothering the young growth; 
also that good stirrings to the surface of the soil three or four times during 
summer do good The trees we would recommend you to plant are :— 


Acer Psendo-Platanus C. tanacetifolia P. aucuparia 

A P.-P. yariegatum C. coccinea P. pinnatifida 

A. platanoides C. Aronia P. salicifolia 

A. Wagneri C. glandulosa Populus alba 

A. striatum GC. double scarles P. argentea 

A. rubrum C. single searlet P. canadensis 

Fraxinus lentiscifolia C. Paul’s crimson Amelanchier Botryapium 


Cornus maseula 

C. sanguinea 
Daphne Laureola 
Prunus Padus 
Buonymus enuropeus 
Cedrus atlantica 
Pinus austriaca 


- Ulmus monumentalis 
U. siberian. 
Cytisus Laburnum 
C, alpinus 

B. lenta Tilia alba 

B. laciniata T. sanguinea 

Cherry, double blossomed ‘I’. pyramidalis 


FP. aucubefolia 
Fagus, fernleayed 
Betula alba 

B. nigra 


C. Mahaleb variegata Quercus coccinea P. Cembra 

Aisculus (Pavia) flava Q. Cerris P. pumila - 

A. carnea Q. Lucombeana Picea Nordmanniana, 
Aa. macrostachya Q. Dex Thuja gigantea 


Cratzegus Crus-galli 
C. pyracantheefolia 


Q. laurifolia 


Thujopsis borealis 
Pyrus (Sorbus) aria 


THE KINCHEN GARB ERE 


THE CUCUMBER—ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 
(Continued from page 425.) 
PRINCIPLES OF CULTIVATION. 


Tu principles concerned in the cultivation of the Cucumber 
are such as are involved in the cultivation of all other plants, 
namely, light, heat, air,and moisture. Light is certaimly the 
most essential element of success, for without it all other aids 
to cultivation are of no ayail, and the plant soon perishes. “ It 
is,” says Lindley, “to the action of leaves, to the decomposition 
of the carbonic acid and of their water ; to the separation of 
the aqueous particles of the sap from the solid parts that were 
dissolved in it; to the deposition thus effected of various 
earthy and other substances, either introduced into plants as 
silex or metallic salts, or formed there as the vegetable 
alkaloids; to the extinction of nitrogen; and probably to 
other causes as yet unknown;—that the formation of the 
peculiar secretions of plants of whatever kind is owing. And 
this is brought about principally, if not exclusively, by the 
agency of light—their green colour becomes intense in pro- 
portion to their exposure to light within certain limits, and 
feeble in proportion to their removal from if, till, im total and 
continued darkness, they are entirely destitute of green secre- 
tion, and become blanched and etiolated.” This explains the 
difference in the growth in the subject of these remarks, 
especially between midsummerand midwinter. At the former 
season, in our gloomy atmosphere, the only danger is that of 
the light at times being in excess of the resistive power of 
the tender foliage, and hence it may get scorched ; but in mid- 
winter the light at times is insufficient to promote the neces- 
sary deposition of substance, and, consequently, the growth 
is weak and etiolated. It may be regarded as an axiom in horti- 
culture that the health of other parts of a plant is in propor- 
tion to the health of the leaves; and hence without healthy 
leaves we cannot have healthy fruit. There is no exception to 
this rule, and the neglect of it is the constant and fruitful 
parent of failure. From this will be perceived the immense 
importance of keeping the glass of a cucamber-house as clean 
as possible during the winter season, and to insure perfect 
fruitfulness through the winter the plants must be 
thoroughly established before the dull weather of November 
sets in, every leat upon them at that season being 
exposed to as much light as possible. Much, however, as the 
Cucumber requires light in the winter season, to enable it to 
bring its growth to maturity, it is a question whether in the 
early spring and summer months an excess of it is not the 


Aprit 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


43,7 


cause of one of the diseases from which the plants suffer: 
viz., “ chlorosis,’ or a shrivelling up of the leaves without any 
apparent cause. Be that as it may, experiment has demon- 
strated that if we darken the house by shading the glass with 
a fine net, or coating it with a thin wash of size with a little 
whiting in it, the virulence of the disease is abated; but 
expose the leaves to the power of the sun for only one hour 
and it is more than probable a large portion of them will be 
destroyed. We hope we have said sufficient to show the indis- 
pensability of light to the successful growth of the Cucumber 
in the winter season, and the wisdom of its modification in the 
summer. 
HEAT. 

As the Cucumber is a native of a tropical climate it neces- 
sarily requires the protection of glass, except in the very height 
of the summer. ‘he earth heat, to secure the best results, 
should not be less than from 75° to 85°, but beyond the latter 
temperature if is not wise to go, as a- greater temperature 
only tends to eticlation—a lengthening of the parts of the 
plant without adding much to the substance. The day atmo- 
spheric temperature without sun should not exceed the terres- 
trial heat, but when the sun is shining it may rise to even 
90° or 100° with the best results. Temperature, however, 
must be to some extent modified by the state of the atmo- 
sphere. When the weather is dull the temperature must be 
lowered, but when it is bright and clear take advantage of it to 
promote growth as much as possible. Heat, without light, is 
comparatively useless; but heat, with light, is the condition 
which insures perfect success. The reason why heat is neces- 
sary to plants in a growing state is, that warmth acts as a 
stimulus to the vital forces, and its operation is in proportion, 
within certain limits, to its amount. ‘Warmth, remarks a 
German writer, is not really a stimulus to vegetation, but it is 
extremely necessary for the solution of various substances 
with which the water comes in contact. It also sets free 
cerlain gases which the leaves take up, and through these 
sources of nourishment promotes the growth of plants. Such 
being the fact it is obvious that the cultivator’s first care should 
be to secure the means of insuring a proper temperature to 
the soil in which his plants grow, and the atmospheric tempera- 
ture should be in a proportionate ratio. 


(Lo be continued.) 


SEAKALE IN MARKET GARDENS. 


SEAKALE is now (March 16) obtained abundantly from the open 
ground. In market gardens the seed is sown thickly on four-feet 
beds in March, and thronghout the rest of the year the young plants 
are allowed to remain in the seed bed without thinning until the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Though their thickness in the seed beds renders them weak, yet 
they are preferred, as they are not so liable to run to seed throughout 
the summer. These seedlings are now being lifted, their roots 
shortened a little, and planted with a dibber in well-prepared ground, 
one foot apart each way. Here they are allowed to remain until winter, 
and every encouragement is given to them, by keeping the ground 
free from weeds, and frequently stirring the surface. 

In winter, or as soon as forcing begins, every second two lines are 
taken up for that purpose, and the two remaining ones are earthed 
up from the spaces now vacant, placing about six or eight inches of 
soil over the surface, much in the same manner as Asparagus beds 
are done. As soon as the shoots appear above this ridge, the soil is 
forked aside, and the shoots are cut clean off, taking with them the 
top of the crown. After cutting, the crowns are not covered again 
that season, but a great many young shoots soon spring up all round 
the crown; these are all removed, except two or three at the most, 
which are allowed to remain. Under this treatment they afford 
good produce for several years, and the greatest care should be 
taken to guard against ruining the strength of the crowns, by 
leaving too many young shoots. The second and third years of 
earthing up afford the strongest and best produce. Wak. 


I sMOKED my lettuce-plants at morn, 

At fervid noon, and dewy eve; 
Not as Tobacco—that I’d scorn! 

But to make creeping creatures leave. 
Taking my leaves, and not their own, 

Two fat old grubs appear’d to say, 
Whilst preying on my lettuce prone, 

Grace over meat—thus, “ Lettuce prey!” 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


Tan.—To what uses can tan be put in a garden P—J. K. [Fresh tan 
is a good material for supplying bottom heat to plants in pots plunged in 
it. Spent tan is almost worthless ina garden. We know of no good use 
to which it can be put, except, perhaps, to mix in heavy clay lands. | 

Mushrooms in Pots.—I am acquainted with a gardener who grew 
not long ago some beautiful mushrooms in pots, by accident as it were. 
In the spring of last year, after removing his old beds, he selected some 
comparatively spent spawn, and placed it in large pots, which held a 
bushel or so, setting them, or rather storing them, away in a dry shed. 
During the summer-time, having occasion to look after them, to his 
surprise he found the pots plentifully supplied with beautiful mushrooms. 
—JABEZ JAY CHATER. 

Use of Gas Lime as a Manure.—Is lime used in purifying gas 
of value as a manure for an old garden, or an’ old lawn? If so, how 
should it be applied >—D. F.——[The lime used in purifying gas is used 
asamannre. Itis considered good for cold, heavy land, and has the 
effect of Ialling wireworm and obnoxious insects. Four tons to the acre 
is the quantity usually applied. In some cases itis dug in as soon as it is 
put on the land; in others, left during the winter. It is so far powerful 
that, if allowed to remain in heaps, nothing will grow where they have 
been for some time. It cannot be used with safety asa surface. dressing ; 
it would certainly be unadvisable to employ it ona lawn. It might be 
used inold garden ground; but it must not be put near the roots of fruit 
trees inits fresh state. | 


THE PRUIT ‘GARDEN. 
PRUNING NEWLY-PLANTED TREES. 


Ty the case of most fruit trees, excepting maiden trees—i. c., 
young untrained ones—a prior question might often be asked, 
viz., is it necessary to prune the top at all? Certainly it does 
not seem a yery philosophical practice to plant a nice tree with 
a view to covering a given space with fruit, and then immedi- 
ately proceed, as is often done, to cut it all to pieces. Such treat- 
ment might be useful for forest trees, but is certainly worse 
than useless for fruit trees. It can only tend to the produc- 
tion of grass wood, and is certainly antagonistic to fertility. 
Still maiden trees must be pruned or cut back, and in doing so 
there are three things to be borne in mind. ‘The first is that 
the tree should be pruned to grow; the next that it should be 
made to grow in a right direction; and the last that it should 

.grow to a useful purpose: in other words, the tree must make 
wood, acquire shape, and become fruitful. Another prelimi- 
nary is, where and what shall we prune—the top or the root? 
Our answer is, both—the former chiefly as a means of forming 
the tree into shape, the latter mainly as a certain mode of 
throwing it into fruit. Transplantation is the most radical 
mode of root pruning, and consequently the most potent means 
of inducing fertility, provided always that the top is not too 
much reduced at the same time. Some planters contend for a 
reciprocity of mutilation of root and branch. Were wood only 
our object, this would be a safe rule; or rather the head of 
the tree might be reduced more than the roots. But as 
the production of wood in fruit culture is only a means 
to the chief end—the insuring of fruit—so the reduction of 
head should be less than the deprivation of roots. Only prac- 
tical experience can determine how much top the partially 
mutilated roots of any given tree can healthily sustain. Very 
much depends not only on the number, but also on the condi- 
tion of the roots. If the trees are moved at home, and planted 
immediately, little if any reduction of top will be needed ; 
whereas if the trees have travelled far, or grown very closely 
together. in a nursery, or been carelessly taken up, a 
greater reduction of head will be desirable. Much will also 
depend upon the future care of the roots. It is of the highest . 
import that these should be protected from frost, drought, and 
rupture. With such care they will support double or treble 
the area of top which they could nourish under other condi- 
tions. And the larger the top the newly moved roots can 
support, the sooner a fertile habit will be induced, and the more 
certainly will this fertility be perpetuated. 

Another consideration will, however, influence the extent of 
this cutting in or pruning of young trees—they must be made 
to grow into the desired form. Now the first step towards a 
perfect shape is the furnishing of the base of the tree with 
wood. Itisacommon saying with fruit-tree trainers: Take 
care of the bottom and the top will take care of itself. This is 
perfectly true, and originates in the fact that nature is bent 


438 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arr 6, 1872. 


upon raising the. tree straight up into the air rather than 
spreading it horizontally abroad over the earth. But on garden 
walls and such surfaces, whether tall or dwarf, the first branch 
is wanted to run parallel with the surface of the earth at a dis- 
tance of only six inches ora foot from it. This fact, then, must 
control the nature and extent of the cutting back. The entire 
shoot of the young tree is furnished with living buds; but if 
allowed to remain throughout its whole length, only the highest 
buds on the branch will break or grow imto other branches. 
Left to itself, the buds on the stem lower down would continue 
dormant for ever. They would not, could not, break into shoots, 
and therefore the tree would have no base. Tomake the bottom 
buds break the top must be removed. This operation is termed 
cutting-in the young tree. ‘The severity or otherwise of the 
process should be controlled by the height of the space to be 
covered, the character of the trees, and the distance they are 
planted from each other. 

The character of the tree is the most important considera- 
tion, as it determines both height and distance, and should be 
settled in the mind’s eye before a knife is allowed to touch 
the tree. Is it to be a rider or a dwarf, a bush, a horizontal, a 
fan, a pyramid, or a common orchard tree? In some cases 
we require a long, straight, naked stem; in others the shoots 
to break forth from quite near the surface of the earth. Fre- 
quently, in case of wall trees, the first thing we have to do is 
to lay a young shoot along the lower part of a wall; and to 
make it break regularly isan important consideration. This 
we may often manage, by bending the shoot or shoots down- 
wards. Thus, for instance, if the young shoot is laid along 
the wall in the position it is eventually to occupy, it will pro- 
bably fail to break in some parts of its length, and grow freely 
in others. ‘his is objectionable. Suppose the buds near the 
base of the shoots will not break, we \may force them to do so 
by bending down the point of the shoot, so that the eyes that 
refused to bud forth are left more elevated than the parts 
which were growing freely. This forces the dormant eyes to 
open, and then, after a while, we may raise the shoot to its 
allotted position. Paradoxical as it may appear, the smaller 
the tree the less severely it should be cut back; consequently, 
fan, vase, or bush-shaped trees, with many shoots, must be 


more severely cut back than cordons or dwarf espaliers, with 


only a few. 

What are termed riders are introduced to fill up vacancies 
on the higher parts of walls or fences, and hardly require a 
base. Their mission is temporary, and their upper portions 
alone are valuable. This fact, of course, will determine the 
character of their pruning. They will often need little or 
none. In vase or bush formed trees, again, the length of the 
stem will influence the extent of the cutting back; some may 
prefer a stem a foot, others two or three feet, high. It is also 
important, in forming such trees, to secure, if possible, enough 
shoots at once to form their entire framework; from four to 
eight shoots will generally suffice. It is well to twist or bend 
the leading shoots, to obtain these branches of.ncarly equal 
strength. Their leading shoots should also be bent outwards 
and downwards, to impart the proper form, develop the 
buds at their base, and to prevent overcrowding. This bending 
will reduce to a minimum the amount of cutting back the 
second season. The pruning of pyramids, again, differs from 
any of these. The form ever modifies the nature and extent 
of the cutting. A well-developed straight central stem, with 
a regular succession of nicely-balanced fruitful side branches, 
is the beaw ideal of a perfect pyramid. Width of base must 
be secured at starting; no after pruning can give it if not 
secured at first. This, with a healthy leader cut fearlessly in 
to furnish sufficient side branches, is all that is required to 
obtain good pyramids. When the trees are in vigorous growth, 
this leader should be stopped at least twice during the 
summer. Such stoppings will each produce crops of side 
branches; and then at the winter pruning, five or six inches 
or a foot of the leader may be left to produce another tier or 
two in the spring, and so on in continuity until the desired 
height and size are reached. 


The most severe pruning should be reserved for the common > 


fruit trees for orchards. The larger a tree is ultimately to 
become, the harder it must be cut back at starting. Such 
practice concentrates vital force, collects the entire energy of 


the plant into a focus of growing power; and for such trees 
strong vigorous growth is the first point. This lays a broad, 
healthy, solid foundation for quantity and quality of fruit in 
the future; it gives the trees a firm grip of the earth, and 
imparts stamina and constitution to the entire plant. This 
growth may readily be moulded into shape, and diverted into 
a fruitful channel—not, however, by the direct application of 
the knife after it is perfected. Summer toppings, mechanical 
twistings or bendings, and root pruning, are the grand 
panaceas for barrenness, and the direct promoters of fertility. 
Growth and the form of it are amenable to the laws of the 
knife and the rules of training; but fruitfulness cannot be 
thus directly summoned forth at our bidding. ‘To insure fruit, 
we must go deeper, and aim at the roots ; a wise application of 
the knife among these never fails to turn the entire energies 
of the tree into a fruitful channel. 1 


A GERMAN SCHOOL OF GARDENING. 
BY T. SCHWANN. 

“Tn science the German gardener is decidedly in advance of any 
other in Europe ; and in the routine of practice he is surpassed by 
none in steadiness, or, where he has leisure and is properly encouraged, 
in order and neatness.’’ So wrote Loudon, some twenty years ago. 
Foremost among Government schools for gardeners and fruit-growers 
on the Continent may be named the Pomological School of Proskan, 
in Prussian Silesia, represented by the sketch on next page. It is 
connected with the well-known Agricultural College of the same 
place, and affords accommodation for a staff of teachers and thirty- 
six resident students. As it is the object of the school to provide 
suitable education for all classes of cultivators, for convenience of 
study it has been divided into the three following departments :— 
1. School for gardeners (market gardeners, nurserymen, fruit- 
growers, &c.); 2. Superior school of horticulture and pomology ; 
3. Section for teachers, so calied “superintendents of trees,” and 
their assistants. ; 

To enter the first division, the applicant must be over seventeen 
years of age, and bring with him proofs of haying attended for at 
least half a year some school. If not provided with the needful 
certificate, he must be tested by an examination as to the amount 
of elementary and general knowledge he possesses, and in case of 
non-proficiency, takes his place for six or twelve months in a pre- 
paratory class. In the latter, the instruction imeludes, in addition 
to the ‘‘ three R’s,” and a little Latin and French, demonstrations in 
vegetable, vine, and fruit-tree culture, practice in distinguishing 
different varieties of fruit, &c. It is, of course, an advantage when 
the pupil has had some previous experience in practical gardening, 
but this is not made a sine qua non of admission to the institution. 

The programme of the School for Gardeners embraces, (1) as pre- 
liminary and fundamental branches of study :—Botany, chemistry, 
geology, physics, mineralogy, zoology, arithmetic, and mathematics ; _ 
(2) as chief or special branches :—Culture of plants with reference 
more especially to the raising of garden and orchard produce; 
lmowledge and nomenclature of fruits; choice of the most useful 
varieties of fruit, their requirements as to climate, situation, and 
soil; raising, planting, pruning, training, and general management 
of fruit trees on the roadside, and in the nursery, orchard, garden, 
orchard house, hedgerow, and open field (under grass or tillage) ; 
knowledge of the diseases and noxious insects affecting fruit trees 
and vegetables, and of remedies against the attacks of the same ; 
forcing of fruit; gathering, storing, drying, preserving, packing, 
and transport of different kinds; culture of the grape vine and 
smaller garden fruits; profits derived from fruit culture; manu- 
facture of cider, perry, and various wines; vegetable culture, 
including forcing ; floriculture ; growth of industrial crops; arbori- 
culture ; landscape gardening ; laying out of vegetable gardens and 
nurseries for fruit trees; plan-drawing, surveying, and levelling; 
(8) as auxiliary branches :—Book-keeping, apiculture, and the 
rearing of silk-worms, the latter accompanied by demonstrations. 

Students of the second division, or superior school of horticulture, 
do not attend lectures on general fundamental subjects at the insti- 
tution, but merely those on the special branches of the curriculum, 
The general preliminary subjects may be studied by those young 
men who have not passed through the first section of the school at 
the adjoining agricultural college. 

The complete course extends over four years, two of which are 
spent in the lower, and two in the upper, division, and, previous to 
leaving the establishment, each student is admitted to a final exami- 
nation, and receives a certificate testifying to the degree of profi- 
ciency he has attained. 

The instruction given in the third section is chiefly of a practical 


Aprit 6, 1872.) 


character, and relates more particularly to operations connected with 
the raising and improvement of fruit trees, and the management of 
coppice woods, plantations, orchards, &c. 

It is divided into two courses—a spring and summer one for the 
superintendents of trees above alluded to and their assistants ; and 
an autumn one, for schoolmasters and pupils of training establish- 
ments for teachers. 

In explanation of the fact that these classes of students—the 
superintendents and teachers—attend the institution in sufficient 
numbers to induce the authorities to form of them a division apart, 
it should here be mentioned that many parishes in Germany possess 
woods and orchards of considerable extent, and requiring for their 
management competent fruit-growers and arboriculturists, give the 
preference to yonng men who have distinguished themselves at well- 
known pomological schools. The salary of the superintendents of 
trees (‘‘ Biiumwarter,” as those appointed are called) amounts 
usually to about £30 per annum, and they are expected, when 
remunerated for their services at a certain fixed rate, to undertake 
the care, not only of the parish nurseries, plantations, &c., but also 
of those belonging to private individuals resident in the parish. It 
often happens that several parishes agree to appoint one superin- 
tendent among them, he entering intoa contract to find his own tools 
and assistants. 


THE GARDEN. 


439 


As regards the charge for instruction, for pupils of the preparatory 
class it is £3. 5s. per session, and for students of the School of 
Gardeners, £4. 10s. for the first and second, and £3 for the third 
and fourth sessions. Resident students being expected to take part 
in the operations of the garden-farm, pay nothing for their board, 
and the fee for lodging, fire, gas, washing, and all other etemteras 
together, only amounts to £2. 6s. perannum. The terms of admission 
to the second section are £6 for the first, £4 for the second, and 
£3 for the third and fourth semesters; whilst, on the other hand, 
the courses of the third division, those instituted for schoolmasters 
and superintendents of trees, are entirely gratuitous. In the case 
of ‘‘hospitants,’’ practical working gardeners, amateurs, garden 
proprietors, and others desirous of attending only one particular 
course, the fee varies with the position of the individual, and is 
fixed by the director. 

The farm attached to the institution covers about sixty acres, and 
affords the student, in its nurseries, orchards, plantations, fruit and 
kitchen gardens, shrubberies, stoves, orchard and greenhouses, &e., 
ample opportunity of familiarizing himself practically with the 
operations and modes of culture described in the lecture-room. 
Although not conducted with a view to profit, the produce raised 
on it is disposed of at the market price. 

The facility with which young men on leaving horticultural and 


A German School of Gardening. 


The attendance at Proskau of students intending to become 
schoolmasters is accounted for, on the other hand, by the necessity 
the latter are under—if they desire an appointment in any Govern- 
ment parochial school—of being able to give elementary instruction 
in field, garden, and orchard culture. 

The rural preparatory schools, as is the case with some of the 
écoles normales and primaires in France and Switzerland, have an 
orchard ground or garden attached to them, and the district school 
inspector must report periodically whether the same are properly 
utilized for educational purposes. 

Of the two buildings which the above sketch represents as 
connected by a miniature colonnade, and surrounded by tastefully 
laid ont grounds, that to the right is occupied by the resident teach- 
ers and pupils; the other contains the private apartments of the 
director, and the lecture hall, library, cabinet of natural history, and 
collections of different kinds belonging to the institution. On the 
director devolves not only the duty of controlling and superintending 
every department of the school, but also that of assisting in the work 
of tuition. Instruction is also imparted by professors of the Agri- 
cultural College, as well as, of course, by the resident staff of 
teachers, who haye under them a number of skilful practical 
gardeners. 


pomological schools, such as those of Proskau, Carlsruhe, Reutlingen 
Potsdam, and Klosterneuburg, obtain remunerative appointments in 
all parts of the Continent, testifies to the high estimation in which 
the above institutions are held, not merely as places of scientific 
and theoretical study, but also as practical training establishments. 

{When shall we have Government institutions of this kind in 
England ?] 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Fruit Tree Suckers.—Can I bud or graft on these choice sorts of 
fruit p—W.——[Suckers are sometimes used as stocks for budding or 
grafting upon; but they are inferior to seedlings for that purpose, as they 
are always more liable to reproduce suckers, and they have not the thrifty 
vigorous habit and the same power of forming as good roots as seedlings. 

Wash for Old Fruit Walls.—The walls in our old garden have 
become so full of nail-holes from long use that they harbour insects, I 
am afraid, to a great extent. How can I improve them without much 
expense ?—Sourm Hanrs.——[Wash them with a mixture of Portland 
cement, grey lime, and eopperas, which will not only fill up the nail-holes 
to some extent, but will also help to eradicate the insects. The mixture 
can be made of a lighter or darker tint, according to taste, by adding to 
it a little more or less yellow-ochre. ] 


44.0 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arrin 6, 1872. 


Seedling Fraits—Why do not our different varieties of fruit re- 
produce the same from seed? Why, if we plant the stone of a greengage 
plum, will it not always produce a greengage plum?—Frucrus. 
[Because of the principle of variation that exists in nearly all living things. 
But we cannot tell why the product of the stones of the same plum tree 
should differ from each other, any more than we ean tell why puppies of the 
same litter differ from each other. Wecan see, however, that the principle 
of variation is often stronger than that of inheritance of common features. | 

Cranberries.—I want to form a bed of these. Which sort is best, 
the European or American ? and in what soil do they best succeed ?— 
Hepzor.——/[The European Cranberry is in every way inferior to that 
which is so common in the swamps of New England and on the borders 
of American inland lakes; what is ealled there the “ bell-shaped,” which 
is a variety of Oxycoecos macrocarpus, is the largest. For tarts and 
preserves this kind is much esteemed. Although naturally it grows 
mostly in mossy, wet land, yet it may be easily crown in beds of peat 
made In any rather moist situations, and the berries will be increased in 
size if a little thoroughly rotted manure is added, and well imeorporated 
with the soil. A small bed will supply as much fruit as an ordinary 
family is likely to want. In the Kitchen garden at Hecktield isa bed 
near a cistern, from which it can be flooded. It consists of peat, and 
produces fruit in abundance. It is thought the plants bear all the better 
for being well watered when the fruit is setting. ] 


THE FLOWER (GARDEN: 


FLOWER GARDENING OF THE PRESENT DAY. 
BY T. BAINES. 

THE arrangement of flower gardens upon what is popularly known 
as the “‘ bedding system” has of late years met with almost general 
adoption. Every quarter of the globe has been placed under con- 
tribution fo furnish something to work out the present elaborate 
arrangement. It would be diificult to point to a single plant, grave 
or gay, old or new, that showed any disposition to submit to the 
necessary manipulation that has not been pressed into the service. 
Tt is true that from the first some, attached to old-fashioned flowers, 
unwillingly banished them to make way for the modern system; and 
even when some of their cherished friends were retained amongst 
the host of novelties that soon presented themselves, they could not 
enjoy their company, or look upon them with so much satisfaction as 
when seen under more natural conditions. Lately, too, we hare 
heard numbers admit that they have been too much influenced by 
that most despotic of tyrants, Fashion. Let us ask the question: 
Is the present system sound im practice, or in accordance with 
refined taste? Does it agree with the teachings of those admitted 
authorities, the Reptons, the Browns, the Loudons, and others, who 
made British gardening a life study ? or is it merely the offspring of 
that love of change which, alike regardless of the ruling principles of 
true art and correct taste, has impelled us to adopt a system diame- 
trically opposed to both ? The subject is important. Let us viewit 
dispassionately. From the broad landscape of a thousand acres 
down to the smallest parterre the arrangement should be in accord- 
ance with the teachings of that umerring guide, Nature. As 
applied to the general principles of culture, this is an axiom that 
meets with general assent; the same rule is applicable to the 
arrangement of every plant, individually and correlatively, with the 
whole of the different subjects that gc to make up the picture which, 
let it be large or small, ought to be governed by the same law. Is 
such the principle upon which the flower gardening of the present 
day is carried ont ? Nay, rather are not all the teachings of nature 
offen in the arrangement of colour, and more generally im the dispo- 
sition of form, ignored to an extent that would imply that all our 
preconceived notions of gardening were grounded on a wrong basis ? 
Nature abhors straight lines, geometrical formality, and those unna- 
tural combinations of colour which are the most prominent features 
in the bedding system; and the last phase of carpet-like planting 
is vastly more objectionable than anything that was attempted on 
the first introduction of the system. We don’t tattoo our faces, 
simply, I suppose, because it is not fashionable; but we tattoo our 
gardens with a vengeance... And what advantage does the arrange- 
ment of the present day hold over that which existed before ? The 
advocates of the system tell us that the picture is so far perfeci, 
that when once the plants employed have donned their summer garb 
there is no flaw—nothing on the wane, nothing approaching the 
sere and yellow leaf, such as is always to be seen amongst herba- 
ceous plants. This I grant; and it is the one solitary short-lived 
advantage, which leaves us for eight months out of twelve at our 
wit’s ends to make all sorts of shifts to cover bare beds with little 
nursery-like shrubs, or procure quantities of costly bulbs to be 
arranged in the same formal fashion as the summer occupants. We 
have so far viewed the system simply as an objectionable innovation, 
that has supplanted a better, because a more natural, a more refined, 
arrangement of the flower garden, that, with a great deal less labour, 


affords a seasonable charm of something whose beanties we at 
present realize, while others continually progressing will, in their 
season, play their part to encircle the year, and so give us a con- 
tmuous sufficiency in place of the present short-lived satiety. 

There is yet another and a most important consideration in rela- 
tion to the subject—namely, the great increase of labour which the 
bedding system involves; and in far the greater number of places 
there is no provision made to meet this additional labour; conse- 
quently, it is no wacommon occurrence to see places where all the 
more useful departments are left in comparative neglect. I recollect 
once going to see one of the largest bedding places in the ingdom— 
a place that could count its acres of flower garden and ribbon bor- 
ders, all one gaudy mass of colour. In front of the mansion, one of the 
finest landscapes in the country was completely spoiled by the blaze of 
colour in the foreground, heightened by the glare of coloured gravel 
paths. In the Kitchen garden the walks were bounded by the usual bor- 
ders, where once had stood numbers of fruitful dwarf apple trees that I 
had frequently seen in years gone by laden with frnit. These had 
been moved, to make room for the ribbons, scrupulously exact in 
every line. The gardener asked me what I thought of it. I said, 
“Which do you mean—the cultivated crop or the natural one? the 
ribbons, or the quarters inside?” ‘‘Oh, the weeds you allude to,” 
said he; “‘we have no time to remove them.” I made no reply. 
Thad frequently seen the place before the bedding system was 
introduced, when every department was well carried ont. Now, the 
rows of vegetables could not be seen for weeds, and the gooseberry and 
currant bushes were grown through and through with ‘thistles. 
There were fruit and plant houses by the dozen, the latter almost 
empty, their occupants, the bedding plants, being outside. The 
grapes, pines, peaches, &c., gave unmistakable evidence that their 
turn for attention did not come on until after the bedding plants 
Were seen to—in fact, the whole of the place was sacrificed to the 
bedding plants; and there are very great numbers of places where 
the same thine exists, only in a somewhat lessdegree. Yet, amongst 
the different plants that are used in this style of gardening there are 
many that are individually beautiful, and it would bea mistake to 
discontinue their use in moderate quantities, artistically arranged 
for summer decoration. It is the absence of such arrangement, 
coupled with a general crowding and an undue breadth of colour, 
that gives no repose. What do we generally find? A piece of 
ground, on which are arranged a number of beds edged with box or 
stone, real or imitation, intersected by narrow gravel paths; or we 
find a similar arrangement upon grass, the collective mass of colour 
occupying the whole space, except the strips of turf betwixt the 
beds; instead of the beds and their occupants being confined to 
something like one fourth, or at most, a third of the whole space, 
leaying a broad margin of grass so necessary to repose. Far the 
ereater number of modern flower gardens are similar to what a 
landscape painting would be without sky. In place of straight lines 
of colour, panels, or chains, in the different beds, an irregular 
admixture in each bed of several plants, diffrent in form and colour, 
are infinitely more effective to the well-trained eye. 

T have frequently noticed that at the end of the planting season, 
when the odds and ends of the whole family of bedding plants 
employed are planted on a piece of ground, as they sometimes are, 
withont any formal arrangement—something like what the late 
Donald Beaton used to call his “shot silk bed” —that they looked better 
than those in the flower garden. If my memory serves me right, 
Mr. Beaton’s bed was an admixture of Mangles’ variegated 
Geranium, and Purple King Verbena, planted in irregular patches, 
so as to cover the allotted space, and allowed to run one into the 
other, without any attempt at training. So far as my own taste 
goes, I look upon this as the most pleasing combination in the shape 
of blooming bedding plants. Fe 

Oh, yes! [think I hear some one saying; but the difficulty of 
avoiding the bare beds during winter and spring can be got over with- 
out resorting to shrubs or bulbs, by employing some of the numeroms- 
hardy herbaceous spring-blooming plants. I answer simply, that 
when hardy spring-flowering plants are used after the same fashion 
as the summer bedders, the arrangement is just as objectionable as 
is the summer bedding system. We sometimes hear gardeners say . 
that the fault of the present system rests with the ladies, who are 
so much enamoured with it that nothing else will please. To some 
extent, this may possibly be trae; but Iam certain of one thing, 
that twenty years ago there used to be a general striving amongst 
gardeners as to who should be able to say that he bedded ont more 
plants than his neighbours. If A had fifty thousand, B was not 
content until he had a hundred thousand; C would out-do both, by : 
using double that number. There is one certainty in the matter, that 
if gardeners have, in a great measure, brought the system upon them- 
selves, they have had ample atonement to make for so doing. The 
extra labour it has thrown upon them they alone know. 


Arrit 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


441 


LOAM A CURE FOR THE VERBENA “DISEASE.” 

Bur a few years ago the Verbena was a universal favourite, easily 
propagated, relied upon as a good grower and permanent bloomer, 
and, in fact, considered indispensable as a bedding or border plant. 
Now it is so little esteemed for such purposes, that in many places 
where it was once grown by the thousand, it is not to be seen at all. 
How is this to be accounted for? It is not because we have found 
a better substitute, for among the different varieties of the Verbena 
we have the richest grades of colour, the greatest profusion of bloom, 
and plants of a most accommodating habit. But if we ask almost 
any gardener of twenty years’ experience, he will tell us that the 
Verbena does not grow nowadays as it used to do, and therefore he 
dare not trust it. This is about the truth. There does seem to be 

a veritable difficulty in getting it to grow asit once did; and in 
these days, when a blank in the parterre would be an almost 
unpardonable offence, the once popular favourite has been discarded. 
The plants get weak and wiry, the foliage assumes a rusty look, 
the blooms are few and miserable, and, in fact, the plants refuse to 
grow altogether. These are the characteristics of the Verbena 
disease as a general rule, and although it may be due to various 
causes, I am strongly inclined to think that it is a question of soil 
principally. In short, I blame leaf mould for being the ruin of the 
Verbena. Since the present bedding style commenced, and flower 
beds and borders have had to be cleared annually, it has been the 
custom to manure regularly for the next season’s occupants; and as 
leaf mould in some form or other forms the staple of the procurable 
manure for the flower garden, it has been added to our flower beds 
year after year, until the original staple, a good loam perhaps, has 
nearly disappeared, giving place to a spongy depth of leaf mould, 
which is a good compost sometimes when used in moderation, but 
few plants will thrive long upon it alone. Some plants, indeed, 
dislike it, and amongst these is the Verbena, which, according to my 
experience, never thrives on light soil, or in soils where humus is in 
excess. A loam verging upon clay is far preferable. 

Some years ago I received some Verbena plants from a friend 
which were so strong and vigorous as to make me doubt whether I 
had got the true variety. I found, however, that their vigour was 
due entirely to the strong loam, and nothing else, in which the plants 
were potted. Since that time I have used loam almost pure for the 
Verbena, when I could afford it, and have never failed to have fine 
plants and a good display of bloom; while, when our beds have had 
to go without the usual dressing of loam, my success has only been 
indifferent, but on such occasions we plant fewer Verbenas. In the 
dry season of 1868 I had the beds where I intended to plant Purple 
King and Crimson King Verbenas scooped out a foot deep, and filled 
with fresh chopped loam, in which a little cow dung was mixed, and 
the whole turned over with what natural soil was left in the 
bed. The plants grew with extraordinary vigor, and were one 
sheet of bloom the whole summer, notwithstanding the trying 
drought. Our stock plants are potted in sifted loam and sand in 
autumn, and the spring-struck plants are boxed off in the same 
material till bedding-out time. It is a bad plan to coddle Verbenas 
in pots. Onur chief difficulty has been to get good cuttings in 
autumn for winter stock. Last season, having planted but few 
Verbenas in consequence of our stock of loam being used up for 
other purposes, we secured but an indifferent stock of cuttings, that 
have left us short for this season. But in future we intend growing 
our stock plants on liberally during the summer, without allowing 
them to bloom; by so doing I doubt not we shall get a good crop 
in spring. I would strongly advise your readers to try loam for 
their Verbenas at all stages. In boxing off newly-struck cuttings 
a little sand may be mixed with the loam, and if the latter is very 
heavy a slight addition of leaf mould may be added, just to prevent 
the soil from caking in the boxes. In every case the soil for young 
bedding plants—of any kind, indeed, that are planted in boxes or 
pans—should be sifted through a half-inch sieve. The advantage 
of this will be found at planting-time, as the roots will be easily 
disentangled from each other; whereas, if the plants had been 
growing in rough, turfy material, this could not be done without a 
great loss of roots.—J. S. W., in “ Field.” 


PLANTS TO BE NATURALIZED. 


Berore introducing a plant into a neighbourhood, those who are 
carrying out the course recommended in that delightful book ‘‘The 
Wild Garden,” should first ascertain its characteristics, whether 
it be of a rampant or rapidly-growing nature ; else they run a risk 


of losing old favourites, which will be smothered out, or space will 
be overrun which may be more profitably occupied. These remarks 
apply especially to small places, where all waste ground should be 
beautified by the establishment of hardy free-flowering plants. 
However attractive many flowers are when occurring at intervals’in 
woodland glades and walks, there are comparatively few of the 
rampant kinds which can be tolerated in profusion, to the exclusion 
of their more delicate and precious brethren. I speak feelingly. 
The Pyrenean Valerian is an attractive flower when it raises its 
lively green foliage and rosy-lilac umbels of flowers singly or in 
groups in the shady parts of wild woods, but it becomes a nuisance 
if allowed to spread to the extent it will if undisturbed, as it has 
in a small wood under my house. There are several other plants 
of like habit which are recommended somewhat indiscriminately by 
enthusiasts in wild gardening, but there are others of which it is 
impossible to have too many. Wandering one day in the neighbour- 
hood of “ Gruigfoot,” a queer-shaped hill in Linlithgowshire, 
my eye was attracted by a small burn whose banks were literally 
jewelled throughout its visible course with an unfamiliar yellow 
flower. A nearer approach showed me that it was the garden 
Mimulus (Monkey Flower), the seed of which must have escaped 
from some neighbouring cottage garden, and established itself here, 
in the coldest part of the British Isles. I took the hint, and have 
naturalized it by the banks of a small stream which runs at the 
foot of my garden, and I strongly recommend your readers to do 


the same. 
is equally hardy. 


EARLY 


It mingles charmingly with the blue Forget-me-Not, and 


SALMONICEPS. 


FLOWERS. 


The following plants have been in flower in the garden at Drayton- 
Beauchamp Rectory from February 1st to March 13th :— 


Allium Chamemoly 

Arabis albida 

A. arenosa 

A. blepharophylla 

A. grandiflora 

A. lucida 

A. lucida variegata 

A. bellidifolia 

A. procurrens . 

procurrens variegata 

stricta 

A. rosea 

Anemone blanda 

A, Pulsatilla 

A. ranunculoides 

Alchemilla vulgaris 

Aubrietia greca 

A. purpurea 

A. variegata 

Bulbocodium vernum 

B. Planti 

Corydalis speciosa 

C. cava pallida 

Calendula arvensis 

Celsia Arcturus 

Chrysosplenium alternifo- 
lium 

Cheiranthus Cheiri, var. 

C..C. fl. pleno, various 

C. hybrid fruticulosus and 
alpinus 

(This Cheiranthusis across 
between C. alpinus and 
fruticulosus.) 

C. Bocconi 

Crocus aureus (Barton 
Park) 

C. biflorus 

C. chrysanthus 

C. imperati 

C, lagenzeflorus 

C. luteus 

C. minimus (Barton Park) 

C. Sieberi 

C. susianus 

C. sulphureus 

C. s. striatus 

C. suaveolens (Rome) 

C. yernus, various 

C. versicolor, various 

Cyclamen Coum 

C. Atkinsii 

C. ibericam 

Draba aizoides 

D. laxa 

Dentaria digitata 

Daphne Mezereum 

Dondia Epipactis 

Doronicum caucasicum 

Erica herbacea 

Eranthis hyemalis 

Erysimum helyeticum 


atic 


Erythronium albidum 
E. dens-canis 

Ficaria pallida 
Forsythia viridissima 
Gagea lutea 
Galanthus nivalis 

G. flore pleno 

G. plicatus 
Helleborus atrorubens 
H. colchicus 

H. feetidus 

H. niger 

H. viridis 

Hepatica angulosa 

H. triloba alba 

H., t. rubra 

H. t. r. plena 

H. t. errulea 

H. t. c. plena 


_ Hyacinthus belgicus 


H. precox (Roman) 
Hyoscyamus orientalis 
Iberis gibraltarica 

I. semperflorens 
Tonopsidium acaule 
Jasminum nudiflorum 
Lamium maculatum 
Leucojum vernum 
Linum flayum 
Mahonia Aquifolium 
Medicago arborea 
Mertensia virginica 
Muscari botryoides 
M. b. flore albo 

M. b. flore pallido 
M. Heldreichii 

M. pallens 

M. racemosum 

M. Strangwaisi 

M. moschatum 
Narcissus aurantius 
N. minor 

N. minimus 

N. major flore pleno 
N. pumilus 

N. Pseudo-Narcissus 
N. Stella 

N. spurius 
Omphalodes verna 
Oxalis acetosella lilacina 
Petasites alba 
Primula altaica 

P. auricula 

P. cortusoides 

P. denticulata 

P. elatior (Jacquin) 
P. e. (Britain) 

P. e. flore pleno 

P. e. Hose in Hose 
P. marginata 

P. macrocalyx 

P: veris 


The Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, Tring. 


Primula vulgaris 
(various) 

P. y. double lilac 

P. vy. double white 

P. vy. double yellow 

P. y. double French white 

Pulmonaria vulgaris 

P. vy. flore albo 

P. mollis 

P. grandiflora 

Scilla bifolia 

5. b. alba 

S. nivalis 

S. rosea 

S. sibirica 

Saxifraga oppositifolia 

S. 0. alba 

Scrophularia verna 

Scopolia carniolica 

Vinea minor 

V. m. flore albo 

Viburnum Tinus 

Viola blanda 

V. hirta 

V. tricolor 

V. suavis 

V. semperflorens 

V. neapolitana fi. pl. 

V. n. Marie Louise 

V. odorata 


V.o. fl. albo 

V. o. fi. lilacino 

V. 0. preecox (Russian) 
V. 0. romana 

V. o. Czar 

V. o. Giant 

V. fl. pl. cxzruleo 

¥. fl. pl. albo 

V. fl. pl. rubro 

Y. fi. pl. the Queen 


Myosotis dissitiflora 

Orobus cyaneus 

O. vernus 

O. vy. fl. pleno carneo 

Sisyrinchium grandi- 
florum 

Saxifraga cymbalaria 

Androsace coronopifolia 

Phlox procumbens 

Narcissus ornatus 


N. odorus 


N. bicolor 

Corydalis solida > 
Pulmonaria sibirica 
Ribes sangnuineum 

R. s. flore pleno 

R. s. flore pallido 
Epimedium grandiflorum 
E. pinnatum elegans 
Asarum europeum 
Cochlearia danica 
Doronicum Clusii 


H. Harper Crewe. 


AAD 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arrit 6, 1872. 


THE HARDY PALM. 


Were we to ask botanists—those manufacturers of species—to be 
so good as to point out the differences which exist between Chamerops 
excelsa (Thunb.), C. Fortunei (Hook), C. sinensis (Hort.), and C. 
japonica (Hort.), they would, we imagine, be for once puzzled. 
Gardeners would be less so; they would solye the question in these 
few words: ‘They are all the same species; ’’ and they would be 
right. Accordingly, we believe the true synonymy of this species 
should be tabulated as follows :—Chamerops excelsa (Thunb.), C. 
Fortunei (Hook), C. sinensis (Hort.), C. japonica (Hort.), Trachi- 
carpus excelsa (Wendl.). Following the rule established by botanists, 
we support the authority of the earliest nomenclature, and we also 
invite our colleagues to imitate our example and adopt the specific 
name excelsa, in honour of the celebrated traveller Thunberg, who 
was the first to make us acquainted with this fine species. This 
would be an act, not merely of gratitude, but of justice.—Revue 
Horticole. 


SOLANUM ROBUSTUM. 


Asa flower garden foliage-plant this is a subject of consider- 
able merit, and one of those most suitable for the climate of 
our southern counties. It requires a warm sunny aspect in a 
position which will be at the same time airy and sheltered 
from strong winds. Tt isa Brazilian species with a vigorous 
much-branching stem more than three feet high, and furnished 
with very sharp and strong spines and densely-set, long, red- 
dish, viscous hairs. The leayes, which are very large, are of a 


Solanum robustum. 


rich brown colour on the upper surface and oval-elliptical in 
form, with eight or nine oval-acute lobes, the upper ones nearly 
triangular ; and the midrib and principal veins, which are of a 
brown colour, are closely set with spines similar to those on 
the stem. The flowers are white, with orange stamens, and 
are borne in unilateral clusters. ‘The berries are round, of 
a brown colour, and the size of a small cherry. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Worms on Lawns.—In order to get rid of these take up the turf 
and relay it on an inch of fine coal ashes ; if the grass is weakly, spread a 
thin coating of good fine soil on the ashes before laying the turf down. 
There will be no fear of the grass burning in dry weather; the wet soil, 
which induces the worms to make their appearance, will keep the ashes 
moist and cool. Thorough draining would also remedy the evil, but as 
the turf would sink over the drains, it would involve as much trouble as 
relaying. . I have several times used ashes for this purpose, and always 
with success.—JAMES TAPLIN, South Amboy, New Jersey, United States. 


Yucea recurva as a Town Plant.—Holly, Box, Aucuba, and the 
hardier and more vigorous kinds of Rhododendrons are generally con- 
sidered to be the best of all evergreens for cities. We are strongly in- 
clined to think this better than any of them. We have observed it in all 
stages of growth in London and its suburbs, and everywhere doing well, 
when well planted in good, deep, and well drained loam. The fact 
that it is so totally distinct from our ordinary types of garden vegetation 
of course enhances its value greatly. At first sight one would hardly 
expect this native of plains bathed always in a golden sun, to prove such 
a noble plant in our great fog-pested, sunless London. 

Cotoneaster for Walls.—Among the plants seldom used for this 
purpose is the Cotoneaster microphylla, a plant second to few as an ever- 
green climber for walls and fences of moderate height. We saw it not 
long ago covering almost the entire front of a porter’s rustic lodge, on 
which it had been trained. The shoots were trained vertically, about 
four inches apart, and perfectly straight, to a height of ten or twelve 
feet; while the side shoots having been carefully pinched, looked the 
neatest of cordons. This is by far the best and most convenient plan of 
training this plant. The Cotoneaster is generally plentiful about most 
gardens asa low, semi-trailing shrub, and those who think of using it as 
a climber may soon make a good start, by taking up as long pieces as 
they can find, with a bit of rootto each; cutin the straggling side shoots, 
and plant the pieces close together against the wall, and nail up perpen- 
Sore In this way we have covered six feet of the wall at once.— 

Marechal Niel Rose asa Weeper.—I have a magnificent specimen 
of this budded on the Dog Rose and trained asa “‘weeper.” Itisplanted 
in the open air, and protected from the north and east winds by matting. 
It has now more than twenty bloom buds, but little foliage. Can you 
advise me as to the best treatment? I fear none of the buds will come 
to anything, and the whole strength of the plant seems concentrated in 
them, and not in making foliage or wood. J haye little or no soft water. 
Ts hard water injurious to plants ? and, if so, are there any means whereby 
its hardness may be tempered P—HErBerr MInLiIneron.- Mr. George 
Paul, of Cheshunt, to whom your query has been sent, says :—If there 
are plenty of unbroken eyes left in the shoots upon which the bloom buds 
are, the better way would be to prune back to one, and let the plant brealk 
afresh from the dormant or unshot eyes. Hard water should be exposed 
twenty-four hours to the atmosphere before it is used. Have two 
large tubs filled on alternate days, and always use that filled the day 
previously. | 


THE TOWN FLOWERS’ PETITION. 


WE flowers and shrubs in cities pent, 
From fields and country places rent 
(Without our own or friend’s consent), 
In desperate condition, 
Yet on no wilful outrage bent, 
Do humbly here petition. 


Whereas, against our silent wills, 

With loss of sun and purling rills, 

Cooped up in pots, on window sills, 
In rickety old boxes, 

The cities’ breath our beauty kills, 
And makes us grey as foxes. 


Condemn’d in walls of brick and lime, 

In narrow beds of clay and slime, 

To ope our buds and shed our prime, 
We need some kind defender ; 

We pray, oh, let us live our time! 
And we are very tender ! 


Oh, cheat us not of Heaven’s dews! 

Nor air (however stale) refuse ; 

God knows ’tis little we can use, 
So choked are all our vitals. 

No slightest care will we abuse, 
Nor fail in fond requitals. 


We'll breathe you delicate perfumes, 
We'll clad your eyes with choicest blooms, 
But do not shut us up in rooms 

Or stifling crowded places ; 
The sky, m clouds, a light assumes 

To us far lovelier faces. 


Our sooty and bedraggled fate 

(Our ever-greens turn chocolate), 

Do you ascribe to spite or hate ? 
No ; we are sure you love us; 

Yet, half ashamed, we beg to state, 
We love the sun above us. 


Then treat us in your gentlest ways, 
And next unto the sun’s own rays, 
With beauty’s homage, incense-praise, 
We ever will caress you, 
And to the ending of our days 
In grateful silence bless you. 
—All the Year Rownd. 


~ Aprit 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


4.43 


THE "LIBRARY. 


“THE MOUNTAIN.” * 


“Tie Mountain!” How suggestive the word to all who have 
any experience of travel in an elevated region! It is true 
there are mountain tracts, like an enormous region of the Rocky 
Mountains for example, which are as arid as a limekiln; but 
happily in northern and in temperate countries this is an excep- 
tion. We know but 
little of mountains in 
this country. pee - ~=- 
are so few and suc ~=q 
dwarfs that they give 
us no more idea of oan pews 
the nobler mountain —— 
chains than babies do 
of men. It is where 
a whole country is 
lifted up on the shoul- 
ders of a range that 
one really sees moun- 
tain beauty. To grasp 
and describe such 
scenes in all their 
breadth and signifi- 
cance is work for a 
Ruskin; for us the 
vegetation is the all- 
absorbing theme, and 
it is on the sountain 
in which the spirit of 
vegetation has  pro- 
duced the most lovely 
results. Hot eastern 
isle, with its Palms 
and gorgeous Orchids; 
Brazilian forest, famed 
everywhere for luxu- 
riant beauty; gorgeous 
meadows of bulbs at 
the Cape, or fairest 
scenes of our gardens, 
are as nothing com- 
pared with the loveli- 
ness one sees on many 
parts of the Alps. 
The scenes on the 
flanks of many a great 
alp haye been aptly 
described as affording 
the best pictures of 
Paradise which this 
earth contains; and 
the great mountain is 
not only a home for 
the lovely alpine 
flowers, or the thou- 
sands of herbaceous 
plants that blossom 
on its side, but nearly 
all the great trees of 
the earth are moun- 
taineers. The giant 
trees of California are 
almost without excep- 
tion mountaineers. It 
is the same away in the southern hemisphere. Mr. Henry Kings- 
ley has lately shown us some of his sketches of various kinds of 
trees two hundred feet high, growing on the lofty mountains of 
South Australia, and between these giants and the brilliant gems 
we call “alpines” what a vast variety of lovely plants scramble 
over all the vast mountain chains of this mite of a globe of 
ours! This is another of the remarkable books written by M. 

* The Mountain. From the French of Michelet. By the Translator of ‘‘ The 


Bird.”’ With 54 illustrations from desi, by Percival Skelton. Lond d 
Edinburgh: T. Nelson & Sons, Tale a ra ee 


bres most ~ happy 


The Lake of Geneva and surrounding mountains. 


Michelet, and published by Messrs. Nelson, beautifully printed, 
and illustrated ina superb manner. The following on the moun- 
tain forests of Europe will sufficiently indicate M. Michelet’s 
mode of dealing with his subject :— 


“On the lowermost terrace of the grand amphitheatre of the 
mountains, bloom the lofty Chestnuts, forming a venerable vestibule 
to the forest itself. Patriarchs are these, and animated by a strong 
spirit of kinship. Less ambitious than fertile, the central tree is 
wide of girth, and though it does not lift its head to any towering 

height, it flings off, in 

every direction, five or 

= . six sturdy saplings, the 
progeny which 
compensates it for the 
wounds it suffers and 
for the losses it under- 
goes. Wrinkled and aged 
as it may be, this parent 
trunk still flourishes 
greenly, and rejoices at 
the sight of its children. 
The latter cling to it 
strongly ; yea,sostrongly 
that frequently they are 
soldered to its trunk, 
and parent and offspring 
inter- 


grow strangely 
mingled. The Chestnut 


loves a soil of granite, 
or of calcareous sand, 
whose warm radiation 
it can feel with far 
extending roots. It does 
not dread a lava soil, 
to which it takes while 
it is still heated, pene- 
trating into its black 
entrails. On the extinct 
voleanoes of Auvergne 
it lodges in the very 
eraters, and even in 
their yawning mouths, 
embellishing them 
with its verdurous 
youth. 

“The real dense forest 
commences, at a higher 
level, with the Beech. 
If the shade cast by its 
thick foliage is too 
gloomy, in compensation 
its aspect is gay and 
laughing, and bids you 
trust yourself to its 
care, penetrate beneath 
its lofty vault,and ascend 
with it the mighty 
mountains. You find it 
everywhere, from the 
Apennines to Norway. 
You meet with this 
Fagus of Virgil, which 
sheltered ‘Tityrus, in 
the lands of the North. 
The vigorous life of the 
mountain, the healthy 
existence of its broad 
cinctures, maintains in 
friendship two trees of 
great sociality but widely 
different character—the 
Green Beech and the Black Fir. The beech laughs, the fir 
weeps: it matters not. They come together on the same heights. 
Sometimes they are found intermingled, but more generally as 
neighbours. They share the domain between them. ‘The beech 
grows on the southern side, the fir on the northern, on the sunless 
slopes, plunging down even into the low damp valley, gloomy with 
its shroud of mist. It is the great white fir (Abies pectinata) I 
speak of. <A giant, attired in two-fold livery of woe, white within 
and black without. .The snow rests on the long sombre wings of its 
far-stretching and vigorous branches; and if they bend beneath 


“444 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 6, 1872. 


the weight, and groan in their double grief, it does but increase the 
solemn character of the tree. Is it an immense phantom? ‘There 
are momeuts when one would think so. Bristling at times with icy 
crystals, it resembles a formidable bird expanding its wings of 
menace. In the countries of the South men look upon it as 
funereal, but in the North they love it. On the shores of the 
Baltic, from the sands of Prussia to the Siberian deserts, it affords 
a lasting refuge and an enduring consolation. Here it is the sayiour 
and true guardian of the mountain, in whose protection the two 
great labourers, the fir and the beech, both unite. It is there they 
achieve their splendid mission, the real and proper function of the 
forest. You must remember that at great elevations, and in the 
narrow table-lands, the forest dwindles almost to nothingness; but 
that at our present stand-point, at the mountain base, or midway 
up its slopes, it is still of immense extent, and its labour prodicions. 
This labour is two-fold. Tirst, it reccives, arrests, and breaks up 
the floods from the upper peaks, which would otherwise devastate 
the mountain. On the other hand, it incessantly enriches its soil 
and repairs its losses. It accumulates its wealth of dead leayes 
upon its surface. It fixes its masses of floating matter. Like a 
powerful organ of aspiration, it arrests on their passage the foes 
and the dense mists, and all that in conjunction with them circulates 
in the thick atmospheric medium. How pleasant it is to walk in the 
shade of the firs! Always clean and free from obstacle, the ground 
underneath them affords a noble idea of purity. What can be 
purer than the air, with its healthful odours? How soothing a 
sense of tranquillity gradually steals upon you! 

“T know not how to define the lively energy which takes possession 
of us in these higher regions. We lose sight of the great melancholy 
fir; for the air becomes too cold, its long arms are too great to 
battle with the convulsions of the upper air. A more robust tree 
is needed, with short branches, which will not require to bear so 
heavy a mass of snow—a courageous tree, a mountaineer, gorged 
with resin, completely penetrated and protected by it! Such is the 
Picea, that hardy alpine athlete, which struggles upwards to the 
most inaccessible steeps, and clings to the yery edge of the preci- 
pices. It dreads nothing but the mists and humidity of the lower 
grounds. It will face the cold, but it seeks a wholesome air. With 
its four rows of stomata it greedily absorbs the sunshine. By 
climbing upwards, it gets rid of the strong stimulating food of the 
inferior levels, the exciting influences of the fermented life. It 
enjoys a purer and loftier stimulus—that of the atmosphere and the 
light, and, at times, the summons of the Fcehn and the electricity of 
the storm. The Picea does not own the extended wings of the 
white fir. It sacrifices all extraneous branches, and enriches itself 
with foliage, which it wraps around eyery bough, darting and 
aspiring in eyery direction, and feeding it with nourishment and 
strength All its thought is to rear itself aloft like a pillar, or like 
the tall mast of a vessel, which, braving to-day the mountain gale, 
to-morrow shall brave the ocean. These courageous trees lavish no 
outlay upon themselyes—no Juxury, no ornament. They have far 
different cares on the perilous decliyities where they climb to the 
assault. The wind is icy cold, the rock is bare; but still they 
mount. They stretch abroad, and attach, as best they may, their 
meaere roots, and with difficulty attain a footing. It is by pressing 
closely to one another, by drawing up their serried ranks and 
legions, that they support themselyes, and, at the same time, support 
the mountain. In the crises of great inundations the mountain, 
without their assistance, would be lost. It bursts open—it yawns 
apart; and the furious waters, profiting by these clefts, and 
enlarging them, ruining and demolishing, pour headlong on their 
desperate path towards the yalley, where the Piceas stand forward 
to arrest them. 

“You might imagine that you heard the mountain exclaiming, 
‘ My children, be firm.’ But, lo! from above, a monster avalanche 
of snow, and ice, and rock, pel] mell, starts forward with a frightful 
shock, and comes leaping from point to point. Woe to the Piceas ! 
Tt is upon them the first fury of this awful tempest falls. They 
shriek, they crack. One moment engulfed, they have disappeared. 
Good Heaven, in what condition shall we sce them again? Ovyer- 
turned, with theiz roots in the air, and miserably shattered! Oh, 
lamentable ruin! However, with their pointed tops they have 
broken the force of the blow, as was recently remarked in, the 
Pyrenees, near Baréges, where, indeed, the avalanche was some- 
thing more than a mass of snow. It was a downfall of ice-blocks, 
which swept away everything. All the Piceas perished, but they 

2 
sayed the valley. (Lo be continued). 


Tvies.—Mr, Shirley Hibberd, who for some years past has devoted 
much attention to these, has in the press a volume upon the subject 
entitled ‘The Ivy: a Monograph,” which, we understand, will be 
published shortly. 


no help for it. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 

The Fortnightly Review (Chapman & Hall, London) ;—Agriewltural 
Returns of Great Britain (Eyre & Spottiswoode, London) ;—Plants, the 
Harth, and Minerals, by George Beker (W. Macintosh, Paternoster Row) ; 
—Facts about Flowers, by “H. W.’ (Hamilton & Co., and Simpkin & 
Co., London) ;—La Coulwre dw Raisin, by Charles Baltet (Dufour- 
Bouquot, Troyes) ;—Italy in England: a Practical Treatise on the Culti- 
vation of Choice Fruits, Flowers, S’c. (Houlston & Sons, London) ;—The 
Illustrated Book of Poultry, by L. Wright (Cassell, Petter, & Galpin, 
London) ;—The Fairfield Orchids (Bradbury, Evans, & Co, London), 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


BIRDS IN GARDENS. 


I HAVE read the sixth chapter of Mr. Reynolds Hole’s tale, ‘The Six 
of Spades,” but, notwithstanding Miss Susan’s special pleading for 
the birds, I still contend that, where woods and shrubberies abound, 
some must be killed if any fruits are to be eaten. Bullfinches, for 
instance, sing divinely, but in many gardens they clear trees and 
bushes of buds as the sun melts snow. They eat many, and strew 
the ground broadcast with hundreds more, as if in sheer wantonness. 
The gardener who is held responsible for the dessert, cannot afford 
to accept their full complement of song as a recompense for a poor 
dessert. It is easy to write, bar out the birds with nets, but almost 
impossible to doit. I haye counted five hundred birds in a garden 
on a summer morning» Let a hard drought send these perforce to 
live on fruit, and haye it they will by hook or by erook. There is 
They rush headlong at the nets, using their heads 
as battering rams, and their open mouths as breach-cutters ; and in 
they go. All of us are familiar with their doings inside. They not 
only eat, they feast and destroy. Unless nets can indeed be made 
invulnerable, which they seldom are, it is better to dispense with 
them altogether. Hyen the presence of nets seems to excite their 
appetites, and in very spite, if you save your strawberries, the birds 
will often riddle your green apples, pears, and peaches. No; where 
birds are in excess, we cannot save our fruit unless we convert our 
gardens into huge iron cages by coyering the fruit with wire netting 
from wall to wall. 
or gun, cr destroy their eggs. I know this is a sore point in many 
establishments, and hence I have adverted toit. My sentiment is 
wholly with Mr. Hole—or rather his admirable creation, Miss Susan; 
but my sense is with Joseph Grundy ; and yet I loye the music of 
the groves. 

But the orchestra may be too large for our means. It needs an 
enormous garden and an exorbitant outlay for netting to keep up a 
choir of five hundred songsters. And is there no cruelty in barring 
the birds out from their food with nets? J should like to ask Miss 
Susan this question: Which is worst for the birds—a sudden passage 
from song to silence at the end of Joseph Grundy’s gun; or the 
lingering wail of slow and sure starvation within sight and smell of 
plenty just outside her fruit protectors? Were I a bird, I know 
which death I should choose. J suppose no one will contend that 
there is any more harm in killing birds than in destroying an ant or 
an aphis? In the fostering and perfecting of vegetable life and its 
produce, we have to deal destruction to many forms of animal life ; 
and when birds threaten to mar or eat up the works of our hands, 
we are compelled to restrain their mischief and reduce their 
numbers. I never, however, met a true gardener who had much 
pleasure in this work, and the birds are tolerably safe in their hands. 
But for the inordinate care in the preservation of game, and conse- 
quent destruction of hawks and all other birds of prey, we should 
probably neyer had to interfere to regulate and reduce the number 
of fruit and seed eating birds, and so rectify the balance of feathered 
life as to ensure a crop of fruit. D. T. Fisx. 


BULLFINCHES. 


Mr. Incram’s remarks on bullfinches (sce p. 357) exactly accord 
with my experience in regard to these little depredators, which 
attack plum and cherry trees just when their buds are expanding. 
Bullfinches are, however, never plentiful in this locality, some years 
being quite free from them, and when they do appear, they are only 
in small families or pairs ; but they can do much mischief in a short 
time amongst buds. A small cultivator in this neighbourhood, who 
has an orchard of young plum trees, told me that one day, when he 
was away from home, alittle colony of bullfinches nearly destroyed all 
the blossom-buds on his trees; and, of course, there was an end of 
the crop for that year. He has since placed a stuffed cat on a tree 
in the centre of his orchard when the trees are coming into bud; and 
has thus saved them ever since from injury. 

The plague of small birds in gardens when they are numerous is 
very disheartening; for netting all the fruit that are subject to 


Hither this, or pop off a few of them with trap 


THE GARDEN. 


445 


Aprin 6, 1872.] 


their depredations is expensive, much more so than the gun tax. 
Many kinds of small birds, such as the finches and others, earn their 
salt by destroying insects and the seeds of noxious weeds; but 
others, as sparrows, blackbirds, and thrushes, require keeping within 
bounds, when too numerous. Every year we are told by small-bird 
protectors that if we destroy our small birds too much, our crops 
will. be eaten up by insects, as they are in France. Our British 
small birds, however, seem to be different in their habits, especially 
sparrows; for they care very little about insects if they can get 
anything else in the shape of grain, buds of trees, and young peas 
to eat. Wibniam TILLERY. 


WAR WITH INSECTS ON PEACH TREES. 


Att the time I can spare is, at present, spent at the peach wall. 
I do not believe in being too early at disbudding if insects are 
plentiful. One can in a few minutes take off buds—useless buds 
—which if ieft a day or two longer, would have sheltered thousands 
of aphides. The tree is not checked to the extent imagined by 
some ; not so much, in fact, as when the leaves get more developed. 
Shoots which are close to the wall or the old wood, ard consequently 
sheltered, are those chosen by the insects. Most of these shoots 
are not wanted; why then leaye them for the increase of insects ? 
In going over the trees eyery day, many of the full-grown winged 
aphides fall victims to squeezes of the finger and thumb. I have, 
on a fine day, when numbers of these have been darting in and out, 
taken a fresh painted board, just the length of the width of the 
wall, and carried it along as close as possible to the trees. The 
shade of it causes these winged gentlemen to dart out, and they 
are caught in the paint. Thousands of little snails, not much bigger 
than a pin’s head, yet having voracious appetites, are also caught. 
They begin to peel the young fruit as soon as the bloom is detached. 
If these are not killed now, the leaves will soon cover them, and 
they will escape the eye and continue to disfigure the fruit all the 
season. The labour of close and frequent inspection of our peach 
trees at this time is, therefore, not without its reward.—Henry 
Mitts, Hnys, 


-THE WEATHER, BUDS, AND BIRDS. 

Tnus far the weather, with a trifling exception, has been wonder- 
fully fine ; yet, singularly enough, as Mr. Ingram points out (p. 357), 
the buds are not forward. The sun has been, with some few excep- 
tions, conspicuous by his absence. Hence the buds have rested safely 
inside their thin shells. ‘There is also another reason: the enormous 
eyaporation from wet surfaces has kept the buds cooler than could 
have been expected; and thus, though the air, upon the whole, has 
been mild, the buds have grown but little. But the buds of apricots 
especially, and peaches, though not in the same degree, look thinner 
than usual, and the birds, singularly enough, seem more ravenous. 
We generally suppose that birds’ food is more plentiful in mild 
springs than in cold ones, and, consequently, that the buds suffer less 
from the attacks of birds. But mild winters and springs cut both 
ways in regard to the ravages of birds. Doubtless, there may be 
more food, but there are likewise more birds by far to cat it. Severe 
winters starve bullfinches, chaffinches, and other bud and seed 
eating birds; but such a one as we have just had kills none, and 
hence their terrible raids at this season. A short time ago they set 
upon plum trees, and peaches, and nectarines, on glass walls. 
Singularly enough, those on both the north and south side of the 
glass were more forward than any on brick walls. This singled 
them out for attack, and in a few hours they were well-nich cleared. 
These eaten, they attacked the brick walls, and sprinkled the ground 
with showers of buds, as wellas the blossoms of Ribes in the pleasure- 
grounds. 

We have but two remedies, or expedients rather: Pickle the buds 
with soot, and catch and kill the birds. We do both toa consider- 
able extent, and the battle rages between some thousands of birds on 
the one side, and angry gardeners, robbed of their fruit in all stages, 
from the bud to the table, on the other. To those who, like us, are 
surrounded with woods, and who would like a full basket of fruit in the 
autumn, I would say, up and at the birds, and dress the buds at 
once. Dz. 


HEMP v. CATERPILLARS. 


M. Ap. Sucy, in a letter to the Revue Horticole, recommends the 
use of hemp for the purpose of destroying caterpillars. He says :— 
“Many years ago I saw an individual sowing, broadcast, a 
coarse grey powder on beds of cabbages, which were almost 
devoured by legions of caterpillars. On inquiry, I found that this 
was nothing else than the refuse of beaten hemp, and consisted of 
fragments of the dried and broken leayes, and particularly of the 


crushed seed vessels. In half-an-hour all the caterpillars had fallen 
down dead, as if suffocated.” He then goes on to suggest the 
sowing of rows of hemp in beds of cabbages, cauliflowers, &e., 
stating his impression that the odour of the hemp plants would 
exercise a sufficiently repulsive influence to protect the vegetables 
from the attacks of the caterpillars, and concludes his letter, by 
expressing his opinion that watering cabbages, &c., with water in 
which hemp had been steeped would be attended with equally bene- 
ficial results. The subject is deserving of notice, and seems worthy 
of experiment. W. M. 


het GARDEN CN. THE HOUSE: 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from page 362.) 
ON WATERING AND SPRINKLING. 

Tum questions most frequently asked by the amateur, when 
commencing to cultivate plants in pots, are these—* How 
often should these plants be watered >—Every day, or every 
two or three days? 

These are questions which can only be answered with some 
approach to truth when the particular circumstances of culture, 
position, &c., are fully known, and eyen then many other influ- 
ences may haye to be taken into account. The necessity for 
watering a plant depends very much on the quantity of 
moisture which is eyaporated from the plant itself, and from 
the soil in which it grows. This varies according to the kind 
of soil, the size and shape of the vessel in which the plant 
crows, the special organisation of the plant, its state of health 
and growth, its position, the season of the year, &c. Taking 
all these circumstances into consideration, we shall discuss at 
length the subject of watering, as this is the part of room- 
culture on which the health of the plants chiefly depends. 

River water, free from lime, is the best; where this cannot 
be had, rain water should be used; or the lime-impregnated 
river water, or spring water may be placed in an open vessel 
for some time before it is used, so as to be brought into con- 
tact with the air, and some potash may be thrown into it from 
time to time. One point about which a mistake is often made 
is the temperature of the water. Usually people employ that 
which is nearest to hand; but it is a matter of experience that 
it is injurious to plants to water them with any water the 
temperature of which is below that of the room in which the 
plants are cultivated. It is a fact that when cold water is 
used, the temperature of the earth about the roots is lowered, 
and this is more hurtful when the plant is in full vegetation. 
In open-air culture, or in nature, the soil possesses a somewhat 
higher and more equable temperature than the air, being much 
less exposed to changes. Hence it is evident that a higher 
degree of temperature in the soil than that of the sur- 
rounding air, is one of the chief conditions for forcing 
an early growth. It follows from this that plants should 
neyer receive water the temperature of which is below 
that of the room, and if it is somewhat above it it will do no 
harm. In fact, where the object is to produce an early bloom 
and a new growth, tepid water should be used several degrees 
above the temperature of the room. 

The quantity of water which plants require varies consider- 
ably, according to their nature, as water plants, bog plants, 
and land plants. Water plants live entirely in the water, 
rooting at the bottom of standing or flowing water, or 
floating free on the surface. Bog plants may be divided 
into those which grow on the margins of water and 
which are at times submerged, such as Rushes, Calla, Sagit- 
taria, Butomus, &c.; and, next, the bog or moor plants proper, 
which grow on the turf overlying watery places, and whose 
crowns are usually dry, while their roots descend into the 
underlying water (to this class belong Drosera, Pinguicula, 
&c.) ; and, lastly, there are plants which grow in ground that is 
kept constantly moist, as Stellaria uliginosa, &e. The third, 
and by far the most numerous group, are the land plants 
growing in positions higher than any water, and which depend 
for their supply on the rains and the nightly dews. 

While for the first two groups (the water and bog plants), 
either a body of water or a low and wet position is necessary, 
this would be hurtful to the land plants, which require a free 


4.4.6 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 6, 1872. 


circulation of the air, and would perish in sour, stagnant soil. 
When land plants are grown in pots or other vessels, whereby 
their roots are prevented from drawing the natural moisture 
from the soil, they will, of course, require an artificial supply, 
which must be adapted to their wants. As the pots in rooms 
must be placed in saucers for the sake of cleanliness, if they 
are watered too often, the water will stagnate in the soil, and 
render it sour, to the injury of the young roots; if, on the 
other hand, too little water is given, the roots near the surface 
dry up and wither, and in both cases the plants become weak 
and sickly. 

The unskilful amateur seeks to extricate himself from this 
dilemma by watering frequently, but in such small quantity 
that the entire ball is not penetrated, and no water flows 
through into the saucer. With this kind of watering the soil 
cannot indeed become sour, but that part of it which is not 
reached by the water will soon become so dry and hard that no 
quantity of water will penetrate it, and the consequences to the 
plants are equally disastrous——F'rom the German of Dr. Regel. 

(Lo be continued.) 


FLOWER BASKET FOR VESTIBULES. 

InstEAD of maintaining the decorations of the vestibules of large 
country houses, and even those of the town, in the cold lifeless style 
of fitting up, much beauty, gracefulness, and charm might beadded 
by the use of a well-furnished plant-stand in the form of a basket, 
of which the accompanying is a sketch. It is made of cut wood, 
gathered together in the centre with a light brace of iron, and is 
furnished in the inside with a double zinc basin, of which the first 
part is perforated so as to allow superfluous water to pass off; an 
ron stem occupies the centre, and two branches to support 


wart 


It ex 
r Vestibule. 


PAS itso 


Flower Basket fo: 


three vases in artistic earthenware, or, better still, in iron wire 
tastefully trellised, holding moss in which the plants are placed. 
Underneath are planted Dracanas, Caladiums, Begonias, Ferns, 
Pelargoniums, young Palms, Puchsias, with a border of Lycopods. 
A Cissus or a Tropxolum Lobbianum climbs up the iron stem. The 
topmost yase contains a Palm or a Yucca, some light Pteris or 
Nephrolepis, some Commelina zebrina in falling festoons, and the 
lateral baskets are similarly decorated. ‘The effect of this basket 
is very pretty and requires but little attention—Hd. André, in 
“ TP’ Illustration Horticole.” 


Flowers and Perfumery.—During the flower season over 10,000 
persons are employed in the South of France to extract the aroma from 
various odoriferous materials. Of flowers, the quantities consumed are 
said to be—orange, 2,000,000 Ibs. ; rose, 600,000 Ibs. ; jasmine, 150,000 lbs. ; 
violets, 60,000 Ibs.; cassia, 80,0001bs.: tuberose, 40,0001bs. From this 
great bulk of material are turned out yearly 200,000 Ibs. of rose water, 
and 1,200,000 lbs, of orange-flower water. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


GRAFTING THE WALNUT. 


As the Walnut is very difficult to graft, we have tried various 
methods, and have succeeded by means of the same treatment 
as that to which the Oak and 
the Vine show themselves 
amenable—a graft in the cleft 
ofa fork. It should be done 
in the spring, just as the sap 
is beginning to flow, and the 
buds to swell. The grafts are 
branches of the previous year, 
kept alive in a dark place 
among gravelly sand, which 
does not become so dry as 
common earth. The union of 
two kinds whose course of 
growth is unequal should be 
avoided, the graft bemg, in 
every case, of a kind coeval 
4 or less advanced in its nature. 
than the stock. It should be 
from three to six inches in 
length, and cut atthe end into 
a triangular shape—as in the 
case of a common graft—and 
placed in a cleft made by split- 
ting up the stock as faras the 
centre of the knot formed at 
the forking of two branches. 
These branches should be 
shortened to about ten inches, 
and the shoots which arise 
from them pinched as the 
buds of the graft progress, 
taking care that the earlier 
leaves are left to draw up the 


Grafting the Walnut. 
Sap, which they do without starving the graft—C. Baltet, im 
“ Bulletin du Cercle Horticole.” 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON PROPAGATING. 


Propagating Aucubas.—I want a considerable number of small 
plants of Aucuba for usenext winter. Can you tell me the best and quickest 
way of propagating them?—J. B. G.—[The ordinary way is to have 
stools of Aucuba layered, and to take off the young plants every year; 
but for quantities, when the wood is half ripe, or perhaps a little more, 
that is when the leaves are not too tender, cut the branches up into pieces 
about four or five inches long with a leaf on the top; put them into a cold 
frame in September, and by this time they will be all rooted; plant them 
out thickly im a north aspect in May, having first incorporated with the 
soil plenty of rotten manure. Nurserymen plant them between the rows 
of tall plants, such as limes, &e.] 

Dracznas.—These handsome plants are becoming so much and 
so deservedly used in the subtropical garden, and in the decoration of 
the greenhouse and stove, and even of the dwelling-house, that a few 
words on their propagation can scarcely fail to be useful. At present they 
are rather scarce and dear, but they are so readily increased that we look 
forward to a day when they will be as common as bedding plants. At 
first sight a Draczena does not look a likely subject to increase abundantly 
from one stem; but if anybody will place a piece of the stem of an old 
plant on the surface of a tan bed in a stove, he will find that soon from 
almost every one of its many joints an eye will break forth. The most 
forward of these may be removed from the stem from time to time, and 
if inserted in heat will soon strike, the stem being put back again and 
slightly covered with the tan or cocoa-nut fibre. It will go on furnishing 
cuttings for along time. This refers to all the Dracwnas, the beautiful 
crimson-leaved as well as the green kinds. 

Grafting Variegated Pelargoniums.—These are so slow of 
growth that any means which hasten their development are worthy of 
being generally known. If plants of the strong-growing varieties, such as 
Punch, are placed in a brisk heat in a frame or pit, or near the glass in a 
genially warm house, during the present month, they will soon begin to 
make a strong growth ; and when this is so, if they are cut back rather 
short, and properly grafted with the finer kinds of tricoloured Pelargo- 
niums, these will soon unite with them, and afterwards make a stronger 
growth than if left on their own roots. In fact, the little grafts taken off 
will by the end of the season be much larger than their parents. The 
grafted plants will be ready to put out with the other bedding plants, or 
may be more quickly grown into specimens for conservatory decoration, 
for ee many of them, such as Lady Cullum and Italia Unita, are well 
suited. 


Aprit 6, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


44.7 


A TROPICAL GARDEN. 


Wer are beginning to take considerable pride in the effects 
we manage to produce in our semi-tropical gardens as we call 
them, produced by means of artificially planting out such 
shrubs or trees as will stand the English climate pretty well 
during three or four of our treacherous summer months. The 
general effect thus created is often very pleasing ; yet in most 
of the plants so treated there is nearly always a too 
perceptible kind of langour about them, that betrays their 
want of a balmier and more genial atmosphere—an absence of 
that gush and 


a chastening and piquant refinement from the Huropean 
architecture with which it is associated in the annexed engrav- 
ing, the pure, classical lines of which form a sharp and incisive 
contrast to the irregular and fantastic profusion of the noble 
leaf-forms with which it is associated. Gothic architecture, 
with its elaborate ornamentation, its pointed arches, and its 
intricate tracery, would be like a repetition of the scene itself, 
in its tangled and unchecked license of wild-gushing growth, 
and intricate intersections of lines and forms. It would seem 
as though a portion of the scene had become petrified, and then 
pared down a 
little to suit hu- 


profuseness, and 
lavish vigour of 
growth, which 
would character- 
ize a similar scene 
under a real tro- 
pical sun. It is 
truethatourgreen 
turf, which enjoys 
the coolness and 
moisture of the 
northern climate, 
furnishes a refine- 
ment of  fore- 
ground which the 
plants would not 
be surrounded 
with in their na- 
tive clime; but 
the combination, 
though pleasing, 
has yet an artifi- 
cialness about it 
that fails to realize 
to our satisfaction 
the arduously- 
sought aspect of 
true tropical 
scenery. Let us 
turn to the effects 
of really tropical 
vegetation, even 
when reduced to 
the trim neatness 


of garden pur- 
poses, as repre- 
sented in the 


present engraving 
of a garden at 
Réunion. 

Here we at once 
find ourselves in 
the full blaze of 
tropical  luxuri- 
ance; we are sur- 


man convenience. 
There would be 
no well defined 
line of distinction 
between nature 
and art. The 
European Gothic, 
in fact, is not 
suited to tropical 
scenery, which, on 
the contrary, har- 
monises and yet 
contrasts so well 
with the simpler 
Palladian forms of 
architecture. But 
while asserting 
that forms of 
European Gothic 
do not contrast 
successfully with 
the luxuriance of 
tropical vegeta- 
tion, it must be 
admitted that the 
characteristics of 
Hindoo architec- 
ture, though allied 
to the Gothic, and 
especially to its 
pointedarches, are 
exceedingly well 
suited to contrast 
successfully with 
the vegetation of 
India, even to the 
rival arcades and 
leaf-fretted roofs 
of the vegetable 
temples _ formed 
by the Banyan; 
and the reason is 
not far to seek. 
The pointed arch 


rounded by great 
masses of prickly 
pear and other 


is, in fact, almost 
the only link of 
affinity between 


cacti; giant ferns, 
slender - stemmed 
towering palms, 


HindooandGothic 
architecture. In 
the Hindoo style 


and many forms 


the main lines are 


of foliage, the rank 


horizontal, even 


luxuriance of 
which we feel 
must be the re- 
sult of intertropical influences. We are compelled to strain 
the imagination beyond the usual limits of its power when 
picturing to itself the utmost beauties that can be reached by 
the very best management of the means at our command in 
European gardens ; for we haye to conjure up the presence of 
such plants as Strelitzias growing rankly in the open air, and 
great clinging parasites streaming all over with long racemes 
of gorgeous flowers, which are hanging abundantly, on all 
sides, and to the branches of Magnolias in full bloom, and as big 
as oaks. All this wild profusion of rank vegetable life receives 


A Garden in the Tropics. 


to the upper line 
of all; the whole 
mass being, in the 
main, square, and only varied by a central dome, or dwarf 
minaret at the angles. It has nothing of the acuminating 
characteristics of the Gothic, which always seems struggling 
into a steeple, just as the great bulk of all vegetable forms 
taper upwards, and therefore offers no reposeful contrast to the 
surrounding natural features. The native architecture has 
another advantage over the Gothic as a contrast. Its walls 
are not profusely perforated with windows ; and their smooth 
expanses (though often delicately chequered with damask- 
like carving in low relief) form agreeably large, even, and 


448 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 6, 1872. 


symmetrical spaces for the eye to rest upon after it is sated with 
the tangled variety and profusion of over-luxuriant vegetation. 
It is thus sought to show that in architecture the peculiarities 
of European Gothic cannot be successfully introduced among 
the scenery of the tropics, but that the pseudo-classic of the 
Palladian school, or the various forms of the native Indian 
styles, are much more suitable as a contrast to the general 
characteristics of tropical scenery, either in Asia or America. 


Nort Humpnneys. 


GARDENING FOR APRIL. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 
BY T. BAINES, SOUTHGATE. 

Conservatory.—At no time of the year should conservatories 
be better furnished with flowering plants than at present; nor is 
there a time when they should be more interesting, on account of 
the numbers and diversity of plants that can be had in bloom during 
this month. In addition to the last batch of Hyacinths, Tulips, 
Narcissus, and other bulbs, there will be foreed Hydrangeas, Roses, 
Deutzias, double flowering Plums, Spirzeas, Lilacs, Epacrises, Cytisus, 
Azaleas, Cyclamens, Cinerarias, and Primulas. These afford so much 
variety as to admit of the most effective grouping, if tastefully 
arranged along with such foliage plants as are indispensable, such as 
Agayes, Yuccas, Dasylirions, Cordylines, Rhopalas, and Tree Ferns. 
Without these, whatever numbers and variety of blooming plants 
may be at command, the general effect will be unsatisfactory. Never 
crowd, even if more plants are at hand than are required, as it has 
amost injurious effect. The object should be to grow every plant, 
even the commonest, so that it will bear looking at individually. 
Attend well to Fuchsias, Geraniums, and Calceolarias, as these will 
be required to play a conspicuous part when early spring plants are 
over. Keep Fuchsias well stopped in, and encouraged with manure 
water as soon as their pots are filled with roots. Be careful not to 
use it too strons, however, as when that is the case it does more 
harm than good. In tying Geraniums, use just sufficient sticks to 
support them and no more; as soon as their flowers are formed, give 
them weak manure water once or twice aweek. Yet be careful 
neyer to give Geraniums too much water at any time, as they cannot 
bear nearly so much as many things. When Achimenes haye made 
six inches of growth, pinch out their points, to induce them to break 


and grow stocky, and tie them out sufficiently open to allow the- 


light to act on their bottom leaves, otherwise these will turn yellow 
and drop off. It is time now to make provision for next autumn and 
winter’s display, by making a sowing of Primula and Cineraria seed; 
also by striking a batch of Euphorbia jacquinizeflora, Hydrangeas, 
and Poinsettias. Some experience difficulty in striking’ this 
Euphorbia; if the young shoots are taken off with a heel when 
from four to six inches long, and inserted im silver sand, in a 
moderate heat, and covered with a bell glass, very few will fail; 
but if the cuttings are made from a joint in the ordinary way, the 
greater number will not succeed. Give attention to such plants as 
Deutzias, Spirzeas, and similar things that have been forced ; for if 
neelected now they will not flower satisfactorily next winter. It is 
the best practice to cut all the old wood ont of the Deutzias, 
depending on young shoots from the base of the plant for next year’s 
bloom. 

Stove.—Increase the temperature here, now that the days are 
getting longer, as the plants will benefit thereby; 70° by day in 
dull weather, with a rise of 10° when sunny, 65° to 70° at night, will 
be found about the right temperature. Allamandas, Clerodendrons, 
Stephanotis, and other free-growing plants that have not been 
ropotted, will require the assistance of manure water as soon as 
active growth commences. Inure all the occupants to as much sun 
as they will bear without scorching. There are few plants more 
worthy of a place even in the most select collections than Pitcher 
Plants. Many imagine they are difficult to grow, yet such is not 
the case. Thoroughly open porous material, with a liberal supply 
of water at the roots every day, and plenty of light without direct 
sun, are what they require. They make few roots compared with 
most plants, and those they do make are very brittle, and in appear- 
ance seem to have little life in them, yet they require the greatest 
care in repotting, so as not to injure them, otherwise it takes them 
along time to recover. This is an unerring guide as applied to 
plants in general, those that make few roots are most impatient of 
haying them injured, even ever so little; on the other hand those 
that root freely soon recoyer any injury they receive in this way. 
Attend regularly to the training of climbers, either such as are 
grown permanently on the roof, or on trellises; if allowed to run 
too long they are certain to be injured, more especially such things 


as Dipladenias and Stephanotis. In lofty stoves, nothing has a 
better effect than a few plants grown in hanging baskets. Wor these 
nothing is more suitable than Hoya bella and Paxtoni, with the 
different varieties of Alschynanthnus, Impatiens Jerdoniw, and 
similar dwarf-growing plants. Use strong galvanized wire baskets, 
lined with living sphagnum, inside which place wide shallow pots 
to hold the plants, using for soil good fibrous peat, with a moderate 
admixture of sand. The increase of temperature will cause a corre- 
sponding increase in regard to the different insects that infest the 
stove, and which multiply at this season amazingly. These must 
receive no quarter; choose dull weather, or early in the mornings 
before the temperature of the stove gets too hot, for attacking them; 
it is nothing short of cruelty to keep men at this work during the 
heat of the day, as we frequently see done. 

Fern House.—The plants here ought by this time to be growing 
apace. Keep the atmosphere sufficiently humid for them, but not 
too close, otherwise the plants get so tender as to be useless, and 


cannot bear the necessary fumigation to keep down insects. Wumi- 
gate often moderately, in place of seldom seyerely. Do not syringe 
overhead, as it has a tendency to induce weak growth. Water 


liberally, as any omission in this respect during the season of active 
growth is detrimental to the well-being of the plants. The disuse 
of the syringe does not of course apply to the Filmy ferns, as these 
delight in water applied overhead, with an atmosphere approaching 
saturation, and dense shade. Ferns collectively are shade-loyine 
plants; yet there is a great difference amongst them as to their 
requirements in this respect, which the observant cultivator will 
note, and act on accordingly, by placing those that require the most 
shade somewhat under such as will bear more light; by such means 
the necessity of using too thick shading material is avoided. 

Orchids.—Aérides, Saccolabiums, Cattleyas, Leelias, Dendro- 
biums, with many others, will now be throwing up flower spikes 
apace, and some vigilance will be necessary to guard against the at- 
tacks of slugs and beetles, which are extremely fond of the tender 
young stems. Many use cotton wool as a means of protection, but it 
is unsightly, as well as uncertain, as a preventive. It is better to 
destroy these marauders than attempt to fence them out. There are 
many traps to entice them to destruction, such as treacle and water, 
olive oil, placed in shallow-glazed pots.. Numbers may be destroyed 
in this way. Yet I have found nothing equal to Rot & Ringeson’s 
beetle poison. It must, however, be used with care, as I believe 
domestic animals will take it. 
about the temperature in which Orchids from the different quarters 
of the globe succeed best. Some argue that all are grown too hot, 
others that many of the section known as Mexican plants require yery 
little artificial heat, even during their season of growth. A medium 
course betwixt these extremes will be found the most satisfactory ; 
always bearing in mind that the more light the plants receive, the 
more heat and moisture they will stand without injury. After long 
and careful observation J have come to the conclusion that the 
majority of growers keep their plants too far from the glass, and use 
too thick material for shading. 

Hard-wooded Plants.—Plants that have been potted recently 
will require close attention in respect to water. It is much more 
difficult to determine the condition of the soil as to its requirements 
in this respect with plants that have been recently potted, than with 
sach as are established. All the stock should be gone over every day, 
and it is quite as necessary to use water that is something near the 
temperature of the house the plants are grown in as it is in the 
case of stove plants. Wvyery plant house ought to be proyided.with 
a tank sufficiently large to hold a supply of water for one day at 
least. This is all the more necessary where spring’ water is used. 
The larger-sized plants that are required for blooming later 
on ought, if possible, to be separated from the smaller stock, to 
give an opportunity of keeping the latter closer with a little 
moisture in the atmosphere, easily obtained by syringing in 
the afternoon in bright weather the paths, stages, and out- 
sides of the pots; shutting up the house an hour or two 
before the sun is off the glass; this must be accompanied, 
except in the case of newly-potted plants, with all the light ayvail- 
able, and more air, otherwise weak attenuated growth will be the 
result.. It is not good practice to syringe overhead, even during the 
season of active growth, any varieties of plants that are subject to 
mildew, for it has a tendency to increase the evil. Such plants as 
are not subject to its attacks, or that are liable to the ravages of 
red spider, ought to have the syringe drawn over them lightly, every 
evening after a sunny day, during their growing season. This will 
apply to Pimeleas, Chorozemas, Hriostemons, Gompholobiums, 
Acrophyllam yenosum, Polygalas, &e. It frequently happens that 
a vigorous plant will throw up one or more strong shoots that have 
a tendency to impoyerish the rest of the plant; these should be 
stopped in time by pinching their points out, or bending down so 


Much has been said of late years _ 


’ 


Aprit 6, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


449 


as to force the sap into the weaker branches; if such shoots are 
allowed to run unchecked, it becomes a waste of strength, for they 
ultimately have to be cut back, after having robbed the weaker 
branches. Heaths are air-loving plants, but avoid admitting it 
directly upon the plants during the time of cutting winds, or very 
great mischief will be done to the foliage. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
BY GEORGE WESTLAND, WITLEY COURT. 


THERE are several kinds of evergreens that may now be trans- 
planted when the sap is in motion with the greatest certainty, and 
amongst them I would particularly mention the Cedar of Lebanon, 
the planting of which during winter is attended with great danger, 
whereas, if planted now, the chances of failure are reduced to a 
minimum. Careful removal is necessary, however, and it should be 
done speedily, so as to expose the roots to the drying influence of 
the weather as little as possible. When the tree is in position, 
cover the roots with the finer portions of the soil, and tread it 
solidly down, giving a thoroughsoaking of water, which mustbeallowed 
to subside previously to filling up the pit. Mulch the ground 
aboye the roots, and little after attention will be necessary. Hollies 
may also be transplanted at any time during the spring months, a 
point worth knowing, for the best gold and silver kinds are unsurpassed 
by any other subjects for summer embellishment. The same remarks 
are applicable to Rhododendrons and many other evergreen shrubs. 
Recently planted trees and shrubs must have timély attention, in order 
to prevent their suffering from want of water, andfrom wind waving. 
In the case of large trees, indeed, staking is an important point. 

Replant Cerastium and other hardy edging plants. Violets, as 
they cease flowering, should be lifted, parted, and replanted in 
ground that is in good condition. Fresh turfy loam and dung, 
forked into the soil where they are to grow, will be found to suit 
them perfectly. They delight in a situation shaded from direct 
sunshine, such as the north side of a wall or in the shade of trees ; 
but avoid “drawing’’ them by planting them under the spread 
of:the branches. ‘The best varieties for garden display are the 
Czar, the finest of all single Russian kinds, and the white sort called 
compacta. Pansies and Violas may now be planted out into beds 
that are well enriched with manure, and to which fresh soil has 
been added; bearing in mind that perfect success is only attained 
by promoting continuity of growth. Sow seeds of hardy annuals, 
biennials, and perennials, and plant out Hollyhocks. In the case of 
Cnothera macrocarpa, part the roots. This showy sort may be 
propagated in heat by means of the yonng shoots. Among Oxalises, 
which should now be divided, corniculata rubra is a very pretty 
variety for carpet-bedding. The striped grass, Dactylis glomerata 
yariegata, should now be propagated by parting the roots. This 
elegant grass, which is very effective, is not nearly so extensively 
grown as it deserves to be. Of the Pyrethrum well known ays 
Golden Feather, a sowing should be made at once, upon a warm 
sheltered border. It will come in well for pannels, where the 
plants cannot well be too small when planted out. 

Unoceupied beds should be treated in accordance to the crop 
they are to carry. In the case of Geraniums, a dressing of fresh 
soil will be more conducive to effect than one of rich manure, as 
over-luxuriant production of foliage proportionately diminishes the 
amount of flower; while, on the other hand, if an exuberance of leafage 
is desired, an abundant supply of nourishment must be given. 
Deep cultivation is important, for except that is secured, no after 
management will compensate forits loss. Leaf mould and thoroughly 
decomposed manure should only be used, avoiding rank dung. 

General ground work must be proceeded with, and arrears of 
every description pushed forward. Cut box edgings, and if any 
remain to be relaid, they must now be seen to. Mowing, rolling, 
and clipping the edgings of walks will now demand attention. Weeds 
must be kept under, and perfect neatness and order must be every- 
where maintained. 

Pits and Frames.—To these particular attention must now be 
directed, in order to secure as soon as possible the requisite number 
of plants for bedding out. The hardier kinds, that are well estab- 
lished, if the weather is mild, may now be placed under temporary 
protection to make room for more tender occupants. Turf pits or 
skeleton frames of wood suit them perfectly, breaking to a great 
extent cold cutting winds. Plunge the pots in spent tan, leaf-soil, 
or other light material that may be at hand; this will not only 
preserve the roots, but save a vast amount of labour in watering. 
Gradually inure the plants to the atmosphere, and have covering at 
hand to protect them from frost and to ward off any sudden changes 
of temperature, Pot off cuttings, and plant out seedlings when 
fit for handling into frames or boxes. Several of the fibrous rooting 
plants may be planted ont into frames with advantage, as they lift 


safely with balls, and save time in watering. Canna roots should 
now be divided. There is no necessity for starting them in heat, as 
they will acquire a sufficient size and plant out better if started in 
cold frames in a light soil. By this means a more rigid growth is 
secured. Proceed with the propagation of tender plants that are 
required in quantities. Sow Asters, Stocks, Zinnias, and other 
half-hardy and hardy annuals. 


THE ROSE GARDEN. 
BY GEORGE PAUL. 


THOosE who pruned their Roses early in March will, where 
the plants were thoroughly cut back, find them much in the 
same condition now as then. Owing to the late inclement weather, 
while pruned Roses seem hardly to have moved, unpruned plants 
have grown considerably, in the earlier warm time shooting fully 
out. These shoots have since been doubtless cut off to the exhaustion 
of the plants, so that early March pruning has this year answered 
best. The past frost seems to have injured what few of last year’s 
buds had begun to vegetate. Itis difficult to advise, but when much 
injured (the blackness of the shoot deciding this), it would be well to 
pinch the injured shoot right back, and, if in health, the plant will 
push out from the minor eyes which are often found on each side of 
the leading eye. With the soil inits present condition nothing further 
can be done; when drier, break down the dug ground with a strong 
hoe, to form a good tilth. Keep the soil loose througkout the spring 
and summer with deep hoeing. Climbing Roses on south walls, where 
forward enough, are worth shading; if a warm, genial time succeeds 
this, favourable for early flowers, they may produce a supply, say of 
Gloire de Dijon and Maréchal Niel, blooms very welcome in May and 
early June. Any pruning left uncompleted should be now done; the 
eight or nine weeks which bring us into June are but sufficient to allow 
for a slow, steady growth. If any beds of Roses on their own roots 
are to be planted in May, it would be well to ridge up the ground 
(digging in the manure) to get a loose tilth, in which to plant; but 
out of doors this is a month of rest—to wait is perhaps the grower’t 
most difficult task. Roses in pots started in January will now be fis 
for tying; they should have been framed when pruned, and the 
shoots being now two to six inches long, each requires a stick to 
lead it in a right direction; this will thin out the shoots, admitting 
air, and, by bending down the leading shoots a little, give a better 
chance to the secondary ones, and so regulate the growth. In tying, 
all plants require some slight facing; the shoots, if any withont 
bloom; should be tied back, to thicken the plant behind. A tempera- 
ture of 55° to 60° in the day; 45° to 50° in the night, as much air as 
possible, a thorough look out for mildew, and on its detection dusting 
the spot and sulphurising the pipes, a careful search for maggots, 
which eat out the bnds, are all minutize which, attended to, insure 
success in the growth of pot Roses. As a stimulant cow manure 
diluted with water is safe and effective. - 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
BY WILLIAM TILLERY, WELBECK. 


Outdoor Fruits—During these last few days winter has set in 
with some rigour. At this date, March 23rd, the ground is covered 
with three inches of snow, and 6° of frost were registered here in 
the morning. I am afraid that gooseberries and currants, now in 
full leaf, and some showing their flowers, will be injured. Some of 
the pears, too, on quince stocks are in flower, and will likewise suffer ; 
but pear blossoms are often injured by severe spring frosts when 
the bud is expanding. Peaches and Nectarines on walls will now 
want protection of some kind; for the snow and heavy hail showers 
that have been experienced during these last few days are worse for 
the blooms than dry frosts, that often occur in spring. As soon as 
the trees are forward enough, disbudding will require attention, 
removing only a few of the strongest shoots at atime. Bullfinches 
will now be destructive to plum-tree buds. The best plan to get rid 
of these little depredators is, harsh as it may appear, to shoot them 
at once. Newly-planted fruit trees will be much benefitted by 
having their roots mulched, should a dry, warm time set in. About 
the end of the month cut down the shoots of the double-bearing 
raspberry to within a few inches of the ground. Weed, and lightly 
fork strawberry beds, if not already done; and if some litter is now 
placed round the plants, it will keep the fruit clean, and be a pro- 
tection to the roots in dry weather. 

Orchard-House Fruit Trees.—Peaches, Nectarines, Plums, 
and cherries will now be in full bloom, and plenty of air must be 
given them on all favourable occasions. Sce thatthe soil in the pots 
is kept moist, but not soddened, for the trees often drop their fruit 
when young under any excess of moisture or dryness. It is a good 


450 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 6, 1872. 


plan to retard a few dozens of these kinds of fruit trees in pots, as 
they will flower later, and furnish a succession of fruit. 

Vineries.—As soon as the grapes in theearly house begin to show 
colour a drier atmosphere may be maintained, and air given liberally. 
Water freely the inside borders of the succession houses, and see 
that the protecting materials on outside borders still maintain their 
efficiency. Owing to the winter being mild and open, the buds of 
the vines in the latest houses will be swelling ; and in the beginning 
of the month fire heat, where available, should be applied, so as to 
get the grapes ripe in September; they will then keep far better 
than when ripened in October or November. ‘This is one of the 
great advantages belonging to the plan of bottling late grapes; for 
the vines can then be properly dressed, and forced earlier. This 
year I cut the last of our Muscat grapes on the 20th of March, the 
berries being quite plump, and maintaining, ina great degree, their 
perfumed flavour. The best coloured and ripened bunches were 
those that kept the longest and best im the bottles, and this will be 
found to hold good with other grapes as well as Muscats. I never 
kept Muscats in good condition much longer than the end of 
January when hanging on the vines; therefore, I am bound to prefer 
the bottling system. I find that the best preventive of vine mildew 
in late vineries is to use some fire heat in dull, moist weather in the 
daytime, and to give air freely at the same time. 

Peach Houses.—The earliest house of Peaches and Nectarines 
will now be nearly past the stoning process, when a rapid change 
takes place in the swelling of the fruit; but, before this takes place, 
it must be thinned if too thickly set, as no more will drop off. If 
the trees are in good health, the fruit on them may be regulated 
from six to eight inches apart at this last thinning, When it begins 
to colour, air may be given freely, and the temperature may rise to 
75° or 80° by sun heat. Succession houses will want syringine 
daily, and attention must be paid to watering the inside border; for, 
although the surface may look moist underneath, they may be as dry 
asdust. Tying down the shoots as they progress, and thinning them 
gradually where not wanted, keeping aphides and red spider in check, 
will be routine work now for some time in the late houses. 

Figs.—Keep these well watered and syringed daily, as red spider 
is a great pest to them. When the fruit begins to ripen, watering 
must be gradually discontinued. Stop all shoots when six or eight 
inches long, in order to encourage a second crop. 

Cherry House.—The earliest forced Cherries will now bear a 
higher temperature; but plenty of air must be given in the daytime, 
to colour, and give flavour to the fruit. The supply of water at the 
roots must likewise be lessened for that purpose. 

Cucumbers and Melons.—Plenty of heat, together with 
light, air, and moisture, will now be required for Cucumber and Melon 
plants, and the shoots must be regulated frequently, by stopping and 
pruning them, soas not to get too crowded. A steady bottom heat 
must be maintained to Melons till they flower, and after plenty of 
fruit is set, liberal supplies of tepid water may be given to the roots. 
Sow good batches of seeds of both Cucumbers and Melons for a late 
supply of plants, and some of the ridge variety of Cucumber for 
planting out in the open air. 

Strawberries.—Where plenty of room can be had in frames or 
in low pits, the remaining batches of Strawberries in pots may now 
be put in them to flower, and then be taken into the forcing houses 
as reqnired for succession. By keeping a few dozens of pots of 
British Queen, Dr. Hogg, and Lucas, in low pits, to furnish the last 
supply of forced fruit, I have often had larger and finer coloured 
fruit in the end of June than any grown in the open air during the 
strawberry season. This was done, by thinning the fruit to two or 
three on a stem, and using weak liquid manure to water them with. 
President at the present time with me is very fine, and the fruit 
stands carriage well, a point of importance to such as have to send 
it toa distance. Sir J. Paxton, Empress Eugenie, and Hclipse, will 
follow in succession; and British Queen, Dr. Hoge, Lucas, and Dr. 
Radclyffe, in May and June. 


THE PINERY. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

TycreaseE heat, humidity, and liquid manure as the light increases 
and the days lengthen. Carefully tie up to neat stakes all swelling 
fruits, in order that their crowns may be upright and in natural 
shape. Shift on strong succession plants, and fill up all yacancies 
with well-established plants ready to start into frnit. As fast as the 
fruit is cut, the only way to follow up well at all seasons is to 
keep in hand a good and certain succession of fruit every day in 
the year. Continue always to take off suckers, and to pot them as 
previously directed, in order to have a good succession to select 
from, for without a methodical and systematic mode of procedure 
throughout the year, but uncertain success will attend the cultiva- 
tion of this the king of fruits. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

A GOLDEN rule to be kept in mind in reference to the kitchen 
garden is, to sow little, often, and thin. Thin out and otherwise attend 
to all growing crops. Trench every bit of ground as soon as it 
becomes vacant, casting it up rough and in ridges with a strong 
steel fork. Where necessary, give it a good dressing with manure 
or other compost, thoroughly incorporating it with the soil, as the - 
trenching progresses. Care must, however, be taken not to bring 
up too large a quantity of the subsoil to the surface; but it is of 
great importance to loosen it well every time at the bottom of 
the trenches. This allows water to run through it freely, and 
renders it pervious to air, which is so essential to the main- 
tenance of a healthy tilth. During mild showery weather slugs are 
sure to be troublesome, deyouring, as they do, young vegetables, 
especially those in seed-beds. To prevent their ravages, sprinkle 
with fresh air-slacked lime. At this season saw-flies deposit their 
eges on the young leaves of gooseberries and currants, and by and 
bye the caterpillars from these prove destructive to the crop. These 
may be effectually got rid of by immediately applying a thick 
dusting of air-slacked lime, dry soot, and dry wood ashes, on a mild 
morning when the bushes are moist with dew, or after rain, or failing 
the occurrence of moisture naturally, they may be damped with the 
garden engine or syringe. In this way not only insects’ eggs, but 
also moss and lichen may be got rid of, and a healthy, robust, dark- 
green appearance given to the bushes and clean stems. Previous to 
the last ten days or a fortnight, the weather has been fayourable for 
cropping and seed sowing, and now that “bright days have come 
again’’ these operations may be proceeded with. Should gaps appear 
amongst vegetable crops, they should be filled up from parts that 
are thickest, carefully preserving the roots and lifting with good 
balls, with a trowel in each hand. Every kind of crop may be 
successfully transplanted when in a young state by using hand 
trowels; even tap-rooted plants, such as carrots, parsnips, beets, 
parsley, &c., will withstand moving in this way whilst young, 
whilst pulling or taking up young plants, and dibbling them in 
with naked roots, will be found to be attended with little success. 
As soon as young crops appear above ground, run a light hand 
searifier or an open-toothed rake across the drilJs to loosen and 
break the surface; and as soon as the rows can be distinguished 
run a narrow Dutch hoe between them, so as to keep down weeds, 
and maintain an open healthy surface. Crops of all kinds should 
be thinned as soon as they can be handled, so as to prevent over- 
crowding. 

Globe Artichokes.—From the crowns of these remove all weak 
suckers ; strongly grown ones, intended for new plantations, may also 
be carefully taken off with a root or piece of the crown and planted 
in lines, two or three plants a few inches apart being put in together, 
so as to enable them to have a seakale pot put over them for a while 
until they have become a little established or sheltered with boughs. 

Asparagus.—Those who practice the blanching system saould 
finish the covering of their beds. Plants grown on the level ground 
plan in single rows, the alleys between which were manured and 
forked in the autumn, and stirred up with a strong hand scarifier 
during the dry weather in March, should be kept frequently surface- 
hoed and freed from weeds. The time has now arrived, if the ground 
has been brought into proper condition by means of previous deep 
trenching, heavy manuring, and additions of good surface soil, 
decomposed vegetable matter, seaweed, &c., for new plantations to 
be made. For these choose the strongest plants that can be got 
from the seed-bed when they haye made a few inches of growth, 
and haying the ground levelled and in readiness to receive them, 
mark it off into distances of two feet apart. This may be considered 
by some to be too close; but my plan is to lift when two years old 
every alternate row for forcing, thus leaying the permanent lines 
four feet apart. In planting, stretch the line, and draw deep drills 
on each side of it, thus leaving a ridge just under the line. Across 
this ridge place the roots systematically astride, and cover them over 
from both sides. Thisis a more natural mode of planting than taking 
out a notch on one side of the line only, and laying in the roots 
fan-shaped, as it prevents any undue huddling together of the fibres. 
Asparagus seed may also now be sown thinly in drills, and, as soon 
as up, thinned by hoe or hand; using the hoe frequently among the 
young plants, to stir the surface and keep it open. 

Of Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Borecoles, Sayoys, &c., make other 
sowings, to succeed those made last month, the produce of which, if 
big enough, should be pricked out a few inches apart. 

Coleworts.—Make small sowings of these once a fortnight, in order 
to keep upa succession. Little Pixie, Matchless, and dwarf York are 
best for this purpose and the London green coleworts. 

Canliflowers.—Harth up these, and cover the surface about the roots 
with a mulching of short dung or litter; leave, also, a basin round 


Aprit_ §, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


those that have had over them hand lights, in order to supply them 


with soakings of manure water. Prick off spring-sown plants, and 
when fit plant them out in succession in cool shady places. Sow 
Veitch’s Giant in succession for late summer and autumn use; these 
should be planted in partially shaded places, such as between rows 
of tall Peas. 

Carrots, sow these once a fortnight till the middle of July, in 
order to have nice young roots throughout the season. 

Celery, of this sow a main crop on a slight hotbed, and prick off 
the plants as soon as they are fit to handle, into a well-pulverised, 
rich soil, such as a compost of equal parts decayed mulchings, leaf- 
mould, and half-decayed turfy loam, chopping the whole rather 
finely, and mixing all well together. Towards the end of the month 
the plants, which by that time will have become strong, may be 
pricked ont on an open border, using the same compost, or a layer of 
it laid down to the depth of six or eight inches, on a hard bottom. 
The latter prevents the roots from penetrating too deeply ; they, 
therefore, can be lifted the more easily, with good balls for trans- 
planting permanently. Protect if necessary, and supply water 
plentifully. 

Chervil, sow this in small quantities once every two or three weeks 
throughout the summer, on cold north aspects. 

Lettuces, sow these in drills; thin, and, if necessary and the 
weather not too hot, transplant the thinnings. 

Onions, thin those in beds or lines, and fill up any vacancies by 
timely transplanting : hoe and surface stir frequently, in order to 
maintain a healthy and vigorous growth. 

Peas, of these sow tall kinds in succession, and run a wide-toothed 
rake across the drills of those just coming up; draw little ridges of 
soil about six or eight inches from the sides of the lines, in order to 
almit of a mulching of litter being administered, and to retain 
soakings of water that may be given in dry weather. 

Spinach, sow the round kind in succession in cool situations 
throughout the summer; plant out New Zealand Spinach, and 
encourage the strong winter kinds by frequent stirrings. 

Turnips, sow these in succession in drills in cold moist soil for 
the next two months. 

Tomatoes, harden these off, and prepare for planting them out by 
the end of the month. Preserve a few plants in small pots, and 
expose them all summer, in order to obtain from them some short, 
stubby cuttings, for early fruiting next season. The older Tomatoes 
are the shorter, jointed and more fruitful they become. This treat- 
ment is also applicable to the Cape Gooseberry. 

Sweet Basil and Marjoram, sow these in succession; prick off 
those already up, and grow them on in gentle heat. 

Angelica, sow this, for next year’s crop, in rows two feet apart. 
The first lot of stalks should now be ready, and should be looked too 
before they become too hard and strong. 

Herb-ground.—This we too often find in a comparatively dilapidated 
condition. It should, however, now be neatly trimmed, and any 
blanks that exist in it should be made up. Borage and Burnet sow, 
and transplant last year’s plants of Fennel. Lift the roots of Hore- 
hound, and divide and transplant them. Lift young plants of 
Hyssop, Lavender, Rue, Savory, &c., and replant them in beds, and 
put in another lot of cuttings. Sow seed of the common Thyme, 
and plant out that previously sown. Layer and plant out singly 
Lemon Thyme and Sage. Make new plantations of Tarragon; 
removing with a knife the young shoots a little under ground, and 
preserving to each some rootlets; plant it in rows a foot apart. 
Mint of various kinds treat as Tarragon, and top-dress the beds 
an inch or two in depth with rich earth or leaf-mould. Camomile, 
divide the roots, and transplant in rather moist and shady places. 
Make new plantations of Tansy, Pennyroyal, Balm, &e. 

Mushrooms.—Obtain good manure, fresh from the stables, and 
incorporate it thoroughly with sound adhesive loam, in sufficient 
quantity to prevent its heating violently, and thus becoming over 
dry. It is by imprudent ovyer-heating that so many growers fail in 
producing mushrooms of firm and useful substance, good flavour, 
and lasting, as regards crop. The most successful place for growiug 
mushrooms during these next six months is in cold cellars, and 
other places with north and shady aspects. In such situations they 
are not so apt to become infested with maggots, as they otherwise 
would be if occupying a sunnier position; but precautions against 
these marauders are always necessary. To the surface of the beds 
now in bearing, and those just showing, if dry and crusty, give a 
little tepid manure water, manufactured only from the dung of 
cattle, sheep, or deer. It is seldom mushrooms are required to be 
grown artificially in the late summer months, when they can be 
procured from the fields; the last bed or beds should, therefore, now 
be made, to keep up the supply till then. The great desideratum in 
a mushroom house is cleanliness, by means of whitewashing the 
walls, and fumigating with sulphur when no mushrooms are in the 
moye at suchtime. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(Aprit 3.) 


Aone the many attractive features of this exhibition none were more 
conspicuous than a magnificent stageful of Cyclamens, contributed by 
Mr. Goddard, gardener to Mr. Little, of Twickenham, by Messrs. E. G. 
Henderson, and by Mr. Clarke, of Twickenham. We do not remember to 
have seen on any previous occasion such noble plants of Cyclamens as 
those shown by Mr. Little’s gardener, the plants bearing hundreds of 
blooms, standing firmly without support of any kind, and springing from a 
half spherical carpet of rich foliage fifteen inches through. We had seen 
so many lovely patches of Cyclamens at the various winter and spring 
shows this year already, that we imagined the season for such things was 
almost over. But, not so; they begin to bloom in September, and may 
be had in fine condition till the middle of next month. This establishes 
their claim to be considered what we have often pronounced them to be, 
the most valuable of winter and spring-blooming plants, dethroning even 
Cinerarias and Primulas, which were well-established in our greenhouses 
long before the Cyclamen. Some years ago one saw half-a-dozen Cycla- 
men blooms perchance among the gay show of ordinary greenhouse 
plants. Now the tables are turned, and well-grown Cyclamens are the 
gayest of the gay. In the various collections shown, the variety of form, 
as well as of colour, was most interesting. This will, doubtless, soon 
lead to the existence of lists of named varieties, such as happens with 
“ florist’s flowers;’’ but the Cyclamen is in itself such a lovely flower, 
that those who raise a good batch of seed will really be as rich in beauty 
as the most fastidious seekers after perfection could desire to be. 

Orchids were furnished in great variety and beauty. A plant of 
Masdevallia Lindeni, bearing nine brilliant purplish magenta-coloured 
flowers, was one of the most lovely of cool-house Orchids. This came 
from Mr. Linden, of Brussels, to whom a cultural commendation was 
awarded. Masdevallia Veitchii, from Messrs. Veitch, and M. ignea, from 
Mr. Bull; likewise upheld with credit the surprising variety and beauty 
possessed by the different species of this fine genus. 

The first prize Odontoglossums, a class of Orchids excelled by none in 
point of delicate loveliness, contained O. Phalzenopsis, O. Alexandr, O. 
triumphans, O. hystrix, Hallii, and Pescatorei. hese came from Mr. 
Ward, gardener to T. G. Wilkins, Esq., Leyton. Mr. Bull won the 
second prize, and Mr. Linden the third. 

Conspicuous among other Orchids were Phalwnopsis grandiflora, grow- 
ing admirably on bare wood, from Messrs. Veitch, anda grand plant of 
P. Schilleriana, from Mr. Williams. Among others, we noticed the 
exquisite little Cypripedium niveum, with charming whitish flowers, and 
Oncidium sarcodes, a distinct and beautiful species. 

From Messrs. Veitch came a pretty Oncidium called O. Croesus, a kind 
dwarf in habit, and bearing flowers of a yellowish colour, spotted 
with dark brown. ‘To this a first-class certificate was awarded. Another 
rare Oncidium, in the way of O. ampliatum, came from the Society’s 
gardens. 

An example of Odontoglossum cristatum, literally loaded with flowers, 
was exhibited by Mr. Ward; and Messrs. Veitch contributed a magnifi- 
cently-flowered plant of O. Andersonianum, a kind believed to be a 
natural hybrid between O. Alexandre and O. gloriosum. Natural hybri- 
dism in this direction, it may be remarked, does not appear to be a rare 
thing among Orchids ; for Mr. Richards, gardener at Gunnersbury Park, 
also showed an imported plant in every way like O. Andersonianum, 
except that it was inferior to Messrs. Veitch’s plant in point of 
beauty. 

Trichopilia suavis, from Mr. Williams, was shown large and well- 
bloomed; and a fine variety of the same, with a reddish throat, was con- 
tributed by Messrs. Veitch. A plant of Ada aurantiaca, a compact and 
desirable cool-house Orchid, was furnished by Messrs. Rollisson. 

To Dendrobium pulchellum, a charming basket plant, an extra prize 
was awarded. 

Those beautiful and interesting hardy Orchids, which for several years 
past have delighted lovers of hardy plants at our flower shows, were 
again shown in excellent condition by Mr. Needle, gardener to his Royal 
Highness the Comte de Paris, York House, Twickenham. Thenceforward, 
nobody need doubt that these plants may be grown with ease in pots. 
Amongst them, we noticed Ophrys fusca, O. bombylifera, O. lutea, O. 
mamosa, Q. speculum, O. tenthredinifera, O. aranifera var., O. ferrum 
equinum, O. apiculata, and O. Bertoloni; also Orchis maculata, O. longi- 
eruris, O. papilionacea, and O. quadripunctata. 

Grand collections of Roses, consisting of both plants in pots and cut 
flowers, were exhibited by Messrs. Veitch and Mr. Wm. Paul. To Anthurium 
Scherzerianum, one plant from Messrs. Veitch, and another from Mr. 
Wills, extra prizes were awarded. Amaryllises came from Mr. Baxter, 
gardener to C. Keiser, Esq., Broxbourne, who also showed a collection of 
seedlings, all promising sorts. A fine collection of Amaryllids was also 
staged by Messrs. Veitch. 

Perhaps the most attractive feature of the show was a gorgeously- 
bloomed collection of Clematises in pots, from Mr. Noble, of Bagshot. 
These charming flowers, possessing, as they do, great variety and delicacy 
of colour, form lovely objects in greenhouses and conservatories in spring 
and early summer, while for outdoor decoration later in the year they are 
equally well adapted. 

Among Rhododendrons was Countess of Haddington, with great 
trumpet-shaped white flowers, tinged with pink, also a few other fine 
kinds. Azaleas comprised a pure white kind, with flowers bold and sym- 
metrical, named Beauty of Surrey. This came from Messrs. F. & A. 


459 


THE GARDEN. 


{Arrin 6, 1872. 


Smith, of Dulwich, and received a first-class certificate. The charming 
Tillandsia Lindeni was again exhibited by Mr. Williams; also another 
variety by Mr. Linden, called Lindeni vera, a kind with deep rosy bracts, 
shorter and broader than in the ordinary T. Lindeni. 

Enchilirion corallinum, with singular wax-like flowers, was also fur- 
nished by Mr. Linden. Several fine Palms, some simgular-looking Arads, 
and many other plants of interest, were shown by Mr. Bull, who received 
a first-class certificate for Zalacca edulis, a graceful-looking and promising 
Palm. <A plant of Areca Baueri, that received an extra prize, came from 
Messrs. Rollisson. 

Amongst hardy plants we remarked the pretty and distinct looking Ivis 
iberica, which is amongst the most curious and beautiful of its class, also 
the lovely little white Primula nivalis, a plant shown by several exhibitors, 
and a few plants of P. japonica just coming into flower. 

Collections of Daffodils were shown by Messrs. Barr & Sugden, of 
Covent Garden, Mr. Masters, of Canterbury, Mr. Rawson, Bromley Com- 
mon, and Mr. Leeds, of Manchester. In the last collection we noticed 
several hybrids of distinct character. 

Of fruit there was little, but vegetables, especially salading, were well 
represented. Of Pears, two seedlings were exhibited by M. A. de Biseau, 
ad’ Hanteville, Binche, Belgium ; one of these, named Beurre de Biseau, 
was of remarkably fine flavour, and was awarded a first-class certificate ; 
the other was too far gone to judge of itsmerits. A fruit and some 
foliage of the Chocolate tree, that created no small amount of interest, 
were sent by Dr. Moore, from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 
Cucumbers were very fine, two of them measuring two feet three inches 
each in length; black spined sorts consisted of Oates’ Black Spined and 
Blue Gown; of white spined kinds, there were Pizzey’s Favourite, and 
Winter Supply; of smooth kinds there were Tender and True, and Tele- 
graph. 

Of salad vegetables the following came from Mr. Record, gardener to 
the Marquis of Salisbury, and Mr. J. Hepper, gardener to C. O. Ledward, 
Hsq., Acton, to both of whom equal first prizes were awarded :—Cucum- 
ber—Telegraph ; Lettuces—All the Year Round, Grand Admiral, Neapo- 
litan; Endive—Moss curled, Batavian, Green curled; Celery—Veitch’s 
Silver White, William’s matchless Red; Beet—Nutting’s, Pine-apple, 
Carter’s Perfection; Cress—American, Water, Australian or Golden, 
Curled; Mustard— Winter, White: Radish—Wood’s Harly Frame, 
French Breakfast, Red and White Turnip; Cor salad; Chicory; Tarra- 
gon; Onions—Tripoli; Sorrel—French ; Chervil—curled; and Parsley— 
Myatt’s Curled. 

The small salad materials were clean-looking and well grown, but itneed 
not be added that there is no difficulty in the production of such. The 
essential elements of a good salad, 7.e., Lettuce, Endive, &c., were simply 
wretched; the Radishes, except in one case, were all too old; of course 
we should not expect good lettuces in the open ground at this time of 
year; but, considering the appliances now in our gardens, we were sur- 
prised that better Lettuces were not shown. 

A few good heads of Broccoli were exhibited; some heads of Match- 
less, large and close, were sent by Mr. G. Cooling, of Bath ; there were 
also some heads of Excelsior, large, and not unlike the former, but per- 
haps more closely covered by the leaves, from Messrs. T. Watt & Sons, 
Northampton. A rather curious kind called Leamington, from Mr. Perkins, 
was shown, and, judging from one we saw cut open, it appeared to be an 
improvement on the others; the flower was very white, compact, 
clean, and closely covered over by several layers of leaves, just as if the 
flower was produced in the middle of a close-hearted cabbage. This self- 
protection was represented at the meeting as being as likely to induce rot 
as protection; but this we hardly imagine will be the case. A plant of 
finely variegated sprouting Broccoli was sent by Mr. Dancer, of Chiswick. 
Large specimens of an improved Broad-leaved Dandelion, partly blanched, 
and producing a great quantity of vigorous-looking leaves, were furnished 
by Messrs. Stuart & Mein of Kelso. 

Mr. Kemp, of Albury Park, sent an example of his grape-preserving 
rail and stand ; and we also noticed another ingenious, yet simple, con- 
trivance for preserving grapes ina similar way after being eut. It con- 
sisted of two tin tubes united at the base, in the form of the letter V, 
filled with water, and suspended by means of a piece of wire attached to 
the top of each tube, and united above them, so as to be hung over a rail 
or wire as the case might be. Each tube holds a bunch of grapes, just as 
if they were in a bottle, and it will be seen that any amount of bunches 
can thus easily be preserved. 


ANOTHER VAST NATIONAL PARK. 


We have recently illustrated and described the noble national 
park known as the Yosemite Valley, and we observe with great 
pleasure that it is now sought to preserve another and much larger 
scene for the Americans, or rather for humanity, for all time. This 
tract of land is called the Yellowstone Park. The following from 
the reports to Congress shows that the scheme is likely to 
succeed :— 


“The bill now before Congress has for its object the withdrawal 
from settlement, occupancy, or sale, under the laws of the United 
States, a’ tract of land fifty-five by sixty-five miles, about the sources 
of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers; and to dedicate and set it 
apart as a great national park or pleasure-ground for the benefit and 
enjoyment of the people. ‘The entire area within the limits of the 
proposed reseryation is over 6,000 feet in altitude, and the Yellow- 


stone Lake, which occupies an area 15 miles by 22 miles, or 330 
square miles, is 7,427 feet. The ranges of mountains that hem tho 
valleys in on eyery side rise to the height of 10,000 feet and 12,000 
feet, and are covered with snow all the year. During the months of 
June, July, and August, the climate is pure and most invigorating, 
with scarcely any rain or storms of any kind; but the thermometer 
frequently sinks as low as 26°. There is frost every month of the 
year. This whole region was in comparatively modern geological 
times the scene of the most wonderful volcanic activity of any portion 
of our country. The hot springs and the geysers represent the last 
stages—the vents or escape-pipes—of these remarkable volcanic 
manifestations of the internal forces. All these springs are adorned 
with decorations more beautiful than human art eyer conceived, and 
which have required thousands of years for the cunning hand of 
nature to form, 

“Tn a few years this region will be a place of resort for all classes 
of people from all portions of the world. The geysers of Iceland, 
which have been objects of interest for the scientific men and 
travellers of the entire world, sink into insignificance in comparison 
with the hot springs of the Yellowstone and Fire-Hole Basins. As 
a place of resort for invalids it will not be excelled by any portion 
of the world.”’ 

We trust that the bill referred to may speedily become law. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—April 5th. 


Flowers.—Besides cut flowers in great variety, amongst which were 
many charming sprays of Orchids, Stephanotis, White Lilac, Guelder 
and other Roses, we noticed the following in pots, viz. :—Callas, beauti- 
fully bloomed ; Hyacinths, Tulips, and Narcissi, still fine, especially the 
Hyacinths ; Solomon’s Seal, a plant whose beauty is enhanced by beg 
forced; Lily of the Valley; some nice Amaryllids, Gardenias, Mignonette, 
Cinerarias, single and double Zonal Pelargoniums, Spring Heaths, Azaleas, 
Camellias, Rhododendrons, Acacias, Cytisus, Spireas, Tropzolums, 
Carnations, Fuchsias, Deutzias, double-flowerine Stocks, Cyclamens, 
Chinese Primulas. In addition to these were several plants of Draczenas, 
both with green and coloured leaves, Begonias, Palms, Ferns in the form 
of the Maiden-hair, and some of the more graceful kinds of Pteris; also 
yarious kinds of Club Mosses, such as 8. apoda, Krausiana, and Mertensii; 
plain and variegated kinds of Box, Aucuba, Thujas, &c. There were 
likewise a good variety of flowers from the open air, such as Double 
Red Daisies, Forget-me-Nots, Pansies, Primroses, Anemones, Daffodils, 
Hepaticas, Eranthis, Violets, Wallflowers, and others. 

PRICES OF FRUIT. 


S.d. 1s. (da. } s.d. s.d. 

Apples’.......c.cc0e0 zsieve 2 Oto 4 0 | Pears, kitchen ......doz. 2 Oto4d 0 

Chestnuts bushel 10 0 20 0 | >, . dessert a y 4 Oy 2e70 

ae 6 1 0 Pine Apples .... 7» 6 Ot OO 

a 6 1 0 | Strawberries. Gel) 2 0 

Grapes, hothouse ..lb.15 0 25 0/} Walnuts .... 0 25 0 

TiOMONS 2..-coeeneseesre ID“ 1) o ditto .... 0 2 0 

OLaM PES Kciececscrseseeae 100 4 0 10 0 

PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 

Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 0 to 6 O | Mushrooms ........ pottle 1 0to2 0 

Asparagus ......... perl00 6 0 10 O | Mustard&Cress,punnet 0 2 O 0 

Beans, Kidney...per100 1 6 2 6 | Onions .............. sbushel 2 0 4.0 

Beet, Red..... key, iy 8) ickling ......... quart 0 6 O 0 

r 09 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz. bunches 3 0 4.0 

ee al 1) Ge Parsnip sh eect doz. 0 9 10 

0 6 0 0 | Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 

pe Ma) 5 0 | Potatoes .......... bushel 2 0 3 0 

1G 2 0 Kidney. ........-.+ do. 3 0 5 0 

WG 2 0 | Radishes doz. bunches 0 6 16 

2 0 4 0 | Rhubarb... .. bundle 0 6 10 

Cucumbers... 0 6 1 6 | Salsafy . > end, 16 

Endive eo O. 0 0 | Sayoys peta) 10 

Fennel 0 3 0 0 | Scorzonera 09 13 

2 0 4 0 | Seakale ... a) 2 0 

. 0 8 O O | Shallots ... oO) eae 

03 0 0 | Spinach 3.0 4 6 

3.0 4 0 | Tomatoes 3.0 0 0 

0 2 0 6 | Turnips .. 03 09 

Aa) ©) 1 6 | Vegetable 00 0 6 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.* 


SEVERAL correspondents having sent letters without any address, and 
one or two eyen without any name, initial, or other signature, we beg to 
say that we can take no notice of any communication without the full 
name and address of the writer, though not necessarily for publication. 

B. A. (Only a form of the Common Primrose.)—A. L. (Galvanized wire 
never hurts fruit trees. The best covered walls we have seen for a long 
time are those under Mr. Stevenson’s charge at Cobham Park, and they 
are all galyanized.)—Harvery (Trillium grandifloram will thrive in any 
shady position.)—S. L. V. (The blue Apennine Anemone.)—Sim T. B. 
(Through Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., Gan de la Megisserie, Paris.) — 
W. (We never heard of a similar case, and shall print your interesting 
note.)—James Extis (Next week.) “ 

EXHIBITION NEXT WEEK: Royal Botanic Society (second spring show), 
Wednesday, April 10th. 

* All questions likely to interest our readers generally are answered in the 
several various departments, 


Arrin 13, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr ITsELF Is NaturE.”’—Shakespeare. 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER IX. 

Wirn that anxiety which we ever feel that they whom we 
like should like each the other, I have essayed to describe 
carefully and faithfully the members of our little congress ; 
and though Iam well aware how easy it is to sketch from 
nature without being natural, I hope that I haye conveyed to 
genial minds, by which I mean minds horticultural, some 
accurate presentments, as well as some favourable impressions, 
with regard to my floral friends. Writing with truth and 
earnestly, I permit myself to enjoy the pleasant confidence 
that I may have imparted to my readers some of the brotherly 
regard and affection which occupies my own heart for the 
hoar head of good Mr. Oldacre ; for the bright intelligent face 
of the bearded Chiswick (you should see him in the uniform of 
our Volunteers, as straight and as handsome as a standard 
rose-tree!); for the shrewd, thoughtful countenance of Mr. 
Evans, musing upon soils, and “ stopping,” and training, with 
a view to future exhibitions; for the shining jolliness of 
Grundy; and for the kindly goodness of our worthy Curate. 
-And, having this trust as my encouragement, together with 
some welcome words of approbation which have reached me 
from friendly critics, I go on joyously to chronicle our 

roceedings, and follow up my introduction with a cordial 
inyite that you, my reader, will join us, in imagination and 
sympathy, as we sit in synod, and will listen leniently to our 
discursive colloquies. 

Be with us, therefore, in those “ long nights of winter, when 
the cold north winds blow ;” chair thyself comfortably by our 
hebdomadal board within the pleasant influence of our glowing 
fire; charge thy calumet with the soothing weed, and thy 
erystal with golden wine from “the bright and laughing 
barley ;” while throned on the tiny clouds above us, that sweet 
little fairy, Queen Fancy, smiles upon our cheerful con- 
yocation ; and as she waves her magic wand,— 

“ Again the garden glows, 
And fills the liberal air ;’’ 

again our beds and borders (hard-frozen in reality without and 
hidden by the snow) brighten in their summer sheen; again 
every greenhouse stage bears its pea freight of loveliness; 
again we see our exhibition vans drawn up at the garden gate; 
and borne delicately, as though we carried some sleeping 
beauty whom we feared to wake, the specimen plants so long, 
so fondly tended, come forth to witch the world; again we 
await in anxious suspense, during two hours which seem a 
fortnight, the departure of the censors, and the opening of the 
doors; again we draw nigh to our favourites, pretending 
indifference, and trying to saunter, but painfully eager in our 
fluttering hearts to know what award has been made to us; 
again those hearts rise, light and bright as a soap-bubble in the 
sunshine, as we read the welcome words “first prize,” or 
sink, heavy as an underboiled barm-dumpling, to find that we 
are not placed; again we hear, victorious, that happy “ All 
right, sir,” from our gardener, and, like a schoolboy just 
informed of a hamper, can scarce forbear to cheer; again, 
defeated, we entertain for a moment an absurd conviction that 
the judges are either in league against us or in a state of hope- 
less intoxication, soon recovering our better mind, and finally 
feeling all the more likely to bear fruit hereafter, like beaten 
walnut-trees, or any other tree in fact, since each— 


“Sucks kindlier nature from a soil enriched 
By its own fallen leaves ; and man is made 
In heart and spirit from deciduous hopes 
And things that seem to perish.” 


Such are our reflections and remembrances, and very soon, 
after a few preliminary remarks upon the weather, the news of 
the great world in general and our little world in particular, 
we come— 

“Like doves about a dovecot, wheeling round 
Our central wish, until we settle there,” 

to open our hearts concerning them. And it is amusing 
to note the change that has come over us, now that our 
tourney is over, and the heavy harness of warfare doffed for 
the trunk-hose of peace. Can we be the same knights, who, 
whilome reserved, and cold, and dignified, moved through the 
serried lists? Can I be that captious florist, who, when dear 
Mr. Oldacre gave me his “candid opinion,” which I press- 
ingly solicited, about my bedding out (only I did not really 
want him to be candid, except in the sweetmeat sense), and 
told me that I “had sadly too much Periila, and that the 
effect of my design was hearsey”’—can I be the man in whose 
disappointed breast a malignant voice was permitted to 
whisper something about a “superannnated jackass?” Alas, 
I know myself to be so; and I make feeble amends by a tardy 
thanksgiving tomy mentor, and by an acknowledgment to 
myself that I deserve flagellation from a robust lateral of 
Araucaria imbricata. And here is Mr. Evans, in_a like spirit 
of meek magnanimity, acknowledging that his Dahlas were 
not large enough, whereas when the judges gave them second 
honours, he designated those functionaries as “three old 
scarecrows,” and expressed a strong belief that they were only 
competent to grow groundsel for sick canaries. Even Mr. 
Chiswick is acknowledging a failure with regard to some 
choice Auriculas, and making to his neighbour the Curate 
a sort of auricular confession; while wise Mr. Oldacre laughs 
at us all, well knowing that, when spring and summer come, 
we shall be just as sensitive, jealous, and contentious as 
before. “But it’s all right,” he says, “for you’re as honest 
and earnest in peace as in war, and whether the hand is open 
for amity or closed for sparring, the heart goes with it. May 
the best man win!” , é 

Ordinarily, we have no stated subjects for discussion, and 
we pass from one topic to another, as the occasion prompts. 
We touch promiscuously upon boilers, flues, and _Sstoves ; 
heating, shading, and ventilating; washing, sulphurating, and 
fumigating; disbudding, stopping, and pruning; tying, traming, 
and packing; manures, solid and fluid; soils, sands, and peat ; 
tallies, ligneous, metallic, vitreous; traps for earwigs, birds, 
and mice; tiffany, nets, and bunting; knives, saws, and 
scissors (nothing said about tweezers);—these, with five 
hundred other matters—for our conversation takes an unlimited 
range, from a caterpillar to the Crystal Palace—pass rapidly 
before us, as we sit in conclaye, “ dreaming the happy hours 
away.” F ; 

But for six nights in the year, at Christmastide, we have 
special subjects for the eyening’s consideration. Hach member 
of “The Six of Spades”is called upon either to deliver a 
lecture, tell a story, or sing a song, in his turn. Here is our 
last programme, and a faithful chronicle of its realization shall 
be given hereatter in Tux GARDEN :— 


“THE SIX OF SPADES.’—Sprciat MEE?INGs. 
Date. Meinber. Subject. 
Ist Bvening . . THe Presipenr . Rosa Bonheur. 
2nd Evening . . Mr. Orpacre . . The Lady Alice. 
8rd Evening . . Mr. Cutswick . . On Bedding Ont. 
4th Evening . . Mr. Evans... . Shows and Showing. 
5th Evening . . Mr. Grunpy. .. Mr. Grundy’s Song. | 
6th Evening .. Tur Curare ... The Happiness of a Garden. 
S. R. H. 


(Lo be continued.) 


Change of Habit in a Plant.—Loranthus macranthus is one of 
the most interesting parasites belonging to the New Zealand flora, 
and is nearly allied to our mistletoe. Originally parasitic on native 
trees belonging to the orders Violariew and Rutacex, it appears now 
to have nearly deserted these in favour of trees introduced since the 
colonization of the islands by Europeans, especially the hawthorn, 
plum, peach, and laburnum. The latter tree was only introduced in 
1859, and appears now to be one of its most favourite resorts, where 
it is abundantly visited by the (also introduced) European honey-bee. 


ASA 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 13, 1872. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


Ir is announced that California has hired a State Tree- 
Planter at a cost of 15,000 dollars a year and expenses. 


Accorpine to Mr. Scott, there are now forty thousand hands 
employed irregularly in the London market gardens. ‘These are 
engaged in the cultivation of eighteen thousand acres. 


Mryton’s famous majolica fountain in the Horticultural 
Gardens, a relic of the Great Exhibition of 1862, is now in course of 
dislocation, with a view to its remoyal to the new museum at 
Bethnal Green. 

THE severity of the past winter in America may be gathered 
from the fact that this year, for the first time within the memory 
of man, Lake Michigan has been frozen over as far as the eye can 
reach, the ice being from four to eight inches in thickness. 


We hear from Mont-de-Marsan, that the immense plain 
situated between Morceux and Solferino, in the Landes, and which 
is covered with young Fir trees, is the scene of an extensive fire, 
which lights up the sky for a distance of many miles. 


Ty California, a new use has been found for the tules or reed- 
like vegetation which grows on the swamp lands. It is said to yield 
from fifty to sixty per cent. of paper pulp, equal to that obtained from 
cotton. 


Priyce Artaur will visit Liverpool on the 20th of May. 
On his arrival an address will be presented to him at the Town Hall; 
a procession will then be formed, and proceed to the New Sefton 
Park, which the Prince will formally open. 


THE Metropolitan Board of Works is employing labourers in 
filling up the holes on Hampstead Heath, and has instructed its land- 
scape gardener to employ the necessary labour, and obtain seeds 
for sowing furze, grass, &c., on such spots as may be considered 
desirable. 


From a recently-published return, we learn that there are in 
France the enormous number of six millions, thirty-seven thousand, 
seyen hundred, and forty acres deyoted to the culture of the grape 
vine. This, we believe, is more ground than all other nations put 
together devote to wine making. 


Mr. H. P. Parrerson, San José, California, writes to us 
respecting a beet grown by Mr. Z. M. Brown, near San José, which 
weighs 175 pounds, measuring six feet long (tops and roots) and 
three feet in circumference. It grew within twelye months from 
seeds, with irrigation, but without manure. 


TH Hayre papers announce that that town is about to be 
transformed. A large boulevard, which will be called “ Boulevard 
Maritime,” is to reach the whole length of the shore, from the jetty 
to the cliffs of Ingonville. A wall to support it will be built on 
the side of the sea. It promises to be one of the most beautiful 
promenades known. 


Aotonesr work in hand in Rome now is the decoration of the 

public gardens on the Pincian Hill. This fayourite promenade is to 

be supplied with water from the restored Marcian Aqueduct; the 

walks and plantations are to be renovated; and new busts of 
ealebeated men added to those set up there by the Government of 
849. 


Tue Royal Parks and Gardens Bill has resulted in a com- 
promise. Under the new “rules” meetings are to be permitted in 
Hyde Park, Battersea Park, Victoria Park, and Regent’s Park; and 
any topic whatever may be freely discussed, subject only to the very 
reasonable restriction that two discordant meetings may not be held 
at the same time and upon the same spot. 


We learn that the Cape has recently been enriched by a 
large introduction of florists’ flowers and bulbs; also that seven 
large cases of seeds, bulbs, and trees, principally of an economic 
nature, were received by the early January mail steamer, for 
disposal by the superintendent of the Botanic Garden. In this 
importation there was a large number of varieties, new to the Cape, 
of apples, pears, plums, and cherries, seven new varieties of straw- 
berries and Golden Champion grape vine. Upwards of one hundred 
new dahlias have also been received. 


A MEETING was held this week in the Birmingham Town Hall, 
“to petition Parliament against a proposal to construct any line of 
railway through Sutton Park.” On Thursday last, in the House of 
Commons, Mr. George Dixon, one of the M.P.’s for Birmingham, 
moved that the consideration of the Wolverhampton, Walsall, 
and Midland Junction Railway Bill be postponed for six months. 
The Bill proposes to make a, line of railway through the prettiest and 


most frequented portion of Sutton Coldfield Park, near Birmingham, 
which may be described as the Epping Forest of that district. There 
appears to be no reason, beyond that of additional cost, why the 
projected line could not be made outside the park. 


THE schedule of the Royal Horticultural Society's great 
summer exhibition at Birmingham is now ready for distribution. 
The special prize fund, we observe, has reached £945,a sum still 
short of the amount required by the local committee. Further dona- 
tions are therefore urgently solicited. The regulations respecting 
the exhibition of horticultural buildings, implements, &c., are also 
now being issued to the public along with the schedule. 


Av the Horticultural Congress at Birmingham, two meetings, 
we understand, will be held at Aston Park, viz.: on Wednesday and 
Thursday during the show week, for the discussion of subjects bearing 
upon horticulture. Hach meeting will be opened with a short address. 
That on the first day by Professor Thiselton Dyer, ‘‘On Recent Pro- 
gress in the Scientific Principles of Horticulture.” That on the 
second by T. Moore, Hsq., F.L.S., ‘‘ On the Recent Progress of Prac- 
tical Horticulture.” The same division of subjects will be followed, 
as far as possible, in the papers arranged to be read each day. The 
reading of each paper will be limited to a quarter of an hour, and 
speeches in discussion to ten minutes. In order to arrange the busi- 
ness of the meetings, it is requested that the papers (or abstracts of 
them) intended to be read, may be sent to Professor Dyer, Royal 
Horticultural Society, South Kensington, not later than June Ist. 
The chair will be taken punctually, each day, at four o’clock p.m. 


A Frencu horticultural swindler is now practising in New 
York. The specimens.of pears in the front window of his shop 
were found either to have been raised in a hothouse or made of wax. 
Large numbers of peach trees were described as producing a peach 
twenty inches in circumference without stone; but on close exami- 
nation the trees were found to be dead. A coloured plate of goose- 
berries of various colours all growing upon the same bush, was 
shown, the bushes selling for two dollars each. Then there were 
trees four feet high, which were said to produce strawberries exactly , 
resembling ‘‘ those”’ raised on vines. This the proprietor regarded com- 
placently as a great convenience, as it facilitated the gathering of 
the fruit. For these trees in embryo he charges ten dollars each. 
If the stories of this Frenchman are to be believed, the ladies are 
certainly greatly indebted to him, for he says he has obtained that 
long-sought-for and much-desired flower, the blue moss rose, the 
“bulbs ” for the propagation of which he offers for the modest price of 
five dollars each. 


THE question of preserving for public use Plumstead 
Common and Bostol Heath, situate at the south-eastern extremity 
of the metropolis, having been referred by the district board to the 
Metropolitan Board of Works, inquiries have been set on foot to 
ascertain upon what terms the trustees of Queen’s College, Oxford, 
who assume to act’ as lords of the manor, are disposed to sell their 
rights over the common. The sum named by the College is £18,000; 
but the superintending architect of the Board haying stated that 
the rights in question are not worth more than £4,000 or £5,000, as 
the College is prohibited by a recent judgment from building 
upon or enclosing a foot of the soil, the Board has refused to 
entertain that offer. The Parks and Open Spaces Committee 
has, however, reported upon the expediency of preserving these 
picturesque places for the benefit of the public, and the Board is 
now endeavouring to obtain control of the commons by a scheme 
under the Act of 1866, a memorial haying been presented on the 
subject to the Enclosure Commissioners. 


FRANCE has the largest number of landed proprietors in the 
world, the most minute subdivision of land, and at the same time the 
best existing system of registration. The geodesical chart, or 
Cadastre, as it is called in France, and its accompanying register, 
shows not only the piece of land belonging to each person, but each 
kind of land separately, and one holder may of course have parcels 
of arable, meadow, vine, ozier ground, &c., on each of which he pays 
a different rate of land tax. In addition to this, every change in 
proprietorship, and every alteration of boundary between different 
parcels of land, and every conversion of a piece of land, has to be 
entered in a supplementary register, with references to the original 
and to the chart. This register contains not only the name, address, 
&c., of the proprietor of each parcel of land, but the exact measure- 
ment—no error larger than two metres in a thousand being permitted 
—of each of its sides, with its mode of cultivation or application. 
Tt is estimated that the cost of a new chart and register would be 
about nine millions sterling; the original Cadastre took nearly forty 
years to complete, and the smallest time that would sufiice for the 
work, with the number of surveyors at present available, is said to 
be between twenty and thirty years.—Architect. 


Apri 13, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


455 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


BEDDING SUCCULENTS. 


Arrer the rage for colour only in our flower gardens began, 
in some measure, to subside, something more permanent and 
quiet in the way of decorative plants was inquired for. 
Many found, from experience, that a heavy shower washed 


Fig. 1. 


away the beanty of their Calceolarias, Pelargoniums, and 
Verbenas, and that drought often put an end to Lobelias. 
What, therefore, shall we have next? Our old friends, the 
Succulents, are not afraid of either sun or rain, and they are 
easily wintered. Let us have them: but we want variety in 
the way of growth and colour. <A few notes, therefore, con- 
cerning such as are best adapted for bedding purposes may 
be useful. 


For centres of raised beds or for vases, Agave Verschaf- 
felti, Seemanni, americana variegata, and mediopicta, answer 
perfectly ; also Aloe arborescens, fruticosa, and soccotrina. 
For centres of circles, or to diversify a bank, Gasteria verru- 
cosa, Bowieana, and candicans, are all that can be desired. 
Among tall sorts none are better than Echeveria metallica, 
metallica glauca, gibbiflora; and among dwarf kinds, atro- 
purpurea, secunda glauca, californica, and agavoides. 


pa 


= ~ Y 

? 
— a 
ey EES: 
CS ees 


Fig. 3. 


As to others, the following are useful as bedding plants, 
viz.:—Pachyphytum bracteosum, roseum, and others. Tall 
Sempervivums may consist of arboreum, atropurpureum varie- 
gatum, holochrysum, and balsamiferum. Large yet compact 
sorts may ore canariense, urbicum, cuneatum, and veluti- 
num. Small kinds, as Haworthii tabuleforme and aureum 


Bollii); and dwarf hardy Sempervivums as, californicum, 
hirtum chrysanthum, tectorum, soboliferum, and montanum, 
are always useful. 

Among Mesembryanthemums, compact for margins, take 
M. fissum, Cooperii, agninum, tigrinum, felinum, linguzforme, 
bifidum, densum, hirtum, stellatum. and murinum. ‘Those for 
hanging over vases, or for pegging down, may consist of M. 
polyanthum, retroflexum, roseum, emarginatum, spectabile, 
diflexum, and aggregatum. Among white kinds, select M. 
blandum and curvifolium. Kleinia repens and tomentosa are 
also good white sorts. Senecio pyramidatus reaches a height 
of eighteen inches. Crassula Cooperii and rosularis are dwarf 
sorts; and of creeping kinds take C. marginalis and perfossa. 

Among tall Cotyledons, the best are pulverulenta and 
elongata; and among dwarf kinds, maculata, cristata, and 
Cooperii. Hardy Sedums may consist of 8. glaucum, hispani- 
cum, dasyphyllum, and formosum, among white sorts; 8S. 
reflexum, virescens, and acre, green kinds; 8. pulchellum and 
rupestre, red; and acre aureum, yellow. Among Mammillarias, 
there are spinosissima, rosea, rose; Parkinsonii, nivea, eximea, 
stellaris, white; auriceps, sulphurea, stella aurata, and densa, 
yellow. In addition to these, the following will be found 
useful :—Kchinopsis multiplex and Eyriesii; Cereus strigosus, 
cinerascens, and procumbens. 

Among dwarf Cacti there are many which might be used ; 
but these are the freest and most easily obtained. Those who 
like diversity of height may use Cereus peruvianus, glaucus, 
and yariabilis; Opuntia tunicata, leucotricha, and horrida, 
which grow one, two, and four feet high. Aloes and Gasterias 
should be well exposed before being planted out, and they 
are best plunged in their pots. 

Fic. 1—Centre, Echeveria metallica; ground covering, 
Sedum and Alternanthera; next, Echeveria agavoides; then 
Pachyphytum bracteosum; circle, Sempervivum californicum ; 
margin, Echeveria glauca. 

Fic. 2—Top, Echeveria metallica glauca, agavoides, cali- 
fornica; angular margin, E. glauca; circle, H. secunda ; 
centre, Sempervivum tabuleforme; ground covering, Sedum. 

Fie. 3.—Top, Agave; ground covering, Sedum; margin, 
Echeyeria secunda. J. Croucner, 


THE DAFFODIL GARDEN. 


I HAvE only known two gardens of this kind that seemed in any 
way perfect, and they contained no variety, only masses of the great 
yellow Daffodil. Talk of apples of gold in baskets of silver, doubt- 
less they are very beautiful; but the green and gold of Daffodils is 
even richer and more satisfying. And they rest not day nor 
night. The merest zephyr stirs leaf and flower like the gentle 
ripple of the sea. 

There stands a pretty dairy at the end of a long walk, which 
connects it with a ducal kitchen garden. The walk shoots straight 
as an arrow to its mark, through tall overhanging trees, and hits 
the dairy in the doorway. But what is that great globeof green and 
gold in front of the entrance ? Seen from under the shade of the 
wood it looks like a bright cloud or an enormons golden balloon. 
Why, that is a bed or garden of Daffodils, glowing brightly through 
the keen, pure air of March! 

There is a second Daffodil garden. Across a green lawn, away 
through glossy hollies, like the walls of green yews, past masses of 
Rhododendrons lying on the turf, which they have largely overrun, 
under silver larches, along a walk running round veritable lines of 
beauty, slipping down valleys and climbing tiny banks, there lies 
a Daffodil garden, retreating from the eye till its outer boundary is 
lost amid the green skirts of the overhanging shrubs. It is large, 
irregular, natural. Its bulbs are planted in large masses in the 
turf, and the interstices are filled up with common primroses. The 
leaves and flowers spring forth amid the tender grass, furnishing a 
niche in the wood far from other flowers, and the surprise and 
delight which they afford are unbounded. Such groups in gardens 
of one common plant illustrate in an extraordinary manner the 
cumulative effect of mere numbers. One—a dozen, a score, a hundred 
Daffodils may be seen and admired, and almost immediately forgotten ; 
but a waving sea of Daffodils—never. While thus writing of the 
beanty of the common sort, I must not be understood as disparaging 
other varieties. On the contrary, I shonld like to see niches in 
pleasure-grounds, shrubberries, and woods furnished with them all 
on a scale of equal width and grandeur. Then, indeed, would 
our Daffodil gardens become the sweetest and best of features 
about a place. De Taws 


456 THE GARDEN. 


[Arrin 13, 1872. 


SHRUBBY CALCEOLARIAS. 


Accounts of failures in the growth of shrubby Calceolarias 
have often surprised me. When I hear complaints made 
against Calceolarias, or see, as ] sometimes do at planting-time, 
little stunted bits of yellowish green doing duty for them, I 
feel sure that the plants have been coddled in a greenhouse or 
starved in small pots. Give them plenty to eat, keep their 
heads cool, and they will grow like lettuces. 

Where bedding plants are grown by the thousand no doubt 
the best plan is to appropriate a cold frame to the cuttings 
in the autumn; but I am writimg for amateurs, who, like 
myself, want but about two or three hundred plants at the 
most, and who cannot set apart a frame for the special treat- 
ment of one class only. My plan, therefore, is to insert the 
cuttings in eight-inch pots about the end of October. Nearly 
one-half of the pot is filled with draimage, and an open porous 
soil is used, leaf mould and road sand in the proportion of 
about two parts of the former to one of the latter being as good 
as anything. Each pot holds thirty cuttings. When these 
have been inserted, a thorough watering is given, and the 
pots are placed, wherever I can find room for them, amongst 
the chrysanthemums, which at that time occupy my small 
orchard house. Water is given durimg the winter only when 
the pots begin to get dry, and then enough is supplied to 
make its appearance at the bottom of the pot. Should the 
weather prove severe, I generally contrive to move the pots to 
a place where they will be just safe from the frost; at the same 
time, fire heat is a worse enemy than frost, for in the winter of 
1870-71 my pots of cuttings were frozen through for three 
weeks or more, and I subsequently had no scarcity of plants 
for my beds. 

As there should be a reason for everything, I may as well 
say that I recommend eight-inch pots, because they hold suffi- 
cient soil to keep moist without wanting perpetual watering, 
so that the plants do not alternate between extremes of wet 
and dryness; and I take my cuttings late in October, because 
there is always at that time an unlimited supply of healthy 
growth to choose from, and no weak shoots are made in winter, 
as would be the case with cuttings taken earlier in the season. 
At the end of the year I do not suppose my cuttings have 
made a single root, but by the end of January the pots are 
well filled, very few cuttings ever failing. They are then 
shaken out and planted in wooden boxes at about three inches 
apart, where they remain (still in the orchard house) until 
spring weather sets in. They soon make rapid growth, and 
are from time to time pinched to keep them bushy. 

About the first or second week in April, or earlier if the 
weather appears settled, they are planted at about nine inches 
apart ina sheltered corner of the garden. Here they receive 
no further protection, unless frosty nights occur soon after 
they are put out, in which case they have some tiffany thrown 
over them. Were not my beds always full of spring flowers 
at the time, I think it would be better to plant at once in 
the positions intended to be ‘occupied in summer. The 
plants are kept constantly stopped as they make fresh shoots, 
and by the time they are wanted they are nearly a foot 
through. 

And now as to soil. I hayeseen a strong soil recommended, 
but of such I have no experience. I use, both in my boxes 
and afterwards in the nursery bed, an open and porous soil, 
or, if IL may so describe it, an elastic soil, composed chiefly 
of decayed leaves, such as one finds ferns revelling in in 
woods. 

The one fault of the Calceolaria, and no doubt the reason 
of its being in ill-favour with many people is, that it is apt 
to flower itself out in a hot, dry summer by August, when 
other bedding plants are at their best. This may be of more 
consequence to those who “bed ont” elaborate patterns than 
it is tome. Flowers areas valuable tome in June and July 
as afterwards, and I can excuse plants taking a rest after 
giving me, for six or eight weeks, a sheet of bloom. I know 
my Calceolarias will be bright enough again when the autumn 
rains revive them. ‘This exhaustion may, however, be ina 
great measure obviated by placing a good layer of half- 
decayed leayes or manure in the beds, and giving copious 
supplies of water in hot weather, and if in addition a situation 

' shaded in the hottest part of the day is chosen, and about 


half of the first set of blooming shoots are pinched back 
before flowering there will be little reason to complain of the 
plants at any season. ; ; 

I do not think the Calceolaria is suited for places exposed 
to a blazing sun, though it will stand a good deal if kept 
cool and moist at the roots. There is no lack of plants 
which rejoice in such positions. Calceolarias, especially 
yellow ones, always look best without direct sunlight, and 
to my mind yellow should be but sparingly used in the full 
glare of a summer’s sun. W. 


A RAMBLE AMONGST BRITISH ORCHIDS. 

A YEAR or two ago I was in Buckinghamshire in March, in a 
neighbourhood abounding in British Orchids. The first. I found was 
the beautiful Orchis mascula, there called Ring Fingers. Arleyford 
Wood contains thousands of them, and myriads of Primroses. I 
looked amongst them and saw one, a snow white variety of O. 
mascula, which I dug up with as much earth as would adhere to 
its roots, brought it home, and carefully potted it. The first 
season it was magnificent, and kept in bloom for six weeks, a much 
longer period than the usual purple form would have done; indeed, 
Iam not quite certain that it is not a distinct species. One day I 
was told that Whittington Park was famous for Orchids, so away 
to it I went, and there I found O. Morio in many varieties, from 
pure white to the richest purple; and im a piece of sandy bog I met 
with Epipactis palustris, Listera cordata, and O. maculata in 
many shades of colour, notably a pure white variety. Orchis 
maculata is a fine thine for pots, and is easily cultivated; so are 
mascula and Morio. I found also in this bog the beantifnl little 
Anagallis tenella, and in the same field Spiranthes autumnalis; over 
the hedge, in a wet place, was a grand lot of Chrysosplenium 
oppositifolium, and nearer Hpipactis purpurata. In the adjoiming 
wood I came upon a bog containing a fine grove of Hquisetum 
Telmateia and H. sylvaticum; and in the wettest places, Buckbean. 
In this wood I also found a variegated form of Pteris aquilina; and 
Osmunda regalis grows there, but I did not seeit. Listera ovata T 
also found in great quantities, and one plant of it beautifully 
variegated; and, last of all, such grand plants of Habenaria 
bifolia. Altogether I do not remember any thing that pleased 
me more than meeting with these floral gems. Masses of the lovely 
Pyrola media, Epipactis latifolia, also abound in that neighbourhood. 

In respect to cultivation, I have tried the different methods 
recommended, such as mixing chalk with the soil; but I find this 
does not suit. I take equal parts of maiden or hazelly loam, sandy 
peat, and leaf mould, not much decayed, plenty of silver sand, and 
some broken bits of charcoal; I also crock with charcoal. Dig up 
the plants any time when you can find them with a ball of earth; 
when they are taken home, carefully remove all the earth you can 
without injuring the roots, drain well, and pot carefully and firmly. 
Plunge the pots under a north wall and in clean river sand; supply 
them liberally with water during the growing season, and in 
November remove them into a cold frame haying a sonthern aspect, 
and you will be surprised at the result. They require to be more 
generously dealt with under artificial treatment than might be 
imagined from the position and localities in which they are found. 
Ophrys apifera, O. muscifera, and Orchis pyramidalis are capital 
sorts for pot culture. Gymnadenia conopsea I found on Ashley 
Hill, also a beautiful white variegated form of Epipactis latifolia ; 
and in the Muntz a lovely variegated Epipactis purpurata, with the 
foliage banded and striped with rose colour, much in the same way 
as Tradescantia discolor; this I have unfortunately lost. I find 
that variegated forms are very common where Orchids abound. 
Neottia Nidus-avis can be cultivated; I do not think it is the root 
parasite that some observers have stated. If anyone would collect 
the whole family of British Orchids, and grow them as they are 
capable of being cultivated, they would form a tout ensemble worth a 
long journey to see. What a grand bog-plant Orchis latifolia is! and 
what is that Orchis so mnch like it, but with larger flowers, denser 
spikes, that blooms a month or five weeks later, and in a similar 
situation? I shall strenuonsly exert myself to bring these and other 
rare plants into notice, and then, when the public get familiar with 
them, no place will be complete without its bog garden. Of late 
years the great improyement in public taste for variety in decorative 
plants, has given a stimulus to the cultivation of these our native 
plants; for many are the undiscoyered gems we possess, wasting 
their sweetness on the desert air, where the windflowers dance 
merrily in the breeze, where the sundew opens its golden eyes in 
the depths of our grand old woods, and by the side of the laughing 
riplets as they leap from the mountains to the valleys. Verily, does 
not nature sing an everlasting song, and shall not we rejoice in these 
the lovely children of the wood and wild ? W. Exxior, 


Apri 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


457 


THE ROSE SECRET. 

Arrer all that has been said about striking rose-cuttings as easily 
as willows, I wonder that none of your correspondents has made 
mention of striking them in a way pretty nearly the same as I 
remember to have struck willow-cuttings when a boy. How this 
may be done is told in the following extract, which I take from a 
French work, ‘La Taille du Rosier,” by M. Eugéne Forney, p. 69 :— 


“We are indebted,” says the author, ‘to M. Lucy, of Marseilles, 
for an ingenious method of striking winter cuttings of the rose, 
which is easy to perform, and gives perfect results. A piece of stick 
is laid upon the ground, quite level ; on each side of the stick little 
notches or trenches are taken out with a spade, rose-cuttings of 
about ten inches in length are made, and bent over the stick, with 
their two ends lowered into the trenches. The trenches are then 
filled in with soil, so as to leave only one eye of the cutting upon the 
top of the stick above ground. It is to be remarked that roots form 
only at the lower end of the cutting; the other end ultimately 
withers away up to the young shoot. It is easy to understand that 
a cutting managed in this way must be certain of success, since 
its upper extremity, being embedded in the earth, is not subject 
to dry up in the spring. Hard-wooded kinds, diffienlt to strike by 
cuttings, treated in this way, have given excellent results.” 


I laid after this manner about thirty cuttings of different kinds in 
October last, and at present they are all in vigorous condition. At 
the same time I also laid a great number in the ordinary way, and 
about three weeks ago nearly all seemed flourishing, and likely to 
succeed. Since then, however, such as were not long and stout, and 
well buried in the soil, have shown symptoms of dying off, doubtlessly 
dried up, as M. Forney observes. T. A. C. FinwincEer, Edmonton. 


THE GREAT WATER DOCK. 
(RUMEX IYDROLAPATHUM.) 

Tis not uncommon native plant is of great value in the 
picturesque garden; far more so than any exotic we could 
name as suitable for like positions. It is a very large water- 
side plant, of a size and habit sufficiently striking to entitle 
it toa place amongst ornamental subjects by the water-side. 
The radical long-stalked leaves, which are sometimes two feet 


The Great Water Dock. 
or more in length, form erect tufts of a very imposing 
character. The flowering-stem is frequently six fect in height, 
and bears a very large, dense, pyramidal panicle of a reddish 


or olive-fawn colour. The plant is most effective in autumn, 
when the leaves change to a lurid red colour, which they 
retain for some time. No care whateyer is required in its 
culture. It merely requires a place by the margin of a lake 
or stream. 


FERNS ON THE EASTERN SCOTISH BORDER. 


Tue following is a list of Ferns to be found around Kelso, and 
as it is a district often visited by tourists, amongst whom are many 
Fern collectors, it may be of use in indicating the stations where 
they are to be found :— 


Common Polypody (Polpodium vulgare) —Common on shady banks, 
rocks, walls, and old trees. 

Beech Fern (P. Phegopteris)—Frequent in moist, rocky places on 
Cheviot and the adjacent hills. 

Oak Fern (P. Dryopteris)—This delicate-looking species grows on 

Cheviot along with the last, also near Hume. 
_ Mountain Parsley (Allosorus crispus).—This elegant Fern is very local 
in this district; it is plentiful on the west side of Henshole (a wild glen 
on Cheviot), also on the Hildon Hills, and Black Hill at Earlston ; itappears 
to like good drainage, as almost every plant I have seen of it is growing 
amongst loose stones. 

Common Prickly Shield-Fern (Polystichum aculeatum).—This and the 
variety lobatum is not uncommon about Makerston and Melrose. 

Mountain Buckler Fern (Lastrea montana).—Plentiful in Bowmont 
Forest, and the sides of rills on the Cheviots. 

Male Fern (Lastrea Filix-mas).—This is the most common species in 
this quarter, where it varies greatly in appearance, both in form and 
size. 

Broad Buckler Fern (Lastrea dilatata)—This, like the last, is both 
common and variable ; it is most abundant, and thrives best in Scotch fir 
plantations. 

Lady Fern (Athyrium Filix-femina).—This graceful and elegant species 
is frequently met with all over the Borders; also the variety purpureum. 
The variety rhwticum is common on Cheviot ; I found a very fine form of 
Y loa in a plantation at Ewart Park, with fronds from four to five feet 


Forked Spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionale).—This rare little Fern 
grows on Trap Rocks overhanging the Tweed at Makerston; it appears to 
delight in sunshine (a rather uncommon thing with Ferns, as all the 
plants I have seen of it face the south). 

Alternate Spleenwort (A. germanicum).—This was found at one time 
near Kelso; but as far as I know it is now extizct. 

Wall Rue (A. Ruta-muraria).—Rare about here; but may be found on 
= ae wall near Yetholm, and plentifully on Melrose Abbey and Berwick 

Valls. 

Common Maiden-hair Spleenwort (A. Trichomanes).—This is common 
on rocks and walls about Makerston, Newtondon, Sandyknow Crags, &e. 

Sea Spleenwort (A. marinwmn).—This handsome evergreen Fern grows 
sparingly on the coast of Berwickshire; also at Twizel, on the banks of 
the Till, seven or eight miles from the sea. 

Black Maiden-hair Spleenwort (A. Adiantum-nigrun).—Found in the 
same localities along with A. Trichomanes. 

Hart's Tongue Fern (Scolopendriwn vulgare).—This, though common in 
many parts of the country, is rare here; it grows on the north side of the 
garden wall at Newtondon. 

Hard Fern (Blechnum Spicant)—Common on the hills and moors; it 
grows very strongly in Bowmont Forest, the fertile fronds being generally 
upwards of two feet high. I found a plant there with most of the fronds 
of the normal form, some forked, others the same as in the variety 
anomalum, and an intermediate form between anomalum and the type, all 
on one plant. 

Bracken (Pteris aquilina).—Abundant on the hills. 

Brittle Bladder Fern (Cystopteris fragilis) —This grows luxuriantly at 
Aichill Linn,-and it is plentiful in some of the rocky glens of the 
Cheviots. 

' Wilson’s Film Fern (Hymenophyllum Wilsoni)—I have a specimen 
of this moss-like species, obtained from a friend, who got it on the 
Cheviots, though I have not seen it there myself. 

Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis).—I have heard of two plants of this 
noble-looking ern being found in this district, one on Cheviot, and the 
other on Coldingham Moor. It grows luxuriantly about the canal and 
tl aes in Newtondon Woods, but to these stations it has been intro- 

uced. 

Moonwort (Botrychium Lunaria)—This is to be found on Cessford 
Moor, and on the Lammermoors; but it is rare and local. 

Common Adder’s Tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum).—Has been found 
near Melrose. 

As the Club mosses are nearly related to Ferns, [may just mention 
that Lycopodium clavatum is common on all our moors; L. Selago 
and L. alpinum are also both plentiful on the top of Cheviot. 

Kelso. ALB. 


WIGANDIA DISEASE. 


I HAVE a plant of Wigandia, one of several attacked by a 
disease similar, if not identical, with that which attacks the 
potato. I have seen it in several classes of plants, such as Verbenas, 
Bouvyardias, Pentstemons, Heliotropes, &c., and I have for several 
years tried many methods to get rid of it. I have applied sulphur 
alone in a dry and in a moist state, also sulphur and soot, and 
sulphur, soot, and snuff, as I thought at one time the disease was 
caused by thrips; but I soon found out that it was not caused by 
an insect. Then I began to think of my old potato remedy, viz., 
dusting with lime, which thoroughly answered my expectations. 


458 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arrin 13, 1872. 


The disease attacks them in the youngest and most tender part of 
the stem and leaves. About two months since, I had a plant showing 
symptoms of the disease, on which I operated, and now it is growing 
away as clean as it was before the attack. The malady appears 
almost all at once, that is within twenty-four hours, and attacks the 
young and tender tops. I find, as in the case of the potato, that 
it is caused by a sudden change from warm and genial to a cold 
and damp atmosphere. It also spreads rapidly; and for the future 
I intend trying lime-dusting on all plants affected that come under 
my obseryation. 


Wellington Nursery, St. John’s Wood. R. H. Barn. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Iris Kempferi.—This beautiful little nis, the varieties of which 
are so much admired by all who know them, has stood this winter out of 
doors quite unscathed. Many are not aware that this fine and uncommon 
plant is hardy. 

Palms in Guernsey (see p. 877).—The following have been grown 
in the open air here for several years past, and do well. They are quite 
hardy with us, viz. :—Chamerops excelsa and humilis, and Rhapis flabel- 
liformis. Cordyline australis and Banksi also sueceed in the Channel 
Islands.—Joun Ricap. WitxIs. 

Single Mauve Primrose.—This beautiful spring flower, some- 
times called the Irish Primrose, is now in full bloom im London nurseries, 
and isa plant worthy of general culture. Another richly-coloured deep 
magenta single variety, also distinct and beautiful, is likewise in full 
bloom. These charming early flowers should be seen everywhere, where 
spring flowers are grown. 

Daffodils.—There is a slight error in the interesting notice of 
Daffodils which appeared in your issue of March 30th (p. 419), sespecting 
the two large varieties distributed by us under the names “The 
Emperor” and “'The Hmpress.” The one with the sulphur perianth was 
called “The Emperor,’’ whilst the other, with the white perianth, was 
named ‘‘The Empress’”—this being exactly the reverse of what was 
stated by your correspondent.—JAs. BackwousE & Son. 

Myosotis dissitiflora.—This charming early spring bedding plant 
will not, I fear, stand much frost. Thad a nice bed of it here edged with 
the variegated Arabis, and it was in full flower just before the weather 
changed to its wintry character. Nothing could have looked prettier in the 
way of a spring bed than it did; but now the flowers look all scorched 
and dead, and this after two mornings’ frosts, on the 22nd and 23rd ult., 
when 5° and 6° of frost were registered on those days.—WILLIAM 
TILLERY. 

Rock Gardens.—What seeds would answer best to sow in what was 
formerly a limestone quarry, but which is now prettily planted with trees ? 
The rocks are picturesque—M.——[You are fortunate in having so 
good an opportunity of making a noblo rock-garden at little cost. The 
great majority of alpine and dwarf herbaceous plants will thrive well in 
such a position. To cover the ground and the rock seams, and get a 
showy bloom soon, you could not do better than begin with all the dwarf 
bell-flowers (Campanulas), and all the good showy cruciferous alpine 
plants you can get. We allude to the various kinds of perennial rock 
Candytuft or Tberis, the Alyssums, Aubrietias, and Arabises, all now 
easily obtained in nurseries and from seed. Consult “ Alpine Flowers” 
and “The Wild Garden,” both of which books deal with such spots as 
you name. | 


THE HOVSE OED: 


SELECT EDIBLE FUNGI. 
THE VEGETABLE BEEFSTEAK (FISTULINA IEPATICA). 

Artnouen the popular name of “liver-fungus”’ corresponds 
very well with the scientific name of this species, yet we con- 
sider the name of ‘“ Vegetable Beefsteak” (aptly given to it 
by Dr. Bull, of Hereford) so verymuch better, both as regards the 
shape of the fungus itself and its taste, too, that we prefer to 
keep it here as its popular name. The taste is exceedingly like 
beetsteak; but it must be confessed, that a well-grown speci- 
men more resembles a great tongue than either a lump of 
liver or steak; hence it is known in Italy as “ Lingua quer- 
cina” or“ Lingua di Castagna,” and in France, ‘“ Langue-de- 
boouf.” 

This fungus, which resembles a great red tongue pro- 
truding from tree-stems, when once known can never 
be mistaken for any other species It generally confines 
itself to old (and often prostrate) oaks; but, in Epping 
Forest it is not uncommon on the beech. We have 
also seen it more than once on the ash; and it has been 
observed on the chestnut, walnut, willow, and other trees. 
We have tasted it from various habitats, but have never been 
able to detect the least difference in the flavour. Although 


such a large fungus, its growth is very rapid, soon appearing, 
and again disappearing, on ancient trunks in the autumn. 

When cut, broken, or bruised, it distils a copious red juice 
like beef gravy. 

“ When grilled,” says Dr. Badham, “it is scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished from broiled meat ;” and Berkeley describes it as 
* one of the best things he ever ate, when prepared by a skilful 
cook.” There is a very slightly acid flavour in the fungus 
when cooked, which adds considerable piquancy to the dish; itis 
extremely tender, succulent, and juicy, and resembles tender 
steak or tongue in a remarkable manner, the juice it distils 
being in taste and appearance like gravy from an excellent 
broiled rumpsteak. Of course, it should be gathered when quite 
young, fresh, and clean, and at once prepared for the table 
in the following manner :— 

Wash and dry, and eut into quarter-inch slices half-an-inch 
wide, soak in scalding water for five minutes, and stew with 
butter and herbs; yolk of egg may then be added, and serve 
hot; or simply stew witha good steak, adding a scallion and 
parsley, salt, and pepper. . 

For Fistulina Ketchup, slice and macerate with salt, and, 
says Mrs. Hussey, serve “with a little lemon juice and minced 
shallots, with a broiled rumpsteak.” 


BEEFSTEAK Fon@us (FIsTULINA HEPATICA).—Upper surface at first pale purplish 
red, then chocolate ; under surface at first cream colour, then yellowish red ; 
flesh, when cut, streaked, red, and juicy, more or less like beet-root; size, 
from six inches to two feet in diameter. 

A. Section through centre. B. Tubes enlarged, showing" fimbriated orifices. 
CO. Spores enlarged seven hundred diameters. 

Unfortunately there are not many references to fungi in 
Shakespeare, so that it is extremely difficult to get an apt 
quotation; but there can be little doubt that Shakespeare was 
well acquainted with edible fungi, and a certain passage, met 
with in “ As you like it *’ (Act ii., scene 1, Forest of Arden), 
if «mended as we would suggest, would certainly show that the 
Bard of Avon was well acquainted with both the habit and 
edible qualities of Fistulina hepatica. The passage we have 
in view concludes the description of a forest scene, where, no 
doubt, the Lingua quercina, or “Tongue of the Oak,” 
abounded. 

The lines are, as usually printed :— 

“ And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” 

Of course, this is so much nonsense ; Shakespeare could not 
have written such lines. Attempts have more than once been 
made to amend them, but never with any success till now. 
Without doubt, the following reading is what Shakespeare 
originally wrote :— 

And this our life, exempt from public-houses, 

Finds sermons in books, stones in the running brooks, 

Tongues in trees—and good eating ! ; 
And good eating they ae—Shakespeare knew it long before 
Dr, Badham. W.G.S. 


Apri 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


459 


THE LIBRA. 


“THE MOUNTAIN.” * 
(Seconp Novice.) 


“ Tie Mountain ” contains numerous and beautiful illustra- 
tions; chiefly of mountain scenery. It is a companion volume 
to those interesting works “ The Bird,” and “ The Sea,” and 
is devoted to the aspects and life of the mountain and all 
its children; its lava 
streams, and its cano- 
pies of snow; its 
torrents, ravines, and 
forests. It is not 
technical; though full 
of pleasant instruc- 
tion. We do not find 
so much about alpine 
flowers as we should 
like, though most of 
the subjects connected 
with mountains are 
treated of. 

To us the Alpine 
regions seem an 
earthly paradise ; to 
those who have to 
live in their terrible 
wintry solitudes they 
bear a very different 
aspect :— 


“The mountaineer 
does not regard his 
mountain from the same 
view-point as ourselves. 
He is strongly attached 
to it, and constantly 
returns to it; but he 
calls it the ‘evil country.’ 
The white glassy waters 
which escape from it, 
leaping and bounding in 
furious rapidity, he 
names ‘ the wild waters.’ 
The black forest of firs, 
suspended to the preci- 
pices, an imageof eternal 
peace, is his war, his 
battle. In the roughest 
months of the year, 
when all other . labour 
ceases, he attacks the 
forest. It is an arduous 
campaign, and full of 
perils. It is not enough 
to fell the trees, and 
start them headlong; 
their course must be 
directed. He must watch 
them on their passage, 
and regulate the terrible 
leaps which carry them 
to the bed of the tor- 
rents. The conquered 
is often fatal to the 
conqueror; the tree to 
thewoodman. The forest 
has its mournful histories 
of orphans and widows. For the wife and the family, a terror full of 
mourning rests upon yonder heights, whose woods, mingled with 
snow, mark them out funereally from afar by spots of white and black. 
Formerly the glaciers were objects of aversion; men regarded them 
with eyes askant. Those of Mont Blanc were called in Savoy ‘ the 
accursed mountains.’ German Switzerland, in its old peasants’ 
legends, doomed the damned to the glaciers. They are a kind of hell. 
Woe to the avaricious woman—to the hard cold heart which in the 


a The Mountain. From the French of Michelet. By the Translator of ‘‘ The 
Bird.” With fifty-four illustrations from designs by Percival Skelton, London 
and Edinburgh: T, Nelson & Sons, 


Himalayan Mountain Scenery. 


winter drives her aged father from the blazing hearth! As a 
punishment she shall wander, with a hideous black dog, wander 
without rest in the regions of ice. In the severest nights of winter, 
when everybody presses close to the charcoal stove, you may see 
there on high the white woman, faltering and tottering among the 
sharp-edged crystals. In the diabolical valley, where, every minute, 
thunders and crashes the avalanche from the summit of the Jungfrau, 
a host of doomed barons and ferocious knights ever dash and hurtle 
one against another, and shatter their fronts of iron.” 


To see the pathways through some high and narrow valley, 


garnished with frail 
and rude wooden 
memorials of those 


who have perished, is, 
however, more sug- 
gestive of the horror 
of mountain life in 
winter than anything 
to be gleaned from a 
description. Our il- 
lustration shows a 
scene in the great 
Indian range, and 
also the genericaffinity 
which exists between 
all mighty mountain 
chains. Differ they 
may in flowers, forests, 
and temperature, but 
the same law every- 
where moulds them, 
andalmosteverywhere 
the stately plume of 
the pine fringes the 
silent and perennial 
snows. 

“The resinous trecs 
comprehend more than 
a genus or family; they 
are a vegetable world, 


whose various forms 
record for our behoof 
the ages which have 


preceded our human era. 
Born in the time of the 
ferns, the cycads, and 
the equiseta, they con- 
tinue to imitate them in 
certain species. Tor 
example, the ephedra 
still fashions itself upon 
the equisetum, but by a 
system of joints attains 
a greater stature, and 
instead of foliage is 
clothed in scales. The 
resinous giants, such as 
the araucaria and the 
sequoia, still astonish 
the earth as she was 
astonished in her power- 
ful youth, when her 
trees were mountains. 

«Tn the southern hemi- 
sphere, the life of the 
resinous trees, which is 
more concentrated in 
genial climates, has a 
very different character. 
Set free from the hard task of supporting masses of snow, and 
enduring the pitiless strokes of the hurricane, they breathe more at 
ease. The araucaria of Brazil or Chili bears a leaf like that of our 
tiny holly. The dammaras of Amboyna and New Zealand, reeking 
with warm waters, may well dilate their lungs. They cast off the 
thin needle-like form of the conifers, amplify their foliage, and grow 
in height and girth without restraint. 

“The true stoics are our resinous trees of the North. They endure 
the sharpest trials by their power of self-concentration and their 
heroic sobriety. It is by such means they have prevailed over both 
space and time. Useful and beneficent, and greatly profiting the 


4.60 


THE GARDEN. 


(Arrm 13, 1872. 


world, they ask from it scarcely anything in return. One is wholly 
unable to disembarrass oneself of an emotion of gratitude and religious 
reverence when, wandering alone among the eleyated pasturages of 
Switzerland, one encounters some of these yenerable firs which for 
ages have been preserved as a refuge and a protection for the herd. 
One perceives in such localities the importance of the tree’s mission. 
One feels that it is the friend and protector of all life. And well 
does every creature know it; goats, and sheep, and lambs, and 
indolent cows, spontaneously resort to its shade to enjoy their 
repose, each perfectly well acquainted with its own gogant—(the 
name borne by these protecting trees in the Pays de Vaud). There 
they establish themselves in the summer-time, and are at home. 
Near at hand the cascade murmurs. At different stages of the lofty 
tree buzzes and swarms a world of squirrels, insects, and birds.” 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


BASKET PLANTS. 


‘THE use of suspended baskets for conservatory decoration has now 
become so general, that a few remarks on the plants most suitable 
for their decoration may not be out of place. Formerly the plants 
grown in baskets consisted almost entirely of orchids, such as Stan- 
hopeas, trailing Dendrobes, and the like; but now Ferns and Lyco- 
pods, Cacti, and succulent plants of various kinds are employed for 
this description of decoration; and why many other similar things 
are not used in the same way we do not know. No better way of 
examining the intricate beauty of some of the smaller melo-cacti 
could be devised, while a basket thoroughly well furnished with 
plants of Cereus flagelliformis, Mallisonii, and others of like habit, in 
full bloom, would be a sight worth walking far to see. The night- 
blooming Cereus, C grandiflorus, would also be a grand subject for 
this kind of treatment. Again, for summer gaiety, what could be 
finer than a mixture of the brilliant orange, scarlet, purple, and 
silvery-white Mesembryanthemums? Of annuals, take the Portula- 
eas and Clintonias ; and for winter and early spring the varions kinds 
of Tropzolum, especially the varieties of T. Lobbii, and of the tuber- 
ous-rooted species, not forgetting our light and elegant friends T. 
tricolor, T. Jarratti, and the lovely blue T. azureum. If we go to 
foliage plants, the stove swarms with them—Gymnostachyums, Fit- 
tonias, Sonerillas, Panicum yariegatum, and such climbing plants as 
Cissus discolor, Lindenii, and porphyrophallus, the latter especially 
delighting in a position where, like the ivy, it can root from every 
joint. Nothing can look more beautiful than these foliage plants 
when brought between the light and the eye, the Iresines and the 
Dracznas being specially beautiful in such a position. 

Perhaps, however, the finest examples of basket-gardening are the 
immense masses of the choicer kinds of Achimenes, as they may be 
seen in the Victoria house and large conservatory at Chatsworth. 
These baskets are very large, requiring, when filled with soil, four or 
five strong men to lift one, and each is stocked with hundreds of 
plants; so that when fully grown they form one dense mass of bloom, 
almost perfect spheres from four feet to six feet in diameter, and loaded 
daily for several months in succession with thousands of flowers. It 
is singular that the original species, A. longiflora and longiflora major 
and alba, patens, grandiflora, and Verschaffeltii do the best; the 
modern hybrids not succeeding at all. The preparation for these 
baskets at Chatsworth is almost like the preparation for bedding out 
in an ordinary establishment. The caterpillar-like tubers may be 
seen by the peck, and after a time dozens of shallow boxes with the 
young plants growing up like small salading. Still, grand as 
Achimenes are in their season, there is another tribe of plants, which, 
blooming— 


** When chill November's surly blast lays field and forest bare,”’ 


is still more effective. This consists of the Epiphyllums ; and, though 
the baskets at Chatsworth have been planted within the last two 
years, they have already assumed such proportions as to give 
ample proof that when the plants become fully developed they will 
form objects of great and novel beauty. The Epiphyllums are 
particularly suited to this style of decoration, for to realise their 
special beauty the flowers must be seen upon a level with, if not 
above, the eye; and the baskets can be raised or lowered, so as to 
bring ont the bright tints of their richly-coloured flowers. The 
Russelia juncea, one of those plants which, twenty years ago formed 
one of our most elegant exhibition plants, has fallen almost out of 
cultivation. It is a free-growing, light, and airy stove plant, 
not unlike asparagus in its elegance, with long drooping branchlets, 
tipped in the blooming season with myriads of bright scarlet, slender, 
tubular flowers, each about an inch long, and not more than a tenth 
of an inch in diameter; and hence, whether in bloom or ont, it forms 


a very elegant plant. Its drooping habit renders it peculiarly suit- 
able for basket cultivation, and, though one plant after two or three 
seasons’ srowth would form a very graceful mass, it is better for the 
purpose of immediate effect to plant four or five in a group. 
Assuming that you have a basket eighteen inches in diameter, and of 
proportionate depth, line the inside first with live sphagnum, to which 
may be added some of the smaller Lycopods. Then fill in with a com- 
post, consisting of tongh fibrous loam three parts, flaky, half-decayed 
leaf mould, and any cowdung made sufficiently hot over a flue or 
stove to destroy insect life and its ova, one part, and a liberaladmix- 
ture of charcoal and broken oyster-shells, and some gritty sand. Mix 
the whole intimately together, having it at the time rather dry, and 
then fill the baskets quite firm. In the centre, however, place a soft 
porous six-inch pot, with the hole at the bottom stopped up, and 
this kept constantly filled with weak manure water will be found of 
great service, especially in the second and after years of the growth 
of the plants. Taken out and examined, it will be found that the 
roots of the plants have wrapped round it like a perfect network, 
and, if sufficiently porous, it is fair to conclude a large quantity of 
nutriment would be thus takenup. The basket being filled, procure 
some Adiantums and other small-growing ferns and Lycopods; fill 
them in as a fringe around the sides, and as they grow they will 
form a very desirable cover to the basket-work. Then plant your 
Russelias, placing them equidistant around the circumference of the 
basket, and cover the surface with a few more dwarf-growing plants. 

The temperature of the house should be that of the damp stove, 
60° to 75° by fire heat, rising to 90°, with plenty of moisture in the 
atmosphere in bright weather. As the plants get established and 
the roots active, the syringe must be freely used with tepid water on 
all sides of the basket ; and if sometimes clean weak manure water 
be added to it, the growth of tke plants will be promoted. In the 
matter of watering plants in baskets, it is necessary that it be done 
thoroughly, so as to soak the whole mass of soil; andif this cannot 
be done by simply pouring water upon the surface, then the basket 
must be lowered into a tub containing sufficient warm weak manure 
to soak the whole mass thoronghly. For permanent plants this steep- 
ing of the soil will be necessary at the commencement of the growth 
in the spring, and perhaps once a month through the summer and 
autumn. This, however, will depend much upon the copious manner 
in which the plants are syringed; the surface of the basket being 
large, and the air hot and sometimes dry, the evaporation will be 
much greater than it would be from a pot or tub containing a similar 
amount of soil. 

The branches of the Russelias, as they gain strength will rise to 
the height of five or six feet, and the branchlets, drooping im the 
most graceful manner, will forma living fountain of exquisite beauty. 
To bloom the Russelias successfully it is necessary that the maturing 
process be properly attended to in the autumn—that is, the quantity 
of water must be reduced towards the middle of August, the plants 
be exposed to full light and a free circulation of air, and in that 
manner the blooming principle is sure to be encouraged. Through 
the winter keep the plants dry rather than otherwise, but at the same 
time see that they do not actually flag. When growth commences in 
the spring, each tiny branchlet will be tipped with flower-buds in 
various stages of development, so that a succession of flowers will be 
maintained fora long time. Of course in the blooming season manure 
water must be supplied; and by copious syringing ; sometimes with 
sulphur water, the plants must be kept clear of red spider, which isa 
sad pest to them. W. A. 


SUCCULENTS. 

Ir Mr. Croncher’s enumeration of Succulents at Kew is correct, 
I think the collection a meagre one compared with what it ought to 
be. Mx. Croucher sets Cactuses introduced into England down 
at about 550. In 1833 I made a collection that contained over 500 
sorts, and there were at that time known to me above 150 kinds not 
in my collection. Prince Salem, of Dyke, Diisseldorf, on the Rhine, 
one of the greatest of Succulent authorities, told me that his col- 
lection of Cacti numbered about eight hundred sorts. Now, I am 
aware that during these last forty years there has been an immense 
number of Cactuses added to our gardens. The Duke of Bedford’s 
collection, for example, was rich in many recently-introduced sorts ; 
and many other private collections in England were far ahead of 
Kew in Succulents. My own at one time numbered 1,600 sorts, 
and was said to be the richest known in number of species. I had 
500 Cactuses, 325 Mesembryanthemums, not including the annuals, 
50 of the Teneriffe Sempervivams, and about 20 hardy sorts; 
Euphorbia, 50 kinds ; Aloe, in all its sections, 130 kinds; Stapelia, 


80; and the rest were made up of many smaller groups, such as_ 


Sedums, Crassulas, &c. In the year 1837-38, I had the manage- 
ment of the Succulents in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, 
where there was a much finer collection under my charge than now 


Arrit 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


4.61 


existsat Kew. It should be borne in mind that this was thirty years 
and more ago, and during that time one would have thought that 
the Kew collection would have now reached at least two thousand 
sorts. There is a growing desire among cultivators to add these 
often beautiful and grotesque plants to their collections, and I can 
say that no tribe of plants presents so many interesting features as 
these do. A fine collection elicits the admiration of everyone. I 
have had the curious Cereus abnormis seven to eight feet high 
planted out in a niche, and along with it the singular Serpentinus, 
which grew up and twisted all round its rough partner, and covered 
it in a mass of beautiful flowers. It formed a truly lovely picture, 
which was admired by everyone who saw it. But I need not further 
advert to the merits of this useful tribe of plants. The increasing 
demand for something in addition to our flat beds of Geraniums, 
&c., is becoming every day more and more urgent, and I know of 
nothing that can add so much charm to a flower garden as Succulents. 
The combination of Geraniums, Petunias, Lobelias, &c., with fine- 
foliaged plants, such as Bocconia, Acanthus, Eryngium, Wigandia, 
and the grotesque forms of Succulent vegetation, cannot fail to 
make our flower gardens objects of admiration. As regards noble 
plants, the Kew collection, though deficient in numbers, is in many 
respects unsurpassed. J. Scorr, 

{In our own day the Paris collection of .tender Succulents has 
always been very inferior to that at Kew. ] 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 396.) 
MALORTIBA INTERMEDIA (SYN., FENTSTRATA: Centrat AMERIcA).—A 
handsome little plant, with erect palmate fronds ; holed at the base, 
and a free grower, though small; useful for vases or for Wardian 


Se ew ee 


Seaforthia Elegans (10 feet). 


cases. This and the following species may be increased by cutting 
off the shoots that spring from the base, leaving them in the pot 
until they have become established. 


M. smterex (Brazin).—A rather stronger plant than that just 
named, and without holes at the base of the fronds. 

MAR?INEZIA CARYOrHKOLIA (PERU).—A noble palm, with dark, 
dense, arched foliage, something like that of Caryota, though 
denser; stem very spiney. An effective plant for the central 
portions of a stove, where shade is required. 

OREODOXA GHIESHREGHTIANA (SYN., VENTRICOSA: BRAziL).—A stately 
stiff growing plant, with broad spreading fronds: 

O. oLeracwa (BrAztL).—EHlegant for furnishing purposes, and for 
towering up above other plants, so as to cause diversity of aspect. 
This and O. regia occupy a similar position among palms that Poplars 
do among hardy trees. Their fronds, which are slender, stand erect 
like a plume of gigantic feathers. Regia, which comes from Cuba, 
has narrower leaflets than oleracea, and is, altogether, the better of 
the two. 

Puanix.—The whole of the species belonging to this genus are 
much alike in habit ; the fronds are regularly pinnate, and the base 
more or less spiney. For table decoration they are rather too stiff, 
but they make fine plants for stove and greenhouse ornamentation. 
The greenhouse kinds are P. dactylifera (Tropics: syn., canariensis), 
and spinosa (South Africa: syn., leonensis). Stove sorts consist of 
P. acaulis (India), P. paludosa (Bengal), P. reclinata (South 
Africa), P. rupicola (India), and P. sylvestris (India). 

PrycHosPERMA ALPXANDRM (sYN., Prvanca Swiram: Norra 
Ausrratia).—A most desirable plant for the ornamentation of 
warm conservatories, in which its noble arched fronds of a greyish 
hue have a truly charming effect. A free grower, and when young 
very useful for table decoration. 

P. rupEs?RIS (CEYLON).—A good stove palm, with the habit of 
an Areca, but with fronds tinted red. 

PRILCHARDIA PACIFICA (Pactric IsLanps).—Of all the palms haying 
fan-shaped leaves, this is the finest. The leayes on plants only 
eight feet high often measure from four to five feet wide; they 
are flat and abruptly cut; the leaf-stalk being clothed with white 
scales, and the stem with strong fibre. A capital central plant for 
a close stove, in which its grandeur of outline could not fail to make 
it a favourite. 

PHYTELEPHAS MACROCARPA (SYN., ELEPHANTASIA: TROPICAL AMERICA). 
—This though not a true palm has somehow been mistaken for one, 
owing doubtless to its resemblance to a palm. Its leaves are 
elegantly arched and feather shaped, and when young it is a good 
stove plant, but when old its appearance is anything but attractive. 

Rarutas.—These are tall stiff growing palms from Tropical Africa, 
very fond of heat and moisture; when young they are ornamental, 
but in a few years they get rough and uninyiting. The species are 
R. Hookerii (syn., longifolia) and R. teedigera 

RuAvis.—These may be called humble palms; they throw up 
suckers so thickly as to form dense bushes. In pots, in windows, 
or in greenhouses, they have a fine appearance when kept to a single 
stem, which is erect, bearing fronds from eighteen inches to two feet 
long, nearly round, and cut into segments. All the species in this 
genus are moderately hardy, and are useful sub-tropical plants. 
They bear parting well. Of the Chinese R. flabelliformis there is a 
variegated form. R. Sirotsik (syn., humilis) comes from Japan. 

Sabat.—This is a genus in which are to be found some of the 
largest of all palms, and where these have room to fully develop 
their fine fan-shaped leaves, that often measure from four to six feet 
wide, they produce a grand effect; on the other hand there are also 
in this genus small stemless plants which never grow more than 
six feet or so in height, as for example, 8. Adansoni from Carolina, 
a nearly hardy species, though not a very elegant one. §. Palmetto, 
from the same district, is a tall plant, but not a very ornamental 
one ; while S. glancescens (syns., grandis, princeps), from the West 
Indies, is a noble palm, with fronds five feet in width, of a glaucous 
green, and §. umbraculifera (syn., Blackburniana), from the same 
locality, is also a very large plant. All the different kinds of Sabal 
will certainly live in a greenhouse, or even in a frame, if they could 
be got into it; but if required to grow they must have heat. 

Sacus Rurria (syn., RarHIA MADAGASCAR).—A good erect-growing 
palm of the pinnate class, with yellowish fronds; succeeds best as a 
sub-aquatic in a stove. 

SEAFORTHIA ELEGANS (SYN., PrycHosreRMA CUNNINGHAMI: TROPICAL 
AusrRatta).—One of the most useful of all palms for vases when 
young, or for conservatories. The fronds are spreading, and very 
elegant. It is a kind that is easily cultivated, and it will keep long 
in a small pot. 

STEVENSONIA GRANDIFOLIA (SYNS., PHa:NICOPHORUM SEYCHELLARUM, 
ASTROCARYUM BORSIGNIANUM, AND AUREO-PICTUM: SEYCHELLES).— 
As its name implies, this is a plant with grand foliage, having a 
metallic hue and suffused with yellow spots. In stoves it is magni- 
ficent, especially when associated with ferns and other small-foliaged 
plants. It is very sensitive of cold, and must have plenty of water. 


462 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arrin 13, 1872. 


The leaves are wedge-shaped, and its stem is clothed with strong 
black spines. If kept in heat it is a free grower. <A large house and 
bottom heat suit it best. J. CROUCHER, 


(Lo be continued.) 


REPOTTING AGAVES. 


T Aw anxious that no succulent-grower should become a convert 
to Mr. Croucher’s mode of repotting Agaves (see p. 869), accomplished 
gardener though he be. Cutting off the plant below the collar is 
recommended, allowing it to root afresh, with the view of saving 
trouble and scratches. Nature seldom supplies us, in the vegetable 
kingdom, with anything superfluous: and why “crop off healthy 
roots’? ? a practice that holds good only when an Agaye is “ going 
to pot.” 

It is always two—sometimes four—persons’ work to fresh pot a 
well-armed plant. Let it and the material in which it grows become 
dry ; then place it on the top of a block, or hand-barrow, on a bright 
May morning, twist a piece of soft material, hay band or cloth, 
around the lower leaves, support it upright with this, smash the pot, 
prick out all the old loam with blunt sticks, cut off all decayed and 
a portion of the old roots, and leave the young ones (if any) alone. 
Tnto a well-drained pot, half filled with each man’s favourite compost 
(who is not proud of his own peculiar mixture ?), the plant should 
be lowered, filled in, and shaken fairly down; place it in the sun, 
in a few days the incised roots will have healed over, then water 
freely. : 

Decapitation may be both ‘simple and excellent,” but it behoves 
us to be as conservative as possible in the management of such slow- 
growing plants as succulents. I say, preserve your crown and have 
mercy on the radicles. SEMPERVIVUM. 


FLYING FLOWERS AND RUNNING WATER. 


Permit me to thank Mr. Noel Humphreys for his interesting 
remarks on flowers with wings. Talk of the charm of motion, 
methinks it will be all motion under glass when the flowers take 
wing. But they are only butterflies, to which has been given a 
charming name. They, however, often rival real flowers themselves 
in beauty of form and colour. What the last touch of the artist is 
to a work of genius these “flying flowers’ may prove in our plant 
houses ; [ therefore bid the butterflies hearty welcome. But how are 
they to be kept in? ‘The ventilating spaces must benetted over, and 
care must be taken not to let the winged flowers lose themselves in 
space through the open doors. With proper care this might be 
managed. Another point occurs: no butterfly that would be likely 
to proye destructive to choice plants in the larval state must be 
introduced among yaluable plants, as it might be much easier to 
introduce flying flowers than to extirpate ravenous grubs. There 
Beems no reason why tropical butterflies should not perpetuate 
themselves in our hothouses; but if not, doubtless a demand for 
chrysalids of different varieties would soon bring forth a supply ; and 
in many hothouses the glory of tropical butterflies might add to the 
beauty, richness, and interest of tropical flowers. But there is 
another source of motion within reach of almost every possessor of 
a plant house, and that is, running water. The sound of this is one 
of our most satisfying pleasures; and yet how seldom it is heard 
under glass! Few sounds can equal in sweetness the liquid music 
of the droppings of water into a glass basin set on a narrow 
pedestal, or suspended in the air; and in all forms up from this to a 
torrent proudly dashing over artificial rocks, scarred and fretted with 
the wear and tear of the stream, or leaping over a sheer precipice 
into a dark gulf of boiling spray, running water ever gratifies and 
satisfies. There could be no great difficulty in having its gentle 
ripple at least made audible in many, perhaps most, of our plant 
houses. Thus, with running water seen and heard, and the air 
stocked with ‘flowers on the wing,” we should be able to reap a 
richer harvest of~pleasure from our glass houses than we even do at 
present. D. T. Fisu. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


A Simple Plan for Forcing Roses.—To obviate the trouble of 
keeping up a stock of roses in pots for forcing, we adopt the following 
plan :—Abont the end of October, or the beginning of November, we 
select a number of plants from the rose border (good forcing varieties) ; 
these are pruned in close, lifted carefully, and potted in nine, ten or 
twelve inch pots, as may be needful, potting them firmly in good sound 
loam. The plants are then set in the coolest house we have got till January, 
when they are introduced into heat, and pushed on into bloom in March, 
April,and May. From such plants we have hada display in April that 


would not have disgraced an exhibition table. The plan is not so good as 
keeping a stock in pots, if these are well attended to; but there are 
many places where there is not time to do this properly.—J. S. W. 


Spotty Cyclamens.—Would you kindly inform me by what means 
I may preserve my Cyclamen blooms from becoming spotted? My plants 
otherwise look strong and healthy.—D.—[ Your frames or houses are 
possibly too damp for Cyclamens; they cannot withstand a damp or 
stagnant atmosphere. Where they are grown in the greatest perfection 
they are kept in houses to which is admitted a continual current of fresh 
air, and, to counteract its depressing effect on the temperature, a little 
fire heat is kept up. To some fire heat may appear unnecessary; but, 
without it, large flowers, pure in colour and plenty of them, cannot be 
obtained. ] 

Tacsonia Van-Volxemi—This Tacsonia is, without exception 
the most beautiful of all greenhouse climbers we know, while its culture 
is always satisfactory, from the rapidity of its growth and abundance of 
its flowers. It thrives luxuriantly in conservatory, ‘greenhouse, orchard 
house, or, indeed, any cool structure. It will dom a large pot, but it is 
much the best way to plant it outin a bed of earth, if such exist in 
the house ; if not, it is well worth while making a special little brick pit 
for it, this pit to be filled with light and rather sandy soil, the plant then 
put in, and trained over the roof, or over slender arches, or up rafters. 
It flowers throughout the whole of the summer and autumn months. 
Wherever the drawing-room opens right into the conservatory—as is fre- 
quently the case—it would be well to so plant this that its suspended 
blooms may be seen from the interior. 

Paul’s Searlet Thorn for Forecing.—We potted a dozen young 
trees of this last spring in twelve-inch pots, and plunged them outdoors. 
About five weeks ago we introduced six of the trees into a temperature of 
55°, allowing a rise of 10° by sun heat. At this date (March 18th) they are 
coming generally into full bloom, some of the plants better than others, 
and best generally where the shoots have been pinched during the sum- 
mer. After being another year in pots I fully expect the plants will 
force much earlier and bloom more profusely. I can scarcely imagine a 
more striking or more ornamental plant than the double scarlet thorn for 
the conservatory in the winter and spring months. In pots itis a plant 
that promises to force early, and with very little trouble. I have been 
thinking of potting a number of the common white hawthorn, as a 
match to the scarlet one. I have little doubt the one would force as well 
as the other. Who does not like the May? We send boxes of it to 
London every summer, and find that it is just as highly appreciated as 
the rarer exotics from the conservatory; and, no doubt, it would be 
ace ee appreciated in the dreary winter and spriug months.— 


Winter-Blooming Begonias.—Many of the Begonias are valu- 
able for their winter-blooming qualities. hey are very easily propa- 
gated by cuttings, and those who have not plants should lose no time in 
obtaining cuttings, which, inserted now in a gentle bottom heat, will 
quickly root, and form nice blooming plants by next winter. There area 
great many Begonias that flower during the winter, but we shall confine 
ourselves to afew—in fact, a select list of the best species only, that may 
be grown either for the decoration of the stove, or to cut from in mid- 
winter. Begonias luxuriate in a light and moderately rich compost of 
turfy loam, peat, and leaf mould in equal proportions, with the addition 
of a little white sand. If watered with weak guano water, it will 
assist them in the production of flowers very materially. The following 
are some of the best winter-flowering kinds, of which descriptions will be 
found in the nurserymen’s catalogues :— 

B. fuchsioides 

B. nitida 

B. Saundersii 

B. insignis 


B. erecta multiflora 
B. Pearcei 
B. manicata 


B. Dregii 
B. Daviesii 
B. Ingramii 


B. Weltoniensis 
B. Wagnerii 
B, Sedenii 


PLANTING HIMSELF TO GROW. 


Dear little bright-eyed Willie, 
Always so full of glee ; 

Always so very mischievous— 
The pride of our home is he. 


One bright summer day we found him 
Close by the garden wall, 

Standing so grave and dignified, 
Beside a suntlower tall. 


His tiny feet he had covered 
With the moist and cooling sand, 
The stalk of the great, tall sunflower 
He grasped in his chubby hand. 


When he saw us standing near him, 
Gazing so wonderingly 

At his baby-face, he greeted us 
With a merry shout of glee. 


We asked our darling what pleased him, 
He replied with a face aglow : 
“Mamma, I’m going to be a man; 
L’ve planted myself to grow.” 


—Mothers’ Journal. 


Arrm 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


463 


THE ALPINE 


CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS IN THE 


GARDEN.* 
ALPINE GARDEN. 


Iy treating of the culture of alpine plants, the first important 
consideration is that much difference exists among them as 
regards constitution and vigour. We have, on the one hand, 
a number of valuable subjects that merely require to be sown 
or planted in the roughest way to flourish—the common Arabis 
and Aubrietia for example; but, on the other, there are many 
kinds, like Gentiana verna,and the Primulas of the high Alps, 
with many of their 
beautiful companions 
near the perpetual 
snows, which we 
rarely or never see in 
good health in these 
islands or elsewhere 
in gardens. It is as 
to the less vigorous 
species that advice 
is chiefly required. 
Nearly the whole of 
the misfortunes 
which these little 
plants have met with 
in our gardens are to 
be attributed to a 
false conception of 
what a rockwork 
ought to be, and of 
what the true alpine 
plant requires. These 
plants live on high 
mountains ; therefore 
it is erroneously 
thought they will do 
best in our gardens 
if elevated on such 
tiny heaps of stones 
and brick rubbish as 
we pile together and 
dignify by the name 
of ‘‘rockwork.”’’ 
Mountains are often 
“bare,” and cliffs are 
usually devoid of soil ; 
but we must not con- 
clude therefrom that 
the choice jewellery 
of plant life scattered 
over the ribs of the 
mountain or the inter- 
stices of the crag live 
upon little more than 
the mountain air and 
the melting snow. 
Where will you find 
such a depth of well- 
ground stony soil, 
and withal such per- 
fect drainage, as on 
the ridges of débris 


flanking some great 
glacier, stained all 


over with tufts of 
crimson  saxifrage ? 
Can you gauge the depth of that narrow chink, from which peep 
tufts of the diminutive and beautiful Androsace helvetica? No; 
it has gathered the crumbling grit and scanty soil for ages and 
ages, and the roots enter so far that nothing the tourist carries 
with him can bring out enough of them to enable the plant to exist 
elsewhere. And suppose we find plants growing apparently 
from mere cracks without soil. If so, the roots simply search 
farther into the heart of the flaky rock, so that they are safer 
from any want of moisture than if in the best and deepest soil. 


* An illustrated revision of the cultural and structural part of ‘‘ Alpine 
Flowers.” 


Alpine Flowers. 


In 1868 I met on the Alps with plants not more than an 
inch high, and so firmly rooted in crevices of half-rotten slaty 
rock that any attempt to take them directly out would have 
proved futile. But, by carefully knocking and peeling away 
the sides from some isolated bits of projecting rock, I succeeded 
in laying the roots quite bare, radiating in all directions 
against a flat rock,and some of the largest more than a yard long. 
We think it rapacious of the Ash, a towering forest tree, to send 
its roots under our garden walls and rob the soil therein, and are 
surprised at finding the roots of a tree more than a hundred feet 
high descending a 
fifth or a sixth of that 
distance into the 
ground; buthere isan 
instance of a plant one 
inch high penetrating 
into the earth to a 
distance forty times 
greater than it ven- 
tures into the alpine 
air! And there need 
be no doubt whatever 
that even smaller 
plants descend quite 
as deep, or even 
deeper, though it is 
rare to find the tex- 
ture and position of 
the rock such as will 
admit of tracing 
them. It is true you 
occasionally find hol- 
lows in fields of flat 
hard rock, into which 
moss and leaves have 
gathered for ages,and 
where, in a sort of 
basin, without an 
outlet of any kind in 
the hard mountain, 
shrubs and plants 
grow freely enough ; 
but in exceptional 
droughts they are 
just as liable to suffer 
from want of water as 
they would be in our 
plains. On level spots 
of ground in the Alps 
the earth is of great 
depth, and if it be not 
all earth in the com- 
monsense ofthe word, 
it is more suitable to 
the plants than what 
we commonly under- 
stand by that term. 
Stones of all sizes 
broken up with the 
soil, and sand, and 
grit, greatly tend to 
prevent evaporation ; 
the roots lap round 
them and follow them 
deeply down. While 
in such positions, they 

never suffer from want of food and moisture, or vicissitudes. 

Stone, it need scarcely be remarked, is a great preventer of 

evaporation, and shattered stone forms the dust as well as the 

subsoil of the mountain flanks where the rarest alpine plants 
abound. It shouldalsobetaken intoaccount that the degradation 
so continually effected by melting snow water and heavy rains in 
summer serves to earth up, so to speak, many alpine plants. 

I have torn up tufts of them showing this in so marked a 

manner that the remains of many generations of the old plants 
| were seen buried and half buried in the soil beneath their 
‘ descendants. This would, of course, be effected to some extent 


4.64. 


THE GARDEN. 


(Avrin 13, 1872. 


by the decaying of the plants themselves, but very frequently 
grit and peat are washed down plentifully among them, and in 
such cases where these do not come so thickly as to overwhelm 
them completely, they thrive with unusual luxuriance. 

Now, if we consider how dry even our English air becomes 
in summer, and that no positions in our gardens afford such 
moist and cool rooting*places as those described, the necessity 
or giving to alpine plants a treatment quite different from what 
has hitherto been in vogue will be fully seen. The only sound 
principle generally employed is that of elevating the plants 
above the level of the ground. Naturally protected in winter 
by a dry bed of thick snow, some of them cannot exist on our 
wet soils in that season, if not raised well above the level. But 
this principle of elevation should in all cases be accompanied 
by the more essential one of giving the plants abundant means 
of rooting deeply into good and perfectly firm soil, sandy, 
gritty, peaty, or mingled with broken stone, as the case may 
be. How not to do this is capitally illustrated by persons who 
stuff a httle soil into a chink between the stones in a rockery, 
and insert some minute alpine plant in that. There is usually 
a vacuum between the stones and the soil beneath them, and 
the first dry week sees the death of the plant—that of course 
not being attributed to the right cause. Precisely the same 
end would haye come of it if the experiment had been tried on 
some alp bejewelled with Gentians and Primulas! Hyery one 
of these two brilliant families should have means of rooting a 
yard or more into a suitable medium. We should not pay so 
much attention to the stones or rocks as to the earth from 
which they protrude. There are certainly alpine plants that do 
not require a deep soil, or what is usually termed soil at all; 
but all require a firm roomy medium for the roots. 


(Lo be continued.) 


TEE. ARiBORErueM: 


JEFFREY’S BRITISH COLUMBIAN CONIFERS. 

Ata recent meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Mr. 
M‘Nab read the following paper on the discoveries made by Mr. 
Jeffrey and Mr. Brown, collectors to the Botanical and Arbori- 
cultural Expeditions from Scotland to British Columbia, between 
the years 1850 and 1866, with remarks on the cultivation and 
propagation of certain species :— 

PICEAS, 

From my knowledge of Jeffrey’s doings, said Mr. M‘Nab, Iam 
enabled to state that he was the means of introducing nearly as 
many novelties in the coniferous line as Douglas did while trayel- 
ling in British Columbia between the years 1825 and 1833. Before 
leaving this country, Jeffrey was particularly directed to devote 
his attention to those kinds which were then exceedingly scarce 
in Britain, such as Picea amabilis, P. grandis, P. nobilis, as well 
as other genera and species previously introduced by Douglas. 
The two former species have never been received correct from any 
other collector. In 1851, Jeffrey sent home cones and seeds of a 
tree under the name of Picea grandis. The Association, believing it 
to be correct, took no further notice of it at thetime. Of recent 
years, seeds of this same Picea have been sent home by other 
collectors, named by one Picea Lowii, by another Picea Parsonsii, 
and under the former name it is now extensively cultivated. Very 
few plants of that long-leaved species must have been raised from 
Jeffrey’s seeds, as original seedling plants are by no means plentiful. 
One raised here has been twice transplanted after being six feet in 
height, and is now a beautiful tree fifteen feet high, and thirty-six 
feet in circumference of branches. In its native state, Jeffrey says 
that it grows to the height of 280 feet, witha stem fifteen feet in 
circumference. Jeffrey has undoubtedly the credit of introducing 
this very handsome tree, notwithstanding the discussion which at 
yarious times has taken place about the naming of it. It therefore 
ought to have been called Picea Jeffreyii. The cones sent home by 
Jeffrey under the name of Picea amabilis are not the P. amabilis of 
Douglas. After the young plants were of such a size as to satisfy 
me that it was not that species, I provisionally named it P. mag- 
nifica. This is a most beautiful tree, perhaps the handsomest of all 
the Picea tribe. One of the original plants in the garden is now 
eleven feet high, and is easily known by its robust habit, pyramidal 
shape, and sharp rounded leaves, as well as the delicate bluish-zreen 
colour of the new foliage during the summer months, and the 
perfectly green state during the winter season. The cones of this 


species were large, and had a peculiar curve in the middle. They 
were much destroyed by insects, which was the cause of so few 
being raised. Not many years ago a large quantity of the seeds of 
this variety were sent to Messrs Low, also under the name of Picea 
amabilis. The seeds, being good, were soon raised, and extensively 
sent over the country under that name. They are identical with the 
variety sent home by Jeffrey, and now called P. magnifica. Jeffrey 
also introduced a Picea which was figured and named by the Oregon ~ 
Association as Picea lasiocarpa. This is a very free-growing tree, 
many of the annual upright growths being above three feet in 
length, on plants only ten and twelve feet high. These upright 
shoots afterwards become stinted by the free growing nature of the 
side branches. The largest plant in the garden is now twenty feet 
high, the circumference of the branches on the surface of the ground 
being forty-eight feet. Many of the seedlings recently raised in 
this country from north-west America, as Picea grandis, seem to be 
identical with the Picea lasiocarpa of Jeffrey, and totally different 
from the P. grandis originally sent home by Douglas. 2 
ABIES. 

Of the genus Abies, Jeffrey was instrumental in introducing three 
Species previously unknown to British gardens; the most promi- 
nent being the Abies Albertiana, a species somewhat allied to the — 
hemlock spruce. This is one of the most graceful of the tribe, par- 
ticularly if growing on soils suitakle to it, such as a peaty loam. 
Some of the original plants sent home were planted by the late Lord 
Justice-Clerk Patton, in what he called the Moor Pinetum Nursery at 
the Cairnies, in Perthshire. They are admirable specimens, and 
must be now upwards of thirty-five feet in height, proving that 
peaty soil is the most suitable for their growth. The largest speci- 
men in the Edinburgh garden is only twenty-five feet in height, 
growing in soil of a sandy nature. Notwithstanding that the Abies 
Albertiana is allied to the A. canadensis or hemlock spruce, the latter 
does not succeed here, nor has it the constitution of the A. Alberti- 
ana when seen growing side by side in situations where the A. 
Albertiana succeeds well. Other allied species sent home by recent 
collectors under the names A. Bridgii, A. Mertensiana, and A. 
Williamsonii, do not appear to be specifically distinct from the A. 
Albertiana of Jeffrey. Besides, the A. Albertiana, when growing in 
different soils and degrees of elevation, varies very much, which 
makes one think that it is identical with the three former named 
species; such, however, may not be the case when all are seen old 
enough to produce cones. 

Abies Pattoniana is another species introduced by Jefirey, and one 
previously unknown in Britain. The Abies Hookeriana was also sent 
home by him at the same time. These two species, although some- 
what allied in habit, are totally distinct when examined together. 
The leaves of the former are green on the upper side and whitish 
beneath, while A. Hookeriana has a uniform glaucous colour all over. 
The leaves also have no proper upper surface, being rounded, and 
densely set onthe branches. The finest specimens of Abies Pattoni- 
ana known to me are to be seen at Glen Almond and the Cairnies, great 
care having been taken of them by the late proprietor, whose name 
it bears. At my suggestion (many years ago), the side branches were 
foreshortened, which has given the plantsan upright tendency. Both 
species are exceedingly hardy, and, like the Abies Albertiana, luxuri- 
ate in soil naturally composed of loam and peat. As these plants 
havea great tendency to branch on the surface of the ground, instead 
of cutting them off, I would recommend them to be treated as layers. 
By doing so agreat advantage will be gained by inducing in them an 
upright growth. The way I find the layering of these plants to suc- 
ceed best is to bare all the lower branches of their leaves and small 
side shoots, leaving eight or ten inches at the point undone; then 
twist a very fine copper wire tightly round the lower portion cleared, 
and peg the branch down in a mixture of loam and peat, previously 
prepared and placed round the plant, covering the surface after- 
wards with a coating of sphagnum moss, and placing stones on the 
surface to prevent the moss from being blown about, as well 
as to assist to retain the moisture round the layers. If the layering 
practice is carried on for a few years, the plants will soon begin to 
assume an upright habit. I have never succeeded in striking cither 
of these species by cuttings. 

Several other species of Abies were also received under the names 
of A. alba, A.nigra, and A. rubra. Whatever the two former species 
may turn out, the last, A. rubra, is a very distinct-looking tree, with 
pendent branches and soft-pale coloured leaves. A good many seeds 
of this tree were distributed, but I have not beenable to learn of any 
being planted in peaty soil, like the other species of Abies previously 
noticed. It is well known that most of the Abies tribe luxuriate in 
peaty soils, where the Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) is to be seen 
in its healthiest condition, as also the originally introduced specimens 
in Scotland of A. alba, A. nigra, and A. rubra. 


(To be continued.) 


Arai 13, 1872.] 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.8. 
THE SWEET-SCENTED VIRGINIAN RASPBERRY (RUBUS ODORATUS). 


Tuts forms a dense upright bush, from four to six feet high, 
with numerous stems. It thrives well in any good garden soil, 
flowering profusely in June and July, but more or less until 
September. It is a native of the Alleghany Mountains and the 
woods of Canada. It was first introduced into this country in 
1700. The leaves are alternate, large, broadly five-lobed, 
unequally toothed en the edges, green above, more or less 
viscid beneath, sweet-scented and deciduous. The larger leaves 
are on longish, viscid, hairy footstalks, while those nearest the 
flowers diminish in size, are nearly stalkless, and mostly three 
lobed. The stems, which push up annually more or less from 
the ground, are erect, numerous and destitute of prickles, but 
are beset with viscid hairs when young. ‘The flowers are in 
compound terminal corymbs, large, purplish-red, and nearly 
circular, consisting of five broad round petals. The fruit, 
which is seldom produced in England, is velvety, reddish- 
yellow or amber-coloured. ‘This plant makes a fine display in 
shrubberies by means of its fine maple-like leaves, and 
especially in summer, when clothed with its showy corymbs of 
large purple flowers. The name odoratus was given to it on 
account of the leaves being sweet-scented, not the flowers, as 
is generally supposed. 


THE SHOWY-FLOWERED CHINESE CRAB (PYRUS SPECTABILIS). 

Tus forms a small tree, from fifteen to twenty feet high, 
which flowers profusely in the end of April or beginning of 
May. ‘The flowers, which are of a beautiful rose colour, last a 
considerable time in perfection, and when the tree is loaded 
with them it forms one of the grandest objects that can adorn 
the shrubbery or pleasure-ground. It is a native of the north 
of China, whence it was brought to us in 1780; and no place, 
however limited, should be without it. The leaves are alter- 
nate, oval-oblong, somewhat pointed, regularly serrated, smooth 
and deciduous. The branches are rather crowded and erect 
when the tree is young, but afterwards, when it attains age and 
size, more or less spreading and slender. The blossoms are 
arranged in many-flowered terminal stalkless umbels, large, 
semi-double, and when in the bud-state, that is just before they 
expand, of an intense deep rose colour. The fruit is compara- 
tively small, irregularly round, angular near the eye, on long 
footstalks, greenish-yellow when ripe, and about the size of a 
small Siberian or cherry crab. It is not eatable, and is 
produced but sparingly, owing to the flowers being semi- 
double. 


FAMOUS TREES. 


Every country posesses vegetable giants, and this, too, 
from the most different groups of trees. India has its Banyan; 
Africa, its Baobab ; Germany, its Linden; England, its ancient 
Oaks and Yews; and California, its magnificent mammoth 
trees, which belong to the natural order Coniferze, and which 
are upwards of three hundred feet in height. A Chestnut 
tree (of which we have given an illustration, see p. 37) is now 
growing on the side of Mount Etna, in Sicily, the stem of 
which is hollow, and one hundred and eighty feet in cireum- 
ference. It consists, in reality, of several stems, which have 
grown together at their base, and whose crowns are concealed 
within one another. It is called by the natives, “ Castagna di 
Cento Cavallo ;’ because a hundred horsemen can find shelter 
in its interior. The age of this tree is unknown, but its 
immense size proyes its great antiquity. It is indeed a noble 
tyee, which has outlived and sheltered successive generations. 

y Neustadt, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, in Germany, 
stands a Linden tree, which must have been very old in 1229; 
for an old tradition says that the city, which formerly was 
called Helmbundt, was destroyed in 1226, and was again 
rebuilt in 1229, “near the Great Linden.’ This Linden was 
so remarkable and well known, that for centuries the Germans 
were accustomed to speak of Neustadt as the city “near the 
Great Linden.” In a poem written in 1408, it is described as 
growing near the gate of the city, its branches being supported 
by sixty-seven pillars. In the year 1664, there were eighty- 
two, and 1832, one hundred and six of them. They were built 


THE GARDEN. 


465 


of stone, and erected just as they were required, in accordance 
with the increase in the horizontal growth of the branches. 
The oldest inscriptions on these pillars bear the respective 
dates of 1558, 1562, and 1583, with the name and escutcheons 
of those who erected them. In the year 1832, the stem of this 
tree was, at a height of six feet above the ground, thirty-seven 
feet six inches in circumference. It must, therefore, have 
been from seyen hundred and fifty to eight hundred years old, 
at the lowest estimate. Since 1832, it has suffered so much 
by tempests, that it is now almost, comparatively speaking, a 
complete ruin. Walnut trees, also, occasionally reach a great 
age. There is one in the Baidar Valley, near Balaklava, in the 
Crimea, which is at least a thousand years old. It yields 
annually from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand nuts, 
and belongs to five Tartar families, who share its produce 
peacefully amongst themselves. : 

There are Oaks now growing in England, which were 
planted before the time of the Norman Conquest, in 1066, and 
which are therefore more than eight hundred years old. 

The Yew trees (‘Taxus baccata) are still older. One of these 
trees, located at Fountain’s Abbey, near Ripon, in Yorkshire, 
was examined by Pennant in 1770, and was then more than 
twelve hundred years old; and another, in the churchyard of 
Brabourne, in Kent, according to the measurement of Hvelyn, 
in 1660, had then attained an age of two thousand eight 
hundred and eighty years, and consequently is now more than 
three thousand years old. 

The so-called American Cypress (Taxodium distichum), 
found in Florida, in southern Louisiana, and in Mexico, has 
not unfrequently, at a height of one hundred and twenty feet 
above the ground, a circumference of forty feet, and must, 
therefore, be very old. A fine specimen of this tree now 
grows in the garden of Chapultepec, Mexico, which was of an 
immense size at the time of the conquest of Mexico by the 
Spaniards, in 1520, and was then known as Montezuma’s 
Cypress ; and in the province of Oaxaca, in the same country, 
still stands the same Cypress which sheltered the troops of 
Ferdinando Cortez. These trees are at least four thousand 
years old; in fact, De Candolle considers them to be much 
older. But by far the most remarkable trees in the world are 
found in California. The Sequoia (Wellingtonia) gigantea, 
popularly known in the district where it grows as the 
“Mammoth Washington Tree,” was first discovered by the 
English traveller and naturalist, Lobb, on the Sierra Nevada, 
at an elevation of five thousand feet, and near the source of 
the rivers Stanislaus and San Antonio. These trees grow 
two hundred and fifty and even four hundred feet in height. 
The bark, which is of a cinnamon colour, is from twelve to 
eighteen inches thick; the wood reddish, but soft and light ; 
and the stem is from ten to twenty feet in diameter. The 
branches grow almost horizontally from the stem; their 
foliage resembles that of the Cypress; yet, notwithstanding 
the monstrous size of these trees, their cones are only two 
inches and a half in length, resembling those of the Weymouth 
Pine (Pinus Sitrobus) ; whilst the Araucaria, or South American 
Pine, although far inferior in size to the Sequoia, produces 
cones of the form and magnitude of a child’s head. 

The Baobab (Adansonia digitata), of which we have given 
an illustration at p. 241, surpasses even the trees of California 
in grandeur and antiquity. It is the oldest vegetable 
monument on earth. Its stem is only from ten to twelve feet 
in height, but of immense proportions, for it is thirty-four 
feet in diameter. This colossal circumference is an absolute 
necessity; because, from its summit it unfolds so vast a leat- 
crown, that it can only be supported on such a massive 
foundation. The main branch rises perpendicularly to a 
height of sixty feet, and from it branches extend themselves 
to a distance of from fifty to sixty feet horizontally an all sides; 
so that they form a noble leaf-crown, whose diameter is more 
than one hundred and sixty feet, giving to a single tree the 
appearance of a whole forest. The leaves of the Baobab are 
palmate, and forcibly remind us of the Horse Chestnut, 
being divided to the leaf-stalk. It is covered with great 
Malvaceous-like flowers, which droop on their peduncles. 
The fruit is about the size ofa small gourd. In its native 
country, this tree bears a name which signifies “a thousand 
years ;” and, contrary to what is generally the case, this name 


466 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arrm 13, 1872. 


expresses what is, in reality, far short of the truth. Adanson 
noticed one in the Cape de Verd Islands, off the coast of 
Africa, which had been observed by two English travellers 
three centuries earlier ; he found within its trunk the inscription 
which they had graven there, covered over with three hundred 
woody layers, and thus was enabled to estimate the rate of the 
increase of the stem in three centuries. With this measure he 
succeeded in estimating the number of years’ growth of the 
entire stem, and in ascertaining the age of the tree, which he 
found to be 5,150 years. These are a few, and probably a very 
few, of the remarkable trees with which the earth is adorned. 
The world has not yet been sufficiently explored for us to have 
become acquainted with all its remarkable trees; and lately we 
have learnt that some of the colossal gum trees of Australia 
surpass in size the big Californian trees. 

But, although some trees live for thousands of years, yet 
the life of all must sooner or later terminate; for, to each tree, 
equally with the lowly plants which grow beneath its shade, 
a limited period of life has been allotted. This period may 
vary with the favourable or unfavourable circumstances in 
which the tree is placed, and depends also on the greater or 
less amount of life-force with which the embryo was endowed 
in the beginning; but, nevertheless, the life of all trees has 
its appointed period, like their form, altitude, and other 
specitic peculiarities. 

We close this chapter with the following list of trees, which 
is designed to show how the age of the same tree may 
vary. ‘The— 

Palm lives from - : 

Larch (Larix europea) from 

Chestnut (Castanea vesca) ,, 


200 to 300 years. 
968 to 576 ,, 
360 to 626 ,, 


Walnut (Juglans regia) _,, 2 : : . 900 to 1,000 ,, 
Olive (Olea europzea) a 2 > 700, 1,000 to 2,000 ,, 
Orange (Citrus orantium) ,, 5 : 400, 509 to 646 ,, 
Yew (Taxus baceata) 55 1,214, 1,466, 2,588 to 2,880 ,, 


Oak (Quereus europea) ,, 600, 800, 860, 1,000 to 1,400 ,, 


Hartanp CovuLtas. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


The Japan Privet.—This is so conspicuously useful and distinct a 
member of its family that we do not hesitate to direct attention specially 
to it as, though it is frequently planted, it is not sufficiently known. With 
leaves large and smooth like those of a medium-sized orange, and flowers 
somewhat like those of the white Persian Lilac, and growing from six to 
nine feet high, it has all the qualities for a first-class shrubbery ornament. 
As a town shrub it has still greater value, because it will grow where most 
evergreens fail in towns, and may even be tried with confidence in a 
London “ back yard.” 

Plants that Sueceed in the Shade.—I have just taken charge 
of a place where there are a great many evergreen oaks, some of them 
very large. The greater part of the ground under them is quite bare. 
A few Laurnustinus—illustrating the “ struggle for existence ”—and some 
Butcher’s Broom make up the present undergrowth. I am anxious to 
exchange the bare soil for something more pleasing to the eye. Can 
you kindly assist me? The Butcher’s Broom looks well, and perhaps Ivy 
would grow.—ILEx Oak. (Try, in addition to Butcher’s Broom, the 
Aucuba, various kinds of Periwinkles, English and Irish lvy, and 
Berberis Aquifolium.—J, Barnes. ] 

Aucuba versus the Cherry Laurel.—tThere can be no doubt of 
the Aucuba being decidedly the hardier plant of the two, and admirably 
adapted for many purposes for which many other faulty things are 
employed in town, villa, and large gardens. No plant surpasses it in 
glossy beanty where evergreens run riot in wild places near our shores, 
while in towns it withstands smut and other detrimental agents better 
than any other evergreen. Theseare not only encouraging facts as regards 
the common Aucuba itself, but much more so when considered in relation 
to the male plant, and the many fine and striking varieties that have been 
brought to our gardens during recent years. The Lanrel is often used for 
planting out railings and other objectionable surfaces, whereas over the 
greater part of the country the Aucuba is by far the better plant of the 
two.—Henry Viner. 

Blighted Thorns.—Is the pink thorn liable to be blighted ?_ I have 
a large specimen which must now be forty or fifty years old, and which 
last spring, justas it was putting out its leaves, was suddenly struck ; 
the leaves dried up, and from that time to this the tree to all appearance 

s dead, except, on examining its trunk, and parts of its main branches 
near the stem, the sap still seems to exist. The whole head of the tree, 
which is a very well grown one, is, however, quite dead. Some years ago 
I planted a pink thorn in another part of the garden; this was struck 
apparently in a very similar manner about the month of June. The tree 
died off, and remained apparently dead all that year. It was in an out-of- 
the-way part; I left it to see if it would recover, and, to my surprise, the 
following year it sprouted and flowered as if nothing had happened, and 
has done well ever since.—MonTAacuE WILLIAMS. 


NEW, RARE, OR NEGLECTED PLANTS. 


SILENE PENDULA, VAR. BONNETII. 


Arter the rose-coloured Silene pendula (so well-known from its 
general use in borders and in groups of spring flowers) we had the 
white-flowered variety (S. p. alba), and then the deep rose- 
coloured variety (S. p. ruberrima). A new variety has just been 
announced by MM. Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., who have named 
it after its raiser, M. Bonnet. It is a seedling of §. p. ruber- 
rima, but is a great improvement on its parent; as in addition 
to its flowers being of a very deep carmine rose colour, the whole 
of the rest of the plant (stems, branches, leaves, and calyx) are of 
a very decided brownish red, which renders it a valuable subject 
for forming a contrast of colour in groups of other plants. The old 
S. p. ruberrima had the fault of growing in less compact tufts 
than the common rose-coloured kind; but the variety S. p. 
Bonnetii leaves nothing to be desired in this respect. If required 
to flower in summer, it should be sown thinly in the flower bed 
in February, March, April, or May; and for spring flowering, 
it should be sown in August or September in a nursery bed, and 
planted out either the same autumn or, in a general way, towards 
the end of winter. 

LILIUM BLOOMERIANUM. 

THis is the most magnificent Lily of the Pacific coast. Its 
flower stalks are often ten inches to a foot in length, and so 
widely spread as to be slightly reflexed. Flowers, much more 
open and flexnous than the L. superbum; eight to twelve in 
number, or, in the most robust specimens, twenty to thirty. This 
Lily is easily distinguished from all others in any stage of 
its growth. The bulb is purplish. Its first bud above ground 
is always purple, which hue it bears in stem, leaves and 
bracts, in every stage of its growth. The cotyledonoid scattered 
leaves at the base of the stem perish early, as the proper whorls 
appear, leaving, however, scars to record their presence. The bulbs 
are larger than those of any other Californian Lily. It furnishes 
offsets sparingly, and is not “‘ somewhat creeping,” as in L. pardalinum, 
which produces offsets abundantly. 

Root, a slightly oblong, broadly conic, scaly bulb, somewhat 
laterally compressed ; scales lanceolate, fleshy, elliptically incurved ; 
two to three inches long; somewhat loosely set; often oblique or 
progressively developed, but not creeping. Stem terete; very short- 
pubescent above and somewhat scabrous; purplish, smooth and 
glaucous below ; six to eight feet high. Leaves broadly oblanceolate, 
acute or sub-acuminate ; five to seven—rarely nine—nerved ; nerves 
pubescent underneath; margins of leayes and foliaceous bracts 
slightly scabrous; waved, varnished above; glabrous and shining 
beneath; veins anastomosing or reticulate; whorled in verticles of 
six to twenty mostly ; somewhat scattered above and below. Peduncles 
alternate; long and widely diyaricate—often at an obtuse or 
depressed angle. Flowers nodding, large, loosely-recurved, bell- 
shaped ; claws of the three inner petals short—about one fourth of an 
jinch—and somewhat crested; claws of the three outer narrower 
petals longer—one half of an inch; light orange-colour, with madder 
brown velvet-like spots.—Dr. Kellogg, Trans. Cal. Acad. Sciences, 1872. 


NOOES, IMPEEMENTS: cc: 
A NOVEL TRELLIS. 


Tue art of displaying plants with taste plays a highly important 
part in horticulture. It is nothing, and at the same time it is 
Be ps =: everything. There 
: Z is an English pro- 
verb too little 
known, that says, 
“Trifles make per- 
fection, and perfec- 
tion is not a trifle.” 
It is for this reason 
that we think the 
accompanying 
sketch worthy of 
reproduction. 
Every one with two 
or three ends of 
slightly galvanised 
wire can make this 
. little iron trellis in 
avery neatmanner. It is handier than the commoner kinds of trellis, 
and the plants suspend themselves from it in a more graceful and 
airy manner. Epovarp ANDRE, 


Aprit 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


467 


NEW PATENTS. 


Mr. Hovss, Devizes, has patented an implement for extracting weeds 
and roots from lawns. It consists of a metal tube three-fourth inch in 
diameter and two feet six inches long, to one end of which is attached 
a foot piece or treader, and a short tube three inches long and one inch 
in diameter sharpened to a knife edge, and fitted with a plunger worked 
by a xod passing through the whole tube, and actuated bya lever handle. 
The tube has a cross handle. 

kr. TayLor, Mussleton, Lancashire, has patented an improved appa- 
ratus for sowing or distributingseed. It consists of a perforated cylinder 
driven by the main axle and revolving beneath a seed-box. The surface 
of the cylinder forms the bottom of the seed-box, and is perforated all 
over with recesses, each about the size to contain one seed. Above the 
cylinder a wire-guard lets the seeds pass, but prevents them from bearing 
heavily on the cylinder. 

Aw American patents a mode of colouring seeds to distinguish them 
from the soil, that they may be sown uniformly.- The seeds are 
moistened, then rolled in flour till they are coated. This coating is 
further stated to aid germination, from its absorption and retention of 
moisture. 


KEMP'S GRAPE RAIL. 


We have much pleasure in engraving a sketch of a new patent 
arrangement for preserving grapes in water, a practice now becoming 
common. This contrivance is the invention of Mr. Kemp, gardener 
at Albury Park, in Surrey, and mainly consists in the substitution of 
azine trough for aseries of bottles. We believe it to be handier than 
the bottles. For the rest the woodent explains itself. We hope this 
and similar contrivances may serve to popularize this mode of keeping 


Kemp’s Grape Rail.—A, front view; B, side view of support; D, end view of 
trough; C, side view of trough. 

grapes, now generally admitted to be a great boon to the gardener. 
We were as fully assured of its merits when everybody was laughing 
at it as now when it is being widely adopted. As Mr. Hill, of Keele 
Hall, says, ‘‘ There is no question about its being the right course 
to pursue with late grapes. It not only relieves the vines and 
allows one to clear the house, and utilise it for any other purpose, 
but the grapes may be kept perfectly for months.” 


The Shamrock.—It was some dim conception of the worship due 
to an adorable Trinity in Unity which led the Persians of old to reverence 
the threefold leaves of the shamrock as symbolic of a Divine Triad, to 
whom this plant was consecrated by the sons of Iran for many long 
centuries ere St. Patrick made use of the same green leaf to exemplify 
the same mystery to the sons of Erin. We may notice, by the way, that 
the name of the shamrock, like the idea it symbolises, claims to have 
reached us from the East, the word being identical in the Arabie.— 
Miss Gordon Cumming, in “ Good Words.” 


TEE PROPAGATOR: 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 407.) 

WE have remarked in our garden that in bilateral cordons 
that is, when the stem divides right and left in the form of a T, 
the parts join easily enough in grafting by approach or 
lengthening; but as the sap meets in two opposing currents, 
the same uniformity of growth is not obtained as with the 
unilateral cordon. 

Use or Approach Grartinc For Increastnc THE Size oF 
Fruir.—this application of grafting by approach is not very 
common, as, in the first place, it demands some skill on the part 
of the operator,'and, in the next, success does not always crown 
his work. We have, however, more than once seen its suc- 
cessful results, and especially with M. G. Luizet, arboriculturist 


Grafting to increase the size of the Pear. 


at Eeully, who in 1856 exhibited some fine specimens at Lyons 
at the inauguration of the Pomological Congress. About the 
month of June a young herbaceous branch is grafted by 
approach on the stalk of a pear, and bandaged with a 
woollen thread, which must not be drawn too tightly. 
If the branch continues to grow vigorously, the end of it is 
pinched; if it has ceased to increase in leneth, it is left as it 
is. The object is to secure a greater flow of nourishment to 
the fruit. When the fruit has come on the branchlet a feeding 
scion may be inarched upon the branchlet, in addition to the 


Grafting to increase the size of the Peach 


scion on the fruit stalk. We have tried this with success 
With fruits which have too short or too slender stalks, like the 
apple or peach, we must confine ourselves to grafting by 
ordinary approach, or inarching the herbaceous branch on the 
fruiting branch as near as possible to where the fruit of the 
branch will grow. The bandages should be tied so as to be 
easily opened without cutting.—C. Baltet’s “UV Art de Greffer.” 
(To be continued.) 

Propagating Camellias, Azaleas, and Epacrises.—Could 
you kindly inform me how I can best propagate these plants ?—C. H. P-—— 
[Camellias and azaleas may be propagated by imarching, grafting, and 
budding. The camellias on the single red, and the azaleas on some of the 
varieties of Phoenicea. Epacrises may be increased by means of cuttings 
struck in silver sand under bell glasses on a slight bottom heat. 


468 


THE GARDEN. 


_ (Apri 13, 1872. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 


Anonest soft summer fruits the Strawberry stands pre- 
eminent, both in its fresh ripe state, and also as a preserve. 
Tt may be cultivated with more or less success in almost any 
kind of soil. Itis, however, perhaps most at home in deep alluvial 

‘ soils on the banks of rivers, or in a good deep loam resting on 
a well-drained clay; and though spring frosts sometimes 
injure the grower’s prospects, still, generally under fair treat- 
ment, Strawberries are a certain crop. 

Deep digging or trenching I look upon as all important ; it 
helps to drain and warm cold heavy clays, and, by deepening 
hot, light soil, allows the roots to run down to a cool medium, 
thus enabling them to resist the heat and drought of a dry 
summer. Where the subsoil is bad, break it up thoroughly in 
the bottom of the trench, but do not bring it to the surface ; 
simply breaking it up will let in the ameliorating influence of 
the atmosphere, and the rain will percolate through it more 
freely, leaving, on its way, the soluble manurial matter carried 
from the richer surface soil ; and thus a gradual, but constant, 
improvement will take place in its character. 

For heayy land, burnt earth or charred rubbish of all kinds 
may be applied with advantage, along with moderate dressings 
of lime and liberal manurmg; but the manure should be 
trenched in deeply, and the lime, burnt earth, or a sprinkling 
of bone dust, spread on the surface after the digging, and be 
lightly forked in. 

In the case of poor sandy soils, they also will be much im- 
proved by deep trenching, burying the manure moderately deep ; 
and afterwards, if it can be obtaimed, spread over the surface 
at least an inch of clay or marl, and allow it to remain, if pos- 
sible, exposed to the atmosphere several weeks, when, selecting 
a dry day, it may be forked in. But clay being the heavier 
substance, its tendency is always downwards; theretore, it is a 
mistake to bury it too deeply. 

Although I recommend a liberal application of manure to 
land intended for Strawberries, still, one word of caution may 
be necessary, as it is for the imexperienced alone that these 
remarks are intended. It is possible, by using heayy dressings 
of rank manure only just buried under the surface, to defeat 
the object which we have in view—it is, in fact, possible to 
grow magnificent foliage with very little fruit; indeed, over 
luxuriance, as most people know, is an enemy to fruitfulness— 
therefore, trench deeply, burying the manure in the middle 
and bottom. The surface can easily be put right by top dress- 
ings, when necessary. 

The best time for making new plantations is in August, 
although, in special cases, they may be made in spring. Such, 
for instance, as making a new plantation of the best of the 
plants that have been forced in pots. Such plants invariably 
do well, and bear an excellent crop the following season ; still, 
in a general way, when young plants are used, August is the 
best month in which to plant. Let the ground be made firm 
before planting, and let each plant have room for individual 
development. There is nothing gained by thick planting, but 
rather the reverse; as not only is the fruit not so fine 
but much of it may be injured by the feet of those who 
gather it. 

Plant in rows two feet from row to row, and eighteen inches 
plant from plant. Many good cultivators allow even more 
space, but, considering that two, or at the most three, years 
is the longest time I recommend the plant to remain on the 
spot, | think the above distances will be found sufficient. 
Where it can be done, it is best to lay the runners into small 
pots early in July; but many have not the time or convenience 
for doing so. It is best, also, to plant in showery weather. 
But August is frequently a dry month; therefore, when it is 
necessary to plant in dry weather, and the. plants are not in 
pots, it is a good plan to mix together two or three bushels of 
damp earth, and short dung in about equal proportions, work- 
ing them up into a thick stiff kind of paste, and when each 
plant is lifted, take a little of the plastic material, and place it 
round the roots, working it into a ball. A handy lad will do 
this a deal quicker than I can write it, and new plantations 
may be made in this manner in dry weather almost without a 


leaf flazcing. Soak the plants well as the planting proceeds, 
drawing a little dry earth round the plants with a rake, 
to check evaporation, and, unless the weather is very dry 
indeed, they will not require much further attention im water- 
ing. Always make it a rule to pull up all barren or unfruitful 
plants as soon as their true character is perceived. There will 


then be less difficulty in selecting prolific runners. 


Unless very strong plants are used, they will not oceupy all 
the land the first season; therefore, if it is desired to make 
the most of it, a light crop of some kind of vegetable or salad 
might be taken, without doing any material injury to the 
Strawberries. The best arrangement of this kind that has 
ever come under my notice is the following :— ; 

Supposing the Strawberries are planted im August, and the 
ground hoed over the following March, the rows of Strawher- 
ries may be top-dressed with manure, and one drill of onions 
sown between every two rows of Strawberries in the 
centre of the space. I have seen splendid crops of onions 
grown this way without injuring the Strawberries. Make a 
new plantation annually, trenching up at the same time a 
corresponding plot of old plants. 

Strawberries are, im a measure, surface-rooting plants ; 
therefore, do not permit the spade to be used amongst them 
but when an intermediate crop of onions has been harvested 
the first season. After they are removed, and the runners 
cleared off in September, a dressing of manure may be lightly 
forked in the spaces between the Strawberries, taking care not 
to use the fork too close to the plants. Leave on all foliage 
till March, to protect the crowns during the winter ; but in the 
spring dressing any old foliage that has been damaged by the 


- winter’s storms may be cut away, and the plants afterwards 


top-dressed with manure heavily all over the bed; and before 
the blooms open, place a layer of clean straw, long grass, or 
litter, of some kind, to keep the fruit clean. If the weather 
is hot and dry about the time the fruit is setting,a good 
soaking or two of water will be beneficial ; but deep cultiva- 
tion and heavy mulching will do away with the necessity for 
much watering. 

The varieties of Strawberries are now becoming yery 
numerous; but some of the best old linds still retain their 
hold on public favour—a clear proof that they are not yet 
beaten. 
ence upon three or four varieties that have been proyed in 
many situations to be trustworthy, still, at the same time, it 
is as well to bear in mind that this is an age of progress, and 
that there is a gradual improvement taking placem most of our 
cultivated plants. Therefore, I think it would be folly for 
those who wish to have the best of its class, to ignore new 
varieties ; although, I have no doubt, many new varieties will 
come and go before some of our old favourites disappear. 

In making the following selection, I have enumerated a few 
of the best old varieties, adding, also, several good new ones 
that I think may be depended on :— 

Kerns’ SEEDLING.—This is so well known, that little need be said abont 
it. It is first-class in flavour, ripens moderately early, and the fruit 
packs and travels well. 

PreEsIDENT.—Firm, good flavour, bears well; one of the most useful. 

BrivisH QurEN.—A well-kmown old kind, of fine flavour ; in deep, warm 
soils is almost unequalled; rather tender. 

Caronine Superba.—Hardy, free grower ; fruit, large, fine flavour. 

TROLLOPE’s VICTORIA.—Strong, vigorous grower ; very free bearer, and 
has the property of swelling off its late fruit almost as well as the 
first; does well in hot, dry soils. 

Enron Pryz.—Large, high-coloured fruit, brisk flavour; one of the best 
late lands. 

Vicomresse Hericarr pr THury.—Ripens early, bears freely, fine 
high-coloured fruit ; does well in difficult situations. 

Manrcturrire.—tLarge fruit, of a pale red colour; very free bearer. 

Dr. Hoce.—Hardy, large, good flavour; highly recommended. 

Hucenony Late Pine.—Very large pale fruit; rich flavour; good late 


Tf very early fruit is wanted, a few Black Prince may be 
planted on a warm border, and a few Elton or Frogmore Pine 
for a late supply of large fruit, in a north aspect, and the 
Alpine will continue the season till the end of October. 

1am surprised that the Alpine is not more largely grown 
than it is. I know market gardeners, as a class, understand 
their interests thoroughly; but I have often thought it would 
pay them to grow the Alpine extensively for market after the 
other kinds of Strawberries were oyer. HE. Hoxpay. 


Although I think it is best to place the main depend-. 


Aprit 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


4.69 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Vegetable Crops in the Orchard.—Am I right in proposing to 
grow vegetable crops in a small orchard of pear trees ?——{ Perfectly 
right. We know of no better examples of good culture than some 
London market gardens, in which rhubarb and other vegetables are 
planted beneath the orchard trees. } 

A Large Peach Orchard.—Colonel Edward Wilkins has now 1,350 
acres, with 136,000 trees. The peaches from his orchard (near Chester- 
town, Maryland) are packed in erates, and sent to Baltimore to one 
factory, which contracts for the whole crop. In 1869 they netted him 
one dollar ten cents per erate ; last year only thirty-five cents, or seven- 
teen and a half cents per basket; yet, at this price he esteems it more 

rofitable to grow peaches than to grow corn at the rate of sixty cents per 
ashel for a crop of sixty bushels per acre. 

Sham Fruit Syrups.—It appears that a considerable trade is car- 
ried on in fruit syrups, which, on the lucus a non lucendo principle, con- 
tain no fruit whatever, but are artificially prepared from solutions of 
sugar, flavoured with ether, and coloured with aniline dye. There are, 
fortunately, various tests for this disgraceful imposture—such as nitric 
acid, which, when mixed in equal volume with real fruit syrup, causes no 
change, but turns the imitation yellow. With solution of carbonate of 
soda, the artificial remains unchanged, and the real becomes lilac or green, 
so that the preventives against making our interior an ethereal dye-house 
are easily obtained, and put in force. 

Freeing Starved l'rees on the Quince Stock.—Cut several 
slits lengthwise (that is to say, vertically) into the back of the swollen 
part of the stem, at the point where the graft and stock meet. Extend the 
cuts upwards above the point of junction till they are three or four inches 
long. A bit of crock, or better charcoal, inserted in each slit to keep it 
from closing, will tend to the success of the operation. Then heap some 
good soil above all round up the stem, so as to cover the part operated on. 
Of course, the tree has never been disturbed during this process from 
where it is planted. ‘The tree will soon throw out roots from the point of 
union and above it, and as the pear rapidly tends to outgrow the quince, 
the pear roots will eventually but gradually overcome those of the stock. 
Meanwhile, the tree will continue fruitful, as there is no sudden shock, 
but gradual change. It is a capital plan with trees on the quince in very 
poor dry soil. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


THE CUCUMBER—ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 
(Continued from page 437.) 
ATR AND MOISTURE. 


Tue necessity for air and moisture cannot be over-rated, for 
though many years ago some of our learned savans (Knight 
among the number) considered the ventilation to plant houses 
unnecessary, it is now established that the sturdy growth of 
the plant is proportionate to the free access of air, so long as 
that air is of the necessary warmth, and contains a proper 
amount of moisture. Dry, hot air is very destructive to the 
tissne of plants by drinking up its moisture; but warm, moist 
air tends to the distension of the fabric of the plant, and to its 
performing its functions in the best manner. Plants that are 
naturally the inhabitants of shady places, and others with 
tender foliage like the Cucumber, require more moisture than 
hard-wooded or succulent plants. Plants of that description 
- will not endure full exposure to the sun, except in the presence 
of abundance of moisture in the atmosphere, not because of 
an abundant decomposition of carbonic acid, which takes 
place in the presence of light, is injurious or otherwise than 
unfavourable to them, but because the epidermis allows the 
escape too freely by insensible perspiration, and hence they 
wither and die. In the admission of air into a forcing house— 
more especially during the prevalence of cold or north-east 
winds—it is most essential that it should be supplied with 
moisture before coming in contact with the plants, and if 
special provision is not made by evaporating troughs at the 
place of ingress, care must be taken, by sprinkling the paths 
and walls of the house, that the moisture shall be supplied 
before the foliage can be injured by it. No plant suffers more 
from a dry high temperature and a rapid current of air than 
the Cucumber. Its foliage is so tender that it is quickly dried 
up. ‘This,in some measure, accounts for the success which 
attends the cultivation of the plant in dung frames, where it 
receives a uniform degree of moisture; but supply the same 
amount to a pit or house of larger dimensions, and success 
is greater, because there is a freer circulation of air and a 
larger atmosphere to feed from—for, be it known, plants feed 
almost as much from the atmosphere as they do through the 
roots from the soil. Should the plants at any time flag or 


droop, they do so from the want of moisture in the atmosphere, 
therefore do not give more air to cool it, as some would advise, 
as that will only increase the evil, but immediately close the 
house or pit and sprinkle it, and, if necessary, shade it for a 
short time. The plants are suffering from the juices being 
carried away faster than the roots can supply it, and hence 
they wither and droop. It will thus be seen that it is by a 
proper apportionment and combination of light, heat, air, and 
moisture that success in plant management is secured. We 
have endeavoured to show that either in excess is injurious, 
and the same may be said of any deficiency in the quantity 
required. The careful cultivator will, therefore, so adjust his 
management as to secure these indispensable requirements in 
due and proper quantity. 
THE CUCUMBER UPON DUNG BEDS. 

This, though the original and perhaps not the worst system 
of management, is attended by so much trouble, and we might 
add danger, that but few follow it at the present time. Still 
there are those who delight in Cucumber culture who have 
no other resource from which to prosecute their favourite 
hobby. Pits and houses are too expensive for them, so that 
the Cucumber frame must still be considered one of the institu- 
tions of gardening. In years gone by the expense that used 
to be incurred to cut by means of dung heat a few Cucumbers 
in February was very great, while those who tried to get them 
by such means through the winter obtained them at an 
enormous cost. Most people who want this vegetable in 
quantity and perfection have their pit or house heated by a 
flue or hot water, and some of the working men in large towns 
make considerable sums of money by the sale of their surplus 
stock. 

PREPARING THE DUNG. 

The dung for the formation of a hotbed must be properly 
prepared—that is, it must be reduced to uniform consistency 
as to its state of decomposition; be rendered somewhat dry, 
and as free as possible from that rank fermentation by which 
so much ammonia is evolved. To that end, if is necessary 
that a quantity of stable litter be procured—say two, three, 
or more cartloads, according to the size of the bed to be 
formed. This must be thrown into a ridge six to eight feet 
wide at the base, and of proportionate height, taking care in 
the operation to shake every portion with the fork thoroughly 
out, and to mix the wet and dry portions regularly together. 
This will secure uniform fermentation; but, should any 
portion of the fresh dung be very dry, or in what is called a 
mouldy state, consequent upon being overheated, that portion 
must be sprinkled and made quite wet with fresh water. As 
soon as the mass gets to a good heat, which will be in a week 
or ten days, the heap must be turned again, observing pre- 
cisely the same rules as to shaking the dung thoroughly out, 
mixing the dry and wet portions together, and sprinkling any 
part that may require such an aid to fermentation. To prepare 
dung properly for a hotbed, it will be necessary to turn it 
three, four, or, in some cases, more times; in fact, it requires 
to be turned until such time as it is brought into a state of 
unform decomposition, dry rather than wet, and as free as 
possible from that rank steam which, when full of ammonia 
brings the tears into your eyes. 

(To be continued.) 


How to Keep Tools in Proper Order.—Keep constantly in the 
tool-honse a dry cloth and an oiled one. When a tool is brought in, as it 
is when the day’s work is done, it should be cleaned and wiped with the 
dry cloth. If it isnot to be used the next day, the oiled cloth is then 
rubbed over it. By pursuing this course through the summer, every 
implement is kept bright and ready for use. In addition to this, hoes, 
shovels, spades, &c., are kept sharp. All this time use lard-oil; but when 
the tools are laid by for a long time give them a good coat of linseed-oil. 
This forms a covering that is impervious to moisture, and the tool is as 
bright in the spring as when laid away in the fall— American Paper. 

Use for Charcoal Dust.—Elijah Low, Bangor, Maine, writes :—“I 
have a fruit garden of over fifty plum and pear trees, which, as a rule, bear 
regularly every year, and I have not used stable manure for twenty years. 
For ammonia (which all fruit trees need largely), I take a hogshead, bore 
several inch auger-holes in the head, then fill it with charcoal dust; into 
this I pour all the chamber-water, and not a particle of ammonia will 
escape. Ina few months the dust will be so charged with this valuable 
fertilizer that in stirring it the effluvium will be nearly as strong as that 
from an old-fashioned smelling-bottle. This I dig in for my trees.” 


470 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 13, 1872. 


HRE GARDEN INSEE SEiOWisi=: 


ON CHOOSING FLOWERS FOR DECORATING 
VASES. 

THERE is, I am persuaded, more art in this matter than in arranging 
the flowers when they have been selected. It may be that you have 
leave to go into a well-stocked garden, and cut what you like ; it may 
be, too, that you have a carte-blanche to get anything you fancy in 
Covent Garden Market. It has fallen to my lot on several occasions to 
be allowed to ransack the finest collections of Orchids round London, 
and to take away every flower I choose to ask for. These are oppor- 
tunities on which much discrimination must be exercised ; for, whether 
it be your own, or your friends garden and houses that’you are free 
to plunder, it behoves you not to take a single bloom that you 
cannot make good use of ; to do so would not only be wasteful or 
extravagant, but, what is worse, it would be a selfish act, as it would 
deprive others of the chance of making use of them; and really good 
flowers are never so plentiful, that no one will buy or accept them. 
The circumstances under which I have thus far considered the selec- 
tion of flowers are doubtless exceptional, as the majority of decorators 
haye, as a rule, to exercise their choice of blooms under more or less 
restriction. In that case you must, in the first place, ascertain clearly 
what you can have and what you may not have. Go over the collec- 
tion to be culled from repeatedly; calculate carefully which of the 
flowers are most suitabe for the vases at your disposal, and mentally 
discard all those for which you have not a vase of the proper form, or 
that will not look well at the time, or by the time, they are wanted to 
look at their best, or that require certain foliase which you cannot 
command. Having thus eliminated what you cannot use, you must 
next group, “in your mind’s eye,” some of the remaining flowers, and 
think which will combine best to make the most effective arrange- 
ment for the intended purpose. All this may appear to some to be 
unnecessary ; but they would soon alter their views if they were 
often asked to furnish a dinner-table with flowers for a few shillings, 
when to do it well would need the expenditure of as many pounds. It 
is under such restrictions that the comparative abilities of table 
decorators are most apparent. 

I have often wished that some one wouldoffer a prize, in competing 
for which the competitors should be restricted to one or more vases 
of a certain definite form and size, and to a certain specified list of 
flowers, with an intimation that the foliage was left to the discretion 
of each exhibitor, and that it was not necessary touse all the flowers 
mentioned. The list of flowers should include kinds that are unsuit- 
able as well as suitable for the form of vase chosen. Such a compe- 
tition would afford a better test of skill in arrangement than any prize 
that has yet been offered. If such a prize were to be offered, the art of 
choosing flowers would be illustrated by the results produced ; and it 
is not at all improbable that the best effects would prove to have been 
made with the smallest variety of flowers. W. 


CONCEALING POTS UNDER DINING-TABLES. 

Puants would, I am sure, be oftener used for the decoration 
of a dinner-table if the difficulty of hiding the pots could be 
got over. Covering a flower-pot with common fern fronds, 
which have been stuck round the edge and bent over, is 
probably the best way of concealing the heavy block of dull 
red colour. I like this better than any pot covers I have 
yet seen, be they silver, gilt, glass, china, terra-cotta, or wood. 
When the plant is a fern of suitable character, it looks well 
at the apex of a pyramid of moss decorated with flowers; 
the only objection to this way of hiding the pot is, that the 
width of the base of the pyramid is often too great for a 
narrow table. 

After trying every scheme that I could hear or think of, 
there is, I am convinced, no plan so simple and so manageable 
as that of putting the pot through the table. The expense 
of arranging the table to do this is very trifling, and the 
necessary alteration does not affect the appearance of the 
table when it is not used for this special purpose. 

The following illustration shows how easy it is to fix a 
supporting shelf under the table to receive the pot, which 
can thereon be blocked up until its rim touches, or nearly 
touches, the under surface of the top of the table. But it 
does not show how the stem passes through the table top. 
This is, however, easily explained. <A spare leaf for the table 
must be made; but as it need not be more than three or four 
inches wide, and of any common wood, unpolished, this 
addition to the household furniture will not be a costly one. 


This spare leaf is to be cut into two pieces by the removal 
from its centre of a piece three or four inches long. Then on 
the table being put together, there will be a square hole in 
the middle of it, through which a flower-pot can be dropped 
on to the shelf below, or if the pot is too large to go through 
the hole, the plant must be placed upon the shelf first, and 
the leaves of the table afterwards pushed into their places 
over the pot. 


If it be wished to apply this principle to tables which are 
not to be covered with cloths, the only additional expense will 
be that of the wood of this extra leaf being of the same 
kind as that of which the table is made, and of its bemg 
polished. 

The drawing herewith shows a plant of white Bouvardia 
passed through a table. The pot was filled up with good 
moss. The table cloths having been duly arranged, some 
good fronds of Maiden-hair were stuck into the moss, some 
lying on the cloth, whilst amongst them were arranged a few 
blooms of Scarlet Geraniums and cream-coloured Chrysan- 
themums. The effect of a series of these groups, placed at 
intervals down a set of long narrow tables ina large room, 
was very pleasing and much admired. 


Gs 


Some may be disposed to think that they could produce as 
good an effect without using the plant as I have described, 
and without a hole through the table. Let them try it, and 
they will find out that they are wrong, that is if they are not 
to be allowed to cut up the plant. Of course the same effect 
can be obtained by sticking branches of Bouvardia into a 
lump of clay upon a plate, and finishing it off as before 
mentioned; but then the plant is destroyed. On the other 
hand, by putting the pot through the table, the plant can be 
used repeatedly all the time it is in bloom, and after blooming 
is over it can be saved for use again next year in the same 
manner. With rare and valuable plants this is an important 
consideration. 


AUTUMN LEAVES. 


I THINK it was Professor Owen who first divested falling leaves of all 
pensiveness, by showing that they fell, not because an old leaf had 
died, but because a new leaf was born. Iam sure Mr. Ruskin will 
excuse me for directing attention to this more cheerful view of the 
matter; it is in strict accordance with ‘science. The leaf is pushed 
oft by the advance of life—not blasted by the breath of death. The 
new bud at its base gives it notice to quit. By-and-by that notice 
becomes so urgent, that it cannot be resisted; the swelling bud 
becomes so large as to push the old leaf off. Possibly Professor Owen 
may favour us with his yersion of the matter in his own words, which 
would be so much better than mine. This hopeful view of the 
falling leaf has given me much pleasure, and I wish others to share 
it. It shows life, not death, to be master of the situation eyen in 
winter. This new truth ought to lay the fonndation of a new school 
of poetry. The old is saturated with the fall of the leaf as the 
symbol of death., On the contrary, it is the proof of life ever 


pushing onwards, and never stopping until the final terminus—the | 


death of the indiyidual—is reached. Dans 
We are not aware that Mr. Ruskin took a lugubrious view of the 
fall of the leaf. ] 


Avrit 13, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


471 


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GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 


Indoor Plant Department.—In conservatories, Hyacinths, 
Tulips, and Primulas, now nearly over, are being succeeded by such 
things as Roses, Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Clianthus, Cytisus, Heaths, 
zonal and the earlier-flowering fancy Pelargoniums, that have 
been brought forward in a little warmth, Imantophyllums, Amaryl- 
lises, Acacias, and Salvias; to which are added some of the freer- 
flowering Odontoglossums, and such stove plants as Begonias, 
Bucharis, Ixoras, Stephanotis, Torenias, Gardenias, Clerodendrons, 
&e.; these and the orchids are placed in the warmest part of the 
house, where they are free from draughts. No fire heat is used 
now in conservatories or greenhouses if it can be avoided; but in 
cold weather such houses are shut up early, so as to make the most 
of the sun heat. 

Flower Garden and Shrubberry.—Such spring-flowering 
plants as Heartsease, Daisies, Iberis, Roman Hyacinths, early Tulips, 
Narcissi, Alyssums, Aubrietias, Anemone apennina, Periwinkles, 
Trollius, Corydalis, Doronicums, Fritillarias, &c., are now quite gay ; 
as are also such handsome-leaved plants as Golden Feverfew, Ceras- 
tiums, variegated grasses, the dark brown-leaved Ajuga, variegated 
Arabis, and Polemonium, all of which serve to make beds and 
borders quite attractive. Violets done blooming are divided and 
replanted. Hardy annuals, such as Saponaria, Nemophila, Collinsias, 
Alyssum maritimum, Clarkias, Virginian Stocks, Silene pendula, 
Mignonette, &c., for early sammer flowering, are now sown, some 
where they are to remain, and others on well-sheltered borders for 
transplanting. Viola cornuta and lutea are lifted, divided, and 
replanted, so as to make nice plants for summer bedding. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—To Pines is given an increase of 
temperature and moisture. Suckers as fit continue to be taken off 
and potted. As Grapes begin to colour, the amount of humidity in 
the air is gradually lessened. To such as are stoning a steady 
moist temperature is maintained, and care is exercised to guard 
against cold currents of air. Thinning, stopping, and tying of 
shoots are operations which at all times receive attention. To 
Peaches and Nectarines a steady moderate temperature is kept up. 
Succession houses haye their fruit thinned, but too many are not 
removed until after the stoning period has been successfully passed 
over, when they are thinned out to the required distances apart. 
Strawberries for succession continue to be introduced, and the last 
batch of them is placed on raised boards in frames or near the glass 
in cold pits; to such as have set their fruit a little manure water 
is given, but this is discontinued as soon as they begin to ripen. 
Melons and Cucumbers are timely thinned, which prevents depriving 
the plants of so much foliage at once. Seedling Vegetable Marrows 
fit to handle are potted singly, and such as are established are 
planted out in frames and protected. Endive is still sown in brisk 
heat and gradually hardened off. Kidney Beans are also sown in 
frames, in lines about eight inches apart, and where failures have 
occurred they are made up from parts that are thickest. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department.—Peach 
trees have some of the least promising newly-formed fruits removed, 
in order to strengthen those that are better developed. Plantations 
of Artichokes continue to be made, and established ones to be top- 
dressed. Seakale is being increased by means of seeds and divisions 
of the roots. Asparagus seeds are still sown, some where they are 
to remain, and others on beds for transplanting. Kidney Beans 
are sown on warm borders, and Windsor Beans are now sown for 
late main crops. Another sowing of Peas where necessary is also 
made on deep, well-manured ground. Cauliflowers are also sown, 
and such as have come up are being pricked out four inches apart. 
Cabbages continue to be planted out wherever room can be found 
for them. Of Broccoli small sowings are still being made. Round- 
leaved Spinach is sown between lines of Peas. Of Lettuces new 
plantations from thinnings are made as required. Sowings of White 
Dutch Snowball and of Red and White stone Turnips ccntinue to be 
made. Main crops of Carrots and Parsnips are now sown on deeply- 
trenched ground. Mustard and Cress are put in in small patches 
on wall borders, and if necessary have a mat or some other kind of 
protection thrown over them. Radishes continue to be sown in 
succession. 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.—Young hard-wooded greenhouse plants, 
now that they have started into growth freely, are being pruned 
back pretty closely, so as to make nice shapely plants for next 
season. The prunings are used for purposes of propagation. Certain 
sorts of Heaths are treated in the same way, and where the pruning 
has been neglected last year they are cut well back into the old 
wood. Such as are thus cut back have not been repotted this 


season, but are kept in dry, airy houses ; and, if necessary after they 
have started, they will be repotted. Roses are being raised from 
cuttings under handlights well shaded. Autumn-grafted Camellias 
are having their ligatures loosened ; and spring ‘‘ worked” ones are 
kept close, and well shaded. Acrophyllum venosum is, in some 
places, being raised from seed in gentle heat ; as is also Mandevilla 
suaveolens. Grevillea Banksii also comes pretty true from seeds ; as 
does also Anthurium Scherzerianum ; the seeds of the latter are col- 
lected as soon as ripe, and the pulpy substance is washed away from 
them; small pots are then filled to the extent of one-third with 
drainage, over which, to within three-fourths of an inch of the brim, 
are placed well-chopped sphagnum and fibry peat, on the top of 
which is placed a thin layer of finely-sifted peat, mixed with silver 
sand in equal proportions. On the surface of this the seeds are 
placed ; but they are not covered, merely lightly pressed into the soil. 
The pots are then covered with squares of glass, and plunged in 
cocoa-nut fibre under handlights, in a shady part of the propagating 
house, where they germinate in less than a fortnight; bottom heat 
is unnecessary. Roots of tender Nympheas and other tropical 
aquatics are being potted and started in stove aquaria. Caladiums 
which have filled their pots with roots are shifted into larger ones 
before the roots become matted. Bignonias, Aristolochias, Beau- 
montias, Clerodendrons, Combretums, Hoyas, Manettias, Passifloras, 
Tacsonias, Stephanotis, and other stove plants, are being pruned 
back, and the prunings are being used for cuttings. Grafting the 
finer kinds of Conifers still continues to be done, after which they 
are kept closely shaded in frames in gentle heat. 

Outdoor Department.—The grafting of stone fruits, such as 
Cherries, Plums, &c., has in most cases been finished ; that of Pears 
is also nearly finished, but Apples are still being ‘“ worked,” as are 
also many of the finer kinds of hardy forest and ornamental trees. 
Where last summer’s buds have failed, the stocks are re-grafted 
this spring. Where young fruit trees are required for training, they 
are pruned back to within a few eyes of the old wood ; but where 
they are kept for standards, they have only a piece of the point of 
their main shoots cut off, and the lateral branches removed. Ground 
that has become empty is filled with stocks for operating on next 
year; they are planted as the trenching proceeds. Any empty 
spaces amongst large trees are filled up with cuttings of Planes 
and other trees; or Seakale roots are planted amongst them in lines 
for lifting for forcing. The main stock of herbaceous plants is now 
being repotted and set outside on north borders, on which a layer 
of ashes has been spread. Gladioli are being planted in beds. 
Tulips, Hyacinths, and other bulbs done flowering, are placed in 
cold frames and outside in shady borders, where they are allowed 
to ripen. 


MARKET GARDENS. 

VrGErABLE Marnows are being sown; some are potted off singly, 
and others are planted out in frames. The frames are prepared 
by digging a trench about eighteen or twenty inches deep, filling 
it up with hot manure, over which is placed the compost ; wooden 
frames are then put into position, and the plants planted, and, 
should the weather prove severe, a cover of litter is placed over 
the sashes at night. Vegetable Marrows are also planted in lines 
about ten feet apart, and six feet plant from plant. Under each 
plant a hole is dug, and a barrowful of hot dung placed therein, 
and over which is put the mould. The plants are planted, and a 
handlight is placed over each, or round vegetable baskets are 
substituted where handlights are scarce. A little soil is placed 
around the base of each light or basket to prevent a current of cold 
air. Between the Vegetable Marrows are Radishes, or the space 
is filled up with Lettuces. Tomatoes are gradually hardened 
off. French Beans are sown in lines on sheltered borders, and 
two lines are sown on the tops of each of the Asparagus beds. 
Those grown in frames are now up, and deficiencies are made good 
from a reserve stock by transplanting with a dibber. Between the 
beds of early Carrots raised in frames, Lettuces or Radishes are 
sown. Seakale roots that were preserved from those lifted for 
forcing have been cut up into pieces about the size of a man’s finger, 
and laid pretty thickly on the surface of a bed with a few inches of 
soil placed over them; they are now emitting eyes and young roots, 
and are lifted and dibbled in in lines between the rows of Cabbage 
plants. Some of the finest Cabbages have pegs placed beside them, 
so as to mark their place as the stock is cut for market, but the 
stump is retained for seed. Radishes continue to be sown in beds. 
Sowings of Spinach also continue to be made; and on new Cauli- 
flower plantations a sprinkling of seed is sown broadcast. Cauli- 
flowers reared under handlights have some soil drawn up around 
their base. Mushroom beds in the open air are in good bearing 
condition; on gathering the surface litter is removed with steel 
forks into the alley between them, the produce collected, and the 
covering immediately replaced. 


472 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aran, 13, 1872. 


——————— SSS SSS 9559 
SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY. 
a 10m) 


pit 

These Sere also some Sood ==: G stove phasis, em=seaces amos 
which was the lovely Claudesdroa_ BaEoers. Tp iis dass aswolasm 
thst ? ereenhouse plants Mr. Ward was Srt. 

Tedian Azsleas were very { especally a sroep of seal plants fro= 
M_ Var Houtte, & Ghent, which were mach admired ; amomect thes 
Were same mew Leeds of considerable poze To the follgumes ecrtis. 
: Sa eee a 
Tas Leche, doable race: fees 


ms s deeper 

Moargeis of Lorne, a Sme Secle yormilion 
small plerés frome Mes FF. & A Seth. of Dalwich, 
od symmetrical Sowers: amonesi ikem, Beauty & Saxrey 
recarved a eertiSeaie Mesxs. Lare & Soms were Srst fe Amless; and 


they also showed well Zowered Ehododesdres @ pois. 


them was a Rew irae syria ee foyer 
doured threat. To this = cer@Seaie was awarded.» The same 
d was aon po ge! ——— a Sme SBeSes, FS wah 


tales wil be 3 ft 
walsins mond sp view then at the seme Cova 
chats 6 che 

IV. Each Gieeer-ablc wal 
cerasiae, 80 ikai cach 


Baye a a CoEperimers = teas retsed for 


ral 


FeGEESises 25 Sasa. moss. clay. &c. Fhe Sockeas 

WE The table to be fretted with the & : 
foes, sSpocss, wie siases. sali ecllars, Se, eom=plte. ‘The recentacles far the 
fasis ees ey ee ay eral ae tay =e. 


jadced as ier a petae oe eee 


HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION AT BIRMINGHAM. 

I espzssrasp that £100 are placed ai the disposal o£ the imple- 
Ment committee beloncing to this ethibiiom for appropmiion 
the shape of five gold medals; ame for the best horieuliaral 
butldime, ome for the best hot-water apperates. ome for vases, fc, 
ome for garden machinery and tools, and one for waework, &c. 
Now with regard to these awards which come under the three latter 
beadines, I apprehend thai after the questioe of lawn-mowers kas 
been deeided, the jadces will experience woes SSS 
at a satisfactory selection of such of the remainine memitoricas 
articles 2s come within those classes; bat with resect fo the “best” 
horticaltaral baildme I am not sosancuime. By whai standard of 
excellence are these structures to be judced? Is it to be a com- 
sideration of size, quantity erected, comsirection. of noveliy in 
design, or good materials and workmanship, or uiility, or of mierior 


arrangements, Gc. Acai. of whai is the baildime in amici? A 
conservaiory, vinery, peach house, pinery, orchard home, plant a 
Stove, wet, of a hand sias=? Sqn SE 4 
skoald surely be issned, and the buikimes ovherwise one 
Kind a= building will be competing against another of a vers opposite 
cSsracter. and this will create much confasim and dixaiisfaction. 

As regards the besi hoi-water apparaias, thai is really a keotay 
questa. Firss: Is the apparatus to be working or not Second = 
By whst test is i io be certified as beime the “besi™? Tierd- Is 
the competition io resolve itself into the ec islied & Gal & 
es Hf 20, where are the conditioss and rezulaiams oy wheels 

h tial is to be governed? Fourih: By what special panis are 
ices 10 be guided im maline ther awards? And finally, what 
quaiiecatzoms necessary io emmsiiaie a CompSTeSe jaige, 
eapable of givies a jest deciom im this important maiie=? Tam 
i that the Judges should be men of scientific attainments, 
co coed position, and entirely csimide the horicaliazal world, as 
engineers, Ee. eg feel oe int bo ere eee 
infzenced by trade considerations or personal interests. 


LAW. 


FENNEMORE AND OTHERS vc. SPICE. 

EES was an action for alleged injury to crops, hedees, and herb- 
age, armising from chemical works ai a place near Eeham. ‘The 
object of the works was to utilize ihe products of ithe manufactare 
@ gas Las year complamis were made by the plamiifis thai the 
pitch of tar refuse af the works Zowed imio the diiches, and soon 
aiver thai a suii plains was Sled im the Chertsey County Coare 
The Gefendant removed the case mip a sepemar court, and it Bow 
came om to be tied, the plainiifs caimine about £150 im respect of 
loss. For the defesce Dr. Voclcber sald there wee =o fame 
gemerated im the defemilani’s works which were imjetious to veresa- 
fom; and ss fo the smoke, i: Was "om im thai zespecs Hike aniimary 
smoke, which was more or less mized with sulphurousmatier, very dele- 
tezigss fo Vegetaizm. Formace soci, he said, was so far ima 
injuriess, thai 7: was am excellent mancre, and no amount of the 
bleck produced at these works could be deleierions, mar was thare 
anything ai all produced im the works injurious io the 
Actd fumes, he seid. shways showed their elects on the 
top parts @ planis—the tender shoots: bui there were no acs Dm 
the plamaiSs hedees of sach injery. 

The Lozd Chict Justice, in summing up, said, there was =ocyvaiance 
@ injery from salphoroas sed, which i: was admiited was james 
ao vegetation. Ceriaimly there was smoke accompamecd by the 
Gepost: of blacks, which save the vecewaiim the appearance of beams 
bane Bas then it was only the appearance, the evidence 
thai the was noi really barni up. As io the soot, the 
sCieniiGe evaence showed thai ii was rather a bemcSii than otherwise 
io the soil; and the evidemce was, asa msiter of inci, tbat where the 
Diecks bad fallen the grass kad grown more lexarmenily. As to 
the sapposed bursims ep of the hedees and herbage, accantme io 
the evidence for the defence, there was nothine m ihe works to 
cause any sech injury; and so as io the alleced grievance of allow- 
ing Dich and iar to Zow imio the diiches On ihe whole cece ihe 
jezy muse sey whether the plaimiiis kad made out ther chim, o& 
any Part of ii. z 

The jury consulied iegeiher for same time m the bos, and them ; 
desired to retire to eomeider their vertices. While the jary were in . 
deliberation, the parites, ai the sugges o the Lord Guei Juste, 
agreed io terms a scttlement, a juve bane wuihdraw2. 


fu 


ANSWERS ip CORRESPONDENTS .* ie 


T. C. (Asleetam s, the best of all for 2 basket piset)}—T_ 
: and, whem not too far advanced, 


Sweet nobilis. }—H_ S Gheeketh hardy Pelarsostem 
that sag i oP. Endichaiazam)—FL. = (Wein naery Secale ae 
one.) (fhe Woodrage, 


THE GARDEN. 


473 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITsELP Is NatuRE.”—Shakespeare. 


HOME LANDSCAPES. 


GARDEN BEAUTY IN MARCH. 


EVER is a well-planted pleasure garden 
without beauty of some kind, not even in 
the depth of winter. Sometimes, during 
the leafless season of the deciduous trees, 
the hoar-frost makes them more beautiful 
than even in their summer leafage, trans- 
forming their slight terminal branchlets 
@-~into the semblance of spangled feathers, 
} more delicate and graceful than the artificially- 
_curled plumes of the ostrich or the weeping 
wings of the bird of paradise. At other times, 
snow-laden branches produce a grand and impressive 
effect ; and again, after heavy winter rain, when every 
/ branch is dripping with glistening globules, bright as liquid 
diamonds, the true lover of garden scenery perceives another 
variety of attraction not less charming. But it is in early 
March—the first month of spring promise—that garden scenery 
enters the most attractive epoch of the leafless period. 

In March, though the branches of deciduous trees are still 
unclothed with their many-tinted robes of green, the buds 
are ly beginning to swell. Those of the Horse Chestnut 
become magnificent in their highly-varnished husks of glowing 
brown. Ask buds, as they enlarge, become conspicuous by 
. their soft, full black—a blackness deep as that of unpolished 

ebony. The young leaves of the Lilac, of pale, sunny green, 

begin to unfold, and at the end of every leading branchlet 
disclose miniature models of the bunches of flowers that in 
another month will weigh down many a blooming branch 
with their rank Iuxuriance. These signs and prophesies of 
coming summer impart an infinite charm to the garden 
in March, and there are many other such; for instance, the 
grey, silken envelopes which contain the florets of the Willow 
tribe, and the small rosy cone-blossoms of the graceful Larch. 
And while many trees are only in a state of forward promise, 
others have already burst into bloom. The Cherry-plum is 
covered with a mass of white—a very snow of flowers. 
And how glorious is March with its Almond trees, whose very 
branches are hidden with the profusion of rosy-hued bloom! 
a display which, despite its glorious beauty, is yet compelled to 
succumb to the dazzling scarlet of the close masses of blossom 
that crowd every limb of the Cydonia japonica, when deftly 
trained against some coigne of vantage, or revelling as an 
untrained bush in some sheltered nook, where no east wind 
can pay its unpropitious visits, but where the rays of the 
southern sun haye free and uninterrupted access. Surely, 
this list of beauties is enough to prove that the March garden 
offers a very charming display of many and various attractions; 
and eyen where blossoms, or swelling leaf-buds, brown, and 
black, and pink, and grey, are absent, many deciduous trees, 
leafless, bloomless, and budless, have yet a peculiar charm of 
their own; for their delicate blanchlets, in endless variety of 
characteristic and minute ramification, define each of their 
terminal fibrets against the daily brightening sky with such 

distinctness, that their curious intricacy of aspect, to a 

loving observer, recalls the appearances of some exquisite 

organism seen beneath the lenses of a powerful microscope, 
rather than ordinary objects seen in the open garden with 
the naked eye. 

The herbaceous and other low-growing plants that bloom in 


March must next be named; they are among the most lovely 
of the year, and, in contrast to the leafless or only budding 
state of deciduous trees, shoot forth their profusion of bloom 
from rich clumps of foliage. Hepaticas, red, white, and blue, 
double and single, form masses of floral jewellery wondrous 
and delightful to look upon. The hanging bells of the grace- 
ful Fritillarias, some speckled, some creamy white, are very 
charming in the subdued tones of their unpretending beauty ; 
while the whole primulaceous tribe—Primroses, Oxlips, and 
Polyanthuses—are seen in front of the shrubberies in such 
“]ush” profusion,and sweet-scented Violets peep in such crowds 
from the shelter of their dark-green leaves, that even one 
untutored to the love of flowers cannot but stand and admire. 
But the best is not yet told. It is, after all, the Crocus tribe 
that gives the final touch of splendour to the garden borders all 
through March, for their “ cohorts ” are literally “ gleaming in 
purple and gold.” And, again, the Daffodil must not be for- 
gotten. It was Shakespeare’s fayourite March flower, one 
that he especially marked out as a glorious denizen of the 
keen and windy month. I saw over thirty distinct kinds 
during last Ventése, as the fanciful French reformers of the 
nomenclature of the months, named the gusty, blustering 
month of March, and not more than two of those thirty species 
were known to Shakespeare. Among them, pre-eminent over 
all the rest, rose the giant species, Narcissus maximus, throwing 
up a flower-stem two feet high, crowned with its splendid 
nodding bloom of golden yellow. 

To this list of floral splendour in March must be added the 
many-hued tribe of Anemones, varying from pink stained 
white to crimson, and from a soft, pale lilac, to the deepest 
purple. Early Tulips, too, gaudy with yellow and scarlet, 
help to enrich a March garden, as well as Hyacinths, judi- 
ciously planted out; while the lawns assume a brighter and 
fuller green, as though to welcome the arrival of the first gay 
flowers of the year, many of which I have no space to describe 
in this hasty sketch. 

This picture of horticulture in March was painted almost tree 
for tree and flower for flower from a very delightful garden 
at Edgbaston, a favourite region close to the great War- 
wickshire metropolis, where many a millionaire of Birmingham 
delights to make his rus in wrbe, and generally knows how to 
do it with a rare taste and skill not always found so abounding 
in the suburbs of the greater metropolis on the banks of the 
Thames. Nort Humpureys. 


THE PARRAMATTA ORANGE GROVES. 


Parramatra, New South Wales, lies some fourteen miles west 
from Sidney, and is some sixty feet above the level of the sea. The 
first impression which fixes itself on the mind of a visitor to Par- 
ramatta is the English appearance of the town—the old cottages 
and pleasant gardens, the lofty trees, and the quaint-looking buildings. 
Attached to the old Governmental residence, is a park, now thrown open 
to the public, which is reputed to contain some of the largest Oaks 
in the colony. The soil in the immediate vicinity of Parramatta, 
though varied, is for the most part poor, and it seems difficult to 
understand how a tree like the Orange should flourish and thrive so 
well in ground apparently so incapable of affording it sufficient 
nutrition. Yet Parramatta possesses some far-famed Orange groves. 
In that owned by one gentleman, a military man, some of the 
trees are really magnificent, being close on thirty feet in height. 
They were planted nearly forty years ago, and are still yielding 
most abundant crops. They begin to give a crop after being planted 
for seven or eight years, and it is astonishing to see in what barren, 
rocky, unpromising-looking places the Orange thrives. Rock and 
sand are the characteristics of some of the plantations, and young 
trees are planted wherever a ledge will hold a little earth that the 
rains won’t wash away. Piled up stones keep the soil together in 
places, but in many cases it looked as if the trees were growing out 
of the solid rock. Last year the crop of this particular grove, in a 
lump sum to a dealer, produced £2,000. This year the money 
produced will be much larger. Such glorious trees, their glossy 
green starred with hundreds of golden globes, the boughs tipped 
with snowy blossoms, and the air heavy with rich perfume, cause a 
delicious langour to creep over the senses while reclining beneath 
their cool and welcome shade. The freshly plucked fruit is delicious 
in temperature and flavour, and, of course, surpasses that which 
has been handled and packed for transport. 


A7A 


THE GARDEN. 


(Arrm 20, 1872. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


Tue attention of visitors to the Inner Temple garden during 
the past few days has been attracted by the fine show of tulips 
displayed there, and which are now in full bloom, 

ABIETENE, which is the product of a Californian tree, the 
Pinus Sabiniana, promises to take the place of spirits of turpentine 
in the arts, and to present many advantages over it. Mr. W. Wenzell, 
in the American Journal of Pharmacy, for March, has an exhaustive 
article on this new hydrocarbon. + 

WE would remind such of our readers as intend to compete 
for the prize offered by the Royal Horticultural Society for the 
best collections of hurtful insects, that the collections must be 
placed in the hands of Mr. Richards,‘the secretary of the society, 
at the offices, South Kensington, by the Ist of May. 

THE Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot has consented to open 
the gardens of Alton Towers to visitors this year (commencing on 
Whit Monday, May 20th) on the following days: viz.,for passengers 
by cheap excursions, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. For 
passengers by pleasure party orders, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, 
and Saturdays. 

THE centennial anniversary of American Independence will 
be celebrated by an international exhibition, to be opened in Phila- 
delphia, July 4, 1876. Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, one of the 
largest and finest public parks in the world, has been adopted as the 
site of the exhibition. The buildings to be erected are to furnish 
fifty acres of floor space. 

THE Royal Parks and Gardens Bill has been reprinted after 
the discussion of it in committee. It now contains a clause providing 
that the park rules to be made by the Ranger or the Commissioners 
of Works, must be laid before Parliament, and if any rule be dis- 
approved by either House within a month thereafter, such rule 
shall not be enforced. 

Mr. W. J. Evetyn has signified his willingness to allow the 
towns-people of Deptford to use six acres of ground for purposes of 
recreation, a nominal rent only being charged. The ground is to 
the west of Old Sayes Court Farm, and, as it includes the site of the 
house in which Peter the Great lived while learning the art of ship- 
building in this country, it possesses some historical interest. 
Doctor JuLEs Grvyor, who died on the 31st ult., rendered 
great service to the cultivation of the vine in France, and was 
appointed to explore those departments which are almost entirely 
deyoted to vineyards. His accounts of them, after eight years’ 
experience, have been published, at the expense of the Government, 
in a work entitled ‘‘Study of the Vineyards of France.” 

THE Palais Royal Garden cannon—one of the favourite sights 
of Paris—which on every fine day since 1786 fired off a charge of 
powder at noon precisely, the sun acting as artilleryman, was taken 
away two years ago to be repaired, and the nursery-maids and 
children who frequent the well-kept garden never expected to see it 
again. It was, however, restored to its place a day or two ago, and 
attracts as many meridian visitors as eyer. 

NEakty all the boundaries and divisions of land in Sardinia, 
says a correspondent of the Times, are cactus hedges, a mode of 
Separation that could hardly be afforded in a country where land 
was more valuable and more extensively cultivated, since the cactus 
bushes push out their huge fleshy, prickly stems in all directions, 
cumbering and covering a great dealof ground. All the railway 
hedges are cactus; there are already some 250 miles of them; each 
one of the little bushes that compose them produces its ten or 
twelve prickly pears, and this fruit is a source of revenue. 

THE new East End Museum is 182 feet long, and is built in 
three spans or bays, each measuring fifty-two feet in width between 
the pillars. The site which it occupies is so ample as to leave not 
only a convenient space on either side and at the back for light and 
air at all times, but a handsome piece of ground in front, which is 
330 feet long and 187 feet in depth. This land, enclosed by high iron 
railings—the standards of which are wrought, while the rest of the 
palisade is cast—will be ornamentally laid out, and will contain as 
a central adornment Minton’s great majolica fountain. 

Ar a meeting of the London Court of Common Council on 
Thursday, a report was presented by the Markets Committee on the 
proposal to build a new market for frait, flowers, and vegetables, in 
the City. It was proposed to re-construct Farringdon Market on an 
extensive scale, the cost of the undertaking being estimated at 
£150,000; and as there exists great necessity for a good and con- 
venient froit and vegetable market, the views of the Committee met 
with considerable support. The report was adopted, and it only 
now remains for the Committee to receive the sanction of Parliament 
and raise the sum requisite to carry out the improvements. 


Tue 19th of April is especially set apart for tree planting 
in Nebraska, and the State Board of Agriculture urges upon the 
people the vital importance of tree planting, and offers a special 
premium of 100 dollars to the county agricultural society of the 
county which shall, upon that day, plant properly the largest number 
of trees; and a farm library of 25 dollars’ worth of books to that 
person who on that day shall plant properly in Nebraska the 
greatest number of trees. Other States are doing likewise; that of 
Minnesota appoints the 10th of April as “‘ Arbor Day.” 

THE report of the progress of the Ordnance suryey of 
London for the past year has been issued. It states that the plans 
of London on the scale of sixty inches to a mile are now complete. 
They are drawn on 326 full-sized sheets of paper, and probably 
form the largest and most complete plan of a city ever produced. 
OF these plans, 144 sheets have been engraved and published, and 
the remainder are in progress. The continual increase in the size of 
London and the alterations constantly made in it are so great as to 
make it highly desirable that arrangements should be made for an 
almost constant revision of the plans. 

Some who haye ascended the Beacon at. Great Malvern, 
says Mr. Edwin Lees, in Notes and Queries, may be surprised to 
hear that the summit of the hill has been recently enclosed, and 
several ugly buildings erected there by a local speculator and photo- 
grapher, for refreshment and photographic rooms, &c.; and I am told 
that even a croquet ground is to be laid out, thus utterly spoiling the 
natural aspect of the spot. It was always supposed that the greater 
portion of these noble hills, being included in Malvern Chace, could 
not be enclosed according to the compact made with the commoners 
by Charles I., whereby the king was empowered to sell one-third of 
the lands included in the Chace, and the other portion was to remain 
unenclosed for the use of the commoners for ever. 

MerroporiraN Suburban cemeteries thirty or forty years ago 
were in the open country, but so rapid is the growth of London 
that there are few of them which are not now surrounded by houses ; 
while some are actually situated in the midst of very populous 
neighbourhoods. Take, for example, the Tower Hamlets Cemetery 
at Bow. This already crowded burial-ground was but a few years 
ago separated from town by fields and market gardens ; but London 
has overtaken it, and now streets of shops and houses surround and 
even extend beyond it eastward for several miles. The great 
cemeteries of Brompton, Abney Park, Dulwich, and Nunhead are 
also already outstripped by the builders ; while even Highgate and 
the classic Kensal Green are manifestly doomed to be thus before 
long brought practically into town. The question, therefore, of 
whether the limits defined by the Burial Acts should be extended 
ought at least to receive the earnest attention of the Legislature.— 
Times. 


WHATEVER objections may be entertained towards the appear- 
ance of Leicester Square, says the Pall Mall Gazette, it cannot be 
denied that it has one claim to admiration above all the other squares 
of London, inasmuch as it is the only square which is open to the 
public. The railings having been broken down in several places, 
children unattended by nurses, and by no means fashionably dressed, 
are admitted, or rather admit themselves, to the enclosure at all 
hours of the day and night, and findit a most convenient playground ; 
indeed in its present condition it may fairly lay claim to be ranked 
among the “lungs of London”—a diseased lung, it ix true, but 
nevertheless a lung, and one which is much appreciated by the 
youthful members of the lowerclasses. It behoves, however, all who 
use the enclosure of Leicester Square asa place of recreation to 
show by their conduct that they are worthy of being permitted to 
enjoy that privilege. They should be especially careful to do no 
“damage” to any of the valuable shrubs and other attractive 
adornments of that hallowed spot! Above all, the remains of the 
statue should be treated with the tenderness and respect due to all 
that is left of a beautiful work of art. We regret to say that some 
miscreant has so far abused the confidence reposed in the public with 
regard to this treasure as to take away some of its fragments, which, 
but ‘for the vigilance and activity of the police, would have been for 
ever lost. Michael Foley was the other day charged at Marlborough 
Street Police-court with having about fourteen pounds of lead in his 
possession, and not giving a satisfactory account of his possession of 
the same. Indeed, his account was most unsatisfactory, for haying 
been seen by a ‘police-constable to throw down the lead and run 
away, his defence when captured was that “‘seeing some children 
knocking pieces off the statue in Leicester Square, he took up a piece 
and walked away with it, not thinking there was any harm in doing 
so.” The prisoner was remanded for a week, in order that inquiries 
might be made respecting him; and in the meantime let us hope 
that immediate measures will be taken to preserve the battered 
horse which, minus his rider and part of one of his legs, still prances 
proudly on his pedestal—a noble memorial of our respect for vested 
rights. E 


eee ee 


Aprin 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


475 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


ORCHARD HOUSES. 
(Continued from page 105.) 

Iv saying that double-roofed houses are as cheap as lean-to 
houses, I intended to say that a large number of square feet of 
land can be covered at as little expense by building a double- 
roofed house as by covering a wall already built. This, of course 


? 


th 
Hitt 
a 
aie 


Section of Orchard House. 


ii 
| - | 
N 


im 
- - l i 
z Ses 


VA 


would not be true in the case of narrow houses. 
mind a house from twenty-four to thirty feet wide. A narrow 
glass case is a covered wall, not an enjoyable house. In caleu- 
lating whether a house is cheap or not, I ask how much land 
it covers. This mode would not do for a builder, but it suits 
_my purpose. The above woodcut will give a good idea of one 


T had in my 


Young Pyramidal Peach Tree. 


Tron Roof Support. 


of my houses. The ridges, though a hundred feet long, lift with 

~ the greatest ease, by the same means as are employed to open 
* the side-lights, i.¢., a similar screw is used. A screw like this 
would lift a locomotive steam engine; and so easily does it 
work that lights one hundred feet long can be opened with the 
oint of the little finger. The house, as will be seen, is 
ivided into four beds and three paths. Such a house isa 
garden under coyer, in which ladies may walk and children 


may play; not a low glass shed. All the bricks required in 
its construction are to form the little square blocks, on which 
the iron standards are placed. Their having a base of three 
feet, and standing ten feet from each other, gives enormous 
strength to the house. No man can shake them, nor can they 
be seen to tremble in the highest winds. Another great advan- 
tage of this mode of construction is that these houses can be 
made quite movable, instead of being fixtures, a great con- 
sideration in building on another's property. Those who want 
further information had better pay me a visit. With grooved 
rafters and glass curved on the bottom edge we have almost got 
rid of breakage from frost and drip. In the most stormy 
weather my last-built houses are as dry as a room, Nothing 
adds more to the appearance of such an orchard house than a 
vine trained up each pillar. Meeting at the top they givea 
beautiful arch of foliage and fruit; and as the pillars are ten 
feet apart, the shade is very trifling. 

Opposite the openings, between the pillars, i.e., in the centre 
of the middle beds, standard Peaches and Nectarines are 
planted, forming two rows of orchard-like trees. Last year 
some of these produced as many as fourteen dozen fruit each 
of the finest quality. The rest of the house is occupied by 
trees in pots. Part of these dwarf trees might, of course, be 
also planted in the soil; but too many fixtures are a sad 
nuisance when the house requires painting. In choosing trees 
in pots, take care they are well formed, with strong bottom 
branches, or it will be difficult to get them to form such 
branches afterwards. In commencing with a young tree, called 
in the nurseries a “ dwarf maiden,” cut it down to five or six 
eyes above the graft, and make it grow like our illustration. 
This is by far the most natural form for the Peach. Any 
shoots that grow too fast can be stopped, and weak ones be 
allowed to grow; for nothing is easier than to make them 
assume this form, the advantages of which are obvious. The 
top does not shade the bottom branches, or the fruit upon 
them. If the top be allowed to grow wide, the fruit on the 
bottom branches is spoilt by shade, and the branches them- 
selves become weak and unhealthy. 

To save time, many Peaches are pinched in in the nurseries, 
and made to assume a pyramidal form before potting. This is 
a very bad practice. Not only are such trees often deficient in 
bottom branches, but what lower branches are formed are 
generally weak; besides which, the main stem of the tree 
having been formed out-of-doors is generally half-ripened, 
and often becomes unhealthy afterwards. The best soil for 
Peaches, and, indeed, for all fruit trees, is a good turfy loam ; 
if of good quality, little or no manure will be required. Pot 
firmly, ramming the soil well down during the operation. 
Trees planted out should never have the borders either dug or 
forked afterwards; a loose soil encourages gross shoots, on 
which fruit will not set. When the soil of the borders is 
pretty dry, trample-it as firm as a footpath, and keep it so. 
Nothing is more certain than that many Peach failures arise 
from loose soil. I. R. Pearson, Chilivell. 


(To be continued.) 


PLANTING OUT FORCED STRAWBERRIES. 


WHERE strawberries are forced in quantity, the plants after 
being forced are planted out, if they are planted out at all, 
as an auxiliary plantation generally, without expecting either 
a great or certain return from them in the way of a crop, nor 
are they treated as if any expectations were entertained of 
them. The good things are reserved for what are usually 
called the permanent plantations, which do disappoint us often 
enough; but plants that have been forced the previous year, if 
planted out under ordinarily favourable conditions, may be 
relied upon to a certainty to produce, not only a crop, but a 
crop which for regularity and abundance will surpass anything 
that can be expected from permanent plantations. In bad 
years when strawberries have been a failure generally, I never 
knew the old forced plants to disappoint us, or any one else 
who tried them, the first year after planting. They are not to 
be relied upon a second year. : : 

We have always planted out our forced plants in a systematic 
way every year, trenching the former year’s lot down, and they 


476 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aerin 20, 1872. 


have always more than supplied our wants for all purposes. 
From one piece of ground, about thirty yards long by three 
yards in width, we gathered of Black Prince last year one 
hundred pounds’ weight of good fruit, and we lost many by 
the wet, I could not say how many, but the wet weather 
delayed us getting amy fruit for a long while. The plants 
from which this fruit was gathered were planted out the 
previous August, after a crop of potatoes had been taken off 
the ground. 

Our usual plan is as follows:—As the forced plants cease 
bearing, they are moyed out of the strawberry house and set 
in a sheltered corner, where they can be attended to and 
watered till planting-time. If the pots are needed, the plants 
are turned out and packed closely together, the interstices 
between the balls being filled up with any kind of soil at hand. 
We like to plant them out as soon as possible, but as a general 
rule, they have to stand as I haye described till we begin 
eatherine our early and second early potatoes, and the straw- 
berries follow at their heels, getting them all into the ground 
by August. Plants which have been forced do not make such 
luxuriant growth as those which are planted out permanently, 
so we can afford to plant thicker. Black Prince varieties are 
allowed about one foot between the plants and eighteen inches 
between the rows; Prince of Wales and strong growing sorts 
a little more. In planting the balls of the plants are reduced 
sufficiently to disentangle the points of the roots, and they are 
planted as deeply as cam be done without covering the heart. 
‘All the old leaves are cut off, and the plants always make a new 
growth. 

Such plants always bear a fair crop the same season till late 
in autumn, if they are attended to, without, so far as I have 
observed, lessening the next year’s crop. In spring the follow- 
ing year we mulch between the rows with old hot-bed manure, 
generally before the plants come into bloom, and when the 
fruit is set they receive a sprinkling of guano, which is washed 
down by the hose at once. After all the fruit is gathered the 
plants are trenched down, and winter spinach is sown in their 
place ; this completes a routine of strawberry culture, which 
I have practised for many years. J. Sureson, Wortley. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Drainage for Fruit Trees.—It is useless, says an American paper, 
to talk about “fruit in a frog pond.” We might as well expect our 
children to be healthy with wet, cold feet the year round as to expect 
fertility in our apple or other fruit trees in such a position. Drainage, 
either natural or artificial, and protection, are indispensable requisites of 
a healthy and productive orchard. 

Injury to Fruit Crops.—I fear that fruit crops are much injured 
by the wintry weather which we experienced during last month, although 
it is too early to say to what extent. Apricots, I think, are gone; 
Peaches look bad; and also some kinds of Pears. Vines on a south wall 
here, which had pushed from half to three quarters of an inch, are all 
shrivelled up; and Gooseberries are bad in colour.—W. Divmrs, Weirton 
House, near Maidstone. 

Fertility of Oranges.—With regard to the prolific nature of the 
orange, the crops, more especially in an abundant season, are something 
really surprising. Twenty thousand marketable oranges from one tree 
seems almost beyond belief, but, as we have before stated, such is a 
fact; the branches have frequently to be propped up with wooden sup- 
ports to prevent their breaking. Risso mentions a tree growing at Nice 
in 1789, which was more than fifty feet high, and the trunk of so large a 
girth, that it required two men with outstretched arms to embrace it ; this 
tree usnally bore fromfive thousand to six thousand oranges.—l’o0d Journal. 

Thinning Fruits.—We do not thin our hardy and tender fruit 
nearly enough. Apples and pears are not often thinned at all, which 
accounts for the glut we have one year and failure the next. Standard 
trees outdoors are not, however, so apt to suffer from overcrowding as 
trees on walls and trellises, especially under glass. There is need for 
reform here, for it is common to see peaches trained so thickly as to thatch 
the trellis, to the almost complete exclusion of the light from a large por- 
tion of the foliage. Vines, again, may be seen with not more than six 
inches or nine inches between the rods, forming, when the summer growth 
is upon them, a hopeless thicket. It is the same in pine growing. “I 


like to have plenty of plants, and then I am always sure of fruit dropping | 


in,’ is a common expression describing a most fallacious practice. 
Whether it be pines, vines, peaches, or anything else, the same lesson is 
taught, that crowding in any form is inimical to the production of good 
crops; and the same may be said of many other things connected with 
gardening. ‘“ Whatis worth doing at all is worth doing well,” is a maxim 
which, if carried out in practice, will be found to be specially true in 
gardening.—-S. W. 


WALL FRUIT PRESERVED. 


Tur fickleness of our climate has never. been more strongly 
illustrated than within these last few weeks. Up to the 
end of February we had drenching rains and frosty nights, 
rendering the whole face of nature im many cases a huge 
skating ground; then, with the Thanksgiving Day, came 
a change, and for the first fortnight in March we had May 
weather; early varieties of fruit trees began to assume their 
spring garb, some plums in open quarters being a sheet 
of bloom, and now, the 20th of March, we have sunny days, 


Fig. 1.—Glass and Iron Coping to Fruit Wall. 


frosty nights, and dry March winds im all their bitterness. 
Fortunate is it that such is the case, for a continuance of mild 
weather, such as we had experienced, would in all probabilty 
haye ruined our fruit crops. Security in regard to our more 
tender fruits therefore centres in the word “ protection.” 
Schemes of all kinds haye been’ resorted to, from twisted 


Fig 2.—Coping conyerted into a Fruit House. 


straw-bands, disused fishing nets, bunting of the most forlorn 
description, heavy copings of wood or masonry, down to 
makeshift glass shades, which, projecting but a few inches 
from the face of the wall, are, to say the least of them, most 
inefficient. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well, 
and impressed with this maxim, a gentleman noted for the 
erowth of superior fruit applied to Mr. Ayres for assistance 
in devising some means of permanent protection, which, while 
it should be sufficient for that purpose, should not bean eyesore 
in the garden. The result is illustrated in the accompanying 


/ 
] 


Aprit 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


design (Fig. 1), which is calculated to serve both for use and 
ornament. It will be perceived that it consists simply of 
ornamental cast-iron brackets bolted through the wall at 
certain distances apart, and connected together by purlines 
recessed to receive the glass, which covers it, and is held in 
position by metallic clips. These brackets project three 
feet from the face of the wall, over the trees which they 
are intended to protect; and this it is believed will be found 
amply sufficient for protection in the most severe seasons 
and exposed situations. But this is not all. Mr. Ayres’ 
brackets are prepared to receive rafters, as indicated by the 
dotted line, so fixed on a centre, that should it be desireda 
house of any reasonable width may be added in the most 
simple manner. This is called the “ expanding house,” and 
as is shown by the dotted radiating lines, it may be expanded 
to any reasonable width; and not only that, the expanding part, 
when the crop is matured, may be taken away and used for any 
other purpose. - Fig. 2 shows the addition merely as a glass 
case; and in Fig. 3 we see the preserver converted into a 
permanent erection—a fruit-house of the very best description. 
We need scarcely say this is a capital idea, the general utility 
of which will be at once apparent. Many may not be able to 
build a peach house, but most people can afford to fix their 
“fruit preserver,” and if, afew years hence, there isa desire to 
add the house, there is the satisfaction of knowing that the 
necessary provision for that has been made. 


SSS IAADADDADNDLNDADD 


PS 


rm x rah 


Fig. 3.—Expanding Fruit House. 


Nor is this all; for, judged from a practical or scientific 

oint of view, it is fair to infer that a glazed preserver pro- 
jecting three feet from the face of the tree protected will, 
under all circumstances, husband sufficient heat to materially 
affect the early maturation of the crop; thus the house crop 
and wall crop may be brought closer together; and, by the 
same rule, the season of the wall crop may be advanced 
several weeks. 

This we regard as an important point in connection with 
these fruit preservers, as they really appear calculated to 
answer the purpose intended better than anything hitherto 
introduced. Frost is said to descend, and if so, give us a wide 
protector, to prevent its falling upon the trees; but, in point 
of fact, we have nothing to do with frost. What we want is, 
to prevent the escape of heat; and as radiation is vertical, the 
wider a fruit preserver is—that is, the more it projects beyond 
the surface of the tree—the more likely is it to answer the 
purpose intended. 

As permanent and sightly erections, likely to answer the 
purpose intended, in the gardens of the wealthy, or to secure 
the cottage thefruit which will pay his rent, we recommend 
these fruitpreservers to general notice. They are manu- 
factured bythe Imperishable Hothouse Company. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
NATIVE FERNS AND FERN CULTURE IN 
IRELAND. 

Tur letters of your correspondents, giving accounts of the 
Devonian and Eastern Scottish Border ferns (pp. 376 and 457), 
suggest to me that some of your readers may care to have 
a like experience of the ferns which I have found growing 
wild in the “level plains of Kildare,” and also some account 
of the ferns in an open fernery here. I shall begin with a 
list of the ferns which I have found in this county, and an 
indication of their special localities. 


The Bracken.—Abundant everywhere. 

Lastrea Filix-mas.—Abundant in all hedges. 

Athyrium Filix-foemina (at least three distinct varieties)—To be 
found plentifully in many parts, but in glorious abundance, vigour, and 
variety in the very peculiar locality which I shall describe further on 
when I come to Osmunda regalis. 

Polystichum aculeatum.—Abundant in hedges and ditches. 

P. aculeatum lobatum.—Abundant in ditches and hedges. 

P. angulare.—Abundant in ditches and hedges. 

Lastrea dilatata-—Plentiful on bog edges. 

Asplenium Trichomanes.—Frequent on old walls. 

A. Adiantum-nigrum.—Abundant in the hilly district towards the 
county Wicklow, and generally, though more sparsely, scattered 
through the county. 

A. Ruta-muraria.—Abundant on old walls. In my own garden 
it peeps out plentifully through the peach trees, and is respected. 

Ceterach officinarum.—Grows freely on the south walls of the 
ruined church of Bodenstown, and on several other walls; also on 
the bridge over the Liffey here. 

Blechnum Spicant.—In any quantities on the hilly district towards 
Wicklow ; also on bog edges. 

Moon-wort.—I once found a single plant of this fern on a cut-away 
bog near Prosperous. I brought it home, and it appeared to take 
very kindly to its new quarters, pushing with great vigour the 
following year, but it was hardly well over the ground before a 
vicious slug {attacked it and sucked its heart’s blood. I have got 
plants from elsewhere since, but the slugs seem so perfectly ravenous 
for this particular fern, that after trying various sorts of fences in 
vain, I have had to give up the attempt to cultivate it. 

Adder’s Tongue.—Abundant in moist meadows. I have frequently 
given plants of it to friends, who told me afterwards that they had 
subsequently found it in quantities at home. 

Polypodium vulgare.—Abundant on walls and stumps of trees. 

Hart’s Tongue.—Luxuriant and abundant in all shady ditches ; 
often bifurcated, and approaching to crested. 

Cystopteris fragilis—On the bridge over the Barrow at Monas- 
tereven. 

Osmunda regalis and Lastrea Thelypteris——1 have only found these 
ferns in one place in this county; the latter I have never seen wild 
except here. Through a large tract of bog (a branch of the Bog of 
Allen, between Robertstown and Rathangan) runs a small stream ; it 
has either formed for itself, or taken advantage of, a sort of shallow 
gorge through the bog of several miles in length, and varying from 
a few feet to twenty or thirty yards in width. This is clothed with 
a coarse tufty grass, with here and there tangles of the bog-loving 
willows and bog myrtle. Let no one attempt to penetrate it who 
cares how high the black mud covers his trousers; but if any one 
wishes to see glorious specimens of Athyrium Filix-foemina of very 
distinct types, the Osmunda growing in profusion, though not in 
great luxuriance, and the graceful Thelypteris struggling with the 
grass for mastery on every little tussock that lifts it a few inches 
over the semi-liquid mud, he will find them all there. I have spent 
hours in that happy valley. 

This closes the list of the ferns that I have actually found 
growing wild in Kildare; but I have little doubt that Lastrea 
zmula and Lastrea montana grow in this county, for I have 
found both in abundance in the adjoining county of Wicklow. 
At the Seven Churches of Glendalough, the latter is the fern. 
In the same county, as also in Donegal, Down, and Kerry, 
I have found the charming little Hymenophyllum, of both 
species. I have found this a most difficult fern to get to 
thrive in captivity; the Killarney fern is child’s play to it. 
In the fernery here, a spray, as ike that of a natural water- 
fall as may be, has been produced for the especial benefit of 
these two ferns; and the Trichomanes is behaving very 
decently, but the woodlice appear to take at least as deep 
an interest in, and to be Ee more unremitting in their 


478 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 20, 1872. 


attentions to the Hymenophyllum than I am, the result 
being that every frond is denuded the moment it shows 
itself. I have had it do well under glass for several years, 
but even there it has always ultimately died off, apparently 
only because it chose to do so. 

I cannot say that I have ever found Trichomanes radicans 
growing wild, but I have seen it in its native habitat in the 
Island of Valencia. I suspect that bad I lived within a 
hundred miles I should not have been shown it. It has the 
name of being a difficult fern to cultivate, but I have not 
found it so. It is a very slow grower, the life of each frond 
being several years; but moisture, shade, and draimage are 
all that it requires. It has fructified in the glass case. 

Asplenium marinum I have found at Dalkey, near Dublin, 
and in abundance in Valencia. I have never tried it in the 
open fernery; but planted on rockwork under glass, and 
without artificial heat, except for say half-a-dozen nights in 
the year, it grows luxuriantly here. 

Polypodium Phegopteris I found in the Gap of Dunloe at 
Jollarney, and also on the mountains over T'ollymore Park, 
in the county Down. 

Of British Ferns which I have not myself found growing 
wild in Ireland, but which are growing here in luxuriance in 
the open fernery, I may mention the following :— 


Polystichum Lonchitis, Asplenium viride, Polypodium Robertianum 
and Dryopteris. 

Cystopteris montana.—One of the earliest and most beautiful, 
now just spreading its fronds of freshest green. 

Lastrea rigida and cristata. 

Allosorus crispus I have, but cannot get it to thrive, though I have 
tried it facing south and facing north, planted in an open situation 
and almost buried under a big stone. Whether there is something 
in the position, or in the ingredients of the soil, that it dislikes, I 
haye as yet been unable to discover. 

Asplenium septentrionale is another that lived with me for several 
years, but each year sent up fewer and fewer fronds, till at last 
they disappeared altogether. Can any of your correspondents, 
who have cultivated these ferns successfully, give me any informa- 
tion about them ? 

I have not mentioned any of the varieties, but some of these are 
so marked as to bear little resemblance to their relatives, such as 
Athyrium Filix-foemina Frizelliz, Polypodium vulgare cambricum 
and hibernicum, Polystichum angulare proliferum, Lastrea cristata 
spinulosa, &e. 

Of foreign ferns that are perfectly hardy, being planted out, 
and haying no protection either winter or summer, I may 
mention the following :— 


Adiantum pedatum.—A yery lovely fern, delighting in moisture. 

Struthiopteris germanica sows itself everywhere about. 

Onoclea sensibilis—Grown ina regular swamp, runs like a weed, 
producing quantities of tall showy fronds. 

Cystopteris bulbifera.—A very free grower from the bulbs which 
form on the fronds. 

Osmunda cinnamomea, Lomaria alpina, Pteris caudata, Cystopteris 
tenuis. 

Lastrea. decursi pinnata.—Hardy, but capricious. I am -misty 
about this fern, not knowing whether it is a species or only a variety, 
and if the latter, of what. 


An old tool-house ina corner has had its slates taken off, 
and glass put on instead; rockwork has been piled up inside, 
and an abundant water supply provided; there is no artificial 
heat except one of Hink’s petroleum stoves in very hard frost. 
Here the following British ferns thrive :— 


Adiantum~Capillus Veneris, Asplenium fontimum, A. marinum, 
Trichomanes radicans ; 
besides a host of foreign ones, for which this small amount of 
protection appears to make all the difference. 

Millicent, Naas. Tomas Cooke Trencu. 


HARDY AQUATIC PLANTS. 
THE WATER LILY. 

Tus noble native plant is one of the many hardy subjects 
capable of producing the highest effects in our gardens, but 
to which we frequently fail to do justice. It is not enough to 
grow a plant, or to refrain from exterminating it, if a wild 
one. If the subject possesses any character, we should always 


ask ourselves, is ib so placed that we get the full expression of 
its beauty ? 

A well-developed plant or group of plants of the queenly 
Water Lily, floating its large leaves and noble flowers, is a 
sight not surpassed by any other in our gardens; but when it 
increases and runs over the whole or a large part of a piece of 
water, and thickens together and weakens in consequence, and 
the water-fowl cannot make their way through it without 
breaking pathways through the leaves, then even the queen of 
British water plants loses its charms. No garden water should 
be without a few fine plants or groups of the Water Lily, and 


The Water Lily. 


if the bottom be too poor to allow of the free development of 
the plant, scrapings or rubbish might be accumulated in the 
spot where it was desired to exhibit the beauties of Nympheea. 
Thus arranged, it would not spread too much. But it is not 
difficult to prevent the plant from spreading ; indeed, we have 
known isolated plants and groups of it remain almost the 
same size for years, and where it increases too much, reduction 
to the desired limits is of very easy accomplishment, either by 
cutting off the leaves or getting at the roots in the bottom. 

The Water Lily is seen to greatest advantage in a small 
group a few yards from the margin of the water; but, isolated 
groups or single plants always look well, no matter where they 
are placed. It should also be remembered that small groups 
and individual plants always produce finer foliage and flowers 
when thus isolated than when crowded together. In many 
artificial waters the only way to get rid of the excessive growth 
of the Water lily is by cleaning out the bottom. Where this 
is done, one can always leave a few roots or groups, and with 
each a good heap of soil, to encourage their growth. 


THE CHILD-GARDEN. 


FReBEL, whom we do not hesitate to call the greatest man of the 
nineteenth century, was not the first discoverer of the land of child- 
hood, but he was the first who made a thorough exploration of it. 
The younger Fichte has recently declared that no man of this age 
understands human nature so well as Frederick Froebel. After a 
lifetime of labour as an educator and a reformer of education, 
Frederick, the head and leader of the ‘‘ educating family,” as the 
Froebels were called, founded the Kindergarten in his old age, the 
ripest fruit of a life wonderfully rich in ripe fruit. It was something 
very different from the so-called kindergartens in our cities, many 
of which are taught by persons who do not know what a real child- 
garden is. 

Freebel started with the maxim, ‘The first work of a child is 
play.” So far from repressing a child’s playfulness, the wise man, 
who recognized God in nature, and God’s law in nature’s laws, 
declared that the first work of a child was to play. This is the 
business which his nature sets him about. This is God’s ordinance 
for childhood. This is the supreme law of a child’s nature. And it 
is the violation of this law which makes all our primary schools so 
pernicious. Play, according to Freebel, is not to be tolerated merely. 
It is to be encouraged, directed, and above all, laid hold of as the 
chief means of primary education. And so he devised the “ child- 
garden.” His own definition of a kindergarten was a ‘‘fore-school 
employment institution.” He called all the employments plays, 
and all the materials gifts; and until the child was seven years of 
age he did not teach it so much as a letter of the alphabet. But 
in the kindergarten a child at seven finds allits perceptions sharpened, 
all its reflective faculties quickened, all its tempers harmonized, 
and its memory full of information acquired in a way so delightful 
that the health has not only not suffered, but the body also has been 
invigorated by the plays of Froebel—Hearth and Home. 


a 


ee 


Avpzit 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


- 


479 


MODERN FLOWER GARDENING. 

WE have received the following letter from a nobleman resident 
in one of the home counties, and, as it expresses the sentiments 
of a good many lovers of gardening nowadays, we give it pub- 
licity :— 

TO THE EDITOR OF “THE GARDEN.” 


Dear Sm,—I hayn’t a notion of gardening, but am devoted 
to beautiful flowers. I have lately taken a small place in the 
country; there was no flower garden when we came to it, so 
I have had to make one. But, having laid out the beds as I 
think quite beautifully, I am at my wits’ end to know what to 
put in them. I abhor the formal glaring borders that one sees 
everywhere, and have a sheaking fancy for what you call the 
“wild garden,” only I don’t quite know what it means. I have 
had the advice of many professional gardeners; but each new 
one appears to me a greater idiot than his predecessor, as all 
they can advise is so many thousand bedding-out plants. I hate 
bedding-out plants, and am sick of them; so I want you, if you will 
be kind enough, to recommend some one whom you think competent 
to give me really good advice on the subject.—I am, dear Sir, yours 
faithfully, R. 


{If you have committed yourself to a formal scheme of beds, a 
modification of the bedding system, with much variety, and a good 
deal of “ sub-tropical plants ” of 
the most desirable kinds will be 
best. Wild gardening is only 
fitted for the rougher and half- 
kept parts of the place—shrub- 
beries, shady walks, grass walks, 
spots seldom mown, &c. As you 
hate “ bedding ont,’’ endeavour 
to remove all formal geometrical 
patterns from the turf near the 
house, and give yourself an open, 
verdant foreground. Seek con- 
tinually for beautiful hardy 
subjects of all kinds, from tiny 
bulbs to tall trees; and try to so 
group and otherwise arrange 
them, that they may, after being 
properly planted, prove a con- 
tinual source of satisfaction. 
Isolated beds of such noble 
hardy families as the Lily are 
usually very beautiful; these 
will also grow nobly among your 
Rhododendron masses, if you 
have any. Pay great attention 
to Roses on their own roots and 
pegged down, not only growing 
these in beds, but boldlyisolating 
strong plants on the turf, and in 
such a manner that no soil may 
be seen. Take many choice 
shrubs, such as Spirzea Lindley- 
ana, out of the shrubbery, 
where they are often neglected, and develop them into fine 
specimens singly on the turf, or group them with such noble 
subjects as Yuccas, Pampas Grass, &c. Numbers of fine shrubs 
are never seen in their best character, from the too common mode of 
planting them in serried masses. Every family of hardy plants 
should be searched for embellishments to grace the properly- 
arranged garden. Such classes of plants as the smaller ornamental 
grasses, Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks, Clematises, a good collection 
of climbers and trailers, and rock plants should be in every garden ; 
and a good and properly-prepared mixed border for miscellaneous 
herbaceous and other plants is also indispensable, not necessarily 
instead of the more formal flower-beds, but as a charming adjunct 

them. } 


CHAMAROPS EXCELSA. 


A HARDY species, with an erect stem, twenty or thirty feet 
high in its native country, and dark green, erect, fan-shaped 
leaves, deeply cut into narrow segments. The leaf stalks are 
from three to six feet long, and are enclosed at the base ina 
dense mass of rough fibres, and armed at the edges with small, 
tooth-like spines. This palm is perfectly hardy in this country.. 
A plant of it in her Majesty’s gardens at Osborne has stood 


| 
| 
| 
| 


The Hardy Palm (Chamzrops excelsa). 


out for many winters, and attained a considerable height. It 
is also placed out at Kew, though protected in winter. On the 
water-side of the high mound in the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Regent's Park, it is in even better health than at Kew, though 
it has not had any protection for years, and stood the fear- 
fully hard frosts of 1860. If small plants of this are procured, 
it is better to grow them on freely for some years in the green- 
house, and then turn them out in April, spreading the roots a 
little and giving them a deep loamy soil. Plant in a sheltered 
place, so that the leaves may not be injured by winds when 
they grow up and get large. A gentle hollow, or among 
shrubs on the sides of some sheltered glade, will prove the 
best place for it. 


THE ROSE SECRET. 

Tuis, like most other secrets, especially gardening ones, is easily 
solved, and I am almost surprised that so shrewd an observer 
as my good friend and neighbour, Mr. Hole, should have been hood- 
winked and tongue-tied by anything so flimsy. When, some 
thirty-five years ago, I assisted for a short time in the propagating. 
house of Mr. Rivers, we considered it no great feat to strike the Tea, 
Bourbon, and Noisette Roses, from single eyes. These, taken off 
ina fresh kind of half-ripened state, and planted in sand under the 
usual conditions of a congenial 
earth heat and moist atmosphere, 
seldom failed to strike root and 
make good plants in the course 
of the season. 

At onetime, when experiment- 
ing upon the power of leaves to 
produce growing buds I fre- 
quently rooted independent rose 
leaves, but never succeeded in 
getting beyond that. Mr. Taplin 
has done a good deal to clear 
the mist from rose propagation ; 
and to prove that the secret is 
rather an ancient one, I refer 
your readers to  Loudon’s 
Gardeners’ Magazine of about 
forty years ago, where they 
will find an article on the propa- 
gation of Rosa odorata, in which 
propagation from the growing 
wood in the spring is strongly 
advocated. As I quote from 
memory I am not sure who was 
the author; but if it was not 
Mr. Archibald Gorrie, of the 
Carse of Gowrie, it was Mr. Ellis, 
of the Palace Gardens, Armagh. 
Though I cannot go into par- 
ticulars, the facts are as fresh 
in my memory as if they had 
occurred only a few months 
ago. With suitable appliances, 
to strike roses in the early season in the growing state, the same in 
July and August, and later on in the ripened state, is not a 
difficult matter. But we must recollect the conditions under 
which the cuttings haye been produced ; for to take cuttings from 
heat to cold would be just as absurd as to take them from the 
open air and expect them to strike ina strong bottom heat. These 
are the points, more than any other, upon which inexperienced 
propagators fail, more especially with plants that are in any way 
disposed to be hard-wooded. Take cuttings of Roses any time in 
September, before the frost has touched them, and cutting them 
into lengths, insert them in loam, either in pots or a cold frame; 
protect them from severe frost through the winter, and by spring 
you may fairly caleulate that a very large proportion of them will 
be rooted plants. -If, however, quantity, and strong plants in a 
short time be the object, then bud grafting upon the Manetti stock 
or briar is the royal road to quantity. Buds can be rosted as 
independent plants in the soil, but not so quickly and surely as 
they can upon a healthy, well-established stock. I say nothing as 
to the desirability of the two systems. Plenty there are who grow 
the Rose admirably upon its own roots, others are equally successful 
with the Manetti stock, while I think great Rose-growers themselves 
pin their faith, for show purposes, to the British briar in its second 
season, a good deep loam, and no “tightness” in the manure 
market. W. P. A, 


480 


THE GARDEN. 


[Arr 20, 1872. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Dwarf Yellow Wallflower (Cheiranthus precox 
aureus).—This charming little plant, growmg only about six or eight 
inches high, is now in bloom around London. It is of a compact and 
stubby habit, very sweet-scented, perfectly hardy, and of a bright yellow 
colour. It is most valuable for the spring garden, the mixed border, and 
also for naturalization in rough rocky places with the common kind. 

Delphinium formosum, Phlox Nelsonii, and Iris reticu- 
lata.—Two or three little points struck me as I went through your 
work on ‘“‘ Hardy Flowers *’—matterspersonally knowntome. First, 
Delphinium formosum is a garden hybrid, although it reproduces 
itself from seed as truly as most species. It was raised by the late 
Mr. C. Moore, nurseryman, East Dereham, in this county. Second, 
Phlox Nelsonii is also a garden hybrid, between P. frondosa and 
P. nivalis, raised about twenty years ago by my late father, who 
was reetor of Winterton, also in this county. Third, Ivis reticulata: 
my soil may be described as a strong loam, with a brick-earth sub- 
soil not eighteen inches from the surface, and here it thrives 
amazingly in all positions on the level. A friend gave me about a 
score of roots ten years ago; I have exchanged and given away since 
that time more than three hundred, and have now a stock of at least 
five hundred—all from the original twenty roots. Moreover, I have 
never seen it do as well anywhere where the soil is lighter and 
warmer. It does not seed freely with me, though many abortive 
seeds are formed; but this year I have about twenty seedlings 
from seed saved last year—J. G. Nelson, Aldborough Rectory, 
Norwich. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


ON PURE HYBRIDIZATION, OR CROSSING DISTINCT 
SPECIES OF PLANTS. 


BY ISAAC ANDERSON-HENRY, ESQ., F.L.S. * 
~ Tue following are the rules I observe and the means which I take to 
insure success in my experiments with reference to this subject :— 


ist. I long held it to be of vital importance to have the separate 
plants Intended for the parents in the cross, even though both were 
hardy, put under glass, and I still recommend it; for, by doing 
so, you heighten the temperature—an important thing—and you 
can better secure against the interference of winds and insects; and 
though Darwin holds the former of small account, I have reason for 
differing from him there. But in the height of summer pollen 
may be taken from an ontside plant to cross an inside one, and 
vice versi. If the cross is to be made on an ontside plant which 
cannot be conveniently remoyed, I cover it with a hand-elass or 
cloche. 

2nd. I hold it not enough merely to emasculate the intended seed- 
bearing fiower; I take off every petal, for the petals attract the 
insects, which seem guided more by their optics than any sense of 
smell. This act of emasculation in some cases I perform long 
before the expansion of the bloom; for in many plants—e.g., in the 
Papilionaces, some of the Rosacese, and Compositze—self-fertiliza- 
tion may, and does, often take place in the unopened flower. This is 
not all. Isometimes put a gauze bag over it; if I do not, the muti- 
lated bloom may not escape that most troublesome of all insect 
pests, the humble bee, which in his unwieldy flicht, may come across 
it by pure accident. But for the most part now I make clean work 
of it, and remove all other expanded flowers on the seed-bearing 
plant, and allow no kindred one to be near. 

3rd. Do not be in a hurry to effect your cross; wait till you find 
that the stigma is fully developed. In many plants this is shown by 
a glutinous exudation on the summit, as in the Ericacer, the 
Onagraceew, Ec. In other orders, such as the Geraniacew and 
Malvacew, it is indicated by the feathery expansion and recurvature 
of its separate divisions. 

4th. The next thing is to obtain properly ripened pollen grains 
from the male plant. This is done by carefully watching when the 
anthers burst, otherwise the insects may be before you; and so 
active are they, especially on such favourite food as the pollen of 
the Rubus tribe, that, to get it at all, I have found it necessary to 
encase the opening blooms in muslin bags till the pollen was ripe, 
and ready for nse. Do not use, as is generally recommended, the 
camel-hair pencil, which, applied often and indiscriminately, may, 
and often does, convey, with the foreign, some insidious grains of 


*A paper read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and since 
revised and added to by the anthor. 


native pollen, which, however few, are prepotent, and wholly 
neutralise the former. Take, where that can be obtained and 
afforded, the entire bloom of the intended male, and give the 
slightest brush with all its anthers over the stigma, or all the 
stigmas, if more than one, of the intended female. I will give my 
reasons for this by-and-bye. You may use for experiment, in some 
cases the long, and in some the short, stamens. To those of the 
proper dimorphic form I haye made some allusion elsewhere; they 
occur in the species of Primula and in some ofthespeciesof the Linum 
tribe (as to both of which, see Darwin’s most remarkable papers in 
the Proceedings of the Linnzan Society). Such anthers, at least 
two long and two short ones, occur in the two orders of the Linnzan 
class Didynamia, on which I may have a suggestion to offer here- 
after, for I think something interesting may be worked out of this 
form. In cases where the anthers are few, as in the Linnean classes 
Diandria, Triandria, &c., you may use small pincers—a bit of wire 
so twisted as to form that implement, to carry in the pocket, is by 
far the handiest. I have used such an instrument all along, and 
find it better than any other form. In some iribes, the better to 
secure against invasion by insects, such especially as in some of the 
Rosacew haying large discs, a muslin bag may be used, so as 
effectually to exclude them; I use it constantly in the Rubus tribe 
immediately after emasculation, taking it off and replacing it after 
the cross, and keeping it on thereafter till the cross has set. 

Sth. In some casés it is a matter of some difficulty to procure, 
and when procured of no less importance to preserve, pollen. In 
dicecious planits—say the Aucuba—a friend may have the male and 
you have, as we all have, the female imabundance. You would like to 
store that pollen till your female plant, generally later, comes into 
flower. Many hold that pollen cannot be preserved in a vital condi- 
tion for more than one or two, or perhaps three, weeks. In a recent 
publication which refers to this matter, namely, Max Wichura’s 
“Observations on Hybridization,” of which a very lucid abstract, 
carefully digested and translated from the original German by the 
Rey. M. J. Berkeley, is given in the January number of the Journal 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, that eminent authority holds it as 
“Sa fact of great importance that the pollen of willows retains its 
potency for some time. Im some cases pollen ten days old was 
efficient, while vitality was siill further prolonged by steeping it in 
a solution of honey * (of which I have doubts). ‘“‘ Pollen,” he adds, 
“Sof Salix Silesiaca eight days old seemed ‘almost as potent as ever; 
in twenty-eight days the traces of vitality were very slight, while 
that of Salix’cinerea had become weak in sixteen days.” Now, Iam 
not aware that there is less vitality in the pollen of willows than in 
that of any other family, and, as many experimentalists hold 
Kindred views to those here enunciated by Wichura, I deem it a 
matter of some importance to give you one or two instances of my 
Own experience. I have carried in my pocket the pollen of Rhodo- 
dendron again and again from six weeks to two months and upwards, 
and still found it potent. Of the Japanese forms of the genus 
Lilium I have kepé pollen effective in the same manner for equal 
periods. In fact, generally speaking, I have found the pollen of 
most plants to remain good for similar periods. Having last year 
got the new and beautiful Clematis Jackmanii to flower, and anxious 
to preserve its pollen as long as possible, I collected and stored it in 
its anthers in a simple pill-boxs. On the 4th of July 1866, I so 
gathered and put it into a drawer of a cabinet in my own sitting- 
room, where it remained wholly away from damp. On the 5th of 
June 1867, having first carefully emasculated a flower of Clematis 
candida, I crossed it with the pollen, then eleven months old, and 
from this cross I have this autumn gathered and sown eight well- 
developed seeds. Now, both parents are hybrids, with a large 
infusion of alien blood in them, so that here the vitality was put 
to its severest test. Subsequent experiments satisfy me that the 
vitality of all pollen may not be so long preserved, for J have found 
that of the Aucuba inert after being stored about six weeks. But 
as some bits of stems had got mixed, these may, by inducing 
damp, have destroyed it. I would therefore recommend it to be 
brushed off pure and stored in silk paper. I notice this result here 
(somewhat out of place) to suggest the propriety of storing, and, if 
needful, of importing, pollen, which, if wrapt up in silk paper, might 
even, enclosed in a letter, reach this country still potent, by theover- 
land route from India, or, after two or three months’ voyage, from all 
parts of South and North America. 
distant countries be instructed as to this, and we may soon haye an 
improved progeny of the rarest things, even before such novelties 
from which they are derived have been obtained from their own 
seeds in this country. , 

6th. There is another matter of much consequence to be attended 
to in the crossing of distant species; I mean the times and seasons 
for effecting the cross; yet not one of those most experienced in 
the art, from Darwin downward, has touched upon this point. It 
has been forced upon my attention for more than twenty years. I 


ee ee 


Let collectors and friends in © 


Aprit 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


481 


have found that I could, on some few propitious days which occur 
throughout the season, successfully effect crosses I could not effect 
with all my care at other times. I have adverted to this in the 
paper I formerly submitted to you, and I again refer to it. There 
are some crosses which I have effected at such times, and which I 
would have tried in vain'to accomplish at times less favourable. If 
you have, say, two plants of Rhododendron, one a tiny thing, to 
cross with a large species, or if you wish to attempt a cross between 
an Indian azalea and a rhododendron, watch for a propitious time. 
Such times occur, often few and far between, when there is less of 
sun than of that latent form of heat, which frequently occurs 
before thunder, from the air being more than ordinarily charged 
with electricity. Or they may occur in the spring season, when 
there is much ozone present, whose influence I have often found to tell 
most favourably in promoting the germination of long-sown seeds. 
Tt was to the presence of ozone, or to some other form of electrical 
agency, I attributed the almost simultaneous germination of some 
New Zealand seeds of a shrub which I got from that country under 
the name of “ Black Maupan,” a species of Pittosporum, which 
sprang up together on the morning of the 16th March 1863, after 
they had lain dormant two years and eight months. Such 
atmospheric conditions, to whatever cause they may be due, I have 
found not unfrequently to occur with the east winds of March and 
April; at which times I have seen many other long-sown seeds 
spring quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Seize upon all such seasons 
for difficult crosses. As to the time of the day, you may operate 
best perhaps from ten a.m. till six p.m. 


(To be continued.) 


PROPAGATING SOFT-WOODED BEDDING-PLANTS 
IN SAND AND WATER. 


Nor recollecting to have seen this mode of propagating 
bedding-plants notified in your pages, I have thought it might 
prove useful to some of your readers—amateurs especially— 
to know that, in comparison with the customary modes of 
“ striking” such subjects in pots, &c., in soil and sand, the 
way now indicated possesses greater simplicity and despatch, 
while if also reduces to a minimum the “damping off” 
contingency, incidental to the old mode. Having now for 
several years pursued the plan in question with uniform 
success, more especially with such plants as Verbenas, Petunias, 
Ageratums, Coleuses, Ivesines, &c., I can recommend it with 
the greatest confidence. 

My modus operandi is to fill with moist silver sand common 
flower-pot saucers, or other suitable vessels; insert the 
cuttings thickly with the peg, fill up with water, and place 
the vessels on a shelf or other suitable site in the propagating 
pit. Shading from the sun I am not fastidious about, so long 
as the pans contain a sufficient amount of water. As soon 
as the cuttings have formed a mass of roots, which only 
takes a few days to effect, I transplant them into boxes or 
pans of light soil and leaf mould, replace them in heat for a few 
days, and afterwards gradually harden them off in some cool 
structure. The pans of sand may be refilled with cuttings 
repeatedly ad infinitum. Wm. GARDENER. 


Lower Eatington Park Gardens, Stratford-on-Avon. 


MAKE-BELIEVE GRAFTING. 


THERE is a Rose tree in the Botanical Garden at Ghent, where 
it was produced by M. Donkelaar, which flowers extensively each 
year in the midst of an Oak, which causes it to be called by the 
uninitiated the Oak Rose tree. On first seeing it, it has quite the 
appearance of being grafted. We think it may prove interesting to 
show to what extent artifice can be carried. A young Oak was taken, 
of two or three inches in circumference; by means of a red-hot 
iron, a hole was bored the entire length of the centre of the trunk, 
and through this were passed the roots of a young Rose tree. The 
two plants thus formed into one were potted, and the hole round 
the extremity of the Rose tree was stopped up. The plant was 
taken good care of, and it flourished and flowered as though nothing 
unusual had happened to it. But is this really a graft? By no 
means, as there is not the slightest union between the two. They 
are two plants, each having its own roots, struggling and disputing 
between themselves without ceasing for nourishment, and living not 
one for and by the other, but separately, the one in the other, until 
the weaker is strangled by the stronger.—C. Patin. 


PROPAGATION OF THE IPECACUANHA PLANT. 


Tue following method of propagating this important officinal plant 
has been communicated to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh by 
Mr. M‘Nab:—* The Ipecacuanha plant (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha) has 
recently been attracting much attention, from the belief that it will 
become, like the Cinchona, a profitable plant to cultivate in various 
districts of India. The Cephaclis Ipecacuanha is a native of the 
moist woods of Brazil, and was first introduced into British 
gardens in 1830. It is a plant of remarkably slow growth. The 
largest now in the Botanic Garden is scarcely one foot in height, 
although more than thirty years of age. The method hitherto 
adopted for propagating the Cephaelis (as far as I am aware) is by 
cuttings, but of those not more than one or two can be got at a time, 
and at very long intervals. By this slow method of propagating the 
Cephaelis must always remain exceedingly scare. The roots, or 
rather rhizomes, of the Cephaelis are moniliform or annulated. A 
few of these were taken from one of the plants in the Botanic Garden 
during the month of August 1869, and after being cut into small 
tranvserse sections, they were inserted ina horizontal position over the 
surface of a pot prepared with drainage and white sand. This pot 
was placed under a hand-glass in a warm propagating bed and kept 
moist. A few weeks after, the bits of roots showed buds on the 
upper side, roots being also sent out from the under surface. The 
plants are now beginning to grow, each being furnished with two 
leaves, the largest measuring three-quarters of an inch over. In 
order to meet the demand which, in all likelihood, will be created 
for plants of the Cephaelis, it is well to know how it can be propa- 
gated independently of cuttings, and at the same time without injury 
to the parent plant.” 


TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, &c. 
THE SIDNEY GARDEN SEED SOWER. 


We have had this apparently very useful little contrivance 
properly engraved in order to - = = 
show the way in which it is con. 
structed, and also for the purpose 
of exhibiting a recent improve- 
ment carried out by its inventor, 
Mr. Cox. This consists in the 
introduction of the little inverted 
cone in the middle, which pre- 
vents largish seeds from form- 
ing an arch, and consequent 
stoppage, at the base of the 
upright cr main tube. Our 
woodent indeed explains the 
matter so clearly that nothing 
farther need be said in reference 
to it. All sorts and sizes of 
vegetable and flower seeds can 
be sown in drills, or even broad- 
cast, in any required quantity, 
by regulating the slide. It is 
useful also for dusting with to- 
bacco powder todestroy aphides ; 
likewise for dusting sulphur over 
plants to kill mildew. It will, 
in short, prove a welcome addi- 
tion to our stock of handy gar- 
den tools and implements. The 
small size is that best cal- 
culated for sprinkling tobacco ‘Sectional View of the Sidney Seed-sower. 
powder, &c., over plants. The Sidney garden seed-sower is made in 
several sizes. 


THE BEST KIND OF GARDEN ''ROWEL. 
JHE common concave garden trowel is a worthless implement, 
effective chiefly in wasting time. From its shape the earth clings 
to it much more than to a flat trowel; it is generally of bad 


iin 


material, and its porcaye shape presents no advantage whatever: 
This shape is given it because it makes a roundish hole ; but, as 
every person with any practice in planting knows, a precise shape 


482 


THE GARDEN. 


{Arrm 20, 1872. 


for the hole is of no consequence whatever. The object is simply 
to make one deep enough and large enough in the shortest space of 
time, and with the least labour possible. This is best effected by 
the trowel we now figure, and which we have used for some years; 
once accumstomed to it, one would almost as soon use a piece of 
an old flower-pot as the common garden trowel. It is of the best 
steel, andis marked with a crownand W. H. Anotherreason why a 
straight form of trowel is preferable, is that the great majority of 
small plants should be planted against the side of a small eut—a 
little trench with one firm straight side, for the making of which 
the concave trowel is of course much less effective than the one 
here spoken of. 


THE TOOL HOUSE. 


THE common hoe is perhaps the most troublesome small garden 
or farm implement to hang up in the tool-room, ont of the way when 
not in use, and still exactly in the way, and so as to be always handy 
When we want it ina hurry. Vexation is increased at a fearful ratio 


H Wy 

MO QA QA . 
NINA IWS 
Fig. 1. 
if you have a dozen of them. The floor of a tool-room should be kept 
as free as possible from all obstacles to the sweep of the broom. 
Very likely in a new room you will hook the hoes over the edge of 
the plate, or some givt or horizontal timber in the framework, and 


iG ly 
H oom 


think they are nicely fixed. The first time you look for your 
favourite Weapon, two or three others are on top of it, and their 
centre of gravity is so awkwardly poised that in selecting the one 
you want you fetch them all clanging down about your ears. A lath 


nailed across the upright studding is a little better, but not satis- 
factory. After many trials I have settled upon this (fig. 1) as the 
best way to dispose of that large class of implements with straight 
handles, to which hoes belong. , 

Upon the wall ofthe tool-room, within about six inches of the floor, 
affixa strip of inch-board, five inches wide, shelf-wise. Let this 
extend twice as long as you think at first you will need, for it is 
astonishing how the mop sticks, and broom handles, and unfashion- 
able utensi!s, that you are not quite ready to fling away, will gather 
upon you when once you have a place to putthem. This narrow 
shelf should have inch-holes, six inches apart, sunk along its centre, 
through its entire length, bored half-way through the board. Also 
holes rather smaller may be bored midway, near the edge of the 
shelf. Above this shelf—say two feet—affix another, six inches 
wide, with corresponding holes clean through it—the inner ones one- 
and-a-quarter-inch, and some of them one-and-a-half-inch, for 
larger handles, the beetle, or the iron bar. If slots are cut in the 
back edge of each shelf, many things will find a place there, where 
they willalways be in sight and never in the way. The iron wedges, 
for instance, near the beetle; odd strap hinges and bits of iron or 
wood, that will be sure some time to be used if where they can be 
seen in time of need. Such tools as hoes, potato-hooks, garden- 
rakes, long-handled shovels, spades, forks, and the like drop into 
their places at once, and they will stay there. The half-hole in the 
bottom shelf keeps them steady. Shovels, spades, and dung-forks 
with short handles are well hung, concaye side to the wall, upon 
stout wooden pegs, set in a stripof one-and-a-half-inch stuff cleated 
to the wall of the tool-room or stable, as shown in Fig. 2. 

How to fix pickaxes and mattocks so that a workman coming in 
tired, with a back-load of tools, would be glad to put them in place, 


did for a while bother me. I finally fell upon the plan described for 
hand-hoes, making the holes larger, and the upper ones of an oyal 
shape, diagonally, by boring two holes close together with a two-inch 
anger. Choppers’ axes come in well between two studs (fig. 3), 
resting the head of the axes askew upon a narrow shelf, breast-high, 
and holding the helves upright by a cleat two feet higher. 

Having tools arranged in this way, with variations according to 
individual fancies or necessities, leads to a precious saving of time 
and trouble.—Burton Briggs, in “ Hearth and Home.” 


THE SOURCE OF GREATNESS. 


Ir we were to be asked abruptly, and required to answer briefly, 
what qualities chiefly distinguish great artists from feeble artists, we 
should answer, I suppose, first, their sensibility and tenderness ; 
secondly, their imagination; and thirdly, their industry. Some of 
us might, perhaps, doubt the justice of attaching so much import- 
ance to this last character, because we have all known clever men who 
were indolent, and dull men who were industrious. But though you | 
may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great 
man who was so; and, during such investigation as I have been able 
to give to the lives of the artists whose works are in all points 
noblest, no facts ever looms so large upon me—no law remains so 


Aprit 20, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


steadfast in the universality of its application, as the fact and law 
that they are all great workers; nothing concerning them is matter 
of more astonishment than the quantity they have accomplished in 
the given length of their life; and when I hear a young man spoken 
of as giving promise of high genius, the first question I ask about 
him is always—does he work? But though this quality of industry 
is essential to an artist, it does not in any wise make an artist; 
many people are busy, whose doings are little worth. Neither 
does sensibility make an artist; since, as I hope, many can feel 
both strongly and nobly, who yet care nothing about art. But 
the gifts which distinctively mark the artist—without which he 
must be feeble in life, forgotten in death—with which he may 
become one of the shakers of the earth, and one of the signal lights 
in heaven—are those of sympathy and imagination.—John Ruskin. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


DHE GoMuULt PALM. 
(ARENGA SACCHARIFERA,) 

Tuts is the Sugar Palm of the Indian Archipelago, where 
it is very useful to the natives, producing sago from the pith 
of the stem; and from the flower-stalk is obtained a juice 
of which sugar is made. The leaves are also found to be 
useful for thatching, and the leaf-stalks make rafters for 
huts. From the coarser fibre produced at the base of the 
stem are made brushes, while the finest is used for stuffing 


The Gomuti Palm. 


cushions. It is one of the largest of palms, the fronds being 
often twenty feet in length. When it has attained its full 
height, it begins to Hower from the top downwards. The male 
and female flowers are borne on separate plants, and are 
produced in great quantities. It is a fast-growing palm, and 
is quite out of place ina small house. There is a fine example 
of it in flower in the Palm House at Kew. J. Crovcuer. 


CULTIVATION OF CACTI. 
BY. J. CROUCHER, 

Tue majority of Cacti are sun-loving plants, and, as a consequence, 
the first thing to be taken into consideration is to get your house so 
situated as to insure the greatest amount of direct light, therefore 
the best aspect will be due south; a lean-to house is the best, with 
good clear glass, to which the plants must be as near as_ possible. 
The genera Epiphyllum and Rhipsalis are exceptions to this rule, and 
prefer a little shade in the summer, as they mostly grow in the 
forests, but imany house there are always some parts more in the 
shade than others. The plants are not damaged by the sun but will 
grow more luxuriantly in the shade. It is not easy to get the house 
too hot for Cacti in the summer, but they will thrive well in a 
temperature of from 60° to 80° with sun, and in winter the majority 
will bear a minimum of 40° with dry air; though the genera 
Rhipsalis and Epiphyllam must be kept at 55° to 65°, or they will 
protest by looking very yellow. As most of these plants are natives 
of those parts of America lying south of the equator, they, as a 
consequence, get their warmest season when we get our coldest, 
which gives them a tendency to grow during our winter; and a 
predilection for rotting, if not kept perfectly dry. 

POTTING, SOLL, ETC. 

As above stated, these plants being American, they should not 
be repotted in early spring, as is the common practice ; which prac- 
tice seems to have originated from the fact of most plants starting 
into growth on or about that time. I have often thought, that if 
amateurs and gardeners were to think more on this subject, they 
would at once see the folly of supposing that all countries had their 
spring at the same time as we have in England; it matters little 
with most persons if the plants come from east, west, north, or 
south, they must be potted in our spring; and as the plants will 
not grow out of their season, the soil gets stale, and when the roots 
do begin to grow, they find the condition unfavourable, and the 
result is stunted growth, and sometimes death ; not through a wrong 
compost, but unseasonable potting. The potting of Cacti should be 
left until June or July, when they will be on the point of starting 
into growth. The best compost is loam, with silver-sand and broken 
bricks, the quantity of sand must be regulated by the stiffness or 
otherwise of the loam; the object being to make the whole sufficiently 
porous for the water to pass through freely; as a rule one gallon of 
sand to three bushels of loam, and one bushel of finely-broken 
bricks will suit for the genera Opuntia, Echinocactus, Hchinopsis, 
Cereus, and Mammillaria; for Epiphyllum and Rhipsalis, a mixture 
of rough peat and loam, with a little sand and rough crocks, is the 
best. Such as R. Cassutha, funalis, saglionis, and mesembryan. 
themoides may be grown on pieces of fern stems, in baskets or pots 
suspended the same as orchids, and very interesting objects they 
make; Cereus flabelliformis and leptopes succeed best suspended 
in a pot, with the ordinary soil; C. grandiflorus, Macdonaldiwi, and 
the other right-flowering species, grow best planted in the back 
border of a stove with a tolerable amount of moisture in the air; 
it is not necessary to give them much soil, as they get most of their 
nourishment from their aerial roots. When the plants are to be 
potted, the whole of the small fibres of the roots should be eut off ; 
this is a very particular point in the cultivation of this class of 
plants, as it enables you to get the plants into small pots, and if left 
on they decay, and so do more harm than good, by making the soil 
impure ; amateurs, as a rule, are very shy at cutting the roots from 
their plants, but a good cultivator of Cacti has not the least hesitation 
about the subject; and it is probable that they lose most of their 
fibrous roots during the dry season in their native habitats. The soil 
should be made quite firm in the pot and well drained ; taking care 
to put enough rough pieces of soil on the drainage to prevent the 
soil from getting amongst it, and so defeat the object for which it 
is placed there. Manure should be specially avoided, as it will 
cause the soil to get charged with impurities with the least excess 
of water, which impurities the plants will take up, and though they 
may look green and healthy, may some day be found quite dead; 
some persons recommend manure, but after sad experience, I say 
away with it. I also know persons who grow their plants in nearly 
all manure, but they are grown for sale, and their profit consists in 
the death of the same. Others again recommend lime rubbish being 
mixed with the soil; which practice has originated from the fact of 
oxalate of lime being found to constitute a great portion of the 
substance of these plants; but lime rubbish from the débris of old 
buildings is very different from that found in the natural soil of the 
plants, and the effect on the roots is to cause them to become stunted, 
and what horticulturists call “clubbed”; therefore my advice is, if 
you want your plants to grow well, don’t use lime rubbish. 

WATERING, ETC. 

When the plants have been potted, they should be kept without 

water until they show signs of growth; never mind if they don’t 


484. THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 20, 1872. 


ask for it until two or three months after potting; don’t give it 
them until they do, for they always contain enough moisture to 
enable them to start ; and until that start is made, the roots have not 
begun to grow. When the plants haye started into growth they 
may be watered about once a week for the first month; after that 
twice, with a good syringing every other evening before shutting 
the house. This treatment may be continued until the end of 
August, when the syringe must be laid aside; after September, the 
watering must not be oftener than once in fourteen days. From 
October till March, the genera Mammillaria, Echinocactus, Cereus, 
and most of the Opuntias, must be kept quite dry. As the Phyllo- 
cacti flower in the early spring, they must get water about once a 
month during the winter. Epiphyllum and Rhipsalis may be 
moderately dry ; but they will not endure so much drought as their 
more succulent allies. It is not necessary to pot the plants every 
season, as they like to be pot-bound; some do well in the same 
pot for five or six years. Should any plant be found to have lost its 
roots, or show signs of decay, the infected part should be cut clean 
out at once, and the plant turned up to the full power of the sun, 
till it begins to show fresh roots, when it may be repotted, and 
watered with care. This rule of turning the plants up to the sun 
should be especially attended to with newly-imported plants, as they 
require all superfluous moisture cleared from them; their roots 
should be cut off, as when dead they act like string, conducting 
moisture to the plants. To the neglect of cutting off the dead 
roots I attribute the many failures to grow the Turk’s Cap cactus 
(Melocactus communis) ; although this species evidently does not 
increase in size after forming the cap or flowering point, yet it may 
be kept alive some years. 
MODES OF PROPAGATION, 

The genera Rhipsalis, Phyllocactus, Cereus, and Opuntia are 
easily increased by cuttings, which should be taken off in May, and 
laid in the sun until rooted, when they should be potted and watered 
carefully, though Rhipsalis and Phyllocactus may be potted at once, 
and kept dry about fourteen days, when they will be rooted, and may 


be watered ; Echinocactus and Mammillaria must be increased by” 


offsets ; Echinocactus requires the top to be cut off, which must be 
exposed tothe sun until rooted, the old plant will throw out young 
ones, which may be taken off the next season. As a rule, the 
Echinocactus is slow in throwing offsets, and care must be taken not 
to let the plant get any water until it shows signs of doing so; 
patience is a virtue in great demand in the propagation of this 
section of the order. The slender-growing species are often grafted 
on stronger and faster growers, though care must be taken not to 
select for a stock one as celebrated for vigour as the scion is for 
want of it, or your labour will be in vain. As a stock for the 
smaller-growing Echinocacti, Cereus tortuosus, or colubrinus, are the 
best ; for the larger, C. peruvianus and gemmatus. In grafting, 
care must be taken to cut the two ends rather convex than concaye, 
as they are apt to shrink a little, which would cause a separation, 
and so spoil the graft; the scion must be tied firmly to the stock, 
taking care that the edges meet, or, at least, one of them; the best 
plan to insure against accidents is to put three sticks into the pot, 
and tie them together above the plant, thus causing a continual 
pressure from above. In grafting Opuntia clayarioides you may 
cut a cuneiform notch in the stock, and cut the scion to fit tightly, 
keep them firm with a stick on each side and a thorn run through 
the graft. Some of the smaller species of Cereus, as C. tuberosus, 
may be made pointed, with a corresponding hole in the stock; in all 
cases taking care not to disturb the plant when once grafted. When 
the operation is finished, the plant must be put into a close frame, 
or the shadiest part of the house, until it is ont of danger. Epiphyl- 
lums are generally grafted, but not necessarily. The common stock 
used is Pereskia grandifolia, and Bleo, but Cereus speciosissimus and 
triangularis make very good stocks, these plants being stouter, and 
more in proportion to the scion, though Pereskia stocks are more to 
be depended upon than Cereus. Cuttings of Pereskias intended for 
stocks should be put in in spring, selecting the young straight shoots 
of the preyious season, about six inches long, or according to fancy; 
about September is the best season for grafting Epiphyllums. The 
scion should consist of one or two joints; cut the onter bark off 
about one inch on each side of the scion, split the stock about the 
same length, put the scion in, and tie or pinit with a thorn, according 
to which stock you use; the plants must then. be put into a close 
frame, and laid on their sides until united, which they will do in 
about six weeks, when they may be placed upright, and gradually 
hardened off. Most of the species may be raised from seed, which 
should be sown as soon as collected, if possible, and put into a 
temperature of 60°. The young plants grow very slowly at first ; 
when potted off they should be placed near the light ; it is best to 
let them remain in the seed-pot until the following season, as they 
are yery apt to damp if they are potted off too soon. Seed collected 


abroad should be left in the pulp, which being its natural protector 
prevents the air acting on it, and drying it up; packed in a small 
tin box it may be sent any distance without losing its vitality. The 
best flowering varieties are Cereus speciosissimus, and its varieties, 
as C. Ackermanni, Jenkinsoni, splendens, and others; these are the 
forms most commonly grown in cottage windows; the genera 
Phyllocactus and Cereus contain many fine flowering varieties. 

Hybridization may be performed with ease as the stamen and pistils 
are so very distinct, and the pollen produced in abundance. It 
may be preserved for some time if kept in a bottle hermetically 
sealed. I have not met with any successful attempt to cross Mam- 
millaria with Echinocactus, or Opuntia with Cereus, though I know 
of no cause why they may not be, as the differences in the flowers 
are not differences of structure, but merely degrees of develop- 
ment; such as a greater or lesser number of stamens and petals, or 
in the absence in some, and lengths in others of the tube of the 
corolla, excepting that it may be that the pollen tubes might be too 
strong for the distance they haye to grow from the apéx of the 
stigma, or vice vers. F 5 

CONCLUSION. 

The chief points to be observed in the above directions are, the light, 
time, and mode of potting, taking special care not to be afraid to 
cut off the roots. The watering, which should be given with a rose 
on the pot, should be sufficient to thoroughly soak the soil; it is 
best to hold the pot as high as you can, so that the water may 
fall on all parts of the plant, which serves the double purpose of 
washing and watering at the same time. Be sure to give them a 
good drying in the winter, upon which depends the success in 
flowering them the next season. 

Some few species, as Opuntia vulgaris, and Rafinesquiana, and 
Echinopsis Eyriesii, are hardy in the south of England; and I have 
no doubt that many species of Opuntia and Echinopsis would do 
very well in cold frames in winter, and the open air in summer. 
For an amateur, the Cacti are the best plants to cultivate, as they 
offer the greatest scope for number of species, and require so little 
attention. In a house twenty feet by twelve feet from four hundred 
to five hundred species may be grown; in the summer the house 
can be left night and day with air, and if the owner had no person 
he could trust, he might lock the house, and leaye them a week at a 
time without fear of harm. In the winter, if he should be obliged 
to leave home, the only thing would be to get the heat looked after, 
and his pets would welcome him home with as fresh an appearance 
as when he left. One often hears the remark from some person who 
has been disappointed—I bought some in the market, but they soon 
died; the fact is, these plants are newly potted, and should be 
treated as advised for fresh-potted plants. Cacti intended for 
exportation to long distances should be laid in the sun until they 
begin to shrivel, when they should be packed in some coarse material, 
as straw, taking care to use enough to prevent the spines of one 
piercing the other; for if one begins to rot, all will soon become 
moist, and endanger the whole carge. Holes must be made in the 
sides of the boxes, to cause a current of air to pass through, as a 
safeguard against accidents.—Student 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Grevillea Manglesii—We strongly recommend this plant to all 
our readers who have to embellish conservatories and winter gardens. A 
specimen of it which we saw at Glasnevin was about ten feet high, with a 
peculiarly graceful habit—quite unlike that of any of its relatives, and 
having a very enticing resemblance in habit to the Weeping Willow. It 
will probably do for large conservatories what that fine plant does for 
our pleasure-grounds. It is abundantly covered with white flowers in 
spring, but the drooping character of its slender branchlets is its chief 
charm.—W. 

Triteleia uniflora as a Pot Plant.—I noticed at Chiswick the 
other day a large quantity of this potted in forty-eight sized pots, about 
eight plants in each pot. They were beginning to throw up flowers, and 
will doubtless be found useful for the decoration of the conservatory at 
South Kensington. For borders this Triteleia is by no means to be 
despised; it seems capable of withstanding the hardest frost without 
injury, and is therefore well adapted for outdoor cultivation. It blooms 
freely, and the cut flowers can be mingled with others without the 
unpleasant smell which unfortunately belongs to them being discernible. 
—R. D. 

Hebeclinium ianthinum.—This useful winter-flowering plant 
appears to be but little known, notwithstanding its being of easy culture 
anda free bloomer. Its large heads of flowers, which are of a fine pur- 
plish manye colour, are elevated on the points of the branches, well up 
above the leaves,'and thus are shown off to good advantage. Anintermediate 
house suits it best, and it may be grown successfully in a compost of two 
parts loam, one of leaf mould, one of well-decomposed manure, with a little 
sharp sand. After the blooming season is past, allow it to rest fora while 


— = 


Aprit 20, 1872.) 


‘THE GARDEN. 


485 


then eut it back to within two eyes of the old wood, and place it for a time 
in a close moist atmosphere. 

Salvia splendens.—1 have often had plants of this four or five feet 
high, and as much through, in one season from spring cuttings, and 
covered with flowers from October till Christmas. Put in the cuttings 
in February or March; when rooted pot off, and grow on in heat till May, 
then harden off, and plant them out in the kitchen garden or reserve 
ground about four or five feet apart. If dry weather sets in, muleh with 
a little cocoa fibre or short manure, and water them occasionally ; sprinkle 
them overhead in the evening after hot, bright days, pinch in all strong 
shoots to induce a close compact habit, giving the last pinching about the 
1st of August. After this period water more sparingly, but still continue 
the evening sprinkling. All the growth made now will be flowering 
growth, and the object should be to obtain short-jointed, moderately 
strong shoots. About the first week in September cut round the plants 
with a spade about a foot from the stems, so as to sever all roots that 
extend beyond that distance. Ina fortnight all may be potted, placing 
them afterwards ina shady position for a few days, and supply them well 
with water. In potting lift them carefully with balls. The feet plants 
will require fifteen-inch pots. Secure the strongest shoots neatly with 
stakes, as the branches are apt to split off if left without support. House 
them before frost supervenes, and they will form superb flowering speci- 
mens.—l. Hobday. 


THE. HOUSEHOLD... 
THE “WHY” IN VEGETABLE COOKERY. 


BY MRS. WARREN, 


Why should Seakale never be boiled in plain boiling water, but in 
milk and water and salt; or, instead of milk, a little bacon fat, 
butter, lard, or beef dripping ?—Because kale requires to be cooked in 
soft water and be kept of a good colour. Soda would soften the 
water, but turn the kale black. Equal parts of milk and water may 
be used, but then milk is expensive, while by using a little fat in the 
water the kale is equally good, and is not greasy when served. 

Why should Celery for sauce or for stewing be boiled in a little milk, 
butter, and salt, and with sufficient water to very little more than 
cover it ?—Because it requires soft water to cook it in, and the milk 
and water in which it is cooked will, after the celery is dressed, 
serve for sauce if it be thickened with one or two tablespoonfuls of 
corn-flour mixed with a little milk, and adding it to the celery and 
liquor it isin. It is then converted into a thick sauce, and served as 
such, or if for stewed celery the latter can remain in the sauce till 
wanted, then be placed in a dish, and the sauce strained over it. 

Why should Carrots not be split for boiling ?—Because the flavour is 
entirely lost by splitting them. They require boiling in soft water ; 
soda would blacken them. Some fat, as dripping or other fat, should 
be put in the water when it is put on cold; when it boils fast put in 
two ounces of salt and the carrots whole or cut across, not split, and 
boil them two hours after they have boiled up. These directions are 
for boiling carrots in winter. 

Why should summer Carrots not be scraped ?’—Because the delicate 
flavour would be spoiled. They should be washed clean, be put into 
boiling water with a little fat and salt, be boiled from fifteen to 
twenty minutes, then be strained and thrown into cold water. With 
a clean cloth rub off the outside skin, and throw each carrot as it is 
done into hot water till the moment of serving. 

Why should Parsnips not be split for cooking them ?—F¥or the same 
reason as for carrots—splitting destroys the flavour. They should be 
boiled as directed for carrots, but only for twenty minutes, half-an- 
hour, or an hour, according to the size—the largest only an hour. 

Why should Soda be boiled with greens, cabbages, broccoli, and 
turnip greens ?—Because the oil which all these vegetables contain 
more or less the soda extracts, and leaves the greens sweet and 
wholesome ; but the water is, after boiling the greens with soda most 
unwholesome, perhaps poisonous. How wrong then it is to eat 
greens not cooked with soda. A piece of soda, filbert size, is sufli- 
cient for a very large saucepan of boiling water. Turnip greens 
have scarcely any oil in them, but are nevertheless much more whole- 
some for eating when cooked with a little soda. From the seed of 
cabbage the colza-oil is manufactured. 

Why should Vegetables be washed in rather warm water first, then 
in cold, to cleanse them from sand and insects?—The hot water, 
which must be hotter than tepid, causes the insects and sand to fall 
out at once. Insects do not always dislike cold water and salt, but 
the hot water kills them. It must be understood that only a small 
handful of greens or one head of cabbage at a time must be washed, 
and then instantly thrown into the cold water, which crisps and 
thoroughly cleanses them. Spinach, leeks, celery, and seakale are 
thus rendered very clean, and, moreover, are very rapidly cleansed. 
It is worse than useless to attempt to cleanse vegetables in salt and 
water. The hardness which salt creates in the water prevents all 


‘the fork. 


cleansing properties. The salt may kill the insects (it does not always 
do this), but they stick on hard and fast; the hot water makes them 
fall out at once, and the cold water crisps and also blanches them. 

Why should Savoy Cabbages, white-heart swnmer cabbages, and 
cabbages that have been a long time growing, be cut across the ribs of 
the leaves, and not lengthways ’—Because all cabbages that have been 
a long time coming to maturity have extremely tough fibres; if 
these are cut lengthways one has to chop the fibres with the teeth in 
eating them, and, moreover, such cabbages take a longer time to 
boil, and are often served a tasteless, overdone, watery mass. If such 
greens be cut across the stems, in circles of two inches in width, be 
washed in warm water, then in cold, and be boiled in boiling water 
with salt and a little soda for from fifteen to twenty minutes, not a 
moment longer, if so long, the greens are sweet and exceedingly 
tender and wholesome, purifying the blood and promoting health. A 
dish of badly cooked greens is enough to create asevere fit of indiges- 
tion in those who eat them. 

Why should the stems of hard white Cabbages be never cooked with 
the other parts of the cabbage ?—Because they take twice as long to 
cook as the soft parts, so that the latter is an unwholesome paste 
before the stalks are done, and if they are thrown away either before 
or after cooking them it is waste. The stems of cabbages that are 
crisp should haye the soft green part cut from them to be cooked by 
itself ; the stems when stripped from the green be tied in small 
bundles, cooked for from twenty to twenfy-five minutes in plenty of 
boiling water, salt, and a little soda, and be served with butter sauce 
over them. Thena dish of seakale is not more delicious. These 
cabbage stems may be called ‘“chardoons,’”’ and will gratify the 
palates of all who taste them thus cooked. Young spring cabbages, 
of course, do not need this treatment. 

Why should turnips be cut across the fibre in rings of less than half 
an inch in thickness ?—For three reasons : first, the turnip need only 
be peeled very thin, instead of in the usual manner, thickly and waste- 
fully ; secondly, by so cutting them the fibres are cut across, so that 
however old the turnipis, it is never stringy ; thirdly, they require only 
fourteen minutes to boil in plenty of boiling water and salt, and thus 
the delicate flavour of the turnip is preserved, also they can be more 
easily mashed. The thinner the circles of turnip are cut, the quicker 
they cook and the less fibre they will haye.—Treaswry of Literature. 


Tomato Salad.—I give you directions for making tomato salad 
which I learned from an American gentleman in Switzerland last year. 
Take well mixed English mustard, salt, and pure Lucea olive-oil; put a 
spoonful of mustard in the middle of a plate, half asalt-spoonful of salt on 
it, and mix them withasilver fork; onthis pour a little of the olive-oil; stir 
this round and round until the oil is mixed; pour a little more oil, stir- 
ring it round as before, keeping it well together to prevent spreading ; on 
this pour a little more oil, rubbing it round and round with the silver 
fork; and soon again and again, until the mixture becomes about the size 
ofa small teacup standing on its mouth. Remember it should get plenty of 
quick tidy rubbing with the fork until each addition of oil is thoroughly 
absorbed. The mixture will be so adhesive that it may be helped with 
In this mixture the sliced tomatoes are placed. They should 
be red ripe, and perfectly fresh. | When sliced, vinegar should be poured 
on|them, according to taste, ornot, if preferred.—H. Hi. F., in “Trish Farmers’ 
Gazette.” [Vinegar is not used with a properly-made tomato salad in 
America. | 

“Red Peppers—try them.”—One day when we were in New 
York I turned into the Fifth Avenue Hotel, on the prowl for some- 
thing for my inner man, and, feeling the gregarious instinct strong 
upon me, went and sat down by the only other oceupant of the 
saloon, a long, cadaverous Yankee, just that sort that Tenniel always 
puts into his cartoons, with stripy trousers and a starry shirt, to 
typify Cousin Jonathan. I had come across a good many strange 
vegetables since we landed in the States, but a dish of reddish 
somethings, which my gaunt neighbour was devouring with apparent 
relish, struck me at once as a novelty. ‘ May I ask what they are ?” 
“Red peppers—try them.’’ Innocently I accepted the invitation, 
and the moment I bit one of the things, felt—how shall I describe 
the sensation ?—well, as if a red-hot poker had been laid on my 
tongue. Luckily, just before screaming out, I caught the eye of my 
cadaverous enemy fixed upon me witha queer, amused, half-malicious 
look, that told its tale in amoment. He was bent on teaching the 
benighted Britisher a lesson, and it was the benighted Britisher’s 
bounden duty to refuse him that satisfaction. So, by a severe mus- 
cular effort, I strangled all outward facial signs of pain, and slowly 
chewed my agonising mouthful before my torturer’s eyes till it was 
fairly swallowed. At last he said, rather impatiently, ‘‘ How do you 
find the peppers, sir?” “ Alitttle warm,” Ianswered, calmly ; ‘‘ but” 
(forgive me the fib !) “a nice kind of yegetable, decidedly.” “ You 
needn’t be afraid of the next world, then,” he jerked out, and, though 
evidently disappointed, treated me with decided respect from that 
moment.—Macmillan’s Magazine. 


486 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 20, 1872. 


THE -ARBO RIEU Me 


THE PLANES. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S. 

Tue different species of this noble family are natives either 
of Asia Minor, Western India, the south of Europe, or North 
America; and are all more or less lofty trees (with the exception 
of Platanus cuneata), furnished with spreading branches, large 
deciduous palmate leayes, and bark which scales off the stems 
and main branches in irregular patches annually. None of 
them, however, attain their true tree-like character or appear- 
ance until after being planted abouttwenty years. The Planes 
are only valued as ornamental trees or for shade, as their 
timber is short grained, and soon perishes if exposed to the 
sun and atmosphere. 

The genus Platanus constitutes a small natural order called 
Platanacee, which is easily distinguished by its globular 
catkins or round balls of unisexual flowers produced on long 
pendent axillary peduncles, sometimes six inches m length, 
and bearing from two to six balls or heads, which generally 


Leaf of the Occidental Plane.—Natural Size 9} inches by 94 inches, including 
Footstalk. 


remain on the tree until the following spring, when they break 
up and scatter abroad the seeds. The seeds when deprived 
of their down are brown, linear, and smaller than those of the 
lettuce. 
I.— THE OCCIDENTAL, OR GREAT WESTERN PLANE (PLATANUS 
OCCIDENTALIS—LINN EUS). 

This kind is much loftier, more open in the head and has 
longer stems than any of the other Planes. The stems of 
large trees are smoother, of a lighter colour, and throw off 
the bark, sometimes in one part and sometimes in another, 
in larger and more irregular scales than any of the other 
kinds. 

The Occidental Plane is found over an immense tract of 
land in North America, comprising the Atlantic and Western 
States, where it grows, along the banks of rivers and im moist 
situations, to an enormous size. The elder Michaux, im his 
* Flora Boreali Americana,” says he measured a tree on a 
little island in the Ohio River, which at five feet from the 
ground was forty feet in circumference. The younger Michaux 
also measured another tree growing on the right bank of the 
same river, the base of which was swollen in an extraordinary 
manner, and which at four feet from the ground measured 
forty-seven feet in girth, and only began to ramify twenty 
feet from the ground; he also states that he saw several 
old trees which had not a branch within sixty feet of the 
ground. 


Dr. Mease, of Philadelphia, gives an account of an Occi- 
dental Plane which he saw in 1836 growing near Hovwel’s 
Ferry, on the York side of Broad River in Sonth Carolina, 
which, for its great size and capacity, perhaps surpasses any 
one in the United States; its circumference was seventy-two 
feet, with a hollow sixteen feet in diameter, and which at one 
time held within that space seven men on horseback. All 
the large Plane trees in the London squares are of this kind. 

The leaves of the Occidental Plane are large, broadly five- 
lobed or angled, with a few large acute serratures along the 
margins, and mostly cordate or truncate at the base, and when 
they first appear are covered all over with a dense, rusty- 
coloured tomentum or silky down, which sheds off by the 
time the leaves are fully developed, when they become glabrous, 
and bright-green aboye and paler ‘beneath, with a little 
tomentum in the axils of the yeims and on the principal ribs. 
The flowers, which appear im May, are in close balls or heads, 
on long peduncles, bearing from two to four on each, and 
which balls, when fully matured, are in general much larger 
than those of the Oriental Plane (not smaller, as stated by 
most writers),and at a much greater distance apart on the 
peduncles, and with the external elevations much -larger and 
quite smooth, except at the base. The fruit or balls are also 
less thickly covered with bristly-poimts than those of the 
Oriental Plane ; but these points in a great measure disappear 
during the winter, so that the round balls appear com- 
paratively smooth before they break up in the sprmg. The 
seeds are little things in the shape of a round nail without 
a head. The American names for this tree are Button Wood. 
Water Beech, and Sycamore. 

There are several seedling varieties of the Western Plane 
enumerated in catalogues, but mone of them retain their 
distinctive characters when the tree becomes large, except the 
pyramidal and variegated ones; the former of these is 
desirable on account of its erect habit, while the latter, which 
is by no means permanent in the variegation, is hardly worth 
preserving. 

[This and many forthcoming articles by Mr. Gordon, will be 
illustrated by engravings of authentic specimens from his 
rich herbarium of hardy trees and shrubs. ] 


FAMOUS TREES. 


THE GREAT CHESTNUT OF MOUNT ETNA. 
(“IL CASTAGNO DI CENTO CAVALLI.) 


an wd ‘HE.Chestnut, in a soil and situation that 
{ suits it, often becomes a noble forest tree 
in this country, and the symmetrical ridges 
of its peculiar bark render it a very con- 
spicuous and easily recognisable object in 
our woods. It does not, however, attain its 
fullest dimensions on the northern side of 
Sy the Alps; and not till we have passed the 
1 Bas mountain chain which separates Spain, Italy, 
te = and Greece from Central Europe do we behold 
“=< '’ the Chestnut in all its glory. On the southern 
‘) slopes of this mountain chain, much finer trees than 
any in England, France, or Switzerland already begm 
to appear, luxuriating grandly in their bright southern 
aspect; and as the traveller wends his way further southward, 
he finds this handsome tree still increasing in size and m 
magnificence of growth; especially in the south of Italy and 
Sicily. At the base of Mount Etna, and at a certain elevation, 
commences what the natives call the “ Regione Sylvoso,” that 
is to say, the woody region, consisting of a great ring of forest 
that girds the entire base of the mountam. Part of this 
forest girdle was utterly destroyed in 1755 (the year of the 
great earthquake of Lisbon) by a devastating eruption from 
the great crater, consisting not of lava, but of boiling water, 
which proved fatal to every kind of vegetation im its course. 
The track of the exterminating torrent is still visible, there 
being no-trees of great size in any part of its course, as at 
other parts of the forest region. 
Tn the lower girdle of wood, Cork trees and evergreen Oak 


Aprin 20, 1872.) 


‘VNLG DNOOW NO LANLSAHO ato 


HT 


488 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 20, 1872. 


predominate, often growing actually out of the hard lava; 
but in the higher portion of the woody girdle, at an elevation 
of between three and four thousand feet, the Chestnut is the 
principal tree. The elevation and the soil (consisting chiefly 
of ashes in an impalpable powder) appear to suit it in a 
remarkable manner, for the trees of that region attain a truly 
gigantic growth, numbers of them being far above the average 
size of the largest forest trees of Hurope. The “Castagno 
di cento Cavalli” is, however, by far the most celebrated, and 
is actually found marked in Sicilian maps published a ceatury 
ago, while in all modern charts of Etna and its environs it 
forms a very conspicuous figure. Its aspect on a first 
approachis, however, disappointing; the trunk becoming hollow, 
the weight of its branches have rent it asunder, leaving a 
considerable space in the centre; and the tree, in its severed 
state, looks much like a group of five distinct trees partially 
decayed. Many have, in fact, insisted that the five separated 
portions neyer could have formed a single trunk. But there 
are old men now living, grandfathers of the present genera- 
tion, who recollect the five huge fragments united in one 
stem, and who aver that it was regarded in their time as the 
glory of the forest, and visited by travellers from all parts 
of the world, though it is now but a venerable ruin. 

That it was originally one compact and gigantic tree is 
partly proved by the fact, that on the imner side of the vast 
segments of trunk that still stand round the large open space 
that was once the core of the tree, there is no bark; and the 
original unity of the tree has been further demonstrated by 
an excavation made a few years ago by the Canonico 
Recupero, when it was found that at a certain depth below the 
surface the five separated portions united in one solid trunk; 
the entire circumference at the surface being found to be 204 
feet, giving a diameter of 68 feet. 

The Silician historian, Carrera, who saw the tree when in all 
its grandeur, remarked that there was wood enough in it to 
build an immense palace. 

The native poet, Bagolini, has celebrated in tolerably good 
Latin verse the grandeur of an enormous Chestnut growing 
on the flank of Etna, which was probably no other than the 
* Castagno di cento Cavyalli;” so called, no doubt, because a 
hundred horses could be sheltered from the scorching rays of 
the Sicilian sun beneath its far-reachme arms and dense 
foliage. 

Bagolini’s verses may be thus Enelished :— 

“* Of lofty montes, by far the loftiest, 
Prodigious Etna, bore a wondrous tree,— 
A Chestnut, whose vast hollow may contain 
A numerous band of horse, or flocks, or herds,” * &e. 

Tt will be seen that these lines were written after the trunk 
of the vast tree alluded to had split into segments, and left a 
considerable space in the centre, similar to that of the tree 
under description; but whether that special tree be the one 
referred to, or some gigantic predecessor, is uncertain, and, in 
fact, matters little. E 

If some other tree be alluded to, it serves to show, as about 
to be asserted, that Chestnuts of enormous size were not of 
unfrequent occurrence in those regions. Massa, one of the 
most esteemed of Sicilian authors, states that though he had 
himself seen Oaks, sound and solid, measuring more than 
forty feet round, he had seen Chestnut trees of far greater 
dimensions; trees which were, in fact, of such a size as 
almost to exceed belief. One in particular is mentioned by 
him, the hollow of which was capable of holding three 
hundred sheep. 

There are, indeed, great Chestnuts at the present time in 
a sound growing state in the Htna Forest, which are of 
extraordinary size. ‘The largest of these is about amile and 
a half higher up the mountain than the celebrated old tree, 
and is called “ 11 Castagno del Galea.” Itrises onan erect and 
solid stem to a considerable height, when it spreads forth 
great arms of enormous size, and is, in fact, a much finer 
object than the venerable ruin of the cento cavalli. Two 
feet from the ground it is seventy-six feet in girth, and twenty- 


* Supremos inter montles monstriosior omni 
Monstrosi fetum stipitis Altna dedit 
Castaneam genuit cujus modo contava cortex 
Turmam equitum haud parvam continet atqne greges, &e. 


five feet four inches in diameter; the spread of the massive 
branches being of fully corresponding extent. Another great 
tree, of nearly equal size, is known to the Htna guides as the 
“ Castagno del Nave.” Both of these, and many others of but 
slightly inferior dimensions, grow in a deep rich soil formed 
by the ashes thrown out of the volcano, and are found at an 
elevation of about four thousand feet ; below three thousand feet 
the heat being too great to permit of the luxuriant vegetation 
of trees of this class. In our engraying the venerable Chestnut 
of “the hundred horses” is represented to the left, and 
towards the centre and right is shown the neighbouring 
portion of his forest brethren. Near the top, to the right, is 
the summit of the mountain, with a faint cloud of smoke 
issuing from the great crater. H. N. H. 


HFFECTIVE TREE-GROUPING. 

Ir is one thing to plant, and almost anyone may in some way 
accomplish the task; but it is another thing to plant effectively, for 
it needs a true artist to do this successfully. A wide range of 
acquaintance with the aspects, habits, and dimensions of plants, 
their development of special features, times of flowering, alteration 
of tint, the positions best suited to bring out their beauties, or to be 
beantified by them, are all matters of importance, and calenlated to 
tax the skill and taste of the most experienced and accomplished. 

Grouping is a department of ornamental planting at once the most 
effective and the most difficult. There is a wide difference, let me 
observe, between a group anda clump. ‘The latter is usually a mass 
of planting, formal and monotonous in aspect; whereas, the former 
should present an infinite variety of form and outline, all the 
material of which it is composed retaining a certain amount of 
individuality, and yet blending in happy and graceful unison, free 
from trim formality, as also from absurd incongruity ; and he who 
would accomplish the art of thus planting, cannot do better than 
become an earnest student of nature herself, gleaning his lessons 
from the sky-line of the mountain, the swells and hollows of the 
forest, and the meanderings of the watercourse. As a rule, groups 
should be bold and dense; anything like thinness has a mean and 
poverty-stricken aspect, which should be carefully avoided. 

The outlines of groups, both on the ground and against the sky, 
should be carefully designed; the ground Jines should be easy and 
flowing, free from false curves and anything approaching to rigidity ; 
the sky-line widely diversified, but ever harmonions—here rendered 
striking by the upshooting of some plant of distinct character, anon 
merging easily and naturally into lines of smoothness, graceful as 
those of nature herself. Thus will be secured those exquisite effects 
of light and shade so full of charm and beauty to the eye capable of 
their appreciation. These features are of the greatest importance in 
the immediate vicinity of water, where shadows and reflections are 
ever changing and ever new. Again, park and other like groups 
should always be accompanied by a few irregularly-planted trees, 
such as thorns, &c., especially at their salient points; this happily 
removes all stiffness, and gives a natural expression to the whole. 

The composition of groups should always be ruled by the position 
they occupy. On the lawn the plants employed should be rich and 
elegant; in the park, or on the hillside, noble and majestic; near 
water, partially pendulous ; and not only so, but the general aspect 
of the locality, and the style of house, should also be taken into 
account, as certain trees are more in unison with wild, and others 
with sylvan scenery. It is alsousually laid down asarule, that pyra- 
midal forms harmonize best with Grecian and round-headed forms 
best with Gothic styles of architecture. This rule, however, must 
be understood as of general rather than minute application, or a 
most unnatural and monotonous effect will be the result. 

Groups may be composed of one or more species or varieties, and, 
if carefully executed, with equally good results. As a rule, the 
plants should differ in size, in order that the outline may be more 
varied; if the group be of irregular form, the larger plants shonld 
be placed in its centre and salient curves, it will thus gain in 
dignity, and be far more natural and pleasing than if faced by a 
stiff gradation. 

Mixed groups should be composed of such trees as harmonize or 
contrast well with each other. Be it ever remembered there is 
such a thing as harmonious contrast, and happy is that planter who 
can produce such effects ; he builds for himself a leafy monument 
that will be admired by succeeding generations. W. WALTERS. 


Yew Berries not Poisonous.—There has been some diversity of 
opinion on this point; but the learned Professor Clos, of Toulouse, has 
recently investigated the question, and pronounced yew berries, including 
the kernels, perfectly harmless. The results of his labours are given in 
the Bulletin of the Botanical Society of France. 


Aprit 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. . 


489 


SOMERLEYTON GARDENS, SUFFOLK. 


Tuts fine place lies on the borders of Suffolk, about six miles 
from Lowestoft. It is mentioned in Domesday Book, and is a 
place of considerable historical importance. ‘lhe old mansion 
was entirely rearranged, extended, and altered by Sir Morton 
Peto, who formed its grounds, constructed and ornamented its 
winter garden, and otherwise greatly altered and improved the 
estate, which he occupied from 1844 until 1862; when it 
became the property of the late Sir Francis Crossley, Bart., 
so well known by his munificent gift to Halifax of a public 
park. Quaint old Puller ranked Somerleyton amongst the 
best of the many fine houses in the county of Suffolk, and 
says that it well deserves its name,—*‘ for there summer is to 
be seen in the depth of winter *—the grounds being unusually 
well furnished with evergreens; while the lawns and pleasure 
grounds in the neighbourhood of the hall are finely undulated, 
and covered with a thick, velvety carpet of well-kept grass. 
The park, which is about two hundred acres in extent, contains 
a large herd of deer and some noble avenues of aged Limes 
and Elms. Mingled wood and water add to the attractions 
of the locality, which is purely English-looking, pleasing, 
and picturesque. 
Somerleyton is 
chiefly remarkable 
for its conserva- 
tories, extensive 
and well-kept 
flower gardensand 


which it seems in every way suitable. The corridor between 
the winter garden and the palm house is elegantly draped 
with climbers. On the right is a small fern grotto and 
fountain formed in a recess in the wall, which is covered all 
over with mosses and dwarf ferns. Standing in the door of 
the palm house, and looking back towards the winter garden 
one has a grand view not only of the corridor, but also of 
portions of the interior of the winter garden, with its fountain, 
statues, &., the whole reflected in a large mirror, thus 
doubling the effect, and rendering it at once grand and 
imposing. ‘The palm house, situated at the end of this corridor, 
is square, and not very large, though it contains a goodly 
collection of those noble tropical plants, which are kept in 
tubs and pots, and have a luxuriant and thriving appearance, 
Bananas, tall-erowing Draczenas, Monsteras, Philodendrons, 
and vegetation of a similar kind, are also employed in the 
ornamentation of this house; and along the margins are 
placed dwarf Ferns, Begonias, and other ornamental-foliaged 
plants. Iron trellises are erected in front of the glass, as is 
the case in the winter garden; and these, as well as the sup- 
porting pillars, are covered with the finer kinds of tropical 
Passion Flowers, Thunbergias, Clerodendrons, Hoyas, Stephan- 
otis, Cissus, Alla- 
mandas,Jasmines, 
Bignonias, and 
others. These are 
kept neatlypruned 
and tied, though 
not too stiffly; on 


the contrary, they 


grounds, and ex- 


hang down in 


cellent forcingand 


kitchen gardens. 


graceful festoons. 


Both the winter 


The winter gar- 


garden and palm 


den, the roof of 


house are heated 


which is lofty, and 


dome-shaped, 
covers an area of 
100 feet square, 
and is attached to 
the north side of 
the hall. In its 
centre is a noble 
fountain, sup- 
ported on rock- 
work by four 
dolphins, and sur- 
mounted by a 
marble statue of 
“The Nymph of 


by means of a 
saddle malleable 
iron boiler, which 
works withfacility 
the 7,000 feet of 
four-inch pipes 
used in warming 
thetwostructures. 
This amount of 
piping is divided 
into four flows and 
four returns ; one 
set works the palm 
house, another 


the Lily,” fromthe 
top of which the 
water is thrown 
through a jet to a 
height of nearly 
fifty feet. 
‘and from the mouths of dolphins situated near the base 
of the rockwork. This fountain is surrounded by a basin 
some fifty feet in diameter. Cool-house ferns ornament the 
base of this tasteful display of waterworks, among which we 
noticed Woodwardia radicans, Scolopendriums, &c.; and in 
this water are Callas, Valisnerias, and other aquatic plants. 


Somerleyton Hall. 


The roof of this winter garden is supported by light iron | 


columns, all of which are covered with climbers, such as 
Passifloras, Kennedyas, Fuchsias, Tecomas, Lapagerias, Tac- 
sonias, Mandevillas, &c.; trellises along the sides of the house 


in front of the glass, and also the rafters, are covered with the | 


same elegant drapery. From the roof are suspended orna- 
mental wire-baskets filled with plants of a suitable character. 
Marble statues, and vases filled with flowers, stand at regular 
interyals apart along the passages and other prominent situa- 
tions. At the middle entrance to the hall are tyro aviaries, 


which give hfe and interest to that part of the building. | 


Surrounding the grand central display of waterworks are 
beds filled with Camellias, Acacias, Tea Roses, Brugmansias, 
Hydichiums, and similar plants, planted out, the whole fringed 
with plants in flower in pots. 
ever, what would set this house off to best advantage, and for 


Palms and tree ferns are, how- | 


passes round the 
side of the winter 
garden next the 
hall; the third 
the opposite side, 


Water is also emitted from a number of small jets | and a fourth set passes along the centre of the house and 


around the fountain. No difficulty has hitherto been experienced 
in keeping up the necessary heat, even in severe weather ; but 
should an unusually hard winter occur, provision is made for 
assistance by means of an upright tubular boiler placedalongside 
the other, which can be worked in unison with that always in 
operation. Plant houses for the production of flowers for 
cutting, specimen soft-wooded plants for summer conservatory 
decoration, ferns, orchids, fine-foliaged and flowering stove 
and _ greenhouse plants, occupy a place near the kitchen 
garden. Besides these, there is also a span-roofed house for 
Oranges, the plants in which are arranged along the centre; 
they are in tubs, and exhibit a fine fruitful appearance. 
Along the front of the orange house is a bed containing cocoa- 
nut fibre, in which various stove plants are plunged, and in 
which they are growing finely. 

In front of the west side of the hall is the Italian garden; 
and on a lower level is the principal flower garden, geometri- 
cally laid out and embroidered with box. In the centre 
of this parterre is a noble sun-dial, gilt with gold and sup- 
ported on a marble pedestal. This parterre, together with 
the terraces, and, in fact, all throughout the pleasure and 


| ornamental grounds, is enriched by costly marble statues, 


490 


THE GARDEN. 


(Apeam 20, 1872. 


consisting of single figures and groups, and likewise many vases 
of handsome form: There are likewise two beautiful statues on 
each side of the entrance to the winter garden, some idea of 
the effect produced by which may be obtamed from the accom- 
panying illustration. 

(To be continued.) 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER X. 
The President's Lecture—* Rosa Bonheur.” 
My pear Broter Spapes,—Like a herring-boat astern of 
the Great Bastern, I follow in the wake of grand examples, and 


commence my essay, as the firsé essayists of our “times” are” 


wont to do, with atopic very remotely connected with the 
chief theme of my history. For I have nothing to say 
concerning that wonderful Frenchwoman, who has painted, to 
our great surprise and de- 
light “The Horse Fair” 
and “The Denizens of the 
Highlands,” and have only 
borrowed her sweet name to 
serve as my text and motto— 
Rosa Bonheur, Rose est Bon- 
leur, the Rose is Happiness, 
Felicité Perpetuelle, a thing 
of beauty and a joy for ever. 

I go back m happy retro- 
spect to the sunny days of 
childhood. I wander once 
more in bowery lanes, what 
time there were hedges in 
the land, and ere the face of 
nature was so closely shaved 
by the Mechian razor of im- 
provement. It is the time 
of roses—wild roses, bloom- 
ing fresh and fair, from cold 
soil and thorny stem, like 
wisdom and hope, from sor- 
row; wild roses, lightimg up 
the land with their pure 
starlike glory, and beautify- 
ing the gloom of a fallen 
world ; wild roses, on which 
Adam looks, as he toils with 
the sweat on his brow, and 
yearns at heart for Eden. 
Tt is the time of roses; we 


question) ; the grand Provence, which came fo us, as our roses 
now, from the sunnier clime of France, the herald of a great 
and splendid army, the evening star, which glitters for awhile 
alone ere all the firmament is thick set with gems. Ah, my 
brothers, what a sublime astonishment and ecstasy must this 
rose have caused, when it first arrived in our land! No 
ambassador, however copper-coloured, no hippopotamus, 
however far advanced in gestation, could educe such a 
sensation now. How the French florists must have shouted in 
exultation, “imagnifique” and “tres superbe ;” they who love 
truth and honesty, rejoicing im the justice of their praise, and 
they who love to magnify and to gull “ces Anglais” (a class 
which, I am informed by buyers of new roses, is not altogether 
extinct), annoyed by the difficulties of exaggeration, and 
moaning over their inability to lie. How the writers and 
singers of romance must have rejoiced in this fair reality! 
How gaily, with this flower im his cap,, must the troubadour 
have touched his guitar! 
The brave knight wore it 
in his helm, I trow, the gift 
of his ladye-love, and while 
his adversary was gazimg 
with wrapt admiration on 
it, saw his noble opportunity, 
and stuck a lance into his 
ribs. Ah, me! what tender 
tones, what plaintive heart- 
music, what hopes and fears 
have been sighed over this 
rose of Provence! Beauty 
hath made for it a second 
sunshine with her smiles, 
and Memory has shed upon 
its leaves her gentle ram of 
tears. How often hath this 
sweet messenger been made 
to tell unto loving hearts a 
language which they dared 
not speak! How often by 
lily hands have its petals 
been plucked and scattered 
in the wild hours of mistrust 
or jealousy, as Guimeyere 
suspecting Lancelot— 
“* Brake from the vast oriel- 
embowerimg vine 
Leaf after leaf, and tore, 
and cast them off.” 


Let us ever, my friends 


pluck them as we pass, and 


love the Provence rose, not 


make a coronal, “mammy” 


only for its own loveless 


and I, for my little sister's 


and sweetness, not only as 


hair. I see her now, en- 


the rose par excellence of our 


throned upon some south- 


ward bank, where the oxlip - 


boyhood, but as haying been 


and the violet have watched 
in their season the slumbers 
of the fairy queen, smiling 
through her tears, herself a dewy rosebud; for the briar 
has pierced her small tender hand, and her spirit has been 
startled, and has quailed awhile, at the presence and the 
prescience of pai. Only a moment, for the breeze which 
gently stirs those golden tendrils, and bears away a crown 
jewel in that petal which flutters to the ground, is fraucht 
with sweet scents and sounds, with frankincense rising heayen- 
ward, and psalms from a thankful quire; and all things young 
and innocent must needs rejoice, Dear days of sacred elad- 
ness, fair hours of guileless love! Inever see the wild rose 
now, but I hear sweet whispers of their “tender orace,” and I 
am wandering once more through the bowery lanes, with my 
little sister’s hand in mime. . , 

And next I remember those roses of the carden, which, few 
and precious, were the delight of my early boyhood; the 
glorious Provence (that elegant individual, who first called 
this blushing beauty “Old Cabbage,” ought to have been 
imprisoned for treason against the Queen of Flowers, and his 
diet restricted scrupulously to the humble esculent in 


Entrance to the Winter Garden at Somerleyton. 


= for more than two centuries 
the chief grace and glory of 
our English gardens, the fair 
favourite (as the rose will 
ever be, I trust) in every grade and shire; what time upon 
holy altars, in the halls of kimgs, nm the grand gardens of 
the nobility, among the few flowers of the farmstead and 
cottage, it found a place and throne. 

Growing near “the Provence” im our garden I remember 
next a rose, which came to this country together with it, or 
shortly afterwards, from Holland; I mean the beantiful Moss; 
most beautiful, when, like some sweet infant smiling ont of 
its pretty head-gear of lace, or some young girl blushing to 
show herself before an admiring world, it first displays its 
loveliness “i’ th’ bud.” You shall infer, if you please, my 
faithful fondness for this flower from a little mcident which 
oceurred to me but a few months ago, and which I will now 
repeat to you.* I had been a week in London, in the hightide 
of the season, and. thoroughly enjoying the pictures and the 
musicand the pleasant sociéty, proposed toremain for a fortnight 
longer, when one day, as I walked down Regent Street, I was 


*I must apologize to those who have read my “‘ Book about Roses”’ for the 
repetition of two or three incidents hereim recorded. 


Aprit 20, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 


491 


addressed by an elderly Irishwoman, as a “swate gintleman ” 
(a compliment which I was unable to return), and piously 
adjured, “for the love,” &c., and “for the glory,” &c., which, 
alas ! meant only gin, to buy a beautiful nosegay for the girl of 
my heart. As the locality referred to was not at the time 
ocenpied by any young lady in particular, but by a community 
of beauties, I was about to decline, on account of the quantity 
required, and the consequent expense to be incurred, when [ 
caught sight of a cluster of Moss Rosebuds, which I had no 
power to resist. Perhaps their freshness and fragrance were 
enhanced by contrast with their unhandsome, not to say 
unpleasant purveyor ; at all events, I bought them from her, and 
they were soon rejoicing in some fresh water, and expressing 
their gratitude, in the little drawing-room of my lodgings, by 
the heightened colour of their complexion, and by the un- 
reserved openness and general sweetness of their demeanour. 
It struck me,asI gazed, how far more beautiful they were 
than any of the elaborate works of art, for which I had 
deserted, in mid-summer, the country and the works of 
Nature; they seemed like messengers gently reproving me 
as unfaithful to dearest friends; they reminded me of purer 
pleasures ; to be brief, they took me to King’s Cross Station, 
the very day after my purchase, to my own dear roses, and my 
happy home! 

Next in favour to the Provence and the Moss, the sweet little 
“Fairy ” rose (Rosa Lawrenceana) gladdened my childhood 
with its tiny loveliness; and I can see our wax doll, through 
the powerful telescope of memory, asleep in her miniature crib, 
with those wee flowerets on her coverlet and pillow. For she 
was a Royal Princess, you must know, of amazing beauty and 
of boundless wealth, and rested always on a bed of roses, until 
she died one day a melancholy death, slowly roasted before the 
nursery fire by our brother Fred, to spite us. Very pretty 
are these Pompone roses; and as at the great poultry shows 
there are special classes for the pert, charming, and conse- 
quential family of Bantams, so should I like to see at our 
exhibitions, a Liliputian box of these mignons, decreasing in 
circumference from Ernestine de Barente to the Banksiz. 

And the York and Lancaster, flaunting in its colours, but 
flimsy in its substance, like some other gaudy “swells!” It 
was a delight, I remember, to arrange its petals, few as 
beautiful, upon a bit of newspaper, place over them some 
broken glass—(once in a desperate dearth of crystal I attacked 
an attic window with my battledore, and neyer since, I give you 
- my honour, do I seem to have done anything half so daring)— 
and to call the consummation a “ flower show.” I thought of 
those rose leaves and of the broken pane, when it was my 
privilege to superintend the third national rose show in the 
Crystal Palace; and I murmured to myself very thankfully, 
very happily, and, I am afraid, very proudly, “the child is 
father to the man.” Poor old York and Lancaster. it has 
succumbed to New Village Maids and CHillets Parfaits, and to 
Perles des Panachées and Tricolors of all denominations, and 
nothing remains to remind us of it now but the Lancashire and 
Yorkshire Railway. 

I can but recall, in addition to the varieties I have mentioned, 
@ white rose,whose name I never knew, but which bloomed in 
beautiful abundance, and much resembled Princesse de 
Lamballe ; the Sweet-briar, whose fragrance we were wont to 
express, with some precocious insight into the perfumery 
business, by crushing its leaves with our small fingers; and 
the Old Monthly, which looked in at our schoolroom window, 
and tapped thereon with its buds at times, as though inviting 
us, like the lover of ‘ Maud,” to come into the garden, and be 
oe How we used to envy those happy flowers, rejoicing in 
the sunlight, dancing in the summer breeze, unconscious of 
pothooks and hangers, emancipated from the thraldom of high- 
backed chairs, perfectly indifferent as to the orthography of 
the word cat, and not caring one dewdrop when who was king 
of where, or which was capital of what. The bees and the 
butterflies, when they came to call upon the rose, used to 
laugh, I aim confident, at our bare little legs, dangling from the 
uncomfortable sedilia just now alluded to; the saucy sparrows 
twittered at_our state; and the blackbirds, eyeing us from a 
contiguous Laurel, whistled comic songs at our expense, 

They are gone, the roses of my childhood, deposed by fairer 
flowers. Where those six held dominion absolute, six hundred 


‘ manure water. 


| bell-glasses in a brisk heat, and kept closely shaded. 
houses both temperature and moisture are being increased, and 
| during bright sunshine slight shading is applied. Slugs, woodlice, 
| and other insects are now being sharply looked after. Ferns growing 


distinct varieties have unveiled their beauty to the summer 
moons. They are gone from our gaze, but from our loving 
memory they shall never fade. I have a group of them, 
exquisitely painted by the skilled touch of a vanished hand, 
in a dear old family scrap-book, which I would not give 
for anything in the Bodleian Library; and I often turn to them 
with a tender sorrow, a grief which is almost gladness, having 
a hope as pure and beautiful as they. S. R. H 
(To be continued.) 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(FOR THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 


Indoor Plant Department.—In conservatories Camellias done 
flowering, and other evergreens not in blossom, receive copious 
syringings on bright mornings; air is freely admitted, and a slight 
shading is afforded during bright sunshine. Tying, thinning, staking, 
and keeping the plants free from insects, receive daily attention. 
Plants that have been forced are put out into pits or frames, and 
gradually exposed to the air. Stove plants growing freely, receive 
plenty of water at the root, and frequent syringings overhead 
both morning and afternoon. Euphorbia jacquinizeflora and Poin- 
settias that.have been started after a little rest since their flowering 


_ period are now pushing freely ; some of their young shoots are being 


taken off with a heel and used as cuttings. Poinsettias raised from 


| cuttings every year are by many preferred to old plants, which are, 


therefore, thrown away after a good stock of cuttings is obtained. 
Free-growing plants not repotted this season are assisted with weak 
When Justicias, Eranthemums, Francisceas, and some 
other stove plants are trimmed into shape, the prunings are made 


into cuttings, and are inserted in pots of light sandy soil under 
In orchid 


freely receive abundance ‘of ‘water at the root ; some syringe them 
overhéad every warm morning ; others do not, but all endeavour to 
maintain a liberal supply of moisture in the air, shading from 


‘direct sunshine. Filmy ferns are frequently sprinkled overhead with 


the syringe during the day-time, the hand lights under which they 
are grown being tilted up except at night, and wiped dry every 
morning. In addition to the ordinary shade of the fernery a piece 


_of thin green material is thrown over them" during the brightest part 
of the day. 


Pits and Frames.—Bedding plants continue to be propagated, 
and such as are rooted; are-potted or pricked into boxes; those a 
little established are gradually inured to the air, and strong well 
hardened plants are fully exposed, but still shut up at night. 
Pyrethrums, variegated grasses, Sedums, &c., are generally 
placed outside on ~well-sheltered borders, where mats can be 
thrown over them if necessary. Stocks, Asters, and Marigolds are 
sown on slight hotbeds, and, as soon as up, they are gradually 
inured to the air. Those up and fit to handle are pricked off into 
boxes and pans, and kept near the glass. Auriculas require plenty 
of water at the root; but great care is taken, to prevent water or 
drip from coming in contact with their flowers and foliage. Carna- 
tions are now sown in cold frames. Established plants are shifted 
into their flowering pots, and those for outdoor decoration are turned 
out into beds or borders. Heartsease are being sown, and esta- 
blished plants planted ont. Bulbs done blooming are placed in 
frames, where they are kept rather dry, so as to induce them 
to ripen. 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Evergreen trees and shrubs 
continue to be transplanted, mulching the roots with litter or leaves, 
over which an inch or so of soil is placed. From conifersall contend- 
ing leaders are removed, leaving only the most promising ; when 
there isa deficiency of vigour in the leader, it is encouraged by 
judiciously removing the points of the side branches, or if necessary 
thinning them. Hardy ferns wintered in pots are now being planted 
in ferneries out of doors or in other shady spots. Annuals, such as 
Mignonette, Saponaria, Candytuft, &c., are sown out of doors, where 
they are to bloom. American Aloes are planted or plunged outside 
in beds, or are placed on rockwork, or in vases where they are to 
remain during summer ; in case of frost, a mat will be thrown over 
them. Edgings of the hardier succulents around flower-beds and 
borders are being made. Hollyhocks, the better kinds of Foxglove, 
Sweet Williams, and Rockets, are planted out where they are 
to remain. Gladioli are being planted, Box edgings pruned, and 


4.92 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 20, 1872. 


Ivy clipped. The latter should be cut close in to the wall, even 
though it should be rendered leafless; in a short time it will be 
covered with the most beautiful bright green young foliage imagin- 
able. Broad grass walks are being trimmed and swept, and lawns 
are regularly mown and rolled. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—Pine suckers as soon as separated 
are potted. Vineries are shut up early in the afternoon. Peaches 
and Nectarines haye their shoots tied in and thinned. Figs ripening 
are kept drier than those swelling, to which water is abundantly 
given both at root and overhead. Cherries beginning to colour 
enjoy a temperature of 55° or 60° ab night, and 85° or so by sun 
heat. Melons are carefully yet plentifully watered, no more than 
can be helped being allowed to touch the necks of the plants. The 
foliage is syringed freely, superfluous growths are timely removed, 
and female flowers fertilized. Cucumbers are treated as Melons, 
except that they receive abundance of manure water. Pinching is 
preferred to too much thinning at any one time. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department—wall 
trees, from which a fair crop may yet be obtained, are carefully 
protected. Protections are remoyed from Fig trees, from which the 
autumn set crop of frnit is removed, and the shoots are being nailed ; 
except where too luxuriant, figs are not much pruned. Raspberries 
are cut back to within a few inches of the soil to encourage them to 

‘throw up bearing wood. Fruit bushes when damp are sprinkled 
with fresh air-slacked lime, as a preventive of insects. Asparagus 
beds are now in full bearing. Beds are being prepared for Vegetable 
Marrows, some using hot dung frames, now exhausted by being in 
use for other things; others making them as described under the 
head of market gardens last week. A second small sowing of Turnips 
is being made. The main crop of Beet is now sown. French Beans 
are being put in in warm situations; some are also sown in frames 
for planting out the first of next month. 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.—Stove and greenhouse plants continue 
to be propagated. Sphzrogyne latifolia is struck from pieces of the 
roots, like a Draczena, as is also Yucca californica. Nephelaphyllum 
pulchrum is increased by placing damp moss on the surface of the 
pot, and tying down so as to come in contact with the moss into 
which it strikes root. Hach eye can thus be made into a plant. 
Dioscorea is cut up into two or three pieces, which by the end of 
next autumn produce good sized tubers. Cuttings of hard-wooded 
plants are inserted in pots half-filled with drainage, over which a 
little moss is placed, then some light sandy mould to within half 
or three-fourths of an inch of the surface, which is made up with 
silver sand, the whole being covered with a bell-class. They are 
then plunged in cocoa-nut fibre over a hot-water tank; these are 
kept closely shaded during the day. As soon as fairly rooted, they 
are taken out of the bed and placed on side shelyes to make room 
for others. Roses continue to be grafted. The stocks (Manetti) 
are potted in small sixty-sized pots through the winter, and are at 
present plunged outside in cocoa-nut fibre. In grafting, the stock 
is cut down to within two or three inches of the surface of the pot, 
and furnished with scions of the young wood. They are afterwards 
placed in close frames inside the propagating house. Those of 
previous workings that are well united are shifted into larger pots, 
and any producing’ strong vigorous growths are pruned back, unless 
the shoots are required for cuttings. By sulphuring the leaves, 
syringing with water in which sulphur has been mixed, and painting 
the pipes here and there, red spider and mildew are kept in check. 
Heaths are now being potted in a mixture of the best peat, leaf- 
mould, and a good addition of silyer sand. Young Azaleas are also 
being potted. Orange trees are treated as young Azaleas during 
their period of growth. Tree Carnations that have done flowering 
have their young shoots cut off for purposes of propagation; these 
make strong flowering plants by September. Bouvardia jasminiflora, 
propagated by means of cuttings, will also make good flowering 
plants by the antumn. 

Outdoor Department.—Grafting may be said to be finished, 
except in the case of such things as ornamental Planes, purple 
Beeches, &c. Young fruit trees are being pruned, and last year’s 
grafts, unless standards are required, are cut back. Rhododendrons, 
Laurels, Aucubas, &c., are being pruned. into shape. Conifers 
sown in frames are now fully exposed during the day. When the 
finer kinds are grown for sale, whilst young they are lifted after 
their first season’s growth in frames, and pricked into store pots, 
in order that they may be at any time safely removed. Deodar 
seeds, carefully put in some time ago with the hand, placing the 
narrow end downwards, are now up and looking well, while a few 
of the same sown broadcast at the same time have not yet made 
their appearance. Araucarias are sown in the same way in pits. 


MARKET GARDENS. 


From Cucumbers in frames, all male flowers are removed, and 
too many fruits are not permitted to come forward. Some are now 
being sown for late succession, and others that are up are being 
potted singly and kept rather close in frames. Wallflowers that have 
had their bloom all cut for market are pulled up and thrown away, 
and the ground is being manured and dug for the reception of 
Brussels Sprouts. Some of the finest Wallflowers have been left 
uncut, firmly staked, and retained for seed. Blanched Asparagus is 
now plentifully procured from ridges in the open air, and Green 
Asparagus from roots planted between Gooseberry bushes and not 
earthed up. In alleys between four-feet beds of Radishes, Aspara- 
gus plants were planted about a fortnight ago, and now the beds 
haye their surface drawn with hoes into the middle and dug oyer for 
the reception of Beet. The surface of the Asparagus ridges is 
loosened with iron rakes, carefully watching not to injure the rising 
shoots; this loosening allows the “grass”? to come up more freely. 
Between lines of Gooseberry bushes where they are a good distance 
apart, are rows of Beetroot; the lines are drawn in the morning, 
left open during the day, and the seed sown in the afternoon. Beds 
of Cabbages and Turnips coming up are sprinkled with ime. Onions, 
Carrots, and other seeds sown in lines haye the spaces between them 
run through with a narrow hoe, and all other crops have the surface 
of the soil about them stirred rather deeply with draw hoes. Spinach 
is sown thinly broadcast on plantations of young Rhubarb, and other 
Open spaces amongst slower growing crops, so that it may be cut 
before they require the intermediate space. Strawberries are now 
being planted between lines of fruit bushes. 


THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 


THE Scotsman throws some light upon a question much agitated 
in London, and whichhas several times occupied the attention of Parlia- 
ment, but which is only imperfectly understood in the provinces. It 
says :— 5 

“The history and position of the property created orimproved by the 
Embankment of the Thames have been told before, but their substance 
admits of being restated with great brevity. When the Embankment was 
made, at the cost, and for the profit, of the metropolis, the Government, 
holding for the public certain property on the banks of the river, came to 
an arrangement by which it gave up to the body of River Conservators 
certain portions of that property, in consideration of the other portions 
being improved or increased in value by the embanking operations. The 
arrangement between the parties was embodied in an Act of Parliament, 
and each entered into what at first promised to be peaceable possession of 
its share of the property. It happened, however, that some people in 
London became of opinionthata certain piece of the property left in the pos- 
session of the Government would make a very nice garden or garden-plot 
for the use of London people living in the neighbourhood, and that, just 
about the same time, the Government became of opinion that that piece of 
property, so belonging to the public, would be extremely suitable as the 
site of certain new public offices which are urgently required. Thereupon 
began a struggle virtually between London, ora portion of London, and all 
the rest of the nation. On behalf of London, it was said, through all the 
many whom London can influence, that it was not fitting to cover with 
buildings an open space in the centre of a crowded city like London. The 
main reply of the Government was, of course, that the property belonged, 
not to London, but to the nation, and that, however pleasant a little 
garden might be to such Londoners as happened to live near it, the little 
garden could not reasonably or honestly be furnished to Londoners at 
a great cost to the whole country besides. There were additional replies, 
either given in name of the Government or contributed from other 
quarters. Thus, it was pointed out that the very people who demanded 
from Government—that is, from the nation—a portion of national pro- 
perty, for purely local recreative purposes, had just sold to the highest 
bidder, to be covered by buildings, portions of their own property, quite 
as well suited for such purposes; in other words, London and the 
country, having shared the Embankment property between them, London 
first sold what it could of its own share for profit, and then turned round 
and insisted that the most valuable portion of the country’s share should 
be reserved for pleasure, which, of course, means for the pleasure of Lon- 
don, or some fragment of London. Again, the corner which it is thus 
proposed to appropriate is not in a part of the metropolis where air and 
space are scarce, but is within three minutes’ wall of St. James s Park; 
whilst, on the other hand, the corner affords a site for public offices more 
convenient than can be obtained anywhere else even at the most enor- 
mous cost. It isalso worthy of note that, whilst other great Hnglish 
cities provide parks and other recreation grounds for themselves, either 
through the munificence of individual citizens, or by means of local tax- 
ation, London, already enjoying the free use of the magnificent parks 
belonging to the Crown, is here, and not for the first time—still less, if suc- 
cessful, for the last time—calling out that she should be provided with 
additional recreation ground at the expense of the country at large. 
that expense is out of all proportion to the object—the garden would be 
very small, and its cost, measured as it must be by the cost of the sites 

for public offices which would require to be provided some where, probably 
be the greatest ever expended in this world upon so few yards of land.” 


And 


‘ 


Aprit 20, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


493 


THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 
BOUQUETS FOR THE HAND. 


Bouquets for the hand should be made of the choicest flowers, 
gracefully arranged; heavy solid flowers or massive arrangements 
should be as much as possible avoided. Such bouquets are necessarily 
brought under the closest inspection of the eye, and should be com- 
posed of flowers of delicate structure, or great variety, or exquisite 
fragrance. The present style of immense size, composed of solid 
flowers, scarcely if at all relieved by foliage, is only suggestive of 
some enormous variegated or pied fungus hung with silk fringe or 
put up in lace paper. When carried at evening entertainments, they 
frequently appear to be a burden to their fair possessors. For sue- 
cessful effect in floral decoration, much depends upon the judicious 
arrangement of colour; violent contrasts are also to be avoided, as is 
also the sameness produced by having too much of one colour. In 
producing harmonious contrasts of colours it should be remembered 
that there are only three primary colours—red, blue, and yellow. 
From these arise what are called the binary, or secondary colours, 
namely, orange, composed of yellow and red; purple, composed of 
blue and red; and green, composed of yellow and blue. These form 
contrasting colours to the primary three, with which they are in 
harmonious opposition, as the orange with blue, purple with yellow, 
and green with red. From the combination of these secondary colours 
arise three tertiary colours—olive, from purple and green; citron, 
from green and orange ; and russet, from orange and purple. These 
tertiary colours harmonise with the primaries, as they stand in the 
relation of neutral tints to them, but are in harmonious opposition to 
the secondaries, from which they are combined. Red, blue, and 
yellow harmonize with each other, and they may be placed in juxta- 
position, but purple should not be near red or blue, as it is composed 
of these two colours; for the same reason, orange should not be 
placed next to yellow or red, the rule being that no primary colour 
should be brought into contact with a secondary colour of which 
itself is a component part, nor any secondary colour brought into 
contact with a tertiary colour of which it is a component part. 
Another rule is that the secondary and tertiary colours, and the 
neutral hues arising from combinations of the tertiaries, such as 
brown, maroon, puce, slate, lavender, &c., should be used in the 
greatest quantities, and the primary colours used in smaller quantity 
for heightening the effect. If you lack the proper shades for pro- 
ducing the necessary harmonies, and find that two colours do not 
harmonise well, separate them by a white flower. Again, always 
place the brightest colours in the centre of your design, and gradually 
decrease the intensity of the tints as you approach the exterior ; 
and avoid spottiness or patchiness by using as much as possible one 
prevailing colour.—Lady’s Own Paper. 


HEARTSEASE AS BOUQUET FLOWERS. 


Tur first time I exhibited in the class for table decorations was 
at the Crystal Palace, June 6, 1869, when I took a prize for the 
floral decoration of a wedding breakfast-table. There were five 
stands, a centre and four corner pieces or bouquets, one of which 
was formed of white flowers, blue Forget-me-Nots, large dark 
Heartsease, and different kinds of Ferns and Mosses. It was a 
pretty little stand; and though some might think that blue and 
purple would not look well together, I can assure them that they 
do; the blue of the Forget-me-Not is so bright and pure, and the 
purple of the Heartsease so dark and velvet-like, that one sets the 
other off. The Heartsease which I used were nearly black. 

The following season, May 1870, I also took a prize at the same 
place for a bridesmaid’s bouquet, made up in much the same style, 
except that there was no blue in it. In the centre was a large 
white Camellia; the other white flowers were Azaleas, Stephanotis, 
Moss Rose-buds, and Lily of the Valley ; then I worked my Hearts- 
ease into a pattern—they were purple, not very dark, just a rich 
purple; tke only Fern I used was Maiden-hair, and I had plenty of 
this ; it formed quite a lacework round the edge, and I also, ran 
it through the bouquet, as I always like to see plenty of green, 
which sets off the colours in a way which nothing else does so well. 
Heartsease certainly, as one of your correspondents remarks, looks 
well in bouquets or in stands on the dinner-table, but it must be by 
daylight, as nothing has a worse appearance by gas or under any 
artificial light than purple or violet flowers of any kind. 

The worst of Heartsease is they are such difficult flowers to work 
up well in a hand bouquet, their heads being too large for their 
stems, and when they wither in the least they acquire sucha curled and 
shrivelled look; but if they are only wanted to last for a few hours, 
and to be used by daylight, nothing has a better appearance if 
= beta white and green than purple Heartsease.—A. H., Upper 

orwood. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


MANCHESTER BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 
(Arrit 97H.) 


Roses and Orchids constituted the chief features of this meeting, 
the former principally from Messrs. Veitch, whose bushes were covered 
with flowers of every possible shade. The same nurserymen also showed 
the new Clematis, Albert Victor (one of Messrs. Jackman’s hybrids), a 
deep but rather dull purple flower, three inches across, every petal with a 
singular central streak of brown that produces the effect of a great star. 
In addition to Orchids, Messrs. Veitch also had some charming represent- 
atives of that good old-fashioned plant, the Primula cortusoides, long laid 
aside; but now, in its new Japanese forms, restored to favour. The 
variety amcena, of which they had a very handsome specimen, has of late 
become tolerably familiar. Not so the variety lilacina, which in its class 
was unquestionably one of the prettiest things exhibited. The nearest 
idea we can give of itis that of a lilac-blue Polyanthus; but in texture 
and complexion far more delicate. From M. Linden came the beautiful 
Masdevallia Lindeni. Nothing could be finer in their way than Mr. 
Wrigley’s contributions of Orchids, a class of plants which were also shown 
in great variety and beauty, by Messrs. James Brooke & Co. 

Mr. R. S. Yates had an Odontoglossam Alexandre, from underneath 
the charming flower-spikes of which peeped forth the azure-flowered 
Forget-me-Not. Nothing could well be prettier than the combination 
thus produced between the dainty and peerless Orchid of New Granada 
and the simple denizen of our European woodlands. Mr. John Shaw 
showed some nice Orchids, and a specimen of the new Primula japonica, 
the magenta-coloured flowers of which grow in successive tiers up the 
stem—the most remarkable known plant of its race. From Mrs. E. Cole 
& Son came some beautifully bloomed Ixoras and other plants. Mr. 
W. Bury, of Accrington, sent the snow-white Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium 
niyeum, with a couple of expanded flowers, one of the choicest things in 
the show. Mr. Toll sent some good Orchids, including Ada aurantiaca 
and Oncidium sareodes. Dr. Ainsworth had a new white fragrant Den- 
drobium, not yet named ; and Mr. Stevenson, of Timperley, a plant of the 
remarkable Cymbidium pendulum purpureum, very attractive from the 
singularity of its half dozen pendulous racemes, two feet long, of red- 
brown flowers. The gardens at Old Trafford supplied a capital display of 
succulents, all rare and curious; alsoan Angraecum sesquipedale, and some 
other Orchids. 

This closed the series of spring shows, and gave assurance that with 
their renewal next autumn the support they deserve will be even more 
cordially awarded. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(Aprin 177H.) 


Tur chief features of this meeting were Azaleas, Rhododendrons, 
Auriculas, and other spring flowers; miscellaneous plants were also fur- 
nished in good condition, as were likewise Orchids, especially a collection 
from Mr. Denning, gardener to Lord Londesborough, at Grimston Park, 
Tadcaster. Fruit and vegetables were but sparingly exhibited. 

Azaleas were shown mostly in the form of pyramids, though there were 
afew dwarf standards with compact heads of flowers. In a group from 
M. Louis Van Houtte, of Ghent, were many of fine form and quality. 
First-class certificates were awarded to John Gould Veitch, Mdlle. Marie 
Van Houtte, and 8. Rucker. Some specimens with flowers of good form 
and distinct in colour were exhibited in Messrs. Veitch’s miscellaneous col- 
lection of plants. Of Azaleas for competition nice collections came from 
Messrs. Lane, Lee, and Turner; and among groups from amateurs 
were also some good plants. 

Rhododendrons in pots, in excellent condition, were shown by 
Messrs. Lane, who also staged a fine box of cut trusses of bold 
well formed flowers of the same useful shrub. We missed the presence 
at this meeting of one of the best features of spring shows, viz., Roses in 
pots; cut blooms were, however, shown in boxes, one of which, from 
Messrs. Kelway & Son, was wholly filled with Marechal Niel. To this 
an extra prize was awarded. There were seventy blooms all from one 
plant, from which last week four hundred blooms had been cut for 
market, besides a goodly number earlier in the season. Auriculas were 
in admirable condition, both show kinds and alpines being equally good. 
Amongst the best, which came from Mr. Turner, of Slough, were Miss 
Giddings, Smiling Beauty, Competitor, Incomparable, Cantab, Maria 
Chapman, Catherina, Colonel Champneys, Metropolitan, Alderman 
Wisbey, and Alderman Charles Brown. This section was well represented 
by amateurs. Heartsease in pots and also in the form of cut blooms were 
exhibited by Messrs. James, Hooper, and Ware, the last of whomalso showed 
some good Auriculas and hardy spring flowers. Amongst the latter we 
noticed the beautiful Cypripedium Calceolus. 

Fine groups of well-bloomed Clematises in pots were exhibited by 
Messrs. Veitch and Mr. Noble. Palms, Dracenas, variegated Pan- 
danuses, and other plants, came from Mr. Bull and Mr. Wimsett. ; 

Amongst Orchids four Masdevallias were brought under notice, viz., 
M. Lindeni, Veitchii, Harryana, and ignea, all extremely interesting and 
beautiful, and from the fact of their being cool-house Orchids and easily 
grown, they are very desirable plants, especially for amateurs. Besides 
these there were many others, conspicuous among which was 
Arpophyllum giganteum, a fine plant bearing fourteen spikes of lovely 
pee To Odontoglossum Phalwnopsis a special medal was 
awarded. 


494. 


Dark-coloured fern-leaved Maples were amongst the most noticeable 
plants in the miscellaneous collections. These withstand, it is said, fully 
better than most plants the atmosphere of our smoky cities. 

Amongst other things were excellent plants of Anthurium Scher- 
zerianum with large well formed flowers. Interesting collections of cut 
blooms of Narcissi were exhibited by Messrs. Barr & Sugden, Messrs. 
Backhouse & Son, York, and by the Rev. Mr. Berkeley. 

First-class certificates were awarded to Croton lacteum from Messrs. 
Veitch, a fine broad-leaved species, with the midrib and side veins boldly 
marked with pale yellow; to a pretty little compact green-leaved Ivy 
named Hedera conglomerata, from Messrs. Ivery; to a nicely variegated 
form of a hardy British evergreen fern called Polystichum angulare 
confluens variegatum ; to the Erica Neitneriana, noticed last week, from 
Messrs. Rollisson ; and likewise to a grac2ful species of Rhopala, called 
elegantissima, which promises to be a grand addition to our stock of 
decorative table plants. This came from Mr. B. S. Williams, Holloway. 

Forced vegetables consisted of Asparagus, Seakale, Green Peas, French 
Beans, New Potatoes, Cucumbers, Mint, Cauliflowers, Young Carrots, 
and Mushrooms; these were shown by Mr. Clarke, gardener to 
J. C. Brown, Esq., Horsham, Sussex,’and by Mr. T. Batters, gardener to 
J. W. Fleming, Esq. Mushroom Spawn, and also a boxful of excellent 
Mushrooms gathered from beds five months in good bearing, were shown 
by Mr. E. Bland, Gordon House, Isleworth. A basket of new grapes 
(Black Hamburgh) in good condition was shown by Mr. Baldwin, Streat- 
ham. Keens’ Seedling Strawberries came from Mr. Miller, Worksop ; 
Lemons, Limes, and preserved Chestnuts were contributed by Mr. 
Domenico Piccirillo. 


THE BOTANIC GARDENS IN THE REGENT'S PARK. 


THEY are arranged, says the Telegraph, as completely as possible 
in opposition to the Italian style; and we can imagine no prettier 
picture than an early spring féte day at the Regent’s Park. Once 
inside the gate, you are lost in the mazes of a miniature park. No 
tall houses frown at you on three sides of a complete square. 
Stucco and brick, mortar and chimney-pots, are carefully and com- 
pletely hidden from the eye. Flirtations are not carried on in a 
scorched Sahara, and lovers are relieyed from the comments of 
domestic servants in the attics of fashionable mansions. It may be 
in London; but, at any rate, thisis a true garden. No stern laws 
or sterner gardener warn you off the grass ; forallthe pleasure of the 
féte consists in strolling along the yielding turf, sitting about, and 
listening to the Life Guards’ band. Here are trees and mounds, and 
nooks and peaceful retreats. Mount where you will, a house or a 
chimney-pot cannot be found. Primrose Hill will be discovered at 
one turn, and the rise of Hampstead farther on. Here is a lake 
with wild fowl and rustic bridges, and there serpentine paths winding 
among trees in blossom, and bushes white with may. It is for this 
old love of ours we would plead an excuse for fickleness. Knowing 
the pleasure of the horticultural fétes, and appreciating the stern 
art of the garden at South Kensington—valuing, as we all must, 
the peace and beauty of the stately terraces at Sydenham—we 
would still confess to a guilty retrogression as we wander in the 
spring-time about these old gardens in the Regent’s Park. 


NIGHTINGALES IN GARDENS. 

THE cuckoo is usually said to be “turned down” in this neigh- 
bourhood on the 14th of April, and the nightingale will arrive about 
the end of this week. Our hedges and copses in the proper season 
abound with nightingales, which like our pure air. They cannot 
endure smoke. Before London overran the pleasant Thames side 
westward, nightingales were nowhere more numerous than in the 
market gardens at Mortlake and Barnes. They appeared to court 
the society of a suburban audience, wherever the neighbourhood 
was not thickly sprinkled with chimneys. But the plantations of 
fruit trees which sheltered them have been cut down, and crossed by 
railways, and the air is no longer pure enough in many spots for the 
inspiration of nightingales. It is not so very long ago (May 28, 
1667) that Pepys, Addison, and Sir Roger de Coverley heard the 
nightingale at Vauxhall and Ranelegh Gardens; and on the 20th 
May 1712 the same sweet songster and a ‘chorus of birds were 
heard upon the trees” in the same fashionable place of resort. The 
gardens at Kew, and even Kensington Gardens, will doubtless 
presently be joyous with the song of the nightingale. 

Hellingley, Sussev. H. NEWLANDs. 


Succulents.—In my enumeration of Cacti at Kew, I only mentioned 
five genera. Had I given all, the collection at Kew would have been 
844, against 592 introduced, exclusive of hybrid varieties of Epiphyllum 
and Phyllocactus. Mr. Scott sets Prince Salem, of Dyke’s collection at 
about 800; but, on reference to his catalogue of 1849, the number 
enumerated is only 412. The Bedford collection is now very poor, and 
contains old plants under new names. I also think that Mr. Scott has 
set the Canary Island Sempervivums too high. I have studied them at 
My. Wilson Saunders’s after the importations of Dr. Bolly, and at other 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apri 20, 1872. 


places, and I have only detected twenty species. Mesembryanthemums, 
when at their best, at Mr. Saunders’s amounted to 234, with twelve not 
described. Loudon enumerates 291—among which there are, however, 
many synonyms. After studying them closely for twelve years, I am of 
opinion that, when well named, 220 would include the whole. Kew pos- 
sesses 157 Aloes of all sections. Names, I am of opinion, have often 
been given to introduced plants that would not have been applied had the 
authors studied the plants instead of consulted books. Jf Mr. Scott 
could put me in the way of finding more Sempervivums than are men- 
tioned in my list, I should be obliged —J. CroucHER. 

Repotting Agaves.—I have noticed for some time that Agaves 
lose their roots about this season every year, and that they make new 
ones, which begin to grow in June. As the old roots do more harm 
than good, and as by the mode which I adopt, a pot costing—say twenty 
shillings—is saved, I can, with confidence, recommend my plan as 
safe and useful. Where a collection of Succulents has to be repotted, it 
is not always practicable to wait for a bright morning in May. Roots of 
Succulents, I repeat, may be cut off or shortened when repotting with 
advantage. If your correspondent, “ Sempervivum, ” will examine one of his 
plants three months after potting, I think he will find the roots which 
had been shortened dead.—J. CROUCHER. 


“ Fennemore and Others v. Spice.”—We observe in your impres- 
sion of last Saturday a report of the trial of this cause, taken from the Times. 
The result of that trial was not, as stated by you, the withdrawal of a 
juror, but a verdict for the defendant. The Times subsequently has 
acknowledged the error.—WILKINs, Buyru, & Marsianp, Attorneys 
for the Defendant. 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.* 


RicHMonp (our notices of Kew are delayed a little to enable us to com- 
plete full-page illustrations of the nobler structures there)—S. S. (the 
tender little carrots you allude to are grown in the market gardens round 
Paris, and imported for Covent Garden).—T. Warp (there are at least a 
dozen species and varieties of Scilla well worth a place in a choice collec- 
tion of hardy plants).—R. A. P. (Sedum reflexsum monstrosum). 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—April 19th. 


Flowers.—Plants in pots consist chiefly of Pelargoniums, Heaths, 
Pinks, Fuchsias, Tea and other Roses, Azaleas, Cytisus, Gardenias, Orange 
Trees, and others; together with a great variety of hardy spring flowers. 
Amongst cut flowers, in addition to those of the plants already named, 
are Golden-rayed Lily, Stephanotis, Orchids, Heliotropes, Imantophyllums, 
Spireas, Rhododendrons, Narcissi, &e. f Ferns, too, there is no 


scarcity. Bouquets have invariably as a centre flower a white Rose or 
Camellia, around which are placed Stephanotis, Pelargoniums, Mignonette, 
Azaleas (mostly white), spring Heaths, blue Cinerarias, &c.; the whole 
enlivened by sprays of white Bouvardias, Lily of the Valley, Orchids, 
and Maiden-hair Ferns. 


PRICES OF FRUIT. 


Gey eseude s.d. s.d. 
0 to 4 0 Pears, kitchen ...... doz. 2 0to4 0 
0 20 0 >, dessert ...... doz. 4 0 12 0 
lb. 6 1 0 _ Pine Apples .... Sips 0 100 
Cobs lb. 0 6 1 0 Strawberries. 0 20 
lb. 15 0 25 0O| Walnnts .... 0 2 0 
00M 20 e100 (CHEEO Meee ere 10 20 
40 10 0 

PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 
Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 0 to 6 O | Mushrooms ........ pottle 1 0to2 0 
Asparagus ......... per 100 4 0 8 0 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 0 0 
Beans, Kidney ...per100 1 6 2G) |Onionse ese eeee bushel 2 0 4 0 
Beet, Red... iL Xa) 3.0 pickling......... quart 0 6 00 
Broccoli . 0 9 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz.bunches 3 0 40 
Cabbage 10 I 165\\ Parsnipsi ys. doz. 0 9 10 
Carrots ... 0 6 0 O | Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 
Cauliflower 2 0 5 0 | Potatoes ............ bushel 2 0 3 0 
Celery .... 16 2 0 Kidneyiecteser ss do. 3 0 5 0 
Chilies .... .per100 1 6 2 0 | Radishes doz. bunches 0 6 16 
Coleworts doz. bunches 2 0 4 0 | Rhubarb.... bundle 0 6 wt) 
Cucumbers... 0 6 16 Fae baa eG: 
2 0 0 0 ett) 4) 10 
03 0 0 0 9 13 
10 3.0 10 20 
08 0 0 - O + 0 6 
0 3 0 O | Spinach ... .. bushel 3 0 46 
3.0 4 0 | Tomatoes...small punet 3 0 0 0 
0 2 O}X6P) | elornipsiee eee bunch 0 3 09 
Oo 4 0 8 | Vegetable Marrows,doz 0 0 O 0 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WitL1aM Roxinson, ‘THE GARDEN ” Orricer, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tus PuBiisHER,at the same Address. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum 9s, 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
quarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. 


Aprin 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


495 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITSELF Is Natury.”-—Shakespeare. 


NOTICE. 
The Conductor of Tur GARDEN will shortly commence a towr of observa- 
tion through the Gardens of England, beginning with the counties 
of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford. Correspondents will greatly 
oblige by forwarding to him, at Tue GARDEN Office, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., information as to interesting 
gardens, remarkable trees, and other objects of horticultural interest 
in any of these counties. 


HOME LANDSCAPES. 


GARDEN BEAUTY IN APRIL. 
(Av BELYOIR CASTLE.) 


REAT advances have generally been made in 
spring vegetation as we approach mid-April. 
The garden begins to assume a more varied 
and, in many respects, richer aspect than in 
' March, though the eye is no longer gladdened 
with the gold and purple cohorts of the Crocus 
tribe, and the brilliant yellow of the wind. 
defying Daffodils is somewhat dimmed. But 
we have gained equivalents, and more than 
equivalents, in the far greater variety of floral 
. beauty rife in April; for in addition to many of 
the fine March flowers that still continue to delight 
us with profuse bloom we have a whole host of 
novelty bursting into Inxuriant blossom, which was only in 
= embryo during the less congenial temperature of March. 
The March garden which I most enjoyed, and which I attempted to 
describe in the last number of THE GARDEN, formed the surrounding 
of the suburban retreat of one of the wealthy industrials of the 
great Warwickshire metropolis. It was a modest but very delightful 
specimen of heme landscape-making, but on a very small scale; and 
in that respect a striking contrast to the extensive ‘flower gardens 
and ornamental woods at Belvoir Castle, the present aspect of which 
Ihave adopted as a type of garden beauty which is attainable in 
April. The sheltered glades and flower gardens of Belvoir occupy 
a charming site for spring gardening, and clothe with beanty a large 
portion of the noble slopes, upon the highest crests of which the 
castle is situated. 

As our party drove over from the station at Grafton, the first 
near glimpse of the castle, seated on the very crown of the hill, is 
very grand and imposing; and although I prefer the architectural 
aspect of several others which I could name among our baronial 
halls, I know of none that can compete with Belvoir in nobleness of 
site. The castellated facade and flanking towers rise far above the 
loftiest trees that clothe the steep sides of the hill to right and left, 
and present a sky-line, as the architects have it in their expressive 
jargon, which is artistically fine in a very high degree. 

But it is with the lovely flower gardens, nestling among the 
shrubs and trees of the undulating slopes that our interest chiefly lay ; 
and we hastened to claim as our guide the Duke’s head gardener, 
Mr. Ingram, who responded to our call with the alacrity of a true 
lover of his art. Under his guidance we advanced for some 
distance along shrub-sheltered walks, now rising, now falling, 
according to the sinuosities of these charming slopes, catching at 
every turn enchanting glimpses of the more distant landscape 
between the lichen covered trunks or great gnarled branches of the 
forest trees, whose bases were far below us, while their crests rose 
high above our heads. Sometimes these glimpses were enriched 
with groups of wild cherry in full bloom, and sometimes with dark 
green masses of Yews and Pines; while the Elms were beginning to 
be covered with a bead-work of tender buds “as green as emerald.” 


At last great masses of vivid colour began to appear in front of 
our path, gleaming brightly between the shrubs by which they were 
still partially concealed. The sky, April fashion, was dark and 
leaden between the short gusty storms of rain and sleet, but those 
masses of bright flowers seemed positively shining with a light of 
their own in the mid-day twilight of that stormy Aprilday. They 
were not like the young German lover when he compared himself to 
a prisoned gem, as he sighed in his loye-verse,— 

“T am the gem, in gloomy place, 
No splendours round me flinging ; 
Thow art the sunshine on my face 
Bright hues from darkness bringing. 


” 


These grand patches of flower colour, on the contrary, were not 
of the kind requiring sunshine to set them off, for they seemed to 
emit alight of their own—a very bright and glowing one—in the 
dulness of the louring April weather. 

Among the thickly-wooded slopes, the first group of beds of 
the forest flower-garden of Belvoir formed richly glowing spaces, 
delightful to look upon; while similar constellations of flower-light, 
seemingly as beautiful, glimmered through shrubby interruptions at 
every turn of the path, to right, to left, both above and below. Nothing 
can be imagined more charming than this series of picturesque 
flower gardens among the wild slopes, to the different and capricious 
levels of which rocky stairways lead in many directions; while 
masses of rock lie in front of the shrubberies or within them, 
covered with golden Stonecrop and many other alpine plants, not 
omitting, of course, the great yellow Wallflower, for which the 
gardens of Belvoir are celebrated. 

It is difficult by words to convey any sort of idea of the charming 
effect produced by these varied and picturesque flower beds, which 
are literally crammed to repletion with plants in luxuriant bloom, 
just as we sometimes see Primroses in some sheltered lane covering 
a bank that exactly suits them so closely that neither space nor 
speck is left uncovered; or as Wood Anemones often make a closely 
packed crowd of beauty in some lonely dingle, of which they have 
long claimed and held undivided possession. 

The only way to describe these masses of fair spring flowers so 
as to give some slight idea of their charm, will be to resort to 
individual portraiture. Happy contrast of colour has been, above 
all things, well considered in the distribution of the plants, and we 
therefore get effects of the following kind:—A large mass of 
Alyssum, for instance, forming a compact mass of bright yellow 
blossom, is placed in close juxtaposition with a still larger patch 
of purple Aubrietia; and beyond, there is a group of deep orange 
Oxlips, telling out against a clump of deep brown Wallflowers, the 
whole composition blended and united by means of pretty plants 
in which delicate green foliage predominates over their flowers. 

In another bed, crimson Daisies with variegated leaves are the 
chief feature, relieved by the great lilac flower-bunches of Saxi- 
fraga cordifolia, whose large heart-shaped and fleshy leaves give it 
the aspect of some tropical plant that ought to require a southern 
sun to bring its massive beauties of flower and foliage to perfection. 

In another bed, masses of Myosotis sylvatica make a carpet of 
celestial blue, mingling their soft hues with double white and double 
yellow Primroses ; the whole blended together by the deep green of 
a mossy Saxifrage dotted sparsely over, with its sparkling white 
flowers that shine like little stars. 

Another set of combinations consists of wide-spreading tufts of 
the lovely Omphalodes verna, with its flowers as blue and as 
pretty as Forget-me-Nots, peeping out thickly from its dwarf 
forest of deep-green leaves. These masses are divided by great 
tufts of Arabis albida, with flowers of dazzling white, that well 
deserve the popular name of Mountain Snow, by which the plant is 
known in some parts of England. To vary the height of the-plants, 
afew specimens of the taller-growing Fleabane are introduced, whose 
composite flowers of ochreous yellow, balanced on their slenderly 
branching stems, haye a graceful effect; while, to complete the 
composition, a touch or two judiciously introduced of some deep- 
flowered Polyanthus, or a tuft or two of the lovely Scilla verna, 


‘with delicately tender tones of azure, are made to form the climax 


of colour. 

In some of the beds the gold-leaved variety of the common 
Lamium maculatum, is made to form telling patches of a peculiar 
orange tone, varied by others of the yellow-leaved Feverfew; among 
which plants of blue, purple, and tricolored Pansies form con- 
spicuous touches of magnificent and effective colour; varied here 
and there by three or four flowers, in groups, of an early dwarf Iris, 
the blooms, which are pearly white, blotched at the tips of the 
petals with a single broad mark of the deepest purple. These are 
but afew among the hundred combinations in this fairy-like flower 
garden; each one seeming more successful than the last ; and then, 
a number of other flowers are profusely introduced, the mere names 


496 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 27, 1872. 


of which would conyey no definite idea to those unacquainted with 
the plants themselves ; yet one or two beds, formed principally of 
varieties of Epimedium, should not be passed over without note, for 
the peculiarity and elegance of the flowers, especially that of 
Epimedium rubicunda, is so remarkable, and the plant is so hardy, 
that it ought to be in more general cultivation as one of the very 
choicest of our early spring flowers. 

Then there are in the shrubberies the large yellow bunches of 
Berberis flowers, of several species; and Rhododendrons already 
threatening to burst into bloom on the slightest invitation from a more 
genial temperature ; and the double flowering Peach is in full flower 
in sheltered places, where its blooms look like miniature Roses. But 
at Belvoir, in April, it is the flower beds among the woody dells 
that make the garden beauty of the place. A beantiful display 
of bloom has been enjoyed there from the beginning of February, 
and all from hardy denizens of our gardens that the poorest cottager 
may grow. NorL HUMPHREYS. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


We are glad to hear that) exertions are being made for the 
preservation of Clapham Common. We hope it may share the fate 
of Wimbledon, and be secured to the public for ever. 


Tuer Australasian reports that gardeners in Victoria, for the 
best situations near town, get from 45s. to 50s. per week; ditto, for 
the country, 45s. to 50s.; inferior hands for the country, 12s. 6d. to 
18s. per week with rations. 


THE Manchester Examiner and Times of April 2nd gives along 
account of a grand marine aquarium which it is proposed to build 
at Manchester, and which shows the interest which is felt in scien- 
tific studies in the northern capital. 


Ar the first annual meeting of the British Gardener’s Mutual 
and Self-Supporting Society held recently at Bristol, it was reported 
that 105 members had been enrolled during the past year, and that 
there was a balance of £32. 6s. 6d. in hand. Officers and members 
of the committee for the ensuing year were appointed. 


THE Markets Committee have reported to the Court of 
Common Council, recommending that the Farringdon Fruit and 
Flower Market should be reconstructed as proposed, at a cost not 
exceeding £150,000. The rents, it is anticipated, will be increased 
from an average of £712 a year to £9,592, and the tolls and casual 
lettings from £507 to £4,000. The council have adopted the report, 
and given the committee authority to apply to Parliament for the 
requisite powers, and to raise the necessary sum. 

WE haye just received from Mr. Richard Nisbet, Aswarby 
Park Gardens, Falkingham, a magnificent sample of Lady Downe’s 
Seedling grape, six months cut from the vine, and preserved in 
bottles of water ever since. Surely, this, among other recent 
examples in the same way, proves more than ever was claimed for 
the system. If grapes can be kept in perfect condition for six 
months after being cut, no grape-grower need allow his houses to be 
encumbered and his time lost by preserving his grapes through the 
winter hanging on the vines. 

Two years ago, says F. Barillet, in Revue Horticole, one of my 
friends, who was suffering from toothache, thought he would try 
the effect of cutting a piece of the stem of the Araucaria imbricata ; 
and taking some of the sap (resin), which has the appearance of a 
white paste, and which is compact, he made a little ball of it, which 
he placed in the hollow of the tooth. Some hours afterwards the pain 
ceased, and the substance which still remained in the tooth answered 
all the purposes of the best stopping. Since that time the sap 
(resin) has become very hard, not only has it neyer moved, but my 
friend has not since experienced the last pain. 


—— Tar Wimbledon Common Committee haying by the passing 
of the Act fully accomplished the purposes for which it was formed, 
viz., the securing in perpetuity for the public enjoyment the whole 
of Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, 
open and unenclosed, Mr. John Murray, on Wednesday evening, to 
celebrate the event, entertained the following members at dinner in 
Albemarle Street :—Mr. Alderman Besley, the Rey. Dr. Huntingford, 
Messrs. Benecke, Burrell, Devas, Dryden, Du Buisson, Du Cane, 
Hardwicke, Hussey, Jackson, Peek, Pollock, Reeves, and Williams. 
In the course of the evening the committee presented to Mr. Peek a 
silver cup and cover of most elaborate workmanship, bearing the 
following inscription : — ‘“‘ Presented by the Committee for the 
Preservation of Wimbledon and Putney Commons, to Henry William 
Peek, Esq., M.P., their chairman, as a mark of their sense of his zeal, 
energy, and liberality, which effectually contributed to the successful 
termination of a long and obstinate struggle, and thereby secured the 
use of the commons, free and open, to the public for ever, 1871.” 


YESTERDAY we had the pleasure of seeing a meadow to the 
north of London dotted over with the gracefully suspended bells of 
the snakeshead Fritillaria Meleagris, one of our most beautiful 
native plants. Ina cultivated state it may be often seen in cottage 
gardens, but it is far too often absent from large places. In its 
several varieties we know of no more beautiful ornament of spring, 
and, in consequence of the pendulous character of the flower, it 
does not suffer from bad weather, as many other spring flowers do. 


THE opening of the People’s Gardens (pleasantly situated at 
Old Oak Common, near Willesden Junction, and upwards of fifty acres 
in extent), for their third season, is announced to take place on 
Saturday, the 4th of May. During the winter several important im- 
provements, both in the buildings and gardens, have been carried out, 
which willadd greatly to the comfort and accommodation of visitors ; 
while the train accommodation is also largely increased, trains con- 
{inually arriving at the Willesden Junction from all stations on the 
Metropolitan and district lines, and also from the Euston and Broad 
Street stations of the North-Western line. 


Tur Duchy of Brunswick, M. Kock informs us in his 
‘“‘ Wachenschrift,”’ intends to publish statistics of the gardens in that 
part of Germany. The information that will be furnished willbe, first, 
the name of the present proprietor and that of his predecessor ; second, 
the date at which the garden was made; third, the name of the 
gardener who traced and put into execution the plan of the garden ; 
fourth, the extent of the land cultivated; fifth, the number and 
extent of its glass houses of all kinds; sixth, minute details as to 
trees and rare shrubs, as well as their approximate dimensions, ages, 
and origins; seventh, information of another kind of which it is 
impossible as yet to give an idea. 


— OnE of the most agreeable promenades of Paris, combining 
at the same time science and amusement, is without exception that 
of the Garden of Acclimatisation in the Bois de Boulogne. The 
late eyents caused it to be closed, but it is again open to the public 
at the same hours and regulations as before. A great part of the 
damage done has been repaired, and already there are many animals 
in the park. The ornamental and horticultural part has not been 
neglected, and the work is being actively carried on, so that in a 
short time all will be again in order. Amongst the greatest 
novelties lately introduced, and one which merits particular attention, 
is the Cerasus Lamnesiana, lately sent from Japan by M. Lannes 
de Montebello.— Revue Horticole. 


THE authorities of California have engaged a professional 
arboriculturist, at a salary of 15,000 dollars per year, to attend to 
the setting out of forest trees in different parts of the State. They 
never, says the Rochester Express, did a wiser thing. Our forefathers 
found two fancied enemies when they landed on this continent—the 
Indians and the forests. They at once proceeded to exterminate 
both, and their fury, transmitted to their children, has been nearly 
successful. We may never regard the Indian as a friend, but 
our feelings towards the forests have changed. We want trees 
judiciously distributed everywhere—on the mountain side, in the 
fields, along country roads, in front of city residences, in parks and 
gardens; everywhere some, nowhere too many. 


“Nature” records the death of facile princeps the most 
eminent of vegetable physiologists, Professor Hugo yon Mohl, which 
took place on April 1st, at Tiibingen. Von Mohlwas born at Stuttgart 
in 1805, and in 1835 was appointed professor of botany and director 
of the Botanic Gardens at Tiibingen, a position he has held eyer 
since. Conjointly with Schlechtendal, and since his death with Professor 
de Bary, formerly one of his pupils, ne has been editor of the weekly 
‘Botanische Zeitung ” since its commencement in 1843. He was 
one of the foreign members of the Linnzean Society, having been 
elected as long ago as 1837. Von Mohl has been a copious and most 
accurate writer on subjects connected with vegetable anatomy and 
physiology. _ : 

Tur Neil Bequest—in the gift of the Council of the Royal 
Caledonian Horticultural Society for the time being—has been voted 
to Mr. Andrew Turnbull, gardener to the Earl of Home, Bothwell 
Castle. We believe it amounted to the sum of £65. The late Dr. 
Neil bequeathed the sum of £500 to be invested, and the interest to 
be voted either bienially or triennially to a distinguished horticul- 
turist or botanist. Scotch gardeners have long known and appreci- 
ated the worth of Mr. Turnbull as a man, and his abilities as a 
practical gardener. His success asa cultivator of heaths, and as 
the raiser of some of the most valuable and decorative among them 
—chief among which are Bothwelliana alba, Marnockiana, Turn- 
bullii, &e.—entitle him to the highest honours which it is in the 
power of horticulturists to grant. He has been upwards of forty 
years in the service of the Bothwell Castle family, and is in every 
way well worthy of the mark of distinction thus conferred on him. 


Apri 27, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


497 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE ALPINE GARDEN. 
(Continued from p. 464). 

Iy numbers of gardens an attempt at “rockwork” of some 
sort has been made; but in nine cases out of ten, the result is 
simply ridiculous; not because it is puny when compared with 
Nature’s work in this way, but because it is generally so 
arranged that rock plants cannot exist upon it. The idea of 
rockwork arose at first from a desire to imitate those natural 
croppings out of rocks which in temperate and cold countries 
are frequently covered with a dwarf but beautiful vegetation. 
Tt is strange that the conditions which surround these, and 
their texture and position, should rarely be taken into account 
by those who make rockwork in gardens. Numerous places 
occur in eyery county in which a sort of sloping stone or burr 
wall passes as “‘vockwork,” a dust of soil being shaken in 
between the stones, and the whole so arranged that, if you do 
cover it with suitable plants, they perish speedily. In others, 
made upon a better plan as regards the base, the “ rocks” are 


Alpine Plants growing on the level ground. 


all stuck up on their ends, and so close that soil, or room for a 
plant to root, is out of the question. The best thing 
that usually happens to a structure of this sort is that its 
nakedness gets covered by a Cotoneaster, or some friendly 
climbing shrub, or some rampant weed, of course to the 
exclusion of true rock plants; but in most cases the rockwork 
is a standing eyesore. 

In moist and elevated districts, where frequent rains and 
showers keep porous stone in a continually humid state, this 
straight-sided, stone-wall-like rockwork may manage to support 
a few plants; but in by far the larger portion of the British isles 
it is quite useless,and always ugly. It is not alone because the 
mountain air is pureand clear and moist that the Gentians and 
like plants prefer it, but because the elevation is unsuitable to 
the coarser-growing vegetation; and our alpines have it all to 
themselves. Take a healthy patch of Silene acaulis, by which 
the summits of some of our highest mountains are sheeted 
over with rosy crimson of various shades, and plant it two 
thousand feet lower down in suitable soil, keeping it moist 
enough and free from weeds, and you may grow it to perfec- 
tion; but leave it to nature in the same neighbourhood, and 
soon the strong grasses and herbage will run through and 
cover it, excluding the light, and finally and quickly killing the 
hardy and vigorous but diminutive Moss Campion. 

Although hundreds of brilliant alpine flowers may be grown 
without a particle of rock near them, yet the slight elevation 


“Rockwork” against a house at York. Sketched 1871. 


given by rockwork is very congenial to numbers of the most 
valuable kinds. The effect of a tastefully disposed rock-garden 
is very desirable in garden scenery. It furnishes a home for 
many 7 ey native and other interesting plants, which may 
not safely be put elsewhere; and therefore it is most important 
that the most essential principle to be borne in mind, when 
making it, should be generally known. 


The chief mistake generally made is that of not providing a 
feeding-place for the roots of the plants that are to embellish 
the rockwork. On ordinary rockwork even the coarsest British 
weeds cannot find a resting-place, simply because there is no 
motherly. body of soil or matter into which the descending 
roots may penetrate, and find nourishment sufficient to keep 
the plant fresh and bright and well in all weathers. It is not 


Alpine Plants growing in level sandy border. June 1871. 


only those who make their “rockwork” out of spoilt bricks, 
cement, and perhaps clinkers, that err in this respect, but the 
designers of some of the most expensive works in the country. 
At Chatsworth, for instance, and also to some extent at the 
Crystal Palace, you see rockwork not offensive so far as regards 
its distant effect in the landscape; but, when examined closely, 
it might well be imagined that rockwork and rock plants were 
never intended for each other’s company, so bare are many of 
these large works of their proper and best ornaments. They are 
generally pavements of small stones, huge masses of rock, or 
imitation rock formed by laying cement over brickwork, and 
in none of these cases are they adapted for the cultivation of 
high mountain plants. 

It is quite possible to combine the most picturesque effects 
of which rockwork is capable with all the requirements for 


f al Ry 

Lae i WAY LS) 

ade 
= 


Properly formed Rockwork, suited for bold and luxuriant types of Vegetation. 


plant-growing ; but, in the case of extensive rockwork-making 
for the sake of its picturesque effect, the owner must either 
call to his aid a landscape gardener of some skill in this way, 
or possess much taste and knowledge of the work himself. It 
is easy to use the largest stones and make the boldest promi- 
nences, and leaye at the same time rather level intervening 
spaces of rocky ground in which rock plants may luxuriate. 


(To be continued.) 


A PROTEST AND A SUGGESTION. 


Wuo is an ardent amateur, and has not suffered from the 
insatiate appetite for gathering garden flowers which possesses 
most of the fair sex ? 

Whilom he was wandering among his favourites, here 
prostrating himself on hands and knees before a precious 
alpine unveiling its beauties for the first time in his pos- 
session, or there tending to the wants of some more stately 
foreigner; his heart fails beneath his dusty waistcoat to hear 
the ominous click of the garden wicket, and enter—in broad- 
brimmed hat and tan gloves, with gaping basket and hungry 
scissors—the fair form of the destroyer. If it is in the warm 
spriag season, he shall endure the crueller pangs; for snip, 
snip, snip, goes the ruthless stcel among the fair spring 


498 


flowers. See how the tender blue of that favourite clump 
of Grape Hyacinths disappears before her; bright Tulips fall 
apace; even the humble Dog’s-tooth Violet is not spared. All, all 
are ravished to linger out a few dark hours in the dry twilight 
of the sitting-room or the greasy steam of the dining-room. 
Tt is in vain he tremblingly hints that they are far more 
beautiful springing from their native mould, rifled by the 
bees, than languishing in a gaudy jar among the incongruous 
ornaments of amodern drawing-room. “Oh, you grizzly bear! 
how can you be so selfish?” or some such affectionate 
reproach makes him feel as if he were the evil-doer; he 
sighingly turns away, and dares no more. If it be summer- 
time, he rejoices to see how long she lingers among the gaudy 
bedding-plants ; he cares little how many of them she takes— 
tis their vocation, Hal.” But see, she turns her steps this 
way. No, no, unhappy man! in yain you interpose your 
portly form between that new bright Larkspur and her 
brighter eyes; it is in vain you hurry past yon opening Rose, 
and try to withdraw her from the corner where your last 
investment in Lilies fills the air with fragrance. If, indeed, 
you are fortunate in exacting a tardy assent to let them blow 
a little more, you know too well that when next she goes on 
a raid you may not be there to stay her hand. 

“But are we to have no flowers in the house?” will rise 
to the lips of any lady who has read thus far. So you shall, 
so you ought; but instead of having nothing but dying 
bouquets, let some of them be living. Some flowers seem 
made for cutting, and are better thus than otherwise; and all 
are better for cutting in moderation. Who would willingly 
forego bunches of Violets, Primroses, and Wallflowers in 
spring ? or yases of Roses in summer? But, oh, for a little 
judgment, a little moderation, a little of the real love of 
flowers which makes the hand pause in time, and when it 
does cut offers a half apology for the assault. 

And here is a simple plan, which will prove a boon to the 
owners of small gardens, and be to some extent a substitute 
for cut flowers, especially in spring, when flowers are so short- 
lived. It is this: Arrange now in pots the roots of spring 
flowering plants, so that they may flower together, and may 
be moved into the house for a few days when in the height 
of their beauty. They will require no protection in winter ; 
only let the pots be plunged to the rim in sand or cinders to 
prevent them cracking in frost. If this is carefully done, if 
those plants which flower together are carefully grouped, 
charming living bouquets may be produced, and a succession 
be kept up for a constant supply to the house. Thus, for a 
February pot we may have a variegated Arabis in the centre, 
surrounded by purple Crocus, winter Aconite, pink and white 
Dog’s-tooth Violet, and a carpet of the golden-tipped Stonecrop. 
A month later we may have a pot of Canadian Bloodroot, 
Grape Hyacinths, yellow Alyssum, alpine and other Primroses, 
and Erica carnea. The combinations are endless, and of 
endless interest and beauty; and, by substituting hardy Stone- 
crop for Lycopod or Selaginella, might well be adapted for 
the mode of table decoration recently proposed. 

So may we have fresh garden flowers in any quantity in 
the house, without spoiling the beauty of the beds. 

SATMONICEPS. 


THE ROSE SECRET. 

As the Rector of Caunton has vowed not to divulge his secret 
relating to the propagation of roses, we may now make a selection 
from the articles that have appeared in THE GARDEN on the subject, 
as to the mode that is likely to suit amateurs and gardeners best. 
Nurserymen and gardeners, who have plenty of glass erections with 
bottom heat, can doubtless strike and grow great quantities of roses 
from buds or cuttings; but for amateurs and others withont glass, 
the plan of striking rose cuttings in October in the open border 
will be found to answer best. The extract from a French work 
on a way to propagate roses from cuttings, given by Mr. T. A. C. 
Firminger in THE GARDEN (page 457), points out a new way of 
inserting the cuttings in the ground, and may be tried by those 
fond of experiments. 
striking rose cuttings without their shrinking or dying away, if 
properly made and inserted pretty deeply in a light sandy soil 
in October, and protected a little from severe frosts during 
the winter and spring months. With regard to the limited 
quantity of rose cuttings I generally strike every year to srow 


THE GARDEN. 


I neyer, however, find any difficulty in ~ 


[Aprm 27, 1872. 


on their own roots, I find the following mode answers best :— 
From six to eight cuttings are inserted in pots in October, and the 
pots are kept in a cold frame till the spring, or are placed at the 
bottom of a wall, where they can be covered over with some litter in 
severe weather. When they have made shoots two or three inches 
in length, and all danger from frost is over, they are planted out of 
the pots with their balls entire in well-prepared soil. This preyents 
their roots, which are very young and brittle, from being broken off, 
and in the summer they spread them all round from the old 
ball of earth and form fine strong plants, which are lifted singly in 
the autumn for potting or planting ont as desired. It may not be 
generally known to amateur gardeners that they may strike 
plenty of young apple and pear trees from cuttings like roses 
by putting them in October in the open border in rows. If a 
small heel of the old wood is attached to each cutting, it will strike 
sooner and make the stronger plant. Some kinds of apples of the 
“Burr ”’ yariety will grow when large branches are planted and will 
bear a crop in the second year after being planted. 
WILLIAM TILLERY. 

[ Mx. Hole has not the nurseryman’s permission to make public the 
new mode of rapidly striking roses. Of “Y.’s”’ secret we cannot 
speak; but we are authorised to say that none of our correspondents 
who have sent so many excellent hints as to various modes of striking 
roses, have touched upon the mode in question. | 


SPRING FLOWER GARDENING. 


I HAvE thought many times lately that it would not be a bad 
idea if, now that one’s spring beds are at the height of their beauty, 
every gardener who has such beds would furnish you with an account 
of what combinations and arrangement of colour and beauty had 
been most attractive and most admired with him. We should thus 
hear of many things with whichsome of us areat present unacquainted ; 
and all of us would learn something to our advantage about our 
fayourite pursuit. 

I will begin by describing, as best I can, a few of my beds. Two 
corner beds here have been for a month past a blaze of beauty. They 
are round, and seven feet in diameter. There is a nine-inch wide 
ring next the grass of Cerastium tomentosum; next a nine-inch 
wide ring of purple Aubrietia; then the body- of the bed is of 
the common Primrose and scarlet Duc Van Thol Tulip,.plant for plant, 
with a yellow Pottebakker Tulip in the centre. Bright and beautiful 
indeed they have been, and are. The two next beds to them are 
round ones, the same width in diameter, and are drawn out in 
pentagons. In the centre, which consists of Pansies and Golden 
Prince Tulip, is one plant of Vermilion Brilliant Tulip. The lines 
of the pentagon are marked out by means of variegated Arabis— 
two very neat and pretty beds. The next bed has the centre much 
raised; the edge begins with a ring of Sempervivum californicum 
(too dull in colour, its brown tips being too much the colour of the 
soil, for effect) ; next a ring of Golden Feather Pyrethrum; then 
the body of the bed is carpeted with Purple Aubrietia and Proserpine 
Tulip growing through all over it. Inside the ring of Golden 
Feather is aring of Grand Vainqueur Hyacinth. This combmation 
and arrangement makes up a yery striking bed. One bed here has 
an edging of the most beautiful mixture of colours imaginable, 
obtained by means of two common flower-garden plants—purple 
Aubrietia and variegated Arabis planted alternately; these make 
the most charming edging to a large bed which it is possible to 
conceive. The centre of this bed is rather a failure; it is too cold. 
Next the edging is a line of Viola lutea and common Due Van Thol 
Tulip, plant for plant; then the body of the bed consists of 
Cliveden Blue Pansy and White Snow Tulip. This arrangement 
is too cold. There ought to have been some scarlet alternated with 
the Blue Pansy and White Tulip. We have another long bed which 
is rather diffienlt to describe. It forms the segment of a circle, 
backed up by evergreens, in front of which are red Wallflowers. 
The bed itself is vandyked and carpeted with Myosotis dissitiflora 
and with Sedum acre aureum, through which grow Golden Prince 
Tulip, and Roi Cramoise (scarlet), and the edge next the grass 
is double red Daisies. Bip 15 1 


SPRING MIXTURES. 

My best mixture for spring beds is an irregular combination 
of something approaching to plant for plant of the common 
Primrose and the lovely Myosotis dissitiflora. I call it irregular, 
because it is actually so; no exactness as to distance being aimed at. 
But the varying sizes of the plants render it still more irregular. 
It is, however, none the less beautiful on that-account. Here a long 
path of Forget-me-Not spreads out and predominates over the 
Primrose ; and anon a fine Primrose, with a head all flowers, has the 


Avni 27, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


499 


mastery over the blue. Neither is the mixture the worse for a dash 
of a third colour; reminding one of the flavour of hyson in a cup 
of souchong. Many of the early flowers of the Myosotis have a dash 
of purple, which merges finally into blue. This purple gives a 
certain piquancy to the pale tint of the Primrose on its first 
appearance, and finally merges into blne, leaving but two colours 
n the mixture. 

These two common hardy plants are admirably adapted for 
balancing each other, and bringing one another out into higher 
beauty. The relative proportions of each may be varied in various 
ways. For instance, the ground may be covered with Forget-me- 
Not, and the Primrose dropped in regularly or irregularly, in 
single plants or grouplets, for effect. Or the relative position of 
the two may be reversed, which, however, is hardly so striking. 
Or, again, irregular masses of each may be placed side by side, or 
be made to run ont and in amongst each other, as if an erratic 
March wind had scattered them out of its guinea-a-bushel dust 
measure. 

It is astonishing what magnificence and grandeur come of the 
massing of common things, on the principles of harmony or contrast, 
or by the massing alone. And such an aggregation of the force of 
numbers is by no means unnatural. On thé contrary, it is nature’s 
method. She masses almost everything, from the green grass 
upwards. Look at that moor or mountain, a-glow with furze or 
flaming with high-coloured heaths. Place one, two, a dozen, in 
little coteries, how poor and tame; gather them into aggregates 
of thousands, tens of thousands, millions, and they grow into a 
grandeur and magnificence beyond the reach of words. But this 
apology can hardly be needed to vindicate my spring mixture. 
There are many other spring plants equally or more effective. The 
great points are congruity of habit and simultaneity of flowering. 
To all in search of a new sensation in spring gardening, I can with 
confidence recommend my mixture, in any proportion that is preferred, 
of the common Primrose and the Myosotis dissitiflora. 

Perhaps the next best plant for mixing or grouping with the 
primrose is the charming nayelwort, Omphalodes verna, being 
smaller and wholly different from the Myosotis; the blue is darker, 
and perhaps more lovely. It does not make such a brilliant display, 
as there is more leaf in proportion to flower; but the flower has an 
elegant beanty and a colour wholly unique. A groundwork, not too 
thick, of common primroses, with a few plants here and there of the 
Omphalodes creeping abont over andamong it, ischarming. Perhaps 
this plant is even more effective planted in the same way among any 
of the varieties of white Arabis. The Aubrietias, again, are lovely 
against or mixed in with white. One of the best spring mixtures I 
have seen was composed of Aubrietia and white violets. The varie- 
gated Arabis, again, makes a splendid carpet on which to exhibit 
either the Forget-me-Not, Aubrietia, or blue Violets. Again, the grand 
old plant Iberis sempervirens never looks so snowy white as when 
matched with Myosotis dissitiflora. Again, if you want to see the 
Alyssum saxatile in all its golden glory, place it near a great patch 
of blue sky; the same Forget-me-Not. I offer one more example 
of spring mixture; the ground carpeted with blue Violets, 
Nemophila insignis, or, better than eithor, Myosotis dissitiflora, and 
say ten thousand golden Daffodils towering over it—a golden cargo 
on an azure sea. D. T. Fisx. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Linaria genisteefolia.—_Among hardy garden perennials 
that will grow on almost any soil, there are few more ornamental 
and desirable than Linaria genistefolia. It forms a compact 
bush, about two feet high, covered with broadly lanceolate 
glaucons green leaves. About July it is completely smothered with 
bright yellow, long-spurred flowers, which continue to cover it with 
golden beauty as long as the autumn frosts hold off. This species of 
Linaria is, I believe, a native of Austria. It seeds profusely, and 
may easily be increased by means of cuttings or division of the 
root.—H. Harper Crewe, the Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, Tring. 


The Golden-rayed Lily.—Mr. Vick, of Rochester, New York, 
directs attention to the long time during which this noble hardy Lily may 
be had in flower. He says it is one of the earliest Lilies to flower, and 
also one of the latest. About the first of July the first buds opened, and 
to-day (September Ist) I have hundreds in full bloom, with almost ripened 
seeds, perfect flowers, and half-formed buds, in the same row. For some 
years I thought this was due to the fact that the bulbs were imported, 
some of them being dried or otherwise injured or retarded on the passage 
from Japan. This idea I have abandoned, as several hundreds that have 
been in my grounds for three years show the same habit. Whata glorious 


thing it is that with a dozen or so of bulbs we can have this Lily in flower 


all through the summer ! 


names are likewise well known to me as growing there. 


with grass seeds. 


prises me that more are not kept. 
of our pastures is not generally known ? 
common fed by geese ?—J. 


Buckinghamshire Orchids.—I know wellthe locality described by 
Mr. Elliot in Toe GarpeEN at p. 456; and most of the plants which he 
I suspect, how- 
ever, some error as to Listera cordata; and Epipactis purpurata is 
doubtful. For Pyrola media, P. minor should certainly be read; and the 
Habenaria bifolia belongs to the form known to botanists as H. 
chlorantha.—James Brirren, British Musewm. 

Dwarf Scabious with large Double Flowers.—This is 
deserving of notice, not only on account of the dwarf and exceedingly 


free-flowering tufts which it forms, but also for its flowers, which are 
larger, fuller, and more double and rounded than those of the old dwarf 
kind. § 
without trouble in any soil, and flower profusely all the year through ; 


Sufficient attention is not paid to these plants, which grow 


the flowers are particularly well adapted for bouquets on account of 


their agreeable perfume, their lasting qualities, and their lively and 


diversified colours. 
Buttereups and Geese.—Many of the richest pastures are yellow 


with buttereups every spring, and yet everyone must acknowledge they 
are injurious weeds. 


Injurious in themselves, they take up the room ot 
good grasses. I once heard a person strongly contending that all pastures 
in which they abounded ought to be broken up, well cleaned, and resown 
I think few practically acquainted with valuable pas- 
ture would be inclined to take this strange advice. But there is one 


enemy of the buttercup which is often a welcome guest at our tables, and 
that is the goose. The goose is very fond of buttercups, and shows great 
determination to get at their roots, the only part it eats. i 


Believing, as I 
do, that no other poultry pay so well for keeping as geese, it often sur- 
Is it because their utility as weeders 
Who ever saw a buttercup on a 
R. Pearson, in “ Field.” 


FERULAS, OR GIANT FENNELS. 
Turse belong to the same large natural family of Umbellifers 


as the Heracleum, and it will be at once evident, bya glance at 


the illustration on next page, that if the Giant Cow Parsnip 
be taken as an example of stately vigour and development, 
to this must be assigned the more chaste attributes of elegance 
and refinement. 

View the plant as here represented of Ferula communis, 
no artist’s fancy, as some may suppose, but a veritable speci- 
men of nature printing, indebted, no doubt, to the skilled 
hand of the artist for the airy gracefulness and feathery 
lightness of the verdant cushion, from whence arises the erect 
branching panicle of blossoms to a height of fully six feet, 
charming in its rigid, finely-chiselled angular divisions, and 
rich in contrast with the feathery foliage below. We would 
add a descriptive touch, which the artist cannot give without 
the aid of colour; and, to complete the picture, you must 
imagine that the foliage does not represent one uniform tint 
of green, the gradations from light to dark colour being almost 
as numerous as the leaves themselves, and so intermingled and 
blended by the interlacing of the segments, as almost to defy 
the most skilful colourist to depict. Nor is the flower-stem 
deficient in this respect. In its young state, it is suffused 
with a tint of greyish colour, that yanishes with the touch, 
like the bloom on the grape. 

The flowers, borne in beautifully radiating umbels, though 
not large nor individually conspicuous, are of a yellowish 
colour, and are succeeded by a goodly crop of fruit—first of a 
golden yellow, and, as it approaches maturity, deepening in 
colour toa brown. It might be supposed that a flower-stem 
of this magnitude would, of necessity, require some artificial 
support, if not when in blossom, at least, when weighed down 
by the bountiful harvest of fruit. But, no; nature has made 
a wise provision in the solidity and strength of the main 
stem. ’ 

Unlike the generality of Umbellifers, the stems of all the 
Ferulas are perfectly solid and woody, and when fresh cut, 
just as the fruit is beginning to ripen, they are of enormous 
weight compared with those of any other herbaceous plant. 

Fragments of the leaves, when fully matured, are admirably 
calculated for decorating a vase of flowers. I say when fully 
matured, as when young they soon become flaccid; and even 
when in the state recommended, care must be taken that they 
all have access to the water, else they soon lose their shining 
beauty ; for this reason, they are not adapted for hand bouquets, 
however elegant in appearance they may be. But methinks 
I hear some of my fair readers taking exception to an imagi- 
nary attribute conveyed in the name, “Giant Fennel;” and 
saying, “ What about the smell?” I grant you at once that 


500 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aver 27, 1872, 


such a peculiar and monopolising odour as the herb Fennel 
possesses would bea most undesirable ingredient in a bouquet, 
however desirable in a sauce or a salad; but our plant 
possesses no smell whatever—at least, in the leaf. Indeed, it 
belongs to that section of the order characterised by yielding 
gum resinous matter from the root; whereas, the Fennel 
belongs to the carminative and aromatic section. 

These remarks, with the assistance of the illustration, will, 
I trust, awaken a wish in every person possessing a garden, 
and who has not yet become—if I may use the term—person- 
ally acquainted with our plant, to at once obtain one; and, pre- 
suming such will be the case, before I give a brief detail of 
several known and desirable species, it will perhaps be as well 
to anticipate sundry inquiries that may suggest themselves to 
anyone who has carried out my presumption, such as—Where 
am I to plant it? how am Ito plant it? and by what cultural 
processes shall I be likely to attain the most perfect 
results ? and I may here add that these cultural directions 
are equally applicable to all the species to which I shall allude 
hereatter. 

First, what is the best position? Not unfrequently do we 
find this plant occupying a somewhat unfortunate place in 


Ferula communis. 


the mixed herbaceous border, where, by the way, its vigorous 
growth usually enables it to hold its own amongst its neigh- 
bours; and possibly it is more frequently the sinner than the 
sinned against. At other times it is met with in the front of a 
shrubbery border, where, robbed of its food by its more 
vigorous neighbours, it usually drags out an existence in a 
manner neither creditable to itself nor satisfactory to its pos- 
sessor. The proper place for it is ona slight grassy knoll in 
the centre of a nice sheltered bay or harbour indented into the 
coast line of shrubbery, which may be said to surround the 
verdant sea of grass to be met with in every well-designed 
and well-kept garden. Here, sheltered in some measure by 
the adjacent shrubbery—yct fully exposed to light on all sides 
—it will thrive luxuriantly, and be “a thing of beauty,” and, 
I had almost added, ‘a joy for ever;’’ but this reminds me 
that, roused into life early in spring (at the time I now write 
its verdant plumes are well unfurled), it has one failmg—say 
rather, a natural sequence, that of losing its leaves about the 
month of August. 

This is certainly a drawback to its otherwise adaptability to 
the conspicuous site I have given it; but, surely, a moment’s 
consideration will suggest some plants to ozcupy its place. 


Say a trio of the old. but much neglected Agapanthus, 
grown in large pots, which will form an admirable group, so 
arranged, as regards position, as to leave the crown of the 
Ferula clear. 

As to the second supposed query—How am I to plant it? 
my reply is that a circle of, say, four feet in diameter should 
be marked out, and the first spit of natural soil dug out and 
set on one side; if the subsoil be gravel remove it to a depth 
of three feet, replace the top spit in the bottom of the hole, 
and add a good barrow-load of well-rotted manure; mix these 
up together, and then fillup with any good garden soil, leaving 
the circle well raised in the centre; if the subsoil be clay it 
need not be removed; but, after the surface soil is removed, 
let the manure be well dug in and incorporated with the clay 
below, returning the fresh surface soil, with some leaf-mould 
and sand mixed therewith. All the Ferulas are deep rooters 
and strong feeders, making in the course of years a root stock 
six or seven inches in diameter. In selecting your plant do 
not get an old stump; failing to obtain a moderately strong 
plant with a good tap root, choose a seedling, even though 
small, its progress will be more rapid and certain. ' 

As to after management little need be said; a judicious 
selection of the plant, and careful planting, are the two step- 
ping-stones to success; leave the rest to nature, and if the 
locality be dry, assist occasionally by a good supply of water, 
accompanied by a little liquid manure. 

As to the species which are cultivated in our botanic 
gardens, I would enumerate the following :— 


Frrvuts communis.—Often named F. Ferulago, which may 
be looked upon as the typical plant of the first section— 
Petite ace by very finely divided supra-decompound 
eaves. 

FERULA NEAPOLITANA.—Grows to a similar size, but has less 
compact foliage, and is slightly suffused with a glaucous hue, 
especially marked on the footstalks of the leaves. 

Fruita conspicua.—A Himalayan species, I believe, that has 
recently been introduced, and is said to be more of a giant than 
either of the foregoing; what its distinctive features are the 
immature state of my plants do not yet enable me to judge. 

Ferunta Girauca and the following belong to the second 
section, in which the divisions of the leayes are much larger, 
the alternate pinne being almost laciniately lobed. In this 
species the leaf-surface, of the deepest green, shines as 
though it was varnished. The foot stalk and the back of the 
leaf, but more especially the flower stem, which rises to a 
height of eight feet, is covered with glaucous grey, whence its 
appropriate name; this is so distinct in general appearance 
that where two only are grown it should be one of them. 

Frrvra Tiverans.—Closely allied to the former, is similar in 


‘appearance, but dwarfer in habit and more branching in the 


flower stem. f 
Frrvuza persicA—Is eyen less divided in the foliage than 
either of the foregoing; it is a very scarce plant; and when I 
say that it is one of the sources of the Gum Assafeetida, which 
is obtained as an exudation from the root, I think that the 
mention of the name in my brief enumeration of species will 
be sufficient. Jas. C. Niven, Hull Botanic Gardens. 


CITY VIOLETS. 


Farrest of Spring’s fair children, 
Babes of the flowery year, 
Violets with dew-sprent eyes, 
Deep hued as midnight skies— 
What is it ye do here ? 


To thousand, thousand workers 
In labour’s serried ranks, 
Bright. breezy thoughts ye bring 
Of meadows white with spring, 
Green crofts and sunny banks ? 


And therefore, Spring’s fair children 
Babes of the flowery year, 
Violets with dew-sprent eyes, 
Deep-hued as midnight skies— 
Thrice-welcome are ye here. 
—Chamnbers’ Jownal. 


Aprit 27, 1872.] 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


THE LONTAR PALM. 
(LIVISTONA SUBGLOBOSA.) 

A most elegant Palm, worthy of being set in an isolated 
position, where its noble head of leaves can be seen to 
advantage. Its foliage resembles that of L. chinensis, but 
is compacter, and the plant itself is not quite so hardy as 
that kind. Its stem is corrugated and very regular in size. 
As will be seen, the head forms nearly a globe. The leaves 


\i i) OB i fy 

AWW) aed, y 
WHA 
== = f Za Mi 


VA, INS 


Dhaai AT = rh ol CAL ala 


The Lontar Palm. 


are used in Jaya, where it grows naturally, for basket-making, 
for thatching, and for hat-making. When they are intended 
for thatch, or for making fences, a use to which they are some- 
times put, they are placed flat on the ground in layers, often 
with weight upon them to assist in flattening them. . The 
thatch formed of them does not last, it is said, longer than two 
years, nor is it so handsome as that made from plaited cocoa- 
nut leaves. The selection of a few fine-looking palms such 
as this, giving them room so as to fully develop their beauty, 
is better by far, especially in private establishments, than 
having quantities crammed in a mass. This plant may be 
classed with those that will grow in the warm end of a con- 
servatory. It acquires only a moderate size, and is easily 
cultivated. J. CROUCHER. 


THE GARDEN. 


501 


THE CULTURE OF THE CYCLAMEN. 
BY JOHN WIGGINS, ISLEWORTH. 

Cyctamens are the most beautiful of all winter-flowering 
greenhouse plants. Their purity of colourand singularity of form 
make them universal favourites, and the early season at which 
they come into bloom invests them with additional interest. 
I have at present about twelve hundred established plants of 
Cyclamens, besides seedlings from last December’s sowings. 
Of these, some eight hundred are about fifteen months old, 
the remaining four hundred being a year or two older. As a 
rule, I like the bloom which I obtain from plants of the first 
and second year best; but those of one or two years older 
produce flowers in greater abundance than younger plants. 
We have at Worton Cottage a lean-to house, measuring 
forty feet by twelve feet, which is at present filled with the 
different varieties of Persian Cyclamen, nearly all of which 
are in thirty-two sized pots, and each plant is bearing from 
one to two hundred flowers. I have among my plants, too, 
from twelve to sixteen distinct colours, such as pure white, 
crimson, carmine, lilac, salmon, and rose of distinct shades, 
&e. These and other colours in good Cyclamens should always 
be in themselves pure and unspotted, not “ beautifully spotted 
and striped,” as some describe plants at exhibitions, such 
spots and stripes being entirely the result of keeping the 
plants in cold, damp houses. To obviate such defects, main- 
tain a continual, though slight artificial, heat in the house in 
which your Cyclamens are growing, and, at the same time, 
allow a free current of air, regulating it as to amount according 
to the state of the weather. This prevents that damp and 
stagnant atmosphere so much dreaded by all good Cyclamen- 
growers. 

About the first of March we begin fertilizing the flowers, 
placing such plants as are retained for that purpose in a house 
apart from the others; and in furtherance of this end we 
select equal numbers of all the colours, omitting any pos- 
sessing the least deficiency in size, form, or purity, and 
adopting flowers only that are perfectly uniform in shape, 
with broad blunt petals, each averaging about 1% inch in 
length, and having a well-defined base. The foliage, too, 
should be finely marked, and the plants should possess strong 
constitutions and quick-growing properties. 

Some contend that Cyclamens may be successfully raised from 
seed, and bloomed in nine or ten months, in forty-eight sized 
pots; but this I feel certain cannot be done. ‘To have good 
plants, the seed should be sown in December, in a temperature 
of 50°, and the young plants should be pricked off in spring 
into forty-eight sized pots, placing ten in each pot; and when 
big enough, they should be potted singly in small sixty-sized 
pots. When these are well filled with roots, which will be 
by the end of June, they should be potted into forty-eight sized 
pots, in which they will flower the following spring. After this 
shift they should be placed in a cool, sunless house, and well 
watered both at root and overhead. All stimulants, in the 
way of manure or guano-water, should be avoided, and nothing 
used except pure soft water, otherwise the flower-stalks 
become drawn and weak, and the strength of the plant ex- 
pended in the production of foliage. 

By this treatment, strong blooming plants may be obtained 
by March, a period of fifteen months from the time of seed- 
sowing; and in less time than that I find it impossible to 
obtain well-flowered plants. 

Some assert that they can grow good Cyclamens in cucumber 
beds, but judging from my own experience, such is imprac- 
ticable. I always find it best to allow them some two months 
to germinate, then to keep them cool, and to bring them on 
gently. By this treatment they do not grow so quickly at 
top, but they form large bulbs underneath, and that much 
quicker than they otherwise would do, were they subjected to 
a higher temperature. 

Much has been written respecting the compost best adapted 
for Cyclamens; some recommend a little peat, others a little 
decomposed cow manure, mixed with the soil employed for 
them, and this latter I have myself recommended, but I now 
find that its effects are more injurious than beneficial, inas- 
much as it serves to breed worms and other insects that prove 
hurtful to the plants. Finding such to be the case, for the 
last four years I have used nothing but two-year-old rotted 


502 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprit 27, 1872. 


turf and good. leaf mould in equal quantities, with a liberal 
admixture of silver sand. 

In potting, I keep the bulbs about three-fourths out of the 
soil, carefully avoiding the old plan of placing them under the 
surface, so that the flowers may come up clean, without danger 
of damping or rotting off. 

As regards two-year-old bulbs, it is customary with many to 
dry them off in winter in by-places, keeping them without 
water until every root has become dead, consequently the 
leaves die. When it is wished to start them, they are repotted 
and watered, which is all but labour lost. Some of the bulbs 
push freely, but others break but feebly, drag out a miserable 
existence, and, after a time, die. I generally find it best to 
keep old plants in cold frames during their period of rest, and 
sufficiently damp to keep the roots in a healthy condition. 
Most of the plants shed their foliage, and those that do not, 
continue to grow throughout the season, and are the earliest 
to bloom. 

Much has been said about growing Cyclamens close to the 
glass; but, where they form a part only of things that are 
benefited by such treatment, if is impossible to supply all 
with such a position; therefore, amateur growers of Cycla- 
mens will be pleased to know that such is not absolutely 
necessary. 

The stages in our houses are from six to eight feet from the 
glass, and I find no difference whatever between those grown 
on these and others grown nearer the glass. In the case of 
amateurs who generally grow Cyclamens along with miscel- 
laneous plants, they should, however, select a stage as near 
ie glass as possible, and in a cool or sunless part of the 

ouse. 3 

Should the plants become infested with insects, I find it 
best to dip them two or three times in a mixture of soft soap 
and water, and when thus cleansed, they pass through their 
blooming season unharmed. By a free use of the syringe, I 
manage to keep them free from red spider and thrips. 

As regards showing Cyclamens for competition: I object to 
the lateness of the season at which they are generally required. 
For instance, prizes were offered this year by the Royal Botanic 
and Royal Horticultural societies for them in the middle of 
April, when there is nota perfect plant of this charming family 
to be found. Two years ago I took the first prize at the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting for the best collection 
in April with an exhibition of two hundred plants, amongst 
which, on account of the lateness of the season, not one was 
perfect. January or February is the time to see Cyclamens 
in perfection. Let us therefore hope that managers of exhi- 
bitions may see reason to invite growers of this lovely winter 
and early spring flower to exhibit in the right season, and not 
when it is deficient in quality, and other things are plentiful. 


FORCING MAY. 

“Tr seems so odd to see May in February; but how charming!” 
was the remark of a lady on first seeing Paul’s Scarlet Thorn in the 
beginning of last year. It forces admirably, and, as “ G.S. W.” 
says, everybody likes it. The foliage, too, is large and exquisite 
under glass. I have no doubt the commoner single ones will force 
equally well. All the doubles areas free as the scarlet. The double 
white was simply inimitable from February till the end of March— 
one sheet of spotless white. The Mays make fine standards or 
pyramids, and as such impart quite a new charm to the conservatory, 
drawing-room, or staircase. Few plants are better adapted for the 
latter or bold landings, and they may be had any height. The pink 
is very delicate under glass. Next year I intend to force the single 
pink or scarlet, one of the most showy of allthorns. Unfortunately 
the double Mays are not so sweet as the single ones, that is the only 
drawback. The single flowers don’t stand so long as the double, 
neither outdoors nor under glass. 

Few plants can be of more service for cutting. Anyone with 
the least taste could extemporise a bouquet in a few moments with 
a stock of white and scarlet May, with the charming foliage of the 
latter ; while for wreaths for the head they are inimitable. ~ In 
small vases or flat dishes, again, May is admirable, while branches of 
forced May would make the dinner-table glow with summer beauty 
in the depth of winter. I hope this will suffice to send all your 
readers a-Maying for forcing next November. Don’t attempt it too 
early, nor push on too hard at first.’ The plants are sulky till 
the new year dawns, and they don’t like higher excitement than 
a temperature of 60° at top and bottom. D. T. Fisu. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Sarmienta repens.—Kindly say how I am to treat this singular 
climbing Chilian plant—J. Ennis.—[It requires cold greenhouse tem- 
perature (50°), and should be planted in a mixture of sphagnum, loam, 
and peat. ] 

The Corn Marigold.—Chrysanthemum segetum, or Corn Marigold,a 
cornfield weed, probably of Mediterranean origin, but now common all 
over Europe, except the extreme north, is a showy and welcome novelty 
in our greenhouses in the early spring. At that season flowering plants 
of the same type are rare. If plants of it are lifted from the 
Open ground in Angust, and placed under glass, they will flower 
freely, and, on account of their bright colour, prove good acquisitions to 
our stock of flowers at a period when other things are scarce. 


_ Outside Shading for a Conservatory.—My landlord having 
just built mea lean-to, with a south-west aspect, but without any heating 
apparatus, I wish to put up a roller-blind, which will answer the double 
purpose of preventing scorching in summer and keeping out frost in 
winter. The house is twenty-four by twelve, and seven feet higher at 
the back than in front. What is the best material to get for the blind ? 
—Tyrro. [We fear your landlord has only provided you a source of 
trouble, for if you expect to preserve tender plants without some special 
means of heating the house you will most certainly fail. A blind that 
would be a protection in winter would be a source of darkmess in summer, 
and therefore unsuitable. The cheapest and most satisfactory thing 
that you can do will be to provide some means of heating the house, or 
otherwise devote it to Roses and other plants, such as will not be injured 
by frost. With Ferns, half-hardy American plants, Roses, and some 
choice half-hardy herbaceous things, you may make it very interesting. ] 


Mildewed Roses.—Two months back I had a small house made 
against a south wall, which was nearly covered by a Marechal Niel. I 
have several roses in pots and two planted out. They all started growing, 
are covered with buds, and until last week looked well; they were then 
attacked by mildew. I applied flour of sulphur; but it has not stopped 
it. The ground is high and well drained, and there is no soil at the back 
of the wall. I syringe about twice a week, admit plenty of air, and occa- 
sionally give weak manure water. The house cannot be heated. Can 
you give me any advice as to what I had better do >—AwaTEUR.—[ Mr. 
George Paul, to whom your question has been submitted, says :—With- 
hold nearly all water; the syrmzing will supply almost sufficient moisture 
to the root, at least until the buds are swollen and commencing to change 
colour ; as no pipes are in the house, and consequently no sulphurous steam 
can be produced, the foliage had better be dusted frequently and freely 
with powdered sulphur, washing it off the rext morning with the syringe. 
The treatment seems correct, but on cold or windy days give air more 
sparingly, and in such a way as to avoid draughts. | 


THE ARBORETUM. 


JEFFREY’S BRITISH COLUMBIAN CONIFERS. 
(Continued from page 464.) 
SOILS FOR CONIFERS. 


Piceas generally succeed best when growing in deep heavy rich 
loam, or loam naturally mixed with peat, particularly many of the 
soft and blunt-leaved species, as Picea nobilis, P. amabilis, &c. 
While the generality of the prickly-leaved species, such as Picea 
cephalonica, P. Pinsapo, and the other allied species recently intro- 
duced, appear to be totally different plants when seen growing in a 
limestone district. At Graigo, in Forfarshire, P. cephalonica and P. 
Pinsapo far eclipse all other specimens planted in other places at the ~ 
same time, except in those localities where limestone exists, a stratum 
on which they are accustomed to grow in their native country. I 
have no hesitation in saying that Picea numidica, P. bifida, and P. 
Cilicica will grow much better on limestone than they now do in the 
loamy soils so well adapted for many other species of Picea. 
The finest tree of Abies Menziesii to be seen in Britain is the one 
in the Keillor Moor Pinetum in Perthshire. This tree is growing in 
deep peat soil, and, judging from its vigour, one would almost fancy 
it to be a distinct species from the plants of A. Menziesii generally 
seen growing under ordinary circumstances. The Picea Pichta is 
another tree totally changed in appearance when growing in soil of a 
peaty nature, where it assumes a remarkably pyramidal habit, while 
in ordinary loamy soils it is more or less bushy. The subject of soils 
is so very important that every scrap of information we can obtain 
will be serviceable to parties wishing to plant on the soils they possess, 
such kinds of trees as have already been proved to grow freely on 
similar soils. Picea nobilis, as I have said, is one of the trees which 
luxuriates in soil naturally composed of peat and loam. Althongh I 
have often tried the artificial mixing of peat and loam for this tree, 
also for several other species of conifers, they never assume the 
luxuriant appearance of those growing in the natural mixture. 


Aprit 27, 1872.) 


: THE GARDEN. 


503 


MANURE FOR CONIFERS. 


It may not be ont of place to state, that many conifers, indeed I 
may say all, luxuriate in loam mixed with very old decayed hors® 
manure. It throws a vigour into them almost equivalent to the natu- 
ral peaty mixture. This is particularly noticeable with all the blunt- 
leayed Piceas, particularly the Picea nobilis, P. amabilis, P. Lowii» 
P. magnifica, &c. Many are much averse to the use of manures for 
conifers, and many are the questions put to me regarding the use of 
such stimulants. In a roughor fresh condition manure is by no means 
satisfactory, but totally different ina decomposed state, as is gene- 
rally procured from old hot beds. While using manure it is necessary 
that it should be thoroughly mixed with loam before putting it round 
the roots of newly transplanted conifers; and for established ones, 
such as Araucarias, &c., the opening of a trench round the plants and 
filling it up with the mixture alluded to, will soon tell on the branches 
of the trees. I have never found guano or liquid manure equal to 
old decomposed horse manure, as a stimulant for conifers. 


THE CYPRESS TRIBE. 


Of this several interesting species were received from Jeffrey, and 
several names have to be corrected. Libocedrus decurrens, which 
may be ranked amongst his best introductions, was sent out under 
the name of Thuja Craigana, and I find it is still cultivated under 
that name. This Libocedrus grows to the height of forty feet, with 
a stem nine feet in cirenmference. It must be grown in deep rich 
loam, in a somewhat sheltered situation, as it is very liable to be 
destroyed when fully exposed to the wind. It propagates freely by 
cuttings, and makes excellent plants, but it takes time to do so. 
Tnstead of forming roots at once, a rounded ball, about the size of a 
hazel-nut, is often produced at the extremity. If the cuttings are 
lifted, and portions of the outer skin of this small brown swelling cut 
off, roots will soon be given out from the edges of the cut extremities. 
Without this manipulation the cuttings will lie a long time in the 
ground in a fresh condition with no appearance of growing. This 
Libocedrus is likely to form a noble plant for the warmer districts 
of England and Ireland. One standing on the lawn in the Worcester 
nursery is eighteen feet high, with a stem two feet six inches in 
circumference at the base. The tallest specimen in the Edinburgh 
garden is fourteen feet, and the habit is quite that of the Irish 
yew. Grafted plants were sent from the Continent some years ago, 
and named L. decurrens divaricata. When first received, the branches 
had a peculiar diverging aspect, probably owing to their free-growing 
nature, on account of being grafted. Such plants are now quite as 
upright as any of the original seedlings. A Thuja raised from seed, 
and which has turned out to be the true T. gigantea, is another 
acquisition, first sent home by Jeffrey. When raised, the seedlings 
had much the appearance of Thuja occidentalis, and little attention 
for a time was paid toit. After a few years it began to assume an 
upright habit, and has gone on rapidly increasing. The largest 
specimen is twenty feet high, and eighteen feet in circumference of 
branches. Numerous plants introduced by other collectors, under 
the name of Thuja Lobbii, T. Menziesii,and T. Craigana, appear only 
to be varieties of T. gigantea, and although not as yet taking the 
rapid upright habit of this tree, they are very closely allied to it. 
This tall species of Thuja is perfectly hardy, and is readily increased 
by cuttings. From its peculiar upright habit, and standing the 
wind well, it will form a great acquisitton to pleasure grounds ; and 
as the timber of it is said to be good in quality, it may some day or 
other be grown for forest purposes. Although the habit of the plant 
is that of an upright-growing shrub, it will lose its lower branches, 
like the ordinary evergreen conifers, when growing close together. 
Another Thuja was raised from Jeffrey’s seeds by Messrs. Backhouse, 
of York. This plant has a very distinct habit of growth, resembling 
in some respects the Thuja gigantea. It pushes up a strong loose 
branching leader, haying all the side branches more or less pendent, 
the points of all turning upwards, and each of the lower ones 
assuming the appearance of a leader. This variety was sent out by 
Messrs. Backhouse under the name of Thuja Craigana, as it happened 
to come up in the pot in which the Libocedrus decurrens seed (then 
ealled T. Craigana) was sown. ‘This peculiar variety is now exten- 
sively cultivated under the name of T. Craigana. It is readily 
propagated by cuttings, and is easily distinguished in habit from all 
other species of Thuja. The largest plant growing here is fifteen 
feet high. A most interesting tree of this section I must not omit to 
record, is the Cupressus Lawsoniana. Although Jeffrey had not the 
credit of introducing the seed of this beautiful tree, he certainly 

. deserves the credit of discovering it. I have stated that after the 
death of Jeffrey, all his effects that could be procured were sent 
home, including a large number of dried plants, amongst which were 
found several sheets of carefully dried specimens of what is now 
called Cupressus Lawsoniana, in excellent preservation. No seeds, 
however, were found. The specimens must have been collected fully 


a twelvemonth before any seeds of the plant were sent to this country. 
The first importation of the seeds was in the autumn of 1855, and 
the plant was then named Cupressus Lawsoniana. 

PINUSES. 

Of the genus Pinus, Jeffrey was succesful in introducing some new 
and interesting species. Perhaps the finest of all is Pinus Jeffreyi, 
which is stated to grow to the height of 150 feet, with stems twelve 
feet in circumference. In this country its habit of growth approaches 
that of P. Laricio, and, like it, the whorls of branches are propor- 
tionate to the age of the tree. This tree has a peculiar whitish green 
colour, and has been very extensively introduced into many nursery 
establishments, and ought to be planted in forest groups by some 
of our enthusiastic arboricultural proprietors. The largest specimen 
in the Botanic Garden is now nineteen feet high. It was introduced 
in 1853, and has seventeen whorls or branches. P. Balfouriana is 
another new and remarkable growing pine. In its native condition, 
it grows to the height of eighty feet with a stem nine feet in cireum- 
ference. In this part of the country it seems inclined to be dwarf. It 
retains a leader, and regular side branches. The leaves are arranged 
round the branches exactly like bottle brushes. Although intro- 
duced during 1852, the tree in the garden here, notwithstanding its 
symmetrical shape, is scarcely three feet in height. In peaty soil, 
and in a more southern climate, I have no hesitation in saying that 
the result would be different. Very few seedlings must have been 
raised, as few of the original plants are to be met with. Grafted 
ones only are to be had in nursery establishments. Pinus flexilis 
is another of Jeffrey’s introductions. It isa diminutive tree, growing 
in its native habitat to the height of forty feet, with stems three feet 
in circumference. Being a mountain pine, it is inclined in this 
country to assume more the appearance of a large shrub than a tree. 
Like P. Balfouriana, it is very rare in collections, and, like it, few 
seeds must have been raised. Grafted plants under this name are to 
be had in nursery establishments, some of them however totally 
different from: the original P. flexilis sent home by Jeffrey. Pinus 
Murrayana is another of Jeffrey’s introductions. Of this tree the 
seeds must have been mixed, as two distinct varieties came up—the 
one haying an upright growth and of a beautiful light green colour ; 
the other of a scrubby habit and dark green, very different from 
what Jeffrey describes it, viz., a conical growing tree. One of the 
finest specimens of the upright variety that I have seen, is growing 
at Borthwick Hall, near Edinburgh, the seat of Charles Lawson, Esq. 
Jefirey also sent home seeds which he called Pinus tuberculata. 
This is a very interesting tree, having a large globular head of a 
light green colour, and very hardy. In this respect it is different 
from the plants previously cultivated under that name, and originally 
sent out by a London nurseryman. These plants had more of a tree 
growth, with thicker leaves of a dark green colour. The latter were 
entirely destroyed here during the winter of 1860-61, while Jeffrey’s 
stood uninjured on the same piece of ground. Besides the foregoing 
species of Pinus, Jeffrey also sent home seeds and cones of several 
kinds previously introduced, such as P.Lambertiana, P. monticola, P. 
Benthamiana, P. ponderosa, P. Sabiniana, and P. Coulteri. 

Jeffrey’s seeds were divided into 281 lots, and were sent all over 
Europe, and even to America. Other species of conifers than those 
here noticed may have been raised, the owners probably imagining 
that they must have been grown by other parties as well as them- 
selves. JAMES M‘NaB. 


THE DWARF ALMOND. 
(AMYGDALUS NANA.) 

Nozopy who knows Amyedalus nana will contest the fact that it 
is one of the most beautiful of early-flowering shrubs. How comes 
it, then, that it is not to be foundin every garden? The fact is the 
more surprising as it thrives in almost any soil and situation, and 
that its small size permits it to find a place anywhere—in the smallest 
garden as well as in the most extensive. It forms a bush, which in 
March and April is covered with flowers, which vary in colour from 
pale pink to a deep red. Sometimes, but rarely, there springs 
from seed a variety bearing white flowers. Of this we have sown 
the stones, but they have always reproduced a plant with red 
flowers. Others may, however, have had a different result. In 
Amygdalus nana the colour is deeper than in any of the other 
sorts; but its chief merit consists in the long time in which it 
continues in flower. It is a healthy, strong shrub, with medium- 
sized deep red flowers. It isincreased by means of seeds or suckers. 
The former should be sown in the autumn in which they are gathered, 
and the young plants will appear the following spring; im the 
autumn, such plants as are strong enongh can be put in their 
places. If this cannot be done before winter, it should be done in 
spring, before the plant commences to shoot up. Varieties which 


504 


THE GARDEN. 


jAprrin 27, 1872. 


it may be desirable to keep, ought to be multiplied by dividing the 
root, by separating the suckers, or by means of root buds. It is 
not only as an ornamental plant for private gardens that we 
recommend the cultivation of this dwarf almond, but as a market 
plant in pots. 

There are no varieties of Amygdalus nana that have double 
flowers, red and white, as is mentioned in some books. Such 
guides are apt to mislead, because not only have we never seen the 
varieties of the dwarf almond with double flowers, but all our 
colleagues to whom we have spoken have affirmed that they have 
never existed except on paper.—Revue Horticole. 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S. 
THE HEART-LEAVED HAWTHORN (CRATHGUS CORDATA). 


Tuts forms a handsome, vigorous, close-headed, small tree, 
from ten to twenty feet high, which flowers very late in the 
season, and retains the greater portion of its fine dark glossy 
leaves, and numerous clusters of small coral-like fruit on it till 
mid-winter, and in mild seasons may be termed sub-evergreen. 
It isa native of North America, where it is found plentifully in 
hedges and rocky places, from Canada to Virginia. It was first 
introduced in 1738. 

The leaves are alternate, ovate pointed, cordate at the base, 
irregularly lobed, quite smooth, of a deep shining green 
above, but pale beneath, and on long slender footstalks, and, 
according to the age and vigour of the plant, from one and a 


Group of Leaves of Crategus cordata.—Natural size, 3 tO 3} inches, 
including Footstalk. i 


half to three and a half inches long, and from one to two and 
a half inches broad, with the lobes deeply angled, largest 
towards the base, and irregularly and coarsely toothed along 
the margins. The branches are slender, deep brown, and 
sometimes furnished with a few straight spines, frequently 
more than an inch in length. The flowers are small, white, 
and produced in great abundance in the end of May and 
beginning of June, in loose, terminal, many-flowered corymbs ; 
fruit, very small, bright red, and with two or more hard bony 
seeds in each. i 

This is a very distinct and desirable kind, which is well 
suited for small gardens, or for planting singly on the lawn, 
on account of its retaining its leayes and fruit until very 
late in the season. 

Tt has the following synonyms :—Cratzgus populifolia and 
acerifolia, 


THE BLACK CYTISUS (CYTISUS NIGRICANS). 


Tuts forms a small upright deciduous shrub, from three to 
four feet high, in any good garden soil, and produces 
flowers in great profusion in June and July, and sometimes 
again in the autumn; but when grafted standard high on the 
Laburnum, it forms an elegant, compact, round head, of which 
nothing of its kind can be more beautiful in summer, when 
loaded with its long spikes of flowers, which are so brilliant 
that the eye is at once arrested by them. It is a native of 


Bohemia and Piedmont; it is perfectly hardy, and is easily 
increased either from seed, or by grafting on the common 
Laburnum. It was first introduced in 1730. The leayes are 
trifoliate, stalked, and deciduous, with the leaflets elliptic, and 
clothed with closely pressed soft hairs beneath. The branches 
are round, slender, twiggy, and downy. The flowers are pea- 
shaped, bright golden yellow, and produced in elongated, ter- 
minal, erect, simple spikes or racemes, containing from twenty 
to thirty flowers each. The calyx is downy and bractless ; the 
pods are many-seeded, downy, and black when ripe. The 
specific name “nigricans” was given to this kind on account 
of its turning black in drying. 


NOTES ON HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Trees for Churchyards.—What are the best trees for planting in 
a churchyard? JI do not wish the most desirable kinds as regards habit, 
but those that strike their roots downwards rather than horizontally.— 
EF. G. H.— Plant planes, oaks, chestnuts (both kinds), sycamores, and, 
to some extent, limes. The best deciduous trees are planes and chest- 
nuts, and the best evergreens are yew and holly.] : 


The Largest Araucarias in the British Isles.—Can you kindly 
state where I can find the finest specimens of Araucariain Britain ?—L. U- 
——The two finest we have seen are those at Woodstock, in Ireland, and 
at Dropmore. The Dropmore specimen was on January 28, 1871, fitty- 
one feet high, and five feet ten inches round at three feet from the ground, 
the spread of the branches being twenty-eight feet in diameter. It is 
taller than the Woodstock tree, but is not so large in the bole. | 

Large Copper Beeches.—I have two copper beeches I am inclined 
to be proud of. One is 50 feet 7 inches high, 10 feet 1 inch in girth at 
8 feet from the ground, and 243 feet in circumference of branches. ‘The 
other is a little taller, but not so thick in the stem. The largest tree I 
believe to be fully 200 years old. I should be glad if any of your 
ue crepe correspondents would state if they know of any larger speci- 
mens.—L. 

Prairie Planting.—Senator Hitchcock’s Bill “to encourage the 
growth of timber on the Western Prairies,’’ proposes a gift of a quarter- 
section of the public lands to any person “who shall plant, protect, and 
keep in a healthy, growing condition, for five years,”’ not less than 120 
acres of timber; provided that no more than one quarter in any section 
shall be so acquired. Moreover, any person taking a quarter-section under 
the Homestead Act shall obtain a patent therefore (without waiting five 
years for it) on due proof that he has planted not less than ten acres with 
timber, and has had the same growing not less than two years. 

The Magnolia Holly (Ilex latifolia) —We have just seen a 
specimen of this at Mr. Coombe’s, Cobham Park, which, a little distance 
off, looked exactly like one of the pyramidal specimens of Magnolia 
grandiflora that one sees in the south-west of France, and occasionally mm 
choice gardens about Paris. Itis one of the handsomest evergreens we 
have ever seen, and as unlike the common type of holly as any evergreen 
can be—the leaves being from four and a half to six inches long, not 
measuring the stalk, and from two to three inches broad. ‘The specimen 
is one of many fine trees planted at Cobham Park by Mr. Stevenson, the 
able gardener there. 


GERALD MASSEY ON “SPRING.” 


WuaeEn Spring herself is here, in vain we look 

To find her likeness pictured in a Book! 

For Memory can only catch a gleam 

Of all the glory trembling through her dream, 

As vainly, year by year, the Poets try 

To arrest the Hternal as it glimpses by 

In evanescent visibility. 

We feel so much more than we ever see: 

See so much more than we can sing or say. 

Spring comes, with all her young things all at play, 

And breathes her freshness through this life of mine, 

Freshness divinely fresh from the Divine! 

The spirit of life ascends in flame and flush, 

Thro’ every blade and blossom, briar and bush. 

As winter fires die out, so fades all thought 

Of Spring before her miracle newly wrought. 

The little slip of Spring that wavers by 

In smiling shape of the first Butterfly— 

The earliest Snowdrop, youngest Violet, 

Wear all the wonder of the first Spring yet. 

The Cuckoo comes each year with spell to start 

The blithe glad leap of Childhood in the heart: 

As fresh to-day the springing of the Lark 

As when he gusht up heavenward from the Ark. 

Wood-hyacinths quivering in a breath of blue, 

The night-bird’s old sweet song, are always new. 

Springs fleet and fade away, but Spring dies never! 

The rainbows pass ; the Rainbow lives for ever. 
—Good Words. 


— 


Aprit 27, 1872. ] 


THE GARDEN. 


505 


NATURE'S TREE-GROUPING, 


RANKS of nature are nearly always pleas- 
ing, and even symmetrical, in the highest 
sense of the term; but the pranks of art, 
except in the rare instance of being the 
aberrations of real genius, as in the case 
of Turner, for instance, are nearly always 
detestable failures. But it is more especi- 
ally in horticulture, whether landscape 
gardening or flower gardening, that the 
» eccentricities of so-called art become most 
.* offensive to the judgment of such as have 
trained their taste upon the teachings, ever 
new and ever charming, of the varying lines and 
masses and endless combinations of nature—lines and 
forms which, where least expected, are continually 
greeting the cultured eye with some kind of pleasant surprise, 
forming accidental juxtapositions of objects, such as the 
premeditated arrangements of art, can never match in the 
grace and freshness of the effect—for art is continually 


but his knows how to seize, and translate into art, with such 
unerring truthfulness. 

The litle sketch that has suggested these remarks is but a 
mere fragment—an utterly insignificant scrap—a stray shred 
of beauty from an ordinary lane and ditch, and yet it would 
be difficult, even in the most carefully planted “ grounds,” 
where art has done its utmost, and expense and skill been 
freely lavished, to find a little morceau more carelessly charming 
than this half-dozen yards of a deep-rutted lane; a spot seldom, 
if ever, seen except by the unappreciating eyes of the waggoner 
or ploughman, wending their way to the long day’s drudgery, 
without a thought about the grouping of the trees before 
them—or, perhaps, without even noticing the glorious carols of 
the lark overhead, who sings to them unheard. 

Grouping in gardens is almost entirely neglected. Although 
the writer lives in the midst of gardens, he could not find a 
group so pretty as this roadside one; and, of course, this does 
not arise from lack of material, but simply from want of 
taste and knowledge. We have ample materials in our 
gardens for forming groups in infinite variety and of the most 
charming character. ER aNTs Ele 


Tree Grouping—A Sketch from Nature. 


repeating itself; nature never. In the accompanying sketch, 
three elms, nearly in a row, two of them rising from a dark 
and tufty thicket in the corner of a field, and one from a sparse 
tangle of low brushwood outside, form, by some mysterious 
sleight-of-hand of nature, a ready-made picture—one for the 
earnest student of true effect to study and to admire; and 
then, as though it were done expressly for the purpose of com- 
pleting the picturesque combination of forms and lines, come 
three pollarded willows, each leaning its gnarled and knotted 
trunk exactly the right way to balance and give variety to 
nature’s improvised picture—a picture which is what in art 
would be called a complete composition, though it consists 
but of two self-sown elms in the hedge at the waste corner of 
a field, another on a low ridge at the side of a cart track, 
and three pollarded willows on the rough bank of a shallow 
ditch. This little picture of nature’s improvisation is one for 
even a Birket Forster to study—such a one as that truest 
delineator of English landscapes must have often lingered 
over in delicious pencil-pondering, while teaching his hand its 
fascinating power to detect the secrets of all the quiet sweet- 
ness and shaded beauty of our country lanes—which no hand 


The India-rubber Supply.—The fear lest the yield of caout- 
choue by the Brazilian forests should fail, consequent upon the 
destruction of the rubber-trees in the process of collecting the juice ; 
and the neglect of the natives to plant others, is to a certain extent 
confirmed by our Consul at Para, who, writing on the condition of 
the industrial classes in Brazil, describes the collecting of rubber as 
one of the principal occupations of the natives. ‘* An expert and 
steady Tapuzo, the class chiefly employed in extracting rubber, will 
collect about eight pounds English per day, which on an average is 
worth eight neilreis, or about 13s. 4d., i.e., 1s. 8d. per pound. Ina 
good rubber district men are known to extract even an ‘andba’ of 
rubber, or thirty-two pounds English per day; but about eight 
pounds is the average collection per man. The method of extracting 
the milk from the rubber-tree is primitive, and still more primitive 
and rude is the manner of smoking or curing the rubber milk, over 
smoke issuing from a funnel, under which is fixed an oily nut (fruits of 
Attalea and Cocos). Already the more accessible rubber districts 
are becoming very much exhausted, and give a much less yield 
than in former years, yet the rubber-bearing country is so vast that 
the constantly newly-discovered sources more than supply the 
deficiency occasioned by the exhaustion of the old. The people 
are as yet unimbued with the necessity of planting the rabber-tree 
or caring for its growth.” 


506 


THE GARDEN. 


[Avrm 27, 1872. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


ON PURE HYBRIDIZATION, OR CROSSING DISTINCT 
SPECIES OF PLANTS. 
BY ISAAC ANDERSON-HENRY, ESQ., F.L.S. 
(Continued from page 481.) 
APPEARANCES IF THE CROSS HAS SUCCEEDED. 

WE shall suppose the cross now performed. Your next anxiety 
will naturally be to find out whether it has taken. Almost all 
experimenters have noticed that soon—I would say from six to ten 
days—an alteration is observed on the stigma and style. You will 
find the viscid matter on the former dried up, while the latter has 
begun to shrivel. You will naturally conclude that it is all right, 
and that the fertilizing pollen has now passed down into the ovary, 
and in some cases you may be right. But these appearances are 
deceptive, especially if you find the style maintain an erect position. 
And singularly, as I now write, I find, on glancing at the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle of the 19th October, 1867, that this state of matters nad 
been obseryed last summer by the learned editor of that publication 
and described in his leading article of that day. He there observes, 
«We have ourselves, in following some experiments on cross-breeding 
this season, noticed that the stigma becomes changed—withered, 
almost immediately after contact with the pollen, even if no perfect 
seeds be produced.” Now that gentleman is quite right; but I 
did not note the withering effect to be just so immediate as he had 
observed it, though it might have been so in the Epilobium tribe, to 
which his experiments refer. Another effect I particularly noted 
last summer was that, in attempting to cross an Indian azalea with 
a rhododendron (which, however, in that instance failed), not only 
did the stigma and style decay, but the divisions of the calyx took 
ona purplish tint, and a honeyed secretion continued long to exude 
from the disc. Another still more misleading condition often arises, 
as is noticed in the same leading article of the Chronicle: “The 
ovary will swell, the fruit will set,in some cases without any contact 
with the pollen at all, though of course no embryo is producec Bt 
Wichura has noticed the like result, and the following degrees of 
failure noted by him have so often occurred in my own experience, 
that I cannot do better than cite them in his own words, from the 
Rey. Mr. Berkeley’s translation already alluded to, which I only 
alter according to my own experience :—Ist. The organs submitted 
to hybridization (the stigma and style) soon wither, but do not im 
all cases soon fall off. 2nd. The ovaries swell and ripen, but do not 
contain a trace of seed. 3rd. The ovaries may seem filled (I say 
may seem partially filled), having in some instances the small 
protuberant swelling outside as if seeds were within, and yet no 
seed be there. 4th. Seeds are present, but small, languid, and 
incapable of germination. 5th. Seeds apparently perfectly developed 
which do not germinate. 6th. Seeds which germinate, but the 
young plants are weak, and wither in a short time, dying off often- 
times after developing the seed-leaves. I have had all these 
conditions and results amply illustrated; and of the second of 
these results I had, last summer, mortifying proofs in a muling 
operation I tried, by fertilizing a flower of the new Arabis blepharo- 
phylla with my still newer Draba violacea. The cross, to all 
appearance, had taken; the seed-vessel swelled better than the 
others where no experiment was made, and while the valves of the 
silicules of these last opened and showed no trace of seed in them, 
the siliquas of the former remained closed, showing by outward 
development that two seeds were certainly within. But I found on 
opening the ripe seed vessels that there was no perfect seed in the 
interior, but only an abortive production. While Wichura’s accuracy 
in the above degrees of failure is consistent with what I have 
myself had ample experience of, I-cannot, from like experience, 
endorse the views he has formed on some of his successful results. 
At page 72 of the above article in the Jowrnal of the Royal Horti- 
cultwral Society, Mr. Berkeley, commenting on Wichura’s paper, 
observes :—‘ Gartner, indeed, supposes that in genera which are 
rich in species, there are some which haye a prepotent influence 
when hybridizing, so that in some hybrids the type either of the 
male or female preyails. Amongst the various hybrid willows, 
though the genus is so rich in species and so prone to hybridizing, 
Wichura has never seen a prepotent type, and doubts Gzrtner’s 
statement, especially as he makes it in very qualified terms.” Mr. 
Berkeley very judiciously remarks that it is not very easy to 
determine, ‘by examination of types, whether a hybrid is more 
like the mother or father—the perfect distinction is subject in many 
cases to great difficulties, since very much depends on the subjective 
view of the observation; for, in consequence of the frequent 


intermelting of both characters, the one observer finds in a hybrid 


the maternal type, while another thinks the paternal type prevalent.” 


By which I regard Mr. Berkeley as very modestly dissenting from 


his author. And further on, at page 78 of the same Journal, 
Wichura speaks out still more absolutely. ‘‘ When both parents,” 
says he, ‘‘belong to the same species, we cannot tell what part the 
male and female parent take respectively in the formation of the 
progeny. But dissimilar factors are united in hybrids, and an 
intermediate form is the consequence. ‘The products which arise 
from reciprocal crossing in plants, unlike those which are formed 
amongst animals, are perfectly alike.” I regret to differ from so 
great an authority as Wichura, and must venture to demur to the 
doctrine in more decided terms than Mr. Berkeley does. I have had 
so many instances of hybrids taking sometimes to one side and 
sometimes to another—but most frequently to that of the mother 
—that to those who, like myself, have made experiments with many 
genera, it would be needless to give instances. The converse is the 
rarer case—i. e., where the paternal type comes out most marked. 
Yet I remember one eminent instance of a seedling Veronica, from 
the batch of seedlings from which I obtained V. Andersonii (Y. 
salicifolia, V. speciosa), being so like the male parent Y. speciosa, 
that I presented it to a friend in the belief it was purely and simply 
the latter species ; but when it bloomed, it showed, by the longer 
spike and lighter and brighter colour of the flowers, and by their 
being a bright crimson instead of very deep purple, which is the 
colour of the flower of the Y. speciosa, that the blood of the Y. 
salicifolia was there.. I can well understand that, as respects the 
family of willows, from their being so attractive to bees, and from 
their being naturally so prone to intermix (insomuch that few can 
tell what is a species and what is a hybrid), Wichura has not much 
overstated the fact, and that a distinct intermediate form may 
generally be reckoned on. 

I must dissent still more strongly from what Wichura lays down in 
continuation of the above passage at page 78, as to reciprocal crossings. 
“The products,”’ he says, “‘ which arise from reciprocal crossing in 
plants, unlike those which are formed amongst animals, are perfectly 
alike. It is of no consequence which is the male and which the 
female parent. It is, therefore, a mathematical necessity that the 
pollen-cells must have just the same part in the act of generation 
as the oyules.”” And, based mainly on this doctrine, he follows up 
and amplifies it in a series of aphorisms which, he admits, are to be 
“considered conjectural, and require to be submitted to proof,” an 
admission for which he is to be commended, and all the more if he 
submitted to the like test the dogma on which they mainly rest. It 
humbly appears to me that his statement had been suggested from 
his experience among the Salices—of all plants the most mongrel 
in a state of nature. Now, in all this, Wichura appears to me to 
imply that if a distinct intermediate may be formed, and is formed, 
by crossing A on B, so may an exactly similar intermediate be 
reciprocated by crossing B on A. And M. Nandin, in his experi- 
ments among the Daturas, enunciates the same belief, and holds 
“that there is not a sensible difference between reciprocal hybrids of 
two species.” That distinguished observer, like Wichura, seems to 
have confined his experiments to herbaceous or soft-wooded plants. 
But, from along and large experience among both hard and soft 
wooded plants, I demur, 1st, to the capability of the parents being 
in all cases made subject to such reciprocity; and, 2nd, to the 
statement where such reciprocity does hold, that the progeny are 
perfectly alike, whether A or B supply the pollen. 

In my various crossings I haye experimented on many hard 
as well as soft wooded genera—in particular, I would here 
instance among the former the species of rhododendron. In these 
I have again and again been bafiied to reciprocate a cross which on 
one side was comparatively easy to be effected. When the lovely 
and fragrant Rhododendron Kdgeworthii first bloomed in this 
country, all were eager to see its beauty and perfume transfused 
into dwarfer and hardier forms. Some tried the cross by making R. 
Edgeworthii the female or seed-bearer, others by making it the 
male. I tried it in both ways, but all my efforts failed where I 
attempted the cross on the R. Hdgeworthii. But while it would not 
be brought to bear hybrid seed, I had no great difficulty in effecting 
a cross from its pollen on R. ciliatum, another of Dr. Hooker's 
beautiful Sikkim species haying all the desirable requisites of hardi- 
hood, dwarf habit, and free-flowering tendency; and, singularly, 
just as I had obtained and sent off blooms of this brood to lay 
before the committee of the Horticultural Society of London, 
Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, anticipated me in haying a plant of this 
identical cross first exhibited before that committee, which is now 
well-known and generally cultivated under the name of ‘‘ Rhodo- 
dendron Princess Alice.” Now, neither I nor anyone who ever 
tried it, so far as I know, ever effected the imverse cross of R. 
ciliatum on R. Hdgeworthii; and if they did, the progeny would 
long ere now have appeared in nursery catalogues. There is yet 
one other instance I may notice as an illustration of what I am now 
contending for. In my former paper I noticed, as an exception toa 


Aprit 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


507 


rule I had found almost general—viz., that European had great 
aversion to cross with Asiatic species—that I had, notwithstanding, 
effected such a hybrid by crossing R. eleagnoides (another of Dr. 
Hooker’s acquisitions, a tiny Sikkim species) on the Earopean R. 
hirsutum, and of having sent the survivor of the two plants which 
came of it to Kew, of which, by the way, Dr. Hooker writes me, 
that it dwindled away and died after being a few years in their 
hands ; but by no possible means could I invert that cross, or get 
that same very interesting tiny yellow-flowered species, R. eleagnoides 
(a form of R. lepidotum), to submit to a cross from any species 
whatever. . 

I shall now advert to the second point which Wichura lays down 
as a fact—yviz., that the progeny of reciprocal crossing, whether it 
is A on B or B onA, are precisely alike. While my past experi- 
ence goes with what I observed last summer, it may perhaps suffice 
to give the latest instance. Having, through the kindness of Dr. 
Hooker, obtained seeds of a beautiful new Californian Arabis (A. 
blepharophylla) with large fine rose-tinted flowers, I felt desirous to in- 
fuse that colour into some of the other kinds I possessed. After trying 
if on several, especially on A. albida, in vain, I at last effected a cross 
—a reciprocal cross—betweenit and A. Soyeri,a white-flowered species 
from the Pyrenees, something like A. albida, but withglabrous foliage. 
OF the cross A. Soyeri on A. blepharophylla I have raised six plants, the 
product of two very largely developed seed-pods. These plants are 
alive and healthy, and promise an improved vigour over either 
parent. That the cross was sure, I had the best proof, from there 
being no seeds in the normal pods of the seed-bearer. Of the inverse 
evoss from one weakly seed-pod I raised one plant, which, after 
maintaining a sickly existence for some two months or so, has died 
off. But while this last cross was equally certain as the others, like 
it, the plant had more of the mother than the father init. In fact, 
I have oftener found the maternal type most marked in hybrid 
progeny. I have various crosses effected between distinct species of 
rhododendron, where, while the male manifests his presence, the 
female type prevails. I have it in R. Jenkensi crossed by R. Edge- 
worthii, R. caucasicum by R. cinnamomeum, and the hybrid from 
this latter cross crossed again with R. Edgeworthii, and especially 
the Sikkim species R. virgatum crossed with another of my hybrids, 
R. ciliatum by R. Edgeworthii—all having more the foliage and the 
aspect of the mother than the father. 

T have another hybrid of the same R. virgatum, the female parent 
crossed, I believe, by Rhodothamuus chamecistus, a tiny procumbent 
plant of three inches, but all set with flower buds—not, as in the 
male parent, at the tips of the shoots, but, as in the female, at the 
axils of the leaves. I have stated my belief that the Rhodothamnus 
is the male parent, but I cannot do so confidently, from the tallies 
haying got into confusion—the specimens being planted out. But as 
some plants were obtained from that cross, and as this is the smallest, 
I regard it as likeliest to be the true progeny; and the cross being 
an extreme one—a mule, in fact, it is open to question. But as I 
have this season effected still more extreme—certainly more unlikely 
—crosses in that family, where there could be no miscarriage, you 
may, I think, take it as true in the meantime. I could overwhelm 
you with proof. Darwin, at page 333 of the last edition of his 
“Origin of Species,’ has observed the above tendency. ‘‘ When two 
species,” he says, ‘are crossed, one has sometimes a prepotent power 
of impressing its likeness on the hybrid; and so I believe it to be 
with varieties of plants.” 

Naturalists of the highest note—Gzrtner, Kolreuter, Naudin, and 
Wichura—are far from being at one on the subject of variability, as 
Darwin has shown, especially as relates to crosses, Ist, between 
species and species; 2nd, between species and varieties; and 3rd, 
between mongrel offspring. But this is a complex subject, and when 
such high authorities are not at one, and Darwin admits that he 
cannot reconcile them, it is manifest that the case is still open to 
further probation. In dealing with the views of Gertner, to whose 
testimony he deservedly accords great value (page 331), Darwin says 
that Gertner, whose strong wish “it was to draw a distinct line 
between species and varieties, could find very few, and, as it seems 
to me, quite unimportant, differences between the so-called hybrid 
offspring of species and the so-called mongrel offspring of varieties. 
And, on the other hand, they agree most closely in many im- 
portant respects. The most important distinction is, that in the 
first generation mongrels are more variable than hybrids; but 
Gertner admits that hybrids from species which have long been 
cultivated are often variable in the first generation; and I have 
myself seen striking instances of this fact. Gzrtner further admits 
that hybrids between very closely allied species are more variable 
than those from very distinct species, and this shows that the 
difference in the degree of variability graduates away. When 
mongrels and the more fertile hybrids are propagated for several 
generations, an extreme amount of variability in their offspring is 


notorious; but some few cases, both of hybrids and mongrels, long 
retaining uniformity of character could be given. The variability, 
however, in the successive generations of mongrels is, perhaps, 
greater than in hybrids.’’ So reservedly does Darwin deal with a 
subject on which the opinions of others could be brought to bear ; 
but as they are not all concurrent, and not unfrequently conflicting 
(which they may well be from the various subjects experimented on) 
he has said, with commendable moderation, all that can be said on 
the subject. 
(Lo be continued.) 


RE-GRAFTING PEARS. 

THERE has been a good deal of unsettlement in past years in the 
list of pears regarded as worthy of general cultivation, and some 
that were highly lauded at first have proved of little value. This 
may be partly owing toa difference in soil and climate, as a fruit 
which succeeds well at one place is sometimes worthless at another. 
A few that gave high promise are found to be liable to mildew and 
cracking, and they must give place to better varieties. Nearly every 
man who has now an orchard of pears, would like tochange some of his 
trees for other sorts. Fortunately, the operation of re-grafting is 
remarkably simple and easy with pear trees, and by the insertion of 
twenty grafts, more or less, on each tree, properly distributed, a new 
and perfect bearing head may be obtained in two or three years. 
Instead, therefore, of digging up and throwing out such trees as do 
not bear good pears, and leaving undesirable vacancies where they 
stood, they are readily changed to the very best. The first thing 
to do, after having secured the grafts, is to prepare the trees for 
re-grafting, by trimming the branches of most of their fruiting spurs, 
and cutting out any not wanted where they happen to be too thick. 
Then cut them off so as to form a regular pyramid, by leaving the 
bottom ones longest, and gradually tapering to the top. If the 
branches are small, they may be whip grafted, but usually they will 
be much too large and will require cleft grafting. We have seen 
large numbers of dwarf pear trees which were eight or nine years 
old when worked over, that in three years were as perfect trees and 
as abundant bearers as those which had not been thus changed. An 
active grafter will work over twenty or thirty such trees in a day, 
setting a dozen or twenty grafts on each.—Cultivator. 


ROOT GRAFTING APPLES. 


APPLES may be grafted successfully as follows: Seedlings grown 
on rich loamy soil, either one or two years old are lifted when there 
is no frost in autumn, cleaned and stored in sand, in a cellar, and 
not so damp as to be liable to mildew. The scions should consist of 
the previous summer’s growth. Cut them into four or five inch pieces, 
each having from four to six good, sound, perfectly formed buds. The 
lower end of each of these pieces should be cut, as in ordinary graft- 
ing, and the roots cut about four inches long. The best piece is the 
one at the collar. At the upper end of each piece of root make a 
vertical cut upwards, forming a flat surface into which, from 
the upper end, cut a slit forming a tongue, which will fit a correspond- 
ing slit previously made in the scion. With a little practice, anyone 
can make the bark of the scion and that of the root on the ends 
where the flat surfaces are formed fit so closely that the sap of the 
one can flow into the other and produce the granulation or healing 
process without failure. The fitting can be done so that the union 
will be quite strong; but to make the matter doubly sure, the best 
way is to tie with a string which has heen saturated with hot graft- 
ing wax. Pears, plums, and cherries, may be grafted in this way, 
only the root should be left longer, and only the collar cut used. The 
next important matter is the proper care of the grafts. I have been 
most successful by packing them upright in a shallow box, say one 
inch deeper than the grafts are long, after dipping one-half of the 
roots into a puddle made of clay and fresh cow dung, and filling up 
with sand, leaving about an inch of the scion above the surface. The 
boxes of grafts should then be stored in a dark part of the cellar 
until frost is over and the ground is quite ready to receive them.— 
American Paper. 


MINIATURE BERRY-BEARING AUCUBAS. 


A Few days since, when visiting the plantations of the Ileuriste 
de la Ville de Paris, amongst many other interesting matters, we 
observed a method employed by M. Loury, head propagator of that 
establishment, for obtaining Aucubas laden with fruit in very small 
pots. This is effected by cutting from strong plants branches 
bearing berries which haye arrived at their full size, and striking 
them as cuttings. Treated in this way in November and December, 
and even in January, in about six weeks one can have miniature 


508 


THE GARDEN. 


[Apr 27, 1872. 


plants well rooted, laden with fruit, and apparently several years 
old. We should not be surprised if this mode of propagation is 
soon practised ona large scale, and becomes the fonndation of a 
very important branch of commerce.—Revue Horticole, 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 467.) 


GrRartinc with DrtacnEeD Scrons.—GeEnerat Directions.— 
The stock is a perfect plant, or almost so, for we shall some- 
times use a branch cutting or a piece of a root. It is grown 
either where it is to remain or in the nursery, or else it may 
be grown in a pot in order to be gratted under glass with the 
air partially excluded. Perfect stocks are usually grafted where 
they are intended to remain; sometimes in the case of graftings 
made during the repose of the sup, the stocks are taken up in 
order to graft them, and laid in a trench or under a shed. 
The scion is a branch or part of a branch, bearing at least one 
eye, and from two to six inches in length. The shorter scions 
are used in the case of kinds with closely set buds or expensive 
varieties. In a cold climate they must be of a greater length. 
The scions may be taken from the parent plant, when the sap 
has gone to rest, for spring graftings; they should be kept 
then in the shade of a building or tree, with the ends buried in 
fine sand. If they are not required to be used until the sap 
begins to flow they should be kept in a cool cellar entirely 
covered with sand. Hvergreen scions should not be detached 
from the parent tree until immediately before they are grafted, 
and the leaves should be left on them. Deciduous kinds 
grafted in summer should be cut from the parent within 
twenty-four hours before grafting, and their leaves at once 
cut off. It will matter little to the success of the operation 
whether the upper bud of the scion be a terminal or a lateral 
one. A shoot if too long may be shortened, and, if required, 
may furnish several scions. In order to facilitate the joining 
and cohesion of the two parts, the scion is more or less cut at 
the base in a sloping direction or splice cut It should also be 
so placed on the stock that a bud of the latter may be on a 
level with the graft, either opposite to it or on one side, in 
order to draw the sap, and thereby promote the cohesion of 
the parts. The different sections of branch grafting are side- 
grafting, crown-grafting, grafting de precision, cleft-grafting, 
Hnglish method, and mixed grafting. 


Section I. 


Smr-Grartinc.—The term side-grafting might be applied 
to a vast number of processes of grafting in which the head 
of the stock is not cut away. But we have limited the term 
to those cases in which the scion is inserted into the side of 
the stem, or on a branch of the stock, either between the bark 
and the alburnum, or into the alburnum itself, the bark in no 
case being removed. 

SmE-GRAFTING UNDER THE Barx.—Genprat Directions.— 
When it is desired to graft a branch on the side of a stem and 
under the bark, the stock must be in a state of vegetation, 
and the operation is performed either in April or May, at the 
flow of the sap, when it is said to be done witha shooting 
bud; or from July to September, when it is termed a graft 
with a dormant bud. In the first case (with a shooting bud), 
we use scions of the previous year, which haye been laid in at 
the north side of a wall or in a cellar, to preserve their vitality, 
and the sap being in motion at the time they are used, the graft 
will develop itself in the course of the same year. In the 
second case (with a dormant bud), in which the graft will not 
develop itself until the year following, scions of the current 
year are used, cut on the day of grafting. If they are deci- 
duous kinds, the leaves are cut off. We have said before, that 
scions of evergreens should not be cut till the last moment, 
and are not to be stripped of their leaves. In both of these 
methods the tops of branches with a terminal bud form excel- 
lent scions. We know two systems of side-grafting under 
the bark, one in which the scion isa piece of a branch pure 
and simple; in the other, it is a branch cut from the parent, 
with a heel or strip attached to the base—Chales Baltet’s 
“LArt de Greffer.” 

(To be continued.) 


and £.\s. d. would work well together. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


GLASS AND IRON COPING FOR FRUIT WALLS. 


IneEveRbefore registered such a day as Sunday last, April 21st, with 
the pears, plums, cherries, gooseberries, currants, and raspberries in 
full flower, and the snow quite covering the flowers and foliage for a 
few hours. The morning commenced dull, with a frosty north-east 
breeze, and soft snow began falling at nine a.m., which continued for 
four hours, covering the ground to the depth of aninch. Heavy rain 
afterwards set in, and when it cleared up in the afternoon, the 
melted snow and rain registered one inch and twenty-one parts by the 
rain gauge. The effect of such weather on the blossoms of fruit 
trees must be very injurious, and shows that in our fickle climate 
means of protection must be taken by all gardeners so as to have a 
supply of wall fruit every year. The glass and iron coping. to fruit 
walls, of which you gave illustrations last week (p.476), seems 
to me to be an excellent mode of answering such a purpose, and with 
the coping converted into a regular fruit house, ib must be still more 
effectual. A south wall covered with such a coping would be just 
the situation in which to set good crops of apricots; and then, by 
covering them with the glass lights in the summer, fruit could behad 
of the finest flavour and size. The apricot, it is well known, will 
not bear forcing much, or set its fruit well, unless it has plenty of 
dry spring air wafting amongst its blossoms in February and March. 
The permanent glass erection manufactured by the same company, 
named their expanding fruit house, is evidently another excellent 
plan for preserving the most choice and valuable of our wall fruit. 
Having had the management of a similar erection for some time, I 
can speak from experience of the many uses to which such cases can 
be put, such as’ growing salads in winter and hardening off bedding 
plants in the spring, as wellas growing the finest peaches, nectarines, 
plums, and cherries in the summer. 


Welbeck, Worksop, Notts. WiLtiamM TILLERY, 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S FRUIT 
COMMITTEE. 


WHEN this was first formed, I, among others, thought we should 
gain some practical information from it; but, except to the few who 
have opportunities of attending its meetings, it is a blank. I 
remember committees being formed all over the country for the 
purpose of naming fruits and obtaining general information 
respecting them, but now we never hear a word about them, a 
fact which leads one to suppose that they have been broken up. I 
remember a certain worthy doctor at Turnham Green once telling 
me that science and £.s. d. would never agree, but that practice 
The latter, therefore, being 
the order of the day, I say practical information is the sort wanted. 


Now; for me to foreshadow anything like a comprehensive plan by 


which this object might be attained, would be assuming more than 
T have a right to do; nevertheless I may perhaps be allowed to throw 
out a few hints for the consideration of the fruit committee. What we 
cultivators as a class want to know is this, What kinds of fruit do 
best, and what sorts are unsatisfactory, in different localities? This 
surely might be got at by the Society instructing its pomological 
director to make a tour (but not by rail) throughout the country 
in different directions, and publishing the result. For example, 
Flemish Beauty Pear is really good at Chiswick, while at Arundel 
it is perfectly useless; on the other hand, Beurré d’Aremberg is 
bad at Chiswick, but first-class at Arundel, At Frogmore, Knight’s 
Monarch is perfection itself, but at Blackmore, Essex, though in 
the best soil I ever put a spade in, it is simply useless. At Thoresby, 
in Nottinghamshire, Winter Nelis does well, while here it refuses 
to grow larger than a walnut, and is quite useless in flavour. At 
York, Swan’s Egg is very fine, while in the south of England it is 
bad. The same holds good with Apples and other fruits. I may 
be told that, as gardeners, we ought to know all abont these matters. 
So we do in our own localities ; but we are such a migrating race that 
to day we are here, while ina month we may be one hundred miles 
away, and be called upon at once by our new employer to replant 
or make new fruit gardens—a critical matter when we are strange 
to the locality. If the information was given the necessity for 
which I have so imperfectly tried to point out, we should be in a 
better position to fulfil such a duty as that just alluded to. Much 
might be done in the matter by gardeners themselves, if we could 
only persuade them to state their experiences in reference to the 
fruits they find to succeed best; but so many say, “I cannot write”; 
to such let me say, Fear not, give the Editor of THr GanrpDEN 
your ideas, and leaye the rest to him. R. Gizwert, Burghley. 


Aprit 27, 1872.) 


509 


ASRECT.S OF. VEGETATIGN: 


MADAGAS 

Our gardens are indebted to the Rey. Wm. Ellis, of Hod- 
desdon, for two fine kinds of Angrawcum, viz., A. superbum, a 
fine variety of A. eburneum, bearing blooms of large size, and 


of ivory whiteness; 
and A. sesquipedale, 
a wonderful plant, 
certainly one of the 
finest of its class. 
The way in which 
these and some 
other orchids grow 
in Madagascar is 
thus described by 
Mr. Ellis :— 
“Orchids were 
abundant, and often 
occupied positions in 
which the growers of 
these plants in Eng- 
land would little ex- 
pect to find them, but 
in which they gaye an 
indescribable singula- 
rity and charm to the 
landscape. The limo- 
dorums were numerous 
in parts of the road, 
and formed quite a 
ball of interlaced roots 
at the base of the 
bulbs. Asmallspecies, 
resembling in habit 
and growth the Cama- 
rotis purpurea, but 
quite unknown to me, 
and bearing a vast 
profusion of white and 
sulphur tinted flowers, 
often enlivened the 
sides of the road along 
which we passed. But 
the angreecums, both 
A. superbum and A. 
sesquipedale were the 
most abundant and 
beautiful. I noticed 
that they grew most 
plentifully on trees of 
thinnest foliage, and 
that the A. sesquipe- 
dale was seldom, if 
ever, seen on the 
ground, but grew high 
up amongst the 
branches, often throw- 
ing outlongstraggling 
stems terminating in 
a few small, and often 
apparently shrivelled, 
leaves. The roots also 
partook of the same 
habit. They were 
seldom branched or 
spreading, but long, 
tough, and _ single, 
sometimes running 
down the branch or 
trunk of a tree, be- 
tween the fissures in 
the rough bark, to the 


length of twelve or fifteen feet ; and so tough and tenacious that it 


THE GARDEN. 


JAR ORCHIDS. 


WAS as 
ant 


Ss 


Strichnos Tree, with Orchids (Angraecum superbum) growing on the Trunk and Branches. 
Sago Tree (Cycas circinalis) in the distance. 


its tough roots down the trunk to the moist parts of the vegetation 
on the ground. I found one decayed tree lying on the ground 
almost overgrown with grass and ferns, on the rotten trunk of which 
the A. sesquipedale was growing most luxuriantly. The roots which 
had penetrated the soft trunk of this dead tree were white and fleshy, 
while the leaves were longer and comparatively soft and green. 
There were neither flowers nor flower-stalks on any of the plants 


growing in the rich 
vegetable mould fur- 
nished by this old 
dead tree. 


“ The habits of the 
superbum were quite 
different. Of these 
the fleshy roots formed 
a sort of network at 
the base of the bulb. 
During the journey I 
occasionally noticed 
both kinds growing 
not only on _ the 
branches of living 
trees, but very often 
high up on the bare 
barked trunks of the 
dead trees. Some- 
times in the angle 
formed by the junc- 
tion of an arm with 
the trunk of a large 
naked tree, apparently 
without a fragment of 
bark adhering to the 
trunk, a bunch of 
moss, or a cluster of 
orchids, or both min- 
gled together, would 
be growing apparently 
with great vigour, 
and often in full 
flower. More than 
one tall bare trunk, 
twelve or eighteen 
inches in diameter, 
and thirty feet high, 
stood surmounted, or 
surrounded near its 
summit, by a cluster 
of angracums, with 
their long, sword. 
shaped, fleshy leaves; 
or, what was more 
beautiful still, a fine 
specimen of some 
species of birds-nest 
fern. The contrast 
between the white, 
shining, barkless 
trunk, and these ver- 
dant clusters of plants 
on the top, was some- 
times very striking ; 
especially as the 
orchids were often in 
flower, and by their 
growth altogether 
suggested the idea 
that by the decay of 
their own roots a 
receptacle was formed 
for the moisture or 
the rain by which the 
plant was nourished. 
This combination of 
life and death, growth 


and decay, presented one of the most singular amongst the many, to 


required considerable force to detach or break them. Many of these me, new and curious aspects of nature which my journey afforded.” 


plants were in flower; and, notwithstanding the small, shrivelled 
appearance of the leaves, the flowers were large, and the yellow 
On more than. one occasion I saw a 
splendid Angrsecum sesquipedale growing on the trunk of a decaying 
or fallen tree, as shown in the accompanying engraving, and sending 


colour strongly marked. 


In some parts of Madagascar numbers of Orchids are to be 
found growing luxuriantly in most picturesque positions. 

Weare indebted to Mr. Ellis’s interesting work, “Madagascar 
Revisited,” for our excellent illustration of tropical vegetation. 


510 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 27, 1872. 


SOMERLEYTON GARDENS, SUFFOLK. 
(Continued from page 490.) 


Let us advert once more to the glasshouses at this fine place. 
Their elegance as regards construction will be made apparent 
by our illustrations, and it will be seen that they are amply 
ornamented with statuary. Amongst the conservatory corri- 
dors, of which there are several, the one we have selected for 
illustration is perhaps the most striking, It is a hundred feet 
long, and of proportionate height and width, terminating with 
a noble statue, of which we have given a separate illustration 
somewhat magnified. Grand and costly statuary, indeed, forms 
a conspicuous feature in the embellishment of this princely 
establishment; for, look where you may, your eyes are sure to 
rest on some magnificent work of art of this kind; nor is this 
the case in the conservyateries only, for in the flower gardens, 
pleasure grounds, and, in 
fact, everywhere in the 
immediate vicinity of the 
mansion, statues abound. 
An elegant drapery of 
climbing plants, it will be 
seen, decorates the pillars, 
trellises, and arches of the 
corridors in such a natural 
and enchanting way as to 
set their beauties off to 
excellent advantage. All 
the climbers here are ~ 
grown in borders, where 
their roots are allowed to 
ramble comparatively un- 
restrained, a plan greatly 
superior to that of con- 
finng them in _ pots. 
‘Vases, some sixty or so 
in number, tastefully 
filled with suitable plants, 
also. give additional 
charms to this structure. 
The seats which line the 
side of the corridor, as 
seen in the illustration, 
may be either used as 
resting spots or as stands 


glazed in the ordinary flat manner, are on the ridge and 
furrow system; but as this system exposes the roof more to 
the action of wind than a flat surface, it is not considered so 
good as ordinary glazing. These houses are divided, like the 
others, into various compartments, each being devoted to the 
culture of vines and peaches, under the shade of which bedding- 
plants, &c., are grown. The vines are mostly young, and very 
promising. Their roots are planted imside the house, the 
borders for which are separated from one another by means of 
slates, which divide them into separate compartments from the 
surface to the drainage, so that no communication whatever 
exists between the roots of different sorts. By this means 
should any accident befall one plant, the root could be examined 
and, if necessary, removed, and the border renewed without any 
damage being done to the others. The peach houses in this 
range are filled with some fine old trees in capital condition, 
and loaded with fruit. 
One division alone is 
filled by Noblesse peach 
trees, the others are 
planted with Royal 
George, Late Admirable, 
Téton de Venus, and 
other peaches, together 
with various kinds of 
nectarines. Both sides of 
the west wall are covered 
with fruit trees. At the 
back of the north wall 
are the mushroom houses, 
and other buildings 
usually to be found there. 
A few yards farther 
north are ranges of 
forcing pits for asparagus, 
pines, salads, and other 
vegetables; also for bed- 
ding plants. These pits 
are all heated by hot- 
water pipes. 

Contiguous to this is 
an apple orchard of about 
two acres in extent, in 
which the trees bear heavy 
crops of good fruit. The 


for pots or vases. 

The Palm House is 
entered through a noble 
archway, in front of which 


ground is uncropped with 
any kind of vegetable; 
but nevertheless it is dug 


every year, and through- 


is a magnificent marble 


out the summer kept neat 


statue of “ Hymen,” by 


and clean by means of the 


Byrtvém. Behind this 


hoe and rake. Close 


fine piece of sculpture 


will be seen the tall and 


practised here as in 


graceful forms of Dracz- 


many places, for Mr. Hop- 


nas and Palms, together 


kirk, the gardener, con- 


with other types of a 
noble and luxuriant vege- 
tation. The Palms are 
clothed with a fine and 
healthy foliage, and even those whose pots are raised some 
feet above the ground are well furnished with leaves. 

The kitchen garden is devoted solely to the production of 
vegetables and herbs, with the exception of a herbaceous 
border along both sides of the centre walk. It contains no 
fruit trees, for which provision is made elsewhere. In size it 
is a little over an acre, and is surrounded on all sides by high 
brick walls. The whole of the south aspect of the wall on 
the south side of the garden is coyered with glass, under which 
peaches and nectarines are grown. This house is crossed in 
the centre by a walk which runs through it at that point into 
the kitchen garden. Its front has a height of six or seyen feet, 
and has a wide trellis inside, on which the trees are trained ; 
the back is also covered with fruit trees. The west side of the 
east wall is covered with lean-to houses, in which vines and 
figs are grown to perfection. The south side of the north 
wall is also coyered by lean-to houses, which, instead of being 


Somerleyton Gardens.—Corridor in Winter Garden. 


siders that by otherwise 
carefully attending to the 
trees, removing from 
them useless and un- 


| productive branches, and keeping them in a condition easy 


of access for fruit gathering—a method similar to that pursued 
by the market gardeners—he reaps a more plentiful harvest 
than by otherwise using the knife so severely as is generally 
done. Apart from this is a pear orchard of about an acre, 
which is also similarly treated. 

Seldom have we seen peach trees more promising than 
those in this establishment, in which there are some yery old 
trees; one of these is planted near the middle of a division of 
one of the fruit houses, and its branches are trained in all 
directions along the roof. completely filling the house. The 
next compartment is occupied by three trees, one in the middle 
and two in the front of the house; these old trees are loaded 
with fruit, notwithstanding a heavy thinning to which they 
haye been subjected. Pine-apples are grown here in frames, 
in which bottom heat is supplied by means of hot-water pipes. 
One set of frames is deyoted to fruiting plants, another to 


pruning is not so much | 


Aprit 27, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


511 


succession plants, and a third to suckers; and seldom have 
we seen piants in finer condition, or producing better flavoured 
fruit. The furthest advanced of these are now approaching 
maturity. The kinds grown for winter use are the smooth- 
leaved Cayenne and Black Jamaica; those for summer con- 
sumption are confined to the Queen variety, off which Mr. 
Hopkirk obtains annually a heavy crop of large and fine fruit. 
Through the liberality of the proprietor, these-gardens are 
open to the public every Wednesday throughout the year. 


THE SIX OF SPADES, 

CHAPTER XI. 

The President's Lecture—(continued). 

Axp now must I confess, with a blush upon my cheek as 
deeply crimson as Senateur Vaisse, well described in the 
Rose Catalogues as “in- 
tensely glowing scarlet,” 
that for some fifteen years 
of my existence I walked 


these schools have their garden as well as their playground ? 
and why should not those who will hereafter have gardens of 
their own be instructed in that happiest and most useful of 
all sciences, horticulture? What arts could be better worth 
learning than those of making our homes beautiful, of pro- 
viding ourselyes with a never-failing source of innocent 
gratification, and of supplying to those around us the continual 
refreshment of delicious fruits, with a healthful abundance of 
those vegetables, which are adjuncts, as excellent as they are 
economical, to every man’s daily food. 

From these plaints you will infer, my friends, that I had 
small encouragement in my earlier years to foster my first love 


_of flowers, and that I received no instruction whatever in the 


gentle craft of the spade. Once or twice during my schoolhood 
the old light emitted a feeble ray, and I was so far illumined 
on a special occasion as to lay out ninepence on a Fuchsia. It 
was received, I recollect, 
on its arrival from the 
nursery, with a great pre- 
fession of regard and ad- 


“this goodly frame, the 
earth,” with about as 
lively an appreciation of 
the beauties of a garden 
as may be supposed to 
be experienced by a col- 
lared eel. Abruptly and 
completely, likea coquette 
deserting a baronet for a 
peer, I transferred my 
affections from Flora to 
Pomona, and _ became 
miserably oblivious of all 
flowers pleasant tothe eye, 
in my absorbing greedi- 
ness of all fruits, which 
I erroneously supposed 
to be good for food. 

I have not, my dear 
Brother Spades, I as- 
sure you, oue unkindly 
thought against apples; I 
haye not a detrimental 
remark to make against 
gooseberries, however 
green. Childhood, I know, 
will distend its little self, 
boyhood will fill its large 
pockets, and youth must 
have its fling (at the pear 
tree), whatever age may 

reach. For myself, so 
ar from sermonizing, I 
thoroughly admire that 
magnificent digestion, 
which is no longer mine ; 
I fondly desiderate that 
glorious palate, for which 
no Magnum Bonum was 
too unripe ; and I mourn- 
fully envy those noble grinders, which were not afraid to 
grapple even with the peach’s iron stone. 

But while I speak approvingly of this early fondness for fruit, 
and say of it, as Sam Weller said of kissing the pretty house- 
maid, that “it’s Natur, ain’t it?” I see no reason why a 
fondness of flowers should not be developed contemporane- 
ously, or why in childhood and boyhood, and in many cases 
throughout manhood too, the sense of sight aud of smell should 
minister only, so far as gardening is concerned, to the gratifica- 
tion of our tongues and throats, and cease to co-operate with 
the heart and brain. Why should not that love of the beautiful, 
which is innate in every exile from Eden, be encouraged by our 
pastors and masters, with as much care and attention as the 
Greek grammar? Why should not our schools—and there are 
many, thank heaven, in which refinement of taste is no longer 
derided, and where it is no longer considered effeminate to 
ayow an admiration of the works of God—why should not 


Somerleyton Gardens.—Statue at end of Corridor in Winter Garden. 


miration from several of 
the bigger boys, and they 
proceeded at once to de~ 
monstrate their affection 
by administering avariety 
of liquid manures, suchas 
blacking, sour beer, and 
mustard, which they as- 
sured me, on the authori- 
ties of gardeners at home, 
who had made the Fuchsia 
their special study, would 
cause an immediate and 


gigantic growth. But 
when they proceeded, 
“according” (so they 


said) “to the invariable 
practice at Kew Gardens, 
and to the principles laid 
down by Dr. Lindley,” to 
distribute a fire shovel of 
hot cinders around my 
poor little plant, credulity 
gave place to bitter tears ; 
and though I had the 
subsequent satisfaction of 
definitely discomfiting in 
five roundsayoung gentle- 
man, who thought to im- 
prove the occasion by ad- 
dressing measa “sniffing 
softy,” I took heart no 
moreduring my scholastic 
term, to exhibit single 
specimens in pots. 

In the groves of Acade- 
mus (to use that beautiful 
diction, which is a trifle 
more appropriate to the 
groves of Blarney) there 
prevailed, floriculturally speaking, as remarkable a dearth 
as dreariness. Beneath the trees of those renowned 
plantations, which dip their metaphorical branches in the 
limpid waters of Isis and of Cam, we grew nothing but Scarlet 
Runners (undergraduates in hunting costume, swiftly darting 
from quadrangle and cloister to avoid collegiate and proctorial 
authorities) ; a few Stocks (the freshmen wore them, when 
there was not the same connection as now between a Buckle 
and Civilization); and a large assortment of Bachelors’ Buttons 
(straps being the fashion in those days, and wrist-studs 
unrevealed). 

We attended, it is true, with a prompt punctuality the 
flower shows in “ Worcester” Gardens, and no one could gaze 
more earnestly than we did upon those very delicate Roses and 
Tulips, which require the protection of a bonnet. We came 
away, moreover, with quite a longing for Heartsease, and were 
ourselves most perfect examples of Sensitive Plants and of 


512 


THE GARDEN. 


(Aerin 27, 1872 


Love-lies-bleeding. But all this im figure, and that figure a 
cipher. We never looked at the flowers, nor thought of them ; 
and when I was asked by a floral friend whether I had 
seen that lovely Polly-anthus, I urged him, to his grand 
amusement, to point out at once the beauteous Mary, and, if 
possible, to introduce me. I never met him afterwards, but he 
had something facetious, as he supposed, to say in reference to 
my mistake, “Should I like to know the fair Hannah- 
Gallis, the charming Carry-Opsis, the celebrated Miss-Em- 
bryanthemum, the two great heiresses Miss Mary-Gold and 
Miss Annie-Money? Had I seen anything latterly of John- 
Quil, Bill-Bergia, or Stephen-Otis; of my Scotch friend, 
Mac-Ranthus, or my Irish friend, Phil-O’Dendron ?” . 

And go, sans ears, sans eyes, sans nose, I wandered, flower- 
less, through a flowery world. Some, perhaps, may tell me 
that it was better so; that boyhood should find its recreations 
in active games, and 
youth in the sports of 
the field; and that flori- 
culture is incompatible 
with that hardy phy- 
sical training, which 
hereafter is to make the 
man. But I designate 
this doctrine humbug. 
Why should a boy be less 
brave or strong, if taught 
to appreciate the beautiful 
things about his daily 
path? or why should 
youth ride more timidly 
tohounds, because it hada 
flower in its coat? There 
is a time for all things. 
A time totend some grace- 
ful plant, as well as to 
kick a foot-ball; a time to 
store the heart with gentle 
attachments and refined 
tastes, as well as to run 
and row; atimeto develop 
the intellectual as well as 
the physical powers. 

At length, to revert to 
my own history, a 
brighter morn dawned 
upon my darkness. A 
single star, twinkling in 
the firmament, first told 
the advent of a jocund 


tragedy, I “remember to have heard a clock strike in my 
infancy—I am overcome—I burst into tears—and become a 
virtuous and exemplary character for ever afterwards.” 

Sitting in the garden one summer’s evening with cigar and 
book, and looking up from the latter, during one of those 
vacant moods in which the mind, like the Jolly Young Water- 
man, is absorbed in “thinking about nothing at all,” my eyes 
rested on arose. It glowed in the splendour of the setting sun 
with such an intense and burning crimson, the tints of vivid 
scarlet gleaming amid the purpler petals, as light in jewels or 
in dark red wine, that I shall never lose my first admiration 
for rose D’Aguesseau (Gallica), although, haying accomplished 
the mission entrusted to her by Flora for my restoration, she 
has never since appeared in my rosarium im such resistless 
beauty. But I ever think fondly of my first fair love, 
remembering among a thousand charmers the darling of my 
early youth, as the heart 
of man is prone. Blue- 
beard himself, I do not 
doubt, was wont some- 
times to muse with special 
satisfaction upon the fas- 
cination of that young 
lady on: whom he first 
lavished his affections and 
subsequently tried his 
carving-knitfe. 

The next evening found 
me in my accustomed 
seat, but my cigar was 
exchanged for a pencil, 
with which I was making 
careful notes, and my 
book was ‘ Rivers on the 
Rose.’ This dear little 
Red Book, couleur de Rose, 
so earnestly, so gracefully 
written in a language 
which, as Lord Macaulay 
says of Livy’s, is “always 
fresh, always sweet, al- 
ways pure” (he might 
have been describing a 
rose)—this guide to ama- 
teurs, which has brought 
so much happiness to the 
neophyte, so much in- 
struction to the learner, 
so many glad memories 
and genial sympathies to 


day; and that star, my 


all rose-growers, quite 


friends, was—a Rose! 


completed my conversion. 


In that pleasant manual 


there is a hearty, loyal 


CHAPTER XII. 


fondness for the theme, a 


The President's Lecture— 
(continued). 

As a look, a gesture, a 

picture, a song, a perfume, 

may suddenly transport 


Somerleyton Gardens.—Entrance of Palm Stove. 


the mind to things and thoughts, forgotten half a life, so | 


did this rose, a Salvator Rosa to me, at once revive that early 
fondness for flowers, which had slept, as paralysed as Merlin in 
the oak, since my childhood langhedamong the cowslips. The 
ice broke with an instantaneous crash, and set the river free; 
the fog disappeared before that single sunbeam as swiftly as 
the spectre army which beleaguered the walls of Prague; and 
it was summer-tide once more. Anatomists tell us of 
cases in which the brain, accidentally injured, or otherwise 
oppressed, has been relieyed after long incapacity, and its 
powers restored; we have an account, for example, in the 
Edinburgh Review, and in an article upon “ Brain Difficulties,” 
of a young gentleman whose sagacity was considerably 
enhanced by a well-timed kick from a horse; and so was I on 
an analogous principle successfully trepanned by Dr. Rose, and 
my floral apprehension again put in working order. The 
clock struck only one, but, like the remorseful villain in the 


a truthfulness of deserip- 
tion, which cannot fail to 
charm. It seems to say, 
with the perfumed earth 
in the Persian fable, “I 
am not the rose; but cherish me, for we have dwelt 
together ;” and there is fragrance as of roses among its leaves. 
There can hardly be a treatise with less affectation and super- 
fluity, so genuine, explicit, and natural, and so exact a transcript 
of the man from whom it comes, that when I made his 
acquaintance, some years after my transformation, he exactly 
verified my expectations, and it was like meeting with au old 
and valued friend. 

~ And thus I discovered, if not ‘* books in the running brooks,” 
a most fascinating volume in the Rivers of Hertfordshire, and 
in I plunged, as keen as Cassius (to Czsar’s unspeakable 
disgust), and as eagerly as a hot schoolboy taking ‘a header” 
into his fayourite pool, truant, it may be, and destined after 
his ablutions to the coarsest kind of towelling, but for the time 
as oblivious of all the ills which the fleshier part of youth is 
heir to, as though he bathed in Lethe. And just as this amphi- 
bious juvenile will emerge from time to time and diversify his 


Aprit 27, 1872,} 


THE GARDEN. 513 


ooo SES —E&_E——EE 


sport by a periodical canter in the flowery mead, so I quitted 
my Rivers at intervals, and wandering among my roses (I had 
but a dozen then) tendered my tardy but devoted allegiance. 
Or as a pupilat Dotheboys Hall would be requested, after 
spelling the word “horse,” to go and clean the quadruped in 

uestion, so I went from description to reality, first studying 
the portraits in my Book of Beauty, and then doing homage to 
those fair originals, born, or rather budded, so long to blush 
unseen, and waste their sweetness on my father’s heir. How 
delighted I was, first to read, and then to have ocular proof, 
that Boula de Nanteuil was a “standard of excellence ” (mine 
was only a half standard, but let that pass); that Kean was 
“always beautiful, in size first-rate, a in shape perfection ” 
(Mrs. Kean herself conld not wish for a more flattering 
portrait) ; that Coupe d’Hébé was “ the gem of the family,” an 
there, sure enough, I found her, a cup for the gods and 
jewelled with dewdrops ; and howdisappointed I felt asI read 
that Madame Laffay “ ought to be in every garden,” but could 
not find herin mine, soon consoling myself, however, in the 
presence of Baronne Prevost and Duchess of Sutherland, and, 
on the whole, as well pleased with my new friends as was the 
author of my book when, one morning in June, looking over 
the first bed of roses he had ever raised from seed, he saw 
growing with great vigour one of the very very few good roses 
then originated in England, and subsequently called, perhaps 
because robust in habit as poor Brummel’s “ fat friend,” 
Rivers’s George the Fourth. 

If this account of my resuscitation—if the suddeness 
with which I cracked the cocoon of my grubship and came 
out a rose-loving butterfly, appear to any of my hearers 
to be too severe a test of their implicit confidence in the 
narrator (in coarser English, “a corker”), I have testimony at 
hand to confirm my statements, and Mr. Evans is here, like 
the statue of Horatius, “to witness if I lie.” He will readily 
recall his great astonishment when I first began to speak to 
him of flowers; how he smiled encoyragingly upon me asa 
mother upon the baby just “ beginning to take notice” (“ bless 
it!” exclaims mamma; “it’s worth a million a minute!” and 
nurse immediately follows with, ‘‘ Yes, mum, two !’’); and how 
he would gaze upon me with an expression of kindly hope, as 
though he were some good physician, watching in his patient 
the first symptoms of recovery from delirious fever. He will 
recollect how rapidly our rosarium spread, since, as the Poet 
of the Seasons sings— 

“ By swift degrees the love of Nature works, 

And warms the bosom, till at last sublimed 

“To rapture and enthusiastic heat,”’ 
until it finally invaded the kitchen garden, and drove out the 
Asparagus at the point of the digging-fork; and he will rejoice 
with me in remembering the time when our _ hostilities 
terminated ; when Mars was to influence us no more, although 
that deity, according to Hesiod, was the son of a flower, and 
not of a gun, as one would be more disposed to imagine ; when 
we turned our bayonets into pruning-knives, our swords into 
scythes, our mortars into garden rollers, our helmets into 
flower-pots, our uniforms into shreds for the wall-trees, and 
our trumpet of war into a bird-tenter’s horn. S. R. H. 


(To be continued.) 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 

Srecimen plants of Hedaromas, Chorozemas, Azaleas, &c., are now 
being retarded or advanced, so as to suit the purposes for which they 
are intended. Pelargoniums for exhibition are being trained into 
proper form, and placed on inyerted pots so as to be fully under the 
influence of light. As they are usually grown in small pots com- 
pared with the size of the plants, the pots are placed on a little 
damp moss, which serves to keep the roots in a moist condition ; 
a little manure water is also given them occasionally. To Heaths 
abundance of air is given on all favourable opportunities. Erica 
Massoni, a fine Heath, is apt to produce a quantity of young shoots 
in the centre, which require thinning, for if too thick, mildew is 
likely to be generated; the thinnings make cuttings, which strike 
root more freely than the points of better placed shoots. Allamandas 


are being trained round trellises or stakes. Stephanotis and 
Dipladenias are plunged in cocoa-nut fibre, and their young shoots 
are trained to thread fastened crossways to the roof of the stove ; 
under this comparative freedom they grow better than when tied to 
trellises. When the shoots have attained sufficient length and set 
their flowers, the threads are cut, and they are then trained around 
the trellises, which are thus furnished at once with flowers and 
foliage. In retarding Phalenopsis it is customary to pinch out the 
first flower spikes, a mode of management which answers very well 
in the case of P. amabilis, but P. Schilleriana seldom pushes again 
after the first pinching, a point worth the attention of beginners 
in orchid culture. 

Pits and Frames.—Dahlias separated from the parent tubers, 
and haying good roots, are planted out in cold frames in good light 
rich soil, sashes or mats being placed over them; they are kept close 
for a time, and afterwards gradually exposed. Cannas started in 
heat are placed in frames, and kept rather close for atime. Young 
Chrysanthemum plants are shifted as they require it, kept near the 
glass in cold frames, well watered, and have the sashes drawn off 
altogether in fine weather. Balsams are never allowed to become 
pot bound ; on the contrary, as they advance in growth, they are kept 
regularly shifted ; the best place for them being pits or frames heated 
with dung and leaves ; air is given on favourable occasions by tilting 
up the sashes at front and back, and even during mild nights they 
are left about half an inch open at the back. Half-hardy annuals 
sown in pots, pans, boxes, or broadcast in frames, are thinned, and 
the thinnings are used for transplanting ; air is freely admitted, and 
water plentifully but carefully supplied, especially in the case of 
Stocks, which are liable to damp off. Cinerarias for late flowering 
are kept as cool as possible. Calceolarias are now throwing up 
flower spikes, and are neatly staked. Of Cinerarias some seeds are 
now sown, and from the earliest bloomed plants offsets are obtained, 
which are separated, preserving the small rootlets, and potted in 
sixty sized pots, kept in cold frames, rather closely shaded for a 
time, but after they have taken root fully exposed. Bedding plants 
in frames are being hardened as the weather permits, and where 
time and convenience can be spared, where three or four Geraniams 
were placed in a pot they are shaken ont and potted singly. Ver- 
benas, if not required for producing more cuttings, are also placed in 
cold frames. Boxes for window decoration are filled with various 
plants, and established in gentle heat. 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Evergreens newly planted 
are copiously watered and mulched. Hollies and Rhododendrons 
continue to be transplanted, lifting with them good balls of soil. 
Preparation is being made for the sammer display of bedding plants 
by edging, manuring, and digging beds that have not been filled with 
spring plants. Much manure is not wanted, except the ground is 
yery poor; but fresh maiden loam and leaf mould are sometimes 
beneficial. Succulents, such as Echeverias, Sedums, and Semper- 
yivums are planted around small beds as edgings, &c. Plants of 
Saponaria calabrica sown and reared on wall borders are trans- 
planted where they are to remain for blooming. Sweet Peas, 
Nasturtiums, and Tropzolum canariense raised in pots and boxes 
ae also transplanted permanently. These are likewise raised on 
sheltered borders, as are also many kinds of Everlastings. Stocks 
and Asters are now sown on warm south borders for transplanting ; 
should there be any danger of frost, branches of evergreen bushes, 
mats, &c., are placed over them. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—Pines now receive plenty of water 
and heat; the fruit is tied neatly to stakes, and where size is looked 
for, all suckers as they appear are removed. Grapes colouring have 
the atmosphere kept rather drier thanordinary. Thinning, stopping, 
and tying of Vine shoots are attended to, and inside borders are 
particularly guarded against getting too dry. To Figs swelling, 
abundance of water is given. Peaches past the stoning period are 
thinned to the required distances apart. Strawberries ripening fruit 
are kept somewhat dry ; to those swelling, a little manure water is 
given, and those in flower have the hand passed gently over the 
trusses occasionally to assist fertilization. As soon as the soil of 
Melon beds is filled with roots, they are topdressed, packing the soil 
firmly, and placing over it an inch of loose mould. Overcrowding 
of shoots or foliage is prevented by thinning, and single flowers are 
not allowed to set; on the contrary, all are removed until a fair 
crop can be set at once. Cucumbers are not permitted to bear too 
heavy a crop at one time; thinning and surfacing, as for Melons, 
are being carried into effect, except that the compost used is not so 
firmly packed, and is of a richer and more open character than that 
for Melons. Vegetable Marrows are sown, and some are ready for 
transplanting permanently. Tomatoes continue to be potted and 
hardened off. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department.—tIn 
some cases the disbudding of Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees 


514 


THE GARDEN. 


[Aprin 27, 1872. 


has commenced; protection from frosts cannot yet be dispensed 
with, and great care is exercised to guard against strong sunshine 
in the mornings after frost, as much damage is sometimes done by 
brisk sunshine at that time. As a protection against the attacks of 
green fly, the trees are now and then syringed with tobacco water. 
Double-bearing Raspberries are cut down to within a few inches of 
the ground, to encourage autumn fruitfulness. Asparagus beds for 
the present have all their produce ent, 7.e., none are allowed to run 
up, except perhaps here and there a stem or two for seed. Full 
sowings are now made of Salsafy, Scorzonera, and Skirret, in lines 
a foot apart. A few seeds of White Dutch, and of red and white 
stone Turnips are now sown. Round-leayed Spinach is sown between 
limes of Peas and in open spaces amongst other crops. A late crop 
of Carrots is now sown in deeply-worked sandy loam, not too rich. 
Celery plants are pricked out and freely exposed. Peas are sown 
for succession; those up, haye a little earth drawn to them, and 
staked. To Beans a little earth is also drawn. Of Beet, a main 
sowing is also made, and French Beans are sown in warm situations. 
Cauliflower for late crops are pricked out, as are also Cabbages, of 
which another small sowing is made. 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.—Stoye plants in general, that were re- 
Potted in March, are now making growth vigorously, and are 
Copiously supplied with water at the root and overhead; a slight 
Shade from strong sunshine is afforded them. Young Rhododendrons 
are being potted. Correas and other plants, the product of spring 
and winter grafting, are being re-potted. Azaleas done flowering 
are also being re-potted. These, Camellias, and Oranges, whilst young 
and making wood, are fully supplied with water both at root and 
overhead, as well as with heat and shade. Thus treated, they grow 
freely, and when growth is completed they are gradually hardened 
off. During active growth, Azaleas are generally cut in three times, 
which induces them to form fine stubby plants. Orange -trees, 
which stand the pruning-knife better than most plants, are also cut 
into proper shape. Plants of Solanum-capsicastram are likewise 
pruned well in, and are kept in cold frames; plants struck from 
cuttings are re-potted, and kept for a time in an intermediate house. 
Statices are being propagated by means of single cuttings put in 
small pots under a hand-light in heat; those that are rooted are 
shifted into larger pots. As many cuttings as can be obtained from 
the variegated Mesembryanthemum and Thyme are being struck. 
Roses are also being struck from cuttings in heat. Crotons are 
being struck by taking off good-sized shoots and inserting them in 
small pots, in sifted peat and silver sand in about equal proportions, 
covering the pots over with a layer of silversand. The pots are then 
plunged in cocoa-nut fibre under hand-lights in strong heat. Those 
rooted are shifted into larger pots, plunged, and subjected to a hich 
moist temperature. Where it is desirable to increase the fine kinds 
of Pandanus, such as P. Veitchii, a few of the lower leaves are 
remoyed, so as to induce young shoots to push from about the base 
of the stem. When these have grown to a tolerable size, they are 
cut half-way through, and allowed to remain thus for a few days, 
when they are finally remoyed, inserted, and treated as Crotons. 
Should the old plant be leggy, it may be cut down, the stem cut, up 
into pieces, and inserted in cocoa-nut fibre under hand-lights ; these 
soon begin to push from all the eyes, and as they advance in 
growth they are taken off with a heel and treated as cuttings. 
Seedling Primulas are pricked out into boxes. Daturas from eyes 
and cuttings are being potted singly; as are also young Hydrangeas. 
The propagation of bedding plants is still vigorously followed up. 


MARKET GARDENS. 


Cucumbers planted out in frames are protected at night with 
litter, which is placed over the sashes, and removed in the morning ; 
the points of the laterals are pinched out at the third or fourth 
joint, and the shoots are then pezged down with small wooden pegs. 
The hand-lights under which Vegetable Marrows are planted are, 
now that the weather is so cold, covered round with litter, which is 
also placed over the top during the night and removed to the sides 
throughout the day. Tomatoes established in pots, and those 
sown broadcast in frames, are fully exposed on all favourable 
occasions. Seedling Tomatoes are dibbled into six-inch pots 
filled with soil, and plunged up to the ,their rims in earth 
in frames, keeping them near the glass. After being thts 
pricked out they are shaded for a few days by means of 
some litter being shaken on the glass. Kidney Beans sown 
in frames are protected at night but exposed during the day; 
beds of these that were sown in lines under hoops covered with mats 
are now up, and throughout the day haye the top mats removed. 


Mushroom beds made in August last are still productive. A mulch- 
ing of litter is still in some cases preserved about the crowns of 
Rhubarb, under which the leaf stalks come up tender and crisp. 
Asparagus is now plentifully obtained from the open ground. Fresh 
plantations of White Paris Cos Lettuce are being made; they are 
planted in sets of six lines at about eighteen inches apart, leaving a 
space of four feet between every six lines, which will shortly be filled 
with Vegetable Marrows. Lines of Lettuces are also being planted 
four feet apart, and between these two rows of winter greens are to 
be grown. The spaces between Vegetable Marrows are also some- 
times sown with Spinach or Radishes. Leeks are raised in frames, 
and are now nearly as big as autumn-sown Onions; these are being 
planted out in lines in shallow drills drawn as for Peas, about eight 
or nine inches apart, and those still in frames are fully exposed. 
Onions sown broadcast over large spaces of ground are up and being 
cleaned. Marks or lines of four or five feet apart are made across 
the field ; two men are then placed in every space between the lines, 
who with short hand hoes, about eighteen inches in length, and the 
blades an inch and a half or two inches in breadth, go through the 
crop loosening the soil and thinning the plants, which in so young a 
state are uninjured by trampling. Plantations of Thyme are being 
made under fruit trees, planting it with a dibber in lines eighteen 
inches apart. Young Celery planted in lines about three feet apart 
under fruit trees in December has now a little soil drawn to its base. 
Cos Lettuces and common Cabbages are tied round with pieces of 
matting to cause them to produce firm white hearts. Turnips of 
fair size are being obtained from the open ground ; these are grown in 
six feet wide beds, and throughout the spring protected with litter like 
Radishes. Sowings of Turnips are also being made, as are likewise 
sowings of Sprouting Broccoli, Savoys, and Brussels Sprouts. 


JAMAICA AS A TROPICAL GARDEN. 


“THERE is nothing to prevent Jamaica becoming, for the quality, 
variety, and commercial value of its fruit, the most noted spot in the 
world, when gardening shall be understood and the value of the art 
shall be duly recognized here.” These are the words of the Governor 
himself (Sir John Grant), says the Times, and they put the truth of 
the whole case before us.« The island is one huge tropical garden, 
and the trade to be done in such products, not-only with this 
country, but with the United States, is beyond all calculation, 
In the Northern States of the Union the market for tropical frnits is 
“unlimited ;” what it might be here we need not say. Some progress 
has been already made in this direction. The real Bombay mango has 
been imported, and is flourishing; two true varieties of mangosteen 
have been introduced, and four new varieties of the orange. As to 
pine-apples, all other specimens, compared with the Jamaica frnit, 
are, according to the Governor, impostures and delusions; in fact, 
he does not believe it possible to grow a really “‘ well-flayoured ” pine 
in the latitudes from which we obtain our supplies. ~ Yet—and 
this is the fact to which attention should be given—until the year 
1870 fruit had no place among the exports of the colony. Pine- 
apples to the yearly value of at least £30,000 are shipped from a 
neighbouring island, which, as Sir John speaks of the “ excessively 
bad fruit,” we had better not name; while all this time Jamaica, 
which could produce the finest pines in the world—incomparable 
for quality and size, and of infinite value for the London market 
--never sent out a shilling’s worth, except ‘“‘now and then a 
barrel by the mail steamer to a friend.” Hxactly so; and the like 
conditions haye ruled in a hundred other cases of precisely the 
same kind. 

It would probably have been impossible to persuade a planter 
of the last generation that a fortune might be made by growing fruit 
for New York and London. Yet Sir John Grant, a man of extra- 
ordinary acuteness and experience, sees in a future fruit trade the 
unlimited enrichment of the colony. Its oranges, pine-apples, 
bananas, limes, lime-juice, cocoa nuts, and other such products could 
not be surpassed in quality, and might be cultivated to any imagin- 
able extent. Besides all this, the soil and climate are eminently 
suitable to the growth of precious drugs and plants. Bark is raised 
easily, the cinchona plantation being in a most satisfactory state. 
Then there are hemp and China grass of excellent quality, nor would 
any arrowroot be superior to that of Jamaica if it were but more 
carefully prepared for market. Here, it will be said, is a noble 
prospect for the colony. True, butit isa prospect only. Not until 
the very last returns is there shown any “‘tendency to the develop- 
ment of new industries requiring little capital and no extraordinary 
skill.” It is the old story, “minor articles” are neglected, though 
they are the very articles which we want, and which the colonists 
could send us. However, Jamaica is fortunate in haying a Governor 
who can discern the true capabilities of the island, and the true 
place for its industry in the markets of the world. 


Apri 27, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S BIRMINGHAM 
EXHIBITION. 


THE complete schedule of prizes for plants, fruits, flowers, and 
vegetables, has been widely circulated; and we are glad to find 
that it appears to have given satisfaction. The exhibition, as our 
readers are aware, will take place in June next, and will continue 
for five days, viz., from Tuesday to Saturday, June 25th to 29th. 
It will be opened by his Royal Highness Prince Arthur. 

The chief display of palms, tree ferns, and the more important 
stove and greenhouse plants, &c., will take place in a lofty tent 
three hundred feet by eighty feet wide, which will be erected 
over a beautiful garden, designed by Mr. Gibson. At one end will 
be a fountain and rockery, over which a cascade will fall. Pic- 
turesquely grouped beds, covered with turf, will be arranged over 
the entire length, and these will be divided by wide gravelled 
walks. The beds will vary in elevation, so as to prevent flatness, 
and to aid in giving the ensemble an air of naturalness. 

As regards the prize list, we find that the sum of £1,659. 1s. is 
offered for competition, of which the Royal Horticultural Society 
provides £661. 18s., and the local committee £997. 3s. This amount 
is divided among 220 classes. For various kinds of plants £981. 11s. 
is offered; for cut flowers £263. 5s.; for fruit £155. 1s.; for vege- 
tables £153. 19s.; for implements, and horticultural buildings, 
medals to the value of £105. ds. 

We are pleased to find that good prizes are offered for evergreen 
trees and hardy shrubs, as well as for alpines, succulents, and 
dinner-table decorations. The latter will be tested by artificial 
light. On the third day, the Queen of Flowers will hold a special 
levee ; and as the prizes are large, we may expect a fine display. 

We may mention that the implement committee have determined 
on substituting medals for money prizes. These medals will be of 
three kinds—gold, silver, and bronze; six—the total number of the 
kind first named—being offered in six divisions as follows:—l. For 
the best horticultural building. 2. For the best heating apparatus. 
3. For the best collection of vases, or other garden decorations, 
suitable for outdoor purposes. 4. For the best collection of garden 
furniture. 5. For the best collection of garden machinery, tools, 
&e.; and, 6. For the bestd isplay of garden wirework; with liberty 
to add to their number. 

The council of the Royal Horticultural Society have agreed upon 
the following scale of charges for admission :—Non-subscribers : 
Tuesday, June 2dth, 10s. 6d. (or by tickets purchased not later than 
the previous Saturday, 7s. 6d.) ; Wednesday, June 26th, 2s. 6d. ; 
Thursday and Friday, June 27th and 28th, 1s.; and the last day, 
Saturday, June 29th, Gd. Subscribers of 21s. will receive three 
admission tickets for the first day, and four for the second or either of 
the following days. Considering the liberality of this arrangement, 
it is not surprising that already more than £300 worth of these 
tickets have been taken, and we have no doubt, from the privileges 
they confer, the demand for them will be very great. A limited 
number of season tickets, available to the owners on all the days 
on which the show is open, will be issued at 10s. 6d. each, thus 
affording to all who may wish to make frequent visits the opportunity 
of doing so at a very moderate cost. The convenience and pockets 
of the masses have also been considered, for packets of the shilling 
tickets will be sold at the rate of fifteen tickets for 10s. 6d., and 
the employés in manufactories, &c., will thus be enabled to visit the 
show at a small cost. On the last day the charge will be reduced 
to sixpence, so that all classes of the community will be afforded an 
opportunity of seeing what we believe will prove to be the largest 
and best exhibiton of plants, fruits, flowers, and vegetables, and 
certainly the most important and instructive collection of horti- 
cultural buildings, implements, and decorative appliances, ever 
brought together in this country. 


THE BIRMINGHAM HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION. 


For so kindly inserting my last letter I beg to thank you. May I 
ask a second favour, in order that I may be enabled to lay before 
your readers one or two additional points which immediately affect 
the successful issue of the forthcoming horticultural exhibition. 

I have now before me the code of regulations, and for all practical 
guidance to exhibitors they are about as open and undefined as it is 
well-nigh possible to frame them. Permit me to illustrate my 
meaning by supposing that eight horticultural builders compete, and 
that each one exhibits a distinct and separate class of building; 
builder number one exhibits, say, a conservatory; number two, a 
lean-to yinery ; number three, a span-roof greenhouse ; number four, 
a cucumber and melon house; number five, a length of peach 
walling ; number six, a pine stove ; number seven, an orchard house, 
and number eight, an improved form of strawberry house. Now, in 
the absence of any secon¢ or corresponding structure to any of these, 


there can be no means of comparing ; and I respectfully submit that 
no judge would be able to decide which constituted the “ best 
horticultural building,’ or which would be entitled to an award. 
The fact is, each would be a “best” for the respective purpose 
intended, but for want of competition would be, so to speak, 
“ disqualified.” 

Now in order to remedy this state of things, why not separate iron 
from wood honses, and place them under schedules A and B respectively, 
and then sub-divide each schedule into classes, enumerating what 
houses each class shall embrace? Every builder would be at liberty 
to elect into which class and schedule he would wish to compete. 
The date of entries should be limited to a given period prior to the 
show, and the applicant exhibitor could be made acquainted whether 
or not there were sufficient applications to constitute a competition 
in such particular class; if not, it would be futile for him to compete 
therein, and he would have an opportunity of selecting another class. 
Of course, if heafterwards determined’to become an exhibitorin that 
particular class with a view to obtain “‘ honourable mention,” or a 
“special award”? for what he considered a novel and meritorious 
production, sofar so good; but some such arrangement as the fore- 
going would put each competitor in possession of a knowledge of what 
he was undertaking ; also it would tend to inspire confidence, whereas 
under the existing arrangements all is uncertainty. 

Again, why should not specific and suitable awards be made for 
a display of plans, models, machinery for ventilating, detached venti- 
lators, ingenious fastenings for doors, best mode of shading, and 
construction of stages? I think these and many other parts of 
a house are open to some improvement, and claim to be noticed. 

Respecting the best hot-water apparatus, I shall, with your per- 
mission, be glad to offer a few suggestions next week. S. 


SEFTON PARK EXHIBITION. 

A GRAND fancy fair and flower show is to be held in aid of 
the New Southern Hospital, Liverpool, in Whitsun week. It will 
take place in Sefton Park, on May 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, and is to be 
opened by his Royal Highness Prince Arthur. The ground to be 
covered is in the form of a gigantic cross with a central plateau, 
from which a fine view will be obtained of the four wings, along which 
the plants are to be arranged on grassy banks. The prize list is on 
a scale sufficiently liberal, we should think, to induce a good exhi- 
bition, and as the proceeds are to be deyoted to so charitable a 
purpose, we trust it may be well attended. We observe that special 
prizes are offered to ladies for a group of natural flowers in an 
epergne or centre-piece for table decoration; beauty of arrange- 
ment and effect to be the test of merit. First prize, epergne, value 
£15; second prize, epergne, value £10. The flowers used for these 
designs need not, it is said, be grown in the garden of the exhibitor. 


LAW. 
WILSON v. NEWBERRY. 


Tuis was the case of the horses poisoned by eating yew tree 
cuttings, reported in THE GarDEN for March 23rd. The parties 
to the action are near neighbours, residing at Lewisham. The 
plaintiff's paddock, in which his horses were, and the defendant’s 
garden, both abut upon a lane, which separates them. The defendant 
had employed a nursery gardener, one of whose men, without any 
directions from the defendant, and indeed against his will and in 
his absence, cut a yew tree, and afterwards threw the yew cuttings 
into the lane, and two of the plaintiff’s horses put their heads over the 
fence and ate the cuttings, and were both killed. The plaintiff sued 
the defendant for the value, and the case was tried before Lord 
Chief Justice Bovill at the last assizes at Maidstone, when the cause 
of action was put entirely upon negligence. The jury, however, 
found that the tree was cut withont the defendant’s authority, and 
that the enttings were put into the lane without the authority of 
the defendant, and that he had no knowledge that they were 
poisonous, and so the verdict went for the defendant. 

Mr. A. L. Smith now moved, on the part of the plaintiff, for a 


“new trial, on the ground that putting the cuttings against the 


plaintiff's fence was a trespass, and a wrongful act independent 
of negligence, and that, therefore, the defendant was liable for the 
consequences. The court, after some discussion,granted a rule nist 
for setting aside the verdict. 


The Nightingale.—I see that one of your correspondents notices the 
arrival of this favourite songster. I heard its full song on the afternoon 
of the 11th inst., at Fairlight, near Hastings ; and the cuckoo was heard in 
Beaufort Park on the Sunday previous; I myself heard it first on the 
14th, near my house.— JoHN SKINNER, Moorchurch, Hollington, Hastings. 


THE GARDEN. 


(Aprin 27, 1872. 


CATALOGUES, &., RECEIVED. 


General Catalogue of the Hardy and Tender Plants Cultivated in 
the Botanic Gardens, Zwrich ; for sale or exchange.—Flower Garden 
Annual Directory and Catalogue of Bedding Plants, S’c., grown by 
John Scott, Crewkerne, Somerset.—Descriptive Spring Catalogue of 
Choice Seeds for the Flower and Kitchen Garden, by Barr & Sugden, 
King Street, Covent Garden.—Hardy Trees, Shrubs, Conifers, and 
American Plants, by Jas. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea.—Dist of Select 
Flower, Vegetable, and other Seeds, and New Plants, offered by Wm. 
Bull, Chelsea.—General Catalogue of Plants, by B. S. Williams, 
Upper Holloway.—Flower, Sub-Tropical, and Vegetable Seeds, by 
Wm. Rollisson & Sons, Tooting.—New Roses, Pelargoniwms, Camellias, 
Azaleas, Sc., by Wm. Paul, Waltham Cross.—Florists’ Flowers, by 
T. S. Ware, Tottenham.—Florists’ Flowers, by Downie, Laird, & 
Laing, Forest Hill, London.—Fruit Trees, Hardy Ornamental Trees, 
and Shrubs, by Paul & Son, Cheshunt.—Flower Seeds, by Wm. 
Thompson, Ipswich.— Flower and Kitchen Garden Seeds, by Butler, 
McCulloch, & Co., Covent Garden.—Flower and Kitchen Garden 
Seeds, Gardeners’ Tools, Implements, S’c., by James Dickson & Sons, 
Chester.—Flower, Kitchen Garden, and Agricultural Seeds, Mis- 
cellaneous Plants, Fruit Trees, Sc., by Robert Parker, Tooting.— 
Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Garden Implements, S’c., by Edmondson 
Brothers, Dublin.—Vegetable and Flower Seeds, §c., by Drummond 
Brothers, Edinburgh.— Cultural Guide, and Descriptive Flower and 
Tegetable Seed Catalogue, by Smith & Simons, Glasgow.—Select 
Flower and Vegetable Seed List, by Wheeler & Sons, Gloucester.— 
Garden Furniture, by Frederick Reynolds, Birmingham.—List of 
Subscribers to the Gardeners’. Royal Benevolent Institution.—Second 
Annual Report of the Toxteth Park and Aigburth (Liverpool) Gar- 
deners’ Mutual Improvement Society. ; 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS .* 


H. V. (Mr. Hole will finish “ The Six of Spades” in Tok GARDEN).— 
A Supscriser-(your description puzzles us; the plant was probably Gen- 
tiana germanica).—Pynrus (the Japan Quince thrives well as an isolated 
bush, and as such is very beautiful on a sunny slope).—Rws (one of the 
many richly coloured forms of the common Polyanthus).—Hanrrier (a 
desirable fruit, but not one to be grown in quantity or for a supply).—J. 
Barron (no; they are retail prices) —AN AMATEUR (we do not from your 
note glean what condition your vine is in, or what is the matter with it. 
We propose shortly to publish a series of articles that witl probably 
furnish all the information you require).—R. McC. (we will attend to 
your suggestion).—Lorp H. (The Imperishable: Hothouse Co., Beacon 
Hill, Newark, Notts) —T. C. T. (you probably mean Acerrubrum. Send 
us a leaf).—R. A, P. (your Lilies were probably dead when you bought 
them. Being ascaly bulb the Lily soon suffers from exposure to the air 
in shops, &c).—N. H. P. and T. Jones (thanks). Saxum (next week. The 
Dartmoor subject is somewhat out of our way)—Mrs. Burke (next 
week).—Miss O. (we cannot say, as they are not manufactured in this 
country ; but a good carpenter would be able to answer you. Your note 
next week).—J. Groom (many thanks. Next week).—Muss K. (a very 
pretty plant. Next week)—W. W. H. (your pear tree leaves and blossom 
lo not appear to be suffering from insects. We should refer their injury 
to the alternations of cold, wet, and heat. Negretti & Zambra, we believe, 
sell a cheap thermometer, examined and certificated by Mr. Glaisher. 


EXHIBITION NEXT WEEK :—May. 1st, Royal Horticultural Society, at 
South Kensington (Roses, cut and in pots, Auriculas, Azaleas, Orchids, 
Herbaceous Calceolarias, new plants, fruits, and vegetables). 


THEY are growing their own poets out in Colorado, or seem at least to 
have entered upon this field of cultivation. As yet, the product seems im- 
perfect imagination largely developed, with some deficiency in the sphere 
of accuracy, or perhaps we should say sobriety of statement. Here is a 
specimen from a local paper. ‘The tendency to exaggerate the fertility of 
those great and often desert-like plains of the hotter parts of the West is 
well hit off here :— 

“Ts it where the cabbages grow so fast, 
That they burst with a noise like the thunder’s blast ? 
Is it where through the rich, deep, mellow soil 
The beets grow down as if boring for oil ? 
Is it where the turnips are hard to beat, 
And the cattle grow fat on nothing to eat ? 
Is it where each irrigating sluice, 
Is fed by water-melon juice ? 
Ts it where everything grows to such monstrous size, 
That the biggest stories appear like lies ? 
Tell me, in short, I would like to know, 
Is this wondrous land called Colorado ? 
You're right, old boy, it is?” 


* All questions likely to interest our readers generally are answered in the 
various departments, 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—April 26th. 


- Flowers.—These are now abundant; those in pots consist chiefly of 
Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Tea and other Roses, Hydrangeas with immense 
heads of flower, Deutzias, Cytisus, Spireas, Gardenias, Amaryllis ; zonal, 
sweet-scented, fancy, show, and other Pelargoniums in great profusion. 
Calceolaries, both bedding and hybrid kinds, Fuchsias, Mignonette, 
Heliotropes, small but well flowered plants of the Golden-rayed Lily. 

axifraga, Callas, still in good condition, Spring Heaths, Stocks, Lily of 
the Valley, &c. Amongst those not in flower are Musk, Dracznas, 
Cyperis, Myrtles, fine-leaved Begonias, Ficus elastica, Passifloras, and 
many others, besides a great variety of beautiful ferns. Cut flowers, in 
addition to those of the plants just enumerated, consist of White 
Bouvardias, Stephanotis, different kinds of Orchids, Pinks, Narcissi, 
Tulips, Tropzoliums, &c., and summer bedding plants are also furnished 
in great variety. 

PRICES OF FRUIT. 


By Glo. Bb Gls s.d. 5. d. 

Apples ........c.0 Zsieve 3 0 to 6 0O/| Pears, kitchen ...... doz. 4 O0to6 O 

Chestnuts... -bushel 10 0 20 0 >, dessert ...... doz: SiO) 9200) 

Filberts ... coll, O @ 1 0)| Pine Apples ... lb. 6 0 10 0 

Cobs 1 0 | Strawherries. aoe @ Bl & 

Grapes, ho} 20 0] Walnuts ... ushel 10 0 25 0 

Lemons 10 0 ditto .... per 100 1 0 20 

Oranges 10 0| Cherrries ......... perbox 6 0 10 0 
PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 

Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 0 to 6 O | Mushrooms ........ pottle 1 0to2 0 

Asparagus......... per 100 4 0 8 0 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 00 

Beans, Kidney ...per 100 1 6 2 6 | Onions.............. bushel 2 0 4 0 

Beet, Red. d 10 3.0 pickling ......... quart 0 6 00 

Broccoli ... bundle 0 9 1 6 | Parsley, :..doz.bunches 3 0 4 0 

Cabbage .. ..doz. 1 0 Tl (68) sParsnips, i2..c.-c.s+ee doz. 0 9 10) 

Carrots ..... bunch 0 6 0 0 | Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 

Cauliflower .. . doz. 2 0 5 O | Potatoes ............ bushel 3 0 5 0 

Celery ... bundle 16 2 0 Kidney ............ do. 3 0 5 0 

Chilies ............... per 100 1 6 2 0 | Radishes doz. bunches 0 6 1 6 

2 0 4 0 | Rhubarb 0 6 10 

0 6 1 6 | Salsafy bak © 26 

2 0 0 0 | Sayoys ..... rit) (3) i © 

03 0 O | Seorzonera 09 13 

10 (3 O | Seakale .. 2) 

» 08 0 0 | Shallots . - 0 4 0 6 

0 3 0 0 | Spinach .. 3.0 4 6 

3 0 4 0 | Tomatoes.. 3 0 0 0 

0 2 OMG) Mturnipsiee es 0 3 0 9 

Lettuce (Paris cos)each. 0 4 0 8 | Vegetable Marrows,dez 0 0 O 0 


Injury to Stone Fruits on Open Walls.—A most critical time 
has passed oyer for apricots, peaches, and nectarines on open walls. 
Notwithstanding the usual coverings of woollen and other netting, &c., 
as protectors of the blooms, and the anxiety evinced by every gardener at 
this season to do allin his power to secure for his employer a crop of 
these delicious fruits, it is sad to have to acknowledge our fear that the 
sudden transition of temperature, &c. has done its worse to the apricot 
crop at least for this year. The weakness of the apricot bud or blessom 
was very apparent at the outset of the spring, and after the continued 
cold, damp, hazy weather, with successive rain and snow storms, which 
we experienced at the end of March, it is to be feared, in the south at 
least, that the apricot crops have suffered greatly. We, therefore, hail 
with pleasure Mr. Ayres’ fruit tree protectors, which appear to be steps 
in the right direction. But it is not fruit alone that has suffered; vege- 
tables have also sustained injury. The early potato crop, which was 
looking prosperous and forward on the evening of the 19th instant, has been 
greatly hurt by the biting frost (five degrees) on the morning of the 20th— 
the haulm is blackened and destroyed to the ground. And what of the 
apple, pear, cherry, and plum blossoms, which were fully expanded on 
the morning of Sunday last? Nothing in the way of fruit-tree bloom 
could stand against such a surly bleak north-easter, with the glass at 
freezing and a drifting snowstorm for hours. I see that our gooseberry 
and currant crop is safe as yet, as are also cherries on walls, but 
peaches and nectarines are very scanty—D. Cunnincusam, Moor Park 
Gardens, Herts. 


The Name and Address of the writer are required with every communi- 
cation, though not for publication, unless desired. Letters or 
inquiries from anonymous correspondents will not be inserted. 

All questions on Horticultural matters sent to THE GARDEN will be 
answered by the best authorities in every department. Cor-_ 
respondents, in sending queries or comnumications of any kind, 
are requested to write on one side of the paper only. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WILLIAM RoBInson, “THE GARDEN ”’ OrFicz, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C: All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tuk PUBLISHER, at the same Address. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum Qs. 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
cuarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office, 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 515 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITSELF Is NaturE.”’—Shakespeare. 


THE ROSE SECRET. 


Ir may perhaps interest your readers to hear that from the 
different articles which have appeared in Tue Garvey in 
reference to what is called “The Rose Secret,” I got ‘a notion;” 
and instead of throwing my prunings away this spring I used 
them as cuttings, putting a whole lot of them—about a dozen 
or more—in (I am almost afraid to mention it) a marmalade 
jar filled with coarse sand and water, with sufficient of the latter 
to be about a quarter of an inch or so above the sand. I 
then plunged the jars into a slight hotbed (covered by a 
Rendle span-roof protector), and let the cuttings have all 
the light and sun possible—never shading once. This was 
about eight weeks ago. Last week I thought I would have a 
look how the cuttings were going on at the bottom, as they 
appeared very healthy at the top; fancy my delight to 
find that the new roots had covered the sides of the jar, and 
were matted together in such a way that I had to wash the 
sand away under a tap to be able to separate the cuttings 
without breaking the roots. I call this “ striking like willows ;” 
some bits with only one eye at the top struck almost better 
than any; others, where 1 put perhaps two eyes beneath the 
surface of the sand, have struck from every eye. I can 
assure you I never saw cuttings so well furnished with roots 
as these were. 

Out of about 120 cuttings of some three dozen different 
kinds of Roses, I only missed striking fifteen, which I think 
1s a very encouraging result; anyhow I shall consider it the 
road royal, and experiment again in a similar manner in 
summer, when I shall pay more attention to the preparing 
of the cuttings and the way they will strike the readiest. 
The beauty{of my system is its extreme simplicity; the trouble 
or labour is nil; beyond the mere procuring of the cuttings, 
all one has to do is to leave the jars alone, only giving a little 
water from time to time to replace what has been lost by 
evaporation. 

As to the size of cuttings, I have put in anything—thick or 
thin, pithy or woody, straight shoots or jointed ones, shoots 
with from one to six eyes—only taking care that the cut in 
every case was a clean one, such as a good sharp knife will 
make. Max Kuios£, Rose Cottage, Chelford. 


SALAD CULTURE. 


Most people like a good salad; but unfortunately, as a rule, 
when the days get warm the salads get poor, and consequently, 
just at the time when we should most enjoy them, it is almost 
impossible to procure them. This arises from defective culti- 
vation. All our salad plants, to be tender and crisp, must be 
grown quickly ; and to secure that important end, the weather 
must either be moist and growing, or the ground must berich. 
A dry, hot spring generally results in poor salad plants. The 
exception to this rule is either in rich, naturally moist soils, 
such as may be found in the valley of the Thames, or in situa- 
tions made artificially rich, and where in dry seasons an abund- 
ant supply of moisture can be ensured. Thus, for the growth 
of summer lettuce, I haye a plot of ground heavily manured, 
deeply dug, and finely pulverised; and then I divide the 
ground into beds three or four feet wide, leaving a path between, 
and excayate the surface soil four inches, placing the soil inthe 
paths. In the excavation I place well-rotted dung—cow 
manure, if the land is sand—tread firmly, and then return the 
excayated soil two inches thick, taking care to leave sufficient 
in the paths to raise them above the beds, so that they will re- 


tain sufficient water to completely flood them atany time. Plant 
a plot thus prepared every three weeks or a month from the 
beginning of June to September, and a supply of crisp, succu- 
lent lettuce iscertain up tonear Christmas. Observe, however, 
that water must not be spared; and should the weather be hot 
and dry, sufficient to soak the beds a foot deep must be given 
every week or ten days at the furthest. When the young plants 
are thoroughly established, weak manure watcr prepared from 
guano or sheep’s dung and soot may be given with advantage. 
The secret of growing fine summer lettuce is that the plants, 
from the seed state to final maturity, shall not receive any 
check. Place young plants upon poor dry soil, and they 
directly run to seed; plant the same upon the beds which we 
have described, and they directly assume that plethoric habit 
which is coveted by all saled eaters. A well-grown Cos lettuce 
should weigh, when fit for table, from two to four pounds; the 
Neapolitan little less; and Tom Thumb should present a com- 
pact heart as large, and nearly as firm, as a cricket-ball. That 
size it will readily attain if planted upon beds prepared as I 
have described, and not more than six or seyen inches apart. 

This course of treatment may be pursued up to the end of 
August; as winter approaches, however, more elevated ground 
must be selected, or the plants, from an undue accumulation 
of moisture, may damp off. Therefore, beds for winter lettuce 
should be in southern and sheltered (but not close) situations, 
should slope gently to the sun, and should be raised fairly 
above the surrounding ground, the paths being several inches 
below rather than above the level of the beds. Some of our 
market gardeners who grow lettuces so successfully, plant 
them upon a sloping bank, and place the plants under hand- 
lights or large bell glasses. The ground being prepared, the 
glasses are set down in line so as to nearly touch each other. 
Under each, according to its size, three, five, or more plants 
are placed at regular distances, and plants are also placed in the 
spaces between the glasses, and these form asuccessional crop. 
This is, however, found to besomewhat inconvenient, and hence 
smallframes, which are readily ventilated, are preferred by some. 
Where space is limited, and it becomes necessary to utilise every 
yard, lettuce for the winter and spring crop may be successfully 
grown over asparagus beds. Thus in October, as soon as the 
asparagus has turned yellow, clear the tops away, and having 
remoyed the soil, fork the surface of the beds carefully over, and 
break the soil quite fine. Then lay on, two or three inches 
thick, a layer of rich compost, such as the dung and soil froma 
hotbed, and plant the lettuce out inthe usualmanner. For this 
purpose the plants should be strong, and they shouldbe planted 
in rows six inches apart and four inches apart in the row, so 
that as soon as large enough each alternate plant may be taken 
out for use, and to make room for those remaining. These I 
cover with low light frames, which admit a gentle circulation 
of air, and protect the plants from cutting winds and rain. In 
this way I manage to get excellent lettuces in March and April 
— quite equal in fact to any to be found at that season in the 
London markets, to which they are so largely imported from 
the Channel Islands and from France. 

As regards varieties the black-seeded brown Cos is perhaps 
the most hardy, and at the same time, when properly blanched, 
the most crisp and nutty in flavour. Then in the same section 
follow the Sugar-loaf Cos, which “turns in” without tying, 
and Perfection. These are the best of the brown Cos 
varieties, and to them may be added the green and white Paris 
Cos, or, as they are sometimes called, the London Market Cos. 

Of cabbage lettuce the brown Dutch and hardy Hammer- 
smith are the hardiest; but Tom Thumb and All the Year 
Round are more delicate in quality. It is well for winter and 
spring supply to plant equal quantities of each of the preced- 
ing, though with the protection of glass there is not much 
danger of losing them, especially if the precaution is taken in 
severe weather to protect them thoroughly with mats and 
litter. 

T sow every three weeks from the beginning of March ta the 
middle of September, the first and last sowing being under 
glass. The autumn and winter supply I get from the plants 
raised in June and July; and those grown from the latter crop 
should either be so planted as to be readily covered with a frame 
or some other kind of protector, or they must be raised care- 
fully, with good balls, before they are injured by frost in 


516 


October, and be planted in an orchard house or some other 
place secured from frost and damp. Of course at that season 
damp is the chief danger with full-grown lettuces; hence they 
must be carefully guarded from rain, andthey will require tobe 
éxamined frequently to remove decaying leaves. Properly 
protected from frost and damp, the July-sown seeds 
yield a supply through the winter months; and then for the 
early spring those sown in August will be ready for use. One 
advantage of planting over asparagus beds is that, if you pro- 
tect the plants with glass, by the time the lettuce are fit for use 
the asparagus with the protection will be starting into growth, 
and thus it may be had some two or three weeks before the 
natural season, and when it is of muchmore value. Upon very 
heayy soils young lettuce plants are liable to damp off. In such 
cases it will be found wise to surface the groundat the autumn 
planting half an inch thick with burnt earth, or, if this cannot 
be obtained, fine cinder ashes. Hither will remove moisture, 
promote the growth of the plants, and prevent the intrusion of 
snails. G. 8. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


A woman born April 17, 1772, planted a tree the other day 
at Isleworth, in commemoration of her hundredth birthday. 

Ir is announced in the Revue Horticole that a nurseryman of 
Toulouse has obtained a really good double white Zonal Pelargonium. 
It is now in the hands of M. Boucharlat, of Lyons. 

THE translation of Le Madut and Decaisne’s “ Traité Général 
de Botanique,”’ by Mrs. J. D. Hooker, is announced by Messrs. Long- 
man asin the press. This is one of the noblest works on botany 
that has yet appeared. 

Ir is announced that the next exhibition of the Royal 
National Tulip Society will be held on May 25th, in the Botanic 
Gardens, Old Trafford, Manchester, when £60 will be given in prize 
money. 


THE Central Horticultural Society of France announces an 
exhibition of horticultural products, plants, implements, &c., in the 
Palais d’Industrie, Paris, in conjunction with the Fine Arts Exhibition 
from May 25th to 30th. All communications on the subject should be 
addressed to the secretary of the society, Rue de Grenelle, St. 
Germain, Paris. 

InpDiyipUALS who endeavour to perpetuate their names by 
inscribing them on seats in parks and gardens, &c., may be inte- 
rested to learn, thatrecently a young gentleman of Bermondsey who 
cut his name on one of the new seats in Greenwich Park, has been 
offered by the magistrate the alternative of a fine of twenty shillings 
or fourteen days’ imprisonment. 

Dr. L. Pretrrer, of Cassel, has published the two first parts 
of a work which will be useful to the systematic botanist, ‘‘ Nomen- 
clator Botanicus,” being an alphabetical enumeration of the names 
of all classes, orders, tribes, families, divisions, genera, sub-genera, 
and sections of plants, published down to the end of the year 1858, 
with references to the authorities, systematic arrangement, synonymy, 
and first publication. 

Ata recent meeting of the Court of Common Council, Mr. 
H. A. Isaacs moved a resolution to the effect that no steps be taken to 
reconstruct Farringdon Market until the court should have finally 
considered the modification in the plan and models. Mr. H. Harris 
seconded the resolution, which, after an animated debate, was carried 
by a majority of seven in a court of 103 members. For the present, 
therefore, the proposed reconstruction of the market remains in 
abeyance. 

THE employés of Mr. Cranston, of King’s Acre Nurseries, 
near Hereford, haying petitioned their employer to shorten the hours 
of labour on Saturdays from six to four o’clock, he readily conceded 
their application, for which the men seem universally grateful; 
and we haye no donbt that it will prove the means of extending a 
kindly attachment between themselves and their employer. Thisisan 
examplary act on the part of Mr. Cranston, and we should be pleased 
to hear of the same plan being adopted by others.—Hereford Times. 
THE cuttle-fish of the sea has a curious relative in the plant 
family. It grows in the southern parts of Africa, and is known by 
the name of Hook-Thorn or Grapple-Plant (Uncaria procumbens). 
The large flowers of this truly horrible plant are of a lovely 
purple hne. They spread themselves over the ground, or hang in 
masses from the trees and shrubs. The long branches have sharp, 
barbed thorns, set in pairs throughout their length. When the 


petals fall and the seed-vessels are developed and fully ripe, the two. 


sides separate widely from each other, and form an array of sharp 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


horned hooks. Woe be to the traveller who ventures near at such 
time! The English soldiers in the last Kaffir wars suffered terribly 
from this plant. While the Kaffir, unclothed and oily, escaped 
harmless, the European was certain to be made and held prisoner. 
Imagine one hooked thorn catching in a coat-sleeve. The first 
movement at escape bends the long slender branches, and hook after 
hook fixes its point in the clothing. Struggling only trebles the 
number of thorned enemies, and there is no way of escape, except 
to stand still, cut off the clinging seed-yessels, and remoye them one 
by one. 


THERE has lately been presented to the Academy of Sciences 
at Paris, a round cut from the trunk of an Eucalyptus globulus of six 
years of age, which is nearly twenty inches in diameter. This 
colossus of the vegetable kingdom grows and deyelopes itself with 
astonishing rapidity. Seeds planted in 1865, are already, 1871, 
trees of fifteen metres high, and sixteen inches in diameter, at one 
metre distance from the ground. From the experimental garden at 
Algiers, where it has been much cultivated, plants are distributed 
gratuitously to such colonists as wish to haye it. This Hucalyptus 
has succeeded exceedingly well in Algeria, and becomes in a very 
short time a tree of enormous size. 


In the House of Lords this week, judgment was given im 
the appeal of the Duke of Buccleuch against the Metropolitan Board 
of Works. The original action out of which this appeal arose was 
commenced in 1867,*and was brought to recover a sum of £8,325, 
which had been awarded to the appellant by an umpire appointed 
under the provisions of the Thames Embankment Act (1862), as 
compensation for taking away a jetty in which the appellant had an 
interest, and for the appellant’s interest in certain lands adjacent, 
being injuriously affected by the execution of the respondents’ works, 
together with interest on that amount and the costs. At the trial 
the jury found a verdict in the duke’s favour, and this their lordships 
now upheld.—Globe. 

Paris is just now subjected to a peculiarly unpleasant 
visitation. For eight or ten days past it has been deluged by swarms 
of large, black flies, common enough in gardens, but seldom seen in 
cities. They settle down in perfect shoals on people’s clothes, on the 
tables at Boulevard cafés, on the trotteirs—everywhere in fact. 
These unpleasant invaders haye made themselves so great a nuisance, 
that M. Blanchard, a member of the Academy of Sciences, read a 
communication to that learned body about them. He stated that the 
scientific name of the fly in question is bibio hortulanus ; that it is 
quite a mistake to suppose that it feeds on decaying animal matter , 
it has a penchant for pruneurs, fresh vegetables, and other good 
things in the leguminous world; and their great numbers are due to. 
the fact that, the Commune last year haying scared away the small 
birds that prey on their eggs, they have increased and multiplied to- 
an extent unprecedented. 


—— A HANDSOME conservatory will form part of the attractions 
of the magnificent aquarium now being finished at Brighton. It 
will, for the most part, be in the natural style, and cannot fail to be 
a graceful adjunct to the many interesting features this structure may 
be expected soon to possess under the management of Mr. Lord. The 
rockwork portion of the aquarium, including the conservatory, is 
being executed by Mr. Pulham, a sufficient guarantee that it will be 
satisfactory. We regret to learn that the Town Council of Brighton 
haye thrown all the obstacles in their power in the way of this fine 
aquarium, so likely to be of service to knowledge, not to speak 
of advantage to the town from a lower point of view. By preventing 
the necessary elevation, the Town Council has succeeded in com- 
pletely ruining the external aspect of the building, which is buried 
almost out of sight. We regret this the more, as the establishment 
is likely to prove an admirable one. Internally the structure is all 
that could be desired. 

— Too late in some countries, and just in time in others, people 
are learning what a folly it is to strip indiscriminately the face of 
the earth of its forest trees. Whole regions haye been rendered 
arid and uninhabitable by the too free use of the axe. India has 
suffered much from this cause; Australia and America have cut 
down timber far too wildly; North Africa and Spain in ancient 
times lopped away forests which were the life of those regions ; and 
we believe that the destruction of woods has been overdone in our 
own islands. <A forest is a natural reservoir of water; it protects 
the rain which falls into it from solar evaporation, and thus feeds 
the underground springs. ‘‘Eyeryone should think twice before he 
lays axe to root ;”’ and it is, indeed, almost a pity that the Greek 
idea is dead, which saw a Dryad in every graceful and picturesque 
tree. California has been wise in time. She has glorious forests, 
amid which tower giants of the vegetable world—those pines of the 
Yosemite Valley, for instance—beside which our grandest oaks would 
look like mere shrubs.—Telegraph. 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


517 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE WHITE LADY’S SLIPPER. 


Tuts is not so beautiful as the showy Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium 
spectabile), but it is withal a very beautiful plant, and quite distinct 
from any other kind known tous. The American Agriculturist, to 
which we are indebted for our pretty figure of the plant, describes 
it as of the natural size. We have seen it thrice this size in England, 
and from newly-imported specimens, too. There are six species of 
hardy Lady’s Slippers in the Northern States of America, one of 


Cypripedium candidum. 


the rarest of which is the White Lady’s Slipper. The lip, which is 
the conspicuous portion of the flower, is of a pure white, the rest of 
the flower being greenish. This rare little plant is found in bogs 
from Central New York westward. All the Cypripediums are 
worthy of cultivation, but they can only be grown successfully by 
imitating their natural conditions. They require a peaty, sandy, 
moist soil, and a shady situation, and under these circumstances 
their cultivation 1s not difficult. 


NATURE'S FLOWER GARDEN. 


A RAMBLE in spring through our woods and fields has a charm to 
my mind unequalled by few others of the pleasures of our existence. 
On every side we see plants in all stages of growth; some just 
bursting into life, and some already in flower, but all exemplifying 
the grand reproductive powers of nature. The bright sun overhead, 
lighting up, it may be, the drops fallen from a passing shower, the 
twitter and rapid flight of the swallow, the note of the cuckoo, 
seen and heard perhaps for the first time since their departure, all 
contribute to the buoyancy of spirits which a fine spring day brings 


to those who are not too much borne down by this world’s cares and 
sorrows. I am not much of a botanist—that is, I am not a scientific 
one—but I thoroughly enjoy such a walk through nature’s “wild 
garden,” and seeing and recognizing my old spring favourites on this 
their annual re-appearance. I have, too, my own special wild garden 
to replenish with any rarity with which I may happen to meet. 
To this end last week I made an expedition to a neighbouring 
wood, noted for containing an abundance of that rare native plant, 
the bulbiferous Bittercress (Dentaria or Cardamine bulbifera), and one 
which is well worthy of a place in a wild garden. This plant is, I 
fancy, not generally well known, as it grows in but few places in 
England. In flower it resembles the common Cuckoo-flower, or 
Meadow Bittercress, so abundant in our meadows; but the chief 
peculiarity about it consists in its white knotted rootstocks, like 
ivory, from whence it receives its name of Coral-root. The wood I 
refer to is charmingly situated in a hollow near a river, and was 
quite carpeted with plants of various descriptions. The dark green 
of the Dog’s Mercury formed a pleasing contrast to the yellow 
flowering stems of the Wood Spurge; and almost every inch of 
ground was occupied by some more or less well-known plant. Here, 
later in the season, may be found, in great handsome clumps, the 
Willow Epilobium and the Nettle-leaved Campanula, with its elegant 
bell-like flowers; both of which plants might be introduced with 
advantage into our shrubberries, when they do not happen to grow 
in the immediate neighbourhood. After filling my bag with several 
roots of the Dentaria and other plants, I turned my steps towards 
the river. There also everything was beginning to wake up after 
its winter sleep, and in a few weeks the banks will be thick with 
vegetation—Epilobium, Comfrey, the yellow and purple Loose-strife, 
Hemp Agrimony, and many well known aquatic plants, too numerous 
to name, which add so much to the beauty of our native streams. 

A yisit to an old garden wall to ascertain the fact of the existence 
of Asplenium Trichomanes, and to a neighbouring churchyard to obtain 
a root of Geranium pyrenaicum, and my walk was ended. The 
expedition was not without its results, for I carried home a basket 
of plants to my wild garden, which will increase its beauty and 
interest in my eyes. A dried collection is doubtless a very useful 
and necessary thing, but, in my opinion, a small piece of ground 
set apart for the culture of our rarer native plants is a much 
pleasanter way of obtaining a smattering of botanical knowledge. 

W, AC). 


FLOWER GARDEN FASHIONS FOR 1872. 


Mr. T. Bares’s last letter on the ‘‘ bedding system,’’ I am glad to 
say, makes it clear to my mind, that however his hands may have 
helped him, his head clearly has most to do with his deservedly high 
position. Of all the chinks in the gardener’s armour, this one of the 
bedding system, which he exposes, is the weakest and the most 
glaring. There is really no such thing as gardening nowadays. 
Every establishment, big and little, has started a factory, in which 
every colour in the rainbow can be supplied at a month’s notice, in 
any quantity, from six inches to six thousand yards. It is usual to 
laugh at the nobleman who ordered ten feet of theology, sixty yards 
of biography, and twenty of history; &c., to fill up his newly-erected 
library shelves; but his want of proper taste and appreciation is as 
nothing compared with that exhibited by those who plume themselves 
on their correct taste, and yet persist in sickening themselves and 
their neighbours with the namby-pamby and glaring mixture of 
vulgarity and formality which at present constitutes the bedding 
system. It was all very well for the first few years to astonish one’s 
neighbours with ; but the old conundrum gets dreary when you have 
heard it asked and answered thousands of times before; and it is no 
wonder that your visitor, when you show him your ribbon border, 
and ask his opinion of it, replies, that ‘‘he has, as nearly as he can 
measure, seen about sixty miles of exactly the same pattern,’”’ and 
asks you as a favour to be allowed “ to cool his eyes on the parsley.” 

Just so; there’s no individuality abont gardens nowadays. When 
you have seen one, you have, to all intents and purposes, seen the 
whole of them. They are all miserable copies one of another. 
Gardening has drifted into horticultural tailordom, and it is even 
gravely proposed to publish a yearly plate of the “latest fashions.” 
Tt appears to me that cultivators will shortly improve nature off the 
face of the earth. I will give them a wrinkle—it has been in my 
mind for years. Get five thousand yards of Dundee canvas in red, 
blue, yellow colours, to suit pattern; procure plate of fashions for 
1872; call out the housemaid and stable-boy ; don’t dig your 
beds—it is expensive, and quite unnecessary ; lay your red, blue, 
yellow, &c., strips to pattern, and I venture to say you will have one 
of the most finished spectacles it is possible for the mind of man to 
conceive. So overcome am I with the advantages which my plan of 


518 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


gardening offers, that I only await the consent of an interested friend 
to patent it. Let me enumerate its advantages: For a place of 
even small pretensions it would take £1,000 to be sunk in houses to 
keep up the usual stock of bedding plants. It would take, say £200, 
for gardeners’ wages, looking after, and planting them. If I wished 
to go in for spring gardening, and something late after the bedders, 
it would cost at least another £200. Then I have plants to pay for, 
coals to pay for, additional frame room, propagating space ; addi- 
tional men to propagate, keep the plants through the winter, harden 
them off in spring, plant out and carefully protect thereafter, and to 
take up when their four months are over. Now, mark the magnificent 
results of my invention. Every item of this account is entirely 
saved ; for the £20 for the canvasand the £1 for the plate of fashions 
will have been made up by odds and ends not mentioned in the list, 
and the remainder is done by myself and my two humble help- 
mates in ten minutes. Can the objection to the bedding system be 
urged against mine, viz., that it is a blaze for two months, and 
blackness and darkness the remaining ten? Most certainly not. 
Talk about the seasons retarding vegetation and extending labour ; 
TI care not a fig for the seasons. Nothing can exceed the brilliancy 
of my red, yellow, and blue, &c., canvas, when well washed by the 
watery blast, which blew my neighbour’s toil and expense to 
‘smithereens’? for a month, and when, after the storm, the sun 
shines through, my renoyated beds present to the painter’s eye and 
the poet’s soul, a feast of the most ravishing effects and the most 
brilliant results. Am I twitted with providing this rich entertainment 
for the noble and the wealthy, I reply at once that, as in all strokes 
of true genius, every case is provided for. I vow, when I examine 
the increasing advantages of my astounding invention, I am lost in 
amazement at its magnificent advantages. 


What, however, if my friend should object, as he has often done 
to former improvements confidentially mooted to him? He is a 
ereat Nature’s adyocate; and, to say the truth, my scheme is not 
very complimentary to her; in fact, she is, so to speak, entirely 
done without and ignored. But what of that? She is at all times 
capricious; and if I, by a stroke of unparalleled ingenuity, can 
remove her old, half-dead trunk, and substitute a sapling whose 
beauty and persistent loveliness is a delight from year’s end to 
year’s end, am I not entitled to the thanks of every discriminating 
individual? Clearly I am. Yet it is very likely my friend will 
disagree with me. If he does, he will, no doubt, treat me to the 
sixty-ninth repetition of his pocket-lecture about Nature. I know 
it well. This is how he commences: ‘‘ Suppose a painter to be 
doing his best in his latest effort. A single tree is necessary for 
the foreground. Does he away and limn the scragegy thing at the 
corner of the street, or does he not rather try back in his memory, 
and in his portfolio, for the glorious sample of leaf and bough, and 
light and shade he came across in his woodland rambles? When he 
paints a fairy glen, does he go to the back-door to paint the gullet 
with the city’s sewage pouring down? No; blindfolded he could 
lay his finger on the draught he made of the little northern ravine, 
with its trickling well and dewy ferns, that made heart and eye 
dance with delight at its marvellous beauty. He has travelled 
through the British Isles; he has been to Iceland, Norway, France, 
Spain, Italy, Egypt, even to Palestine, and everywhere his artist’s 
eye and poetic soul have caught nature in a thousand of her loveliest 
and most enchanting forms. Here the quiet lake, there the majestic 
mountain piled in awful grandeur. In the morning a sunrise, in 
the eyening a sunset; the “wimplin’ burnie,” the roaring 
cataract, the placid sea, the angry ocean, all furnish to his dis- 
cerning eye and discriminating mind the pabulum that will one day 
place him among his country’s greatest painters. He has painted 
scenes of lake views, but not one resembles another, although he 
might tell you that the sketch of each was nearly the same; that the 
little mountain lake he came upon in his Swiss tour had furnished 
him with rules for mountain, wood, and water effects ever since. 
But although he may yary these effects in numberless profusion, it 
neyer enters his head to portray a monstrosity in his ‘ wild” 
scenery. You are surprised, perhaps, to see that his trees are all of 
the orthodox cast ; in fact, so plain are they in leaf and habit that 
you can tell them at once, even froma distance. Suppose we get 
him by the button-hole, and say to him in a confidential way, “My 
dear fellow, you have really surpassed yourself in that woody scene. 
Couldn’t you, just to light it up alittle, have painted that front 
giant, say, with a white ground, yellow on the sunny side, as is 
natural, and blue will suit very well for the other and shaded side; 
the leayes of say a pretty pink; and have carried a broad band of 
golden gilt up the entire trunk to make it truly magnificent ?” 

“The oak tree with the white body, yellow and blue sides, and 


pink leaves, with gilt stripe in the middle, is, sir” (and here my. 


friend looks wrathfully at me), ‘‘ the present bedding system. Instead 
of the gardener of the present day being an artist, who studies 


Nature, go that from every tree and flower, and hill and dale, he may 
cull ideas wherewith to ““mend’”’ his plan—to ‘‘change it rather,” 
from a dreary wilderness to an ever-pleasing and fruitful landscape, 
he is a miserable paper-hanger, upholsterer, and plasterer, with his 
ribbons and lines, his cow-muck banks, with their paltry house- 
leeks stuck in; he is a cross between extravagance and vulgarity. 
Let him take a hint from Mr. §. R. Hole and his parsley bed. We are 
being done to death with vulgarity. The gardener breaks his own 
back, and shortens his days, with the eating anxiety and care caused 
by the millions under his charge. Day by day his, say twelve, men 
are driven like horses to propagate, pot off, harden off, arrange, 
plant out, carefully tend, and pick over; then propagate again, and 
take in and winter, the hideous stock necessary under this exter- 
minating system (to all concerned), and not to speak of the heavy 
and never-ending expense to the employer. This is all trying. 
Having had a surfeit of expensive novelties, with the results above 
stated, let us revert to the old style, and see what can be made of 
it, helped with such modern ideas as we may haye picked up. Let 
us have all trees of beautiful and distinct forms; all shrubs 
remarkable for fine flowers or graceful growth or foliage. Let us 
haye perennials from the tiniest to the largest, and as many as 
possible sweet-scented. Let us haye as many species as possible of 
the grand foliage plants to be found in the hardy section ; and with 
such adjuncts as have just been named, surely any gardener might 
produce striking landscape effects, very different from those attained 
by means of ordinary bedding plants. However I may have spoken, 
I do not blame the gardener, employer, or nurseryman personally ; 
least of all the first; but as a body they have been leading each 
other for many years into the deepest quagmire of expense and 
vulgarity.” This is about the substance, although not the length, 
of my friends production; and, notwithstanding the scheme I had 
propounded, I am afraid he has made me already a conyert to his 
views. Vivo Wis 


A GOOD STAKE FOR CARNATIONS, PICOTHES, &e. 


None of the routine work of gardeners is of greater importance 
than staking, and the difficulty of getting it neatly and well done is 
often too evident in gardens. Hven where there is time to 
rigorously attend to the staking, the beauty of the garden is often 
marred by the plants being tied into broom-like bundles. 


The little invention here figured is intended to provide a stake — 


which is at once cheap, unobtrusive, everlasting, and, if we may so 
speak, self-tying. The illustration shows it first by itself, as it is 
made for picotees, &c., by taking galvanised wire about one-twelfth 
of aninch thick (hard drawn), and twisting it in a long spiral wayabout 


Fig. 1. 
four times round a stiff straight piece of wire about a quarter of an 
inch thick (once round in about three inches), finishing with a 
sharper turn round the top about three-fourths of a revolution, and 
then cutting off, so as to leave half an inch of straight wire at the 
tip; the straight part at the bottom being about nine inches in 
length. Fig. 2 shows it applied to a picotee, and it is stuck in so 
deep that the top bud shall just rise above it. The plant is then 
wormed round so as to let it fall into a position in the middle 
of the spiral stick; and when the top is also slipped into its place 
it will be found as safe as if it were tied ever so well, being sup- 
ported by the bit of straight wire left for the purpose. A few 
yards away this stake is scarcely observed, so neat is it compared 
with ordinary sticks. Another good point is the freedom which it 
allows to the foliage and long hanging flower-stalks to fall away 


Fig. 2. 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


519 


from it if they wish; and, in addition, if the stem grows after it is 
applied—as it nearly always does—it slides up without making any 
ugly hitch in an attempt to push up against ties, as in the old way. 
A man might make a hundred in a single evening out of half-a- 
crown’s worth of wire, and apply them to plants next day in less 
then half an hour.—A. D 


A PLEA FOR OUR HEATHS. 


Way are our native Heaths not more frequently grown than they 
are in grounds kept and arranged for pleasure? Why not have a 
Heathery as well as a Rockery or Fernery? There are spots in 
every place of any dimensions where Heaths would be useful, 
growing as they do where many things will not succeed. How 
to cover that ugly “bank,” is often a matter of concern to those 
who possess such places. Attempts are sometimes made to clothe 
such a place with ferns; but if the bank is elevated and open, Heaths 
would be the right plants in the right place. They glory in such a 
spot—plenty of air, plenty of sun. It is astonishing what they 
will encounter and conquer, even in dry seasons. They send their 
roots down after moisture to a considerable depth. Even in stony 
poor soil they somehow get through the severest drought when once 
established. A bank of Heath in flower, with rocks jutting out here 
and there, is asight which invariably commands attention. In strolling 
through a wood some time ago, I came upon broad masses of Erica 
ciliaris full of flower, and again suddenly upon what must have 
been acres of E. cinerea, to which a few straggling Firs here and 
there served as supports, thus forming cones of flower. This, 
thonght I, affords a pleasure which our dazzling terrace-gardens do 
not give, and furnishes a sight which ought to be more frequently 
seen. I have also found bushes of E. vagans six feet through every 
way, forming huge balls of flower. But this is describing some of 
Nature’s flower shows. The question is, how shall we copy her 
example in having such spots of beauty in dressed ground? It is 
of no use to go and offer battle to Nature, and rob her of her big 
plants, bring them home, and think the thing isdone. No; we must, 
like her, begin with little plants; although we have seen Heaths 
grow in almost any soil from which lime is absent, and sometimes 
where it may be said there was no soil at all, yet it is best to 
make a little preparation for them in the way of excavating little 
cavities and filling up with peat or very rotten leaf-mould, mixed with 
loam. This will save time in getting the plants to a good size, and 
save trouble and attention, which want of preparation would incur. 
If the distance is not great, and the soil in which these plants grow 
naturally can be got, that is best for them, taking the surface off 
three inches deep. Do not by any means allow any plants to be put 
in with hard balls of soil about them; loosen it as much as possible, 
without damaging the roots, before planting, otherwise no water will 
penetrate, and they will consequently die. Almost any nursery- 
man could supply our native Heaths and their varieties at a cheap 
rate; some catalogue as many as fifty hardy kinds, beside the Medi- 
terranean varieties, Henry Mitts, 

Enys, Cornwall. 


tHEeE-BIBRARY. 


DARWIN’S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES.’* 


We have to record and to welcome the appearance of a new 
and cheap edition of this remarkable and most interesting 
book. It is needless to say anything in reference to its 
object now, as, since the appearance of the work originally, 
the chief ideas which it contains have been fully discussed. 
Few will deny (except perhaps those who discuss what they 
eall “ Darwinism,” without having read the book, and such 

eople are far from uncommon) that, even if they cannot go as 
ar as the author and his more pronounced co-workers and 
disciples, the work has opened up a new and delightful field 
of thought and observation. On Mr. Darwin’s labours we 
cannot do better than cite the opinionof Mr. I. Anderson-Henry, 
a well-known and very successful hybridizer of plants, who 
by no means adopts Mr. Darwin’s views. It occurs in a paper 
read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh :— 


THE yarious papers and publications given to science and the 
world in recent years by Darwin and others have directed the atten- 
tion of all botanical observers of phenomena in that department to 


* Darwin’s “Origin of Species.” Sixth and cheap edition. London: John 
Murray, Albemarle Street, 


the changes which have been and may be effected on the existing 
species of plants; and those who reflect on the diversity of the 
vegetable kingdom as displayed in the grandeur of the various forms 
which compose the primeval forests of the torrid zone, or in the no 
less diversified but homelier forms of our temperate climes, must be 
attracted with the statement that, throughout all past time, change 
—slow but incessant—has passed .on everything that now has life ; 
insomuch, that we see no more the things which were in the things 
that do appear. So at}least holds Darwin, whose observations for 
general accuracy, so far as they are open to scrutiny, stand well the 
test of investigation ; though beyond that limit they diverge, as he 
himself admits, into speculations which, however logically deduced, 
all of us are free to adopt or reject, as we are or are not convinced 
by them. Much, I am free to acknowledge, I believe of the Dar- 
winian theory—more now than I once did. Yet, as I have been 
asked by a high authority (in reference to a paper which I read in 
March last), whether I adopted the Lamarckian view, which forms 
the germ, if not the basis, of the Darwinian doctrines, I reply 
unhesitatingly, No—not in their beginning or their ending—though 
where the latter is, Mr. Darwin is perhaps as much at sea as any one 
of us. But lop off that beginning and ending—above all, lop it off 
as regards his views of the animal creation—and there remains in 
that great work, ‘“‘The Origin of Species,’ a body of botanical 
philosophy, so well sustained by the author’s own accurate observa- 
tions and wonderful discoveries, that it constitutes, in my opinion, the 
most valuable contribution ever yet made to botanical science, and 
marks an epoch in its annals more brilliant than any yet attained. 
This is no inflated eulogy. For the last quarter of a century I have 
myself devoted every spare hour of my professional leisure, and for 
the last seven years (when free from professional yoke), my leisure 
almost entirely, to similar pursuits. And, as a humble labouver in 
the same field during all that time, I have some claim to be recog- 
nised as capable of forming an estimate of what has been discovered 
and achieved by Darwin, and given to the world in that great work, 
and in his scarcely less wonderful book ‘On the Fertilization of 
Orchids,”’ and his papers read before the Linnwan Society. He has 
not only accomplished great things by himself; but he has aroused 
attention, and stirred up other admirably qualified observers to 
extend his researches, and, it may be, has thus led the way to no 
less startling discoveries. 

Nature has many mysteries to unfold. She has fixed rules, 
some so plain, that he who runs may read; and she has excep- 
tions to these rules. Look at the wonderful provision she has made 
for the fertilization of orchids, and look at the no less marvellous 
modes she has adopted for the same end in the dimorphic forms of 
the genus Primula, and also in some forms of the genus Linnm—of 
all which Darwin was the grand discoverer. I was myself almost a 
sceptic in the results obtained by him till I tested the statement he 
enunciated in the former genus by actual experiment, and found it 
true. Before he wrote, I had been myself at work among the 
species of the genus Linum, and while I found some of them 
tractable and open to self-fertilization, I found a disturbing element 
among others, for which I never could account, till I found it cleared 
up by Darwin in his dimorphic discovery. Toa mind like his, ever 
alive to follow ont by untiring research every perplexing cause 
which baffles the expected result, one discovery followed and perhaps 
suggested another, and it may be that the most brilliant of all yet 
awaits him. Let us follow in his wake; and though few are so con- 
stituted or so gifted as to attain to like successes, there is much for 
all to do. There is romance in the pursuit, and laurels to be 
gathered by every acute, industrious observer. 


WAGES OF LABOURERS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 


Tue Hon. Edward Stanhope sends the Times the following state- 
ment, showing the comparative earnings of agricultural labourers in 
the principal countries of Europe, with the purchase-power of money 
and the usual diet, where it has been possible to ascertain these 
particulars. The statement is founded mainly upon the reports of 
her Majesty’s representatives abroad on the Tenure of Land, and on 
the condition of the Industrial Classes in Foreign Countries 1869-70- 
71. Reference is also made to the appendix to the lecture of Mr. 
James Howard, M.P., on Continental Farming and Peasantry. For 
comparison, the rates of wages and diet in Great Britain and 
Treland are appended. The table deals only with hired labourers, 
and avoids all mention of the small proprietors at home or abroad. 
One disadvantage in the way of the foreign workman is the number 
of holidays or village fétes, which number in Russsia from 30 to 
100 during the year, in Austria at least 76, in Turkey 48, and 
which are very numerous in Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland :— 


“ AusTRIA.—Wages—Galicia, 9d. a day in summer and 6d. in 


520 THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


winter; at harvest, 1s. to 1s. 2d.; Silesia, men, £4a year; women, 
£3, with board and lodging; Moravia, 8d. to 1s. 4d. in summer, 
and 6d. to 10d. in winter (Dr. Fuchs, 1869). In 1867 the average 
wages were from £3 to £4 for men, or £1to £3 for women, with 
board and lodging. It has since risen (Lytton). Purchase-power.— 
Same as in England at Trieste ; twenty-five per cent. less at Ragusa. 
Diet.—As a general rule, well fed (Lytton). 

‘‘ Beteium.—Wages average 7d. to 1s. 1d. a day for men, and 43d. 
to 8d. for women, with extra at harvest (official1862). From 1s. 2d. 
to 1s. 8d. for men, and from 8d. to 10d. for women (Pakenham). 
Purchase-power.—Necessaries as dear, luxuries cheaper, clothes 
dearer, than in Hngland (Consul Grattan). Diet.—Coffee adulterated 
with chicory, without milk or sugar, black or brown bread, butter, 
lard, vegetables, and fresh or salted pork. Very many haye only 
potatoes with grease, bread, and chicory (Pakenham). 

“‘ DENMARK.—Wages, ls. 3d. to Is. 8d. a day, or 5d. to 10d. 
with food. Beer and brandy at harvest. Hours of work, twelve 
to thirteen in summer, and daylight in winter (Strachey). Purchase- 
power.—An unmarried operative can barely live on 10s. 6d. a week 
(Strachey). 

“< PrancE.—Wages, ls. 7d. a day in summer, or 1s. 3d. in winter; 
women, 10d. and 7d. (M. Leconteux). A farm labourer engaged by 
the year has £12 or £14 and his board, costing about a3 much (M. de 
Pimpin). Purchase-power.—No real difference, but on French mode 
of living twenty-five per cent. less (Vereker), fifteen per cent. more 
than in England (Hamond). Diet.—Soup made of pigs’ lard or beef 
suet, vegetables, and bread porridge (Hamond). 

“ GeRMANY.—Prussia Proper.—Wages, 6d. to 1s. a day for men, 
and 5d. to 7d. for women, with house rent free, potato land, and 
medical attendance, or £3 to £4. 10s., and board, for men. 

“¢ PoMERANIA.—44s. to 75s., or even 150s. a year, and board, with 
meat three or four times a week ; food worth £10 a year. 

‘‘ RHINELAND.—1s. in summer and 10d. in winter, with house rent 
free, or 1s. to 1s. 3d. without it. Hours of work twelve, or in harvest 
fourteen. Diet.—Porridge, milk, dried peas, potatoes, vegetables, 
and herrings. Meat on holidays. Such boarding valued at £9 to 
£13 (Harris-Gastrell). 

“ Saxony.—Wages, ls. to 1s. 3d. for twelve hours; women 6d. to 
9d. Diet.—Bread, butter, cheese, soup, vegetables, coffee, and beer. 
Meat only on holidays (Burnley). 

“ Bavarta.—Wages, ls. 24d. a day for men, and 113d. for women 
on the average. Diet.—In south, meal with butter, fat, or milk, 
cabbages, and potatoes; in north, meat two orthree times a week, 
instead of the meal and coffee (Fenton). 

“‘ WuRTEMBERG.—Wages, ls. 2d. to 1s. 8d. a day, with food, or £5 
or £6 with board and lodging ina farmhouse. The necessaries of 
life cheaper, and the standard of living muchlower. Diet.—Potatoes, 
rye bread, and cider; very little meat (Gordon). 

‘‘ Tpaty.—Wages—Lombardy, 1s. to 1s. 7d. a day, without board ; 
Bologna, 10d. to 1s. 5d.; Parma, 6d. to 10d. ; Naples, 10d. to 1s. 3d. 
(Herries). This does not refer to the métayers. Purchase-power.— 
At Brindisi as fourteen to ten in England; at Naples as fourteen to 
eight. Diet.—Very little animal food, but principally macaroni, 
bread, fruit, vegetables, and wine. 

“ NETHERLANDS.— Wages in Gelderland, 8d. to10d. a day for men, 
and 6d. to 8d. for women, or £5 to £10 a year, with board for farm 
servants. Purchase-power.—Necessaries about as dear, luxuries 
much dearer. Diet.—Tea and coffee, black and brown bread, 
butter, vegetables, and fat; fish in season (Locock). 

‘«‘Russta.—Wages, by the day 1s., by the month 73d. a day, by 
the season 53d. a day; at harvest 2s. a day; on well-managed 
estates they work from four a.m. to nine p.m., with three hours 
rest (Michell). Purchase-power.—One-half for natives, and for 
Englishmen one-third, cheaper than in England (Consul Stevens). 
Diet.—Cabbage, or mushroom soup, baked buckwheat eaten with 
milk, oil, or butter, and rye bread (Michell). 

« Spain.— Wages— Galicia, men, 12d. to 14d. ; women, 7d. to 10d., or 
£4 to £6 with board, washing, and a suit of clothes ; Murcia, ls. 4d. 
a day without, or 8d. with board; Guipuzcoa, 1s. 23d., or 8d. and 
food; women, 8d. to 10d.; Biscay, 1s. 8d.; women, 10d. to 1s.; 
Valencia, 1s. to 1s. 6d. Purchase-power.—Food far cheaper, but 
meat aluxury. Diet.—Bread, vegetables, and ‘ gaspacho’—cold soup 
of slices of cucumber and bread steeped in vinegar and water (Ffrench). 

« SWEDEN.—Wages, for men, 7d. to 2s. 2d. in summer, and 3d. to 
1s. 8d. in winter ; for women, 4d. to 1s. 10d., and 23d. to 1s. respect- 
ively ; farm servants, with board, £3 to £8 (Gosling). Purchase- 
power.—Wages bear a greater proportion to the expenditure than 
in England (Jocelyn). Diet.—Potatoes, rye, oats, and barley; milk 
abundant ; salt herrings, but no meat; beer (Gosling). 

“ SwitzERLAND.—Wages, 10d. to 1s. 8d. in winter, and 1s. 8d. to 
2d. 6d. in summer. In remote districts still less (M. Boyet). 
Working day generally reckoned at thirteen hours. Purchase-power: 


Board for a man averages from 5s. 6d. to 7s. 3d. a week. Diet: 
Milk, coffee, cheese, potatoes, vegetables, and soup; meat rarely ; 
wine and beer. 

“« TURKEY.—Wages, ls. 6d. a day, or £7 to £14 a year, with board 
and lodging ({snsul Moore). Diet.--Brown bread of mixed grain, 
staved beans, teeks, and a little mutton. 

‘“HNGLAND.—Wages, for men, from ls. 6d. to 2s. 9d. a day, 
averaging over 2s., with extra money for harvest and piecework. 
Diet.—White bread, bacon, potatoes and vegetables, cheese, tea, 
coffee, and beer or cider. Milk and butter scarce. In the North a 
good deal more meat, especially for farm servants. 

*« Scornanp.—Wages, 12s. to 15s. a week, being partly paid in kind, 
or £18 to £24 a year with food. Diet.—Oatmeal porridge, bread, 
potatoes, milk and butter, tea and coffee, a little bacon, but other 
meat rarely. 

“‘TRELAND.—Wages. 1s. to 1s. 8d. a day, or 6d. to 1s. with food. 
Diet.—Bread, potatoes, oatmeal, milk, whisky, and a little bacon.” 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


CLIMBING FILMY FERNS. 


THERE is no more beautiful or interesting example of 
cultivation than that of the climbing filmy ferns so successfully 
grown by Mr. James Backhouse at York. When at York in 
1870we had one of the beautiful specimens there photographed, 
and from this our illustration is engraved. ‘It is impossible in 
an engraving to render full justice to the finely-divided 
texture and exquisite grace of these plants, which, wheu they 
become popular, will add quite a new charm to our hothouses 
and warm ferneries. The creeping species at York climb up 


Trichomanes Luschnathianum. 


imitation stems madein common porous flower-pot ware. Onthis, 
which in a moist atmosphere gets quickly covered with moss, 
they thrive apace. We are indebted for the following remarks 
on the essentials of the culture of filmy ferns to Mr. James 
Backhouse :— 

The cultivation of the filmy ferns depends for success upon 
one or two very simple things, viz., perpetual humidity in the 
atmosphere, and a steady “medium” temperature—40° to 45° 
for the cool ones in winter (7.e., for British, Chilian, and New 
Zealand species), and 55° to 65° in summer, and for the tropical 
species, 55° in winter to 70° in summer: As will be seen by 
these figures, extremes of heat and cold are always wrong, as 
the total annual variation should never exceed 20°, or at 
most 25° with the cool species, and 15° or 20° in the case of 
the warmer ones. Shade, which absolutely keeps off the sun’s 
rays, and yet allows as much light as would exist in the 
open air when a cloud covers the sky, is requisite. These 
points “carried” and “kept,” success may be considered 
certain. Sudden increase or decrease of either temperature 
or moisture is dangerous. MHalf-an-hour’s sunshine in early 
spring may ruin “a year’s work.” Light vegetable soil, more 


or less mixed with white sand, is “the correct thing” for 


nearly all. The rhizomes should creep upon, or be above, the 
surface, the rootlets only penetrating the soil. 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


521 


THE BETEL-NUT PALM. 
(ARECA CATECHU.) 

Tuts Palm is grown in the Indian Archipelago for its seeds, 
which are chewed by the natives with lime and a leaf of 
Piper Betel, which is said to be intoxicating. In this country 
it is a beautiful palm, with spreading dark-green fronds 
resembling feathers. It has a clear, erect, and graceful stem, 
which in its native country rises toa height of upwards of 


setae Bab aes, 7 


Pinang, or Betel-Nut Palm. 


forty feet. It likes a moist climate, and does not grow freely 
in pots, except it has a great deal of heat and water. We are 
indebted io Mr. Bickmore’s interesting work, “ Travels in the 
Eastern Archipelago,” published by Mr. Murray, of Albemarle 
Street, for our excellent illustration of this fine palm. 

J. CRoucueEr. 


MARECHAL NIEL ROSE CULTURE. 


I HAVE just seen a remarkably fine example of the culture 
of this noble rose with Mr. Merryweather in his nursery at 
Southwell, Notts. It wasassimpleas successful. Imagine the 
roof of a span-roofed house, originally prepared for a vinery I 
believe, lightly shaded, not with vine leaves, but with the no 
less beautiful foliage of this lovely rose; and picture also 
a whole galaxy of golden buds and blooms, like those we have 


all so much admired at our flower shows, drooping gracefully 
from all parts of the roof. Three plants cover the roof of the 
house inall its parts, andfrom it Mr. Merryweather cuts every 
day from seventeen to twenty-four dozen of fine blooms; and 
yet the house was so full of its beautiful golden treasures that 
it looked as if no one had ever ventured to cut a bloom therein. 
This case is very suggestive of the grand qualities of Maréchal 
Niel as a roof plant. Trained over the roof, as at Mr. Merry- 
weather's, there is nothing to prevent one using the house just 
as if it did not contain this precious gold-bearer. The shade 
given by the foliage is so light that the cultivation of most 
kinds of plants is quite practicable beneath. I was reminded 
of Mr. George Paul’s good suggestion of using the Maréchal 
for training over the roof of the camellia house, than which 
plan nothing would be more desirable. W. R. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


A Sweet-Scented Palm.—A whole acre of mignonette would not 
emit more perfume than a single plant of the Fan Palm of the Rio Negro 
(Mauritia carana). In approaching one of these plants through the thick 
forest, the sense of hearing would, perhaps, give the first notice of its 
proximity, from the merry hum of winged insects, which its scented 
flowers had drawn together to feast on the honey, and to transport the 
pollen of the male to the female plants; for it is chiefly dicecious species 
of palms that have such sweet flowers.—R. SPRUCE. 

A Simple Mode of Growing the Huntsman’s Cup (Sar- 
racenia purpurea).—Get healthy, fresh young plants, and pot them in 
peat now with a few lumps of crocks ora few lumps of peat at bottom, the 
last the best. Usethirty-two or forty-eight sized pots, according to the 
size of the plants, and then place them ona light shelf ina greenhouse 
or pit, near the glass with full light in either case. Put a saucer under 
each, filling it with water, and keeping it so, not otherwise attending to 
the plants, except perhaps to syringe them when the other inmates of the 
house or pit receive that attention. In that way you will have dwarf, 
healthy, and stubby specimens of this most interesting plant, that will, 
after a year or two's growth, bear comparison with any in existence.—H. V. 

Half-Hardy Palms.—It will be found that the dwarfer and 
hardier palms of comparatively cool regions will prove capital ornaments 
for our houses at all times. Their leathery texture enables them to 
stand a dry atmosphere that would kill ordinary thin-leaved plants in no 
time, while their exquisite grace and beauty of form place them above all 
other vegetable ornaments for house decoration. We strongly advise any 
readers who have an opportunity of securing some of them in a young 
state to doso, as nothing can be more useful either in house, open garden 
in summer, or conservatory in winter. Among the best obtainable kinds 
are Chamerops humilis, the dwarf fan palm of the south of Europe, 
C. excelsa, of America; Corypha australis, one of the best, very hardy ; 
Cocos coronata and flexuosa; Latania borbonica, Thrinax elegans, and a 
good many other kinds, are available-—H. V. 


THE PROPAGATOR. 


ON PURE HYBRIDIZATION, OR CROSSING DISTINCT 
SPECIES OF PLANTS. 
BY ISAAC ANDERSON-HENRY, ESQ., F.L.S. 
(Continued from page 507.) 

From my readers I respectfully claim the same kind indulgence 
which Darwin has shown to the testimony he has had to deal with, 
in judging of the views I have offered, and am now to offer, on the 
experiments which I mean to lay before you. But ere I enter upon 
them, it is necessary to premise, especially as regards that form of 
dimorphism which occurs among many plants in the Linnzan classes 
from Pentandria up to Decandria—in having very generally one if 
not two pairs of stamens shorter than the other stamens in the same 
flower. And the same dimorphic form often occurs in even a more 
marked degree in many plants of the class Tetrandria. It is also 
the distinctive character of the two orders of Didynamia to have two 
long and two short stamens. 

As observed in my former paper, it is now seventeen years since 
my attention was drawn to the long and short stamens, but to the 
latter more particularly inesome muling operations there alluded to, 
where, by using them, I crossed that large species of rhododendron, 
R. cinnamomeum, on the pigmy Rhodothamnnschamecistus. I refer 
to these short stamens again, as the means by which I succeeded 
in effecting some extraordinary crosses which, I confidently believe, 
but for their use and my improving a propitious time, would have 
been utterly impracticable. As I have said, I at first worked only 
with short stamens. These I use in all cases where I wish to cross 
a large on a small species. I have now found that the converso 
holds, and use the long stamens where I wish to cross a small on a 


522 


THE GARDEN. 


e 


[May 4, 1872. 


large species. In all extremes I use the longest or shortest pair of 
stamens as the case demands. The short pair is generally well 
distanced by the others—the longest pair is often not just so much 
in advance. There is often an intermediate pair of short stamens, 
which in cases less extreme are exceedingly serviceable, but there 
are seldom such intermediates among the long ones. My reason for 
the use of these short, intermediate, and long stamens is intelligible 
enough. If I wish to cross a large on a small species, the smallest- 
grained pollen being in the short stamens, I take the pollen of these 
stamens of the large plant as best fitted to pass down the tubes 
through the stigma to fertilize the ovules of the smaller species, and 
so effect the cross on it; and so, ceteris paribus, with respect to 
the other forms. 

I shall restrict the instances I am now to cite to the last few 
years, noticing first,— 

CASES OF CROSSING WITH SHORT STAMENS. 

The first cross Ishallnotice is onealready alludedto, viz., Rhododen- 
dron virgatum with my ownhybridrhododendron B (R. ciliatum crossed 
on R. Edgeworthii) ; and as this cross is memorable and instructive 
in several points of view, it is proper to give you its history. On 
April 20, 1864, I find from my note-book that “TI took off all 
expanded blooms of R. virgatum and removed the stamens from all 
unopened ones on the plant, there being none left for self-fertilization ; 
done in fine sunshine—west wind—with three short anthers of B’?— 
i.e., the hybrid male, being the identical cross which produced 
Veitch’s rhododendron, Princess Alice. Of this cross I ripened four 
' capsules of seed, which I sowed on January 28, 1865, and, with 
some failures, got up by December that year seven nice healthy plants, 
all of which, however, save one, I lost by anaccident. That ono 
plant is now setting for bloom—not at the axils, as the female 
parent (R. virgatum) generally shows, but at the extremities of the 
shoots, as in the male (R. ciliatum crossed by R. Edgeworthii). But, 
as I have had occasion to observe already, the type in all else is 
more that of the female than of the male parent. By the mother’s 
side this plant is a hybrid, by the father’s it is a mongrel, and yet it 
has a fair share of vigour in it. As in its sexual aspect, so in its 
height, it is that of the mother. A few cilia are noticeable on its 
leayes, but it has none of the tomentose or dense hairiness of the 
male parent ; and so in this also it partakes most of the glabrous 
foliage of the mother. Again, this doubly-crossed plant, and the 
crosses which produced it—all extreme—show how such crossing 
may hasten on the reproductive or flowering state. Never in all my 
experience haye I seen or heard of rhododendrons offering bloom at 
two years of age. I haye rhododendrons now fifteen years from 
seed which have never shown the slightest tendency that way, though 
ten and twelve years I would consider about the mean at which they 
attain their flowering condition. If by suchcrosses the like precocity 
can be generally secured, practical florists may turn them to some 
account in their profession. You will please observe that I am now 
dealing with hard-wooded shrubs, where there is in general more 
fixedness of structure and habit, than in those on which the physio- 
logists I have cited have chiefly experimented, and which are less 
liable to be modified by the manifold influences which affect the 
more pliant and shorter lived herbaceous genera. 

2nd. The next cross in the rhododendron tribe effected by the 
short stamens to which I would direct attention is very recent, and 
one with which I took the utmost pains to prevent miscarriage. The 
beautiful R. jasminiflorum of Java, with its delicious perfume and 
its long tubular five-lobed flowers, of snowy whiteness, so like Erica 
Aitonii, so like, too, inform and fragrance, the sweet-scented jasmine, 
and so unlike all its own congeners, is the subject of it; and as I 
regard this cross of some scientific as well as of some practical value, 
I shall offer no apology for giving you particulars. I made it the 
subject of many attempted crosses by many of its own tribe—all of 
which failed except two, which, by the way, afford a good illustration 
of what I alluded to in my former paper of the sympathies of plants, 
and perhaps, too, of natural selection, though whether it be in the 
mode which Darwin regards as leading to diversity of species I cannot 
positively assert, yet I think it is worthy of his consideration. While 
it rejected so many of its legitimate brethren of the rhododendron 
tribe pure and simple, I was somewhat surprised that it took kindly 
with my hybrid B already noticed—i.¢., R. ciliatum crossed by 
R. Edgeworthii—a hybrid of the first degree, haying large flowers of 
three inches diameter, perfumed, and also of snowy whiteness. 
After the bloom had been long emasculated, on April 17, 1867, I 
effected the cross with the short anthers of the hybrid B. The cross 
took admirably—the seed-pod swelled, and was pulled fully ripe 
about 12th July Jast. On the 15th of that month I sowed the seeds. 
For the purpose of comparison, I sowed a pod of its own plain native 
seeds which I had gathered previously, and had, in fact, sown it some 
ten or twelve days before I sowed the cross. These are both now up. 
While the native seeds haye produced a fair show of feeble plants, 


the crossed seeds have come up in more than double the number of 
plants, doubly vigorous in growthand habit, and with leaves somuch 
larger than those of the normal form as to remove all doubt about 
the yerity of the cross. 

3rd. The next illustration I have to give you is of a small-foliaged 
Indian azalea, eighteen inches hich, which I crossed with the tall 
and robust shagey-foliaged Rhododendron Hdgeworthii. Two things 
more unlike in every feature from which to effect a union can hardly 
be imagined. Yet, with the short anthers—and it was with the 
very shortest I could find on R. Hdgeworthii that I effected it—the 
cross, after careful emasculation, was done on 6th May last. The 
seed-pod swelled to its due dimensions, and, appearing to be ripe, I 
cut a slice off it, and sowed the seeds so early as the 13th, and the 
residue on 28th, September last, and I have now got up one or two 
plants. If I shall be so lucky as to bring it to maturity, the progeny 
of this cross (one never before accomplished perhaps) should be a 
sweet-scented azalea, haying a rose variegation like the female parent, 
a novelty in its tribe; for though the Azalea sinensis has been crossed 
by rhododendrons, I am not aware of any authentic cross, or cross 
of any kind, between the rhododendrons and this proper Indian 
azalea. 

4th. I have still further a cross of the same nature, between 
another Indian azalea and Rhododendron jasminifloram, the latter 
being again the seed-bearer ; and I here refer to it mainly as showing 
another tendency of this rhododendron towards natural selection, or 
rather perhaps of sympathy between it and remote species, if not 
genera, for the azaleas have till lately been regarded as a separate 
tribe from the rhododendrons. The cross was effected in August 
last, when it again rejected its more natural allies, and formed a union 
with the Indian azalea, a late rose-coloured spotted variety, a seedling 
of my own raising. The seed-pod of this cross is now at maturity. 

5th. But I have now to call your attention to a cross in this same 
family bearing on Darwin’s doctrine of natural selection, or of 
sympathy, in a still more remarkable manner, which I effected last 
summer between that most gorgeous of all the rhododendron tribe— 
namely, the lovely white, large-flowering, sweet-scented R. Aucklandi 
of Dr. Hooker otherwise, R. Griffithii—and an Indian azalea, the latter 
being the seed-bearer. I made the cross on two separate days on two 
separate blooms, carefully emasculated some time before; and on the 
same azalea I tried other crosses with several of the rhododendron tribe, 
viz., with a fine form of R. arboreum, R. Edgeworthii pure, and the 
above hydrid seedling B (R. ciliatum x R. Hdgeworthii). But 
while every one of these failed, the crosses by R. Aucklandi, which 
were .effected respectively on the 30th April and 1st May, took 
most kindly. Both pods swelled; and the seed-pods, though green, 
appeared to be sufficiently ripe when I pulled them. I counted the 
seeds in one of these pods, and found them to be about 324, all finely 
formed, but, I fear, too green to vegetate freely, though some which 
I sowed appear to be coming up. I cannot youch for this cross 
being effected with the shortest stamens, for the stamens with which 
I effected it were kindly sent to me from another source, as I did 
not myself possess the male plant; but as I invariably select the 
shortest for such crosses, my firm belief is that I had so selected these 
in this instance, and I had a plentiful supply of all lengths to choose 
from. In the above cases of crossing a small with a large species, I 
hold firmly by the opinion that but for the use of the short stamens 
I conld not haye succeeded. I haye few recorded instances of haying 
extended my experiments with them far into other families. I cer- 
tainly tried the pelargonium in a plant I had of the beantiful white- 
flowered Madame Vaucher. I fertilized a bloom with its two shortest 
stamens, which, however, were yery little shorter than the remaining 
ones; and, from the three seeds which came of it I raised two fine 
plants, far more compact and somewhat dwarfer in habit than the 
parent, having the flowers equally fine, and elegantly thrown up 
above the plant. But the short stamens of this section of the 
Geraniacez are very little shorter than the others, and I therefore 
cannot rely much on the results as establishing the hypothesis I 
contended for in my former paper—namely, that where all other 
things are equal, a cross or simple fertilization with the short stamens 
tends to dwarf the progeny—to my belief in which, however, I still 
adhere. The instances I haye given support this other hypothesis, 
that by their use you my cross a large on a small kindred species, a 
result which, without them, you might not effect. 


(To be continued.) 


Kew Gardens and the Proposed Military Station at 
Richmond.—We learn from the Surrey Comet that a house-to-house 
canvass of the tradesmen of Richmond has resulted in establishing 
the fact that a very large majority of them are in favour of Mr, 
Cardwell’s proposal to make the town a military station. It may be 
so; we do not care to dispute it; but what we would submit is that 
Mr. Cardwell and the shopkeepers of Richmond are not the only 


‘ 


May 4, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


523 


ee eeeeeeeeeee=~q0=0q0q0ESSSSSSS rr ’”«—wooo 


parties to be consulted. It seems to us that if the matter is to go by 
popular vote, London has a right to be asked its opinion. We have 
been legislating for the last two or three years for the preservation 
of the few pleasant spots accessible to us after our day’s work or on 
occasional half-holidays, and we have done so in the interest of the 
metropolis as a whole. Hampstead Heath and Wimbledon Common 
have been saved, not for the benefit of the few hundreds or thousands 
of persons who live in their immediate neighbourhood, but for the 
sake of the three millions who crowd the metropolitan area. The 
question for Mr. Cardwell to consider is not whether the Richmond 
publicans and tobacconists may profit by having soldiers quartered in 
their vicinity, as it is more than likely they would, but whether 
Londoners ought to be deprived (as they will be virtually deprived) 
of one of their most agreeable places of resort, when, as he himself 
has stated, no necessity for the deprivation exists. Richmond Park 
and Kew Gardens are national property, and the ratepayers of Rich- 
mond, even if they be as unanimous as the local paper represents 
them to be, haye no pretence of right to determine whether they 
shall retain their present quietude and propriety or be overrun by 
half-trained recruits. Whatever may be said about the aristocratic 
associations of the Star and Garter and the Park, the gardens at Kew 
belong to the people, in the most popular sense of the word, and 
nobody who has seen the hundreds of working-men’s families who 
visit them alike for pleasure and instruction every fine Sunday after- 
noon, and marked the propriety with which they conduct themselves, 
would wish to see their recreation interfered with. 


THE GARDEN .IN THE HOUSE. 


A MOST CHARMING WINDOW PLANT. 


Waar can it be? A Fuchsia? Well that is charming; but it 
is not about the Fuchsia I would now write. The Geranium, a rare 
window plant that has been, from first to last, from the oldest Cape 
species down to the newer plain or variegated striped zonal—all 
have found their way to the window. And they have done good 
service in sweetening and adorning our homes. But it is not the 
Geranium. Well, I have seen windows made glorious with Cacti, 
especially C. speciosus and speciosissimus; and as succulents are 
once more the rage, perhaps it may be one of these. No; itisa 
simple hardy plant, so beautiful that it deserves a place in every 
boudoir, and so cheap and easily grown that it might lighten up 
with a gleam of beauty even a’garret window. Everybody admires, 
loves it; and what is more, everyone might grow it. It is the 
lovely Forget-me-Not—Myosotis dissitiflora, the earliest and the most 
beautiful of all the Forget-me-Nots. For some years I have found 
that no hardy plant is more grateful for the shelter of glass during 
the winter and early spring than the Forget-me-Not. By potting 
up a few tufts of it in November, and placing them in a sunny 
frame or window, they will be in full flower in January or February. 
In passing through Bury St. Edmund’s the other day I was much 
pleased to see it in full beauty in two windows in the street. If in 
two, why not ina thousand? The plant can be increased by means 
of division, cuttings, or seeds to any extent. By giving it a little 
morsel of ground, any number of tufts, say six inches across, fully 
charged with flower-buds, may be had ready in November. Pot a 
few in any soil in four-inch pots, and place them in the window. 
Those not potted will come in for succession in March, and will 
continue the blooming season till the end of May. And if a few 
plants are divided late, and the first flowering ones in pots are 
planted out as soon as they have done blooming, a succession of 
Forget-me-Nots in windows or gardens may be enjoyed all the year 
round. But the greatest merit belonging to the Forget-me-Not is 
its early flowering. Long before Fuchsias, Geraniums, or almost 
any other plants are half awake from the semi-torpor of the winter’s 
cold, the Forget-me-Not is already in sky-blue robes. Are any in 
doubt, let them try; and if it does not answer all I have said and 
more, they haye either got the wrong variety or do not know how 
to grow it. 


ON CHOOSING FLOWERS FOR DECORATING VASES. 


I Horr that “ W.”’ will kindly supplement his remarks on this 
subject by giving a few instances of good and bad selections, with 
the flowers best suited for variously formed vases. The latter is a 
point very much overlooked in floral arrangements. The self-same 
things are often used for all sorts of vases, large and small, short or 
tall, narrow or wide, cornucopias or glass baskets. This is a great 
mistake. There ought to be a certain fitness between the form and 
size of the casket and jewel—the flower-holder and the flowers. One 


great difficulty is to obtain flowers of different colours to harmonise in 
form. Take, for instance, such a charmingly sweet flower as Mande- 
villa sauveolens. How difficult to find a match for its waxy 
blossoms in red, unless the Lapageria rosea or Tacsonia von Volxemii 
happen to be in flower at the same time. When Pelargoniums or 
other flowers are used instead of these, the incongruity of shapo 
mars the effect; and so with very many others. What flowers, for 
instance, unless it be some of the Hoyas, will match the bunches of 
Stephanotis floribunda? We want red, pink, or blue bunches of 
similar make to bring out the colour without marring the symmetry 
of form, if I may so express it. Perhaps Ixoras fit in with the 
Stephanotis better than most flowers. This difficulty of harmonising 
form, and the tendency of mixtures to run into sameness, has made 
me a convert to the utmost simplicity, inasmuch as I believe that, as 
far as possible, every vase should be furnished with but one flower, 
and fringed with its own leaves. The Maiden-hair monotony of 
finishing has become as intolerable as the universal flower mixture so 
often served up in dining and drawing rooms with little judgment and 
‘less taste. But enough, and more than enough, for the present. I began 
by asking for examples of what to choose and ayoid, and then with rare 
inconsistency—I was almost tempted to write a harder word—have 
gone on to give some and censure others. Still, I am sure we shall 
be grateful to “ W.” for filling a few vases for us as they ought to 
be filled. D. T. F. 


CULTURE OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. 
(Continued from p. 446.) 
DRAINAGE, 

Wirr regard to drainage: the hole or holes in the pot 
should be in the bottom at the lowest part, and no water should 
sink to any part where it cannot run off; therefore the sides of 
the pot should have an equable inclination towards the bottom, 
which should be concave, to facilitate the egress of the water. 
Care should also be taken that the potter, in making the holes, 
leaves nothing inside to form a rim round them. The next 
condition is that the ball may easily and without injury be 
remoyed from the pot as soon as it has become so filled with 
roots as to form a solid mass. To secure this desideratum, 
the sides of the pot inside should slope evenly from the upper 
edge to the bottom. In the ordinary kind of flower-pot the 
sides do not slope evenly, but at the bottom there is a slight 
incline towards the drainage-hole in the middle. Underneath 
is a rim to enable the pot to stand on a hollow bottom. Where 
several holes are made in the sides at the bottom, the bottom 
may be somewhat arched in shape. When there is no rim at 
the bottom, the pot should be placed on pieces of sherd or wood, 
so as to prevent it from standing flat on the ground. In the 
case of a vase which I employ, the foot serves for a saucer, and 
the upper part is made to lift on and off, in order to empty the 
foot of water when necessary. The sides of the vase may be 
curved at pleasure, but on the inside they must. diminish 
gradually in width, in order to allow of the ball being taken out 
uninjured. 


FLOWER-POTS AND VASES. 


All other flower-pots or vases should be made on these prin- 
ciples: The material should be a porous, well-baked clay, or 
may even be of wood. Glazing, or painting the pots with oil- 
paint, is not to be recommended; yet of the two, the 
paint is not so injurious, as the glazing completely hinders 
the percolation of water and air. For the same reason pots 
of earthenware, porcelain, iron, zinc, &c., are not proper. 
Wherever, as in plant-cases, flower-stands, &c., zine trays are 
used for holding plants, the bottom should be concave, and 
pierced with numerous holes. Freshly-burnt, unglazed, new 
clay flower-pots when first used absorb a considerable quantity 
of moisture, so that the plants must be watered more frequently 
until the sides of the pot are completely saturated, or, better 
still, leave the pots immersed in water for an hour before 
they are used. Old pots, which have been long in use, are 
sometimes coyered with mould or moss, which hinders the per- 
colation of the air. It will be very beneficial to the health of 
the plants, if the outside of the pots is frequently cleaned ; and 
in no case should an old flower-pot be used for a fresh plant 
withont being thoroughly cleansed. Lastly, the size of the pot 
is a matter of importance. It should of course be always 
adapted to that of the plant. To sum up the preceding obser- 
yations—a plant may receive more water, in proportion as the 


524 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872, 


drainage of the pot is free and its sides porous, as it is new 
and clean, as the size of the ball is small, when compared with 
the plant, and as it is filled with roots. 

REPOTTING. 

In transplanting, a part or the whole of the roots in the 
ball are usually removed, the outer layer of soil being 
seldom penetrated by the roots. It is now planted in a 
new, porous pot, in which the outer layer of soil speedily comes 
under the influence of the dry air; but so long as no young 
roots are protruded from the old ball, the outer layer will 
remain tolerably moist. Attention must therefore at first be 
given to the ball, and not to the surrounding layer of soil. 
Accordingly the soil should be raised around the edge of the 
pot, so that the flow of water may be directed to the ball, But 
as soon as young roots are sent into the surrounding soil, it 
should receive most attention, and should not be watered before 
it has arrived at a proper degree of dryness. This period of 
root-forming after transplanting is a time when no water should 
be given, unless it is absolutely necessary and signs of dry- 
ness make themselves manifest, otherwise the newly-formed 
roots soon perish and the plant becomes sickly. This has been 
long known to the practiéal gardener; and certain plants, such 
as Camellias, which at other seasons must be watered plenti- 
fully, must be kept dry after being transplanted. The expla- 
nation of this we believe to be, first, so long as no young roots 
are sent out of the old ball into the new soil, the moisture of 
the latter is only given off as the old ball requires it, and so no 
harm is done. Secondly, a very concentrated and rich food is 
suddenly applied to the young roots when they peneirate the 
surrounding soil, and this of course will be all the richer for 
being watered. Thirdly, it is a fact that the formation of roots 
goes on all the more rapidly the more they are brought into con- 
tact with the percolating air, as, for instance, in loose sandy soil ; 
while in heavy stiff soil the process is much slower. Now the 
drier the soil is allowed to remain, the more easily will the 
air percolate through it, and the stronger and more abundant 
will be the formation of the roots in consequence. 

: _ _ DEFICIENT NOURISHMENT. 

The writer has observed that want of nourishment induces 
plants to send out more roots in loose soil, so that by the in- 
creased number they may obtain more food, but that in loose 
but well manured soils, and in heavy, stiff, unmanured ones, 
root-formation was very feeble, so that he has arrived at the 
conclusion that the production of roots in loose soils is due to 
the action of the atmosphere. The position and the season of 
the year exercise a very great influence on the necessity for 
frequent or unfrequent watering. Plants will require more 
water in proportion as the air is dry and warm, the position 
exposed, and the weather clear and bright. A plant standing 
in an exposed pot will require more water than if the pot were 
plunged in sand, earth, or moss. Where the evaporation from 
the pot is increased by the action of dry air, or of the sun, the 
pot may be shaded with a board, or the pots in a window may 
be placed up to the rim in boxes of sand, earth, or moss, which 
in bright, warm weather should be kept well moistened. Plants 
grown in rooms will require less water in ‘autumn, when the 
temperature of the room ranges from 60° to 66°, than at other 
periods of the year, when the dryness of the outer air, at a 
lower temperature, produces a corresponding dryness in the 
room. At those seasons of the year when the rooms arc not 
heated and are well ventilated, the watering of the plants must 
be regulated by the temperature of the outer air. In bright, 
hot weather, when the air is dry, plants in rooms require most 
water; but the lower the outside temperature, and the moister 
the air in consequence of frequent rains, or the short days of 
autumn, the less water willbe required. In winter, the supply 
of water should be diminished according to the coldness of the 
weather. The necessity for watering must also be regulated 
by the health and state of vegetation of the plants. All diseases 
of plants, which declare themselves by the partial drying up of 
the shoots, a feeble growth, the yellow tinge of the leaves, or 
their falling off while still green, are intimately connected with 
injury to the roots, which absorb water, and with it nutriment. 
As aman when ill requires less food, and must be restored by 
proper dieting, so it is with plants. The more serious the disease 
the less nutriment is required to be conyeyed to them by means 
of watering, and in this case the ball should be carefully 


examined as to its state of dryness before any water is given. 
On the other hand, the more healthy a plant is, and the more 
richly covered with leaves, the greater is its need of water, as 
every leaf is employed in elaborating the food derived from 
the water, and in transpiration. A plant in full vegetation not 
only requires a rich supply of food, but transpires from its 
tender young leaves much more water than from the firm old 
ones. Therefore the more luxuriant the growth of the plant, 
the greater will be its need of water; but when plants are in a 
state of rest, and no new growth is being made, the less will 
be their need of water, and the more cautiously must it be 
given. Deciduous plants in a state of rest require least.—Hrom 
the German of Dr. Regel. 
(Lo be continued.) 


PUBEIC GARDENS: 


THE CENTRAL PARK AT NEW YORK. 


No public park yet made has cost so much money as this, 
and we are bound to say that the result is not unworthy of 
the vast expenditure. In poimt of design, extent, planting, 
&c., it is equal, and in many respects superior, to anything 
of the kind in existence. It is not a park in which gaudy 
temporary colour effects are produced at great expense to last 
for a few months and then perish, but in which all the really 
important and permanent features of a public garden haye 
been developed with rare taste and ability. Large lawns of 
green, extensive plantations, a splendid series of roads, beau- 
tiful naturally disposed lakes, and immense reseryoirs of pure 


Portion of Lower Terrace, with Fountain, in Central Park, New York. 


water for the supply of the city, occupy the greater part of its 
surface; but there are so many minor details of interest that 
itis only by the aid of detailed description, and a good many 
illustrations, that we can hope to give any just idea of this 
highly creditable national work. We are the more desirous to 
do this, as much of the work done in the Central Park seems 
well worthy of imitation wherever public gardens are created. 

To us the park seemed, however, to show certain highly 
objectionable faults, which we will proceed at once to describe. 
The history of gardening is to a great extent the history of 
its sufferings at the hands of architects, and, to a smaller ex- 
tent, from sculptors. These have inyariably used it to display 
their own work, not nature’s. Hence Versailles, with its miles 
of crumbling balustrade, and many other hideous scenes which 
we have been accustomed to call gardens. If architects had 
not our habitations, public buildings, and cities on which, and 
in which, to display their skill, one would not mind allowing 
them free scope in a national park. But few will dispute that 
it is nature, and not useless, objectless, second-rate, and costly 
architecture, we want in our public gardens. In the Central 
Park as much money has been spent on useless work of this 
kind as would have created another noble park without such 
needless embellishments. 

In this country elaborate terraced-gardens are justified by 
the often far-fetched and groundless reason that the proximity © 
of their sites to the house made this treatment necessary. 
Here a costly terraced-garden has been made in the middle of 
the park, away from any building; an example which we trust 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


525 


 —_— 
may not be imitated. It is very well done, but quite out 
of place. : 

Of the costly terrace the following explains the most favour- 
able American view, and hints clearly enough at the result of 
allowing architects to work their own way in a public garden, 
with which they really should have no connection :— 


“The terrace is at present incomplete, and indeed it must be many 
years before the design, as it exists on paper, can be fully carried 


Drinking Fountain in Central Park, New York. 


out, because it includes full length statues, as well as busts, of 
distinguished Americans, which it is intended to place upon the 
large pedestals that are now covered with temporary ornamental 
caps. The commissioners haye done wisely in making no attempt 
whatever as yet to procure statues for these places, and it ought 
not to be done until there is ample means to secure the best work 
possiblein America. First-rate statues are as yet hardly to be got for 
money here, though we believe that they will be produced in good 
time; but until they can be had it is best to wait; for a second-rate 


Bridge over Arm of Lake in Central Park, New York. 


statue is not to be endured. If one statue is found fit to be placed 
upon the terrace in a generation, we shall think we are getting on 
very wellindeed. Butso long as the pedestals want their heroes, 
so long the terrace will be incomplete, and people will be half 
justified in saying that it “looks squat.’’ This, however, is a 
difficulty which it was not possible for the architects to avoid. They 


probably never expected nor intended that the park would be 
completed in a single decade, nor in two. Indeed, until every tree 
upon it is fully grown, the effect they had in view at the beginning 
cannot be realized. We must consider the terrace, then, as an 
incomplete architectural composition.” 


In connection with this may be named the useless bridges 


_which span the roads of the park in numerous places. There 


was, of course, occasion for bridges in various places ; and very 
tastefully designed and gracefully clothed ones span parts of 
the ornamental water, of one of which we give an illustration. 
But the bridges we object to are those, the building of which 
arose from a desire to construct separate routes for pedestrians 
and equestrians, instead of allowing the roads to cross each 
other where necessary, as in the far more crowded parks of 
London and Paris. Hence different levels, and many well-built 
and costly bridges, such as that shown herewith, have been con- 


Bridge in Central Park, New York. 


structed. All these bridges, too, are constructed in the best 
manner, and are well designed, but they are neyertheless 


utterly needless. 
(To be continued.) 


THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
THE PALMS. 

Turse “princes of the vegetable kingdom,” as they are 
justly called, are well represented at Kew, though unfortunately 
the great Palm House there is too large tor the maintenance of 
the proper degree of heat and moisture that is required for 
their successful cultivation. They are therefore distributed 
in different houses. In the Palm House properly so called are 
fine examples of the Fan Palm (Sabal umbraculifera), Sugar 
Palm (Arenga saccharifera), Areca alba, sapida, and Bauerii; 
the Wine Palm (Caryota urens), C. Cumminghii, Seaforthia 
elegans, Phoenix reclinata and sylvestris, Livistona humilis, 
inermis, and chinensis; Cocos flexuosaand Trithrinax aculeata. 
These are planted out, and so noble an appearance do they 
present that, were it not for the paved walks that traverse the 
house, one might fancy oneself in a tropical forest. Most of 
these Palms rise to a height of from forty to sixty feet; and 
such kinds as Sabal umbraculifera, Areca Bauerii and sapida, 
and Caryota Cumminghii produce seeds freely. At the south 
end of the house is a mass of Rhapis fabelliformis, and a very 
elegant species of Areca from Lord Howe’s Island. 

In tubs or in pots in this house are large plants of 
Martinezia caryotefolia, Attaleas, Phoenix, Caryotas, Dip- 
lothemiums, Astrocaryum, Hyophorbe, Calamus, Chamzrops, 
Ceroxylon, Thrinax, Huterpe, and Elzis, varying from twelve 
to twenty feet in height ; also many smaller plants belonging 
to various genera. When it is seen how much better those 
planted out thrive compared with those in pots, it seems a 
pity that more planting space is not afforded. 

The best view of the Palms in this house is obtained from 
the gallery, from which each can be seen separately, and an 
idea obtamed of what the whole would be if room were 
allowed them for free development. Thus looked down upon, 
their dignity of port becomes apparent. Judging from the 


526 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 4, 1872. 


excellent condition of those planted out, it is evident that a 
regular state of the medium in which the reots run has much 
to do with success, and it also indicates that a Palm enjoys 
more rather than less heat than that which it gets in its 
native country. Were this not the case, we should not haye 
Sabal umbraculifera (from the West Indies), Livistona chinensis, 
Cocos flexuosa (from Brazil),and Areca Bauerii (from Norfolk 
Island), all in the same bed, and each equally healthy. The 
beautiful coral-like inflorescence of Areca Bauerii, which is 
produced just below the lowest frond, annually attests the 
fact that ib is quite at home. ‘The Sabal umbraculifera, 
furnished with gigantic fronds, and producing abundance of 
seeds (annually nearly one thousand), confirms the same fact. 
Its associate, the Wine Palm, too, is in every way excellent. 
Phoenix reclinata resembles more than anything else with 
which I can compare it a gigantic fountain. 

The collection of Chamzedoreas is accommodated in a house 
near the principal entrance, where this genus is well repre- 
sented. Its specialities are C. Sartorii, Hrnesti-Augusti, 
crucifolia, Martiana elegans, and Arenbergiana. These, 
though growing as they do here, under the dense shade of 
tree ferns and other fine-foliaged plants, luxuriate, and pro- 
duce flowers regularly ; but they seldom produce seeds, unless 
artificially fertilized. In the centre of the newly-erected range 
of glass, as well as in the Victoria House, are some of the 
tenderer species of Palms, such as Geonomas; among which, 
the best are G. Martiana, Ghiesbreehtiana, and Schottiana. 
There may also be found Stevensonia grandiflora, Verschat- 
feltia splendida, and Pritchardia pacifica, three of the noblest- 
foliaged Palms with which we are acquainted. 

The Cocou-Nut Palm is likewise in this house. It is fond of 
heat and moisture, and has succeeded but indifferently at Kew, 
where large plants have often died on account of the want of 
proper means of securing those conditions so essential to 
success. The Cocoa-Nut Palm is, without doubt, a very elegant 
plant for the centre of a large stove, rising up as it does with 
such dignity and grace. <A plant of it at Sion has perfected 
fruit twice, and from what I saw of it the other day, under the 
skilful management of Mr. Woodbridge, it may be expected 
to bring forth many more. It is interesting to notice the 
way in which the nuts germinate, which is as follows :— 
Simultaneously with the advance of the germ outwards, inside 
is formed a sponge-like mass, which is at first much crumpled 
up, but bya gradual unfolding it softens the hard albumen 
by a process similar to that of the action of the gastric juice 
in animals, and gradually takes the whole up until the shell 
is cleared as clean as though scraped with a knife. By the 
time the albumen is exhausted, the sponge is fully developed, 
after which it gradually decays. The plant having now done 
what may be termed sucking, has to exist by means of its 
roots. A similar process goes on in all Palms, though in a 
less degree. 

There also will be found representatives of the African 
Raphias and the Doum Palm of Egypt, lately described in 
your pages by Professor Owen, as well as many young plants 
of Calamus, and other introductions of recent date. We fre- 
quently read of Calami climbing to enormous heights, and we 
have often thought that if one or two were planted in a water- 
tank, they might be induced to show the public some of their 
natural modes of growth. 

Specimen plants of Chamzrops Fortunei and humilis, and 
Jubza spectabilis, must be looked for in the new temperate 
house, in which an attempt was made to grow the lovely 
Seaforthia elegans, Livistona australis, and Phoenix dactylifera ; 
but the winters in this house were too cold for them. 
Altogether, the collection of Palms at Kew consists of some 
260 species. 

Some haye wondered why Palms have not been placed out 
of doors during summer. I, for one,should be sorry to see 
them spoiled by such treatment. A Palm out of doors in this 
climate looks, as a rule, a picture of misery, except, perhaps, on 
the very quietest and warmest of days. J. CROUCHER. 

[As in an early number we shall publish a view and sections 
of the great Palm House and great Temperate House at Kew, 
drawn and engraved expressly for Tur GarpEn, we this 
week devote a page to sections, showing the comparative sizes 
of these two remarkable structures. | 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


“WORMS.” 
[THE following, by Mr. G. A. Sala, refers to the caterpillars which 
have been so successfully fought by the English sparrows intro- 
duced to New York some years ago. | 


I was taking my walks abroad in Fifth Avenue, one summer’s 
morn, meaning harm to no man, and with my heart full of sweet 
and placid feelings towards the United States. Suddenly I saw, 
advancing towards me, with fierce and rapid strides, an old lady. 
Now I am not afraid of ladies. This was, nevertheless, a very fear- 
some old lady to look upon. She was tall and wore no crinoline, and 
was crowned with a coal-scuttle bonnet. She had spectacles, also, 
and a very hard hickory-looking face beneath them. ‘This is an 
old lady from New England,” I mused. ‘I see it all. She is 
from the State of Massachusetts. Residence Kast Buffum, profession 
widow, sectarian proclivyities Heterodox Congregational.” .... I 
drew aside to allow this respectable but formidable female to 
pass; but to pass me was apparently not her aim. She meant 
mischief. Her eyes were inflamed with ire. Her lips moyed at 
though in wrath. She heldinone woollen-gloved hand a monstrous 
gingham umbrella; and with it she made as though to strike me 
down. She brandished this weapon of offence, this gingham 
Excalibur, above her head. She swung it to the right and the 
Its oo oo 

She delivered the carte and the tierce and the reason demon- 
strative. She was clearly cunning of fence; and I thought I 
would see her blessed ere I fought with her. Her umbrella, was, 
at last, within an inch of my nose: The hair of my flesh stood 
up. This old lady had evidently sworn to haye my blood. Con- 
science makes cowards ofall. But who was she? A Woman’s Rights 
Convention delegate ? A Black Republican? A manufacturer of 
chewing tobacco? A spiritualist medium? or an abolitionist 
lecturer? J had made up my mind for the worst, and was preparing 
either to fly or to cast myself at the feet of the vengeful old lady, 
and sue for mercy. ‘Transatlantic female,” I was on the point of 
saying, ‘‘spare me!”. . . . when the old lady rushed by me, still 
wildly waving her umbrella, but, with singular clemency, forbearing 
to knock my head off. And, looking back, I beheld her still 
urging on her wild career down Fifth Avenue, towards Tenth 
Street, brandishing her gingham all the way. Was she mad P 
Was she in a spiritual ecstasy, and speeding from a Revival? No, 
a hasty remark she made as she passed me at once explained the 
mystery of her proceedings. Im a tone of dolorous agony she 


“eried, ‘‘Oh, them Worms!” 


Yes, those worms. They are the bane, the scourge, the nuisance, 
which, in the merry month of June, make a man’s life a torment 
tohim. The side walks of the streets of New York, faithful to their 
Dutch origin, are bordered with trees, principally limes and elms. 
In joyous June, when they are in full leaf, and their verdure has not 
been burnt up by the white heat of the summer sun, they ara 
refreshingly umbrageous and look very pretty. But these trees are, 
one and all, infested by a horrible little reptile, known commonly as 
the ‘‘measuring worm,” the “canker worm,’ or the “pace- 
maggot,” but which, according to scientific authorities, has quite 
as much right to be called the “ geometer,”’ the ‘‘arpenteur,’’ or the 
‘“‘hindrometer.”’ It is of adusky olive in hue, with a tawny head 
and a pea-green tail. It is about as long as a bit of string, and 
as big as a piece of chalk—stay, the length of the middle joint 
of your little finger atfords an apter standard of measurement. 
I don’t know whether it has any eyes; but, when touched, a 
hideous green matter exudes from it. This worm swings by an 
almost imperceptible cord or filament from the branches of the 
highest trees, as of the lowliest shrubs. As you walk along the 
street, myriads of these worms are hanging motionless in the air. 
Suddenly they bob against your nose, they slide down your shirt 
collar, they enter your eye and sit on your lid. Open your mouth, 
and a worm slides down your throat. They light on your hands 
and your fect. A lady comes home from walking with her parasol 
tasseled, and the hem of her dress fringed, by these beastly worms. 
When they have munched their fill of the young leaves of the 
trees, they spin out of their own depraved bodies a slack rope of 
gluten; and down this aérial bridge they slide till they are within 
a distance of five feet from the earth. There they ruminate, till, 
gorged with vegetable dirt, these green leeches tumble down on 
the pavement, where they wriggle and wallow, and, after a time, 
I trust, die. The flagstones are so speckled with surfeited worms, 
that, on the finest and most cloudless afternoon, you may fancy it 
is just beginning to rain. AsT have said, they specially affect to 
perform their Blondin and Leotard performances on a level with 
the faces of human beings walking erect, and the only way to 


. May’ 4, 1872.) THE GARDEN. 527 


528 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


preyent their choking or blinding you is to arm yourself with a 
stick or an umbrella, and slash them away as you travel. The old 
lady I had met was evidently, and of old, aware of the worms, 
and of the means to combat them. Hence her violent and 
apparently hostile demonstrations with the umbrella. 

These detestable creatures are no mere petty nuisance. They 
are destroying the finest trees in the streets of New York. You 
might take them to be pipe-layers, or log-rollers, or lobbyers, or 
members of a muncipal ‘‘ring,” so speedily and so completely do 
they devour every green thing. Like every other social nuisance, 
the worms haye their friends, and one enthusiastic student of 
natural history writes to the papers to claim for them “a certain 
amount of brains, or at least of instinct.’’ He watched, it seems, 
a flock of birds light upon a tree full of worms. ‘The reptiles, 
knowing full well what the intent of these early birds must be, hastily 
““skedaddled” down their air-ladders, whence, like the showman’s 
kangaroo who took refuge down his own throat, they doubtless 
Gf worms can cachinate) derisively guffawed at their bafiled 
pursuers. The birds flew away, and then the worms went back to 
gobble up more leaves. The strangest circumstance about these 
diminutive “cusses” is that their appearance in New York is a 
comparative novelty. Ten years ago they were unknown, and 
they are rarely seen in the streets of the New England towns, 
which are bordered by the most beautiful trees. Are they emigrants, 
I wonder? Did they land at Castle Garden? And, again it has 
been remarked that by a grotesque coincidence, the worms and 
the barrel-organs come out together. You seldom see these 
“* Alfred le Measurers”’ before the end of May, you rarely hear an 
organ before the beginning of June. By this time the first are 
squirming, and the last are grinding all day long..... Ina 
month or so they will cast their slough of dusky clive, and 
blunder about the world and the gas-burners as the large uncouth 
moths: which, from the loose white, flowery pollen with which 
their wings are covered, are known as ‘‘ millers.” 


THE APPLE MAGGOT. 


Iris difficult to exaggerate the amount of injury caused by the 
apple grub onthe continent of Hurope, in England, and in the United 
States of North America. With a sagacious eye to self-interest, the 
apple-growers of Normandy actually, however, make a profit of its 
doings ; they dry the grubby windfalls, and sell them to us under the 
name of Normandy pippins—and really very good they are when 
properly soaked and stewed with sugar and lemon peel. The moth 
itselfis a beautiful little creature—it is, indeed, the most beautiful 
of the beautiful tribe to which it belongs; yet, from its habits not 
being known, it is seldom seen in the moth state, and the apple- 
grower knows no more than the manin the moon to what cause he is 
indebted for his basketfuls of worm-eaten windfalls in the stillest 
weather. To find the moth in the daytime, the trunks of the 
apple trees should be carefully looked over; or, if your orchard be 
surrounded with a wooden fence, the moth may often be found sitting 
against it, with its pretty wings neatly folded round its body, which 
is three-eighths of an inch in length, and the wings are three- 
quarters of an inch in their expansion; the head and thorax are 
brown; the body, where covered by the hind wings, is paler brown, 
witha silky gloss; the fore wings are of that colour which the 
Germans well express by the compound word grey-brown; they are 
delicately barred with dark purple transyerse lines, and have on the 
hind margin a large dark blotch, and within this another blotch 
almost circular, and bordered with scales of a glittering fiery copper- 
colour. Towards eyening—in fact, at sunset—the moth begins to 
moye, and may then be seen hovering about the little apples, which 
by the time it leaves the chrysalis (the middleof June) are well 
knit, and consequently fit for the reception of the eggs, which it 
generally lays in the eye of the apple, one only ineach. This is 
effected by introducing its ovipositor between the leaves of the calyx, 
which, closing over the eye, forms a tent that effectually shields the 
egg from the inclemency of the weather or any othercasualty. The 
act of oviposition is not, however, always confined to the eye. When 
the apple stands with the eye uppermost, I believe this is invariably 
the case ; but when it hangs eye downwards, as though regarding the 
earth, the other end of the apple is used as a receptacle for the ege, 
which is then dropped into the cavity surrounding the foot-stalk. 
Neither is this the only alternative the moth possesses, for its ege 
may sometimes be found glued to the rosy cheek of the Quarenden— 
an apple which seems to be a favourite with our Carpocampa. I 
have not, however, found a single worm-eaten apple in which the 
grub had entered from the cheek—a fact that leads me to suppose 
that eggs so deposited must miserably perish. 

As soon as the egg hatches, the little grub gnaws a hole in the 
rind of the apple, and buries itself in the substance; and it is 


worthy of remark that the rind, as if to afford every facility to the 
destroyer, is thinner in the eye than in any other part, and consequently 
more easily pierced. The apple most commonly attacked is the 
Codling, a large early sort, which ripensin July and August. The 
grub, controlled by an unvyarying instinct, eats into the apple 
obliquely towards the centre, thus avoiding the core and pips so 
essential to the apple’s growth; at first it makes but slow progress, 
being little bigger than a thread, but after a fortnight its size and 
operations have much increased. Up to this period the grub has 
availed itself of the very restricted gallery it has made in its deyour- 
ing career, as a channel through which to force its excrement; and 
this may always be observed in a little brown heap or mass, either 
concealed by the leaves of the calyx or arround the base of the foot- 
stalk, according as the egg has been laid at the eye-end or stalk-end 
of the apple. 

But when it has eaten half-way down the apple, and the position 
of the hole at the top, if the apple continues upright or nearly so, 
is inconvenient for this purpose, another communication with the 
outer air becomes requisite; and it must be constructed so as to allow 
the power of gravity to assist in keeping it clear. It is accordingly 
made directly downwards towards the part of the apple which is 
lowest, and thus the trouble of thrusting the pellets upwards through 
the eye of the apple is avoided, and a constant admission given to 
a supply of air without any labour. The hole now made is not, 
however, sufficiently open for an observer to gain by its means any 
knowledge of what is going on within ; this is only to be obtained 
by cutting open a number of apples as they gradually advance 
towards ripeness. The hole is, however, very easily seen, from its 
always having adhering to it on the outside an accumulation of 
little masses of excrement which have been thrust through. Having 
completed this work, and having reached the core, the grub turns 


SS 


The Apple Maggot.—Section of Apple, showing Grub at work, 


towards the cheek of the apple, and makes a third gallery, through 
which he eventually makes his exit, but not at present; for as soon 
as he has thus made sure of a means of escape he returns towards 
the centre of the apple, where he feeds at his leisure. When 
within a few days of being full-fed, he for the first time enters the 
core through a round hole gnawed in the hard, horny substance 
which always separates the pips from the pulp of the fruit, and the 
destroyer now finds himself in that spacious chamber which apples 
generally, and codlings in particular, always possess in their centre. 
From this time he eats only the pips, never again tasting the more 
common pulp which hitherto had satisfied his unsophisticated 
palate ; now nothing less than the highly flavoured aromatic kernels 
will suit his tooth, and on these for a few days he feasts in luxury. 
Somehow or other, the pips of an apple are connected with its 
growth, as the heart of an animal with its life; injure the heart, 
an animal dies ; injure the pips, an apple falls. Whether the fall of 
his house gives the tenant warning to quit I cannot say, but quit 
he does, and that almost immediately; he leaves the core, crawls 
along his lateral gallery, the mouth of which, before nearly closed, 
he now gnaws into a smooth round hole, which will permit him free 
passage without hurting his fat, soft, round body; then out he 
comes, and for the first time in his life finds himself in the open air. 
He now wanders about on the ground till he finds the stem of an 
apple tree; up this he climbs, and hides himself in some nice little 
erack in the bark. 

Such is the usual mode of proceeding ; but I must notice a deviation 
from this mode. I have said that the moth, in the selection of a 
nidus for its egg, exhibits a preference for the early varieties of apples ; 
but when these are not at hand it by no means denies itself the 
agreeable duty of billeting its destructive progeny on others. Still 
in the later kinds it very often meety with this difficulty ; the apples 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


529 


at this early period are much smaller, and asingle apple is insufficient 
for the requirements of a single grub; so the moth, before laying 
its egg, judiciously selects a cluster of two, three, or four apples 
which are touching one another, so that, having worked its will on 
one of these, it can pass into the next through a hole in the cheek 
which it has made for this especial purpose ; and, curiously enough, 
the extruded excrement serves as glue or cement to fasten two 
apples together like Siamese twins. In nine cases out of ten the 
grub contents himself with a single apple, never leaving it until he 
is full-fed. 

Having now followed the grub until he is full-fed, it seems desirable 
to describe him entomologically ; it has taken him three or four 
weeks to eat up to his full stature. The body consists of twelve 


The App!e Maggot: a. Section of two apples joined together by the 
passing of the grub from one to the other. 


segments besides the head, which is obtusely triangular, shining, 
and nearly black; the body is dingy white, with the slightest possible 
tinge of pink, except on the second and thirteenth segments, the 
backs of both of which are nearly black. It should here be observed 
that entomologists now properly consider the head as the first 
segment—hence the first segment of the body is the second segment 
of the insect ; it is needful to bear this in mind, or some numerical 
confusion may oceur in counting. Every segment of the body after 
the second has eight very small black warts, and these are arranged 
somewhat in pairs, and each wart emits a slender hair or bristle, 
which are too small and fine to be represented in a woodcut; the 
very pale colour of the body, and likewise the black warts, are more 
observable before the grub has quite attained its full size, after 
which period the colour of the body is slightly darker, and the warts 
are less distinct. 

I ought here to remark, that the fall of the apple, the exit of the 
grub, and his wandering to a place of security, usually take place in 
the night-time. 

When safely ensconced in the “nice little crack in the bark” I 
have already described, he remains without stirring for a day or two, 


fi 
= 
2 
i 


The Apple Grub viewed sideways, and distended by being killed in spirits, a; 
back view, } ; the cocoon, ¢; the chrysalis, d; the moth with wings expanded, 
e; the same with wings folded, f. 


as if to rest himself after the uncommon fatigue of a two yards’ 
march; then gnaws away the bark a little, in order to get further 
in out of the way of observation ; and having made a smooth chamber 
big enough for his wants, he spins a beautiful little cocoon or case, 
and within this changes to a chrysalis, which may be described as of 
a mahogany-brown colour, and as having on each segment of the 
body a transverse double series of minute warts; these, although so 
small, are rough to the touch, and may be distinctly felt by passing 
the finger along the back of the chrysalis. The length of time that 
elapses between the spinning of the cocoon and the transformation 


from a grub to a chrysalis does not seem to be very constant, for I 
have found the grubs unchanged even as late as March. Be this as 
it may, it is quite certain that the creature, whether changed or 
unchanged, remains in the cocoon eight or nine months of the year 
and always during the winter months. 

It is difficult, perhaps unwise, to express an opinion as to the par- 
ticular design in the economy of nature which decrees that one 
animal shall either prey on or be preyed on by another. But two 
conclusions are inevitable ; first, that the tomtits, now so abundant 
in our cider counties, must inevitably perish were it not for the oak 
galls, and the hosts of apple grubs which have sprung up in the crevices 
of the bark, and which these active birds are hunting for during 
every moment of our short winter days; and, secondly, that without the 
assistance of the tomtits the apple crop would be entirely destroyed 
by this irrepressible insect. Many a proprietor of garden or orchard 
in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, or Devonshire will contend that 
the tomtits must be killed because they peck holes in the apples 
and pears just above the insertion of the stalk—a fact that cannot be 
denied, an act which cannot be defended ; the blue-headed tomtit in 
particular, if he have any conscience at all, must plead guilty to its 
commission; but gentlemen will find that in exactly in the ‘same 
ratio as they diminish the number of their tomtits so do they 
increase that of their worm-eaten windfalls. 

To myself there is no sight more pleasing than a little bluecap 
searching every crack and cranny in the trnnk of an apple tree for the 
cocoons of the apple grub; his excessive, his indomitable industry, 
the sharpness of his sight, the knowing manner in which he turns 
his head on one side the better to peer into the crevices, the drollery of 
his attitudes, infinitely surpassing those of gymnast or acrobat, and 
his merry although perhaps unmusical note—all commend him to my 
affection, and indeed to my protection where I can possibly extend it ; 
but almost every apple-grower of my acquaintance prefers worm- 
eaten apples to blue-headed tomtits, and I find it impossible to over- 
come this preference. 

Supposing, however, that our little chrysalis escapes the prying 
eyes of the bluecap; supposing no such ill fortune betide him as to 
be transferred from his carefully-selected retreat to the crop of the 
little bird—then by the middle of June the chrysalis has become a 
moth, and is again on the wing and hovering round the young apples 
on a midsummer evening as before. 

“Ts there no remedy but the tomtits?”’ asks some devoted enemy 
of the titmouse race. Yes, a partial one. By burning weeds in yonr 
gardens at this time of year you may drive away this little moth. 
If you have trees the crops of which you value, make a smoking 
(mind, not a blazing) fire under each. It will put you to some in- 
convenience if your garden be near your house, but the apples thus 
saved will repay you for that. Then again you may do as some 
recommend—pick every apple that the grub has attacked. This is 
indeed a radical cure, but who can accomplish it ? After all, Nature’s 
remedy is by far the best; for the tomtits will serve you without 
giving you any trouble, and simply for their own gratification. And 
then again, supposing you are possessed of an orchard (mind, this 
remedy will not do for a garden), turn in your pigs; nothing is 
more agreeable to the porcine community than crunching a wind- 
fall. It is proverbial that a pig always delights in going the 
wrong way; and I verily believe they like these windfalls all the 
better from a conviction that they are taking what they ought not— 
their sly little eyes twinkle with delight as they utter their com- 
plaisant grunt over each crisp mouthful. Thus the pigs are fed, and 
the grubs are destroyed before they have left the stall where they 
were fattened. E. Newman, in “ Field.” 


BIRDS IN GARDENS. 


Tuis is, as one of your correspondents truly observes, a sore point 
in many establishments. Farmers have of late cried out loudly 
against the over-preservation of game, and undoubtedly much good 
has resulted to them from a free and temperate discussion of that 
subject ; why, therefore, should not gardeners ventilate their griey- 
ances respecting the over-preservation of such birds as are destruct- 
ive to seeds, buds, fruit, &ce.? In places where there is a standing 
order that not a bird must be killed nor an egg destroyed the gardener 
is often placed in a difficult position ; for, no matter however careful 
and vigilant he may be, if birds are present in undue numbers, they 
will mar his hopes and destroy the fruits of his labours in spite of all 
he can do to preyent them. I have several times tried to net up 
large standard cherry trees so as to preserve the fruit until ripe, but 
have never succeeded, for the simple reason, that if no way was left 
for the birds to get inside, they very soon made one, and after that 
a good many more, by breaking the meshes of the net, be it new or 
old. 

Asa garden destroyer, the blackbird may be placed in the front 


530 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 4, 1872. 


rank, for he is not only a great thief but a great glutton, and very lions of the vicinity. The gardens are laid out upon a partially 


daring ; he has also a well deserved reputation for wariness and 
cunning, for he will run on the ground under cover of anything that 
may be on it, until out of gunshot, and then he skims quickly 
over the wall and into the bushes, chattering defiance as he goes. 
In dietary matters his taste seems to be pretty correct, but his 
habits are profligate ; although he invariably attacks the best first, he 
does not trouble himself to make a clean job of one fruit before he 
begins on another, but gouges away right and left till he has spoiled 
the lot and filled himself until he can hardly riseirom the spot. If 
he cannot get soft fruit, hard will do; no matter how hard itis, his 
bill is strong and his digestion good, and when the supply of fruit 
fails, he will take to worms and such things; but then he is hard up 
—these are his last resource. F. H. 


ARCHITECTURE AND FOLIAGE AT WILHELMA, 
WURTEMBURG,. 


STUTTGART some few years ago was one of the most pic- | 


turesque of small German capitals. Its Alten Schloss Platz, 


a& spacious area, was enclosed by buildings whose quaint | 


| geometrical plan, in more or less accordance with the form and 
character of the building. But the unpleasant formal result 
| which might have been expected from thissystem of planting has 
| been relieved from its most objectionable characteristics by 
| allowing the growth of the trees and shrubs to assume their 
| natural forms and dimensions; so that, while the arrangement 

is based upon a well-defined and eyen ‘“‘formal” plan, which, 
' near a large building, has many advantages over unmeaning 

tortuosities, the objectionable element of mere formality is 
' overcome by the graceful irregularity and varying forms of 

the luxuriant foliage. The end attamable by this means is 
| well worthy of careful consideration, for it is of great value in 
garden zesthetics. 

Mere uniformity is of high value as a foundation, but 
requires to be elevated into symmetry, which is a thing of far 
higher character and importance than the bare duplicate repeti- 
tion of any given set ofabsoluteforms. For instance, in a group 
of buildimgs one wing may be made to harmonise perfectly with 
another, notby mererepetition, but by the introduction of objects 


The Chateau and Grounds of Wilhelma, Wurtemburg. 


architecture formed the delicht of travelling artists in search 
of subjects for pallet and pencil. The ancient Schloss of 
the Electors occupied one entire side of the Platz, and from it 
diverged the principal streets, almost as rich as the Platz in 
interesting specimens of medizval architecture; but modern 
improvements, all in the direction of convenience, cleanliness, 
and improved ventilation, have played sad havoc with many of 
the most picturesque features of the place. Hach of the main 
streets of Stuttgart leads to one or other of the gates of the 
little Wurtemburg capital, and through the opening of nearly 
every one of them a view is obtained of vine-planted hills, 
which form a delightful termination to the vista. Many of 
those rocky vineyards yield wines of various qualities and 
considerable excellence, which, at no distant period, are 
destined to be better known in England than they are at 
present. Not more than a mile or two from the city is the 
domain of Wilhelma, the fine modern chateau of which, 
with its pretty conservatories and outbuildings, is one of the 


) 


and forms of corresponding values. Say, onone sidea low mas- 
sive tower is the main feature, while on the other a slender and 
lofty turret is made to balance that effect harmoniously,_ 
without the necessity of resorting to the unimaginative and 
poverty-stricken resource of repeating the low tower ; and thus 
symmetry, instead of mere uniformity, is attained. In the same 
way, by judicious planting, the effect of masses of trees and 
shrubs, which, in the ground plan, are geometric reflexes of 
each other, may be made to produce similar varieties of effect 
without destroying their harmony. A towering and slender 
Deodar, for instance, being made to balance the effect of a dark 
mass of evergreen oak, in a manner precisely analogous to that 
of the low square tower and the acuminating minaret aboye 
alluded to. 

These principles are well shown in the engraving of the Wil- 
helma structures and gardens, which serves to illustrate these 
remarks. The buildings, though pleasing, have, unfortunately, 
somewhat of that fantastic cast which distinguishes modern 


May 4, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


531 


German architecture, which is in a state of active, but ex- 
ceedingly indecisive, transition. Whether it shall become Gothic, 
or Spanish-Saracenic, or Italian resorgimento, or whether some 
national style shall evolve itself from the chaos of decomposed 
architectural atoms which are at present being jumbled 
together in the struggle after progress, it is difficult to say. 
German critics dream very fondly of a “ Gothic of the future,” 
as in the art of music the adherents of Richard Wagner boldly 
assert the coming advent of a “ Music of the future.” But 
just at present a little fog of confusion, both in idea and 
performance, somewhat obscures the distant pepe 


Poe ARBORETUM. 


FINE TREES OUT OF PLACE. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

How often in our rambles do we observe trees planted in situations 
in nearly every garden and pleasure-ground that would almost 
cause one to imagine that little thought or consideration had been 
previously given as to the amount of space they would require for 
extending their growth, or the size to which they would ultimately 
attain. Everywhere do we find fine old Cedars, Larches, Cypresses, 
evergreen Oaks, and even Poplars, Yews, Horse Chestnuts, Elms, and 
other large and ornamental trees, planted closely to old castles, 
mansions, halls, &c.’; and still such misplacement is continued. 
Neither is this always tne gardener’s fault, for a lady or gentleman 
may purchase in a pot a plant of some newly-introdaced tree, and, 
withont consulting anybody, choose some conspicuous spot for the 
reception and future development of their little favourite. The 
gardener is then informed of their decision, and although he may 
remonstrate, his endeavours to frustrate their purpose often fail. 
This, therefore, is frequently the reason why we find stately and 
handsome trees planted so near mansion houses. During their 
infancy, all goes on well; ‘but as they grow older, they increase in 
stature, as a matter of course ; and, if not removed, they ultimately 
attain dimensions which quite unsuit them for the situations they 
occupy, sometimes darkening the house, and at others obstructing 
a free view of the distant landscape. 

Where it is desired to have choice trees grown to advantage, a 
piece of deep, well-prepared ground should be selected purposely 
for them, in what may be termed an arboretum, where, when once 
planted, they should be allowed to remain uninterfered with. 

When the Sequoia (Wellingtonia) gigantea was first introduced 
into this country, a number of them was placed under my charge, 
and, with careful treatment and regular and large shifts, to my great 
satisfaction, they soon made fine luxuriant plants. Proud of my 
success, [ wished to provide them with a permanent situation where 
they would be well sheltered, have plenty of room, and enjoy a 
considerable depth of good soil; and with that object in view I 
consulted my employer about them, when I learned with astonish- 
ment that the place fixed upon for their future development was 
where they now stand, viz., in a situation exposed to the sea, on the 
poorest ground on the estate—a solid bed of gravel! I determined, 
however, to make the best of such adverse circumstances ; I gave 
each tree a space of sixty feet, trenched the station on which it was 
to stand forty feet in diameter, and enriched it with surface soil 
and whatever other suitable material I could obtain, thoroughly 
incorporating the whole and fashioning it into a gradually sloping 
mound five feet high in the middle. At the time of planting, a 
railway was to have been made through an adjoining field, the turfy 
surface of which I intended to secure, for the purpose of filling up 
the hollows between the trees to a height of six or eight feet, thus 
converting their present mounds into little valleys; but in this I 
was afterwards disappointed. In planting, the centre of each mound 
was cast out, and a load of good open healthy soil was introduced, 
in which the plants were inserted. They were then mulched, and 
the operation was finished by placing a rustic cage six feet in 
diameter around each young tree. Thus treated, and kept free from 
weeds, they grew most luxuriantly, and safely weathered the cutting 
north and north-east winds of the severe winter of 1860-61, and also 
those of the winter of 1864-65, with the exception of a slight 
searing on the windward side, from which they completely recovered 
the following summer. 

In the arboretum one tree was planted and did remarkably well, 
when, owing to an addition of seven or eight acres of new ground 
being made, it, together with others, had to be removed. I then 
planted it on a spot filled up with many hundreds of cartloads of 
healthy old bank soil mixed with turf, thus forming a depth of eight 
feet of excellent soil, in which it will find room to grow and luxuriate 


for the next five hundred years at least; there it remains still, a 
noble example of what may be expected of this tree when planted 
under favourable circumstances. 

These Sequoias (Wellingtonias) have for several years produced 
cones, both male and female, and from their seeds have been obtained 
young plants. Immediately I discovered the male catkins, and found 
them in a fit state, I had a few of the female cones fertilized; these 
quickly swelled, and from their enlarged form could easily be 
distinguished from others even from a distance. When fall grown the 
seed cones are about the size of a walnut, and in shape something 
between that of the cones of Capressus macrocarpa and of Cedrus 
Deodara. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


Preserving Stakes.—Some few years ago, I had some stakes for the 
nursery made of pine inch-boards, three inches wide, sharpened toa point, 
and then boiled for a short time in a solution of blue vitriol, and they are 
lying around in the field now as sound as the day they were made; while 
other stakes, coal tarred, do not last much longer than when left without 
it.—A. Starr, in “ Cultivator and Country Gentleman.” 

Golden Yews.—Persons interested in these effective shrubs, or those 
who are yet unacquainted with the splendid effects well-developed speci- 
mens produce, would do well to see the fine old examples in Mr.Anthony 
Waterer’s nursery at Woking. In summer they assume their richest 
tints. A good specimen, seen amidst the ordinary verdure of our ever- 
greens, is something not to be forgotten. 

The Tulip Tree.—A few days ago we saw a tulip tree about eighty 
feet high, in Surrey, and one which was much crowded up by other trees. 
This reminds us of what few seem to be aware, that this tree, which 
endures the hardest frosts of the American winter, is considered the largest 
tree of the Eastern or older States of America, often reaching a hundred 
feet high and six feet in diameter. Specimens in North Carolina have 
been measured thirty feet, and even more, in circumference. 

Movement of the Sap.—The following example destroys the gene- 
rally admitted rule, “that the sap rises by the alburnum and descends 
between that and the bark to form the cambium.’’ Onr illustration is an 
elm of about nineteen inches in diameter, near the base of which four 
inches in width of bark have been stripped all round. Notwithstanding that, 
and also that the operation took place towards the end of December 1870, 
the tree does not seem to have suffered in the least, and has shot forth very 
well. Itis therefore certain that the movement of the sap, both up and 
down, must have been by the centre of the tree. 

Mistletoe-Bearing Oak.—There is a fine old oak with mistletoe 
growing on itin Lord Sondes’ Park at Lees Court, Kent. I saw it for the 
first timein 1867. I do not knowif it was known before that time that the 
parasite was growing upon it in five different places. I have been to look 
at it to-day (April 2nd), and I see that some ruthless hands have cut away 
the two largest pieces since I last saw it, so that there are now only three 
pieces left. There are hundreds of oaks of all sizes growing around it, 
from saplings to hoary-headed fellows that have stood the tear and wear 
of time for centuries, but on none can I find the parasite growing, except 
on the solitary one just-named.—J. Pink, The Gardens, Lees Court. 


GARDENING FOR MAY. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 
BY T. BAINES, SOUTHGATE. 

Conservatory.—In order to prolong the flowering season of such 
plants as are in bloom here, it will now be necessary to attend 
carefully to shading during the middle of the day in sunny weather. 
Scrim, a fabric made of flax, is much the best and cheapest shading 
material in the end. It outlasts considerably any other material I 
have ever tried. The finest quality of it will break the sun’s rays 
without excluding too much light. Roof climbers will now require 
regular attention to keep them from becoming an entangled mass. 
The system of allowing the whole roof to become covered, as is 
frequently done, is objectionable. It excludes too much light from 
the plants underneath, especially in dull weather; it also spoils the 
general effect, which is much enhanced by confining climbers to 
something like one-fourth of the roof space, and leaving them to 
hang down gracefully at intervals; yet in this too much uniformity 
should be avoided, by allowing some to hang lower than others. Let 
eyery means be employed to keep them free from insects, more 
especially scale. -Azaleas that are brought into bloom in other 
structures for removal to the conservatory, will be benefited by 
sprinklings overhead with the syringe every afternoon until their 
flowers are fully expanded; they should also be shaded, especially 
the high-coloured varieties. They must likewise be well attended to 
with water, as during the development of their flowers there is a 
much greater drain upon the roots than at any other time, and if 
allowed to become dry the flowers suffer as well as the growth for 


532 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


the ensuing year. Geraniums and Calceolarias that are throwing up 
flower trusses should be encouraged by means of liquid manure, 
not too strong, especially in the case of Geraniums, or it causes 
them to rur too much to leaf. Fumigate regularly, and not too 
severely. Fuchsias stake, stop; and tie. Closely examine them to 
see that they do not suffer from aphides or red spider, as either 
quickly spoils them. Cockscombs, Balsams, Achimenes, and Hydran- 
geas should be well attended to, as these, with the plants previously 
mentioned, will be the principal things to be depended on during 
the following two months, when there is a much greater scarcity of 
flowering plants than during early spring. Chrysanthemums that 
have filled the small pots they at present occupy, should be at 
once potted into their flowering pots; from eight to twelve inch pots, 
according to the sizes the plants are required, will be found large 
enough for general use. If fine flowers are wanted, stop the shoots 
during this month, but not later. A dozen really good blooms ona 
plant of the large-flowered varieties are preferable to three times 
the number of starvelings often met with. Plunge them at once in 
their summer quarters in ashes, which will prevent worms from 
getting into the pots, and will keep their roots at a much more 
equable temperature than when not plunged. The effect of rapid 
change in the temperature of the soil in an ordinary plant pot when 
not plunged is not sufficiently considered; during bright weather 
the effect of the sun’s rays acting upon the pot raises the earth 
heat in an unnatural degree, and therefore the cold chill of even 
our summer nights causes a corresponding reaction. The first 
batch of Primulas and Cinerarias will now require potting into 
thumb pots, using good loam, well enriched with rotten dung and 
leaf mould for the purpose, mixed with a little clean sand; place 
the plants in a somewhat close pit or frame; shade them from 
bright sun, and attend to them well with water. Pot off all cuttings 
struck of Huphorbias, Hydrangeas, and Poinsettias, placing them 
in a growing temperature near the glass, so as to insure short, stout 
growth. Rhynchospermum jasminoides is a useful conservatory 
plant, its fragrant white flowers rendering it a general favourite. 
It isa plant of easy management, requiring the temperature of a 
vinery or intermediate house during its growing season. ‘The 
different varieties of Kalosanthes will now be fast showing flower, 
and will be benefited by weak manure water. Get them properly 
tied before the shoots get too heavy. ‘They are useful decorative 
plants for summer. Now is a good time to propagate them; they 
strike freely in loam or peat, with an admixture of a little sand, 
giving very little water until they are rooted. Tie out Achimenes 
as they advance in growth, giving them all the light possible, so as 
to induce a stout, blooming habit. A good number of the oldest 
plants of scarlet and pink Geraniums should be selected for keeping 
up the conservatory display during the summer and autumn; and 
a batch of the scarlet Pelargonium Vesuvius should be potted into 
six-inch pots and turned out of doors, where they will be fully 
exposed during the summer to the full sun. With these it is not 
size that is required, but a thoroughly matured growth that will 
ensure their flowering freely when subjected to heat for winter 
decoration. 

Stove.—Allamandas in pots that have not made a sufficient 
number of shoots should have their branches wound round the trellis 
on which they are trained, bringing the points of the shoots down 
towards the top of the pot; this will have the effect of causing them 
to break freely, which growth will show bloom before it has advanced 
far. All stove plants that flower from the current season’s wood 
will be benefited by liquid manure as their pots get filled with 
roots; but in all cases let it not be given too strong, and always in a 
transparent condition ; if applied thick and muddy it closes up the 
surface of the soil, doing more harm than good WNyen in May we 
frequently get cold cutting winds ; therefore, when such is the case, 
never give air at both top and bottom of stoves, as it causes a through 
current of cold air, which is equally as injurious to vegetable as it is 
to animal life. We are frequently told that if the openings where 
the air is admitted are opposite the hot pipes, the air is warmed in 
its ingress by passing over the heated surface. To some extent it is, 
but not sufficiently ; neither is it sufficiently charged with moisture 
to be allowed to rush onward on a windy day amongst young tender 
foliage at this season of the year; towards the autumn, when the 
object is to ripen up late growth, the case is different. Place 
Gloxinias, Tydzeas, and all soft quick-growing plants near the glass, 
so as to get all the light possible; otherwise, when they have to be 
removed for decoration elsewhere, or their flowers are required for 
cutting, they are so soft and flimsy as to be useless. 


Fern House.—Plants that have not been repotted for some time, 
and where it is not deemed advisable to give them more root room, 
may be assisted by the application of manure water; but in all cases 
see that the drainage is effective, otherwise its application will only 
aggravate the eyil. If any plants are out-growing their bounds, 


either in pots or planted out, it is an easy matter to reduce this 
over-luxuriance by cutting away, more or less, according to circum- 
stancés, their oldest fronds whilst in a green living state; this 
will be found to reduce the size of the young fronds made afterwarés, 
in proportion to the extent it has been carried ont. The different 
kinds of Dicksonia, Lomaria, Cyathea, &c., that throw up their young 
fronds in a batch may have, when these are fully developed, the 
oldest fronds, if unsightly, cut away. 

Orchids.—This and the ensuing month is generally the gayest 
period of the year as far as these plants are concerned. The great 
drawback to the enjoyment of Orchids during this their flowering 
season, is that many of the plants occupying the different structures 
devoted to their culture are now in active growth, necessitating a 
high temperature and humid atmosphere. Where numbers of plants 
are grown therefore, a small house should be devoted to such as are 
in flower ; this can be kept drier, so as to prolong their flowers, and 
also cooler, than is required for such as are in active growth, at the 
same time affording facilities for inspection without the infliction of 
a vapour bath. See that Dendrobiums, especially such as are found 
in the almost saturated atmosphere of the hill regions of India, 


‘receive an abundance of water, both at their roots, and in the atmo- 


sphere during their season of growth. Keep them also in a lower 
temperature than is required for the well-being of such plants as 
inhabit the low hotter regions. The greater number of Cattleyas, 
including Mossiz, labiata, Skinneri, and intermedia; Leelia pur- 
purata and crispa, &c., are also very impatient of too much water at 
the roots, even during their season of growth, unless where the tem- 
perature in which they are grown is higher than either is necessary 
or desirable. 

Hard-wooded Plants.—Azaleas will now be coming into flower 
without the assistance of fire heat, and although with the increased 
temperature of the season they will not last in bloom so long as those 
that have been forced, yet the much brighter colours which they 
acquire under more natural conditions will compensate for their 
shorter duration. The house they occupy whilst in bloom should be 
well shaded, in order to prolong their flowering as long as possible. 
Remove all seed pods from such as have done flowering; after which, 
allow them a fortnight or three weeks to recruit their energies 
previous to repotting. Use in the operation good fibrous peat broken 
into pieces proportionate to the size of the plants; add nothing 
except as much silver sand as will not only insure porosity, but also 
maintain a sweet healthy condition of the soil for years ; for Azaleas 
with anything like fair treatment are not short livers. After potting 
keep them in a closer atmosphere than they have been in for a few 
weeks, and shade during bright sunny weather. Admit no side air 
during such time, but give sufficient at top to keep the temperature 
from getting too high ; 80° or 85° with air, shade, and moisture will do 
no harm; on the contrary Azaleas enjoy it. Plants that are vigorous 
and that push some of their shoots very strong will be benefited by 
haying the points of such shoots nipped out, as soon as they show a 
disposition to outerow their neighbours ; if done whilst the growth is 
soft the plants will push several shoots, which will set blooms with 
the rest of the plant. Attend as heretofore to the general stock of 
hard-wooded plants, and by close attention encourage early and 
vigorous growth. 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
BY GEORGE WESTLAND, WITLEY COURT. 

ALTHOUGH our springs of late years have cautioned gardeners as to 
the propriety of early ‘‘ bedding out’’—many preferring to wait until 
the first week in June before they commit tender plants to the oven 
ground—it is not too early to decide how the garden shall be planted, 
and to make arrangements accordingly. What may be termed the 
massing system has had its day, and it is evident that something 
fresh must soon be introduced. Gardeners, it is to be regretted, 
have in too many instances prided themselves more upon the tens of 
thousands of plants bedded out, than upon the good taste which 
should have characterised their distribution. Striking masses of 
primary colours are all very well when viewed from a distance and 
when well balanced by an ample background of green; but close 
under the windows of the mansion, associated with light-coloured 
walks and bright statuary, they not only become offensive to the eye, 
but in sunny weather positively intolerable. Loudon describes a 
beautiful scene “as one which an artist would like to paint,” but we 
wonder where the artist could be found who would like to paint even. 
the best of our modern flower gardens. As examples of broad masses 
of mere colour, and of the ability to crowd the greatest quantity of 
plants into the smallest space, they are well enough; but refined 
taste repudiates such ostentatious colouring. Nevertheless, bold 
masses of brilliant colours are not always out of place. Who at the 
present time, whether travelling by rail or road, can abstain from 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


533 


admiring the soft, bright tint of the Larch? Some of the Acers, too, 
are scarcely less beautiful; while the grey of the Poplar and the 
brown of the Elm contrast admirably with the sombre green of some 
of the Pinus tribe; and the snowy blossoms of the Bird-cherry are 
everywhere enchanting ; but, on the other hand, go again later in 
the season to our heath-empurpled mountains and moorlands, and 
though the expanse may be lovely, who is not delighted when a break 
of Fern, « group of Foxgloves, or even a few scrubby bushes of 
Birch, Thorn, or the golden Furze step in to break the monotony ? 
This is what we want in our gardens. The flavour of the Quince in 
the Apple-tart is good, but an Apple-tart nearly all Quinces would 
not be eatable; just the same is it with our modern flower gardens ; 
where we have striven for effect we must henceforth be satisfied with 
quiet repose. Towards this point are we drifting when we introduce 
foliage and sub-tropical plants into our flower gardens; and it is to 
the artistic disposition of these—the judicious blending, as it were, of 
colour with form—we most look fora satisfactory solution of our 
present flower-garden difficulty. We would have masses of colour in 
suitable situations, but we would have them subdued and tastefully 
toned down by means of foliage, so as to form a rich, quiet, and 
harmonious whole. Even ribbons, if a mere repetition of the same 
plants ad infinitum, cease to charm; and the same holds good in the 
case of panneling and carpet-bedding, where gaudy colours are 
employed. 

We would, therefore, as the planting season is at hand, council 
our readers to put in practice the subdued system of decoration ; 
and, where it may be necessary to introduce colour boldly, so to tone 
it down by foliage and contrast as to produce a harmonious and 
pleasing picture. The secret of garden decoration does not consist 
in crowding hundreds or thousands of plants, however scarce or 
valuable, into a given space. No; it lies more in the judicious use 
of appropriate plants, and in so lighting them up by means of 
colour that each shall enhance the beauty of the other. For this 
purpose expensive materials are unnecessary ; it is the arrangement 
rather than the plants individually which charms. One man, with 
a handful of flowers from the hedgerow will often produce an 
exquisite bouquet; while another; with flowers however choice, 
might fail. Tasteful application of the material which may be at 
command is what is wanted. 

Spring-flowering plants, although now doing good service, will 
soon require to be removed to the reserve garden, the ground 
in which should be put in order to receive them; add to it a little 
thoroughly decomposed manure, leaf soil, or peat as the case may 
be. Before re-planting, divide into small portions such plants as 
Aubrietias, Arabis, and Daisies, &c., allowing sufficient space 
‘between the plants for proper development, without crowding. 
Bulbs must be removed in as perfect a manner as possible, being 
‘careful not to bruise the leaves in the operation, and on no account 
remove the flower stems, as they greatly assist the maturation of 
‘the roots. Water freely, and protect from sunshine for a few days 
with evergreen branches. Plant out spring-struck Hollyhocks, 
and divide and re-plant Neapolitan and late-flowering Violets. Cen- 
taureas should be plunged in the beds in pots, as they grow more 
compactly, colour better, and are more manageable in winter. Clip 
box edgings, and everywhere maintain perfect neatness and order. 

Pits and Frames.—The majority of bedding plants now oc- 
cupying these may be placed under temporary protection, preparatory 
to being planted out. Attend to the pricking off of tender annuals, 
and push forward what potting off may yet remain to be done. 
Abundance of space and air should be afforded to the more tender 
bedding plants, so as to insure sturdy, well-matured growth. Continue 
to make sowings of tender annuals. 


THE ROSE GARDEN. 
BY GEORGE PAUL. 

In the case of Roses on the briar, suckers seem peculiarly trouble- 
some this year, and their removal demands immediate and continued 
attention. Look for them carefully in the head of the trees, and 
check any incipient shoots that appear on the stem. On the budded 
briars of last year they will be found in abundance, and entirely 
overpowering the variety budded ; in this case all should be removed 
at once, except one just above the breaking bud. This may be left 
for a day or two in full vigour, then shortened, and finally, in about 
a week altogether, be cut off. Experience shows that too sudden a 
check, before the bud has time to carry off all the sap, kills the now 
abundantly-forming white rootlets. 

In early districts and on hill-tops, where frost threatens not, a 
dressing of guano or dried blood (ammonia with carbon) will be bene- 
ficial to the growth. In the valleys we are afraid to encourage a 
vigorous sappy growth, too often finding ourselves overtaken by May 
frosts, and prefer awaiting the benefits arising from a mulching of 


droppings, to be prepared for application just as the buds are swelling 
and the hot season is setting in. Take advantage of the softer con- 
dition of the ground after showers to break up any clods still left 
after digging ; hoe deeply and frequently. 

Careful and almost daily search should be made for maggots ; they 
lie often close to the flower bud, gnawing through the stalk just 
below it; when not looked after, the foliage, eaten and ragged, is a 
disfigurement for the whole season. 

Towards the end of the month, plant out dwarf Teas, and more 
especially Roses on their own roots in pots; the latter get so much 
better established than if left until autumn, or when put out in 
winter. 

Last week and the present first week in May is emphatically the 
season for pot roses ; they are never so fine as when in flower now, 
and with the not too hot weather which we are now experiencing, they 
last long in bloom. They open, with the cool treatment now possible, 
large in size and fine in colour. The house in which the plants are 
opening their blooms should be kept shaded from all mid-day sun ; 
a temperature of 55°, the happy medium, is not always possible at 
mid-day, but by plenty of water on the floor and amongst the pots 
a comparatively cool and moist atmosphere may be produced. If 
wanted for a particular date, hastening on the bloom may be done 
by a warmer and closer night temperature; but if they may be 
allowed to come in regardless of shows or garden parties, air 
may be left on and a coolnight temperature may be maintained with 
obvious advantage to the size of the blooms. Pot roses for June 
cannot have too much air or be grown too slowly. In tying, 
plants should be gone through a second and last time when the 
growth is fully made and the operator can see how far out his flowers 
will be. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
BY WILLIAM TILLERY, WELBECK. 

Outdoor Fruits—Our fickle climate has never been better 
represented than it has been lately, for on April 21st it snowed 
here nearly all day, with a frosty north-east gale prevailing all the 
time. The latest flowering portion of standard Pears, Plums, and 
Cherries, being then in full bloom, the prospects of a good crop of 
these fruits are again somewhat blighted. Last year the rainy, cold 
weather which we had in April and May prevented some kinds of 
outdoor fruits from setting well, especially Apples, and very thin 
crops were the result in nearly every locality. Where Apricots, 
Peaches, and Nectarines have been protected, the coverings will 
want gradually taking off, so that the trees may not suffer from too 
sudden exposure. Disbudding the shoots, by only taking off a few 
at a time, till all danger from the influence of cold weather is over, 
must now be proceeded with; and where this is properly done it 
adds to the beauty and health of the trees. Where the fruit has set 
thickly, timely attention to thinning must be observed; but I am 
afraid this operation will be a sinecure this year on many kinds of 
fruit trees. Apricot trees are often much infested with the grub, 
that curls their leaves up and eats the young fruit. As this pest 
is safe from syringings or dressings of any kind, it must be searched 
for and crushed with the finger and thumb ; and the more effectually 
this is done, the fewer grubs will appear next year. Peach and 
Nectarine trees on the walls, if infested with green fly, must be 
syringed with tobacco water ; and this, if done in time, will prevent 
them from injuring the foliage. Attend to the stopping of all fore- 
right shoots on Pears, Plums, and Cherries on the walls. Towards 
the end of the month, Strawberries will be beginning to swell 
their fruit; and for all the large, valuable dessert kinds, forked 
sticks should be placed in the rows to support the trusses. This I 
find is far better than laying straw, short grass, or hay down to keep 
the fruit clean, as these materials harbour snails and other vermin. 


Orchard House Fruit Trees.—In true orchard houses, that 
is, where no artificial heat is employed, the temperature must be 
ruled by the weather. It is advisable, therefore, on bright sunny 
days to close the lights early in the afternoon, to secure a higher 
temperature for the night. Disbudding and pinching all strong 
shoots, and thinning the fruit where set too thickly, will be the 
routine for this month. Green fly and red spider must be eradicated 
by fumigation or syringing with tobacco water. 


Vineries.—The Vines in the early houses will now be ripening, 
and some air left on at night will assist the colouring process. In 
the succession houses, when the Vines are in flower, good fires must 
be kept up, and plenty of air given when the weather permits. 
Thinning the berries as soon as they are fit, stopping the laterals 
at a leaf or two above the bunches, and removing all superfluous 
shoots will be the main points now to attend to in the latest 
vineries. The coyerings may now be removed from all the outside 


5384 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 4, 1872. 


borders, and some liquid manure applied to them when watering is 
necessary. 


Peach Houses.—The fruit in the earliest peach house will now be 
at its second swelling, and the border must be examined to see that 
the moisture is sufficient, especially where the roots are all inside the 
house. Abundance of air must be given when the fruit is colouring, 
and the watering at the roots gradually discontinued. Thetreesin the 
late succession houses must be syringed every afternoon, and a moist 
atmosphere kept to prevent red spider from injuring the foliage. 
Soft water, at a temperature as high as that of the house, should be 
used for this purpose, for hard water stains the foliage and fruit 
with carbonate of lime, and spoils the bloom on the fruit when 
ripe. The thinning of the fruit must be attended to, and the quantity 
left on be regulated by the health of the trees. I find the best soil 
for Peach and Nectarine borders, where such can be procured, is 
the turfy loam from old pastures or the sides of roads, and no 
manure or compost of any kind added to it. Peach trees grown in 
such soils never make too gross or unhealthy wood, and they can 
always be kept up to the desired vigour by an addition of fresh soil 
to the roots and liquid manure during the time the fruit is swelling. 
All leaf mould, old tan, or any compost or soil that is likely to brine 
funguses into Peach-tree borders, should be strictly avoided when 
making them, for when fungus fastens on the roots of Peach trees it 
soon renders them unhealthy and unproductive. 

Figs.—As the first crop of fruit will be about ripening, the supply 
of water to the roots must be diminished, and only sufficient given 
to prevent the second crop from dropping off. The trees grown on 
walls after the winter coverings are removed will want their wood 
thinned, and all the shoots left nailed or tied in. 

Cherry House.—As soon as the fruit is all gathered, the trees 
must get all the air possible by taking the lights off or opening them 
to their fullest extent. When grown in tubs or pots, the trees can 
be placed in the open air in some sheltered situation, and not 
neglected for water in dry weather. Syringe with tobacco water, 
or fumigate, should the black aphis make its appearance on the 
trees. 

Cucumbers and Melons.—A steady bottom heat will still 
want keeping up, and by attention to syringing and a moist atmo- 
sphere the foliage will appear clean and healthy. The fruits on both 
Melon and Cucumber plants often set too many at a time, and 
require thinning, so as not to weaken the plants too much. Put 
pieces of slate or glass under Melons grown in frames, to prevent 
the damp soil from rotting the young fruit. When Melons are 
grown in pits and the plants trained on wires or trellises the fruit 
when getting heavy must be supported on a square piece of wood 
with a piece of string fastened to each corner tied to the wires, 
leaying plenty of room for the fruit to swell to their full size. 
Plants in frames will still want covering up with mats at night, and 
continued till all danger from cold weather is over. The ridge 
Cucumbers sown in May will want planting out by the end of the 
month, and a suitable ridge or bed made with hot dung will want 
preparing for their reception. Vegetable Marrows will likewise want 
planting out at the same time, and in the same way. 

Strawberries.—When the fruit is all gathered from forced 
Strawberries the plants are often huddled together in some exposed 
corner and neglected; but such plants, if taken care of and planted 
out, will furnish fine fruiting plants next year inthe open air. Some 
varieties likewise when planted out early produce a good crop in the 
autumn, and notably Sir Charles Napier for one, as I had this 
variety very fine last year in September, and quite fit for dessert. 
Tf the ground cannot be got ready for planting them out till other 
crops come off, and the pots are wanted, the plants may be shaken out 
and packed closely together with a little mould sprinkled amongst 
them, when they will be safe till planting-time, if supplied with 
water in dry weather. Take advantage of favourable weather to 
clean between the plants, and to mulch them properly in good 
time. Where the soil is light and open, tread it firmly previous to 
mulching. 


THE PINERY. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

To make fruit swell off freely, now that the days are long and 
light, ought to be no difficulty. All that is required is method in 
the way of applying necessaries, such as tepid manure water, 
charging the atmosphere with ammonia and humidity, kindly airings 
occasionally, and neyer shading if well swelled, finely-coloured fruit 
is aimed at. Talk of shading, indeed, in our cloudy, dark, humid 
climate, where the general complaint always is what little sun we 
get! Oh, no; to deprive our fruits of that little is against all 
natural reason and law. Succession plants in eyery stage of growth 


should now get their full share of heat, humidity, and air, with a 
warm humid atmosphere. Air freely night and day, in order to get 
strong robust plants. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
BY JAMES BARNES. 

In order that vegetation may make proper progress, stir the 
surface of the soil frequently and well amongst growing crops, 
by means of the hand scarifier, Dutch and draw hoes. Unctuous, stiff, 
wet soi!s must be methodically trenched, exposing as much of them 
as possible to the influence of sun and air, in a rough, ridged state. 
Forking, scarifying, hoeing, &c., at all seasons amongst crops is the 
masterpiece of good cultivation, giving neither vermin nor weeds a 
chance of existence. Make {up vacancies by transplanting, or you 
tolerate a loss; everything can be transplanted by means of a trowel 
in each hand, one to open the hole and the other to take up the plant 
with a ball of earth attached to it. After-thinnings, when the plants 
are established, are made with crane-necked hoes, one in each hand, 
sharply looked after. Broccoli, make the last sowing of some late 
kind for the season; prick off all previously sown plants as soon as 
they can be handled; also those of Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, Bore- 
cole, and other Kales. Cauliflowers, plant these ont in succession 
now, on the coldest, dampest situations you can select, and make small 
sowings for succession. Carrots, thin early sorts, and sow other 
early kinds in small quantities, in order to haye always a succession 
of youngroots. Beans, plant garden Beans on stiff, cold ground, and 
pinch the tops out of such as are coming into bloom. French Beans, 
transplanted or up and growing, dredge with dry dust, to preyent 
shanking or canker; shelter, where not under hand.glasses, with 
boards or boughs. Of Scarlet Runners, and other runner Beans, 
plant a full crop, sheltering and dredging them as just recommended 
for French Beans. 

Celery.—To early plants in frames give air freely, and water abun. 
dantly ; earth carefully, remove the lights entirely now, and make use 
of them for sheltering and assisting the second crop for a short time, 
or for French Beans, Capsicums, Chilies, Sweet Basil, &c. Young 
Celery for succession, continue to prick out; never allow the plants 
to get large or drawn previously with large tap roots, if fine, crisp, 
well-finished Celery is aimed at. The best situation for Celery at 
this season is in partial shade, that is, where tall late peas have been 
sown in rows, twelve or fourteen feet apart, as they always should 
be, in order to obtain a heavy, perfect crop, and where early crops 
of Spinach, Turnips, Cauliflowers, &c., have first been taken ; between 
the Peas cast out a shallow trench, six feet wide, fork into it a good 
portion of good rotten manure, and plant seven or eight plants cross- 
ways in the trench, eighteen inches apart. Thus treated, the result 
cannot fail to be a heavy crop of fine Celery, and that with less 
trouble, labour, and expense, than by any other method, and in this 
way all the winter crops can be conyeniently sheltered and protected 
from severe frost. 

Lettuces.—Sow these once a fortnight in drills, on well-prepared 
ground, to be thinned by hand or hoe; they will grow away much 
freer without ‘‘bolting” from seed, than when transplanted in hot, 
dry weather. ; 

Peas.—Of these continue to sow late varieties at good distances 
apart, in order to obtain good and perfect crops, and partial shade 
for intermediate cropping. Draw a ridge of earth up to within nine 
or ten inches of each side of all Peas up and ready for sticks, and 
place mulckings of decayed manure of some kind between the Peas, 
and the ridge on each side. It is astonishing how this benefits 
them by preventing evaporation, and it affords convenience for 
applications of water. Stop or pinch out the tops of all early 
blooming Peas; and all late kinds and strong growers should be first 
stopped when two feet in height, and three or four times afterwards, 
in order to get heavy crops. 

Seakale.—Manure and fork the ground between crops of this that 
have been cut; thin the crowns early to two or three shoots, 
according to strength, and apply dredgings of soot pretty freely in 
rainy, dark, cloudy weather. Seakale grows naturally in great 
abundance, as do also-Cabbages and Asparagus, round this coast 
close to the sea. 

Tomatoes.—These should now be planted out against walls, close 
fences, under hand-glasses at the bottom of steep sloping banks, or 


in warm yalleys against stakes, &c.; they may be trained and led 


with one shoot up to any bare spots on walls between fruit trees, 
then stopped to fill up. The Tomato is a wholesome fruit not grown 
or made use of in this country to the extent it should be. 

Radishes, Mustard and Cress, Chervil, and other salading, sow 
little and often; and make a small sowing of Endive. 

Turnips, sow these in small portions, in drills on the coldest and 
dampest land that can be found. 


‘ 


May 4, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


535 


THE HOUSEHOED: 
GREEN PEA SOUP IN WINTER AND SPRING. 


Sow Peas thickly in pots and boxes, say six weeks before the soup 
is wanted. Place them ina temperature of 60° or so, close to the 
glass in a house or pit. Cut the plants as soon as they attain a 
height of from three to six inches, and rub them through a sieve. 
The shoots alone will make a fair soup. Mixed with dry peas, also 
passed through a sieve, no one could scarcely distinguish colour 
or flavour from that of real green pea soup. There is, however, 
considerable difference in the flavour of pea leaves, as well as of 
the peas themselves. The best marrows, such as Ne Plus Ultra 
and Veitch’s Perfection, yield the most piquant cuttings. Also 
the more light the plants receive the higher the flavour, plants 
drawn up, or at all blanched, being by no means comparable with 
those well and strongly grown. 


In the spring, a few patches or rows may be sown in open 


quarters expressly for green cuttings. These are most perfect and 
fall flavoured when four inches high. When too long, the flavour 
seems to haye run to wood, and the peculiar aroma of green peas 
is weaker. 

There is yet another mode of making green pea soup at any 
season at very short notice. Chip the peas by steeping them in 
water and leaving them in a warm place for a few days. Then 
slightly boil or stew, chips and all, and pass them through a sieve. 
The flavour is full and good, though such pea soup lacks colour. It 
is astonishing how much the mere vegetation of seeds developes 
their more active and predominant flavour or qualities; a fact that 
might often be turned to useful account in the kitchen in the 
flavouring of soups or dishes, with turnips, celery, parsley, &c. 

D. T. Fisx. 


FLAVOURING WITH LEAVES. 


LEAvzEs are more or less popular for garnishing, but it has often 
surprised me that they are so little used for flavouring. With the 
exception of sweet and bitter herbs grown chiefly for the purpose 
and parsley, which is neither bitter nor swéet, but the most popular 
of all flavouring plants, comparatively few other leaves are used. 
Perhaps I ought also to except the sweet bay, which is popular in 
rice and other puddings, and certainly imparts one of the most 
pleasant and exquisite flavours. But, on the other hand, what a 
waste there is of the flavouring properties of peach, almond, and 
laurel leaves, so richly charged with the essence of bitter almonds, 
so much used in most kitchens! Of course, such leaves must be used 
with caution, but so must the spirit as well. An infusion of these 
could readily be made, either green or dry, and a tea or table 
spoonful of the flavouring liquor used to taste. 

One of the most useful and harmless of all leaves for flavouring 
is that of the common syringa. When cucumbers are scarce, these 
are a perfect substitute in salads or anything in which that flavour 
is desired. The taste is not only like that of cucumbers, but 
identical—a curious instance of the correlation of flavours in widely 
different families. 

Again, the young leaves of cucumbers have a striking likeness in 
the way of flavour to that of the fruit. The same may be affirmed 
of carrot tops, which are as like carrots in taste as maybe. In most 
gardens there is a prodigious waste of celery flavour in the sacrifice 
of the external leaves and their partially blanched footstalks. 
Scores of sticks of celery are cut up into soup, when the outsides 
would flavour it equally well or better. 

The young leaves of gooseberries added to bottled fruit give a 
fresher flavour and a greener colour to pies and tarts. The leaves 
of the flowering currant give a sort of intermediate flavour between 
that of black currants and red. Orange, citron, and lemon leaves 
impart a flavouring equal to that of the fruit and rind combined, and 
somewhat different from both. A few leaves added to pies or boiled 
in the milk used to bake with rice, or formed into crusts or paste, 
impart an admirable and almost inimitable bouquet. In short, leaves 
are not half so much used for seasoning purposes as they might be. 

D. Bury. 


Flavouring with Seeds.—For the dead season, when greens are 
scarce, or frost has made a full and final meal of them, it may be of 
service to bear in mind that we can turn to seeds, dry or chipped, for 
various flavours. I have already adverted to suchas celery, turnips, and 
parsley, among vegetables. The seeds of most herbs possess similar 
characteristics ; such seeds as those of thyme, marjoram, or savory, taste 
very like the plants. But most herbs may be dried and bottled, and it is 
comparatively easy to have such, either green or dry, in sufficient quan- 
tity ; it is, however, often otherwise with parsley. Its seed is of fair size 


long way. For soups, &c., the seed boiled is a capital substitute for the 
leaves. For melted butter the great drawback is colour. But even this 
may be overcome by the employment of a neutral green to mix with strong 
fers seed water. Perhaps this neutral tint is given by mild Scotch 
kale, grated as parsley is for melted butter. The colouris almost identical, 
= a —— can be parsleyed over so completely as to defy distinction. 
—D. T, Fisx. 


THE. FRUIT GARDEN. 


PEARS IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 


In reply to Mr. Baines (p. 415), as to why I named only two 
sorts of Pears in my former paper, I beg to say that I did so because 
the two kinds mentioned are well-known to most persons. I am 
glad tosee Mr. Baines’s acknowledgment that the Chaumontel and 
Duchesse d’Angouléme are of better quality grown in the Channel 
Islands than those of English growth; and I can safely affirm that 
the same is the case with all other first-class Pears with which I am 
acquainted, or have ever seen grown. The Channel Islands are the 
land of Pears, all of which can be grown to first-rate perfection, 
both as to quality and size. And whyshould it not be so? England, 
as a whole, is not the best of Pear-growing countries. Apples do 
better in it than Pears. I am aware that many good Pears are 
grown in England, but the sorts must be selected with care for the 
different localities; and even then, often after much trouble and 
expense, they do not equal those grown either here or in -France. 
In most parts of England many sorts have to be given up in despair; 
and, as Mr. Baines says, the further north the worse they are. He 
might also have added too far south is just the same. There, also, 
Pears will be found ‘‘no better than turnips.’’ Mr. Baines appears to 
have overlooked the fact taat there is a happy medium in most 
things, and in nothing is it more conspicuous than in growing first- 
class Pears. All good cultivators of the Pear are agreed that too 
great heat, too great an amount of cold, or a very changeable 
temperature, is fatal to those who aim at growing first-class quality 
fruit, either for size or flavour. Such being the case, I affirm that 
few, if any, places will beat the Channel Islands for the flavour of 
their fruit. Never mind what sorts are cultivated, they will all be 
first-class in that respect. First: We have an excellent soil, in 
which the Pear delights to grow. Second: Our temperature neither 
rises too high nor falls too low in summer, which is frequently the 
reverse in England, our insular position obyiating extremes. Third: 
We have longer summers, which commence earlier in spring and last 
longer in autumn; a point of primary importance to late-keeping 
and long-hanging fruit. Thus it is evident that we have greet 
advantages on our side as regards growing first-class Pears, either 
for size or quality. I myself cultivate upwards of two hundred 
varieties of Pears, some of which are the most delicate and tender 
in cultivation. My trees are wholly grown as pyramids or as 
ground cordons, and they receive no protection of any kind. They 
invariably produce good crops, and ripen fruit to the highest 
perfection. Among them are to be found sorts that I feel confident 
Mr. Baines would not equal even with the aid of walls; and Iam 
led to this conclusion from observing that Mr. Baines calls the 
Chaumontel a coarse fruit. I have an idea that Mr. Baines is too 
far north, or he could never call the Chaumontel a coarse Pear, 
for few if any Pears can beat it for flavour; and if all its good 
qualities are taken into consideration, it cannot be surpassed by any 
Pear in cultivation—of course, I mean when grown in a favourable 
climate, sach as we have here. Those Pears named by Mr. Baines 
are good sorts, and will bear good fruit in most parts of England 
where Pears do anything at all, excepting Marie Louise, which is 
rather tender in some places ; and this Pear, also, is better flavoured 
here than eyen in Devonshire, where I have seen it in beautiful 
condition against a south wall. JI believe I may repeat with 
certainty that no better Pears can be grown in Europe for size 
or flavour than are grown in the Channel Islands and France, say 
as far as the river Loire. South of this the flavour decreases, and 
far south Pears get worse and worse, until they become little ‘better 
than turnips;’’ and then we enter the land of grapes, figs, olives, 
melons, &c. Joun RicHard WILLIs, Rohais Nursery, Guernsey. 


ORCHARD HOUSES. 


WE have here a very good span-roofed orchard house, measuring 
seventy-five feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and fifteen feet high. 
From the time we gather from this house our first dish of currants, 
raspberries, and gooseberries, for tarts, up to the month of October, 
when we gather the last dish of Easter Beurré pears, the house is 
full of interest. It will be seen that we do not gather superior 
fruits at the beginning of the season, but we gather peaches and 


and substance, and the flavour much concentrated, so that a little goes a | apricots, nectarines, plums, and cherries by the hundred afterwards, 


536 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 4, 1872. 


and apples and pears by the dozen. The greatest drawback is not 
haying plenty of fruit trees to go on with when the house is built. 
On the trees in pots first bought, I have no doubt there will be a 
good crop the first season, if the selection has been rightly made ; 
but next year, putting all together, a good crop will seldom be 
obtained. What, therefore, is tobe done? Instead of buying only 
one set of trees at first, buy two; one set to be in pots to begin 
with, the second unpotted and from two to four feet high, which 
should be planted rather closely in a sheltered but sunny situation, 
and if practicable in a stiff, yellow loam, in which they should be 
planted pretty firmly and allowed to remain undisturbed till the 
following season. The following February examine your trees in 
the orchard house, and those that bore a heavy crop the previous 
season, if not likely to be very productive this year, as they will 
not probably be, remove them to the outside; and in their place 
take in those planted ont. Lift these with good balls, and pot them 
firmly in good, stiff loam, mixed with a little bone dust. By yearly 
pursuing this practice, no lack of fruit need be experienced. In 
this house last year we had a small plant of Williams’s Bon Chrétien 
pear, that produced six fine fruits, averaging in weight sixteen 
ounces each, and of superior flavour. I quite agree with your cor- 
respondent ‘‘ W.” in saying that those who have never tasted a 
well-ripened pear, produced under glass, have something instore. So 
fine is the flavour of these pears that they are always eaten even 
in preference to peaches or grapes. The currants, gooseberries, 
and raspberries which we bring forward under glass for tarts, are 
all removed before they in any way prove injarious to the regular 
inmates of the house. T. SournworrH. 
Castle Head, Morecambe Bay. 


Fruit Improvement in Canada.—As evidence of this it is only 
necessary to call to mind the magnificent displays of fruit that have now for 
several years formed so conspicuous and attractive a feature in our pro- 
vincial exhibitions, and which have elicited the admiration of all beholders. 
The change is also shown by the fact, that whereas we used to be depen- 
dent upon our neighbours across the lines for our supply of nearly all 
kinds of fruit, we now not only raise sufficient of the hardier sorts to 
meet the demands of home consumption, but we annually ship large 
quantities of apples for the English market. The culture of the grape 
has also been prosecuted with most encouraging success, and is spreading 
rapidly. Still further proof of our progress in the same direction is fur- 
nished by the growth of the nursery business in this country. There is 
not a nurseryman in the Dominion, though their number and the extent 
of their transactions have greatly increased, who is not taxed to the very 
utmost to supply the demand for ornamental, shade, and fruit trees; and 
the results are visible in the neat aspect of city garden plots, the charming 
grounds of suburban residences, and the improved appearance of farm 
homesteads.—Canada Farmer. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(May 1st.) 

Nor a large meeting, but one worthy of the brilliant May-day on which 
it was held, in the variety and beauty of the subjects shown. 

Roses were abundant and remarkably fine, especially three boxes of 
cut blooms of Marechal Niel, which were excellent. The bright golden 
flowers of this Rose, its free-blooming qualities, and its suitability for 
greenhouse decoration as a climber, deservedly render it a universal 
favourite. Amongst other plants the most remarkable were two superb 
examples of Sarracenias from Mr. Baines, of Southgate, surpassing in 
size and in perfectness of development even the noble specimens of these 
plants so often shown by Mr. Baines, both in London and Manchester. 
To these a silver floral medal was awarded. We noticed some improve- 
ment in the mode of showing herbaceous and alpine plants, Mr. Ware 
sending flat baskets crammed with the alpine Phloxes of America. Thus 
shown, the beauty of alpine flowers is well brought out, and the fact 
plainly showing that they surpass all other plants in profuseness of blossom. 
Eucharis amazonica was shown by Mr. Standish, a fine specimen with 
nineteen flower spikes on it, each spike bearing some six flowers; the 
plant itself, which was growing ina small tub, measured five feet in diameter. 
Of bedding Pelargoniums some were shown in fine condition; tricolors 
we noticed with finely marked foliage ; also white variegated-leaved kinds 
bearing pure white flowers, and judging from their compact habit, and 
apparent free-flowering qualities, we have in them obtained something 
good for summer outdoor work. Orchids were exhibited in great variety 
and beauty ; conspicuous amongst them was Mesospinidium sanguineum, 
with three gracefully drooping spikes of charming bright rosy flowers. 
Cnt flowers of Ranunculuses from Mr. Hooper, of Bath, were contri- 
buted in excellent condition ; as were likewise cut blooms of Pansies in 
great variety, fine in form, and distinct in colour. 

Amongst new plants, a first-class certificate was awarded to Hchino- 
cactus Mirbelii, a curious and deeply-furrowed species, with clusters of 
large spines, from Mr. Peacock’s admirable collection at Sudbury House, 
Hammersmith. Few private collections of these curious plants are so 
rich in interest as this; their requirements are well understood by Mr. 
Croucher, who grows them in perfection, and many species nowhere else 


to be met with in Britain may be seen here. Wirst-class certificates were 
also awarded to Encephalartos cycadzfolia, from Mr. B. 8. Williams, 
Upper Holloway; to a dark copper-coloured long-leaved Draczena, much 
after the form of D. indivisa, from Messrs. Rollisson & Son, Tooting ; to 
Odontoglossum brevifolium, a distinct kind, with dark flowers and thick 
leathery leaves, but of a very unruly habit, from Mr. J. Linden, Belgium; 
to Bouvardia longiflora flammula, a promising rose-coloured land, from 
Messrs. HE. G. Henderson & Son, St. John’s Wood; to Pansies, Mrs. 
Eyles, Prince of Wales, and Crimson Beauty, from Mr. Hooper; to 
Auriculas Mercury and Colonel Scott, two good new kinds, and to Azalea 
Fanny Ivery, a brilliant red land, from Messrs. J. Ivery & Sons, 
Dorking ; and to an alpine Pentstemon, from Messrs. Veitch, Chelsea. 
This, a very distinct and pretty little magenta-coloured Pentstemon, found 
by Mr. W. Robinson on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, was one of 
the most admired. It was not shown in its best state, as naturally it is a 
tiny, neat-habited shrub, two to three and a half inches high, forming 
round tufts associated with the alpine Phloxes. 

My. Francis Dancer sent from his excellently-managed market garden 
at Chiswick, a noble dish of Asparagus. His system is the opposite of 
that of those who crowd thickly a number of plants into a bed. He 
leaves three feet or so between each plant. Mr. Dancer, gord judge as 
he is, and ought from his practice to be, does mot agree with those who 
wildly write in the papers, showing how very foolish people are who eat 
blanched Asparagus. These, for the most part, found their opinion of 
the blanched Asparagus on imported specimens, that have been perhaps 
lying in Covent Garden for a week. Mr. Dancer’s Asparagus was 
blanched to within two or two and a half inches of the top; properly 
done Asparagus is most delicious treated thus, at least soit seems to 
those who have given both ways a fair trial. 

A fine example of Blue Gown Cucumber, about two feet in length, 
was exhibited by Mr. J. Reven, gardener to H. Forrest, Hsq., Orpington, 
Kent; this arrived too late to come under the notice of the judges. A 
Melon, called Little Heath, weighing four pounds ten ounces, was shown 
by Mr. J. Monro, Potter’s Bar, Barnet. 

Fruit, although not shown in quantity, was, as far as ib went, excellent. 
New Grapes in good condition consisted of Black Hamburgh and Buck- 
land Sweetwater. A dish of Grosse Mignonne Peaches, and one of 
Violette and Brown Turkey Figs were also contributed in good condition, 
as were likewise dishes of Dr. Hogg and Marguerite Strawberries, both 
fine-looking fruit. 


EXHIBITION OF USEFUL AND HURTFUL INSECTS. 


In order to diffuse a knowledge of the natural history of insects 
affecting field and garden crops, and to enable agriculturists, gardeners, 
fruit-growers, and others interested in the matter, not only to familiarise 
themselves with the appearance and transformations of their insect friends 
and foes, but also to become acquainted with the most effective means of 
encouraging the former and checking the ravages of the latter, the Central 
Agricultural Society of France is making arrangements for an entomo- 
logical exhibition, to be held in the Luxembourg Garden, in Paris, between 
the 18th August and 8rd September next. 

The exhibition will be divided into four sections, the first of which is to 
contain all the useful insects, ranged under six classes, and represented 
in their different stages of development, from the egg to the perfect beme. 
Each class must be accompanied by a specimen of the food on which the 
insect lives, as well as by a short account of the usual method of rearing 
it, of its natural history, economy, products, average market value, &c. 

The second section will consist of noxious insects, and as basis of classi- 
fication the authorities have taken the plants which they consider it most 
important to protect, placing together in groups all those insects which 
attack the same crop or produce. This classification is perhaps not scien- 
tific, but it possesses at all events the advantage—so it is hoped—of being 
easily comprehended, and of facilitating study. All the chief crops and 
objects of culture to be met with in France, including fruit and forest 
trees, will be represented in this section, together with the minute popu- 
lation to which they afford nourishment. Thus, for instance, class seven 
will contain insects living upon timber ; class eight those infesting trufiles 
and mushrooms; class nine such as destroy dry organic substances (woollen 
goods, feathers, horsehair, &ec.) ; and class ten, parasites of the domestic 
animals and man. 

On the one hand, place will be found for carnivorous insects, down to 
the parasites of the plant-louse and of different moths and butterflies ; 
on the other, the claims to representation of insectivorous mammalia, 
such as the mole, hedgehog, &c., as also of insectivorous birds, will not 
be forgotten. 

The exhibition is also to embrace two entirely non-entomological sec- 
tions, one of them devoted to river fish culture, the other illustrative of 
the rearing of edible snails, and of the damage done by snails and slugs. 
An enumeration of the simplest and most efficacious means of destroying 
these pests will be added, for the benefit of horticulturists and vine- 
erowers—the greatest sufferers by their depredations, 

Although the different collections will be so systematically arranged 
and catalogued as to tell their own tale, it is thought the instructive 
lessons they convey will be more deeply impressed on the minds of visitors 
if “ conferences’ be held in connection with the exhibition, the subjects 
of discussion at the same to be decided upon beforehand. ‘This plan was 
followed with the best results at the last entomological exhibition in the 
Palais del’ Industrie (Champs Hlysees), the conferences being well attended 
and exciting much interest. Communications relative to the exhibition 
should be addressed before the 1st of August to the secretary of the 
society, 59, Rue Monge, Paris.—Field. 


May 4, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


One of our enthusiastic correspondents, prompted, no doubt, by 
the genial warmth of the season, has broken into flower with the 
following :— 

SWEET MAY. 


SwWEEeEt greeting to thee, May!—may we, 

Sweet child of Sun,—run 

To thy daisied lap,—and lap 

From dew-sprent lids “ day’s eye!” 

And if not, why not ?—knot thee 

Tn our heart of hearts—for art 

Thou not, with all thy love and light—light- 

Hearted May! our May ? and may we 

For ever call thee ours—and hours— 

Sweet hours of young life’s prime—chime 

Sweetly in our hearts—where rime don’t fall, 

Nor frost at all—only light, flowers, and sun—won,— 

By thy smile, may come—trippingly as thou dear daisied May ; 

And oft, in joyaunce, may we greet this day— 
Mayn’t we ? Swrer May! 
May Day, 1872. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—May 38rd. 

Flowers.—Those in pots consist chiefly of Pelargoniums of all classes, 
well flowered and abundant; herbaceous Calceolarias, charmingly 
marked and well-grown; Gardenias, indispensable on account of their 
sweetness; Golden-rayed Lilies, graceful little Fuchsias ; spring flowering 
Heaths in great variety; Roses of most kinds, more especially the pretty 
dwarf Chinese sorts ; and many other plants of interest. To these may be 
added fine-leaved plants suchas Dracsenas, Ferns (principally Adiantums), 
graceful kinds of Pteris and Polypodium, Palms, Cyperuses, and Club 
Mosses. Bouquet flowers mostly consist of light-coloured Tea Roses, 
Stephanotis, White Azaleas, Blue Cinerarias, Double-flowering Stock, 
sprays of various Orchids, Gardenias, Lily of the Valley, Ferns, &e. 
Button-holes include a Gardenia flower with a few leaves; light Rose with 
leaf; red Pink; spray of Lily of the Valley and Fern; Stephanotis and 
Fern; Hoya, cluster of flowers, and Fern; Nemophila, and a few other 
flowers were also worked into them. Hardy plants are now furnished in 
great plenty; amongst them are Pansies, Sweet Williams, Stocks, 
Alyssum, blue Gentians, double-flowering Ranunculuses, Mimuluses, Car- 
nations, &c.; also Nasturtiums and Sweet Peas, and other plants of 
similar kinds. 

PRICES OF FRUIT. 


SE eat 3G is dap eer ds 
5 O0tol0 0 Pears, kitchen O0to6 0 
8 0 15 0 Pine Apples .... 0 WoO 
no 6 1 0 Strawberries. 9 13 
-- 0 6 oh) 0 25 0 
8 0 15 0 -per 100 1 0 2 0 
7° 0 10 0! Cherries ......... perbox 6 0 10 0 
Oranges .... 40 10 0/ 

PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 
Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 0 to 6 0 | Mushrooms ........ ottle 1 Oto2 0 
Asparagms......... per 100 4 0 8 0 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 0 0 
Beans, Kidney ...per 100 1 6 Bi Gy | ORION. scasesscraces bushel 2 0 4 0 
t, Red doz, 1 0 3.0 ickling......... uart O 6 0 0 
09 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz.bunches 3 0 4 0 
a O Be Ga} PBYAMNIS Gos occcnscceak doz. 0 9 0 
0 6 0 O | Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 
2.0" ©1b= (08) Potatoes 7,.c..cc.: bushel 3 0 5 0 
16 r-Sgih) ) PE. oTs 1s:) Ae 3.0 5 0 
iL 6 2.0 0 6 16 
20 4.0 0 6 10 
0 6 Le 16 ae LO 16 
2 0 0 0 O49 10 
aa 03 00 09 1 3 
French Beans ...per100 10 3-0 1 ee) 
Garlic Ib 0 8 00 . O + 0 6 
Herbs ... 0 3 0 0 | Spinach 3.0 4 6 
Horseradish ...... 3.0 4 0 | Tomatoes...small punet 3 0 0 0 
G2) + Sa ae Be ma bunch 0 2 OF Gy [\, Cornips) © See. bunch 0 3 09 
Lettuce (Paris cos)each. 0 4 0 8 | Vegetable Marrows,doz 0 0 0 0 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS .* 


Bryrierp (Through any of the large London nurserymen.)—Rawpn (In 
its present stage your plant is indeterminable. In New Zealand Sophora 
tetraptera grandiflora is called ‘‘ Kowhai,’”’ as is also the Edwardsia 
grandiflora of Salisbury.)—Tap. (There is no better way than that of 
allowing swans to graze down your watery meadows.)—W. B. (Manythanks. 
The contribution so kindly promised will be weleome.)—P. (The old 
double Primroses are, or were, not uncommon in Irish gardens.)—J. L. S. 
(Rhodanthes thrive well if sown in the open ground the last week in 
April.)—H. Rayte (There is at least one of the American Hawthorns 
earlier than our common British one.)—Y. (We shall do our best to assist 
you.)—R. M. (Next week.)—H. C. (We are unacquainted with any 
separate work on the subject.)—C. H. (The cutting in of the Ivy on 
Hornsey Church Steeple will do no harm; on the contrary the bare stems 
will doubtless soon be again covered with new and beautiful foliage.)— 


* All questions likely to interest our readers generally are anstered in the 
several yarious departments. 


J. O. (Mr. Baines recommends scrim, a kind of flax fabric, see p. 531.) 
J.C. and P. J. N. (Next week.)—Miss K. (Leptospermum bullatum.)— 
O. M. (Camellias and Azaleas will, at the proper season, bear cutting in, 
not only without injury but sometimes with advantage. Perhaps your 
gardener objects to indiscriminate mutilation by those who cut flowers.) 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(May Ist.) 
LIST OF PRIZES AND CERTIFICATES. 

Nrye Roses in pots—First, Mr. C. Turner, Slough; Second, Messrs. Paul & 
Sons, Cheshunt. 6 Roses in pots—First, Messrs. Veitch, Chelsea. 3 Roses in 
pots—First, Mr. E. Ellis, gardener to J. Galworth, Esq., Kingston ; Second, Mr. 
Ki. Baxter, gardener to C. Keiser, Esq., Broxbourne; Third, Mr. J. James, Isle- 
worth. 

12 Auriculas—Fir:t, Mr, C. Turner; Second, Mr. J. James. 6 Auriculas— 
First, Rey. H. H. Dombrain; Second, Mr, J. James. 12 Alpine Auriculas—First, 
Mr. C. Turner; Second, Mr. J. James. 

6 Azaleas—First, Messrs. H. Lane & Sons; Second, Mr. T. Hill, The Poplars, 
Regent's Park; Third, Mr, ©. Turner. 3 Azaleas—First, withheld ; Second, Mr. 
J. Herrington, Clapham Park; Third, Mr. C. Baldwin; Third, Mr. G. Wheeler ; 
3 Azaleas, by amateurs who have not previously taken the Society’s prize for 
Azaleas—First, Mr, Hill; Second, Mr. J. James, 

6 Exotic Orchids—First, Mr. Denning, Tadcaster; Second, Mr, William Bull; 
Third, Mr. G. Wheeler. 

6 Herbaceous Calceolaries—First, Mr. J. James ; Second, Mr. J. Dobson. 

Cultural commendations were awarded to Sarracenia flaya and S. Drummondi 
alba, from Mr. Baines, Southgate ; to a finely spotted Odontoglossum Alexan- 
dre from Messrs. Veitch ; to Odontoglossum Intea purpureum, from Mr. Green, 
gardener to W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., Reigate; to a dish of black Circassian 
Cherries, and one of Elton, from Mr. Stephens, gardener to the Duke of Suther- 
land, Trentham Hall ; toa dish of Violette and Brown Turkey Figs, from Mr. J. 
Tegg, gardener to J. Walter, Esq., Wokingham ; to a dish of Marguerite Straw- 
berries, from Mr. McKellar, Colworth; and to one of Dr. Hogg, from Mr. J. 
Hopper, Hartwell House, Aylesbury ; to three bunches of Black Hamburgh and 
three of Buckland Sweetwater Grapes, from Mr. J. Tege; and also to three 
bunches of Black Hamburgh from Messrs. Wright, Lee, Kent. 


His Serene Highness the Prince of Teck, president of the Royal Botanie 
Society, visited the gardens yesterday, and signed the nominations of the 
following vice-presidents for the present year :—The Duke of Buckingham 
and Chandos, K.G., the Marquis of Bristol, Lord Alfred Hervey, the 
Bishop of Winchester, D.D., F.R.S., Lord Calthorpe, Lord Chesham, 
Lord ‘Tredegar, the Right Hon. Sir William Hutt, M.P., Sir Walter 
Stirling, Bart., and Sir Charles R. Turner. 


EXHIBITIONS DURING May.— Royal Horticultural Society, South 
Kensington: Table decorations, Roses, Rhododendrons, Hardy Peren- 
nials in pots, hardy flowering Trees and Shrubs, Gloxinias, Carnations, 
Agaves, and Peas, 15th and 16th; Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s 
Park, Sth; last Spring Show, Reading Horticultural Society, 22rd; 
Crystal Palace, 11th; first great Flower Show, Manchester Botanical 
and Horticultural Society, 17th to 24th; Royal National Tulip Society, 
Grand National Horticultural Exhibition, Manchester, 25th; Sefton 
Park Seat Horaealtaral Exhibition in aid of the new Southern Hospital, 
21st to 23rd. 


A LETTER FROM A MARKET GARDENER TO THE 
SECRETARY OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 


Sir,—The Satiety having Bean pleasd to Complement Me before I 
beg Leaf to Lie before Them agin as follow in particullers witch I 
hop They will lnck upon with a Sowth Aspic. 

This ear I have turnd my Eyes to Gozberris.—I am happy to Say 
I have allmost sucksidid in Making them too Big for Bottlin. I beg 
to Present sum of itch kind—Pleas obsarve a Green Goose is larger 
in Siz then a Red Goosebry. Sir as to Cherris my atention has Bean 
cheafly occupid by the Black Arts. Sum of them are as big as 
Crickt Balls as will be seen I send a Sample tyed on a Wauking- 
stick. I send lickwise a Potle of strayberris witch I hop will reach. 
They air so large as to object to lay more nor tooina Bed. Alsoa 
Potle of Hobbies and one of my new Pins, of a remarkably sharp 
flaviour. I hop they will cum to Hand in Time to be at your Feat. 
Respective Black red & White Currency I have growd equely Large, 
so as one Bunch is not to be Put into a Galley Pot without jamming, 
My Pitches has not ben Strong, and their is no Show on My Walls of 
the Plumb line. Damsins will Be moor Plentifle & their is no Want 
of common Bullies about Lunnon. Please inform if propper to 
classify the Slow with the creepers. 

Concerning Graps I have bin recommanded by mixing Wines with 
Warter Mellons, the later is improved in its juice—but have douts of 
the fack. Of the Patgonian Pickleing Coucumber, I hay maid Trial 
of, and have hops of Growing one up to Markit by sitting one End 
agin my front dore. On account of its Proggressiveness I propos 
calling it Pickleus Perriginatus if Aproved of. 

Sir, about Improving the common Stocks.—Of Haws I have some 
hops but am disponding about my Hyps. I have quite faled in 
cultuvating them into Cramberris. I have allso atempted to Mull 
Blackberis, but am satisfid them & the Mulberris is of diferent Genius. 
Pleas oberve of Aples I have found a Grafft of the common Crab 
from its Straglin sideways of use to Hispalliers. I should lick to be 
infourmd weather Scotch Granite is a variety of the Pom Granite & 


THE GARDEN. 


weather as sum say so pore afrnte, and nothing but Stone. Sir, 
My Engine Corn has been all eat up by the Burds namely Rocks and 
Ravines. In like manner I had a full Shew of Pees but was distroyd 
by the Sparers. There as bean grate Mischef dun beside by Enty- 
mollogy—in some parts a complet Patch of Blight. Their has bean 
a grate Deal too of Robin by boys and men picking and stealing but 
their has bean so many axidents by Steel Traps I don’t like setting 
on ’em.—Hood’s Own. 


ANCIENT GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 


“‘ Sucn herbes, fruits, and roots as grow yéerelie out of the ground, 
of seed, have béne verie plentifull in this land, in the time of the 
first Edward, and after his daies, but in processe of time they grew 
also to be neglected, so that from Henry the fourth till the latter 
end of Henrie the seventh, and beginning of Henrie the eight, there 
was little or no vse for them in England, but they remained ynknown, 
or supposed as food more meet for hogs, and sanuage beasts than 
mankind. Whereas in my time their yse is not onlie resumed 
among the poore commons, I meane of melons, pompions, gourds, 
cucumbers, radishes, skirets, parsneps, carrets, cabbages, nauewes, 
turneps, and all kind of salad herbes, but also fed ypon as deintie 
dishes at the tables of delicate merchants, gentlemen, and the 
nobilitie, who make their pronision yearely for new séeds out of 
strange countries, from whence they haue them abundanilie. 
Neither doo they now staie with such of these fruits as are whole- 
some in their kinds but aduenture further vpon such as are vyerie 
dangrous & hurtfull, as the verangenes, mushroms, &c.,as if nature 
had ordeined all for the bellie, or that all things were to be eaten, for 
whose mischiefous operation the Lord in some measure hath given 
and pronided a remedie. 

‘© Hops in time past were plentifull in this land, afterwards also 
their maintenance did cease, and being now reuiued, where are anie 
better to be found ? where anie greater commoditie to be raised by 
them ? onelie poles are accounted to be their greatest charge. But 
sith men haue learned of late to sow ashen keies in ashyards by 
themselues, that inconuenience in short time will be redressed. 

Madder hath growne abundantlie in this land, but of long time 
neglected, and now a little reuiued, & offereth it selfe to proone no 
small benefit ynto our counitrie. 

** And euen as it fareth with our gardens, so dooth it with our 
orchards which were neuer furnished with so good fruit, nor with 
such varietie as at this present. For beside that we haue most 


[May 4, 1972. 


delicate apples, plummes, peares, walnuts, filberds, &c.: and those 
of sundrie sorts, planted within fortie yéeres passed, in comparison 
of which most of the old trées are nothing woorth: so haue we no 
lesse store of strange fruit, as abricotes, almonds, peaches, figges, 
corne-trees in noble mens orchards. I haue seen capers, orenges, 
and lemmons, and heard of wild olives growing here, beside other 
strange trees brought from afar, whose names J know not... . . 

“We have in like sort such workemen as are not onlie excellent 
in graffing the naturale fruits, but also in their artificiall mixtures, 
whereby one trée bringeth foorth sundrie fruits, and one and the 
same fruit of divers colours and tasts..... Of hard fruits they 
will make tender, of sowre sweet, of sweete yet more delicate, 
beereuing also some of their kernels, other of their cores, and 
finallie induing them with the sauour of muske, ambre, or sweet 
spices, at their pleasure. .... 

“‘ What choise they make also in their waters, and wherewith some 
of them doo now and then keep them moist, it is a world to sée; 
insomuch that the apothecaries shops maie seem to be needfull also 
to our gardens and orchards, and that in sundrie wise; naie the 
kitchin itselfe is so farre from being able to be missed among them, 
that euen the verie dishwater is not without some vse amongest our 
finest plants.’ —Vol. I. of ‘‘ Holinshed’s Chronicles,” edition of 1807, 
pp. 350, 353, of ‘‘ Gardens § Orchards.” 


The Name and Address of the writer are required with every communt- 
cation, though not for publication, unless desired. Letters or 
inquiries from anonymous correspondents will not be imserted. 


All questions on Horticultural matters sent to THE GARDEN will be 
answered by the best authorities in every department. Cor- 
respondents, in sending queries or communications of any kind, 
are requested to write on one side of the paper only. 


All comnumications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Wi~L1aM Rosrnson, “ THE GARDEN ” OFFICE, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PUBLISHER, at the same Address. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
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cuarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. 


REEN’S PATENT ROLLERS FOR) 
LAWNS, DRIVES, BOWLING GREENS, CRIC- 
KET FIELDS, and GRAVEL PATHS, 


Suitable for Hand or Horse Power. ~ 


SIMPSONS’ ee 
Se 


“WORTLEY ” ras 
woem=y"| CARSONS 


COLLAR. 


PAINT, 


PATRONISED BY THE QUEEN, 

The British, Indian, and Colonial Governments 
7,000 of the Nobility, Gentry and Clergy, 
Railway and Canal Companies, Collieries, Iron- 
masters, &c., &c., 

Is extensively used for all kinds of 
[Registered.] 


OUTDOOR WORK. 


For Protecting Celery before earthing up. 


It is especially applicable to 


WOOD, IRON, BRICK, STONE, & COMPO. 


CAN BE LAID ON BY UNSKILLED LABOUR. 


Tilnstrated Price Lists Free on Application. 
THOMAS GREEN &SON, Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds; 
64 & 55, Blackfriars Road, London, S.E. 


EW HARDY BEDDING PLANT, 
THYMUS CITRIODORUS AUREUS MAR- 
GINATUS (Lemon-scented Gold-edged Thyme), raised 
by FISHER, HOLMES, & Co. An exc-edingly pretty 
Thyme, of an erect-growing but much-branched habit, 
with large obovate leaves, which are of a very bright 
dark green in the centre, and with a broad rich golden 
yellow margined variegation; is very handsome and 
attractive. It will prove very effective for edging 
flower beds, borders, or ribbon planting, and for grow- 
ing in masses on banks, or in other varied forms; it 
may be grownas bushes or pyramids for winter bedding, 
having proved perfectly hardy. Altogether, it may be 
considered as one of the most charming bedding plants 
known, and with the additional delicious fragrance of 
the sweet-scented Lemon Thyme. 

It was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society 
on the 21st June, 1871, and received a First-Class Certi- 
ficate ; also at the Royal Horticultural Show at Notting- 
ham a First-Class Certificate. 

8s, per dozen. 50s. per 100. 
FISHER, HOLMES, & Co., 
HANDSWORTH NURSERIES and SEED WARE- 


HOUSES, SHEFFIELD, 


See TESTIMONTALS. 

Mr. Rosz, Head Gardener to her Majesty, says :—“I 
consider your Celery Collar an excellent invention. I 
shall be pleased to give it a trial in the Royal Gardens 
this season.” 


Mr. Sprep, Head Gardener to his Grace the Duke of 
Devonshire at Chatsworth,says :—‘‘Iam most favourably 
impressed with your Celery Collar, and shall certainly 
give it a trial this season.” 


Mr. Wu. Tomson, Tweed Vineyard, says:—‘‘ This 
simple contrivance will meet a long-felt want. Thousands 
of heads of celery are spoiled by the earth getting into 
their centre. Your paper Collars will prevent all this.” 


Many others could be added if space permitted. 
See also Testimonials in the Horticultural Journals. 


BLAKE & MACKENZIE, 


SOLE MAKERS snp WHOLESALE DEALERS ONLY. 
Works—SCHOOL LANE, LIVERPOOL. 


Branch—Howaep St., Guascow. 


The CetEery Coxrtanrs can be obtained through all Nur- 
serymen and Seedsmen. Orders will be executed as received, 
and IMMEDIATE APPLICATION is necessary to insure delivery 
in due season,—Liberal Terms to the Trade for Cash. 


SOLD IN ALL COLOURS. 
2 CWT. Free to all Stations. 
Prices, Patterns, and Testimonials sent Post Free. 


WALTER CARSON & SONS, 
LA BELLE SAUVAGE YARD, 
LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E.C.; 


And 21, BACHELOR’S WALK, DUBLIN. 
NO AGENTS. 


Free to London; Five Casks and upwards to any Station 
in England, cr 15 per Cent. Disconnt. 


PPS’S SELECTED PEAT.—Patronised 

by the leading Horticulturists and Amateurs in 

the three kingdoms. See testimonials. Packed in 4 

bushel barrels, 8s. each, inclusive ; selected for Orchids, 

9s. Special offers for Truck-loads for general pEEpOes, 

Terms cash.—PEAT, SAND, and LOAM STORES. 
Lewisham, S.E. 


HOREMAN ; Ina Nobleman’s or Gentle- 

man’s Establishment, where Fruit and Flowers 
are extensively Cultivated —Age 25; can take either 
department. Has held three similarsituations. Canbe 
well recommended by the Gardener he is now leaying, 
with whom he has been three years.—T. N., Post Office, 
Alderford, Norwich. - 


May 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


537 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Art ITsELF Is NaturE.’’—Shakespeare. 


NOTICE. 

The Conductor of THE GARDEN has commenced a tour of observa- 
tion through the Gardens of England, beginning with the counties 
of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford. Correspondents will greatly 
oblige by forwarding to him, at THE GARDEN Office, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., information as to interesting 
gardens, remarkable trees, and other objects of horticultural interest 
tm any of these counties. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


PEACHES AND NECTARINES UNDER GLASS. 


TueseE are fruits deservedly esteemed by everybody, and 
although a considerable amount of attention is required to 
produce good crops of them, the result generally amply 
repays the grower for his trouble. For Peach borders, 
I prefer a strong fibrous loam, of a texture slightly 
adhesive, without manure of any kind, which I find apt to 
induce over-luxuriance. Previous to forcing, I thoroughly 
soak the borders in which the trees are growing with tepid 
manure water, which enriches the soil and stimulates the 
roots into action. Beginners should remember that a dry 
border is a frequent cause of the flowers dropping. A stag- 
nant sour border, on the other hand, is equally injurious; aim, 
therefore, at what is termed the “ happy medium.” 

I begin forcing with a low temperature ; about 42° is a safe 
medium at night, because the slower the sap is put in motion 
the stronger the buds will break. With sunshine the ther- 
mometer will rise considerably, which will benefit the plants, 
if a free circulation of air is admitted and cold draughts 
avoided. I syringe the trees morning and afternoon till the 
bloom appears, admitting air freely in favourable weather, to 
secure strong and vigorous blossom, as Peaches and Nectarines 
are yery impatient of close confinement. When the flowers 
are fully expanded, I increase the temperature to 50°, and 
discontinue syringing till the fruit is fairly set. A dry, close 
atmosphere being inimical to their requirements, I steam the 
flues and sprinkle the ipa and borders to produce a moist 
healthy atmosphere. close, high temperature whilst the 
trees are in flower, will result in failure. When the flowers 
are fully open, I make a point of aiding fertilization by 
distribuiing the pollen with a camel’s-hair brush; a warm, nice 

entle breeze also assists me greatly in the operation of 
fertilizing the bloom. When the fruit is set, I increase the 
temperature to 55°, syringe the trees as before, and apply 
tepid manure water pretty freely to the borders. I also 
gradually raise the temperature of the house at night, up to 
the stoning period, when it stands at 60°, and at that it 
remains until the stoning is completed. It is a waste of 
time and fuel to push them on beyond this point during the 
stoning process, as the fruit, although subjected to a tempera- 
ture of any kind, makes little or no progress for three or four 
weeks. The trees themselves may be forced and growth greatly 
accelerated, but the fruit remains almost stationary, which 
shows the injudicious practice of over-forcing at this critical 

eriod. 
¥ Early and progressive disbudding is of great importance, 
for by it we avoid the practice of laying in too much wood, 
which must afterwards be cut out, thus exhausting the trees 
as much or probably more than the fruit they produce, and 
is one of the causes of barrenness or unproductiveness. 


Thinning the fruits should commence when they are about 
the size of peas, removing only a few at a time, so as to cause 
no check, and reserving the final thinning till the stoning 
period is past, when they should be removed to their proper 
distances apart. Over-cropping should be studiously avoided, 
because it exhausts the trees, and injures them from carrying 
acrop next year. A safe rule is to allow one fruit for every 
ten or twelve inches of surface on a strong tree, but only 
about half this number on a weak one; and we shall find the 
decrease in number fully compensated for in the size and 
flavour of those left. The trees should always be kept 
scrupulously clean, and in a healthy vigorous state. Io keep 
down aphis or green fly, slight and frequent fumigations 
with tobacco are much better than very strong applications. 
If the roots of the trees are not duly supplied with moisture 
and food during the time the fruit is setting and swelling, 
failure of the crop is inevitable. When the fruits have 
commenced their second swelling, I increase the temperature 
ta 65° by fire heat, but Iam not fastidious to a degree or two. 
The inexperienced should be impressed with the idea that 
too much artificial heat and insufficient ventilation will cause 
a defect in colour and flavour. Every gardener who wishes 
to excel, is, or ought to be, ambitious to haye high-coloured 
and well-flayoured fruits, thus enhancing their value; and the 
most effectual means to secure these effects are to be 
moderate with fire heat, allow plenty of solar heat, give abun- 
dant ventilation on all favourable occasions, and heavy tepid 
manure waterings to the borders whilst the fruit is swelling ; 
but as it approaches maturity the manure water must, in 
all cases, be discontinued, or it will impart a bad taste to 
the produce. Syringing must also be withheld, and the 
borders allowed to get comparatively, but not completely, dry, 
otherwise the flavour will be affected. Throughout the 
forcing period, air should be admitted according to the state 
of the weather, and even during frost I find a little top air to 
be beneficial. I attach much importance toa top-dressing of 
leaf mould and decomposed manure in February, which 
prevents the drought penetrating to the roots of the trees, 
lessens the labour of watering, prevents too rapid an evapor- 
ation, and enriches the soil. Every means should be adopted 
to produce thoroughly ripened wood, as much of the success 
in Peach culture depends on this point. In the winter 
pruning, I reduce middling vigorous shoots one half, the 
weakest to two or three buds, from the main branch, and, if 
possible, to a treble eye, or where there is a blossom bud on 
each side of a wood bud. 

By the above mode of treatment, I have been very successful 
in securing excellent crops of Peaches and Nectarines. I 
have two Peach houses, each eighty feet long and eight feet 
wide, heated by a brick flue. In 1868 I gathered from these 
two houses 106 dozen Peaches and Nectarines, and in 1870 
upwards of 142 dozen, many of which exceeded eight ounces 
or half a pound each in weight, and they were highly-coloured 
and of surpassing flavour. In the present somewhat 
inclement season, most of my trees have set extraordinarily 
thick. In one house alone, I have removed as thinnings 
upwards of 1,500 fruit. I had the curiosity to count the fruits 
on about one square yard of surface of a Violet Hative 
Nectarine, and they exceeded three hundred; equally thickly 
set was a tree of Royal George Peach. 

Many cultivators prefer their own treatment, to which I 
have no objection, provided it answers the purpose; for I 
am persuaded that Peach and Nectarine culture under glass 
resolves itself into this, that when a cultivator’s practice is 
attended with satisfactory results, he should adhere to it as 
tenaciously as the ivy clings to the oak. 


Altrincham. Witson BoarpMan. 


SPAN-ROOFED HOUSES v. WALL PROTECTORS. 


GARDEN WALLS and the protection of fruit trees on them, is a 
subject of great importance to gardeners, especially at this time, 
when we hear of such destruction of fruit blossom taking place in 
Yorkshire and in other localities by the snow-storms which we have 
lately experienced. I was probably the first who ventured to condemn 
garden walls as a protection for fruit trees; but every year’s 
experience proves that I was right. Peaches, apricots, cherries, and 
the more tender sorts of plums, pears, and apples should be grown 


538 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


in span-roofed houses; and the hardier varieties of apples, pears, 
and plums as standards, espaliers, &c., in the open borders, where 
they would not bloom so early as if trained on walls, and where 
most probably they would escape spring frosts. Trees planted out 
in a sheltered situation in this way do well, and the fruit is greatly 
superior in flayour to that grown on walls. Glass is the only 
effectual protection for fruit trees on walls. Mr. Ayres’ protectors 
(see p. 476) I consider most efficient and ornamental; but I would 
say to those who contemplate making new gardens, do not build 
a wall at all when span-roofed houses can, in many districts, be 
erected at less cost than a brick wall with stone coping. The 
keeping of these houses in repair would not exceed the cost of 
repairing walls, providing temporary copings, canvas screens, &c. 
Tf this plan were carried out, it would be a great relief to gardeners, 
and the “everlasting” coping and other temporary coverings 
would be at anend. Last year was very disastrous to fruit trees, 
especially to those on walls; but had the trees been under per- 
manent coverings such as I haye described, the crop would have 
been saved. 

Our climate is very variable and uncertain; as an instance of 
this I may mention what came under my own observation over 
twenty years ago, when in charge of a garden about seven degrees 
farther south than I am at present located. This season always 
brings it to my remembrance, and this very day (25th April) in 
particular. I had at that time as fine a wall of peaches as could 
be seen in the district. The fruits were as large as good-sized 
filberts, and the trees the picture of health. On the above date a 
sudden snow-storm came on from the south-east, which blew right 
against the trees, and from the violence of which old herring nets 
afforded no protection, as the snow could be taken off the trees in 
handfuls. The fall of snow was succeeded by a sharp frost, which 
completely destroyed the fruit, and the trees were so much injured 
that some of them had to be cut back, and others destroyed. This 
is doubtless only an instance of what others have experienced. 

Lochgilphead. J 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


— WE learn that in the neighbourhood of Moscow there has 

been a regular plague of mice, which haye undermined both fields 
and orchards, destroying everything. 
Tue largest orchard in the world is said to be in California. 
It contains 426 acres, and more than 75,000 fruit trees. A good 
season in that country, it is reported, will produce as many as 20,000 
oranges from a single tree. 

—— THERE are still, we understand, eight million acres of unen- 

closed land in England and Wales; of these as many as three million 
acres lie in the lowland counties, at least one-third of which well 
deserves cultivation. When these million acres are enclosed, one-sixth 
of the whole acreage of Hngland will still remain free and open 
country. 
Tring Park, Herts, comprising 3,643 acres, with a mansion 
seated in a deer park of 300 acres, together with the manor of Tring 
and the Royal grant by Charles II. of free warren and sporting over 
an additional 4,500 acres, and the exclusive right of fishing in the 
the Tring reservoirs, was sold the other day by auction for the sum 
of £230,000 to Baron Lionel Rothschild. 


—— Tuis is reported to have been a trying season for trees and 
shrubs in the United States. The intensely rigorous frosts of March 
have proved too seyere for many of the very hardiest kinds of ever- 
greens; even rhododendrons, that thrive so well in mountainous 
districts where they are subjected to the keenest frosts, have sus- 
tained considerable damage. There are also heavy losses among 
conifers. 

—— WE learn that vegetation is completely destroyed all round 
Vesuvius, which is now quiet, and the weather brilliant. Vast estates 
are completely rnined. It can hardly be believed that the soiljtrodden 
upon is that of La Bella Napoli. Orange groves, with their sweet 
perfume and rich vineyards, are all alike gone. Not a single 
flower has been left untouched to show forth the brilliancy of its 
colours. Houses and hamlets and gardens have been buried in burning 
lava. ; 

—— Asan instance of expert workmanship, says the American 
Agricultwrist, James Markey, one of Mr. Peter Henderson’s men, 
can make more cuttings, or pot off more plants in the same time than 
any other man in America. It is good average work for one man to 
pot off in 24-inch pots 2,000 cuttings in tenhours. Markey potted off 
in one day of ten hours, this spring, 7,000; while his average work of 
this kind is 5,000 aday. Of course, such ability commands its price, 
and Markey is paid quite twice that of most of hisfellows. In market 


gardening a man, planting cabbages or lettuces, with a boy to drop 
the plants, can set 6,000 a day; but John Scarry, also one of Mr. 
Henderson’s old foremen, has repeatedly planted 10,000 a day. An 
average workman can tie 400 bundles of celery in a day, but mention 
is made of a market gardener who can tie up 1,200 in the same time. 


A LARGE specimen, says the Scotsman, of Rhododendron 
Nuttalli is now in full bloom in a seed shop in Hdinburgh. Though 
introduced into this country fully twenty years ago by Booth, who 
discovered it on the Bhotan Alps, it has as yet been rarely seen in 
flower. The species is interesting as having the largest flower of 
any known rhododendron. The leayes are from 5 to 8 inches long, 
and from 2% to 4 inches wide, of a bright glossy green, and strongly 
reticulated on the under side. 
Brsipes the famous horse-chestnut tree which blooms yearly 
on or about the 18th of March, the Tuileries gardens contain one of 
the numerous offspring of the willow planted on Napoleon’s grave at 
St. Helena, which had been imported during the Second Empire. This 
willow, the pilgrimage of fervent Bonapartists, is at present dying, 
to the intense despair of all whom it interests. But it is tobe hoped 
that the Administration will replace it secretly with another one 
which will answer just as well, 
Dr. Hooker, we understand, supports the project of a new 
Polar Expedition, on the ground of the immense service which it 
will render to botany. He proved the other evening, at a meeting of 
the Geographical Society, the extremely curious fact that Greenland 
had, in former times, a magnificent flora, and that maples, beeches, 
and other forest trees flourished there. He maintained that the dis- 
appearance of these trees, and the gradual substitution for them of 
the most miserable flora in the world, was a circumstance which 
would amply repay scientific investigation. 
AN East Indian tea expert, Mr. W. G. Howard, says Hearth 
and Home, has been successfully experimenting on the growth of tea 
in Georgia. He picked from one tea-plant twelve ounces of green 
leaf, which next day he made into three ounces of tea. This yield, 
he says, is far ahead of that usual in India, where five hundred 
pounds is a fair season’s yield from an acre. At the rate of yield in 
Georgia, he would procure 458 pounds at a single picking, and 
supposing he could get ten pickings—one every twenty days—the 
crop would amount to 4,580 pounds. The quality also is said to be 
excellent. 
SAYS a recent correspondent of the Times, before arriving 
at Jerusalem, taking a circumambulatory tour through the wilderness 
of Judea, by Solomon’s Pool, Hebron, Bethlehem, Mar Saba, the 
Dead Sea, the Jordan, Jericho, and Bethany, I was struck with 
amazement by the herbal and floral clothing of the mountains and 
the dense foliage of the valleys, where in previous years scarcely a 
blade of green or a tiny flower could be seen. Our encampment in 
the valley of the Kedron, near Mar Saba, where last year all was 
sterility and barrenness, was this year amid the fragrant perfumes 
of a carpet of innumerable hues. 
TuE Swiss Times reports that a fearful thunderstorm passed 
over Villmergen one day last week. From four o’clock in the afters 
noon it rained steadily, and about seven o’clock the lightning struck 
a cherry tree with a crashing report. Pieces of ten feet in length 
were found at a distance of one hundred yards. Of the stem no trace 
was to be seen, and the fragments of it, like those of the boughs, which 
were loaded with blossoms, were scattered in all directions. Half 
the root—a piece twelve feet long—was found some distance off with 
one end firmly planted in the earth. The meadow in which the treo 
stood looked as if some one had sown in it splinters and shavings. 
—— Ara meeting of the Corporation of London it was moved, as 
an amendment, ‘‘ That the resolution of the 11th ult., agreeing with 
the report of the Markets Committee, in reference to Farringdon 
Market, be rescinded. And that it be referred to the Markets Com- 
mittee to consider whether the present market could not be improved 
as a fruit and vegetable market at a moderate outlay. Also to 
consider whether, if it should be deemed expedient to build a new 
market at an outlay of £150,000 or more, the present site is the best 
one, or whether it would not be desirable to consider the advantages 
of some other site on the vacant land belonging to the Corporation, 
or some other land in the same locality P And, if thought desirable, 
to erect a new fruit, flower, and vegetable market upon any site, the 
committee be directed to advertise for plans, with an estimate of the 
expense, reporting thereon, from time to time, to this court.” It 
was further moved, “that considering heavy commitments of the 
Corporation in reference to markets, it is most undesirable that a 
large outlay should be made upon Farringdon Market, until this court 
shall have had further time and opportunity for consideration. That 
the resolution of the 11th April be rescinded, and that the whole 
question of a vegetable, fruit, and flower market be referred to the 
Markets Committee for consideration, and to report fully thereon.” 


f 
: 
i 


May 11, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 


539 


HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER ROUND LONDON. 


Tr is our intention to give weekly a list of hardy plants in flower 


(DURING THE CURRENT WEEK.) 


in the neighbourhood of London. 


Such a record will be useful for 
reference, inasmuch as such selections may be made from it as will 


keep our outdoor gardens gay during every month in the year. 


Adonis 
vernalis 
sculus 
Hippocastanum 
rubicunda 
Ajuga 


reptans and vars. 


Allium 
odorum 
ursinum 

Alyssum 

‘emonenso 
leucadeum 
montanum 
orientale 
saxatile 
spinosum 
iersbeckii 

Amelanchier 
perapensis 
vulgaris 

Anchusa 
sempervirens 

Andromeda 
floribunda 

Androsace 
chamejasme 
eximia 

Anemone 
alba 
decapetala 
hortensis 
nemorosa pl. 
narcissiflora, 
Pulsatilla 
sylvestris 

Antenaria 
alpina 
dioica and vars, 

thylli: 


istulosus 
lInteus 
Aster 
altaicus 
saluginosus 
Aubrietia 
column 
deltoidea 
groeca 
Azalea 


pontica and vars. 


Berberis 
Bealii 
stenophylla 

Box 


natans 
epg and fl, 


pl. | 
Camassia 
esculenta 


Centaurea 

montana and 
vars. 

Cerastium 
alpinum 
Biebersteini 
frigidum 
incanum 
lanuginosum 
ovalifolium 
tomentosum 


Cerasus Euphorbia 
duracing Myrsinites 
japonica procera 
Padus and yars. Exochorda 
sylvestris grandiflora 

Cheiranthus Fothergilla 
alpinus alnifolia 
Dillenii Fritillaria 
Marshallii Meleagris 
ochroleucus preacox 

Clematis pyrenaica 
montana Furze 

Cochlearia double and single 
officinalis Genista 

Convyallaria germanica 
majalis procumbens 
Polygonatum prostrata 

Coronilla umbellata 
emeroides Geranium 

Corydalis aconitifolium 
bracteata angulatum 
capnoides cristatura 
lutea pheum 
nobilis reflexum 

Cotoneaster sylvaticum and 
laxiflora vars. 

Crategus tuberosum 
glandulosa Globularia 
macrantha nudicanlis 
nigra tricosantha 
oxyacantha and Galium 

vars. cruciatum 
prunifolia Gentiana 
rinum acaulis 
capense (Osborn) verna 
'ydonia Geum 
japonica chilcense 
vulgaris montanum 

Cytisus pyrenaicum 
elongatus urbanum 
Laburnum Halesia 
purpureus diptera 
ramentaceus Helenium 
supinus Hoopesi 
versicolor Helleborus 

Daisies lividus 
various double Hesperis 

Daphne matronalis and 
Cneorum vars. 
collinum Hottonia 
Fionianum palustris 

mticum Houstonia 

Delphinium crerulea 
nudicaule (Ware Hyacinthus 

& Rollisson) amethystinus 

Dianthus Iberis 
alpinus coriacen 
hybridus multi- corifolia 

florus corresfolia 

Dicentra Garrexiana 
eximia Pruiti 
formosa saxatilis 
spectabilis Tenoreana 

Diervilla Tex 
cormensis Aqnifolium and 

Dodecatheon yars. 
integrifolium Iris 
Meadia cristata (Parker) 

Doronicum florentina 
austriacum germanica and 
caucasicum vars. 
Pardalianches iberica (Ware) 

Draba lurida 
incana lutescens 

Epimedium nudicaulis 
alpinum pumila 
colehicum Kalmia 
lilacinum latifolia 
Musschianum Lamium 
niveum garganicum 

Erica longifloram 
arborea maculatum and 
cinerea vars 
mediterranea Lasthenia 

Erigeron glabrata | 
bellidifolium urel 

Erinus common 
alpinus Ledum 
alpinus albus latifolium 

(Parker) palustre 

Erodium Leucothe 
hymenodes Catesbai 
Manescayi Linum 
romanum austriacum 

Euphorbia montanum and 

i coralloides “ ee 
cyparissias ithospermum 
hibernica prostratum 


Lithospermum 
purpureo-ceru- 
leum 
Lonicera 
Ledebouri 
tatarica 
Xylosteum 
Lunaria 


biennis and white 


var. 
Lupinus 
polyphyllus and 
vars. 
Lychnis 
Lagascm 
sylvestris plena 
Viscaria 
Magnolia 
discolor 
obovata 
spectabilis 
ulan 
Malus 
floribundus 
Menyanthes 
trifoliata 
Mitella 
cordifolia 
diphylla 
Muscari 
armeniacum 
(Osborn) 
Myosotis 
dissitiflora 
sylvatica and 
vars. 
Narcissus 
biflorus 
Bulbocodium 
Calathinus 
Jonquilla 
poeticus 
Nemovhila 
atomaria 
insignis 
Nepeta 
Mussini 
Omphalodes 


Lucilie (Parker) 


Ononis 
rotundifolia 
Ornithogalum 
exscapum 
montanum 
umbellatum 
Orobus 
angustifolius 
hirsutus 
luteus 
tenuifolius 
tuberosus 
varius 
yernus 
Orontium 
aquaticum 
Ourisia 


coccinea (Rollis- 


g0n) 
Pronia 
daurica 
mollis 


Monutan and yars. 
officinalis & vars. 
tenuifolia & var. 


fl. pl. 
Pansies in yar. 
Papaver 
lateritium 
orientale 
Pentstemon 
nitidus 
procerus 
Pernettya 
angustifolia 
Cummingii 
mucronata 
Phlox 
divaricata 
Nelsoni 
ovata 
reptans 
subulata 
Platystemon 
californicaum 
Polemonium 
ceeruleum and 
vars. 
reptans 


Polygonum 
Bistorta 
Brunonis 

Potentilla 
alba 
fragariastrum 

Primula 
cortusoides 

amcna 

Prunus 
sinensis 
triloba 

Pulmonaria 
mollis 
officinalis and 

vars. 

Pyrethrum 
Tchihatchewii 
double garden 

vars. 

Pyrus 

arbutifolia and 

vars. 

Aria 
floribunda 
grandifolia 
Malus 
melanocarpa 
Michauxii 

ubens 

jorbus 
spuria 

Quercus 
Egilops 

Ranunculus 
aconitifolius and 


HARDY PLANTS (continued). 


Ribes 
albidum 
atrorubens 
anreum 
Beatonii 
glutinosum 
sanguineum 

Rock-rose various 

Rosa 
microphylla 

Rosemary 

Rubus 
acaulis 
arcticus 

Saponaria 
calabrica 
ocymoides 

Sarothamnus 
scoparius 

Saxifraga 
acanthifolia 
nizoon 
aretioides 
Andrewsii 
atropurpurea 
cespitosa 
contraversa 
cymbalaria 
daurica 
elegans 
Gmelini 
exarata 
gemmifera 
geranioides 
gibraltarica 
greniandica 


var. fl. pl. anulata 
acris and var. uthriana 
plena Haworthii 
asiaticus in var, hybrida 
auricomus hypnoides 
caucasicus icelandica 
cherophyllus irrigua 
Cornuti leucanthemifolia 
Gouani Malyi 
gramineus marginata 
illyricus Mawiana 
monspeliacus muscoides 
parnassifolius nervosa 
pedatus palmata 
platanifolins pectinata 
repens and fil. pl. pedatifida 
8peciosus pennsylvanica 
sprunerianus pubescens 
uniflorus pulchella 
Raspberries Tepanda 
Reseda reticulata 
fruticulosa recta 
luteola rosularis 
Rhododendron in rotundifolia 
great var. rupestris 
Rheum in yar, sponhemica 
GARDENING 


shade. 


Saxifraga Trollius 
Stansfieldii nepalensis 
theoensis Smouti 
umbrosa tauricus 
virginiensis Tulipa 
Whitlavi Celsiana 

Scabiosa cornuta 
amcona Gesneriana 

Scilla retroflexa 
campanulata and Uvularia 

vars. grandiflora 
cernua perfoliata 
italica Vaccinium 
nutans corymbosum 

Sedum amcnum 
ternatum frondosum 

Silene ovatum 
pendula vitis-idea 
Zawadskii Valeriana 

Sisyrinchiam alpina 
bermudianum dioica 

Skimmia pyrenaica 
japonica rubra 

Smilacina sibirica 
bifolia Vella 
stellata Pseudo-Cytisus 

Solomon’s Seal Verbascum 

Spirra pheeniceum and 


cana 
chamedrifolia 
hypericifolia 
laevigata | 
Nickoudiertii 
Stocks 
Strawberries 
Stylophorum 
diphyllum 
Symphytum 
officinale and 
vars. 
tuberosum 
Syringa 
persica 
vulgaris and 
vars. 
Thalictrum 
anemonoides 
Tiarella 
cordifolia 
Trillium 
grandiflorum 
Triteleia 
uniflora 
Trollius 
aconitifolius 
altaicus 
asiaticus and 
vars. 
astrabatensis 
Demayanus 
enropreus 
Loddigesi 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 

Indoor Plant Department.—Conservatories are now gay with 
Azaleas, which are coming into flower without the aid of fire heat. 
In order to prolong their beauty, they are carefully shaded from 
bright sunshine. New Zealand plants, such as Boronias, Hriostemons, 
Pimeleas, Tremandras, Everlastings, &c., are now coming into flower, 
and are being neatly staked. These, as well as Heaths, occupy the 
coolest and most airy part of the conservatory. All plants in active 
growth receive plenty of water; and those done flowering are 
freely syringed, and have the benefit of a little artificial heat and 


vars. 

Veronica 
chamedrys 
gentianoides 
Guthriana 
incisa 
multifida 
pectinata 
prostrata 


Vesicaria 


corymbosa 
utriculata 


Viburnum 


Lentago 

macrocephalum 

oboyatum 

Opulus and vars. 

plicatum 

prunifolium 
Vinca 

herbacea 

major and vars. 

minor and vars. 


californica 
cornuta and vars. 
lutea and vars. 
palmata 
papilionacea, 


Wallflowers, double 


and single, in 
var, 


Weigela 


rosea 


ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


Azaleas, Rhododendrons, &c., done flowering are re-potted, 


pressing the soil rather firmly in the pots. Soft-wooded plants, 


such as Celosias and Balsams, are not allowed to receive any check 
from under-potting, but have plenty of root room whilst growing ; 
a little bottom-heat and air being given them at the same time, also 


a little manure water. 


When it is desired to retard the flowering 


of Balsams, the flower-buds are picked off as they appear, until 
say a short time before they are required for use. A few Balsam 
seeds are also being sown in pans in gentle heat; as soon as the 
young plants appear, they are placed near the glass, and when fit 
to handle are potted off singly. 
decoration haye now received their last shift, using for the purpose 


a compost of loam and well-decomposed manure. 


Humeas required for conservatory 


Stove plants, 


which are now making good progress, are allowed plenty of light, 
heat, and moisture ; they are shaded from strong sun. Stephanotis, 
Allamandas, and Dipladenias have their shoots regularly trained as 
desired. Orchids making growth receive plenty of water, and such 
as are in flower are remoyed into a drier house than that in which 
they have been growing. Fernsare kept well shaded; paths, stages 


540 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


and walls being kept moist by means of frequent sprinklings with 
water. 


Pits and Frames.—Polyanthuses, Pansies, and Auriculas are being 
raised from seed in cold frames, in boxes or pans. Cinerarias and 
Primulas are raised from seed sown in gentle heat. Autriculas done 
blooming and kept in frames, have the sashes removed; some are 
also placed out on sheltered places. The seed vessels of all, if 
seeds are not wanted, are removed. Seedlins Cyclamens are kept 
near the glass in a moderately warm temperature; old plants 
producing seed are placed on shelves close to the glass in cool 
houses; some of the others are placed in cool, shady frames, or on 
a bed covered with ashes behind a north wall. Stocks are being 
re-potted; the best of the single ones are kept for seed. The pro- 
pagation of bedding plants is now drawing to a close, except where 
the demand is in excess, and the pits or frames used for that 
purpose are now being converted into Cucumber houses. Pelar- 
goniums are being hardened off by setting them in sheltered 
shady places, and those in frames by removing the sashes completely 
during the day, except in the case of the finer kinds of zonals and 
tricolors, which are still encouraged to make a little growth. 
Verbenas, Calceolarias, Lobelias, &e., are freely exposed, and, where 
convenient, are sheltered from heavy, cold rains. 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Shrubberies are now gay 
with Weigelas, early Rhododendrons, Ghent Azaleas, Berberises 
of different kinds, scarlet and common May, &c.; masses of blue 
Iris and other herbaceous plants also set them off to advantage. 
Spring flower gardens are yet brilliant with Heartsease, Trollinses, 
Daisies, Alyssums, Iberises, Wallflowers, Saxifrages, Tulips, and 
various other plants. Preparation is now being made for 
bedding plants, and although many are reluctant to remove the 
fading beauty of spring for the more gaudy display of summer, 
they are convinced that unless this is done this month, summer 
droughts may overtake late-planted beds before their occupants get 
established. Indeed, in sheltered, warm situations, Pelargoniums 
have already been planted out. Flower beds are now being edged with 
Gazania, variegated Arabis, Japan Honeysuckle, and dwarf variegated 
grasses. Violas are also being divided and planted, as are likewise 
such plants as were divided and transplanted into nursery lines in 
February and March. Polyanthuses are divided and planted in 
lines; the soil for their reception haying previously been enriched 
with fresh loam. arly spring flowering Violets are lifted, the 
offsets separated from the parents, and transplanted in lines twelve 
inches apart, a handful of sandy soil being placed around each root. 
Sweet Peas, Tropzolums, and other annuals, raised from seed in beds, 
wall borders, or in boxes in frames, are now being planted out 
permanently. 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Pines in actiye growth are 
now abundantly supplied with light, heat, and moisture, but as soon 
as they begin to ripen, watering is, to some extent, discontinued. 
Successions receive a little weak manure water, and the walls and 
the tan beds are syringed with the same. In the case of 
Vines, the fruit on which has done colouring, the temperature is 
reduced a little and the atmosphere kept rather dry. Pinching, 
thinning, &c., are being attended to in the case of later crops. 
Peaches and Nectarines passed the stoning period haye the 
temperature increased to 65° at night, and from 80° to. 85° during the 
daytime. The borders are well watered before the fruit begins to 
ripen ; for if done afterwards the flayour is often deficient. Figs 
growing receive plenty of water at the roots and overhead; those 
ripening have the supply diminished a little; but not too much, as 
that would destroy the second crop. Cherry trees ripening off their 
crops are kept rather drier than usual, and when the fruit is gathered 
they are gradually hardened off, and after a time completely exposed. 
Melons have their laterals stopped, and where the fruit is swelling, 
if in frames, a piece of slate is placed under each; if in honses, they 
are allowed to rest on a piece of wood tied to supports with string. 
Cucumbers fruiting are supplied with alittle manure water, and too 
many fruits are not allowed to remain on the plants at amy one time ; 
the syringe is also used freely amongst the foliage. 

Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department.—Frnit 
trees making wood freely, are being stopped and thinned, so as to 
induce them to make an even and regular growth. Stone fruits on 

’ walls are thinned, and the trees syringed with tobacco water; all 
curled leaves are examined individually, and any insect pests present 
killed. Strawberries, now in full flower, are mulched with litter. 
French Beans are being sown on warm, light, rich borders. A full 
crop of Scarlet Runners is also being sown. Of Beetroot, the 
principal crop is now put in, and the produce of the first sowing 
thinned. Leeks for a late crop are being sown, and earlier ones 
transplanted. Parsnips are thinned, though at first not too much. 
Spinach is cleared off as soon as the leayes are gathered, and 


another sowing made. White Dutch and White Stone Turnips are 
being sown, and the produce of former sowings thinned. A few 
Swede Turnips, for winter use and for tops in spring, are now being 
sown. Lettuces, Radishes, and other salad plants are sown in cool 
places. Savoys for late Crops are put in, and plants from former 
sowings of these, as well as Cabbages, Cauliflowers, and Kales, that are 
fit for the purpose, are being pricked out four inches apart. Beans 
are earthed up, and a late sowing of the Broad Windsor made. <A few 
Cardoons are now sown, and also a few Carrots for drawing in a 
young state. Stems of Angelica are cut back, an operation which 
preserves the plants. On Asparagus beds that have been in bearing 
for some time, a few good shoots are left on each crown uncut. 
Trenches for early Celery are being prepared, plenty of decayed 
manure being dug into them. Potato crops are being hoed. 
Sprinklings of lime, soot, or sifted ashes are scattered over the ground 
in which young vegetables are grown, with a view to keep slugs in 
check. 


NURSERIES. 

Indoor Department.—Growing plants that have filled their 
pots with roots are being shifted into larger ones, and all that have 
been re-potted are subjected to a high and moist temperature, and 
well shaded. Plants of Pereskia from spring cuttings are now 
rooted and planted singly in pots, where, after they haye got 
established, they will be used as stocks for Hpiphyllums. In 
grafting Cacti, care must be taken to unite the inner, or concentric, 
circles of the stock with those of the scion. Young Marantas are 
being re-potted, as are also young plants of Dracznas, &c. Ixoras 
that have not been previously shifted this season, are now being 
re-potted into a compost consisting of leaf mould and peat, with 
a good admixture of silver sand. Achimenes started thickly in 
pans, are now transplanted into small pots, placing three or four 
roots in each pot. Statices continue to be propagated in cool pits. 
Auricula seed is being raised in cold frames. Seedling Hollyhocks 
are being potted off singly. lLachenalias done flowering are set 
outside in the shade. Lily of the Valley, forced in pits and 
remaining after the winter sales, are turned out, some into beds of 
ashes, and others plunged in lines to their rims in beds of soil. 
Liliums are either kept in frames or plunged outside. Gladioli in 
pots are also plunged in open beds. Chrysanthemums are re-potted, 
the young plants being kept in cold frames, and old ones plunged. 
in ashes outside. Hardy Ferns are kept in frames or placed outside 
between glasshouses, Aloes and Yuccas wintered indoors, are now 
set on ashes in sheltered places out of doors. All bedding plants 
are being turned out or into open frames. 

Outdoor Department.—Suckersare being removed from grafted 
stocks as soon as they make their appearance. Hardy Conifers in 
the seed-beds are being loosened with steel forks, lifted, and trans- 
planted in lines from six to twelve inches apart, according to size. 
Magnolias and Prunuses are being layered by fixing the branches 
down by means of strong wooden pegs, and covering oyer the 
portion under ground with a few inches of soil, allowing the points 
of the shoots to remain from six to ten inches ont of the earth. 
Magnolias take a long time to root. 


MARKET GARDENS. 

Harty Cucumbers in frames are now in good bearing; others are 
coming into flower, and some are still being planted in frames, 
and also under hand-lights on ridges. Litter is still kept around the 
frames, and some is also spread over them at night. Vegetable 
Marrows are protected with hand-lights and also with round baskets, 
around which litter is closely packed. Preparation is also made for 
another plantation of Vegetable Marrows by scraping the surface off 
Radish beds that have been drawn for market into the alleys, and 
digging it in, leaving the beds undisturbed. In every alternate bed 
holes about eight feet apart are taken out to be filled with ferment- 
ing manure, over which the soil will again be placed, the plants 
planted and covered with hand-lights, around which litter will be 
packed. Sixor eight inch pots are filled with ordinary garden mould, 
and plunged to their rims in frames haying a gentle heat; into these 
pots are planted with a dibber two young Vegetable Marrows as soon 
as they begin to form rough leaves. Tomatoes in pots, still kept 
plunged in frames, are now strong plants, and during all favourable 
weather the sashes are drawn completely off them. Kidney Beans 
are being sown in lines two feet apart, in open yet sheltered 
positions. Those of the first sowings have now appeared; before 
coming through the ground, the surface just over the seed was 
broken a little by means of small iron rakes. The first sowings were 
made amongst fruit bushes, and also on sheltered borders. In early 
spring, Shallot Onions were planted in lines eighteen inches apart, 
and little ridges of earth drawn over them; between every two lines 
so planted a space of three feet was left, and in this space a line of 
French Beans is now sown. 


May 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


541 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


THE CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 
(RICINUS COMMUNIS.) 


Wuew weil grown in the open air, there is not in the whole 
range of cultivated plants a more effective subject than this. 
It may have been seen nearly twelve feet high in the London 
parks of late years, and with leaves nearly one yard wide. It 
is true we require a bed of very rich deep earth under it to 
make it attain such dimensions and beauty ; but in all parts, 
with ordinary attention, it forms a noble object. In warm 
countries, in which the plant is very widely cultivated, it be- 
comes a small tree, but is much prettier in the state in which it 
is seen with us—i.e., with an unbranched stem clothed from top 
to bottom with noble leaves. It is as easily raised from seed 
as the common bean, re- 
quiring, however, to be 
raised in heat. It should 
be sown about the middle 
of February, and_ the 
plants gradually hardened 
off so as to be fit to put out 
by the middle of May. The 
Ricinus is a grand plant 
for making bold and noble 
beds near those of the 
more brilliant flowers, and 
tends to vary the flower 
garden finely. It is not 
well to associate it closely 
with bedding-plants, in con- 
sequence of the strong 
growth and shading power 
of the leaves, so to speak. 
A good plan is to make a 
compact group of the plant 
in the centre of some wide 
circular bed and surround 
it with a band of a dwarfer 
subjects, say the Aralia or 
Caladium, and then finish 
with whatever arrangement 
of flowering plants that may 
be most admired. A bold 
and striking centre may be 
obtained, while the effect of 
the flowers is much enhanced, 
especially if the planting be 
nicely graduated and taste- 
fully done. For such groups 
the varieties of the Castor-oil 
plant are not likely to be sur- 
passed. It is also a grand 
subject for dotting amidst smaller plants in sheltered 
spots. 


HARDY GLOIRE DE DIJON ROSES. 


A FEW words on “ Tea-scented Noisette Roses” for Camellia 
houses may be supplemented by some mention of Roses likely to 
play the same part out of doors. Good hardy white, yellow, buff (aye, 
and crimson—but of these anon) climbing Roses are a want. There 
is springing up quite a race of seedlings from Gloire de Dijon, from 
amongst which I would select the following as the best and most 
distinct. Weall know our old friend Gloire de Dijon ; but all do not 
know that it grows and does as well on a wall of northern aspect as 
when facing thesun. An amateur, whose little garden of Roses I 
shonld like to describe (his wife always ascribes his recovery from an 
illness to be due to a bunch of Roses the writer one day sent him in 
March, so you may guess how he loves them), has plants on east, 
south, and north-west aspects respectively, and from May to July 
these plants keep up in succession a perfect chorus of Gloire de Dijon. 
What say you to a first batch, on the south, of five hundred blooms, 
and soon? He gives plenty of nourishment, thus securing plenty 
of young wood, and his plants last for some years. 

Well, first comes Gloire de Bordeaux, a rose-colour, with white 


| shading on petals; few can bloom it; it does not like the knife, which 


Castor-Oil Plant. Sketched at Berry Hill, September 1871. 


some people use irrespective of habit. It is useful, but we would 
welcome a freer flowering rose. It reached us in two instalments 
(a guinea a plant each time), first as Gloire de Bordeaux, and the 
second time as Belle de Bordeaux ; on examination, in the course of a 
year or two, both proved to be the same variety. Well, in 1869, some 
of our Lyons friends sent us some interesting seedlings of Gloire de 
Dijon. Our hopes were raised, and some turned out to be distinct. 
Belle Lyonnaise proves first rate; it loses the buff tint of Dijon, 
and is a deep-lemon colour, with the good habit of that variety. 
Madame Levet has a slight tint of violet sufficient to render it 
distinct. The others of that year are not to be recommended as 
distinct, so are not named. 

Tour Bertrand has a slightly dwarfer habit, and may prove 
useful as a more compact headed standard Rose than its pro- 
genitors of 1870; and perhaps the best French Rose of last year 
is Madame Berard, a light salmon, with a fine reflexed petalled 
flower, and seemingly free in blooming. 

Here are therefore five varieties, all hardy as their first parent, 
in colour buff, rose, lemon, 
salmon, tinted slightly with 
violet, and light salmon, with a 
distinctly-shaped flower. They 
are all worth growing. 


G. Paut. 


THE SNAKE’S HEAD. 
(FRITILLARIA MELEAGRIS.) 


THE pleasure of wild flower 
culture in the garden is greatly 
enhanced by the delight and 
excitement of discovery; I 
enjoy my white Bluebells and 
the double-flowered Ladies’ 
Smock with much more zest on 
account of having discovered 
and unearthed them in their 
native homes, than if they had 
been introduced to my garden 
by the more prosaic means of 
ordinary purchase. 


I first became acquainted 
with the speckled Fritillaria 
in the following manner:—Some 
of our village girls came on the 
first of May, a few years ago, to 
dance on the lawn in front of 
our cottage retreat, and I was 
much struck on observing that 
some of the garlands they 
carried were composed almost 
entirely of Fritillarias, one of 
them being wholly made up 
with the white variety of that 
pretty drooping flower. I 
eagerly inquired where they 
had gathered them, and was 
informed that they grew in two old pastures not half a mile from 
the back of the village. 

One day soon after I found myself in a meadow with great dots of 
dusky crimson here and there, which proved, on nearer approach, to 
be a profuse growth of the beautiful Fritillaria Meleagris, which I 
had never seen growing wild before, not even a single specimen, 
and here under my feet the flowers were as thick as Buttercups and 
Daisies, so much so that in afew minutes] had gathered as many 
as I could carry, and my somewhat sombre coloured bouquet was 
pleasantly varied by afew flowers of a white variety, which grew 
here among the dark ones, but not in the same profusion. This 
elegant wild flower might be said to resemble the Tulip in the shape 
of its bloom, but that instead of its stately and erect habit of growth, 
the drooping flower of the Fritillaria assumes a bell-like modest 
character. There are a good many species of Fritillaria, but all of 
them are exotic with the exception of Fritillaria Meleagris, generally 
known as the ‘common Fritillary.”’ It has other popular names, 
one of which, Snake’s Head, has doubtless been given in consequence 
of the peculiar colouring and shape of the bud. It has also been 
called the chequered Daffodil, from a slight resemblance in the bell-like 
form of its corolla to that flower. 

The locality where I found my Fritillarias being literally 
empurpled with their hanging bells, I ventured to take up a few 


542 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 11, 1872. 


roots and bear them home in triumph to our garden. The plants, 
both of the common form and the white variety, bore the transplanting 
to my garden without complaining, and several handsome patches 
have ever since continued to decorate the favourite borders of my 
wild garden, in which careful culture has made them surpass in 
beauty of form and luxuriance many of my regular garden habitués. 
I have just lately visited meadows in yarious parts of Kent, 
which are literally carpeted with the richly sombre tints of this 
lovely flower, Fritillaria. I may add that this flower is not difficult 
to obtain in nurseries, and from which the bulbs may be easily 
transplanted when at rest. As a rule, it is best not to lessen the 
numbers of such uncommon wildlings. G. C. H. 


THE ALPINE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 497.) 


ESSENTIALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROCK-GARDENS. 
POSITION. 

Tue position selected for the rock-garden should never be 
near walls; never very near a house; never, if possible, 
within view of formal surroundings of any kind. It should 
generally be in an open position ; and of course a diversified spot, 
or one with bold prominences, should be selected, if available. 
No efforts should be spared to make all the surroundings, and 
every point visible from the rockwork, as graceful, quiet, and 
natural as they can be made. The part of the gardens around 
the rockwork should be picturesque, and in any case display a 
careless wildness resulting from the naturalization of beautiful 
hardy herbaceous plants, and the absence of formal walks, 
beds, &c. No tree should occur in or very near the rock- 
garden ; hence a site should not be selected where it would be 
necessary to remove valuable or favourite specimens. ‘The 
roots of trees would be almost sure to find their way into the 
masses of good soil provided for the choicer alpines, and 
thoroughly exhaust them. Besides, as the choicest alpme 
flowers are usually found on treeless and even bushless wastes, 
it is certainly wrong to place them under trees or in shaded 
positions, as has generally hitherto been their fate. It need 
hardly be added that it is an unwise practice to plant pines on 
rockwork, as has been lately done in Hyde Park and many 
other places. In large rock-gardens rhododendrons may be 
planted, if desired, without letting them occupy the surface 
suitable for alpine vegetation. It will, however, generally 
be in good taste to have some graceful, taperimg young pines 
within view, as this type of vegetation is usually to be seen on 
mountains, apart altogether from their great beauty and the 
aid which they so well afford in making the surroundings of 
the rock-garden what they ought to be. In small places, and 
in those where from unavoidable circumstances the rock- 
garden is made near a group of trees, the roots of which 
might rob it, it would be found a good plan to cut them off by 
a narrow drain, descending as deep as, or somewhat deeper 
than, the roots of the trees; this should be filled with rough 
concrete, and will form an effectual barrier. 

3 CONSTRUCTION. 

In no case shouldregular steps bepermittedin or neartherock 
garden. Steps may be made quite irregular, and not only not 
offensive to the eye, but very beautiful; with violets and other 
small plants jutting from every crevice. No cement should 
be used in connection with the steps. Rockwork which is so 
made that its miniature cliffs, &c., overhang, is useless for 
alpine vegetation; and all but such wall-loving subjects as 
Corydalis lutea quickly perish on it. The tendency to make 
it with overhanging peaks is everywhere seen in the cement 
rock-gardens now becoming rather common. Into the alpine 
garden this species of construction should never be admitted, 
except to get the effect of bold and distant cliffs, where that is 
desired and cannot be obtained in a more natural manner. 
When this system is admitted, the designer should be re- 
quested to obtain his picturesque effect otherwise than by 
making all his cliffs and precipices overhang. It is erroneous 
to sappose that heaps of stones or small rocks are necessary 
for the health of alpine plants. The great majority will thrive 
without their aid if the soil be suitable; and though all are 
benefited by them, if properly used as elsewhere described, it 
is important that it should be generally known how needless is 
the common system of inserting mountain plants among loose 


stones, burrs, &e. Half-burying rocks or stones in the earth 
round a rare species, which it is intended to save from excessive 
evaporation, and which has a deep body of soil to root into, is, 
however, quite a different and an excellent practice. 


MATERIALS, 


As regards the kinds of stone to be used, if one could 
choose, sandstone or millstone grit would perhaps be the best; 
but ib is seldom that a choice can be made, and happily almost 
any kind of stone will do, from Kentish rage to limestone; 
soft, slaty, and other kinds liable to crumble away, Should be 
avoided, as also should magnesian limestone. It can hardly 
be necessary to add that the stone of the neighbourhood, if 
not very unsuitable, should be adopted for economy’s sake, 
if for no other reason. Wherever the natural rock crops out, 
It is sheer waste to create artificial rockwork instead of 
embellishing that which naturally occurs. In the Central 
Park at New York there are scores of noble and picturesque 
breaks of rock, which have not been adorned with a single 
alpine flower or rock bush. Something of the same kind 
might be said of many of our country seats. In many cases 
of this kind nothing would have to be done but to clear the 
ground, and add here and there a few loads of suitable soil, 
with broken stones, &c., to prevent evaporation; the natural 
crevices and crests being planted where possible. Cliffs or 
banks of chalk should be taken advantage of in this way, as 
well as all kinds of rock; many plants, like the dwarf cam- 
panulas, rock roses, &c., thrive vigorously on such places. 
No burrs, clinkers, vitrified matter, obscene crockery, portions 
of old arches and pillars, broken-nosed statues, d&c., should 
ever obtain a place in a garden devoted to alpime flowers. 
Stumps and pieces of old trees are quite as objectionable as 
any of the foregoing materials; they are only fitted to form 
supports for rough climbers, and it is rarely worth while 
incurring any expense in removing or arranging them. Begin 
without attempting too much. Let your earliest attempts at 
“the first great evidences of mountain beauty” be confined 
to a few square yards of earth, with no protuberance more 
than a yard or so high. Be satisfied that you succeed perfectly 
with that before you try anything more ambitious. Never let 
any part of the rock-garden appear as if it had been shot out 
of a cart. The rocks should all haye their bases buried in 
the ground, and the seams should not be visible; whenever 
a vertical or oblique seam of any kind occurs, it should be 
crammed with earth, and the plants put in this will quickly 
hide the seams. Horizontal fissures should be avoided as 
much as possible; they are only likely to occur in vertical 
faces of rock, and these should be avoided except where 
distant effect is sought. No vacuum should exist beneath 
the surface of the soil or surface-stones. ‘The detritus, &c., 
should be so disposed that a vacuum cannot exist. Myriads 
of alpine plants have been destroyed from want of observing 
this precaution, the open crevices and loose texture of the 
soil permitting the dry air to destroy them in a yery short 
time, 

In all cases where elevations of any kind are to be formed, 
the true way is to obtain them by means of a mass of soil 
suitable to the plants, putting a rock in here and there as the 
work proceeds; frequently it would be desirable to make these 
mounds of earth without any strata or “crags.” The wrong 
and the usual way is to get the desired elevation by piling up 
arid masses of rock. 

The surface of every part of the rock-garden should be so 
arranged that all rain will be directly absorbed by it; here, 
again, the objection to precipitous and overhanging faces 
holds good. If the elevations are obtained, as they should 
be, by gradually receding, irregular steps, rather than by 
abrupt crags, walls, &c., all the plants on the surface will be 
equally refreshed by rains. The upper surfaces of crags, 
mounds, &c., should in all cases be of earth, broken stones, 
grit, &c., as indeed should every spot where projecting stones 
or rock are not required for the sake of effect. - All the soil- 
surfaces of the rock-garden should be protected from excessive 
evaporation by finely broken stones, pebbles, or grit scattered 
on the surface, or by means of small pieces of broken sand- 
stone or millstone half buried in the ground. 


(To be continued.) 


May 11, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


543 


A CHINESE NARCISSUS. 
(“THE GRAND EMPEROR.”’) 


NoricrnG that one of your contributors is interested in collecting 
facts about varieties of Narcissus, I think it possible that what I 
have to offer may be new. Some of the Chinese who have been 
tempted by high wages to emigrate to this country have brought 
with them a few bulbs of a Polyanthus Narcissus, which they call 
the “Grand Emperor.” Its growth seems to me remarkable. Two 
bulbs which came into my hands about the first of January, threw 
up shoots more than two feet high before the end of the month; and 
by the middle of February there were five or six stalks from each 
bulb, allin blossom. I do not think I should be able to distinguish 
a stalk of these flowers from one of the Staten General, except 
by its length; the flowers appeared to me to be exactly similar to 
those of that well-known bulb, but as I had not any of the latter in 
bloom at the time, I could only depend upon memory in this com. 

arison. 

P But its rapid and tall growth is perhaps less remarkable than the 
treatment this Narcissus requires. I was specially cautioned by 
the Chinese from whom I received the bulbs that no earth must be 
used in ‘‘ planting” them. They were simply to be covered with 
water, which was to be renewed every day. Some clean pebble- 
stones might be piled on them to keep them from floating. All 
further care was to consist in giving them light and keeping them 
from frost. I complied with the instructions, except that I sub- 
stituted bright sand for pebbles; and I was fairly successful, for 
although a few buds failed to mature, I had an abundance of flowers, 
the offsets as well as the bulbs producing flowering stalks. 
Preferring to watch their growth in transparent pots, I was very 
much puzzled to find suitable glass vessels for them, but at length 
discoyered that the “‘ battery cups” of a telegraph apparatus were 
exactly what I wanted. The plants are now about three feet hich, 
and the leaves are green, showing no signs of dying down, though 
the flowers are long since dead. As I was instructed to keep the 
bulbs wet and not to plant them in earth, I begin to think they may 
prove troublesome in the coming summer, if they are to be ever 
thus. 

There is a Chinese legend which accounts for the “ origin of species” 
as regards this Narcissus. It seems that once upon a time a father 
left his property to two sons, with the understanding that it should 
be equally divided; but the elder son seized all the tillable land and 
left the younger ncthing but an acre covered with rocks and water. 
The younger son, unable to obtain justice, sat down at the water’s 
edge, bemoaning his misfortune. A benevolent fairy appeared, 
and giving him these Narcissus bulbs, told him to drop them into 
the water. Shortly afterwards their flowers were developed, and 
neighbours crowded to admire the fairy gift. In the course of a 
fow years he accumulated a fortune by the rapid increase and sale 
of his bulbs. Then the elder brother, envious of the younger’s 
prosperity, bought great numbers of the bulbs—hoping to obtain 
a monopoly by getting all of them—at so heavy an expense that 
he was obliged to mortgage his property to procure funds for the 
purchase. He planted all his land with the bulbs. They soon 
began to die, as they cannot live long out of water. He was ruined, 
while his brother, who had bought the mortgage, foreclosed it, and 
became possessed of the whole estate in time to re-plant some of 
the dying bulbs in the watery acre. 

Nevertheless, I put down one of the offsets in damp garden 
soil some weeks ago, and at present it is still flourishing. 

New York. 


CULTURE OF SPRING-FLOWERING PLANTS. 


Now, before they finally leave us, seems an opportune moment for 
saying a few words on the treatment of these. All enjoy the sweet- 
ness and beauty of the Violet, Primrose, Forget-me-Not, Aubrietia, 
Arabis, &e., but comparatively few have yet learned that the 
fonndation of that beauty must be laid presently if a bountiful harvest 
of itis to be reaped next spring. Each tuft must be divided into 
single stems, hearts, or runners, and these tiny bits planted in good 
soil in the open border to insure patches from six inches to a foot 
wide, bristling with flowers in embryo next October. Even Daisies 
should be separated into single crowns if they are to bloom in 
perfection next year. In regard to Violets, only the runners rooted, 
on the plant or off, should be saved. The old plants, if divided even, 
never blossom so profusely a second time; while as to leaving them 
undisturbed to flower again, is a mere waste of ground, as they 
will only yield tens of flowers to hundreds borne on the young plants. 
The same rule holds good with all such running plants as Arabis, 
Aubrietia, and Candytuft. Annual subdivision and liberal culture 
ee the summer months are the ways to make tho best of 
them. 


There are a few exceptions possibly to this rule of annual sub- 
division. That grand golden plant the Alyssum saxatile flowers best 
the second season after subdivision, and will go on flowering grandly 
in the same spet until a single plant converts a yard or more of 
ground into a veritable miniature Field of the Cloth of Gold. lberis 
sempervirens again, and some of the Saxifrages, do likewise, though 
they also bear division well. On the other hand, Myosotis dissitiflora 
is comparatively poor and apt to lose its heart if left two years in 
one place without complete subdivision. The fact is, that, where 
spring gardening is carried out on a large scale and to any degree of 
perfection, a supplementary staff and a reserve garden are requisite. 
This must be borne in mind by all who would have their gardens 
filled with beauty from February to May. As well expect to gather 
grapes off thorns as to reap a harvest fullof spring beauty without 
preparing the plants for it by previous culture, The spring sun only 
loosens and brings forth those treasures of sweetness and charms of 
colour that the winter frosts had barred in; but the fragrance and 
the glory are the products of the previous summer’s sunshine, its 
balmy airs, soft dews, and refreshing rains. As we sow soshall we 
reap. D. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Native Heaths.—Erica vagans and its varieties are among the best 
growers, and soon become large plants. They can be trained, or rather cut, to 
any shape, and would be useful ornaments in many spots in our gardens. 


Eccremocarpus scaber.—Among neglected and unappreciated plants may 
be classed Eccremocarpus scaber. It is a pretty creeper and a rapid grower, 
producing spikes of orange-coloured flowers in profusion. The number of seeds 
which it bears is incredible. Last June I sowed some, the produce from which 
remained green through the winter, and in February blossomed sparingly ; no 
seeds resulting, blossoms have appeared at intervals ever since. My garden is 
on one of the highest hills in Kent; aspect, due east.—Botany CorraGE, 


Arabis blepharophylla —I have now a bed of this beantiful and most 
effective rock Cress in full bloom. Like Myosotis dissitiflora, it has had the edge 
taken off its beauty by the late sudden and severe frosts and snow-storms, but it 
is still a very effective mass of magenta, and quite unique in its way; it seems 
to like our dry, chalky Buckinghamshire soil, almost rivalling its congener, 
Lunaria biennis, in the size of its blossoms. It seeds freely, and also strikes 
may from cuttings.—H. Harprr Crewe, The Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, 

hn eae “ - rs 

Camellias and Myrtles in Leicestershire.—We are often apt to associate 
myrtles and, above all, healthy bushes of camellias in the open air, with the 
balniest sea-coast districts. Few would suppose it less than folly to plant such 
subjects in the open air in the midland counties ; yet at Belvoir the other day we 
saw perfectly healthy camellia bushes in full blossom, and myrtles as glossy 
as they are in Devonshire. They grow on the elevated slopes, well sheltered by 
surrounding shrubs and trees. Of course, similar success could not be hoped 
for in low-lying and exposed grounds. It is the elevation, with the shelter, 
which accounts for the success. These conditions occur frequently, without 
advantage being taken of them.—W. R. 


Rose Showing.—I intend competing at a flower show, and there are offered 
prizes for the best light rose and best dark, and I wish to ask the Rev. 
Reynolds Hole if I might show Madame de Cambacérés or Coupe d’Hébé as light 
roses. Inever had any doubt about them being light roses myself; but to a 
friend who came to see me I told my intention of showing them in the light 
class, and he said I should be disqualified if I did, as they are not light roses. 
I certainly should never think of showing them as dark roses, as I take General 
Jacqueminot, Fisher Holmes, &c., to represent the dark class. In his book on 
roses, Mr. Hole says, avoid using leaves to help to set them off, as they would 
be disqualified. The schedule belonging to the society’s show at which I intend 
to compete, says buds and foliage will be allowed ; would it make any difference, 
provided the collection was supenor, if I used foliage as allowed in this 
schedule?—W. E. J. Y.—T[Mr. Hole, to whom your case has been submitted, says 
Coupe d’Hébé and Madame de Cambacérés may undoubtedly be shown as 
“light”? roses, but such varieties as the Baroness Rothschild, Marguerite de 
St. Amand, La France, Mdlle. Eugénie Verdier, Madame Vidot, Madame Rivers, 
Miss Ingram, Devoniensis, &c., would be much more likely to win the prize 
alluded to. If additional foliage is allowed in the schedule, andthe flowers 
shown are not naturally accompanied by ample and healthful leaves, let advan- 
tage be taken by all means of the permission given. ] 


Hardy Variegated Plants.—We may safely predict that in a very few years 
we may produce the grandest effects on our parterres with such of these plants 
as will bear the open air in our country, or at least with the protection of acold, 
frame during the winter period. This will be a revolution in flower gardening 
and will vastly lessen the labour of the flower gardener, who has to produce I 
do not know how many thousands of tender exotics, often with means totally 
inadequate. The greatest want of the hardy flower gardener is a suitable 
reserve ground with a few cold frames for propagation, increase, and protection 
of the choicer species and varieties, some of them equalling if not surpassing in 
beauty many varieties of tender plants fostered in our stoves and greenhouses. 
The practice of devoting a few beds in the kitchen (pl or any spare space to 
little unprotected nursery beds for the increase of this class of plants is also very 
desirable. They are becoming very popular, and are within the reach of peasant 
as well as peer. From what 1 can see of our native plants, the variegated forms 
of them are interminable. I have seen a dock (Rumex crispus) so hand- 
somely variegated that I shall not be far wrong in stating that it is as handsome 
a hardy plant as eyer was introduced. The variegation is in the form of bright 
yellow reticulation over the entire surface of the leaves, it being perfectly hardy, 
and as lovely as any Croton I ever saw in our stoves. If this comes true from 
seeds, it must become a general favourite. One of the finest plants for marginal 
effects is another British plant, and only a “‘ nettle’ (Lamium maculatum 
aureum). This is more adapted for shady situations than in the full sun, or it 
would have proved a formidable rival to Henderson’s Golden Feverfew, and I 
assert that when well grown it beats anything else for an edging of gold. 
During the summer season it has a distinct orange tint; this, combined with the 
white stripe up the centre of each leaf, renders it at once most brilliant and 
unique.—W, E. 


544 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 11, 1872. 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK. 
(Continued from p. 525.) 


Tr is pleasant now to turn to the many charming features of 
this noble national garden. Although its oblong shape, and 
the immense space occupied by the stiffly outlined reservoirs 
that supply the city with water, were in the way of very great 
breadths of turf bemg formed, yet the designers deserve great 
praise for the happy manner in which they have succeeded in 
creating large and pleasant lawns. 

Another admirable feature is the way in which certain 
roads are carried across the park. There are four of these 
transverse roads in its whole length: one at Sixty-fifth 
Street; another at Seventy-ninth; a third at Highty-fifth 
Street, on the Fifth Avenue, but as it follows the curved 
southern wall of the new reservoir, this road comes out at 
Highty-sixth Street on the Highth Avenue. The fourth road 
is at Ninety-seventh Street. The original instructions to the 
competitors called for these transverse roads; but none of 
the designs, except Mr. Olmsted’s, the designer of the 
park, offered any solution to the very serious problem pre- 
sented by the necessity of making provision for the traffic that 
must at some day be provided with roadways across the park, 
and which must yet, at the same time, be prevented from 
interfering with the objects for which the park has been 
created. All the other competitors merely carried their 
transverse roads from one side of the park to the other, on 
the surface, keeping the same level with the other reads, and 


Native Oaks in Central Park, New York. 


not in any way distinguished from them. Of course, such 
an arrangement as this would have eyen now been suffi- 
cient to interfere seriously with the comfort, the retirement, 
and even the safety of the park. 

The trees in the park are nearly all young. There were few 
trees of any importance in the place originally ; of these, 
however, the best were preserved, and among them the 
group of native oaks illustrated above. The planting is, as a 
rule, well varied and well arranged. 

It has been several times proposed to establish in the park 
a formal arboretum, or a scientifically arranged botanical 
garden. But, to our thinking, it is quite as agreeable a way 
of studying the different varieties of plants, and trees, and 
flowers, to find them scattered naturally over the whole park, as 
it would be to have them planted more scientifically in rows 
and squares, as for convenience of classification and reference 
they must be in a botanic garden. For our part we like to 
come upon these pretty strangers unawares ; to catch them, as 
it were, off their guard, rather than to go through the 
formalities of an introduction. Rather, in this particular case, 
make the whole park a botanical garden, giving each plant as 
far as possible its native habitat and surroundings, and fixing 
near it, in a quiet, informal way, a label with its name. The 
scientific man and the poet can then enjoy it, each in his own 
way. 

The park is distinguished from any we have seen in Europe 
by often happy attempts to introduce such features as bird- 
houses, a dairy, and various other structures, very suggestive 


of rural life; most conspicuous among these being vwell- 
constructed shade or summer-houses, one very large one of 
which, called the vimery, is shown below. The warm climate 
renders such structures very agreeable, if not absolutely 
necessary. 

The material employed in the construction of these structures 
is the common American cedar, which abounds in the 
vicinity of New York. The limbs and trunks are stripped of 
their bark, and they are then put together in a solid and 


7 7 EIy 
The Vinery, Central Park, New York. 


workman-like fashion, very unlike the frail and flimsy struc- 
tures which we commonly meet with under the name of 
summer-houses. Nor is it merely the workmanship that 
make them noticeable—the design is always artistic and 
agreeable, and they are no less an ornament to the park than 
useful and convenient buildings, without which the place 
would lose one of its chief attractions. Nearly all of them are 
now covered with vines which, in many cases, almost conceal 
the frame-work, giving us, instead of artificial decoration, a 
profuse tracery of the most graceful creepers. Over some, the 
Chinese Honeysuckle spreads a fragrant shade; over others 
the Wistaria, with its parti-coloured leayes of tenderest brown 


Summer-House in Central Park, New York. 


and green, and its delicate lilac flowers; or the rampant 
Trumpet-creeper, that with the larger, and that with the 
smaller and finer flowers; or the wild grape with its spring- 
scent sweeter than mignonette; or the pretty gourds with 
their pendent bottles of yellow, green, and orange, the delight 
of children. 


May 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


545 


The only objection we could see to such structures was that 
they were often too much exposed to view, and occupied 
positions of too great importance to be given to any such 
structures. A great many of the smaller type of summer-houses 
may also be seen. They are, however, usually so well and 
tastefully built that they do not fail to please. They will look 
very much better when time or the gardener clothes them 
with the wild grace and loveliness of climbing plants. 

Among other rusticities of this sort are the boat houses, 
the swan rests, the houses for English sparrows, and the 
various strong and very prettily arranged rustic bridges. The 


Rustic Bridge in Central Park, New 


sparrow, pelted from the ivy, and mercilessly dragged out of 
the eaves with us, here finds himself provided not only with a 
house, but with a palace. Here he may increase and multiply 
in peace, and by his vigorous and successful onslaught on the 
hordes of ugly caterpillars with which the trees in New York 
used to swarm, he has well rewarded the New Yorkers for 
their good treatment of him. There is a rumour, however, of 


English Sparrow House in Central Park, New York. 


Mr. Sparrow fighting with and exterminating some of the 
American songsters, and, if so, he may some day be deprived 
of his lordly dwelling, especially if in the meantime he should 
succeed in exterminating the “ measuring worm,” enemy of 
trees, and of tree-loving and shade-haunting men. Swans have 
been presented to the park by the City of London and 
Hamburg, and now thrive there. 


(To be continued.) 


THE EIBRARY, 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS.* 


A pretty little volume, well illustrated, and clearly written by one 
of our most accomplished botanists. Happy should be the little 
budding botanist in having such a good and simple guide as this. 
The most zealous students, as Dr. Masters remarks, not unfrequently 
chafe at the irksome task of making themselves acquainted with a 
series of abstract propositions, couched in harsh unfamiliar language, 
aad whose significance they are unable to appreciate. An attempt 
has therefore been made in ‘‘ Botany for Beginners”’ to correlate 
these details from the first, and to give the pupil an interest in them, 
by making manifest to him their importance as illustrations of the 
principles of plant-construction. ‘The simplest flowers have been 
chosen as examples in the first instance; afterwards others of more 
complicated construction have been selected. An effort has been 
made in each case to show how and why the various modifications 
have been brought about. The life-history of the several plants has 
been incidentally touched on, and occasional hints have been furnished 
with a view to show the real aim and scope of botanical science, 
concerning which many students hold far too limited views. 

We heartily recommend this book to all who want a pleasant and 
accurate guide to elementary botanical knowledge. 


THE FATRFEIELD ORCHIDS. + 


. We have before us a well-printed, neatly-bound volume of 
128 pages devoted to the general history, culture, and 
description of the Orchidaceous plants cultivated by James 
Brooke & Co., at their nurseries, Fairfield, near Manchester. 
This useful little work is the result of a well-directed attempt 
to elevate the tone and introduce strictly correct and reliable 
information into a trade catalogue, and if we judge it from the 
latter stand-point we must confess that it is the best issued 
by any nurseryman up to the present date. It is, however, 
something more than a mere catalogue; it contains a good 
deal of sound practical cultural information, together with 
able and lucid descriptions of between three and four hundred 
species and yarieties of the best garden orchids, with date of 
introduction, native country, season of flowering, duration 
of the flowers themselves, and other information interesting 
both to cultivator and exhibitor. 

We could have wished it had been carried out still further, 
however, since we find one or two genera omitted which are 
just now deservedly popular with orchid-growers; as Mas- 
devyallia, for example, a lovely genus of cool orchids from the 
highlands of the New Wo:ld. Again, many good showy 
species are omitted which might with advantage be added in 
the future editions through which we hope this instructive 
work will pass. We notice one or two irregularities ; notably 
one at the foot of page 79, where the author has been 
singularly unfortunate in selecting illustrative examples of 
the yellow-lipped Odontoglots ; since all cultivators will agree 
with us that both O. leve and O. bictonense have white lips, 
or rather lips the ground colour of which is white, certainly 
never yellow; and on referring to the specific descriptions of 
the two species named (see p. 80 and p. 82), we find the author 
there himself admits that they have white grounds. 

The latter part of the volume contains a valuable glossary 
of generic, specific, and descriptive terms used when speaking 
of these beautiful plants, besides some useful general informa- 
tion connected therewith. We adda short extract to give an 
idea of the information given, and wish this handy little 
volume all the success which it deserves :— 


“« LiwtatopEs.—Ground orchids, natives of India and Java, and in 
structural characters nearly allied to Calanthe. 236. L. rosea [a b], 
Moulmein, in the Province of Martaban, 1850. Leaves oblong- 
lanceolate, plaited, and deciduous. Scape erect, ten inches high, 
bearing a raceme of many loosely placed and deep rose-coloured 
flowers two inches across. A sparkling and delightful species, 
presenting all the features of a Calanthe (with the addition of long 
and fusiform pseudo-bulbs), blossoming in winter very abundantly, 
and easily grown. 10s.6d. Bot. Mag., 88, 5,312; Pavt. Fl. Gard., 
3, 81.” 


* Botany for Beginners. An Introduction to the Study of Plants. By 
Maxwell T. Masters, M.D., F.R.S., late Lecturer on Botany at St. George’s 
Hospital. London: Bradbury, Evans, & Co. 


+ “The Fairfield Orchids. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Species and 
Varieties of Orchids Grown by J. Brooke & Co., Manchester. 


d40 


inn GAnUDHN. 


(May Il, lo/e. 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 
GESNERAS. 


To all who wish to provide for a fine and not too evanescent 
autumn and winter bloom, these lovely and stately plants are 
invaluable ; and no time should now be lost before laying the found- 
ation of the hoped-for harvest of brilliant blossoms. In point of 
treatment the Gesneras are not exacting, the chief requirements 
being a rich open vegetable soil, a bottom heat of 75° to 80° to start 
them into growth, a moist atmospheric temperature of 65° rising to 
80°, with sun heat and partial shade, in bright weather. Provide 
these conditions and success in cultivation is certain. For the 
purpose, however, of having a continuous succession of bloom the 
plants should be started at three different times, say the early part of 
April, May, and June—a sufficient number of bulbs being put in on 
each occasion to furnish the plants you may require at each period. 
Those started into growth first will come into bloom by the end of 
September, and the others will follow im succession through the 
winter and spring. 

The bulbs should be planted entire, placing one in each small pot, 
when they are to be bloomed in four or six inch pots; but three, 
five, or seven bulbs when plants of larger dimensions are required. 
For soil, take fibrous sandy loam two parts, broken so as to pass 
through an inch meshed sieve, and with the fine soil sifted out, 
leaf mould one part, and turfy peat, broken small, in the same 
proportion. To each peck of the preceding ingredients add a pint 
of silver sand, and about the same quantity of charcoal, broken to 
‘the size of horse beans. Mix these intimately together, and the 
compost is fit for use. Then procure the requisite number of clean 
three-inch pots, drain them properly, fill lightly, and press into 
each one or more bulbs, as you may decide to grow them, leaving 
each bulb about half an inch below the level of the soil. When the 
variety is scarce, or a large quantity of plants is required, each 
strong bulb may be broken into four or five pieces. Thus broken, 
they will not start so quickly into growth, but still they will start 
and make good plants. After potting, plunge the pots in a hotbed 
of 80°, and, until the young plants begin to show through the soil, 
keep the soil moist, but not wet. As the plants progress in growth, 
they must be shifted into larger pots, using the same compost, 
aud they must receive the moist atmospheric temperature before 
indicated. 

As Gesneras are very liable toburn, it is particularly necessary 
that they be shaded early by a piece of very thin net, or, what is 
better, and what will prevent the possibility of injury from neglect, 
wash the glass, under which the plants are placed, quite clean, and 
when quite dry, coat it thinly with boiled linseed oil. This will 
stand for a season, and in the autumn may be washed off with strong 
soda water. As the plants progress in growth they will require to be 
shifted into larger pots, always using the same compost, and pressing 
it quite firmly. For the largest specimens, pots eleven to fifteen inches 
in diameter may be required, but for these, pans of abont nine inches 
deep, and of the necessary size otherwise, are thebest. Maintaina mean 
atmospheric temperature of 70° throughout the growing season, but, 
as the plants begin to show bloom, the temperature may be gradually 
lowered, and 55° to 65° should be the medium through the blooming 
season. More than this will cause the flower stems to be drawn and 
the flowers to drop prematurely; neither will they attain so fine a 
colour. The atmosphere of the house through the winter should not 
be moist, but rather dry. Thus managed it will be found that plants 
of G. exoniensis will maintain a “‘ blaze of bloom” for three months 
in succession. We have said nothing of liquid manure. That 
prepared from sheep or cow dung and soot, clarified by throwing a 
lump of lime into it, may be used weak and warm at all times after 
the plants are thoroughly established and the pots full of roots. 
Take care, however, that it is weak ; and in order that we may not be 
mistaken, we may say that a quart of the prepared liquid thrown 
into a gallon of clean soft water will be ample for repeated use. F. 


A REVISION OF THE GENUS DRACAINA. 
BY DR. REGEL. 

Tus noble genus of fine-leaved plants is now becoming so 
deservedly popular that the following revision of it by Dr. 
Regel, cannot fail to be useful to all who take an interest in 
them : 


DRACENA UMBRACULIFERA. 

Stem simple, erect, sometimes seven feet high; leaves 
sessile, half-clasping, those on the top of the stem forming an 
umbel, drooping, elongated linear-lanceolate,1 inch to 1} inch 
broad, 2 feet to 3 feet long, with a prominent nerve in 


the middle on both sides, and striated with fine longi- 
tudinal veins or nerves; panicle terminal, very short and 
densely corymbose; flowers red on the outside, white inside, of 
a long tubular shape (the divisions of the corolla being less than 
one-fourth of the length of the tube), with short and thick 
flower-stalks, and arranged in fascicles on the ends of the 
branches. Native of the Mascarene Islands. 
Synonyms—Cordyline umbraculifera (FI. d. Serres). 


DRACZNA ARBOREA. 


Stem simple, thick; leaves crowded together at the top of 
the stem, recurved-patent, sessile, clasping, narrowly lanceo- 
late, 24 inches to 3 inches broad, 2 feet to 3 feet long, parch- 
ment-like, with a thick prominent nerve in the middle on both 
sides, with small longitudinal folds and nerves of a shining 
green on the upper surface (margin of the same colour), and 
often marked with darker anastomosing small veins. Native 
country and flowers unknown. 

Synonyms—Aletris arborea (Willd.), Draceena Knerckiana 
(C. Koch). 

DRACENA ANGUSTIFOLIA. 


Stem erect, simple or branching; leayes crowded together 
at the top of the stem and branches, sessile, erect-patent, 
linear-lanceolate, 1 inch broad, 13 to 1}foot long, with a central 
nerye on both sides which is very prominent on the under side, 
striated with veins; panicle terminal, simple, erect, with 
loosely racemose branches. Flowers im fascicles of two to five 
blooms, with searious bracts, which are shorter than the slender 
flower-stalks. Hast Indies. 


DRACZNA FRUTICOSA. 


Stem shrubby, with leaves only at the top; leaves sessile, 
linear-lanceolate, 2 inches broad, 17 to 20 inches long (accord- 
ing to Rumph., but only 12 or 13 inches in the specimen 
which I have seen), with a conspicuous midrib on both 
sides, stem-clasping, concealing the internodes with their 
bases; panicle simple, terminal, with loosely racemose 
branches; flowers in pairs or solitary; bracts scarious, ovate, 
acute, shorter than the pedicels; style as long as the stamens. 
Java. The specimen which I have seen was gathered near 
Pellowa (Pegeu). 

Lamarck considers the Terminalia angustifolia of Rumph. 
identical with Draczna reflexa, but the latter is a very different 
plant, as the internodes are not concealed by the bases of the 
half-clasping leaves. Draczena fruticosa of Blume comes very 
close to D. ensifolia of Wallich and D. Kochiana of Regel, but 
they are easily distinguished, as the former hac narrower and 
shorter leaves which cover the stem entirely or as far as the 
middle; flowers in threes or fours, and the style longer than 
the stamens. In the latter the leaves are slightly margined 
with red, and the bracts are of a violet colour and as long as 
the pedicels. 

Synonyms—Sanseviera fruticosa (Blume), Terminalia angus- 
tifolia (Rumph.). 

DRACENA FRAGRANS (GAWL.). 

Stem tree-like, branching, 15 feet to 20 feet high, clothed 
with leaves from the base to the top, or from the middle to 
the top; leaves sessile, clasping, recurved-patent, lanceolate, 
23 to 33 inches broad, 1 to 2 feet long, slightly undulated, 
with a midrib sunken on the upper surface and prominent on 
the under-side, and striated with fine nerves; panicle terminal, 
nearly erect or recurved, bent at the joints; branches divari- 
cated-patent; flowers in dense racemose heads and very 
fragrant. Guinea and Sierra Leone. 

Synonyms—Aletris fragrans (L.), Sanseviera fragrans 
(Jacq.), Cordyline fragrans (FI. d. Serres). 


DRACENA KOCHIANA (RGL.). 

Stem shrubby, erect, simple or branched, clothed with leayes 
at the top; leaves sessile, patent-recurved, leathery, narrowly 
linear-lanceolate, attenuated, acute, about 14 inch broad, and 
sometimes as much as 13 foot long, with a stout midrib which 
is sunken in the upper surface of the leaf and prominent 
on the under surface, striated with fine veins, and with a faint 
red margin which in some specimens is hardly visible; panicie 
terminal, simple; flowers crowded together in threes, and 
accompanied with violet-coloured bracts of the same length as 


May 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


the pedicels. Native country unknown. I haye seen a speci- 
men in cultivation. 


Synonyms—Dracena arborea (C. Koch.), Dracwena fruticosa 
(Hort. Berol.). 


(To be continued.) 


PALMS FOR THE GARDEN. 
(Concluded from p. 462.) 


TurIvAxX.—An elegant and useful genus, belonging to the fan- 
shaped section, the foliage being compact, and more graceful than 
even that of Chamerops or Latania. The different species will 
succeed in moderately cool-houses ; they are free growers, and may 
be exposed to the sun without damage. For table and room decora- 
tion they are exceedingly useful, especially parviflora and radiata. 
Not being fast growers, they last for years in a small state, and are 
therefore very suitable for small houses. The different species 
are :— 

_ THRINAX EXCELSA (SYN., TRITHRINAX ACULEATA: JaMAICA).—This 
is sometimes called Chamzrops stauracantha. 

T. Chuco (West Indies), T. gracilis (Jamaica), T. parviflora (syn., 
Sylvestris et elegantissima: Jamaica), T. pumila (Jamaica), T. 
radiata (syn., tunicata: Cuba), T. argentea (Silver Thatch; syn., 
elegans : West Indies). 

VERSCHAFFELTIA SPLENDIDA (SEYCHELLES).—A grand palm, with 
foliage standing out flat from the stem, and when fully developed, 
three feet wide. The leaves are borne on slender stems, which are 
furnished with strong black spines, and they move gracefully with 
the slightest breeze. For a stove slightly shaded this is a fine plant ; 
but care should be taken to keep it from cold air, which turns it 
yellow. 

_ Y. MELANOcHACTA (sYN., RoscHERTA).—From the same island. It 
is a useful plant, though inferior to V. splendida. 

VertcHiA JoHANNIS (TRoprcaL Avs?TRALIA).—This somewhat 
resembles Seaforthia elegans, but is more erect, and narrower in the 
foliage. As a vase or room plant, or for table decoration, it is very 
elegant—in fact, not to be surpassed. It also makes a good plant 
for mixing with Orchids; being slight in stature, it does not 
obstruct the light. 

_WALLICHIA.—A genus of palms allied to Caryota, from which they 
differ in their fronds, being simply pinnate. They are free growers, 
though fond of heat and water; the undersides of the leaves are white. 
They will stand a considerable amount of ill usage; they are, there- 
fore, useful for furnishing purposes. Otherwise, they cannot be 
said to stand in the first rank. The species are:—W. caryotoides 
(Chittagong), W. densiflora (Assam), W. tremula (Siam and Philip- 
pines). Caryotoides is the best. 

WELFIA recta (Trorican AmeERica).—A good plant for stoves. 
Being of a ref tint, it contrasts with others; must have plenty 
of heat. In habit resembles an Areca. 

Zatacca.—The different species of this genus are allied to 
Calamus, from which they differ in being denser; they also grow to 
a larger size. For decorative purposes, much cannot be said in their 
favour, though, when young, the following are good kinds, especially 
as sub-aquatics :— 

Z. EpuLis (JAva).—Habit, spreading. 

Z. WALLICHIANA (SYN., WaGNeERIt: Inp1A).—Dense. 

Z. conrerta (JAVA).—Frond, nearly round; green. 

Z. arrinis (JAva).—Near the above, but larger. 

To palms, as to other popular plants, names haye been given to 
which they have had no kind of claim. In the foregoing enumera- 
tion, now brought to a close, these have been either omitted, or given 
as Synonyms. J. CROUCHER. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Brownea andiceps.—This noble stove-plant is now in flower in the old 
orangery atKew. In leaf or in flower, there are few subjects to surpass it; all 
large stoves should be embellished with its great globes of brilliant blossom. B. 
coceinea, which blooms more freely, but is not so fine a species as the preceding, 
is also now in blossom.—W. F. 


Geranium v. Pelargonium.—Is a Pelargonium a Geranium? and, if not, 
how are they distinguished?—G. E.—[A Pelargonium is not a Geranium, 
though frequently so-called. The Geraniums are easily distinguished from the 
Pelargoniums by their extreme hardiness ; whereas no Pelargonium that we 
know of is hardy, except P. Endlicherianum, and that is very rare, if in the 
country. All the bedding and show plants often referred to under this 
name are true Pelargoniums. The Geraniums may also be readily known by 
their regular flowers, and by haying ten stamens, whereas Pelargoniums 
have irregular flowers, and usually seven stamens, and have moreover a peculiar 
feature in the narrow tube which runs down the stalk, and is a prolongation of 
the base of asepal. There is, however, good excuse for the common mistake 
of confounding these plants, as at one time the genera we now call Erodium, 
Pelargonium, and Geranium, were all known to science by the last name. ]} 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


BARK-BORING INSECTS. 
(SCOLYTUS DESTRUCTOR.) 

THERE is one question regarding bark-boring insects which, 
however thoroughly examined and apparently finally settled, 
every now and then reappears, and offers itself afresh for dis- 
cussion, according as new facts show themselves or old ones 
assume a new face; viz., whether these insects attack sound 
trees, or confine themselves to those which are moribund or 
in a bad state of health. 

The question relates not only to our present subject, the 
Seolytus destructor, but to a great many other bark-boring 
insects ; and it may be well, therefore, that in dealing with the 
first on our list, we once for all explain what we believe to be 
the true statement of facts regarding it. In the first place, 
we believe the fact to be that, while in general the trees which 
they attack are old or failing in health, there are also occa- 
sionally instances where they are found attacking and more 
or less injuring trees which to all outward appearance are in 
perfect health. A few weeks ago, for example, a specimen of 
a small branch of an elm was shown at a meeting of the scien- 
tific committee of the Horticultural Society, which was found 
to haye the bark literally crowded with the burrows and grubs 
of the Scolytus; and the branch was sound; perhaps a little 
dry, and as if not quite recently cut. We remember a similar 
instance occurring at Brussels a few years ago, where the 
efforts of the municipality to plant rows of elms in their new 
streets and boulevards were frustrated or greatly obstructed 
by the ravages of this insect; and, if we look nearer at home, 
in our parks, we shall not haye much difficulty in detecting 
them in trees which, although perhaps past their best, are yet 
fresh and green. Notwithstanding these apparently opposed 
instances, and many others which could be cited to the same 
effect, we believe that it is only in failing trees that there is 
any reason to dread the attacks of the insects of which we 
speak; and this simply because if the Scolytus makes its 
attack on a healthy young plant which yields abundance of 
sap, the grubs are incommoded or drowned by its overflow into 
their burrows and around themselves. The dead and 
mummied remains of these insects, which may occasion- 
ally be found in their burrows, are the result of such an 
incident. It is only where there is such a lack of free- 
flowing sap that the grub can work away in a moderately 
dry medium that it can proceed with comfort to itself, 
or indeed can long proceed at all. This being the case we 
might expect that the parent insect will be endowed with an 
instinct to guide it to the selection of the tree suited for the 
abode of its progeny; and, in point of fact, it is guided to such 
a selection, but not by any remarkable faculty, or wonderful 
display of unreasoning instinct. Like a great many other in- 
stances of apparent design for which instinct gets credit, the 
yvisdom in this case is simply the necessary result of the 
natural habits of the insect. The mother lays her eggs not 
on the exterior of the bark, but in the gallery which she her- 
self makes in feeding under or in the bark, and if the bark be 
in an unsuitable state for her living and feeding in it, she goes 
away after trying it, or only remains (taking the chances of her 
condition) if she can find no other refuge. It is also to be 
observed that the perfect beetle may be able to stand and 
struggle through an overflow of sap, which might envelope 
and be fatal to small grubs. 

In giving this explanation, we have assumed that it is only 
in trees where the sap is deficient that the Scolytus can live 
in comfort; but although we have only made the assumption 
to explain the principle, a moment’s consideration of the 
manner of life of the insect will show that it cannot be 
otherwise. If we make due inquiry, we shall find that 
in every case to the contrary there is one of two things 
present—the trees attacked are themselves back-going and 
deficient in sap, which we imagine to have been the case 
in the example shown to the scientific committee of the 
Horticultural Society the other day; or there are special 
circumstances about the locality which provide an unusual 
quantity of the old beetles, accompanied with a scarcity of 
their special trees in a state fitted for them; they are thus 


548 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


driven by the want of these to settle on the thriving young 
trees of the same kind, where they may survive for a short 
time until drowned by the sap; and if a constant fresh supply 
of old insects be from year to year provided to renew the 
attack, they may perhaps succeed in reducing the trees to 
a state of debility suited to their requirements, and then their 
progeny will run their course unmolested, and rapidly finish 
off the trees. This, we imagine, is what took place in 
Brussels. It is a city in which a large amount of wood is 
used for fuel, and large forests in the neighbourhood are 
grown for the purpose. There is thus constantly a large 
quantity of recently-felled wood around the city. ‘This is 
brought in and stacked in its heart, bearing along with 
it myriads of bark-boring insects, which, by and bye, come 
out and search for trees suited for their purpose. The 
Scolytidze search for old elms, find none, and are driven to 
attack the young ones planted in the boulevards. As a matter 
of course, the trees there, haying been transplanted when 
large, and breathing the air of a great city, are not in the 
most prosperous or vigorous condition, and are thus, although 
young, sufficiently feeble and languid in their circulation to 
be suited to their attacks. But even although they had been 
the most vigorous trees in the world, it would not seem 
extraordinary if, in time, they were to give way before the 
constantly renewed attacks of fresh hosts, annually brought 
in with the new supplies of firewood from without. We 
do not, however, know as a fact that this would be the case, 
for from an analogous case, cited by a great authority 
in such matters (M. Perris), it would appear to be doubtful 
whether that effect would really be produced. He states that 
in his district (the Landes) there are a good many industrial 
establishments which burn great quantities of logs of pine, 
and for that purpose make large stores of them. From these 
immense heaps of logs of all sizes there proceed innumerable 
swarms of Bostrichi, and above all of Hylurgus piniperda, 
and in the neighbourhood, quite near, occur some pine trees, 
either isolated or in groups of greater or less extent which 
nothing would seem to guarantee against their assaults; and 
yet M. Perris states that he never knew an instance of any one 
of these trees owing its death to them. They suffer more or 
less in their young shoots, which serve in the summer for 
refuge and nourishment to the Hylureus, and, notwithstanding 
the apparently very grave disturbance which these attacks, 
when much multiplied, cause to the economy of the trees, 
there still remains to them sufficient vigour and health to 
discourage more serious enterprises. The reason of their 
immunity he supposes to be that the Stone Pine 
(Ee pinaster) is there in its own country, and that the climate 
and soil agree with it so completely that it is there able to 
resist morbid causes to which it elsewhere proyes more 
vulnerable, 

“On the other hand,” says he, “I could show—for the traces 
still exist—pines. and more especially elms, attacked and 
riddled by ill-advised Bostrichi and Scolyti, born in the 
neighbourhood, and without doubt pressed to lay their eggs, 
and whose attempts have been defeated and projects dis- 
concerted by the powerful sap. I have quite recently 
predicted a similar result to one of my friends who was in 
much alarm at the invasion by Scolyti of an avenue of young 
elms, which he was anxious to preserve, and which came from 
felled trunks lying not far off, and the event bore out my 
predictions, which [I had based on the evident vigour of these 
trees.” The practical conclusion to be drawn from these con- 
siderations is that where the trees are strong and vigorous we 
need not fear insects, and that if they are attacked, the best 
remedy is to supply it with nourishment, so as to improve its 
vigour and strengthen its constitution. 


(To be continued.) 


“War with Insects” (see p. 445).—This should have been 
called ‘‘ War with Peach Trees.” I can conceive nothing more 
injurious to a Peach tree than the application of wet paint, or even 
the proximity of wet paint; the very scent of the paint would 
inevitably kill the tree. As to aphides and ‘thousands of little 
snails being captured darting out,’ I would say with Tennyson of 
the departing year, ‘‘let them go;”’ but I can assure your corres- 
pondent, after noting aphides for fifty years, that they never dart; 


they insert their trunks in the epidermis, and generally remain 
firmly fixed for life. At the end of the season, a last brood of 
aphides appears, and these have wings; but they never “ dart.” 
Each particular aphis opens his filmy wings, and waits for the breeze 
to take him off his legs, when he is borne, nolens volens, wherever 
the breeze likes to carry him. The motion is floating, not darting; 
like a little feather, he has no will of his own; he must go where 
the wind pleases. I will not contest the point about the snails; 
they may ‘‘dart in and ont”; but from some little acquaintance 
with their habits, I think it unlikely. We entomologists are con- 
tinually evincing a very strong desire to help the gardeners, but 
the gardeners invariably reject our seryices on the plea that we are 
not practical men; and I feel there is no help for it until an entire 
change comes over the spirit of the gardener—until he will consent 
to learn of the entomologist, and try to attain some knowledge of his 
insect enemies. Thanks to the late Mr. Walsh, to Dr. Park, and to 
Mr. Riley; this great work is progressing nobly in America; there 
a man who understands entomology is respected as a teacher, here 
he is condemned as a visionary ; he who can traina Peach tree or 
a Pear tree to a particular pattern on a wall, is regarded as the only 
practical man. Believe me, some knowledge of insects is as needful 
as a knowledge of the use of the spade, or the hoe, or the pruning- 
Imife; and until we can induce gardeners to acquire that little 
knowledge, they will handle the spade and the hoe and the pruning- 
knife in yain.—Epwarp NEWMAN. 


THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
THE PALM HOUSE. 

Tuts noble structure still ranks amongst the finest erections 
of the kind that exist in any country. It was designed by 
Mr. Decimus Burton, and erected by Mr. Richard Turner, of 
Dublin, in 1849. It represents the first application, on a large 
scale, of malleable iron beams for the support of curved roofs, 
set on foundations of masonry. No timber whatever is used 
in its construction. 

As regards general arrangements they can be easily under- 


' stood by a glance at the annexed illustrations and atthe ground- 


plan and sections which we published last week. The central 
portion consists of a square with two wings, each haying semi- 
circular ends, the centre being raised above the rest of the 
building so as to afford accommodation for large plants. The 
roof is furnished with a continuous lanthorn, in which the 
sashes for ventilation open and shut simultaneously by means 
of machinery. This lanthorn is in keeping with the base and 
plinth, which is also provided with ventilators for the admis- 
sion of air. 

Round the central portion is a gallery which is reached by 
two cylindrical iron staircases, one for ascending and the other 
for descending, and from this gallery the whole of the magni- 
ficent palms and other tropical vegetation, with which the 
house is furnished, can be viewed with advantage. ‘The ex- 
terior outline or contour is semi-ellipse, a form very suitable 
for a house of such large dimensions. The extreme length is 
about 362 feet, width of centre 100 feet, wings 50 feet, length of 
centre 137 feet, wing (each) 112 feet, height of centre 63 feet, 
wines 27 feet. It is set on a slightly elevated terrace, where it 
has remained without a single settlement or subsidence in any 
part, or almost the fracture of a pane of glass, since its erec- 
tion. The glass and glazing were entrusted by Mr. Turner to 
Messrs. Chance, of Birmingham, the glass being of a peculiar 
tint of green, then thought to be most suitable for palms and 
other plants intended to be grown under it. 

The interior arrangements are very simple. They consist 
of a wide side-shelf all round, with a series of ranges of 
hot-water pipes underneath it ; the flooring, supported on piers 
of masonry, is of perforated cast-iron, under which is the main 
heating apparatus, consisting of hot-water pipes spread over 
the whole surface. No other material but iron could have 
answered the purposes for which this building is intended 


THE GARDEN. 


May 11, 1872.] 


FES AS” YS { & 
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PE i ge — Or 
fa Sheek ORT Nik EE i 


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= Sy ST ES te, ee me em err NG, te eel ee ee 
CES CE RRR | FERRER amit TI IT Raa er» Faniann ROR PS 


USUUINUI Ste 
CMEli/ 


rm mend kine, “aoe 


Sree tnhinn 6 QI? On, 
ME iii fy eee MIO SMC 


Fe omit 


ey = | = 
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Teper 


VIEW AND SECTIONS OF THE GREAT PALM HOUSE AT KEW. 


550 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


—for plants requiring great space, great heat, and great 
moisture. This building, in short, well illustrates the great 
superiority of curvilinear iron houses for all very large 
structures in gardens, its effect beimg very satisfactory from 
every pointof view. We have seldom seen large conservatories 
of the opposite style pleasing in effect, and it is certainly a 
fallacy to suppose that they are better for plants. The great 
Temperate House at Kew is a noble structure, but there are 
few who would not prefer the older Palm House. It is difficult 
to say how any persons loying their country, not to say loving 
gardens, should erect such a structure as the new palm house 
in the Glasneyin Garden, with this in existence as an example. 
Of course, we do not expect every botanic garden to rival Kew 
with a palm house, but the principle may be applied on a 
smaller scale. There is only one style of palm house that we 
should think worthy of being named in connection with that 
at Kew, and that is such as the palm house at Edinburgh. In 
this case the sides of massive stone lend a more stately air to 
the structure than if the curvilinear ribs started from near the 
ground. Palms, as Mr. M‘Nab has shown, thrive perfectly in 
such a structure. 

We are indebted to Mr. H. M. Burton for the loan of some 
of the noble series of drawings, originally made by Mr. Deci- 
mus Burton for the larger structures at Kew, and from these 
the drawings for Tnz GarpEn have beenmade. We feel bound 
to state in conclusion that this and other houses built by Mr. 
Turner, of Dublin, do him great credit. We have now seen 
them in many gardens, private and public, and they always 
seemed to us, Judged from an ornamental point of view, 
worthy to stand in the fairest garden, and always constructed 
with a view to the perfect health of the plants. The iron 
range at Glasnevin, the conservatory in the Regent’s Park, 
and the range at Killakee are cases in point. 


Thee SAR BO Ree we OAM 


THE PLANES. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S. 

IIl.—THE ORIENTAL PLANE (PLATANUS ORIENTALIS—LINN DUS). 

Tuts is one of the noblest trees of the Hast; it has vide- 
spreading branches and a massive trunk. Its peculiar 
character, however, is its being massive and graceful, yet 
open and yaried in outline, with the lower branches ex- 
tending horizontally to a considerable distance. Under favour- 
able circumstances it attains a height of from sixty to seventy 
feet, with a trunk of large dimensions near the ground; but it 
soon divides into numerous huge spreading arms or branches, 
which, together with the stem, are covered with smooth, 
whitish-grey bark, that scales off every year in rather large, 
irregular patches, while the bark on the smaller branches and 

younger portions of the tree is more persistent, and of a brown 
colour, sometimes tinted with purple. 

The Platanus orientalis is a native of Asia Minor, Persia, 
Greece, and Western India, where it extends as far as Cash- 
mere. It is also found on the coast of Barbary, the south of 
Italy, and in Sicily; but most probably it is not indigenous 
to those countries. It is likewise found on Mount Htna, as 
high as two thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

It is the “ Chinar” of the Persians and the people of Western 
India, and the“ Doobl” of the Arabians. Griffith, in his ‘‘ Notes 
on Western India,” says the “ Chinar” is common in Affghan- 
istan at a place called Otipore, where it forms a large and hand- 
some tree, but with a trunk never of any great height, and 
with the branches, when left to themselves, dependent, and of 
a great size. He also found the “Chinar’” common in the 
province of Khorassan, at Ghuznee, in Cabul, Jalalabad, and 
Candahar. Hestates that along avenue of it is a distinguishing 
feature in the city of Ispahan. 

Dr. Walsh, in his “ Residence at Constantinople,” says that 
the great tree of Buykdere is an Oriental Plane of tremendous 
size, rising from the middle of a valley; it measures forty-seven 
yards in circumference at its base, and the branches afford 
shade to a circular area of 130 yards; he also assures us that 
there is no exaggeration in the statement, as he measured the 
tree himself in 1836. He says, however, that this vast stem 
divides into fourteen branches, some of which issue from 


below the present surface of the soil, and some do not divide 
till they rise seven or eight feet above it. One of the largest has 
been hollowed out by fire, and affords a cabin to shelter a 
husbandman. This, if it can be considered a single tree, 1s 
certainly the largest of its kind in the world, and, as is con- 
jectured by De Candolle, must be more than two thousand 
years old. ; 
The leaves of this Plane are large, frequently measuring 
nine inches anda half in length, and eight inches in breadth ; 
they are palmate, wedge-shaped, or tapering to the footstalk, 
and deeply divided into five pointed lobes or acute segments, 
the three outer of which are cuneate, and sometimes again 
slightly lobed, and all are furnished towards the points with 
acute indentations or large serratures on the margins; the 
petioles are rather long, and the principal veins palmately 
divided. The young leaves and shoots when they first appear 
in spring, are covered all over with a dense silky wool of a 
rusty brown colour, but which soon sheds, and, by the time 
the leaves are fully matured, totally disappears; the upper 
surface of the leaves becomes quite glabrous and of a shining 
green colour, while underneath they are much paler, and 
slightly tomentose in the angles of the vems and on the prin- 
cipal ribs; the stipules are entire, and the petioles so swelled 


Leaf of the Oriental Plane.—Natural size, 83 inches long, including footstalk, 
and 74 inches broad. 


at the base as to cover the buds; the flowers are small and in 
close balls or heads, which appear before the leayes in spring, 
and the seeds in fine seasons ripen late in autumn, but the 
balls which contain them mostly hang on the tree until the 
following spring; the balls or seed-heads of this Plane are 
thickly furnished externally with stiff, bristly points, and 
elevated conical-shaped nipples, covered with a silky down, 
and vary very much in size, some of the balls beg one inch 
and a half im diameter, while others are not more than three- 
fourths of an inch. They are produced on long, zig-zag, pendu- 
lous peduncles, sometimes six inches in length, and bearing 
from three to six balls or heads on each, generally crowded 
together, or but at short distances apart. 

The Oriental Plane was first introduced into Wneland about 
the middle of the sixteenth century, and some of the oldest 


and finest trees of it, near London, are at Mount Grove, Hamp-. 


stead ; in 1838 these had attained a height of from seventy to 
eighty feet, with massive trunks. It has the following syno- 
nyms, viz., Platanus cashmeriana, nepalensis, and indica, 


Mar 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 551 


BRITISH COLUMBIAN CONIFERS. 
(Continued from page 503.) 

JEFFREY’S DECIDUOUS TREES, SHRUBS, AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 

Besipes conifers, Jeffrey also introduced many deciduous trees, 
shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Many sent home by him had been 
introduced, while others were known only by name, but had not been 
previously sent home. One of the latter is Nutallia cerasiformis, a 
shrub belonging to the Rose tribe. This plant ranks amongst the 
earliest leafing shrubs now cultivated in the open garden. The 
flowers are in racemes not unlike the white variety of the Ribes 
sanguineum. Although the Nuttallia flowers freely in the open 
border, it is wonderfully improved in appearance when grown against 
a wall. Among the numerous herbaceous plants sent home, those 
really new which have come under my observation are the Dodecatheon 
Jeffreyii and Pentstemon Jeffreyii. 

As Jeffrey’s expedition to British Columbia turned out q pro- 
sperous undertaking, its promoters were induced to organize 
another expedition for the further exploration of these coniferous 
regions. After several preliminary meetings, it was ultimately 
arranged to send out another collector, and Mr. Robert Brown, an 
enthusiastic Scotch botanist, was selected to undertake this second 
expedition. He started in March 1863, and was absent for nearly 
four years. Of conifers (the collection of which was one of the 
chief objects of the mission), comparatively few, however, were 
received from him; but these I shall now enumerate. 

Of the genus Pinus, seeds of the true P. Murrayana of Jeffrey 
came up freely, being readily distinguished by the green colour of 
the leaves and beantiful upright habit of growth. Of the genus 
Picea, one kind only came up, named P. grandis. This plant is 
evidently one of the forms previously introduced as P. lasiocarpa, 
certainly not the true P. grandis of Douglas. 


ABIES. 

Of this genus seeds of several kinds were received, and two sent 
home as new were provisionally named—one, Abies Parryana, and 
the other, A. Hanburyana. The former has turned out to be 
identical with the Abies Pattoniana first introduced by Jeffrey, while 
the A. Hanburyana seems to be nearly allied. Its leaves, however, 
are longer, broader, and somewhat undulated. Some seeds of Abies 
Douglasii were sent home by Mr. Brown. They soon grew, but 
haye a light-green colour, and much covered with resinous blisters 
in the young state, like those raised from Jeffrey’s importations, 
having a habit almost identical with the early plants raised from 
British ripened seed, certainly very different in colour from those 
sent home by Drummond during the Franklin expedition, or by the 
ill-fated David Douglas during 1826. I feel convinced that there 
is a variety of the A. Douglasii yet to be sent from the Rocky 
Mountain district, infinitely superior to the generality of A. 
Douglasii seedlings received during recent years, having dark 
evergreen leaves, perfectly hardy, very upright in growth, and 
admirably adapted for forest purposes. Those sent home by 
Drummond are of this character. Some plants sent out by nursery- 
men under the name of A. Douglasii taxifolia may be this variety, 
but certainly not all, as some varieties cultivated under this name 
are rather tender, and have more or less a drooping habit. 


SEED COLLECTING. 

There is a circumstance to which seed collectors pay very little 
attention, but which calls for careful observation. Seeds are not 
-unfrequently procured from medium-sized trees growing along the 
outskirts of pine forests. In such situations it is often impossible 
to depend on the progeny. The pollen of most coniferous trees is 
produced in very large quantities, and is often blown about to a 
considerable distance. To this cause I attribute the sickly condition 
of the plants raised from much of our home-ripened seeds, as is 
observable in Abies Menziesii, A. Douglasii, Picea nobilis, Pinus 
monticola, P. Laricio, and others. Such examples prove the necessity 
of foreign seed-collectors penetrating the pine forests in order to 
secure seeds in a pure and perfect state. The rarer species of 
conifers now cultivated in this country are not yet to be had in such 
quantities as to be grown in aforest condition. The chances, there- 
for, of impure seed are very great. 


EARLY CONING. 

A circumstance connected with the early coning of certain 
recently introduced conifers into this country deserves investigation. 
On inquiry, it will be found that early coning may be attributed 
to several causes. For many years the newer conifers were 
generally grown in pots perhaps for a much longer time than they 
ought to have been, and when planted out the roots were often 
matted together, rendering it often impossible to extricate them 
without injuring the plants. Such specimens were generally 


planted with their balls of adherent earth entire. For several 
years these trees get on well, but in time sicken from a strangulation 
of their roots, which results in early coning. Another mode of 
bringing young trees into a coning condition, is the tying the stems 
upright which happen to be leaning to one side, from wind or other 
causes. The tying which some of these plants are often subjected 
to, and the after neglect of taking off ligaments used, has a tendency 
to cut into the bark on one side, and oftens weakens the top, which 
results in early coning. Another cause is from transplanting, and 
is particularly noticeable in plants of the Picea nobilis. Although 
transplanting is often done for this express purpose, I have my 
doubts if the progeny of such trees can be relied on for producing 
permanent healthy plants. I am inclined to think that all these 
premature methods of inducing cones will produce a sickly progeny. 
It will be a service if those who have had experience in seedlings 
thus produced will kindly give the results of their experience ; ib 
would confer a favour on many cultivators, by saving the extensive 
planting of trees that will not ultimately succeed. The sickly state 
of many of our young larch plantations, I much fear, is owing to 
carelessness in seed collecting. 


THUJAS. 

Of this genus a considerable quantity of seeds was sent home 
by Mr. Brown, under the name of Thuja Craigana. These have the 
appearance of T. gigantea sent home by Jeffrey, or the varieties 
sent by other collectors under the names of T. Lobbit and T. 
Menziesii. The varieties of Thuja received at different times from 
British Columbia are numerous, and from the slight difference 
observable in them, I am inclined to think that the seeds must have 
been collected from trees growing on different soils and situations. 


JUNIPERUS. 

Of this genus several interesting species are to be seen amongst 
the dried specimens received from Mr. Brown. Several packets of 
TJuniperns seed were also sent home. The only one named by him 
was J. Henryana, of which two distinct varieties have come up, 
and are now in cultivation. As the true plant has not been 
described, it is difficult to know which was originally intended to 
bear that name. 

DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS. 

Seeds of these were also distributed; of the former, Prunus 
Pattoniana appears to be distinct, although more of a shrub than 
of tree growth. Mahonia Balfouriana seems to be identical with 
Mahonia Aquifolium, introduced from California in 1824. A species 
sent without a name has turned ont to be Spiraea arisfolia. 


THE BUNCH AND OTHER GRASSES. 


Perhaps one of the most useful introductions by Mr. Brown was the 
Bunch grass (Elymus condensatus). This grass is, without exception, 
one of the earliest we have in Britain, the leaves can be cut about 
twenty-four inches long at the beginning of March, while this year 
it was nearly thirty inches, and before the eud of September the 
plants measure from eight to nine feet in height. Although intro- 
duced during 1864, it does not appear to be receiving that attention 
which I think it justly deserves. This grass should be thoroughly 
analyzed by competent parties, and its merits given to the public. 
It seeds abundantly in this country, and if found to possess sufficient 
nutritive qualities it could be readily increased. Seeds of several 
pasture grasses were also received and grew freely, but I have not 
heard of any good that has resulted from them. Besides grasses, 
seeds of many herbaceous plants were also distributed. 


ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION. 

Mr. Brown’s mission ended in the autumn of 1866. Looking 
through the dried specimens sent home by Jeffrey and Brown, as well 
as the introductions of Douglas, there appears yet to be ample scope 
in North West America for a collector to go over the same ground 
again. The original habitats of Picea amabilis and P. grandis of 
Douglas do not appear to haye been touched upon by any other 
party, as no true seeds of these two species have again been procured. 
The Pinus Balfouriana and the true P. flexilis have only been sent 
home by Jeffrey ; and the Abies Hanburyanaand Juniperus Henryana 
only by Brown. Judging from the dried specimens received from 
the various collectors, interesting specimens of Pinus, Picea, Abies, 
Thuja, and Juniperus, have yet to be introduced. In these extensive 
and comparatively unexplored regions, a'variety of soils and situations 
must be met with particularly adapted for certain species of conifers. 
Suitable spots, as damp, dry, loamy, or peaty, favourable to the 
growth of certain plants, are frequently very limited in extent. A 
collector may therefore pass within a few hundred yards of some 
rare species and neyer see them. From these regionsa vast amount 
of novelties haye yet to be procured, and such as would reward any 
young and enterprising collector. JamMES M‘Nas. 


552 


THE GARDEN. 


(May 11, 1872. 


THE GARDENS OF ENGLAND. 


MOUNT EDGCUMBE. 


Tus is a noble and extensive place, surrounded by a finely 
undulated park, stocked with deer and furnished with fine 
trees, consisting of Oak, Beech, Elm, and Chestnut. It also 
contains some very large evergreen Oaks, Cedars of Lebanon 
(which, for spread of branches or size generally, one seldom 
sees elsewhere), Thorns of select and beautiful kinds, and 
other ornamental trees. From the higher lying ground the 
views, both of sea and land,are marvellously fine, embracing, 
as they do, the town of Plymouth, with its bay, shipping, and 
dockyard, Drake’s Island, and extensive inland tracts of the 
lovely counties of Devon and Cornwall. In short, few places 
are so charmingly situated as Mount Edgcumbe, from which 
can be seen Dartmoor, with its wonderful rocks and tors, as 
well as Lord Morley’s park and domain, and other gentlemen’s 
seats. 

The wide and diversified prospects that rise on every side, 
of towering hill, flowery vale, furzy down, and fertile field, 
are such as cannot 
fail to awaken the 
most pleasing sens- 


plantation of fir and other trees towards Picklecombe, our path 
being at a considerable elevation from the sea, which lies far 
below us. The Valley of Picklecombe has, at its upper ex- 
tremity, a building intended to represent a ruined chapel, 
from which the prospect is strikingly pretty, the little valley 
sloping away gradually towards the sea. On the further side 
of this valley is one of the most delightful parts of this 
charming domain. A portion of the Great Terrace continues 
in this direction, the road winding along among the most 
delightful variations of foliage, arranged in the most perfect 
order, and with true artistic taste. Here we find the Portugal 
Laurel, the Laurustinus, the Arbutus, and other evergreens and 
flowering shrubs, covering the whole surface of the cliff on 
either side; while on our left, as we proceed, we are attracted 
to various openings in the shrubbery, through which we catch 
tiny glimpses of the sea dotted with sails, while ever and 
anon our ears are pleasantly assailed by the murmur of the 
waves as they beat in regular cadence some hundreds of feet 
below. This walk retams the same charming appearance 
throughout the year, the woodlands being almost entirely 
composed of evergreens. One Laurel tree has reached the 
astonishing altitude of fifty feet, and is supposed to be the 
largest of its kind 
in Hurope. 


ations. The penin- 
sula occupied by 
Mount EHdgcumbe 
stretches out its 
majestic heights, 
crowned by the 
noblest woods, into 
the ocean, where the 


The mansion itself 
boasts of consider- 
able antiquity, 
having been erected 
in 1550 by Sir 
Richard Edgeumbe. 
It is in the castel- 
lated style, battle- 
mented, and had 


waves break over 
reefs of black rock 
that lie at the base 
of the cragged cliffs. 
This beautiful do- 
main is one of the 
most noticeable 
features in the land- 
scape of Plymouth 
Sound. It may be 
viewed to perfection 
from the command- 
ing eminence oppo- 
site Mount Wise. 
Here the whole of 


originally circular 
towers at each 
angle, but during 
the latter part of 
the last century 
these towers were 
converted into an — 
octagonal form. 
The gardens, 
which are very ex- 
tensive, possess 
some fine terraces, 
from which are 
obtained the most 
delightful views 


the expanse of its 


imaginable in every 


magnificent scenery, 


direction. The 


as well as the neigh- 


bouring landscape, 
is spread out un- 
broken to the view, and may be taken in at one comprehensive 
glance. Its appearance from the Plymouth Hoe is also 
particularly fine. The noble woods, rising tier above tier, with 
here and there patches of bright green, the blue sky beyond, 
and the deep tints of the water around, dotted with vessels, 
all combine to form a very pleasing picture. 

At the entrance to the park is a splendid avenue of gigantic 
trees. ‘These extend in unbroken order nearly up to the house 
itself, which occupies a commanding position. ‘The trees are 
so arranged as to form three avenues—one yery wide central 
promenade with side aisles. To our left we catch pretty 
glimpses of the sea, through the openings in the trees, 
which are here tastefully arranged. ‘To the left of the house 
is a high walk, leading to the most beautiful part of the 
grounds, while further to the left is a lower path, which 
passes in many places close to the sea. 

What is called “ Lady Emma’s Cottage” is a pleasant 
resting-place, situated at the foot of a wood, a “‘most delight- 
ful solitude of venerable trees,” which tower up to a great 
height rendering the neighbourhood of the cottage shady and 
enjoyable. There is, too, a pretty little garden in front of this 
cottage, offering a pleasing contrast to the overhanging woods. 
In due course we arrive at an upper walk, called the Great 
Terrace, or Laurel Walk, and proceed along through a dense 


Mount Edgeumbe from the Sea. 


rosary itself is worth 
travelling a great 
many miles to see; 
and the flower gardens are both extensive and varied. The 
English flower garden, as it is called, is of considerable extent, 
and is embellished with some very fine trees, among which may 
benoticeda grandold Cedar, one of the largest in England, which 
has so outgrown its space as to render it necessary for some of 
the boughs to be lopped off, while others are chained up. Ona 
seat beneath this tree are inscribed some appropriate lines 
from Cowper’s “Task.” Another large Cedar measures 
twenty-ore feet in circumference at six feet from the ground, 
and its branches spread ninety-five feet in diameter. There 
are besides some Cork trees, and fine specimens of the brave 
old English Oak. What is called the French flower garden 
is a small square enclosure bounded by a high hedge, cut 
close, of various evergreens. The garden is laid out as a 
parterre, with a basin and jet d’eaw in the midst issuing 
from rockwork intermixed with shells, and surrounded by 
trellis work, on which numerous creepers are trained. In 
the Italian garden is a lofty orangery, one hundred feet in 
length, having a Doric front, designed by Lord Chelmsford. 
Into this building the orange trees, which include many 
fine specimens, are removed during the winter months, 
but in summer they are tastefully arranged in long ayenues 
in the garden. ‘This garden is encircled by a fine bank 
of flowering shrubs and evergreens, in the centre of which 


May 11, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


553 


is placed a basin of water, with a superb marble fountain. 
In the shrubberries, one of the most striking features 
belonging to the place, are some magnificent examples of 
Arbutus and common and Portugal Laurels, of a height and 
size equal to those of some timber trees; other evergreens, 
too, acquire proportionate dimensions. The Bamboos here 
are unequalled for beauty and elegance; and the scarlet 
Indian Tree and other Rhododendrons grow with surprising 
luxuriance ; as do also Camellias, Myrtles, Chinese Azaleas, and 
Heaths. Indeed, plants which need the protection of glass 
in other parts of England succeed perfectly out of doors in 
this favoured climate, and acquire wonderful luxuriance. A 
lovely Malvaceous plant (Abutilon vitifolium) grows here to 
the size of a tree, which, for months together, is loaded with 
beautiful mauve-coloured flowers, each as large as a crown 
piece, making a glorious display. The foliage is handsome 
and vine-like. Mount Edgcumbe is also celebrated for its 
Magnolias, of which it contains many varieties—large and 
grand examples of that fine genus. Conifers, too, such as 
Sequoias (Wellingtonia), Araucarias, Pinuses, Abies, Junipers, 
Cypresses, Cryptomerias, and others, may also be found here 
as large and fine as in any other county in England. Espe- 
cially are there 
beautiful groves of 
Pinasters, | which 
here acquire large 
sizes. Jas. Barnes. 


THE SIX OF 
SPADES. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
The President’s 
Lecture—(concluded). 

You have seen a 
well-bred hunter 
turned out for his 
summer's run, when 
the soft showers of 
April haye made the 
grasses green, and 
ere the suns of May, 
opening the Butter- 
cups, have converted 
every pasture into a 
Field of the Cloth 
of Gold. For half-a- 
dozen seconds, when 
the groom has 
quietly slipped over 
his nose the old 
“exercising bridle” 
which he knows so well, he stands gazing in amazement 
and perplexity, astonished as the rustic who, having formed 
his idea of cities from the occasional contemplation of a 
small market town in the distance, sees for the first time 
from some commanding height great London spread out 
before him. Hardly, at first, can he (I am referring now 
to the nobler animal of the two, the horse)—hardly at first 
can he realise his freedom; it seems to him too good to 
be true; but suddenly he apprehends the happiness of his 
state, and with a wild whinny of delight he is away at 
speed, kicking as he goes, and giving ample demonstration to 
eye and ear that he thoroughly appreciates his new liberty. 


By and bye he may condescend to a majestic trot, coming | 


towards you with head erect, lithe, supple, elastic, “scarcely 
touching the ground, he’s so proud and elate,” and exhibiting 


a dignity and grace and power, which you can see in no other | 


animal, and only in him when thus unusually excited. After 
a while, perhaps, he may treat eye and nostril toa sight and 
scent of the young, tender herbage; but he is much too happy 
to eat. Were he less so, he would hesitate where to begin, 
like the schoolboy, whom you treat at the confectioner’s, and 
bid, in Lear’s words, “take all.” But now he has youth’s 
gladness without its appetite, and he is racing off again, 
head down and heels in the air, as though about to rehearse 


Mount Edgeumbe. 


a series of somersaults for the edification of some favoured 
hippodrome. 

A like joyous consternation, alike embarrassment of happi- 
ness are mine, my friends, when, released from the introductory 
part of my lecture, from my allegorical snaffle, I find myself 
free to expatiate upon a field—of roses, turned out as it were 
into the “rosea rura Velini,” into those rose fields near Ghaze- 
poor, which the great Bishop Heber tells us extended over 
many hundred acres, or into that ‘ beautiful plain covered with 
innumerable roses,’ of which we read in the more recent 
“Wanderings of an Artist.’ So let me have a metaphorical 
gallop to relieve my exuberance of delight ; or rather, since the 
rosarium is not good galloping ground, let me, like some night- 
ingale just arrived in a rose nursery, and who can “ scarce get 
out his notes for joy,” take a preliminary fly over the premises, 
with obligato and irregular music, ere I settle down to sing 
in a more measured time and in a more usual key. 

Hurrah, then, for the royal Rose! for a Queen who, like our 
own Victoria, reigns the wide world over in loving hearts. 
Hurrah for old England’s emblem, emblem true of a happy 
land, whose sons flush quickly witha righteous anger to resent 
injustice and to defend the right, and whose daughters blush 
with a roseate 
beauty, with the 
“ shame, which is a 
glory and a grace.” 
Hurrah for the 
precious perfumed 
flower, which, for 
seven months of our 
fickle and inclement 
year, gives its wel- 
come beauty to high 
and low, admired 
and loved by us all, 
from the patrician, 
who sees it in the 
golden epergne of 
the banquet, to the 
ploughboy, who 
sticks it in his coat 
o’ Sundays, and 
seems to his younger 
brother, learning 
his Collect, the em- 
bodiment of earthly 
bliss, as to a junior 
at Eton his gor- 
geous fraternity in 
the Life Guards. 
Hurrah for the 
flower, which in all 
history, sacred and 
secular, maintains priority of praise; which the Greeks 
named to anthos—the flower, and of which all their poets, 


heroic, pastoral, sentimental, comic—Homer, Theocritus, 
Aristophanes, and “burning Sappho,” sang; which the 


Romans strewed before their victorious chiefs, chose first 
to ornament their homes and feasts, and even offered to their 
gods; which all nations, emancipated from barbarism, have 
ever fondly cherished; which displays its charms, as our 
English girls their loveliness, with an infinite variety of form, 
grace, and complexion, now petite as some pocket Venus 
(anglicé, “a little duck”) and now beautiful abundantly — 


“A daughter of the gods, divinely fair, 
And most divinely tall,” 


(colloquially, “a glorious girl, sir”); which, only requiring in 
ordinary gardens the smallest share of attention to insure an 
ample bloom, may be induced by a patient and careful love to 
reveal its glories under adverse skies—which finally, my 
Mattocks, is the Queen of flowers, Rosa Mundi, perfect, peer- 
less! ‘“ Truie,” says the French proverb, “ trwie aime mieux 
bran que Roses’’—the sow would rather haye its nose in the 
swill-tub than smelling the sweetest posy; and he is a hog 
who does not love the Rose. 

There! The hunter has had his gallop round the “ rosea 


554. 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


rura,” the nightingale alights breathless in his bower of 
roses; and we will moderate our pace now, if you please, and 
pitch our note an octave lower. 

But we follow, though more slowly, the same route; the 
refrain of our song may not be changed, Rose est Bonheur, the 
Rose is happiness ! 

To review them more calmly and to demonstrate more 
practically what I have said, I will speak first of the Rose’s 
popularity. In March 1860 I received an application from 
a society of working men at Nottingham, inviting me to 
assist at their “ Rose Show,” which they proposed to hold on 
Easter Monday. As | had not at that time a Rose-bud in my 
possession, and never entertained the idea of an artisan with a 
conservatory, I came to the conclusion that some facetious 
friend was enlivening himself at my expense, and I wrote 
back curtly, inquirmg what particular roses were so kind as 
to bloom at Nottingham three months before they condescended — 
to appear in other less favoured localities. The reply, that the 
flowers intended for exhibition were grown under glass in pots, 
made me thoroughly ashamed of my incredulity; and on Easter 
Monday, 9th April, I set forth in a snow-storm, not daring to 
reveal my mission to anyone—for who was likely to believe me? 
and travelled forty 
miles in all by rail 
and road for the 


enthusiasm of an amateur? It is the Duchess of Sutherland, 
ib is the Mistress of the Robes, waiting upon the only Queen 
in all the world more beautifully robed than her own. She 
bends in fond allegiance, but not more loyally, not more 


| tenderly, not more heartily than those earnest men, who 


work for their bread at Nottingham. 

For duration, in the next place, what flower dare upraise 
her head to dispute the supremacy of the rose? ‘“ Gather ye 
roses, while ye may,” says old Herrick, and with us rose- 
growers is it not almost “always May?’ From that month to 
December, at all events, from the first blooms of the charming 
Banksiee and of Gloire de Dijon on our warm south walls, until 
the last Giant of Battles must yield to Jack (the Giant-killer) 
Frost, we subjects of Queen Rosa may wear in our button-holes 
of loyalty this token true.” Whatsoever the weather in the 
intermediate months, however ‘“‘ deformed by sullen rains,” or 
by continuous drought, a rose tree, in good health to begin 
with, will have its bloom sooner or later ; and, because different 
seasons suit different sorts, some trees in the Rosarium will ever 
assume for our delectation their most perfect phase of 
beauty. ; 

Consider, too, not only their diversity of colour—and if 
you wish for 
special examples 
of this compare 


show. Never was 
journey more de- 
lightfully recom- 
pensed. Driving 
through sleet and 
sludge to the 
“ General Cathcart,” 


the weather pain- 
fully recalling that 
hero on the hills of 
the Crimea, I found, 
to my sudden but 
complete happiness, 
a long table covered 
with roses! Yes, 
there were our sum- 
mer sweethearts, 
fresh and fair, 
smiling at the hail 
which pattered 
againstthe windows, 
as though reproying 
them for their 
precocious forward- 
ness. Ah, did we 
not enjoy our stolen 
kisses, the bright 
glowing tints, the 
shining foliage, the delicious perfume! Had we not a genial, 
joyous time of it, praising and comparing our charmers, 
and, rose-growers all of us, saying our say without reserve or 
restraint! Then, after an hour’s thorough enjoyment, I went, 
with the most successful trainer of the day, a bricklayer, and 
a very pleasant companion I found him, from the race-course 
to the stables—from the show to the greenhouses, some 
of them so small that I, being of extra size, and wearing a 
winter overcoat, was compelled to remain outside, and all of 
them belonging to working men, who, living in the town, 
often come long distances, before and after a hard day’s 
labour, to attend to firing and watering, and to wait with 
an affection, which defies all difficulties, upon their 
lovely mistress, the Rose. I went home with my heart full 
of pleasant thoughts, and with my hands full of such 
winsome flowers as made every passenger in the train livid 
with envy. 

Passing over a thousand intermediate examples, and 
skipping to the top of the social staircase, let us again suppose 
ourselves, three months later in the season, at the third 
national Rose Show in the Crystal Palace. Do you see a lady 
in mourning, elbowed by the unscrupulous, anxious crowd, but 
making her way good-humouredly as best she can, evidently 
charmed with the spectacle, and taking notes with all the 


Mount Edgcumbe.—View in the’ Gardens. 


Maréchal Niel with 
Pierre Notting, 
or the Baroness 
Rothschild with 
Xavier Olibo— 
but also their diver- 
sity of form. You 
may grow the Rose 
in a thumb pot, 
with a flower “in 
shape no _ bigger 
than an agate-stone 
on the fore-finger of 
an alderman,” or 
you may cover the 
front of your house 
with it. You may, 
in fact, grow the 
Roses you most like 
in the form you 
most like—stand- 
ards or half- 
standards, pillars, 
pyramids, or dwarfs. 
AndImay say here, 
that I preter 
to grow my own 
roses, generally 
speaking, on briars about two feet above the ground, for 
thus they require no unsightly props, no rain can spoil 
their blooms by beating them against the wet earth as with 
dwarfs—their complete beauty is brought at once before 
the eye, and, being within easy manipulation of the gardener, a 
symmetrical proportion is more readily attained, and of course 
more lastingly prolonged. Tall standards are very useful for 
the back row in borders, or as the centre of beds, but are 
rarely beautiful in an isolated state. Their most zealous 
admirers must allow, I think, that the more the briar is con- 
cealed the more attractive is the tree—that the more we see of 
the banner and the less we see of its pole the better; and no 
opponent of the Standard, though he liked it as little as the 
Scotch our Standard at Northallerton, could require a more 
full confession. 

Then, as to cost, you may establish arose garden with the 
money which is asked for a rare Pinus or Orchid, and may 
reproduce your fayourite varieties on the hedgerow briar or 
the Manetti stock, by the easy, interesting, and sure processes 
of budding or grafting, at a very small outlay, and to almost 
any extent. But be cautious, my Spades, unless you haye 
a taste for rubbish, not to order your rose trees, nor your 
anything else, from those cheap jacks of the floral market, 
who profess to be so much more liberal than their neighbours 


ep = 


May 11, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


555 


Buy good razors, Oh, my friends, as ye love to enjoy 
your breakfasts with a temper smooth as your chin; and 
buy good rose trees, Oh, ye amateurs, as ye hope to look 
gladly on your feast of roses, when “the time of roses 
shall come. The prices charged by the best growers are 
quite low enough (and you will believe one who has bought 
and buys largely) to insure a good article to the purchaser 
and a fair remuneration to the seller. 

For ornamental purposes, as a cut flower, what’ have we 
so effective as the Rose—whether in the bouquet of some 
ball-room belle, herself— 

“ 4 Rosebud set with little wilful thorns, 
And sweet as English air can make her,” 


in the elegant vases of the drawing-room, or, as I most 
rejoice to see them, in the cups of silver, won by their 
ancestors, upon the dinner-table and with the dessert ? When 
Horace invites the friends of Plotius Numida to celebrate with 
appropriate honours the return of that distinguished officer 
from Spain, he bids them to have abundance of Roses at their 
feast (“neu desint epulis rose”); and when he essays to cheer 
up Sam, in the person of Q. Dellius, he recommends him to 
lose no time in giving anorder for Roses (“ flores amzenos ferre 
jube ros@”). Without endorsing his other recipes for driving 
dull care away, I may sympathise with him, I hope, in his love 
of the Rose; and I like to fancy him, calling upon his friends to 
pass the Falernian, and, having previously proposed to them 
his favourite toast, ‘“pulchre puelle, novies honoratze ” 
(“the Ladies, with three times three”), requesting them to 
drink without heeltaps (the Latinity for heeltaps is lost) “ Vivat 
Regina Florum ” (“‘ Long Bloom the Rose!”). 

I leave you, dear brothers, in their sweet society. Tend 
them with all love and care; and then, as surely as from the 
rose trees of sunnier France comes the glory of our English 
gardens, you shall rejoice to repeat from a thankful heart,— 
© RosE ust Bonevr !” 8. R. H. 

(To be continued.) 


EN) hE 


THE GARDEN HOUSE. 


BULLETINS OF A FLORAL CELEBRITY. 


BEING A REPORT OF THE DAILY STATE OF MARECHAL NIEL, FROM 
AMPUTATION TO THE CLOSE OF THE SIXTH DAY AFTERWARDS. 


Every lover of roses must feel an interest in the length of time 
which a cut bloom will endure in its beauty after amputation from 
the parent plant. Some kinds seem to possess much more vital 
power than others, and will preserve their freshness longer. Others, 
again, are so evanescent in their character, that, like the American 
conyolyulus—the Morning Glory—they lose the freshness of their 
beauty before the first mid-day sun has glowed upon them after 
their expansion. 

Maréchal Niel at the first glance, like Devoniensis, and others of 
its class, might be deemed a flower destined to a very brief existence. 
The long flake-like petals seem to hang as by a breath— 

“* So slight, so faint, the slightest gale 

Might whirl the leaves on high,”’ 
like the petals of the flower on Zuleika’s tomb of which Byron sings ; 
but the apparent slightness of the hold of those gracefully drooping 
petals on the rim of their calyx is one of seeming only, for they are 
on the contrary very stoutly set in round the strong margin of their cup 
of life, and revel in their beauty and gradual expansion during 
many days. 

Thursday, April 18, 1872.—The specimen under description was 
gathered on this day in a conservatory near Southwell, Notts, from a 
plant which covered the entire roof, and which was thickly furnished all 
over with the noble blooms of this truly glorious rose. After amputation, 
it was carefully deposited in a paper bag, and supported on all sides with 
cotton wadding, in which state it was put into a safe place in a port- 
manteau, with the idea that it would reach London by that evening’s 
express. 

Saturday, April 20, 1872.—It was, however, mid-day on Saturday 
before the closely-packed prisoner was taken from his cell, looking none 
the better for his close quarters. The stalk was then nipped shorter, 
and placed in tepid water; but the ill-used flower drooped disconsolately 
over the rim of the glass. The noble foliage (leaves nearly four inches 
long) persistently flagged, as though making up its mind that such 
rough usage ought to be resented, and that a refusal to recover should be 
steadily persevered in. Towards evening, however, there was more fresh- 
ness in the foliage, and the beautiful flower itself slightly revived, assuming 


more firmness, and exhibiting a slight disposition to disclose the beauties 
of the inner petals to view and display the lovely tones of their deep 
orange-yellow, rich and glowing as the hue of ardent flame; but still the 
bloom hung languidly down, and refused to be entirely comforted. 

Sunday, April 21, 1872.—The freshness of the night, and perhaps 
dreams of dew, though there was none, to fall, produced a surpris- 
ing revival; and this morning, the Marechal, after having his stalk cropped 
again, and the great weighty flower supported by an invisible 
wire-guard, so as not to be dragged down by its own weight, came 
out literally en grande toilette, in “ Sunday best,” a truly gorgeous 
flower; and was greatly admired and bepraised as a wonder of floral 
beauty by all who came to pay their respects. It may be truly said that 
as the Marechal lolled in conscious magnificence over the side of the 
small glass vase, that the most extravagant amount of praise could not 
have been deemed flattery ; and yet the flower was still but a bud—only as 
yet a half expanded flower. 

Monday, April 22, 1872.—After having again passed a cool and refresh- 
ing night the Marechal arose, like a giant refreshed with sleep; and 
displayed more conspicuously than hitherto the crumpled, quilled, 
and plaited petals of the deep golden depths of his central focus of beauty. 
The stately Marechal was now more than half expanded, and wore the 
splendour of his magnificence with downright audacity; as well he 
might. 

Tuesday, April 23, 1872.—Continuously increasing vigour was again 
apparent. The expansion had become nearly complete, and the spectacle 
of a semi-sphere of golden beauty was revealed, which was the crowning 
glory of the breakfast table; all that remained to be desired was that the 
* Autocrat,” of that choicest and joyousest of meals were present to 
describe the spectacle in words of which, at that hour, he alone has the 
supreme command. 

Wednesday, April 24, 1872.—The ultimate glory of full development 
was completed ; rather, over completed, ascertain omens of acoming change 
were revealed, just as the autumn trees disclose by the very splendour 
of their hues “the beginning of the end.” But the grand flower was 
perhaps more beautiful than ever at that critical stage of its triumphant 
eareer of beauty. 

Thursday, April 25, 1872.—The field marshal of the roses was still 
the glory of the breakfast-table, though some of the petals were some- 
what too widely spread for symmetry—but—but—the heavy footfall of a 
late arrival at the breakfast-table brought on, somewhat suddenly, the 
impending change—the marshal gave up the imperial spirit of his floral 
reign, and his sheaf of glorious petals fell in a heavy shower upon tho 
snowy cloth, making it veritably a field of the cloth of gold. 

Friday, April 26, 1872.—The fallen petals having been scrupulously 
collected and dried in the penetrating rays of the Aprilsun, were alfec- 
tionately deposited in that porcelain mausoleum of embalmed flower 
petals, vulgarly called the pot powrri ; to which a new perfume was thus 
added, less luscious than that of the Provence rose, and more like that 
which Alexander Dumas calls the “ parfum acre de la mer,” shedding 
around a delicious freshness and ever-uncloying delight of fragrance. 

Norn Humpireys. 


STEPHANOTIS FOR CUTTING. 


For purity, sweetness, consistence, and durability, orange-blossom 
is nothing in competition with Stephanotis. Seldom of the purest 
white (unless it be the double-flowering variety), and always liable 
to be scattered into fragments by the advancement of the ovary, 
orange blossoms have little but association to commend them as cut 
flowers. But the Stephanotis—who can describe the spotless purity 
and wax-like consistence of its clustering tubes? And the flowers 
are as durable as sweet, and seem made to fit into any niche or place 
where purity or fragrance is wanted. Bunches of Stephanotis, set 
in their own leaves, running round tresses of black hair, would add a 
fresh charm to the Queen of Beauty herself. As for flowers for 
button-holes, three tubes of Stephanotis, backed against a glossy 
leaf, are perfection on a black coat. A wedding bouquet is required ; 
it could be formed of Stephanotis alone, interspersed with green 
leaves ; but it would be better still were a white Camellia forthcoming 
for a centre, and then bunches of Stephanotis intermingled with 
spikes of Lily of the Valley, single flowers of pure white Azaleas, 
finishing with a few Calanthes. The bunches of Stephanotis as they 
grow are mostly too large for bouquets. Three or four tubes, with 
a sprig of green, are sufficient. They must be mounted on wire, and 
the base of each bunch of flowers should have a tiny cushion of damp 
moss to rest upon. So furnished, there is hardly any limit to the 
durability of these flowers. I have known them to keep fresh and 
sweet for three weeks or more after they were cut and made up. 

The way to get a good supply of bloom is to plant several plants 
out, and let them ramble freely over the walls, ends, or roofs of 
plant-stoves. Although the plant blooms freely in pots, it is difficult 
to get sufficient flowers from the limited areas of pot plants. There 
is, too, another reason for planting out the Stephanotis and growing 
it loosely and almost untrained when practicable, and that is we are 
enabled in that way to cut branches of it of sufficient length for 
twining round the stems or handles, or hanging over the sides, of 
large vases and baskets. Those who have once used it thus will say 
that in no other way can its full merit for cutting be exhibited. 


556 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1872. 


Useful asit is in bouquets—charmingly beautiful as I have seen 
flat arrangements of its flowers intermingled with Myosotis dissitiflora 
and fringed with the same so widely as only to show the tips of its 
glossy green leaves, yet to see the drooping branches laden with 
their burden of purity and sweetness, and the leaves glistening with 
artificial dewdrops on their glossy surface !—nothing can well equal 
it, unless it be the roof of the stove, where it will grow with a 
luxuriance and flower with a freedom that it seldom attains when 
grown in pots. Not but that the plant is admirably adapted for pot 
culture; and this mode of growing it possesses several advantages 
over any other, For instance, pot plants may be forced ont of 
season, and the plants will bear conservatory treatment when in 
bloom, thus prolonging its season at bothends. Everyone who has a 
stoye should grow Stephanotis, although, to have quantities of blossom, 
ample space and free growth are requisite. The plant will flower in 
a yery small compass, and will bear a good deal of hard treatment. 
One of the most free-flowering plants I haye ever known occupied 
the back wall of an early vinery. After the grapes were ripened, 
the autumn treatment of the house was not modified in any way for 
the Stephanotis. The house received the open-air treatment common 
to other early vineries—that is, it was exposed as much as usual without 
being actually unroofed, and this plant never missed flowering. 
Still T have never seen the plant do well in a conservatory. It was 
one of the aims of the late Mr. Donald Beaton to convert the 
Stephanotis into a conservatory climber. For this purpose he 
applied bottom heat to its roots in the fine conservatory at Shrubland 
for years, and succeeded in flowering it pretty well. But its proper 
place is the stove. Although it flowers on the current year’s wood, 
yet it should be ripened well in the autumn, and kept tolerably dry 
during the winter. It then breaks with vigour, and flowers profusely. 
Though I haye given a strong opinion in favour of using large 
branches of Stephanotis where available for decorative purposes, 
there are few flowers better suited for dinner-table decoration in 
accordance with the latest fashions than the Stephanotis, gathered 
simply in bunches, arranged in flat glass dishes or slips, and 
interspersed with tiny bits of scarlet flowers or berries—such as 
those of Rivina humilis, or with blue ones, and fringed with brightly 
shining green. Few flowers could look better lining, flanking, or 
encircling centre pieces, while none could be sweeter on the dinner- 
table than the Stephanotis. F. D. 


EUCHARIS AMAZONICA AND GRANDIFLORA. 


UNLIKE many white flowers, the blossoms of these two useful 
plants are not easily tarnished ; when cut they may be made to do 
duty as centres to bouquets two or three times, and their perfume is 
most pleasing. A few stems of the Eucharis springing from their 
own leaves is rich furnishing for a bridal breakfast-table. The effect 
may be heightened by using Caladium leaves in lieu of or mixed 
with those of the Eucharis. The flowers also look superb in larger 
arrangements combined with some of the higher-coloured Amoaryllises. 
The Belladonna Lily is perfect in conjunction with the Eucharis. 
Some of the Narcissi also blend or contrast well with its large pure 
white flowers. In flatter arrangements, single flowers of the Eucharis 
are very effective. We partially fill flat dishes of glass with water, 
and float Begonia or Caladium leaves of different colours over their 
surface; on or among these the Eucharis blooms are dotted at 
regular or irregular interyals, and the effect is truly beautiful. 

But the Eucharis is emphatically a flower for bouquets. Three 
blooms for the outside would raise any bouquet far above mediocrity. 
Combined with Camellias, either as centres or intermittent fringes, 
Eucharis flowers are magnificent. Leaves of the lovely Caladium 
argyrites form the best fringe for bouquets in which Hucharis flowers 
predominate. They fit in, harmonise with their character and form, 
and, if possible, lend fresh charms to their sweetness and beauty. It 
seems probable that the Eucharis will soon be considered as indispens- 
able for bouquet work as Lily of the Valley, Violets, or Stephanotis, 
and that thousands of it will be grown for this purpose. Few plants 
can be easier cultivated than it is, andit has the merit of blooming 
many times in one year, if not perpetually. 


GRASSES FOR TABLE DECORATION. 


~ Wr shall soon be able to avail ourselves of the bloom-spikes 
and leayes of grasses for the ornamentation of vases, and 
doubtless [ am not singular in entertaining pleasurable 
anticipations of the time when these graceful adjuncts to a 
bouquet are again at our command. When Camellias are over, 
Roses are nearly ready to take their place in our flower-vases ; 
when the long summer reign of these is coming to a close, 
Dahlias and Asters are at our call for similar uses, and these 


again are succeeded by Chrysanthemums, which carry us on 
until Camellias are ready for us again. But flower-spikes of 
grasses, which are coming in during May, are at their best all 
through June, and are getting scarce towards the end of 
July; what is there, therefore, that can fill their place at 
other seasons of the year? Literally nothing; let us, there- 
fore, make the most of them while they last. 

Grasses certainly have been more used during the last few 
years than previously for vases, 7.e., if the competitions for 
table decorations at our flower shows may be taken as 
indicating the style of the period. At the same time I feel 
sure that they might be much more used than they have yet 
been. In the engraving which accompanies this, it will be 
seen that grasses predominate oyer all the other types of 


Vase decorated with Grasses. 


flowers and foliage; and the general effect can haraly be sur- 
passed for grace and elegance. 

The fashion of the day to value plants more for their rarity 
than for their intrinsic beauty, will, no doubt, account for 
the want of attention that has hitherto been paid to many 
wild plants of common occurrence suitable for decorative 
purposes. There are many foreign grasses of an exceedingly 
graceful character which might be grown in pots, and thus 
made available for conservatory uses as well as for bouquets 
and yases; and if some of our enterprising nurserymen would 
only advertise them at half-a-guinea a plant there might be 
some hopes of obtaining for grasses generally, and for our 
wild grasses in particular, a greater appreciation of their 
merits than is at present bestowed upon them. Wiis 


Violets in Moss.—Allow me to add another plant to the list of 
things mentioned by your correspondent “W. T.” (p. 410) for the 
arrangement of Violets, namely, the moss Hypnum splendens. No 
wiring is needed, and the operator may place flowers or leaves just 
where he pleases ; I could fill a large saucer ina quarter of anhour. I 
pull the moss into pieces, rejecting the lower part, which is brown; I 
then lay it lightly in the saucer, raising the middle, to give it a convex 
form, and put in my flowers and leaves as described by “ W. 7.” If the 
moss is allowed to hang a little over the edge of the saucer, it gives a 
very elegant finish; but it has this objection, it conducts a quantity of 
water out of the saucer on to the table. This may be got over, by 
placing the saucer on a neat plate (say, of glass), with a few bits of moss 
in the space between.—T. Surrn, Teignmouth. 


Mar 11, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET,.—May 10th. 


Flowers.—Among flowers in pots, are different kinds of Polygalas; 
Hriostemons; Petunias, both single and double; Pelargoniums, double- 
flowered, fine-leaved, and others; also small Hydrangeas, with immense 
heads of bloom, in some instances blue, owing to their having been 
grown in peat or irony soils. In addition to these there are also Rhod- 
anthes, Lobelias, Heliotropes, and different kinds of Cacti in flower; 
Heaths, Gardenias, Calceolarias, Fuchsias, Gloxinias, &c. Cut flowers 
consist of Roses in great variety, sprays of Orchids, Eucharis, Stepha- 
notis, single and double Deutzias, Schizostylis, Ranunculuses, Anemones, 
Bouvardias, Narcissi, Mignonette, Pinks, Ponies, and various fine- 
foliaged plants. 

PRICES OF FRUIT. 


Bas | side; ro Oe a 
Apples .....0..6.08.05 ksieve 3 Oto 6 0! Grapes, hothouse ...lb. 8 0 told 0 
(Sale falling off, gooseberriestaking  Lemoms ......:c::seeere0 100 7 0 10 0 
their place.) Oranges .... “ei! 40 10 0 
i i 10 0 Pine Apples Ib 8 0 12 0 
15 0 Strawberries. a 1019 1 3 
1 0) Walnuts 10 0 25 0 
10 ditto . perl00 10 20 
PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 
Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 Oto 6 O | Lettuce(Pariscos)each. 0 4to0 8 
Asparagus......... perl00 4 0 8 .0 | Mushrooms ........ pottle 20 3 0 
Beans, Kidney...per100 1 6 2 6 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 00 
Beet, Red... doz. 10 3 O | Onions............... ushel 2 0 4 0 
i 09 oa pickling Seana quart 0 6 0 0 
ee 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz.bunches 3 0 40 
meee 06 0 O | Parsnips ............... doz. 0 9 LG 
nd-glass Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 
doz. 8 0 12 O | Potatoes ............ bushel 4 0 6 0 
16 20 i ny yO 6 0 
ata 2 0 i 0 6 te 
20 40 0 6 10 
0 6 16 eae AU i 
Perea) 0 0 ay 10 
03 00 09 Ss 
10 3 0 | Seakale ... 10 2 0 
Uy te Papert) 0 PE) 2 a ea lb O 4 O 6 
03 0 O | Spinach ... ..bushel 3 0 46 
3 0 4 O | Tomatoes...small punet 3 0 00 
0 2 O46) earnings i.e! unch 0 3 09 


&c. 
PARK. 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, 


ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY, REGENT’S 
(May 8ru.) 


UNGENIAL weather had apparently its effect upon this, the last of the 
spring exhibitions this year, forit was scarcely so fully supported as might 
have been expected. There were, however, excellent collections of Roses 
in pots, bearing abundance of blooms of the finest quality. Besides those 
in pots, several stands of cut Roses were also present, large in size, and 
distinct in colour. Amongst Teas, Marechal Niel stood pre-eminent, 
accompanied by President, a pink flower of wonderful size. Associated 
with these were also Souvenir d’un Ami, Climbing Devoniensis, the well 
known Gloire de Dijon, and Mme. William, with light yellow, very double 
flowers. Among Hybrid Perpetuals we noticed Charles Lefebvre, large, 
rich, velvety, crimson, Duke of Edinburgh, Victor Verdier, Therese Levet, 
Centifolia rosea, and others. Azaleas, the glory of May shows, were well 
flowered and extremely beautiful, especially half a dozen large plants 
trained pyramidally ; another half-dozen smaller plants were also densely 
flowered, and trained so as to completely hide their pots. Other speci- 
mens were poorly represented, except a little plant of A. punctata rosea, 
with brilliant blooms ; this was more like a large closely packed bunch of 
cut flowers than a plant growinginapot. There were several specimens of 
Boronias, Eriostemons, Clerodendrons, and Chorozemas. Chorozema 
varium illicifolium, although not so large as some of the others, presented 
a graceful thriving appearance; Heaths, Dracenas, variegated Yuccas, and 
similar plants were also furnished. Also Agave Roezliana, a fine sharp- 
spined species, and A. Regelii macradontha, with large thick leaves, and 
strong formidable-looking, crooked spines; A. Peacockii,a smaller kind 
than the former, with crooked spines; A. elegantissima, a beautiful pale 
green glaucous sort, the margins of the leaves of which are densely covered 
with a line of short spines, inclined towards the heart of the plant, the 
leaves terminating in acute, sharp points; A. Besseriana amcena, a 
smaller kind, with strong spines ; A. Gibbsii, with short, broad, thick leaves, 
attenuated by along, sharp spine, a few being along the margin; and A. 
Besseriana glauca. Primula japonica (Paul & Son) was shown, with four 
flower spikes on one plant, the foliage of which was most luxuriant, each 
leaf being about six inches across, and the plant abont two feet in dia- 
meter. It produces seed plentifully. Among herbaceous plants was a 
grand collection with variegated foliage, including a splendid group of 
Funkias, and other interesting subjects. 

First-class certificates were awarded to Agave Peacockii, to A. ele- 
gantissima, to A. Regelii, to A. Regelii macradontha, to A. Gibbsii, to 
A. Besseriana glauca, and to A. B. amcena, all from Mr. J. Croucher, 
Sudbury House, Hammersmith ; to Adiantum amabile, to Croton lacteum, 
to Epidendrum pseud-Epidendrum, to EH. syringothyrsus, and to Acer 
polymorphum dissectum from Messrs: Veitch, Chelsea; to Macrozamia 
McKenziei, to Zamia cycadifolia, to Agave Regeliana, to Rhopala 
elegantissima, and to Stock eee Queen, from Mr. B. S. Williams, 
Upper Holloway ; to Hedera conglomerata, to Pimelea Hendersonii alba, 


and to Pelargonium elegantissimum, to Iris iberica, var. Perryana, to 
Funkia japonica aurea, to F. Fortunii, from Messrs. T. S. Ware, Totten- 
ham; to Pelargonium, Lord Bacon, and to P. Guinevere, from Mr. Wm. 
Paul, Waltham Cross; to Polystichum angulare proliferam Henleyii, 
to P. angulare variegatum, to Hedera conglomerata, and to Pelargonium 
Emperor, from Messrs. Ivery & Son, Dorking; to Azalea Alphonse 
Lavallee, from Messrs. H. Lane & Son, Berkhampstead; to Cordyline 
lentiginosa, from Messrs. Carter & Co., High Holborn; to Pelargonium 
Prince Charlie, from Mr. Porter, Sion Lodge, Isleworth. 

Prizes were awarded for Herbaceous Stove Plants, first to Mr. G. 
Wheeler, Regent’s Park ; for Roses in pots, first to Messrs. Paul & Son, 
Cheshunt; for Calceolarias first to Messrs. Dobson & Son, Isleworth ; 
for Azaleas (nurserymen) first to Messrs. Lane & Son; for Azaleas 
(amateurs) first to Mr. Hill, gardener to H. Taylor, Esq., Avenue Road; 
ge to Mr. Wheeler; for Alpine and Bulbous Plants first to Mr. T. S. 

are. 

Miscellaneous prizes included one to a group of Maples, and a silver 
medal to a group of Roses, from Messrs. Veitch; a bronze medal to a 
group of Roses from Messrs. Paul & Son; a similar award to a collection 
of cut Roses, anda silver medal to a collection of Pelargoniums from 
Mr. Wm. Paul; a silver medal to a group of plants from Messrs. E. G. 
Henderson & Son ; a silver medal to a collection of plants from Mr. B. S. 
Williams; a bronze medal to a collection of hardy variegated foliage 
plants; extra prizes to a stand of Pansies, a stand of Pyrethrums, and 
Bedding Pansies from Mr. T.S. Ware; a silver medal to twenty flowering 
plants, and a bronze medal to a collection of foliage plants from 
Mr. Wheeler; a similar award to a collection of plants from Mr. James; 
extra prizes to a collection of Calceolarias, and also to a stand of cut 
blooms from Messrs. Dobson & Son; and special certificates to a collection 
of Tropeolum Lobbii; and a collection of cut blooms of hardy spring 
flowers from Mr. Porter. 


DINNER-TABLE DECORATIONS BY GASLIGHT AT 
THE BIRMINGHAM HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 


T wis to direct attention to this class of “‘ exhibits”’ in the schedule of 
prizes in which it stands as follows :— 

“Class 145, dinner-table decorations by gaslight. Dinner-table com- 
pletely laid out for fourteen persons, and arranged so as to show the 
best means of utilising fruit and flowers in its adornment. The 
“exhibits ’’ will be judged and exhibited by gaslights. Open. Prizes, 
£20, £15, £10, £7.” 

I find some misapprehension exists as to the time when these dinner- 
table displays will be exhibited, the words “ by gaslight”’ having led 
some to suppose that they are to be seen in the evening only. This is 
erroneous. They will be exhibited in the daytime in a tent specially 
constructed so as to exclude daylight, and which jwill be lit with gas, 
the object being to show what plants and flowers are best adapted for 
decoration by artificial light, the light by means of which such decorations 
are usually seen in this country. The regulations for this class will be 
found on pp.7, 8 of the schedule, copies of which I shall be happy to 
send on application. Much interest has been excited respecting this class, 
and I have no doubt that it will prove one of the most interesting in the 
exhibition. Entries close for it on Wednesday, the 28th instant. 

Epwarp W. BapcGer, Hon. Sec. (Local). 


“ Midland Counties Herald” Office, Birmingham. 


Asphalte Paving.—The Metropolitan says that this paving 
appears to be becoming popular in the City, inspiteof all the criticisms 
to which it has been subjected since its first introduction. As farascan 
be judged at present there is little to choose between the four kinds of 
asphalte which have been tested, or are to be tested, by the Corpo- 
ration. The inhabitants of Bishopsgate Street Without have 
petitioned for the repavement of their roadway with asphalte, and 
the inhabitants of Walbrook have laid a similar memorial before the 
Commissioners of Sewers. Mr. Hora gave notice on Tuesday last at 
the Commision of Sewers that he would move at the next meeting 
that Houndsditch, which is now in a dangerous state, should also be 
paved with asphalte. The Streets Committee has further reported in 
favour of paying the carriage ways of Lothbury, Bishopsgate Street 
Within, Leadenhall Street, and Gracechurch Street with asphalte. 
Ina short time, therefore, we may expect to see all the principal 
thoroughfares in the City paved in this way. 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.* 


G. P. (It is intended that Tae Garpen shall be bound up in half- 
yearly volumes, each of which will be furnished with a full and compre- 
hensive index.)—M. C. (Rough tarpaulin, nailed on light frames about 
eighteen inches wide, is the cheapest temporary covering for the 
dangerous months.)—P. I. N. (The Manetti stocks budded last summer 
should have been headed down early in March; it is late now, but still 
they had better be done at once.)—A. B., Ketso (Thanks.)—R. M. 
(Burnt material, either clay or sand, acts only mechanically on soils with 
which it is inecorporated.)—P. (The double-flowered variety of Saxifraga 
granulata. 

* All questions likely to interest our readers generally are answered in the 
several various departments, 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 11, 1972. 


TRIAL OF BOILERS AT BIRMINGHAM. 


First and foremost in this proposed trial comes the fact that no 
iron boiler, whether wrought or cast, displays its real working 
capabilities until the same has been in operation for hows, and I 
should not exaggerate if I said days, after fixing ; therefore if the 
proposed trial is to continue but for one or two hours, how are the 
real merits of each boiler to be correctly recorded ? 

Second.—The quantity of fuel consumed during the first day or 
two, to produce certain results, is not a correct index of the future 
daily consumption required to maintain the same. How, then, can a 
verdict be pronounced upon the very important point of ‘‘ economy 
of fuel” P 

Third.—With reference to “night stokering.”’? By what process of 
reasoning can this be adjudicated upon, if each boiler is to bein 
operation for one or two hours only ? 

Fourth.—“ Economy of labour” is an attribute claimed by more 
than one maker of boilers for his pet production, and I ask whether 
a period of less than twenty-four hours’ work will yield any practical 
proof of the daily labour each respective boiler absorbs ? 

Fifth.—Boilers “ foul ””—some more quickly than others. Itis only 
a question of degree; but this is just the thing which vitally effects 
their maintenance of working power, consumption of fuel, and 
labour in attendance. Itis not the trial of an hour or two’s duration 
that will test this. 

Lastly.—In so short a time it is impossible for a boiler to demon- 
strate the command it possesses over its work, and the niceties to 
which it can be regulated, by producing first a slow circulation, and 
raising to a great rapidity in cases of emergency. Inshort, I venture 
to submit that a trial to be of any value must necessarily be 
extended over a, period far exceeding that assigned to the forthcoming 
meeting at Birmingham ; and if it be worth undertaking at all, it is 
surely worth doing well. 

The trial should be conducted, in my opinion, as follows :—Neither 
the temperature of the water in, say one thousand feet of pipe, nor 
that of a conservatory or room, would be of any ayail for'this purpose, 
on account of the influences from the external temperature to which 
these would be subjected. I propose, therefore, to provide an iron 
tank holding not less than fifteen hundred gallons, fitted with top 
manhole and plate, all well secured. To fit the same upon a plat- 
form elevated ten feet from the ground, so as to avoid the 
necessity of sinking a stoke-hole. This tank to be enveloped ina 
wood casing consisting of inch deal, leaving a cavity of three inches 
on all sides to receive a packing of sawdust, so as to effectually 
exclude all influence of external temperature ; pierce the tank where 
most convenient at top, and insert a kind of bottom-heat thermometer 
about three to four feet long, haying its bulb two feet in the 
water with the index exposed, which should be read at stated 
intervals, and all its variations recorded by properly appointed 
authorities. Within the tank, and worked from the top, should be 
placed a kind of plunger to be worked to and fro at stated periods 
for the purpose of thoroughly mixing the water and producing an 
uniform temperature throughout the tank. An air pipe to be fixed 
at top, and a small tap at the side, about four inches down, the 
former to allow of expansion, and the latter to show the quantity of 
water in the tank. Bolt on the flow and return nozzles, and extend 
the same through wood casing, leaving all other connections to be 
made by each competitor, the tanks would thus be ready to receive 
the water and commence operations. The distance between boiler 
and tank to be not less than one hundred and thirty feet, and if one 
hundred and fifty feet so much the better. Taking it at the former 
measurement, the top of each boiler should be fixed at a level not 
exceeding twenty inches below the bottom of the tank, which would 
give a rise of about one and a half inches in ten feet to the 
flow pipe. 

The fall of the return pipe need not be necessarily identical with 
that of the flow, so as to render them parallel throughout. Opinions 
differ upon the advantage of such an arrangement; and, therefore, I 
would leave it optional with the competitors to adopt whatever plan 
they thought best. Every competitor should cause his own boiler to 
be fixed under his personal superintendence, or that of his repre- 
sentative, for which he shall be responsible; also, one or the other 
of them should be allowed to work the boiler during the entire trial. 
No results to be recorded by any interested party, except for their 
own private use and information, but not for circulation. After 
having clearly defined, by rules and regulations, the relative position 
and level which each boiler shall occupy in relation to the tank, the 
size, number, and form of the circulating or connecting pipes between 
boiler and tank should be left to the decision of the competitor, each 
competitor being at liberty to remoye those used for any former 
trial, and substitute for them any special arrangement of his own, 
80 as to meet the requirements of his boiler. 

For obyious reasons, however, it would be necessary that each 


competitor should at the time of making his entry lodge with the 
authorities a proper plan and specification, setting forth in the 
clearest terms his proposed plan of fixing the said flow and return 
pipes; also the number and size of each, together with the level of 
return pipe; and from this statement and plan, no deviation under 
any circumstances should be permitted at the time of preparing for 
the trial. 

Such is an outline of my suggestions, which of course require to be 
supplied with details, a work not difficult to do, if the Society 
will but declare itself in favour of a properly organized boiler 
trial. 8. 


VEGETATION IN SARDINIA. 


Few countries charm the eye more by richness of foliage, abund- 
ance of blossom, and profusion of flowers, than Sardinia does. 
From the almost virgin forest on the higher mountains down to the 
fertile and often unhealthy valley where fruit and flowers are pro- 
duced with tropical luxuriance, the varieties are endless—oak, cork 
and olive, almond, peach, orange and lemon, fruit trees of all kinds, 
groves of silver aspen, fig-trees growing up everywhere, in the vine- 
yards and by the roadside, and then the hedges covered with an 
extraordinary wealth of wild flowers. For miles together the waste 
land, of which there is much on either side of the railway, is 
covered with a luxuriant growth of the pale pink asphodel, just as 
are large tracts of ground between Rome and Civita Vecchia. In 
the valleys one comes upon orange plantations, generally under the 
shelter of rising ground, for shelter and water are indispensable to 
the orange, and the side of the tree exposed to an inclement wind 
is often bare of fruit when the other branches are plentifully loaded. 
The arbutus, the oleander, the myrtle, the Judas tree, grow wild in 
abundance, the fruit of the first-named supplying the dessert-table, 
while the berries of the myrtle fatten and give flavour to the birds. 
In the spring, however, it is remarkable how few birds are seen in 
the country, at least in the districts I lately ; traversed while in the 
mining regions none whatever were visible. Up to the very mouths 
of the mines and all over the mountains, on every ledge of rock 
where a few grains of earth afford roothold, spring myriads of a 
dark pink cyclamen, one of the delicate treasures of English green- 
houses ; and up to the very tops of the hedges in the valleys the 
beautiful blue pervenche (Periwinkle), twice as large as any I haye 
seen eyen in North Africa, where it abounds, trails itself in extra- 
ordinary profusion, mingled with a small crimson flowering vetch. 
The wild lavender, the orange marigold, an immense yariety of 
orchids, the azure bloom of the borage family, cover the banks, and 
I must not forget the white heath, a very beautiful sort with black 
stamens, which grows as big as a good-sized cherry tree, and excited 
the admiration of the Scottish members of our party. The garden 
stock grows wild in some parts of the island, particularly the blue 
Alexandrian stock; the cactus is everywhere, with its dangerous 
prickles and its mawkish fruit sprouting out of the edge of its leaves, 
amid which sit small frogs of the most brilliant green, contrasting 
with the darker and duller hue of the fleshy plant. 


Curious Site for a Thrush’s Nest.—There are now to be seen in Heywood 
Gardens, Westbury, Wilts (the property of Mr. H. G. G. Ludlow), two thrushes’ 
nests close to each other, containing four eggs, and each in a Scotch kale.—C. 
Squires, in ‘* Field.” 


THE GARDEN can be had in neatly covered monthly parts —On sale at 
all Messrs. Smith 5 Son’s bookstalls. Part V., for April, now 
ready, price 1s. 5d. Publishing Office, 87, Southampton Street, 
Covent Garden, London, W.C. 


The Name and Address of the writer are required with every communi- 
cation, though not for publication, unless desired. Letters or 
inquiries from anonymous correspondents will not be inserted. 


All questions on Horticultural matters sent to THE GARDEN will be 
answered by the best authorities im every department. Cor- 
respondents, 1m sending queries or communications of any kind, 
are requested to write on one side of the paper only. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to WinL1AmM Rosryson, ‘‘ THe GARDEN ” Orricr, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to Tor PuBLisHER, at the same Address. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum 9s. 9d. for six months, or 5s, for a 
cuarter, payable in advance, All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents, at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
Office, 


May i8, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


557 


“This is an art 
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr ItsELF 1s NaturEe.”’—Shakespeare. 


HOME LANDSCAPES. 


GARDEN BEAUTY IN MAY. 

(HYDE PARK AND KENSINGTON GARDENS.) 

ONDON smoke, as the great sea of houses spreads 
further and wider, is beginning to tell with sadly 
destructive effect upon the early spring foliage of 
our streets and squares. Till quite recently, for a 
few short weeks in early May, the great city was 
enlivened with the many soft and bright hues ot fresh 
young leaves of numerous kinds; but now, even in 
the open, airy regions of the spacious terraces and 
crescents of Bayswater, as the plague of building 
spreads around, swallowing up grassy meadows and 
green lanes without the least remorse, the freshness 
of the spring foliage has become an affair of days, instead of 
weeks. 

Fortunately, the noble area occupied by Hyde Park and 
Kensington Gardens seems at present to dety the smoke fiend, 
and, from whichever side approached, the first glimpse of the 
noble old trees, with their massive trunks and arms clothed 
with their new mantle of green, and the luxuriant foliage of 
the younger plantations, are, just now, a sight to gladden the 
eyes and cheer the heart. Entering by the gate in the Bayswater 
Road, the picturesque leafy forms of the weeping hornbeams, 
and the aspect of the young horse chestnuts, with their broad 
and massive foliage, and their great spikes of flower just 
bursting into bloom, form charmingly luxuriant groups; and 
following the line of the shrubbery that continues as far as the 
Marble Arch, other combinations occur that are quite as 
attractive, with weeping birch and variegated sycamore, and 
other trees, all equally redolent of the green youth of the year. 
The laburnums, with their golden rain of streaming blossoms, 
are partially over; except where, nestling deep among the 
larger trees, they are shaded from the direct sun rays; and in 
such situations they are still in all their beauty. The Persian 
lilacs, also, are past their best, and there are too few of them in 
this shrubbery; but they are not missed just now, in the midst 
of the hundred forms of freshly expanding foliage, which are 
thickening and spreading every day. The white Portugal 
broom plays its part very gracefully in this plantation; but 
why is our fine native broom absent, with its rich golden blooms ? 
—the “ plante-a-genet,” which was the crest of our Anglo- 
Norman kings. It is a national plant, and ought to be con- 
spicuous. 

The general plan of this belt of fine young trees and shrubs 
is extremely well conceived; part being densely filled up 
between the trees with shrubs of a lower growth, while alter- 
nate portions are entirely clear of any underwood whatever, 
and the trunks of the handsome young trees rise direct from the 
turf, producing a Savannab-like effect of the most pleasing kind. 
This effect, too, is seen at its best, in consequence of the turf 
being protected by a slight iron fence, which prevents the 
destructive feet of shoals of nursemaids and multitudes of 
children from treading out the life and freshness of the young 
grass. 

With respect to the flowering herbaceous plants in front of 
the dense shrubberies, they are neither so well selected 
nor so numerous as they might be, the patches are scanty, and 
the variety insignificantly small. Nevertheless, the golden 
tufts of yellow Alyssum, and sparkling white Iberis, and some 


Gy. 


yA) 


big clumps of purple Iris, with, here and there, touches of deep 
orange from a few early marigolds, varied by some patches of 
red Valerian, give us glimpses of floral colouring that are 
exceedingly pleasant to see. 

So far my May ramble in the park was satisfactory ; for the 
freshness of spring, wherever its flowers and foliage are fur- 
nished forth with taste, however scantily, disarms horticul- 
tural criticism. Butalong the strip parallel with Park Lane— 
from the Marble Arch to Apsley House, the portion of Hyde 
Park devoted to flower-gardening on the bedding system—there 
was no display at all, either scanty or otherwise. This in 
mid-May—the month of flowers—seems utterly inexplicable; and 
yet it is most true. There are the long lines of beds—lately so 
gay with tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses—absolutely barren, with 
the dead and mouldy remains of the plants lying rotting on 
the ground. It may, perhaps, be urged that the beds are 
waiting for the time of planting-out the geraniums, and ver- 
benas, and calceolarias. Very good; we shall be glad to see 
those never-failing favourites in due time; but why this hiatus 
in the middle of May, while there are such abundant means of 
filling these beds attractively between the tulip and geranium 
seasons? What more gorgeous effect, for instance, need be 
produced than a bed of giant purple stocks, alternating with 
beds of white ones—the edgings to be of the common saxi- 
frage (the favourite London Pride), now in full bloom, or white 
Iberis, or of yellow Alyssum? And, then, what brilliant effects 
might be produced to vary these colours by means of double 
wallflowers, the rich brown kind to be furnished with an 
edging of pale blue pansies, and the golden yellow with a rich 
purple variety! I can fancy no finer effects than these 
combinations might be made to produce in order to fill 
the gap which is here allowed to become so disagreeably 
conspicuous between the early spring show and the planting 
out of the half hardy things for the summer and autumn 
display. 

Gore across from the Achilles statue towards the southern 
end of the Serpentine, the silvery gleaming of the water, seen 
between the trunks of the fine old elms,and the pale olive foliage 
of some young poplars, was very charming, backed as it is by the 
woods of Kensington Gardens, softened into the distance by a 
sunny veil of thin May mist. The enclosures in this part of the 

ark, in which the turf is kept mown, are a very pleasing 
eature, beds of the tropical-looking Yucca and masses of 
Rhododendrons, some of them in full bloom, doing duty with 
marvellously good effect. 

The rockwork and the valley with a winding brook-like 
streak of water, are features which are just now seen to great 
advantage, the grass of the valley wearing its freshest green. 
It is kept nicely mown, and the simulated stream is bordered 
with occasional masses of rock, entirely clothed with ivy, 
which make a very pretty picture. The rockwork, strictly so 
called, is certainly open to criticism. The “rocks” composed 
chiefly of oyer-burnt refuse bricks, are decidedly offensive 
where the vulgar material is left conspicuously bare; and 
there are a few disfiguring spruce firs, which, haying been 
stuck in places where it was impossible for them to grow, 
are already quite dead, and ought to be removed. Dwarf 
furze is flowering upon this so-called rockwork in wide patches ; 
the pretty London Pride enlivens it with its sparkling spikes of 
pink and white flowers; and Vincas, blue and white, with many 
other spring flowers, make it very gay and full of colour. 

Round the south end of the Serpentine, where a few years 
ago there was only a bare brick wall and an ugly stone 
coping which formed the termination of the water, there has 
been much improvement. <A sloping bank of green has been 
contrived, which is beautifully kept, and so soft and velvety- 
looking is the turf that the stately swans were tempted from 
the water on the morning of our ramble, and lay basking on 
the green slope with most picturesque effect; making a fine 
contrast of colour to the great clumps of dark-leaved 
Rhododendron, partially in flower, with which portions of the 
green bank are studded. 

In Kensington Gardens, the bridge walk, where it becomes 
a long flower walk, is just now the most pleasing feature. 
The hawthorns—white and red, double and single—are in all 
their beauty, and fill the air with fragrance; and to add to 
the charm, thrushes and blackbirds are singing loud and 


558 


THE GARDEN. . 


[May 18, 1872. 


cheerily, as well as several kinds of migratory birds, that 
only visit us for the spring and summer months. There is 
nothing finer in Europe than this long, partially shaded walk, 
with its front borders of gay flowers, the shrubs behind, 
chequering the warm-toned gravel with their soft grey 
shadows, that move and dance and change their shapes with 
every breath of wind. At two or three points, breaking 
forward from the line of shrubs, are weeping hornbeams, of 
picturesque growth, which form irregular arches athwart the 
path; and beneath these green arches the passing to and fro 
of the gaily-dressed crowd makes just the kind of picture 
that Watteau would have delighted to paint. 


The flower borders on each side of this delightful walk 
are profusely furnished with the ordinary flowers of the 
season; great masses of Iberis, dazzlingly white; clumps of 
pansies, purple, yellow, and lilac; and fine single pzonies 
there are, but not enough of them; and why only the crimson 
variety? and why no double ones—those glorious carmine 
spheroids that loll over the box edgings of old-fashioned 
gardens with such imperial splendour? Yet, notwithstanding 
the absence of these aristocrats of flower borders, there are 
many grand old favourites enjoying themselves this fine May 
day along the sides of the Kensington “ flower walk.” There 
are also a few new ones, especially several varieties of a very 
attractive new anemone, which shows that the authorities who 
rule over the arranging of these pleasant walks of our great 
city parks are not sleeping. In short, although it is said 
that the funds are so very grudgingly supplied, Hyde Park 
and Kensington Gardens afford a very fair sample of “garden 
beauty in May,” and they will do still better im June. 


May 13, 1872. Nort HumpPureys. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


- One of the most curious phenomena connected with the late 
eruption of Vesuyius has been its effect on the trees. The heat of 
the Jaya was so great as actually to boil their sap, and to cause them 
to emit noises of the strangest character. A moment later and they 
were destroyed. 

A new fountain has been opened in the broad space in the 
central transept of the Crystal Palace. It throws up an extremely 
high jet, and the water falls in a graceful shower, which, when the 
sun shines on it, has a charming effect. This fountain is surrounded 
by flowers and foliage plants, and is a welcome acquisition. 

Av alate meeting of the Linnzan Society, Mr Miers exhibited 
a textile material, says Natwre, which he had received from the 
Brazilian Government, and which it was thought might, to a certain 
extent, become a substitute for cotton. It is a product of the liber 
of a climbing plant of unknown relationship, and can be procured in 
any quantity, furnishing a fibre of very strong and silky texture. 

—— Hype Park is said by Mr. Jacob Larwood to have been first 
opened as apleasure ground to the public by Charles I., some time before 
1637, and eyen up to the close of the wars with Napoleon, it retained 
its rural appearance. ‘‘ Cowsand deer,” we are told, “ were grazing 
under the aged trees; the paths were few, and none told of that 
perpetual tread of human feet which now destroys all idea of country 
charms and associations.” 


Av a late meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, the secretary 
reported the receipt of several seeds of the South American india- 
rubber tree (Siphonia elastica) from Para, Brazil, in fine condition. 
This tree, although supplying the market with the most valuable 
samples of india-rubber, is scarcely known in Europe, and it is 
doubtful, it is said, whether a specimen is alive in any garden in 
England at the present moment. 

Tuer Maidstone Jowrnal says the fruit crop this year appears 
to be almost a total failure in most districts round Maidstone. The 
earlier sorts of cherries were cut up by the severe frosts, but of the 
later ones there is a probability of an ayerage crop. Gooseberries 
and currants have been great sufferers from the weather. With the 
exception of a few fayoured spots the crop of plums will also be short. 
Apples haye blossomed very badly this year, and are likewite suffer- 
ing from an attack of maggot. There is every appearance at present 
of the filberts being attacked by the caterpillar, as they were last 
year, but, as in some districts the trees are looking strong and 
healthy, they may eventually escape. Considerable damage was 
done by the seyere frost on Saturday night last. 


THE climate of Shetland has generally been supposed to be 
little better than that of Iceland, whereas the mean winter tempera- 
ture is higher than that of Edinburgh. Jt is a remarkable fact that 
the winter climate of the west coast of Britain, everywhere higher 
than that of the east coast, scarcely varies from the south of Wales to 
Shetland. The winters of Shetland are so mild that snow never lies 
long, and the lakes and ponds are rarely frozen so hard as to bear a 
man’s weight. 

WoopEN pavement is now stated to be superseding the 
asphalte paving in Paris. This is what is called the patent Ligno- 
mineral paying of Trenaunay’s system, and was reported upon by 
the French engineer, Alphand (Baron Haussmann’s right-hand man), 
as having satisfactorily undergone very severe tests. It has also 
been used on the bridge at Rome; and we understand that the agents 
in this country have made arrangements with the City Commissioners 
and their engineer, for paving a portion of Gracechurch Street, 
adjoining the new asphalte roadway, with blocks of Ligno-mineral, 
at 12s. 6d. per square yard. 

—— Caprain Hatt, the Arctic Explorer, says the New York Times» 
has obtained evidence that a genial atmosphere prevails at times in 
the extreme undiscovered north. or instance, it is asserted that 
plants were found in the ice which are indigenous to southern 
climates, and that a floating stick of wood was met with in the middle 
of January, which proved, on examination, to be a limb of a huge 
birch tree. But stranger than all is the statement that Captain Hall 
was able to sit on deck all through the night of the 14thof February 
reading, writing, and making lunar and astral observations. After 
this it is not surprising to be told that throughout the whole month 
of January little ice was seen, and that each night the sky onall sides 
glittered with meteors of the most gorgeous description. 


THE island of Majorca abounds in fruits. These consist of 
olives, grapes, almonds, oranges, figs, lemons, raisins, nuts, capers, 
and the fruit of the cactus, or “prickly pear.” The principal harvest, 
however, is gathered from the almond tree, the cultivation of which 
is a source of great profit. No part of the tree is wasted; with the 
use of the inner kernel of the fruit we are all acquainted, but even 
the hard outer covering forms capital fuel for small stoyes. Then, 
the outside of the fruit is largely used in the manufacture of almond 
soap; and when the tree itself is cut down, the stem is manufactured 
into household furniture. As regards appearance—who could fail to 
be impressed with the beauty of a field of almond trees in full flower ? 
Seen from a hill, the trees look as if covered with minute flakes of 
snow, while by moonlight the same effect is rendered still more 
striking. 

Ir is proposed to build a grand marine aquarium at Man- 
chester, the funds, for the carrying out of which, are to be raised 
by acompany. The building is to contain all the recent improve- 
ments shown to be necessary at the Crystal Palace and Brighton 
aquaria, and will be rectangular in shape, 120 feet long and 70 feet 
wide. This space willbe divided into two side galleries, each 120 feet 
long and 15 feet wide, separated from the central saloon by a slight 
screen. Running along one side of each of these galleries, will be a 
series of tanks, about eighty in number, forty in each gallery, varying 
in capacity from 300 to 3,000 gallons. The grand saloon will be also 
120 feet long by 40 feet wide. Allthe windows will be so arranged as 
to admit only the exact amount of light required, as it is found that 
an access of light acts upon the higher marine plants and animals in 
a manner directly contrary to its action upon terrestrial life. It 
blanches them in a similar manner as ordinary plants are blanched by 
being earthed up. The most brilliant coloured marine plants are 
those which live in comparative darkness. 


THE weather was very cold in London on Saturday last, and 
there was a slight fall of snow and hail. From almost all parts of 
England the prevalence of cold and stormy weather is reported. At 
Bristol, on Saturday, the storm of snow, hail, and rain lasted for 
nearly an hour. While the storm passed over Frome the darkness 
was so intense that the tradesmen found it necessary to light the 
gas in their shops. The flakes were of an extraordinary size, and 
snow fell incessantly for nearly an hour. There were several other 
slight falls of snow during the day. Snow also fell in Kent on 
Saturday, and on Sunday morning there was a severe frost, which 
has done considerable damage to the potato plants and some kinds 
of fruit. At Shields on Saturday night the weather was very 
stormy; the wind was from the north-east, blowing a gale, and 
there was a rough sea. There were several showers of hail during 
the day and the air was extremely cold. The weather of Friday 
and Saturday was very boisterous and cold in North and Hast 
Yorkshire, and on Saturday morning snow and hail fell, the hills 
being quite white. arly potatoes haye been destroyed. Many of 
the market gardens near Paris have suffered considerably, and the 
same is the case with the vines in the south of France. 


eT 


May 18, 1872.) 


THE GARDENS OF ENGLAND. 
COMBE ABBEY, COVENTRY. 


TuEsE articles must not be regarded asin any sense descriptions of 
the places with which they are connected. They are simply notes of 
observation referring to the most interesting or instructive features 
of each garden visited, and, as such, may perhaps prove useful to 
such lovers of gardening as may be attracted to this part of the 
country by the forthcoming show of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
to be held at Birmingham. As, however, in the course of our pro- 
gress through the country many places will be visited of which no 
sufficient idea could be given by these short notes, it is proposed to 
describe and illustrate at length ail the really instructive and 
remarkable gardens. This will bedone as time will permit for the 
proper selection and execution of engravings, which will speak to the 
eye more eloquently than words. 

LANDSCAPE AND WATER. 

The park at Combe, dotted with its old trees, is a fine one; but, 
like many others, its beauty and extent are sadly marred by wooden 
fences and other dividing lines, which could be well dispensed with. 
Therefore, in point of landscape beauty, it is nothing to what it 
might readily be made. Its noblest feature is the fine piece of water, 
which is one of the best artificial pieces I have seen. It is more 
like an elbow of some broad river reach than what, in parks, is 
commonly called alake; but, as regards outline, the mode in which 
the grass banks approach it, or in any other way, there is not a false 
line about it. In this respect it contrasts well with the numerous 
half-stagnant duck ponds which, in the midland counties, are com- 
monly placed under the windows. But—unhappily, there is a very 
important “‘but’’—some years ago a ‘‘ moat,” or what is simply a 
stone-walled canal, was taken from this perfectly natural-looking 
piece of water straight to the house. It passes close under the walls 
flanking one side of the Abbey, the drive to the forecourt passing over 
it. There are many foolish things done by those artists who, instead of 
meeting modern wants by the best expression of modern skill and 
knowledge, ignobly imitate the creations of a lcng-buried past. But, 
surely, this disfiguring of a noble lake, and this digging of an ugly 
canal uider the walls of a stately house, is the feeblest notion that 
has ever been carried out in our own day! Let us cherish the past 
by all means ; it is right to preserve every morsel of it that remains 
tous; but let us not, in startling disregard of the fitness of things, 
prove ourselves contemptible to all clear-seeing men, and to coming 
ages, by fudging up a brand-new and distorted likeness of such a 
thing as a moat—a necessity, if not a beauty, in its own long-buried 
time. This unhappy canal, with its accompanying walls, completely 
cuts up and distorts the best sides of the Abbey, renders the 
highly important need, called by landscape gardeners “ breadth,” 
impossible, spoils the end of the lake nearest to the mansion, distracts 
with its adjuncts the eye from surveying the old or new portions of the 
building, and renders necessary certain ugly terraces of earth. These 
were thrown out of the canal so as to intercept the view of the lake 
from the Abbey. The landscape features of the garden suffer some 
what from the large oblong kitchen garden being placed right in the 
middle of the pleasure grounds; but many improvements are in 
progress, which, by extending the planted grounds. in other 
directions, will modify this drawback. 

TREES. 

Here, as in many places in the country, the grand old native oaks 
are the tree kings yet. They dot the park like giants of a past age, 
and look on and see generations of men pass away like leaves, much 
as rocks or old castles do. Fine groups of Scotch fir, which must 
ever remain one of the princes of the ornamental trees that attain 
perfection in our clime, share with the oak the glory of the park. 
The Cedar of Lebanon has done little or nothing for it. The 
Deodar Cedar seems to thrive better. Of this there is an avenue 
about two miles long, very few or none of the trees showing signs 
of the debility they so often manifest. In this long avenue, which 
is outside the garden proper, it is interesting to see how the 
Deodar thrives, often overtopped by common forest trees and half 
choked by briars, or injured by deer. It seems a pity that such a 
very remarkable ayenue of this noble tree—which, by the way, 
thrives much better in Warwickshire than one would expect from 
its usual condition near London—should not be enclosed and taken 
proper care of. None of our most famed arboretums have a finer 
feature than this would prove if taken care of. The long drive, 
bordered by these Deodars, seems a capital site for an arboretum, 
A selection of evergreen and deciduous trees known to thrive well 
in the midland counties would soon place it in the front rank of 
arboretums. 

The tree mammoth of the Sierras (Wellingtonia) thrives apace 
here, not one of many specimens being diseased or slow-growing. 


THE GARDEN. 


559 


The giant of the Canadian woods, Pinus Strobus, in its own home 
and in favourable situations one of the noblest trees, does fairly here, 
there being a good many picturesque old specimens planted some 
years ago. They usually break into several leaders, and do not 
form one grand stem, as at home. This is probably owing to the 
smaller degree of vigour attained under our feebler sun. The tree, 
however, thrives so well here as to warrant its being extensively 
planted for ornament. The Araucaria also does well, though not quite 
so well as the Wellingtonia; but those fine trees of the northern 
parts of the Pacific coast, Lawson’s Cypress and the Nootka Sound 
Cypress (Cupressus Nutkzensis), seem as much at home as they are 
on their native hills. There are many hundreds of Cupressus 
Lawsoniana raised from seed, every specimen a fountain of graceful 
form and perennial yerdure. 

This kind has been much grown from seeds here, and, like most of the 
conifers experimented with, always grows much better if undisturbed. 
Mr. Miller finds they dislike moving more than is commonly sup- 
posed. The American scarlet oaks are very fine, and now (May 8th) 
almost as attractive as clouds of peculiar lemon yellow, as in the 
‘* fall”? when in the deep flush of their autumnal glory. It is to be 
regretted that such trees are not sometimes grouped in our parks. 
Here, in Warwickshire—where our common native deciduous trees 
form such noble specimens—I saw a Wych elm the other day nearly 
thirty feet round the stem; many fine deciduous trees—hardy exotic 
trees, that come from countries often colder than our own, would 
thrive nobly. And if the American oaks thrive as I have seen them 
do in some of the hungriest lands of central France, as, for example, 
on M. Vilmorin’s old estate, at Des Barres, in Loiret, they may well be 
expected to become noble trees in the parks where our British oaks 
attain such stately dimensions and spread out widely and so intlexibly 
in the teeth of the winds. Here, as in nearly all parts of the country, 
the Spanish Picea thrives well, and proves itself one of the conifers 
fearless of our clime. The Virginian Cedar is seen here, and in other 
places in the neighbourhood, in tall well-developed specimens, with 
that close erect cypress-like habit which one sees so often marking the 
mountains and hillsides of the western parts of New York and many 
parts of the Eastern States of America, as emphatically as the Hastern 
Cypress does the cemeteries on the Bosphorus. The value of this 
very hardy and beautiful tree as a close-growing, tapering one does 
not seem generally known, otherwise we may presume it would 
be extensively planted where the Eastern Cypress (C. sempervirens) 
perishes from cold. 


A PLEASING FEATURE IN THE PLANT HOUSES, 

This is shown in the utilisation of spaces usually unoccupied in 
gardens—those under the benches to the right and left of the foot. 
ways through the houses. Here is a large cool house with a 
collection of greenhouse plants; but over the pathway leans the 
numerous fronds of a fine collection of British and hardy exotic ferns, 
planted on each side of it. In a pinery, there are as healthy seams of 
the Maiden-hair Fern springing from beside the footwaysas ever graced 
the rocks by an Italian roadside. Here isa plant stove, in which 
from the ground beneath the pipes and beside the footway springs 
a mass of beautiful plant life, with a grace and abandon impossible 
in pots. The richly-spotted leaves of the Caladiums, leaning forth 
from masses of Maiden-hair and of coral-berried Rivina, look more 
effective than ever they are seen in pots; while here and there the 
large-leaved palm-like Panicum sulcatum gives quite a tropical 
cast to the little groves that so well adorn the footways. In a warm 
fernery, tropical species are planted out in like manner, and the 
result is of the most charming kind. Mr. Miller intends going a 
step further, and arranging his shelves above these little planta. 
tions so that a graceful drapery of plant life may be established 
thereon. Simple as this kind of improvement is, there is none more 
desirable. We have too much of the glass shed visible in our 
hothouses; they are too angular, and contain too many needless 
disfigurements. It must henceforward be the pride of the gardener 
to rob these structures of their nakedness, as Mr. Miller has done 
here in such a successful manner. By planting thus, three things 
are effected. First: Space usually considered useless is occupied. 
Secondly: Valuable collections of plants are grown with infinitely 
less trouble to the cultivator than when they are grown in pots ; 
and, Thirdly: The aspect of the houses is immensely improved. 
Surely, if so much can be done ina formal lean-to house, we need 
not despair of doing more in our conseryatories and houses specially 
designed for ornament. There is no way in which we may effect 
more improvement in our houses than this; and it is not merely 
the effect which is so desirable, but the immense saying of harassing 
labour to the gardener which the planting-out system at once 
secures. Besides, if the temperature is suitable, the planted-out 
subjects usually do much better than in pots with ordinary culture. 
In the warm fernery here, the long, feathery, coral-laden and 
weeping shoots of Russellia juncea and the rich crimson blossoms 


560 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


of the racemose Passion-flower (Passiflora princeps) lend quite a 
novel charm to the grace of the ferns. We are too apt io isolate 
ferns from every brilliant flower that intensifies their grace. The 
fernery, outdoor or in, should not be a mere collection of fronds; 
as in their own haunts they are accompanied by planis the glory 
of which is in their blossom, so should they be in gardens. Among 
our choicest hardy plants, there are many, like the white Wood 
Lily (Trillium grandiflorum) and the Mocassin-flower (Cypripedium 
spectabile), which thrive in the very conditions suitable’ for hardy 
ferns; and the same may be said of flowering stove plants and ferns. 


PALM GRASS (PANICUM SULCATUM). 

This is the handy English name I propose for a noble palm- 
like grass now easily obtained in our gardens, but which I have 
never seen employed to such good effect as in the gardens here. 
In addition to growing it in pots, Mr. Miller plants it ont in the 
houses in various positions, the result being an effect as good as is 
afforded by any palm. And it will prove of greater use in our 
gardens than any palm, because it can be raised from seed as easily and 
grown as quickly as Tropzeolums or Indian Corn. The following is Mr. 
Miller’s simple mode of treating it, kindly furnished by himself :— 

“* Wherever the plant is introduced it grows luxuriantly and seeds 
freely; the seed comes up everywhere, and if it does so in places 
where it is not wanted, it is easily removed. When grown in pots 
for decorative purposes, the effect is as fine as anything produced by 
the most expensive palms we haye If by exposure or frequent use 
plants are injured, the loss is not much, as they are easily and 
quickly raised. A pan of seed sown in a little heat will produce in 
two or three months nice plants for purposes of decoration. The 
plant when fully grown throws up leaves from two to four feet long, 
and a graceful seed stem often to six feet. As to soil, it is not 
particular, growing equally free and handsome either in sandy loam 
or peat, or any free soil that may be at hand at potting time. The 
seed ripens continuously through the summer and autumn, and may 
be sown at any time.” 

FRUIT. 

The gardens at Combe are among the most remarkable in the 
Midlands for their extent and good management, and particularly in 
all that relates to fruit srowing and fruit forcing. I have rarely, if 
ever, seen a garden in which the vine and the peach show more 
skilful culture or yield better results. There is nothing that is new 
to say of the system applied to either. As to the peach, it is simply 
the good old plan of training over the roof that is chiefly employed; 
the back walls being also covered in each case with fine healthy 
fertile trees, luxuriating in two or three feet of sound loam on well 
drained borders, both within and without the house. This good old 
system, however, and a like one applied to the vine and other fruits, 
sufficed to carry off the prizes for collections of fruit at the chief 
fruit shows in the Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park, for three years 
in succession. Peaches are also grown to perfection in a peach-case 
sixteen feet high and eight feet wide. This affords as fine an 
example of perfect peach culture as could be seen, both the erect 
trellises in front and on the back wall being regularly covered with 
healthy abundant-bearing trees. All peach-cases are, however, to 
some extent mistakes. The peach-case seems at first sight a plan 
for cheaply covering and protecting a wall; it is really one for 
building a peach-house much less useful to the cultivator than the 
old lean-to. For there is only room in it to grow the fruit and 
gather it, whereas the ordinary lean-to, half-span, or span gives as 
much space beneath the trees as if no fruit were grown overhead, 
and for half the year we enjoy good licht for plant growing in this 
space. I believe there is only one peculiarity in Mr. Miller’s peach 
culture, he fumigates, before he sees any aphis, just as the infant 
peach buds are beginning to burst. The orthodox rule is, “fumi- 
gate on the first appearance” of that devourer of our hopes. The 
peach trees at Combe are mostly trained on the Seymonr plan, i.e., 
making all the young and bearing wood spring from the upper 
sides of the branches. The system of training, howeyer, adopted 
with the peach is of but little moment. The plan that will cover the 
walls quickest will one day be adopted by all intelligent growers. 

As to the grape—its culture here is of the most superior character, 
and on the old spur system. Here, asain, we have nothing new to 
say. Mr. Miller does not densely cover his borders with litter, &e., as 
is often done ; nor does he otherwise protect them, considering that, 
if the borders are in proper condition, the rains do not hurt the vine. 
That singular and noble-looking plant, the Monstera, reputed to be a 
valuable tropical fruit, is here abundantly fruited. Planted ont pretty 
neat the glass in the pit of a pine stove, and in the full sun, it 
grows freely, and fruits in half-shady and shady positions in stoves : 
but the treatment given here is likely to bring out better any virtue 
or merit this slightly over-praised fruit may possess. The melon here 
—grown as is now usual in neat low houses—is kept a little cooler 
than is the rule (60° at night, rising 15° to 18° by day), the result 


being a much firmer growth and greater freedom from insects than 
iscommon. Passiflora edulis is preferred to any of the edible Passion- 
flowers—as well it may be, for all the other kinds are almost flavyonr- 
less. Stevens’s Cornish boiler has recently replaced a tubular boiler 
for the heating of all the houses here, and with satisfactory results. 

In the open garden the condition of the fruit trees is also admirable. 
The very extensive Kitchen garden is enclosed by walls perfectly 
covered with well-formed trees, and the walks are margined by 
numerous large and well formed pyramidal ones. A good many of 
the trees are also trained in what may be termed dumb-waiter fashion 
—sradually lessening tiers of evenly disposed branches. These are 
the best of their kind we have seen in the country. Peach culture 
in the open air is very much written down nowadays, and is 
frequently supposed to be impossible. There is a wall of trees here 
trained on the Seymour plan, every foot of the surface properly 
covered by healthy bearing wood, which ought to convince anybody 
of the perfect practicability of growing the peach in the best con- 
dition in the open air, in any of the midland or southern counties of 
England. Ié is a real loss to progress in fruit culture that any such 
idea should have ever gone forth. It is no wonder the amateur 
despairs of its culture when he sees the melancholy result of leaying 
walls without a wide temporary coping to throw off sleet and prevent 
killing frost during the dangerous season. But the fact is that with 
properly-managed and protected walls, as carefully guarded from 
insect pests as our best peach honses are, as fine peaches as were 
ever eaten may be grown over the greater part of England and 
Treland. ; 

We shall again return to and illustrate the more instructive 
features of this fine garden. 


HOW RICE PAPER IS MADE. 
BY E. C. LEFROY. 

THE Rice-Paper plant (Aralia papyrifera) grows naturally in China 
and Japan, where the inhabitants carefully cultivate it upon the hills 
and high-lying ground. In the autumn of each year, before the 
leaves fall, the Japanese cut off the young shoots, and cut them into 
slips, which are tied up in bundles, and boiled in large copper kettles 
or cauldrons closely shnt down. The boiling is continued until the 
bark has peeled off the wood, when the former is carefully dried and 
stored away for future use. 

When it is required for paper-making it is thoroughly soaked in 
water for three or four hours, after which the brown skin is scraped 
off. At the same time the bark which covered the younger shoots is 
separated from the older and tougher sorts, from which an inferior 
kind of paper is made. Bark which has been kept for some years 
is only fit to make the commonest packing paper, and is manufactured 
with less care. When the bark is well cleaned, and arranged in order 
according to its quality, it is again boiled until the matter separates 
into a filamentous substance. This boiling is succeeded by another 
operation called washing, which is of great importance in the manu- 
facture of the paper. If it is noé continued long enough the paper 
will be of a coarse quality; and if, on the other hand, the substance 
does not receive enough boiling, the paper will be very white, but 


too soft and greasy to write upon. The pulp is placed in a basket’ 


which will admit the water on all sides, and this is plunged into a 
river and stirred about with violence for some time. Then the sub- 
stance is placed upon a smooth table and beaten with wooden rollers. 
After the beating, an infusion of rice is poured on it, and the mixture 
is suffered to stand until dry, when the substance is raised leaf by 
leaf in the form of paper. These leaves are placed between boards, 
and the remaining moisture gradually pressed ont. According to 
another account the stem is cut into lengths of ten or twelve inches, 
and the pith forced out and placed in hollow bamboos, where it swells 
out to ifs natural bulk, and dries into a compact mass. This pith is 
cleverly cut by a workman, who holds a sharp knife against the side 
of the cylinder, which is then turned round, so that the pith is cut 
into a broad strip about four feet long. This is cut up mite small 
squares, and sold in packets for different purposes. It is supposed 
that the paper made from the pith is the rice paper which is 
imported into this country. It cannot be made until the tree has 
attained a considerable bulk, and is too old to produce many shoots, 
such as are used in the first process. 

The tree from which this paper is made is particularly abundant 
in the island of Formosa. It is at first a small shrub, but aftef 
flowering it throws ont several branches, and grows to a height or 
about twenty-five feet. It is generally cut down before it attains 
its full maturity, because the pith and bark degenerate in the older 
parts. Several large palmate leaves crown the stem. It has: 
been supposed by many botanists that there are two or three 
different species of plants from which the Chinese make their paper 
and there are, apparently, several ways of manufacturing it. 


i i i 


—— 


» 


Mar 18, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


561 


THE FLOWER GARDEN. ~ 


ARALIA CANESCENS. 


Ix the size and beauty of its leaves this is far before many 
“ foliage-plants” carefully cultivated in our hothouses at a 
perpetual expense. The specimen of this species here figured 
was one of a batch of young plants growing in the Fulham 
Nurseries. The engraving falls far short of rendering the 
beauty of the plant. It is easy to imagine what a graceful 
effect may be realised by such an object, either isolated on the 
turf near the edge of a shrubbery or grouped with subjects of 
similar character. Success with this plant may be secured 
by, first, selecting a sheltered and warm position, so that its 
noble leaves may be well developed, and not lacerated by 
storms; secondly, by giving it a deep, free, and thoroughly- 
drained soil; and, thirdly, by confining it as a rule to a simple 
stem, so that the vigour of the individual may not be wasted 
in several branches. The effect of a plant kept to a single 
stem, as shown in our illustration, is always much superior to 


SS 
ae 


ADT 


a 
— 
Ae 
pz 


Aralia canescens (japonica—Hort.). 


that of a branched one. Young plants present this aspect 
naturally ; but old ones may be cut down, when they will shoot 
vigorously. As regards position, it is admirably suited for 
isolation or grouping with other subjects of like character. 
It is commonly known in gardens as Aralia japonica. 


HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER ROUND LONDON. 


Iwas very glad to see your list of these last week. But 
your “reason” for giving it seems to me very inadequate. It will 
enable us to“keep our outdoor gardens gay,” is your modest 
estimate of it. Permit me to tell you what such a list will 
do, if you do it well: it will let many of us garden-lovers 
who have not time—who could find time to go through the 
London nurseries, botanical and private gardens, every week ?— 
know what is in cultivation in the country. In last week’s 
list, for example, I find several dozen plants that I did not 
think were in cultivation. This, I need not say, was very 
interesting to me; besides, you gave me some idea as to where 
to look for novelties of this kind. I presume the name added 
to some kinds indicates the name of the person in whose 
gardens rare or new kinds are. I think it would be better if 
you gave the garden or nursery, as the name alone is not of 
much use to persons who do not know these growers; and, 


besides, it looks too much like the authority for the species 
which is usually affixed in botanical books. 

Your list of hardy plants in flower round London will also, 
I think, open the eyes of some of those who think they have 
gardens around them, while perhaps in the month of May 
there are not six kinds of flowers to be seen, and these, it may 
be, occurring by chance. I have seen many gardens of 
late in which there was not a single spring flower—nothing 
but great hungry expanses of brown earth waiting to be filled 
with bedding plants when the season permits. Five hundred 
kinds of hardy plants in flower in one week may, I say, open 
their eyes. 

Then, again, as a simple record of fact, how valuable will 
such a list prove to lovers of plants or students of meteor- 
ology! It will, I think, be highly useful to ourselves, and 

erhaps more so to those who come after us. ‘To these a faith- 
ful record of the blooming period of many flowering plants in 
some well-known district like London, of which the climate 
had been well studied, would certainly prove useful, probably 
in more ways than we now know of. 

To gardeners or amateurs who have to embellish a place for 
a particular season, the lists, if continued, will be of incaleul- 
able value. Many gardens are only visited by their owners 
ata certain season; but where have we a trustworthy guide 
now if we seek to know the hardy vegetation that may be 
expected to bloom in any given month? TI have myself 
sought for information on this subject, both in the French 
and English languages; and though it is a point to which 
French authors have given more attention than we have, there 
isno help to be found in them that is worthy of the name. 
But persevere in your GARDEN lists; make them as full as 
our collections will admit of, and, after a time, all those who 
want to know the materials wherewith to embellish a garden 
at any given season will only have to turn to your pages and 
find the plants that bloom at that particular period. 

Other advantages might be named, but enough has been 
said to prove the importance of the lists, if well done. On 
that a good deal depends. The lists must not be merely a 
record as to what plants flower in any one place, however large, 
or of any one London district. Nosynonyms should be given, 
as one object of the lists should be to let us know what 
really distinct plants we have in cultivation. I think your 
Iberis coriacea in last week’s list is the same as I. correefolia, 
just below it. 


[Our lists are made by two special reporters, who will 
make weekly visits to all good collections of hardy trees, 
shrubs, and herbaceous plants within a radius of ten miles of 
London. Sometimes distinct and valuable plants are known 
only by their garden names, and these we must give in the 
absence of others. } 


NEW YELLOW VIOLETS. 


Awone the earliest of our winter-blooming plants may be classed 
the various forms of Viola Intea that have been so freely produced 
of late. They gild with bright colonrs our generally dull spring gardens, 
giving masses, lines, or circles of rich golden and pale yellow hues, 
only to be appreciated by those who have seen them so employed. 
A very few years ago the old Viola lutea came much into request, 
perhaps scarcely in its old form, but in somewhat improved garden 
varieties. As soonas V. lutea came into demand, seed of it was in 
request also, and from seed there were obtained many large-flowering 
types, popularly termed V. Intea grandiflora. These larger-flowering 
varieties appeared concurrently in several quarters, and without 
being, to all appearance, the products of any special attempts at 
cross-breeding or fertilization. In point of colour all followed the 
parental type, but some became deeper, others paler,and a few of 
such a pale primrose as to be almost white. With increased size 
came also the florist’s desideratum—a decided advance in form, and 
with this were also combined the flatness and stoutness found in the 
pansy. Seed from these produced in its turn even larger types; and 
now flowers having the size and almost the form of the florist’s 
pansies are by no means uncommon, and with but very little depart- 
ure from the compact, free-branching, and free-blooming habit of 
the Violas. A marked precocity and an uncommon durability 
characterize these flowers. Being at the same time precocious and 
abundant, they are gradually and surely taking the place of the 


562 


THE GARDEN. 


[Max 18, 1872. 


yellow pansy in our spring flower gardens. Unlike the pansy, they 
do not succumb under the hostile influence of the hot, sweltering 
summer sun, bué continue im beauty the summer through. I have 
now in my garden a circular band of one of the most useful of the 
grandiflora type, known as Yellow Dwarf, because of its peculiar 
carpet-like habit. It occupied all last summer, and still continues to 
occupy, a very exposed position, with scarcely a particle of shade 
being thrown across it the whole day long. During the continuance 
of the summer drought, pansies, carefully watered and tended, were 
completely frizzled up; but the Viola held its own bravely, and 
continued to bloom until the beginnmg of December. It was then 
lifted, the soil of the bed renewed, and replanted. By the second 
week in February it was a perfect circlet of glittering yellow 
blossoms that, it is not too much to state, almost hid the foliage 
beneath. Equally valuable are afew of the pale sulphur-coloured 
varieties, and notably Sulphur Queen, which is quite as precocious 
aud, at the same time, as free and durable. b 


ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE AND ALLOSORUS 
CRISPUS. 


Your correspondent (see p. 478) states that he cannot get these 
ferns to thrive. I have tried afew plants of both, but they don’t 
sueceed so wellas I should like. One thing against them is their 
being generally lifted from their native habitat during summer, when 
in full growth ; as an instance of this I enclose fronds of Asplenium 
septentrionale from a plant which I lifted Feb. 14th ; the small fronds 
are those that were on it at the time, the larger ones those that have 
grown since, while those that are coming are going to be larger still. 
When lifted during summer it neverdidso well It should be planted 
in sandy peat, mixed with bits of sandstone or decayed trap, and 
must have thorough drainage, with a south or south-west exposure. 
If grown in pots, I find it to succeed best in small-sized ones plunged 
inside larger ones. As nature is the best guide to follow, I may 
mention that this Fern grows in “cracks” on the south face of trap 
rocks, even where there is no appearance of any Kind of soil, so that 
the wiry roots must penetrate a long way to withstand the droughts 
of summer. 

The natural home of Allosorus crispus is among the débris of porphy- 
ritie rocks, at an elevation of from one thousand to two thousand feet 
above the sea. I have observed that the strongest growing plants 
haye generally a large stone over the crown. A north-west exposure 
appears to suit this Fern best. Té dislikes lime, and grows best, I 
find, among fibrous turf with a large admixture of stones. When 
planting, keep the crowns of both this and Asplenium septentrionale 
well up, so that water may not lodge about them. Has your 
correspondent tried barley awns or sawdust as a slug “‘fence”’? 

Kelso. A.B. 


FLOWER GARDEN DECORATION. 


Tuts is now everywhere receiving a considerable amount of 
attention; and a free interchange of ideas on the subject may not 
be without interest. Mr. Baimes opened the campaign with a 
condemnation of the present bedding system, and in No. 24 your 
correspondent “‘W. W.” makes a brilliant charge on our masses of 
bright colour, that must clear everything before it. I think, how- 
ever, that he is laying the lash on too heavy when he says the modern 
gardener is a “cross between extravagance and vulgarity”; for 
whatever may be our failines, most of us are becoming awake io 
our position, and, therefore, I trust there is hope forus. We are 
anxiously looking for light to enable us to get ont of the quagmire 
into which we have been led, quite as much by our would-be enides 
as by our own proclivities. We must go back to nature for our 
studies, it is said, and with this I entirely agree. And as a reaction 
has set in, do not let us run into the opposite extreme, and turn all 
our grand gardens into wildernesses. The late Sir G. C. Lewis, n 
writing about the gardens of the ancients, said “they were not 
gardens at all, but only shrubberries, with bits of statuary stuck 
about them.” Let us try to avoid falling into this error. Some 
of the argaments that have been used in favour of the natural style 
of gardening would suggest the inference that the natural style 
is a continual mixture; but this is not consistent with the real 
facts, for nature when left to herself frequently plants in grand 
bold masses, far outdoing the puny efforts of man. Bnt nature 
tones down her bright masses of colour by masses of foliage, ever 
varying in form and tint; and, by the light and shadow caused by 
undulations of surface, softens and renders pleasing what would 
otherwise be wearisome. 

Whatever may be the fature of ornamental gardening, I trust 
the reduction of the present bedding system within reasonable 


limits will ultimately be arrived at; and, as regards the present, I 
would urge your readers to study carefully the remarks of Mr. 
Wesiland on the “‘ Flower Garden for May,” at page 532, as I think 
it is in the direction he suggests that an immediate improvement 
may be looked for. Sofaras I have seen, the prevailing fault of 
garden decoration is the preponderance of bright colours. 

Ramsey Abbey. E. Hoppar. 


THE ALPINE GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 542.) 
PATHWAYS. 

No formal walk—ihat is to say, no walk with regularly- 
trimmed edges of any kind—should ever be allowed to pass 
through, or even come near, the rock-garden. This need not 
prevent the presence of properly-made walks through or near 
16, as, by allowing the edges of the walk to be a little irregular 
and stony, and by permitting dwarf Sedums, Saxifrages, 
Linaria alpina, the lawn Pearl-wort, &c., to crawl into the walk 
at will, a perfectly unobjectionable effect will be produced. 
In every case where gravel walks pass through ferneries or 
rockeries, and are fringed by stonework, a variety of litle 
plants should be placed at the sides, and allowed to crawl into 
the walk in theirown wild way. There is no suriace whatever 
of this kind that may not be thus embellished with interestime 
subjects. Violets and ferns, Myosotis dissitifiora, &c., will 
answer for the moister and shadier parts, and the Stonecrops, 
Saxifrages, Arenarias, and many others, will thrive im more arid 
partsandin thefullsun. The whole of the surface of the alpme 
garden should be covered with plants, except the projecimg 
points or crags; and even these should be covered, as far as 
possible, without completely concealing them. In moist dis- 
tricts, such alpimes as Erinus alpmus and Arenaria balearica 
will grow wherever there is a resting-place for a] seed on the 
face of the rocks; and even tall and vertical faces of rock may 
be embellished with a variety of plants; so that there is no 
excuse whatever why any level, earthy surfaces should be bare. 


WATER. 


Tt is not well to endeavour to associate a small lakelet or pond 
with the rock-garden, as is frequently done. I donot remember 
to have met in alpine countries with any crowds of brilliant 
alpine flowers in the vicinity of small pools of grimy water; 
indeed, they usually crowd on fields high above the lake. Tia 
picturesquely-arranged piece of water can be seen from the 
rock-garden, well and good; but water should noi, as a rule, 
be closely associated with it. Hence, in places of limited 
extent it should not be thought of at all. If a pure rushing 
streamlet, with one or more cascades, can be mtroduced near 
the rock-garden with good effect, so much the better; but 
these things are better treated as incidental features. 

No formal bridge should ever be tolerated near a rock-garden ; 
if is so easy to form more natural-looking bridges by placme 
rocks or stones in the streams or arms of water which it is 
wished to cross. If well done. the footing will not be m the 
least insecure, and the water will flow between the stones, and 
graceful water plants crowd up near and between them. It 
need hardly be added that the rusiie arches so commen should 
also be avoided. 

Where a large rock-garden is bemg made, and where expense 
is no object, water should, if possible, be “laid on.” as, withont 
command of a strong pressure and a liberal hose, it is very 
difficult to water an extensive and elevated rock-garden 
thoroughly, and very troublesome and expensive even to do it 
badly with watering-pots. &c. Several taps or outlets will be 
required in large rock-gardens 

SNAILS, ETC. ‘ 

Snails are frequently so destructive, that it has been con- 
sidered desirable to construct a small rock-fringed streamlet 
round portions of the rock-garden containing the subjects’ 
most likely to suffer from them. _This is not generally to be 
recommended, because of the difficulty of domg it well; nor 
is it generally necessary, inasmuch as the things commonly 
grown can be protected by ordinary means. It would, how- 
ever, be practicable to run a neighbouring streamlet round a 
large rock-garden, concealing it here and there in shrubberies, 
&c., aud letting it now and then meander through the grass 


May 18, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


563 


surrounding the site of the rock-garden. If the slugs, &c., 
within the streamlet were carefully removed, no recruits from 
beyond it could destroy our favourites. Where a stream does 
not run near the rockwork, the channel may be filled by means 
of a pipe laid on from the main pipe which supplies the garden 
proper. The outlet of this pipe may be very easily placed in 
a suitable part of the rockwork, in such a manner as to form a 
miniature cascade at no great distance from the channel which 
is kept filled by its waters. It is hardly necessary to add that 
the bottom and sides of the channel should be made perfectly 
water-tight with cement or well-puddled clay, &e. 


SOIL. 

The great majority of alpine plants thrive best in deep soil; 
in it they can root deeply, and once they are so rooted they 
will not suffer from drought, from which they would quickly 
perish if planted in the usual way; three feet deep is not too 
much for most species, and it is in nearly all cases a good plan 
to have plenty of broken sandstone cr grit mixed with the soil. 
Any good free loam, with plenty of sand, broken grit, &., will 
be found to suit the great majority of alpine and dwarf her- 
baceous plants, from Pinks to Gromwells. But peat is re- 
quired by some, as, for example, various small and brilliant rock 
plants like the Menziesias, Tritium, Cypripedium, Spigelia 
marylandica, and a number of other mountain and bog plants. 
Hence, though the general mass may be of the soil above 
described, it will be desirable to have a few masses of peat here 
and there. This is better than forming all the ground of good 
loam and then digging holes in it for the reception of small 
masses of peat. The soil of one or two portions might also 
be chalky or calcareous, for the sake of plants that are known 
to thrive best on such formations, as the pretty Polygala cal- 
carea, the Bee Orchis, Rhododendron Chamecistus, &c. 
other varieties of soil specially required by individual kinds 
can be given as they are planted. 

(To be continued.) 


LINES ON “THE ROSE SECRET.” 


Iy striking roses in a marmalade jar, 

Max Klose’s seems the simplest mode by far, 

And the rose cottage, Chelford’s grand display, 

Will show his success at some future day. 

Still there remains a secret to unfold 

In striking roses quickly we are told; 

But we now hope by the “jar” plan proposed, 

The pent-up mystery is at last dis-Klosed. —wW.T. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Clianthus Dampieri—This is now beautifully in bloom on an open wall 
about twelve miles south-east from London, the plant having stood the winter, 
with no other protection than that of an old light, and occasionally a mat during 

A return hot-water pipe passes inside the foundation of the wall.— 
J.U.N. 


The Poet’s Narcissus.—Why not naturalise this lovely species in our wood- 
walks and in the wilder parts of our pleasure grounds? It is as easily grown 
as the common daffodil, and inferior to no denizen of the stove in beauty. The 
roots are not dear; they may be planted any time after dying down till late in 
autumn, or indeed at any, time, for daffodils may be moved without much injury 
when in full leaf. 


Wall Plants.—The beauty which the wallflower now displays on many old 
ruins, should encourage many to try to develop mach more floral beauty in such 
itions. That this is not only practicable, but easy, is fully shown in “* Alpine 
lowers.” There is nodoubt that with plants of the wallflower order alone, we 
could easily convert dreary old ruins, or parts of them, into lovely little gardens. 
The Arabis and all such plants would thrive on walls, bea they would not 
attain such size as on the level ground. Even the Irises, which, at first sight, 
one would never think of putting on walls, thrive thereon when there is a 
little soil for them to root in, as many may have seen on the Continent on old 
thatched roofs. Thereis no difficulty in establishing these lovely flowers.—H. V. 


Spring Bedding.—The most effective beds which I have this séason are two 
raised round ones, each nine feetin diameter. No. 1. has a centre plant and 
two rows of a white polyanthus, thickly studded with white single hyacinths ; 
next, two rows of double red daisies, with red hyacinths, then two rows of 
Aubrietia grandiflora purpurea and Gentiana acaulis, mixed, with blue 
hyacinths, the whole edged with Sem ivum californicum. No 2. has a 
centre consisting of Myosotis dissitiflora and white hyacinths ; next, two rows or 
Tings of dark polyanthus and blue hyacinths ; then two of Aubrietia and Gen- 
tiana and red hyacinths, the whole edged with Echeveria secunda glauca, 
planted out of pots in February. I have also a good third bed, which is like- 
wise raised, and about twenty-seven feet in diameter. 
centre containing Yucca gloriosa and varie; Arabis, from which radiate 
six rays or segments lined out with old plants of Pyrethrum; two of the 
divisions or segments contain yellow wallflower, ‘‘ Belvoir Castle,’ and red tulips, 
single; two others consist of dark wallflowers and white tulips; two more 
contain mixed wallflowers and yellow tulips, the large intervening spaces being 
filled with Myosotis dissitiflora (seedlings), the whole edged with a good broad 
margin of Cerastinm tomentosum,—W, C, 


This has a vase in the 


THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER XIV. | 
Mr. Oldacre’s Story—The Lady Alice. 


Mr. Presmpent anpD Frrenps, said Mr. Oldacre, you must 
“pity the sorrows of a poor old man, whose trembling limbs,” 
and here he glanced complacently at his well-filled gaiters, 
“have borne him to your” excellent gin-and-water, and must 
not look for anything remarkable in pippins from a decaying 
and exhausted apple tree. As for lecturing you upon the 
culture of a garden, or haranguing you scientifically at all, I 
should no more think of it than of seeking horticultural 
information for myself in the books of those who wrote a 
century ago on the subject; and I have no shame in the 
conviction, that some to whom I now speak, beginning at a 
point where I have all but stopped, and having opportunities 
and resources, developed since my manhood waned, know more 
about gardening than I do. It is sufficient for me to have been 
in my day with the foremost, and to have fought my way to 
many victories. But were I to “shoulder my crutch and show 
how fields were won” to you of this generation, or to mani- 
pulate my “ Brown Bess” as an old musketeer—to you who 
have such an improved artillery as leads one to expect that 
England will soon be able to pepper her enemies, however 
distant, from batteries fixed upon her shores—to you who are 
blessed with a thousand facilities unknown to your ancestors, 
of smashing and ripping up your fellow-creatures—how would 
you forbear to smile? No; asold Mr. Whippy, the huntsman 
—or rather the ex-huntsman, for he has been, as you know, 
a pensioner for years of my noble master’s—trots after the 
hounds on his pony through the gaps and the gates, which he 
once despised, so must I now be content to look on from afar, 
travelling easily by quiet lanes and by-ways, and leaving the 
bravery and the honours of the chase to you. 

So I will tell you, if you please, a simple story—a mere 
incident, in fact—which occurred many years ago in the family 
I serve, but which made at the time a great excitement among 
us, and may still I hope prove interesting to you, 

Through the solemn avenue of cedars which leads to our 
mausoleum, I have followed three dukes to the grave. The 
second of these at one period of his life was most austere and 
haughty. I may speak of his faults, although he is dead, 
because he lived to hate them, and to cast them from him; 
and I have no hesitation in enlarging upon them, as the 
circumstances of my story prompt. Well, then, he was just 
the proudest, coldest, most disagreeable duke that ever stalked 
(stalk, to walk with high and superb steps,” says Dr. John- 
son) over the earth. It was a positive insult to the English 
language to call so much ungraciousness “ your grace.” 
We gardeners used to declare that the thermometers fell 
twenty degrees whenever he walked through the houses; 
and that the water froze in the tanks and cisterns. We were 
prepared to affirm that when he put on his coronet the straw- 
berry leaves turned into ice-plants. Indeed, we all of us found 
a relief and comfort in this harmless kind of ridicule, just as 
schoolboys most delight to mimic the master who rules the 
most unkindly over them. It was a natural and pleasant 
rebound from the constraint and awful abasement to which his 
presence reduced us; and as for the propriety of our conduct, 
why, if men in high places are not high-minded, as they 
ought to be, they only become the more conspicuously 
assailable, and the homage which is offered to them is 
as unreal and worthless as the sham silver and the sham 
gold which the Chinese offer to their gods. So the duke 
played at being an idol, and we performed the worship- 
ping. He thought himself something more than human, I am 
sure, and received our most lowly obeisance as though he were 
upon a golden throne. His demeanour was calculated to give 
us the idea that we had no claim, strictly speaking, to existence 
in any form, but that he tolerated us. He sent for us, kept us 
waiting for hours, and then either dismissed us without an 
interview, or gave us his orders as though he gave out oakum 
to convicts. In my subordinate capacity I was only honoured 
with two brief conversations, during which he was pleased to 
address me, for he never remembered names, as “ Mr. Cutts” 


and “Rowbottom,” appellations which belonged respectively 


564 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


to the stud-groom and to an under-keeper, but which were as 
unlike Oldacre as, I dare say, he wished them to be. 

We servants were not the only ones who shivered in his icy 
presence, and winked and capered with exuberant joy as soon 
as we were fairly out of it. Living at that time in one of the 
lodges, I frequently witnessed the arrival and departure of 
certain county families, who were annually distinguished by an 
invitation to the castle. To open the gate for these favoured 
guests, and to look upon their expression of complete despair, 
was like being hall-porter at a dentist’s. They might have 
been blue-bottles, who had just set foot within the meshes of 
a spider’s net, or rabbits, helplesly mesmerised by a weasel, and 
drawing nearer to their doom. One footman, I remember, was 
wont to weep in the rumble, and to assume for my edification 
such an aspect of pretended woe, pointing the while with his 
thumb to the unconscious tenantry of the chariot below, that 
at last I dared not go out to meet him, and he was compelled 
to dismount, and clear the way for himself. 

But there was an entire change of performance, [I can tell 
you, when these visitors came forth on their journey homeward; 
as distinct an alteration and improvement of countenance as 
may be observed in the features of that gentleman who appears 
from time to time in the pictorial advertisements, as now 
enduring the agonies of toothache, and now “Ha! ha! cured 
in an instant!” The tragedy, with its tyrant and dungeon- 
chains, was over; and, as the lamps blazed out once more, the 
orchestra, which had been executing Dead March and dirge 
underneath the darkened stage, emerged to play “ Garryowen.” 
They who had come to us so silently and sadly, laughed and 
sang as they drove down the park. ‘They could not have been 
in a happier frame of mind if they had been poachers coming 
out of gaol in the shooting season. Hurrah! they were going 
home ! home to have beerat dinner, and to turn to the fire at 
dessert! Home, to astonish the Browns, to fill the mouths of 
the Walkers with the waters of envy, and to awe the Bumbies 
with fancy statements about their “delightful visit at the 
castle.” Well, I could bear truthful witness that the latter 
part of the proceeding had been delightfulenough. As Robert 
Hall said to the pert young preacher, who asked what he 
thought of his sermon, “There was one very admirable 
passage—the passage from the pulpit to the vestry,” so it 
might be affirmed with confidence that these guests had been 
especially happy in the last act and deed of—departure. 

Now this iron duke, you will be surprised to hear, had 
actually condescended to marry. Of course, if Cupid had not 
been blindfold, he would no more have thought of taking aim 
at him thana schoolboy of shooting his favourite arrow against 
the wall of a fives-court, and how that promiscuous young 
archer made his dart to stick in the ducal granite must remain 
for ever among the “things not generally known.” Never 
since Hive had the world seen such a proof of love’s omnipotence, 
as when he sent our grim lord a-courting. No weaker 
influence ever could have taught that cold pale face to smile, 
to smile and to beam with a happy brightness, as the snow 
sparkles in the sun. But how he ever remembered her name, 
or brought himself to proffer those little tendernesses, which 
are usual upon these occasions—those touches of nature which 
make the whole world kin—is to me a complete perplexity, an 
unreality as astonishing as though I were to see the ghost of 
Hamlet’s father with his arm round the waist of Jessica. 

Poor Jessica! she came to us as joyous as a thrush in 
summer, and she sang awhile blithely and sweetly in the tomb 
of Hamlet’s father. But when he resumed, as he shortly did, 
his old sepulchral ways, a chill struck the heart of our singing- 
bird, and all her mirthful music was changed into a plaint and 
wail. She had come from a home of love and cheerfulness, 
and she drooped in his arctic atmosphere, as an Orchid would 
droop in an ice-house. 


“For a trouble weighed upon her, 
And perplexed her nightand morn, 
With the burden of an honour, 
Unto which she was not born.” 


Six years after her marriage-day, they bore her slowly 
through the dark avenue of cedars, and the chaplain came in 
his white surplice to welcome her with words of hope and peace. 

Three children were born to them. The marquis, who soon 
showed himself to be a true “ chip of the old (ice) block,” and 


a ghostling of amazing promise; Lord Evelyn and the Lady 
Alice, who, happily for us all, resembled their mother. Neyer 
were two brothers so unlike each other. I doubt whether the 
elder ever broke out of a walk or into a laugh in his life, 
whereas the younger would be scampering all over the place, 
with his little sister breathless behind, and his merry voice 
making our hearts glad. Now they were in the conservatory, 


changing the tallies, and sticking the fallen flowers of the 


Camellia upon the Huphorbia’s thorns; now turning out a lot 
of sparrows, which they had caught in traps, and adorned with 
appendages of brilliant worsted, red, green, and yellow, in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the aviary, and so essaying to 


-impose upon us the idea ofa general escape and dispersion 


of all our feathered curiosities; and now “drawing” the 
shrubberies, with Lord Hvelyn at one end as master of fox- 
hounds (the foxhounds by an Irish retriever), and Lady Alice 
at the other as an under-whip, waiting, watchful and silent, for 
the fox to break, which he generally did in the guise of a black- 
bird; and then announcing his exit with the promptest and 
shrillest of “tally-hos.” Our marquis the while was indoors 
at his books, having, it was reported, a precocious relish for 
algebra, and an insight into the science of political economy 
not often to be found (thank Heaven) in young gentlemen of 
fourteen. 

Years passed, There was some misunderstanding between 
the marquis and the Cambridge examiners on the subject of 
his being Senior Wrangler, and the duke, after hearing his 
son’s statement, was pleased to pronounce that the Dons were 
“ offal.” Lord Evelyn went into the Guards, and I shall never 
forget him on his first return from London, after an absence 
of six months from the castle. I was at tea inthe lodge when 
his mail-phaeton drove up, and was hardly out of the porch, 
when his hearty “ How are you, Oldacre P” drew my eyes to 
the handsomest, merriest, kindliest face that ever wore a 
moustache. And sitting by him was a brother officer, Just the 
man you would have expected that my lord would choose for 
his friend, looking as though he would go at anything from an 
ox-fence to a redan, and yet would do no wilful hurt, as though 
his heart, like Tom Bowling’s, was brave and yet soft,and he was, 
in the full beauty of its meaning, a gentle man. I went back 
to my wife, who had Frank Chiswick’s wife, a baby, on her 
knee, and I said to her, “Susan, my lord’s come, and has 
brought home a husband for Lady Alice,” “Tl believe it,” 
she answered, “when I see his wings! for the duke must have 
something more than mortal to suit his fancy in son-in-laws.” 

And now, gentlemen, let the old horse catch his wind, if you 
please, dip his nose in the refreshing waters of the trough, and 
then trot on to the end of his journey. S. R. H. 


(Zo be continued.) 


TEA CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 


In last week’s issue (p. 538) you quote from Hearth and Home to 
the effect that ‘‘ supposing’? anyone one could get ten pickings of 
tea in a season, of 458 pounds per acre each, he would get a crop of 
4,580 pounds. Undoubtedly, ‘supposing ”’ it could be done, such a 
result would be in the highest degree satisfactory, but there is 
nothing whatever to warrant any such “supposition.” The pickings 
gradually diminish in bulk as the season advances ; the first flush of 
spring, if properly matured, being always the heaviest. An average 
yield of 450 pounds of made tea per acre per annum over any estate 
whatever, Indian, Javanese, Chinese, or Georgian, would be a very 
excellent and paying one. An average of less than this, rather than 
more, has been the experience of Indian and other planters, and 
should the Americans attempt the cultivation of tea (and thers is no 
reason why they should not), it is to be profoundly hoped that they 
will not be led away by mere ‘‘suppositions’”’ of which you have 
quoted a sample. JAMES MacpHErson, Brith, Kent. 


NEW PATENTS, &c. 


Lawn-mowers, parts applicable to other mechanical appliances for 
rotary, motion in one direction only. September 12, 1871.—J. T. Griffin, 
Upper Thames Street, London. Lawn-mowers with askeleton cast frame, 
on the spiral ribs of which steel cutters are fixed, the driving gear actuated 
by spheres between a dise anda grooved lug wheel; the handle adjust- 
able by clips on a bar, and the fixed blade adjustable with the leading 
wheels. ‘I'he sphere and lug mechanism is applicable to other appliances, 
particularly ratchet braces and cranes, for intermittent or continuous 
motion in one direction only, 


May 18, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


565 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


THE LATTICE-LEAF PLANT. 


Tuts interesting Madagascar aquatic belongs to a genus 
containing some eight distinct species, six of which belong to 
India, and two, viz., Ouvirandra fenestralis and O. Berneriana, 


to Madagascar. In 
its native country 
the leaves of O. 
fenestralismeasure 
from ten inches to 
fifteen inches in 
length, and from 
two inches to three 
inches in breadth. 
In a young state 
they are of a pale 
yellowish — green, 
which, as they ad- 
vance in growth, 
changes to a deep 
olive green, and 
ultimately, before 
they decay, they 
assume a dark- 
brown hue. Of the 
structure of the 
leaves little need 
be said, as a glance 
at our illustration 
will at once explain 
that. When fully 
grown they re- 
semble a piece of 
lace or lattice work, 
but when very 
young the openings 
to which they owe 
their _ peculiarity 
are filled up with 
cellular tissue, 
which as the 
leaves increase in 
growth disappears. 

Of this singular 
water plant there is 
a good specimen at 
present inatropical 
house in the 
Royal Gardens at 
Kew. This has no 
fewer than 173 
leaves on it, the 
largest of which 
are 15} inches in 
length and 3} 
inches in breadth. 
This plant is 
growing in a tin 
pan, seven inches 
deep and fourteen 
inches in diameter, 
in a compost of 
fresh, turfy, yellow 
loam, and a good 
admixture of silver 
sand. In the bot- 
tom of the pan a 
layer of crocks is 
laid, over which 


some of the roughest pieces of the loam are placed, and 
the remainder filled up with the compost from which the 
finest part had been separated. In potting, the soil is | 
pressed rather firmly around the plant, and the whole is 
watered with tepid water through a fine rose, an operation 
which not only firmly settles the soil, but thoroughly 
cleanses the leayes. The last time this plant was potted 


DR 
955088 
Vipy’" 

/) : 


was in August 1870, but perhaps the beginning of April 
is a better time for performing this operation. On a side 


shelf in the warmest part of one of the stoves is a wooden 


ANN 


The Lattice-L 


eaf Plant (Ouvirandra fenestralis) 


tub fourteen inches deep and two feet six inches in diameter ; 
in the bottom of this are placed an inch or two of cleanly 
washed pebbles, and the remainder is filled up with soft water. 


In this the pan 
containing the 
plant is placed, the 
top of which when 
the tub is full of 
water is about six 
inches under the 
surface. 

Some may think 
this too near the 
surface, but ex- 
perience has proved 
that the plant 
succeeds very well 
at that depth. In 
shallow water the 
leaves float im- 
mediately below 
the surface, al- 
though in our 
illustration they 
would appear to be 
much deeper. 

The temperature 
of the house in 
which it grows 
ranges during the 
winter months 
from 55° at night 
to 65° during the 
day, with sun heat, 
and this is in- 
creased as _ the 
days adyance in 
length. An ordi- 
nary-sized pot of 
soft water is placed 
beside the heating 
pipes every eve- 
ning, an the 
following morning 
its contents are 
emptied over the 
plant through a 
fine rose into the 
tub, which is kept 
level so as to ad- 
mit of an equal 
overflow of the 
water on all sides. 
By this means the 
plant is not only 
benefited by the 
daily application of 
fresh water, but 
also by the speedy 
remoyal of any 
sediment likely to 
accumulate about 
the leaves. Con- 
feryzee sometimes 
prove troublesome 
to the lattice plant, 
and some kinds of 


water are more favourable for their production than others. 
Should their presence about the plants become apparent, they 
should be at once remoyed; the aquarium should be well washed 
with clean water; fresh gravel or pebbles ought to be introduced, 
and the plants should be watered rather forcibly overhead, 
and returned as soon as possible to their former quarters. 
The flower spikes rise-directly from the root to a few inches 


966 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


above the water, and are separated at the apex into two, and 
sometimes more, divisions, which produce flowers of a whitish 
colour. Seeds from these flowers frequently ripen, and if 
sown immediately will produce young plants. From-~ seed 
saved and sown at Kew in 1870, as many as fifty nice young 
plants have been raised. Young plants, too, come up thickly 
from self-sown seed on the surface of the soil around the 
parent and sometimes amongst the pebbles in the bottom. 
This [have seen often happen at Dalvey, in the north of Scotland, 
where the Ouvirandra is very successfully cultivated. The 
plants there are grown in an earthen pan in the warmest corner 
of an orchid house, and are treated exactly similar to the one 
at Kew. Young plants, however, require a hicher temperature 
during the winter months than established ones. 

Besides seeds, the Ouvirandra may be propagated by means 
of division of the roots which are very tenacious of Hie. 
Mr. Ellis,in his “Madagascar Revisited” (fo which we are 
indebted for our illustration), tells us that it grows there “in 
places which are dry at certam seasons of the year, that the 
leaves then die down, but that the root buried in the mud 
retaims its vitality, and when the water returns fresh leaves 
burst forth. Whenever the earth around even the smallest 
portion of if remains moist, that portion puts forth leaves 
when again coyered with water.” 

The other species from Madagascar, O. Berneriana, requires 
deeper water than O-fenestralis. Its leaves, are nof so open, 
and are from fifteen to twenty inches mM length. If is,im short, 
altogether a coarser-growing plant than O. fenestralis. 


MY INDOOR BRITISH FERNERY. 


THREE years ago I had a lean-to house built, forty-three feet 
long, and twelve feet wide, one end of which (about fifteen feet) 
is shaded by the dwelling-house. On account of the want of sun I 
found that the plants did not thrive so well in the shaded end of the 
house as they did in the other. 

Two years ago, being desirous of makine a collection of British 
Ferns, I paid a visit to Devonshire, where I was fortunate enough to 
get some beautiful kimds, some account of which I haye already 
given in your paper (see p. 376). When I came home I thought 
it was a pity to have such a number of nice Ferns and no place to 
plant them where they would be seen to advantage, I mean on 
rockwork, as I think Ferns do not look so well grown in any other 
way- So I made up my mind that I would partition off a portion of 
my lean-to house for my British Ferns, which I did. 

The partition and door are cf glass. Around the door I formed an 
arch of virgin cork, in which pockets were made and filled with 
Ferns, Echeverias, and Ivy. When you enter the door the highest 
part of the house is to your richt hand, and the path next the wall. 
I intend to cover the wall this season with virgi cork, with pockets 
similar to that of the arehway. As you enter on your left a raised 
bank rons along that side of the house, and across the end is a 
_ Slopmg bank, composed of flints and burrs. The centre of the upper 
part of this bank sweeps in im the form of a horseshoe, in the centre 
of which curve is an oval basin, four feet lone, two feet wide, and 
two feet six inches deep; round the edge are Mosses, Grasses, and 
Ferns drooping down into the water. In the centre of the basin is 
a Kind of rustic yase,in which is growing Selaginella denticulata, 
out of which rises an ornamental spray of water, which forms a 
pretty lttlefountain. I have here and there Sedums and Echeverias 
growing on the rockwork, which have a pretty effect amongst the 
Ferns. I intend to plant this season two good large plants of 
Tacsonia Van Volxemii, and tram them on wires all over the roof, 
which will look very well I have no doubt. - 

This part of the house is not heated ; but when the partition door 
is open (which it is all wimter), the temperature is never lower 
than 50° or 55° in the day, and 45° at night, which keeps the Ferns 
green all the year round; but when the young fronds are coming 
up, I cut off the old ones, as they are Hable to push the young 
fronds out of shape. The bank on which the rockwork is built is 
made of loam, leaf-mould, coarse sand,.and a little peat. Now that 
the roots of my Ferns have got well into this mixture, they are 
throwing up young fronds very stronsly. In winter I sive the 
Ferns, &c., water now and then when the weather is mild; but, of 
course, they do not require very much, as it is not their growing 
season. In the spring I syringe them once a day, and now (May) 
I shall syringe them morning and evenine. On fine days I 
leave the entrance door open from about nine in the morning till 
four in the afternoon, when I syringe and shut up for the night; 


but im summer you can hardly give too much air and water over- 
head and at the roots of your plants. The path of my house is 
made of cement. I like it best for houses that are not supposed to 
be very ornamental, as after your house is syringed, if you run a 
few cams of water over it and brash it out, it always looks clean 
and fresh. When the Ferns and other rock plants are im full 
perfection in summer, and the little fountai playing, with gold 
fish darting about in the water, my Fernery looks very pretty. 
Anyone who may have some house in which other Einds of plants 
will not grow well, or who may have some old neglected ones in 
the corner of their garden, may make a very pretty and effective 
British Fernery of it if they will only use a little taste and lay out 
avery smallsum. Mine quite repays me for my trouble, time, and 
expense. A. H., Upper Norwood. 


A REVISION OF THE GENUS DRACANA. 
BY DR. REGEL. 
(Continued from page 547.) 
DRACENA CONCINNA (HORT. BEROL.). 

Sreu almost tree-like, simple. sometimes as much as two 
inches in diameter, clothed with leaves at the top; leaves 
sessile, recurved-patent, leathery, lmear-lanceolate, from G to 
3 inches broad, and from 2 to 22 feet long, with a stout midrib 
scarcely rising above the level of the upper surface but pro- 
minently convex beneath, folded longitudmally im a remark- 
able manner, striated with fine nerves and veils, and haying a 
well-defined red margin; flowers unknown. Probablya native 
of tropical Africa. fj 

Synonyms—Dracena maremata (Rel), Draczena margmata, 


yar. concinna (C. Koch.), Cordyline Betschleriana (Gopp-), _ 


Draceena Betschleriana (C. Koch.). 
DRACHINA MARGENATA (LAM). 

Stem shrubby, branched, 4 to = of an inch in diameter, 
clothed with leaves entirely or down to the middle; leaves 
sessile, somewhat membranons. } io Sof an inch broad, and 1 
to 12 foot long. narrowly lmear-lanceolaie, gradually and for a 
great distance attenuated-acuminate, with a midrib which is 
visible enough on the upper surface and prominent underneath, 
traversed by a few longitudinal folds which are often scarcely 
visible, striated with fine nerves and vems, and with a well- 
defined red margin; flowers unknown. Madagascar. _ 

Synonyms—Dracena tessellata (Willd.), Draczena mauritiana 
(Hort. Berol.). 

DRACHNA ENSIFOLIA (WALL.). 

Stem tree-like, often branched, clothed with leaves entirely 
or down to the middle; leaves sessile, narrowly lmear-lanceo- 
late, not variegated, slightly undulated, with a midmb which 
is inconspicuous on the upper surface but prominent beneath, 
= to 12 inch broad, and from = to 13 foot long, concealmg 
the internodes of the stem with their claspimg bases ; panicle 
terminal, simple, more or less recurved, with horizontally 
patent or recurved branches, on which the very fragrant white 
flowers are loosely dispersed in threes or fours, and accom- 
panied with scarious obiuse bracts much shorter than the 
pedicels ; tube shorter than the divisions of the corolla, which 
are about an inch long; style longer than the stamens. East 
Indies. 

Synonyms—Dracena fruticosa (C. Koch.), Draczena quitensis 
and arborea (Hort.), Aletris cochin-chimensis (Hort.), Cordyline 
ensifolia (Fl. de Serres), Draczena exceisa (Ten.). 


DRACZNA BICOLOR (HOOK.). 
A half-shrubby plant with a shoré simple stem leafy at the 


top. Leaves oval, slightly undulated, narrowed at the base~ 


into a short channeled stalk, abruptly and shortly acaminate 
at the point, with a thick midrib about 2$inches broad and 5 
incheslong. Raceme terminal with capitate branches, sub- 
globose, surrounded with bracts, and having the flowers closely 
set together. Flowers nearly sessile, each surrounded with 
lanceolate purple bracts as long as the tube of the corolla. 
Corolla white ; tube cylindrical ; divisions patent, oblong-linear, 
shorter than the tube and withanarrow red margin. Tropical 
Africa, near Fernando Po (Mann). 4 


” DRACHNA JAVANICA (KUNTH). 


Stem erect, shrubby, simple or branching; scales at the lower 
joints searious, clasping, ultimately deciduous. Leaves oblong- 


| 
| 
: 
: 


ee ~~ 


May 18, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


567 


elliptical, slightly undulated, narrowed at the base into a 
channeled stalk about half-an-inch long, attenuated at the 
end into a recurved point or shortly acuminate, with a midrib 
searcely rising above the surface, and traversed by very fine 
longitudinal veins from 14 to 2 inches broad, and from 4 to 5 
inches long. Panicle terminal, sessile, simple, with a few 
bracts at the base ; branches patent or nearly horizontal, loosely 
racemose. Flowers from one to three together, on short stalks 
and with bracts about two lines long, shorter than the pedicels ; 
corolla about an inch long; tube cylindrical ; divisions oblong- 
linear, patent, about as long as the tube. 

Synonyms—Dracena elliptica (Hook.), Sanseviera javanica 
(Blume), Cordyline Sieboldi (Mig. fi. jav.), Draczena surculosa 
(Hort. Berol). Java and Sumatra. 

A variety Draczena javanica maculata has the leaves marked 
with white spots. Synonyms—Dracena elliptica, var, macu- 
lata (Hook.), D. maculata (Roxbrg. fl. ind. and Kuth. enum.), 
Cordyline maculata (Fl. d. Serres, and Mig. fl. Jav.). 

DRACENA TERNIFOLIA (ROXBRG.). 

Scales at the lower joints of the stems herbaceous, patent. 
Leaves somewhat broadly elongated-lanceolate, lengthened 
acuminate, 2 to 3 inches broad, and from 8 to 12 inches long 
(ineluding the stalk, which is from 1 to 3 inches long). Panicle 
with a stalk from 2 to 3 inches long; branches ascending. 
Flowers in threes, or, less frequently, in pairs, stalked. Bracts 
Scarious, unequal, the inner ones short, the outer one about 
as long as, or longer than, the panicle. In other respects like 
the preceding species. I have seen dried specimens which 
had been gathered by Griffith, and which are described by 
Hooker in No. 5,880, Bot. Mag. Eastern Bengal. 

Synonym—Cordyline ternifolia (Fl. d. Serres). 

(To be continued.) 


Tue following lines written by Douglas Jerrold in Miss Blanche 
Paxton’s album refer to her being supported on one of the leaves of 
the Royal Water Lily (Victoria regia) :— 


On unbent leaf, in fairy guise, 
Reflected on the water ; 

Beloved, admired by hearts and eyes, 
Stands Annie, Paxton’s daughter. 


Accept a wish, my little maid, 
Begotten by the minute ; 

That scene so fair may never fade, 
Yon still the fairy in it. 


That all your life, nor care nor grief 
May load the winged hours 

With weight to bend a lily’s leaf, 
And all around be flowers. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


Pitcher Plants.—In shifting these care must be taken not to injure their 
roots. The pots into which they are to be put must be liberally and carefully 
erocked, and the soil should consist of two parts sphagnum and one part fibrous 
peat. Pot pretty firmly, and then give a good watering to settle all down. 
Afterwards shade, and keep the plants close in a warm moist atmosphere. They 
enjoy a brisk temperature and an abundant supply of humidity during their 
season of growth. In winter less warmth and less moisture will suffice; but 
— = La ir of the house in which they are kept should never fall 
mui low 60°. 


Aubrietia in Pots——About twelve months agoI got some cuttings of two 
very fixe, and, to me, new Aubrietias; they were easily struck, and during the 
summer I planted them in the open ground. Wishing to see them to the best 
advantage, I potted up a strong plant of each into twenty-four sized pots shortly 
before Christmas, and left them for two months in a cold frame. About the 
middle of February I put them in a cool house, and by the end of the month 
they were in good bloom. From that time to this they have continued to flower 
Without intermission, and the plants are now from twelve inches to fifteen 
a cn ough, and I expect them to continue blooming until the middle of 

y.—A. D. 

New Japan Primrose.—! find that this Primrose (Primula japonica) will 
flower early in a cool greenhouse. I had three plants of it last autumn which 

. Were all kept moderately atthe root during October and November. The 
4 leaves soon decayed, and the plants remained in an apparently lifeless state 

for six weeks. Soon after Christmas they were removed to the warmest part of 
a cool greenhouse, and well watered ; the potsstanding in pans, and constantly 
supplied with tepid water. : They soon showed si of new life, grew vigorously, 
= oe me hina oe ain e first al . —— is now 

ginning to decay, an‘ look forw: ‘or a good supply of early seed. This 
Primrose will doubtless become a great favourite for cut flowers.—W. 
BrEsToz. 


_ Wey is a man who can’t learn by experience like a laurel? Because he 
is an evergreen. 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


BARK-BORING INSECTS. 
(Continued from p. 548). 


THERE are one or two other points which are applicable to 
many of the bark-boring species as well as to the Scolytus, 
and which we may therefore dispose of in advance as generali- 
ties. One of these is the possibility of preventing their 
attacks, or curing the trees which have been attacked. Various 
plans have been propounded for this, but, so far as we know, 
they are all modifications of one idea, viz., to scrape off the 
bark where the tree is attacked, destroy the grubs and 
eggs in it, and to tar or paint over the exposed surface with 
some mixture injurious to the grubs but not to the tree. The 
most eminent professor of this method was M. Robert, who 
carried it out in a systematic way, and under whose directions, 
or according to whose recommendations, many trees, both in 
France and in this country, were treated a good many years 
ago. In the International Exhibition of 1862 he exhibited 
various specimens, showing his mode of operation, and others 
showing the result of it, so far as that could be shown in hand 
specimens. These consisted of portions of trees from which 
the bark had been removed, and which had healed up and were 
free from recent traces of galleries of bark-borers. 

A more recent testimony to the efficacy of the plan was 
given the other day in one of our gardening periodicals 
(Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1872, p. 78), in which the result of the 
treatment upon some trees in Regent’s Park, after a lapse 
of nearly thirty years, was recorded. It was from the pen of 
Mr. Sowerby, the secretary of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and 
as it is a very fair specimen of the grounds on which success is 
often claimed for the method, we think it may be useful to quote 
it, and endeavour to estimate its relevancy and value. He 
says :— 

“When the Botanic Society in 1839 entered on the ground 
in Regent’s Park it was found to be encircled by a belt of 
elm trees, many of which were infested, and were being rapidly 
destroyed, by the larvz of the goat moth (Cossus ligniperda), 
and that more fatal pest, Scolytus destructor, a little beetle 
not larger than the common ‘ Death Watch.’ This belt of elm 
trees was not included in the lease of the ground to the 
Society, but retained under the management of the Crown 
officers; however, in 1842, ee was granted to the 
Society to experiment upon the trees, with a view to prevent 
their total destruction; and so successful was the plan then 
adopted, that during the past twenty-three years only occa- 
sionally has an individual of either of the depredators made 
its appearance. One small tree, which by accident Ene to 
have escaped attention and care, is quite dead, and fully illus- 
trates the rapid and fatal work of the beetle. Although all 
the other trees in the belt are in robust health and vigour (for 
London), many of them exhibit full evidence of the scars and 
scrapings of our early operators.” 

At first sight this seems strong evidence in favour of the 
practice, but there are one or two inferences which may be 
drawn from it, which we think reduce its value. The allusion 
to the old scars and no new ones shows that the treatment has 
not been repeated. If it was it which got rid of them twenty- 
three years ago, it has not been it which has kept them away 
ever since. The beetle is abundant all round London, and 
if the trees had been in a fit state for its purposes we may be 
sure that the insect would soon have found its way back to 
them. It is the vigour of the trees which has kept them away, 
and that vigour cannot have in any way been due to the scari- 
fying twenty-three years ago. It is not pretended that that 
can add to the vigour of the tree. All that it professes to do 
isto take away an element which is destroying the vigour, and 
so allows the natural growth to be resumed. But we have 
already explained that it is only where that natural vigour is 
defective that the insect comes. It would therefore have con- 
tinued defective here had not something else been done to 
restore it; and we imagine we are by no means assuming as a 
fact what is only a probability, when we take it for granted 
that the able managers of the Botanic Gardens, when exerting 
themselves twenty-three years ago to save the trees around the 
garden, would never limit their exertions to these scarifications 


568 THE GARDEN. 


{May 18, 1872. 


to get rid of the insect enemy. It would be an obvious libel 
upon their skill and judgment to suppose that they did not 
thin the trees, refresh the soil, and take every other known 
means to restore them to vigour; and if they did so we have 
them placed in the required condition for resisting and defeating 
the attacks of the Scolytus without the clearing process 
at all. 

If this is the practical conclusion to which this experiment 
leads us, the theoretical examination of the principles involved 
in the treatment does not hold out a much better prospect of 
advantage from its employment. The weak part of the tree, 
indeed the only part of the tree that can be injured by the 
attacks of insects, is the living, growing part. ‘The solid 
timber is not living; it is dead organic matter preserved from 
decay by the impervious enclosure of the living envelope, and 
may be eaten away by insects without any other damage to 
the life of the tree than the enfeebling of the support by 
which it is maintained erect; so the bark is dead organic 
matter, which insects may consume, and sweep away without 
any other harm to the life of the tree than the exposure of 
the living envelope to the inclemency of the weather and 
external injury. The only living part of the tree is the 
cambium, lying between the bark and the wood, in which the 
formation of sap and the deposit of wood on the one hand, 
and bark on the other, is carried on, and which wraps up the 
whole tree from the minutest fibril of the roots to the 
extremity of the buds and leaves. This is the only thing 
that can be hurt by the attacks of insects, and it is only by 
consuming it that the Scolytus and other bark-boring insects 
bring about the deterioration and death of trees. Of course 
we do not mean to say that insects do not occasion damage 
by boring in the wood of trees, but the damage in that case 
is damage to the timber, not to the tree—to a product of the 
tree, not to the tree itself asa living entity. The position 
of the matter then is this—the Scolytus bores not only in the 
bark, an operation which is harmless or comparatively so, but 
in the cambium. M. Robert’s process only touches the bark. 
If he were to remove the cambium, he would do the very 
mischief that the Scolytus is doing, only in a much more 
wholesale and destructive manner; and his effort is to remove 
all the bark where the insect is at work, and to expose, without 
breaking into the cambium, so that the grubs at work im it 
may be laid bare and open to the application of tar or any 
other mixture that may be preferred as fatal to animal life 
and harmless to vegetable life. We do not say that this 
cannot be done, but we do venture to say that it is an operation 
of great delicacy, and that there are ten chances to one that 
it will not be successfully done. Hither too little of the 
bark will be removed, when the majority of the grubs will 
be left ; or too much will be taken, when the cambium will be 
injured; and we need not remind our readers that if you 
girdle the tree—that is, break the continuity of the cambium 
all round—the tree dies. It is fair to add, however, that the 
plan has this advantage, that it is chiefly on the main stems 
and large limbs that the Scolytus settles itself; so that when 
these parts haye been examined and treated, it will rarely be 
found necessary to go to the smaller branches, which would 
be an impossible labour. 

All delicate and troublesome operations, however, are slow 
and costly, and this is no exception to the general rule. The 
expense attending this operation would be an absolute barrier 
to its general application, however sure its success might be. 
In any case, it can only be had recourse to for individual trees, 
which the owner has special reasons for preserving at any 

cost. Hvyen for these, however, the plan is open to this great 
and, as it seems to us, fatal objection. The present crop of 
Scolyti removed, the general health of the tree is not thereby 
one whit amended; on the contrary, probably injured by the 
exposure and injury of the cambium in the process. Next 
year the tree continues in the same state of debility which 
invited the swarms of Scolytus last year; a fresh immigration 
takes place; again the trees are examined,and more of the 
bark removed; and still in the following year the same thing 
goes on, and we see no end to it until we have all the trees 
about standing shivering without their bark; and how long they 
would suryive that we cannot tell, for no one, we suppose, has 
eyer carried out the method to the bitter end. 


The true remedy for the Scolytusis to improve the health 
of the tree. It may be that draining is needed, or that too 
much has been done, or that the soil is exhausted or bound 
about the roots. Hyery case must be examined on its own foot- 
ing, and different modes of treatment will be necessary for 
different causes of mischief; but one remedy, which, for our 
own part, we would under no circumstances have recourse to, 
is M. Robert’s method of scarifying the bark of the tree. 

A. M. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON GARDEN DESTROYERS. 


Grubs v. Ranunculuses. — Search wherever the grubs destroying your 
Ranunculuses appear or are suspected. Portions of carrot of last year’s growth 
placed an inch below the surface between the rows at intervals, with a short 
Stick indicating the spot where they are placed, will prove an attraction to 
grubs and wire-worms ; they must be taken up now and then, and the enemy 
captured and destroyed. 


Early Appearance of Moths and_ Butterflies.—These haye been out 
unusually early this year; but I thought it especially early to note on April 29th, 
perched on a yellow wallflower, a fine specimen of the ‘‘ Emperor,” showing off 
its rich coloured wings tothe best advantage. Particularly noteworthy, too, was 
a busy humming-bird moth gaily flitting from flower to flower. Hven much 
farther south I have seldom obseryed this moth until summer had been con- 
siderably adyanced.—D. 

Aphides.—We must prevent these getting a foothold on the trees, and be up 
and at them at once. There are many who lose all for want of promptitude. 
They see a few aphides, and look upon them as hardly worth attacking; they 
will wait till they may fight them in battalions. Such waitingmeansruin. By 
killing the first few we may destroy a thousand or million inthe germ, When they 
reach millions the mischief is wrought. The shower of tobacco water then may 
slay its thousands, but it leaves but the wreck of leaves and shoots behind if. 
Syringe the trees with tobbacco water diluted with two or four parts water to 
one of tobacco, according to its strength. 

Ants.—Being fond of roses, I have deyoteda great part of my garden to 
choice sorts ; but, to my dismay, ants have taken up their abode near the roots 
of some of my best standards and dwarfs ; and not having forgotten the article 
in your paper, ‘‘ Aphides and their Friends,’ Iam all the more anxious to get 
rid of the intruders as soonas possible. Can you help me?—{Try sprinklings 
of petroleum or guano, which have been proved to be very distasteful to ants; 
sometimes they will build a city under an inverted flower-pot, in which case, 
city and all may be taken away on ashovel; or you may catch themin quantities 
on pieces of coarse sponge dipped in treacle water, visiting them often, and 
throwing the sponge into scalding water. ] 

Food of Small Birds.—My crop of cherries is almost destroyed by birds. I 
have a greengage tree with almost every bud picked out, and there is much 
havoc done to several other plums. I haye been shooting small birds in my 
garden since last May, and opening them. In no case haye I found anything 
but vegetable matter in their crops, except in the case of two spinks. Eachhad 
a caterpillar in its crop, but one of them also a dozen seeds to this caterpillar. 
I think this ought to be conclusive as to the evil that small birds are doing me. 


Almost all who take to gardening find ont the injury small birds do. Two years’ _ 


gardening convinced me that I could not haye small birds and crops both inthe 
same garden. Two years ago a neighbouring clergyman came to his living; he 
was then much in fayour of small birds ; now he wants to find a suitable means 
of destroying them.—I,, in “‘ Field.” 


THE NEW CEMETERY AT PHILADELPHIA. 


Tuer most creditable city improvements yet carried out by 
the Americans are their noble cemeteries. These are as great 
an advance upon ours as it is possible to conceive. They are 
im some cases as large as national parks, and as full of flowers 
and trees as a choice garden. Hyen small country villages 
have followed the example of the cities, and instead of the 
old-fashioned “ God’s Acre,” where those who had been friends 
and neighbours in life were not separated in death, we see 
imitations of Greenwood, Laure] Hill, or Mount Auburn, with 
their drives, walks, and avenues; their select lots, railed in 
with stone and iron; their costly monuments, adorned with 
sculpture, and with other devices to rob the thought of death 
of somewhat of its gloom. In many respects the: change isa 
beneficial one, especially in the matter of healthfulness. 

Nevertheless, when, about thirty-five years ago, the idea of 
such cemeteries was broached, it encountered great oppo- 
sition. This soon gave way, however; and now, as we have 
said, every large city, and almost every growing village, in 
America has its cemetery. Many of the leading cities, indeed, 
have more than one. There are half a dozen or more within 
driving distance of New York; and now Philadelphia has 
lately consecrated that of West Laurel Hill, in addition to 
the old Laurel Hill Cemetery, which is ‘one of the finest 
cemeteries in the world, and occupies a beautiful and com- 
manding site. 

- When at Philadelphia we examined these two cemeteries, 
accompanied by their founder, Mr. J. Jay Smith, of Philadelphia, 
who edited the last edition of Michaux’s “North American 
Sylva,” and were greatly surprised at their vast extent, and the 


2 


May 18, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


19 ITH THUOVI LSaM 


Hl 


ne 


‘KUALA 


advyiHd 


‘VIHdT 


570 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


beauty of the position they occupy on the high wooded slopes 
and hills on both sides of the river. 

The new cemetery is situated at such a distance from the 
city as to preclude the danger of the ground being required 
for building purposes. It is likewise bounded on the east by 
the valley and river of the Schuylkill, and on its northern and 
southern sides by ravines so deep and precipitous as to insure 
that no engineering skill will ever pierce them with roads or 
streets. It consists of a delightfully undulating plateau, 
situated on a bluff projecting into the Schuylkill, thus con- 
stituting it a promontory bounded on three sides by the deep 
valleys already mentioned. 

Our illustration, for which we are indebted to Hazper’s 
Weekly, is a view from one of the least elevated parts of 
Laurel Hill, looking towards the city of Philadelphia. We do 
not remember the size of this cemetery, but half a dozen 
Kensal Greens would not be missed out of it. Having visited 
the two Laurel Hills, we were somewhat surprised afew hours 
later to pass another very large and ornamental cemetery, 
namely, Mount Vernon, when on our way to see Mr. Buist, 
the well-known nurseryman of Philadelphia. Not the least 
interesting or admirable feature of these fine cemeteries, is the 
room allotted to each family and to each graye. Hach family 
possesses a lot—quite a little garden, in which the graves are 
dotted about, and which is usually neatly kept and well 
planted. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


NEW FRUITS. 


PorrE DES PEINrRES.—A seedling of Louise Bonne de Printemps; 
grafts of which, worked in 1859, did not fruit until 1869. Tree tall, 
vigorous, and very productive. Fruit oval-pyriform, of medium or 
large size; at first of a grass-green colour, marked with numerous 
small red dots in lines at regular distances from each other; changing 
toa deep yellow, tinged with brilliant carmine on the side exposed 
to the sun. Flesh rather fine-grained, white, melting, juicy, sugary, 
and perfumed, Ripens about the end of August and in September, 
and should be gathered some time before it is fully ripe and while 
the skin is green, otherwise it loses both in appearance and quality. 

Pyrus Snmionm.—A new pear tree, named after M. Hugene Simon, 
who sent it ten years ago from China to the Museum in the Jardin 
des Plantes, with several others which haye not yet frnited. Tree 
vigorous; leayes very deeply toothed (a character peculiar to all 
the Chinese pear trees yet introduced). Fruits nearly spherical, 
about two inches in diameter, on very short stalks, of a pale green, 
becoming yellowish when ripe, and marked all over with grey spots. 
Flesh yellowish white, brittle, sometimes melting, extremely juicy, 
acid, sugary, vinous, and with a peculiar aromatic flayour, somewhat 
like that of the quince or the Reinette Apple. The juice of this 
fruit is so abundant, and keeps its flayour so well, that it will 
probably make excellent perry. Ripens in September and does not 
keep long. 


NORTH AND SOUTH. 
OR THE BEST ASPECTS FOR FRUIT WALLS. 

Tr has long been my opinion—and, as further experience has 
made me more acquainted with the quantity and continued supply 
required by most families in the present day, I am confirmed in that 
opinion—that, for the general purposes of early and late supply, 
the walls ought to face almost exclusively north and south. On one 
or the other of these may be brought to perfection every hardy 
fruit cultivated in this country, and, what is of more consequence, 
the season of most of them may be greatly extended. Indeed, in 
cases where families are not accustomed to retire to their country 
seats until the breaking up of Parliament or the approach of the 
shooting season, it is quite indispensable to have a good stretch of 
north walls, in order to be able to retard the ripening of some of 
the kinds ; and aspect will affect this to a greater extent than many 
would suppose. I have observed that the difference in the time of 
ripening the same kinds on south and north aspects is often as much 
as three weeks ; and the length of time which fruit will hang on, 
and keep fresh and plump, is much greater on the north wall. To 
enter into more practical detail, let us take cherries as an example, 
and I have no hesitation in stating that most kinds of cherries may 
be brought to great perfection on a north wall. They will crop 
there with more certainty, because the expansion of the bloom is 


retarded, and they will ripen as well, with a perfectly good flavour; 
and therefore, bearing in mind the utility of a late supply, I would 
only plant a very few sorts on a south aspect, and all the rest on 
the north. I should thus have a certainty of prolonging the general 
season of these fruits greatly beyond the usual period. Again, the 
advantage of a north aspect for red and white currants is well 
known; but it may not be so generally known that the old 
Warrington gooseberry may be had in perfection from a north 
wall long after those in the open quarters are all gone. 

Who that knows the wants of a large establishment can haye too 
much south wall or south borders for early crops? or north wall 
and north borders for summer crops? And let me add that the 
other two aspects are of little comparative advantage with regard 
to the summer consumption, because they fill up no gap in the 
season which will not be filled to greater advantage by the northern 
and southern aspects. The best fruits for east and west walls, 
therefore, will be pears, which, being principally autumn and 
winter frnits, do not affect the general consumption. These con- 
siderations would seem to point to the great advantage to be derived 
from laying out our kitchen gardens in parallelograms rather than 
squares ; so that, if a given space is to be enclosed, it will be better 
to have it in two or three long compartments, running from east to 
west, soas to give nearly all north and south walls. The spaces 
between these walls could be more easily worked, and to much 
greater profit, than large open squares. The flavour of some fruits 
from a north wall is inmost seasons equal to that from other aspects; 
but, as many are disposed to doubt this, I will just state why I have 
come to that conclusion. The temperature of a north aspect is, 
on the year’s average, far more equable than any other, and less 
liable to the extremes of heat and cold; this, then, is one reason 
why fruit trees may be supposed to crop and flourish well in the 
absence of the direct rays of the sun. And as for the flavour, 
provided the trees are not over-cropped, it is quite as good without 
sun as with it; nay. it is somewhat preferable, for I have often 
seen apricots and greengage plums on south aspects quite ripe on 
the side exposed to the sun, and green and hard on the opposite 
side; whereas, at the same time, I have found many fruits covered 
with leaves, and on which the sun’s rays had never shone direct, 
perfectly and equally ripe, with a rather paler colour it is true, but 
with flavour quite equal to the best bits of the scorched ones. Does 
not even this show that direct sunlight is not absoluteiy necessary to 
ripening and flavour? In the case of cherries, from the May Duke 
to the most exquisitely favoured Bigarrean, the flayour is perfectly 
equal to that obtained in any other aspect, if they are allowed to 
hang long enough on the trees.—John Cox, Redleaf, in “ Moore and 
Ayre’s Magazine of Botany.” 


PEACH TREES AND CHALK. 


I HAveE never failed, during eight years in succession, to have 
excellent crops of Peaches on open walls, with no other protection 
than that of fine hexagon netting, and I feel sure that if any of 
your correspondents will follow the course of treatment which I 
pursue, they will be equally successful, without incurring the 
expense of glass protections. Even this season the leaves of my 
trees are large, clean, and healthy; fruit is plentiful, and the young 
wood all that could be desired. The netting, too, has lasted these 
eight years, and is good even now; little expense has, therefore, 
been incurred in that direction. 

The treatment to which I subject my trees is as follows :—As 
soon as the fruit is gathered, I give them a thorough washing, and 
thin the leaves so as to admit sun and air to the wood, with the 
view of getting it well ripened. About the middle of December I 
unnail all thé young fruiting wood, and leave it loose until spring. 
As regards soil, I ought to state that I find Peach trees to be 
very fond of chalk; the best time to apply it is in November, when 
I carefully remove all soil for a distance of about six feet from 
the base of the trees, and lift all the roots with which I come in 
contact. In moving the trees I find five-tined forks to be best. 
When they are up, I get some fresh loam, and mix it with chalk, 
applying about four bushels of chalk to each tree, the roots of which 
are carefully spread out and covered with the mixture. Some very 
old trees here have been subjected to this treatment, and they are 
now in beantiful condition; their wood and fruit being all that I 
could desire. 

In spring, when the blossoms begin to open—or rather to show 
colour—I commence pruning and nailing; operations which are 
not left till they are all in flower and covered with the hexagon 
netting. There are, I need scarcely say, various ways of pruning ; 
but that which I have always worked on is what is called ‘“‘Seymonr’s 
system,” which consists in cutting out all old wood that has borne 
fruit, and nailing in the young base shoots. I never remove the 


May 18, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


ae 


netting after it is put on till the leaves have so far advanced in 
growth as to protect the fruit. I disbud and thoroughly wash my 
trees with soft soap and sulphur, or use Gishurst Compound, in 
order to kill the aphis or red spider; the wall and crevices, as 
well as the trees being subjected to a thorough cleaning. 

So successful, indeed, has my netting protection been, as well as 
my whole treatment, that I venture to recommend it to all who are 


desirous of having good crops of outdoor Peaches. I should add 
that I have the netting nailed tight, top and bottom. 
High Grove, Watford. G. Brus. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Strawberry Culture under Glass.—I have seen this season the best crops of 
this delicious fruit at Mr. John Westcott’s market gardens, Topsham, Devon, 
that I ever before met with in my long experience. Mr. Westcott having made 
for years the Strawberry his special study, has succeeded in producing in the 

t abundance and perfection this fruit from February till it comes on in 
the open ground. In low, long, narrow span-roofed pits, he has thousands of 
plants in every stage of fruiting, the berries hanging as thickly as hops, of 
immense size, perfect in colour, fine in flavour, and as solid as plums, fit to 
travel any distance when carefully packed. The varieties which he cultivates 
are the Goldfinder, Myatt’s splendid Old British Queen, Princess of Wales, and a 
sort called the Refresher ; the pe are not large, but strong and stubby, with 
short stemmed foliage, some of them throwing up such masses of hloom-stalks 
as to resemble clusters of Elder flowers rather than Strawberry blossoms ; every 
flower sets, and all the fruit in succession swells well. In short, Strawberry 
culture here is indeed a masterpiece.—James Barnes. 


Sun-spots and the Vine Crop.—As the connection of sun-spots with terre- 
strial phenomena is now largely occupying the attention of scientific men, the 
followmg facts may be of some interest. The years in which the vine crop in 
Germany was unusually good seem (in this century, at least) to have returned 
at regular intervals. The close coincidence of these years with the years of 
minimum sun-spots is shown by the following table :— 


Minimum Minimum 
of Snn-spots. Wine-years. of Sun-spots. Wine-years. 
17848 oe, 1784 1833°8 1834 
we =e (?) 18440 1846 
105 a 1811 " nea 1857 
1823-2 x 1822 woe a 1858 
t 1867°2 1863 


I may add that the gentleman who first remarked the regular recurrence of 
wine-years at intervals of about eleven years was not aware of the periodicity 
of the sun-spots, and could not therefore have been in any way prejudiced. 
The years given in the above table are the only ones known in Germany as good 
Wine-years. These facts agree with the results of Messrs. Piazzi Smyth and 
Stone, who found that the mean temperature on the surface of the earth was 
subjected to a period of eleven years.—Arthur Schuster, Owen’s College, Man- 
chester, in ‘* Nature.”’ 


Pear Blight.—A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator suggests that those 
who wish to record observations on the cause of pear blight should state :— 


I, Character of soil, whether clay, ¥. Cultivation, manures, &c. 
loam, or sandy. VI. Season, whether wet or dry, hot 
Il. Drained or undrained. or cool. 
Ill. Subsoil, whether clay, gravel VII. Time of appearance of blight. 
or slate. VIM. Varieties suffering most. 
IV. Planting, deep or shallow. IX. Health of trees first attacked. 


In recording the varieties of pears that succeed well or ill in each district or 
county in this country, it would also be well to notice these points, and also to 
mention the stock on which the trees are worked. 


RoE ARBORETUM. 


THE BEARDED TREES OF TEXAS. 
(TILLANDSIA USNEOIDES.) : 

Ove of the most striking features belonging to the forests 
of Texas that meets the traveller's eye, should he chance to 
arrive in that country in mid-winter, when the forests are 
disrobed of their summer beauty, is the long beard-like 
appearance which Tillandsia usneoides gives to the belts 
of trees and islands of timber, as the isolated clumps of 
forest are there termed; or those of the clearings, where 
some giant Oak or ponderous Magnolia, that have escaped 
the axe and fire of the settler, stand out boldly alone in the 
cotton and corn plantations, or by some freak of nature have 
been left standing solitary, or wildly dotted about the vast 
prairies. From the branches of these hang heavy masses of 
this Tillandsia, the grey hue and thread-like divisions of which 
give it the appearance of an old man’s massive beard. 

This Tillandsia not only attaches itself to the thick portions 
of the trees, but also to the most tender twigs, and clings 
with a tenacity that resists summer suns and winter blasts; 
beautiful to behold at both seasons, but more so in winter 
than at any other time of the year; for then it rocks back- 
wards and forwards in obedience to the roar of the chill 
northers, as they sweep over the vast prairies, giving the 


trees a wild, weird, and life-like appearance; or if undulating 
in the soft south breeze that often intervenes between the 
chill northers of the Texan winter, this beard-like Tillandsia 
gives to the noble monarchs of the forest the appearance of 
giant heads in calm repose. No one, indeed, could approach 
them in their winter form without a certain feeling of 
awe. 

But in addition to giving a gaunt look to the Texan forests, 
and other arborescent vegetation of that country, this Tillandsia 
has yet other uses; it gives ample employment to settlers in 
their spare hours from the cotton and corn labour. They col- 
lect this Tillandsia, and throw it into heaps for a short time, to 
allow the outer cuticle to decompose; then it is dried in the 
sun, beaten, and cleaned of the outer skin, and the result is a 
fibrous material almost equal to horsehair for stuffing mat- 
tresses, or for other upholstery work. Large quantities of 
the prepared fibre are annually sent to the furniture makers of 
the Northern States ; nevertheless, the collecting and exporting 
of this material has not yet assumed the magnitude an 
importance of cotton, although well-informed Texan authori- 
ties think that if the gathering and curing of it were carried 
out extensively and scientifically, it would be a more profitable 
business than even cotton-growing itself. This moss-like 
Tillandsia is eagerly sought after by the prairie cattle and 
horses, and is severely browsed down by them whereyer it 
grows within their reach. 

Tam of opinion that this Tillandsia would grow in the open 
air in Devonshire, and in other milder parts of England, parti- 
cularly if it were imported from Texas, where I have often 
seen ice a quarter of an inch in thickness. If brought from 
the West Indies, of which it is also a native, it might not 
succeed so well. Peter WALLACE. 


CONIFEROUS TREES IN CONNEMARA. 


WHEN passing through a portion of the county of Galway during 
the early part of the past month (April), an opportunity was afforded 
for our seeing what progress some of the recently-introduced 
Conifers were making in that part of Ireland. The first place we 
visited was Moytura, the country residence of Sir William Wilde. 
It is at the head of Lough Corrib, near Coug, and close to the lake, 
and is much exposed to the westerly winds from the Atlantic. The 
kinds of pines which are usually selected for affording shelter in 
such situations have been planted in considerable quantities, and 
among them nearly all that are hardy of the Himalayan and 
Californian species. Those of the former which seemed to be 
thriving best were the Deodar, Pinus Webbiana, and Abies Khutrow, 
all of which were making good plants, and had the appearance of 
being well calculated for that part of the country. Of the Cali- 
fornian sorts, Pinus nobilis and P. insignis were thriving well, 
particularly the latter. Thujopsis borealis and Thuja Craigana are 
also growing vigorously, and give promise to make fine trees after a 
few.years ; as do also the upright and spreading forms of Cupressus 
Lambertiana. 

On the opposite side of the river is Coug domain, the residence 
of Sir Arthur Guinness, where some of the rarer kinds of Conifers 
have been planted, and are growing freely. There we saw some fine 
thriving plants of Pinus insignis, which grows well on the limestone 
soil of the county, and shows itself to be admirably suited for the 
west of Ireland. We had afterwards several opportunities of seeing 
it exposed to the severest storms which visit this island near the 
Killiries and at Kylmore Castle, where it was making way well, and 
scarcely affected by the prevailing westerly winds direct from the 
sea. Where the Scotch Fir and Pinus maritima were planted near 
it, both suffered more than P. insignis, and neither was so healthy. 
It is evidently a hard struggle to get up wood in that treeless 
county, though some of the recent proprietors are making strenuous 
efforts to get the neighbourhood of their residences clothed with 
trees. At Kylmore Castle, Mitchell Henry, Esq., M.P. for Galway, 
is sparing no expense to effect this object, and the trees which have 
been thickly planted are now sheltering each other and taking fine 
hold of the soil. It is, therefore, to be expected that after a few 
years this romantic and wild-looking part of the county will be 
greatly beautified by woods. Although the coarser and hardier 
kinds of trees are those which have been planted in quantity, most 
of the rarer sorts also find a place there. 

We have already stated that we saw Pinus insignis growing 
vigorously, and we may also mention Pinus nobilis. Nearly every 
species of Conifer which is considered to be hardy, or nearly so, is 
already to be found in the collection at Kylmore Castle, which, 


572 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


oe 


although yet small, may be looked on with no inconsiderable degree 
of interest, as the experiment now making there to get up those 
ornamantal trees, will soon prove which kinds are best suited for 
being planted in that part of Ireland, either for shelter, profit, or 
ornament. 

We may add that the gardens and conservatories at Kylmore 
Castle are something marvellous in their way in such a county, 
though they are still in their infancy; and will be well worthy of 
being specially noticed by some competent tourist after the works 
now in progress have been finished. 

Mr. Armstrong, of Kylmore Lodge, has also been planting trees 


to a considerable extent, both in the mountain and near his residence ° 


on the shore of Kylmore Lake. In some instances they have failed 
twice, and he still perseveres, and has been making the vacancies 
good a third time. The growths which comparatively tender plants 
make in Connemara, show that it is not the cold which is the 
principal cause of trees being so difficult to establish there, as many 
plants which are cut down every winter on the east coast pass 
unscathed on the west. For example, at Kylmore Lodge and Lough 
Fee Lodge, the latter a fishing retreat of Sir William Wilde’s, the 
Fuchsia is the plant used for hedge-making. 

At Rynville House, the residence of Captain Blake, which stands 
on nearly the most westerly point of the Irish mainland, we saw 
a plant of Fuchsia Ricartonii fully sixteen feet high, with a stem 
about a foot in diameter, which has stood in the open ground there 
many years, and was flowering on the first day of April this year. 
Escallonia macrantha makes a magnificent plant there, where it 
flowers nearly the whole winter. The Pernettyas also grow very 
luxuriantly ; and other plants which are natives of the Magellan 
quarter of South America all seem to thrive well in Connemara. 

Dublin. D. & Co. 


EFFECTS OF FORESTS ON CLIMATE. 


Tue following observations made in 1866, 1867, and 1868, by M 
Mathieu, professor in the School of Forestry at Nancy, and reported 
by him in a paper read before the Congrés Agricole Libre, held at 
Nancy in June 1869, are interesting. Experiments were made upon 
the following points :-— 

1st. Does the wooded condition of a country exercise an influence 
upon the amount of rain it receives? ‘The answer to this question 
was attempted by taking two stations at an equal height above the 
sea, but separated between fifteen and twenty miles, the one situated 
in a wooded, and the other in a cultivated country, and observing 
the rainfall. The result, reduced to inches, was as follows :— 


Rainfall at the 


Agricultural Forest Difference. 
Station. Station. 

23°25 inches | 27-24imches | 3:99 inches 
Coe Tan ree |) ela tine By 248 3} 
D484 29°48 Cs, “6h 


$2°02 inches 93:13 inches 11°11 inches 


From which it appears that the most rain falls on the wooded 
country. 

2nd. Does the covert of the forest, by intercepting the rain falling 
from the atmosphere, diminish to a considerable extent the amount 
of rain that reaches the ground? ‘This was answered by placing 
rain-gauges beneath the trees and in the open ground, close at hand, 
and comparing results. Here they are :— 


| Under the In | 


| Trees. Open Ground. | Difference. 

8 Months, 1866 25:90 inches 26°20 inches | _‘30 inches 
Sete) op S187"; 34° x 36° lh nee a 
8 > 1863 27°67 Bs 29°48 ap 181 os 

HUSA, Soohernancernecee ee 87°74 inches 92°09 inches 4°35 inches 


This shows that some part of the rain does not reach the ground. 
Nevertheless, as is shown by the following table, more rain reaches 
the earth sheltered by the forest than the eaith lying in-the open 
country :— 


Soil bare of 


Soil covered : 
by Trees. | Trees. Difference. 
8 Months, 1866 25°90 inches | 23°25 inches 2°65 inches 
gre 867 S417 0 Scone “ogee 
8 “ 1868 27°67 + 24°34 ns 2°83 5 


87°74 inches | 82-02 inches 


3rd. What effect does the wooded state of a country have upen 
the conservation of the moisture received by the soil? An answer 


to this was sought in a comparison of the evaporation from two 
equal vessels, one placed in the forest, the other in the open ground. 
Evaporation went on five times as rapidly, taking the whole year 
into consideration, in the open airas in the forest, ranging from three 
to six times, between April and July; eighty-five per cent. of the 
rain falling in the open field evaporated, whilst only twenty-two of 
that falling in the forest was lost. 

4th. What is the influence of forests upon temperature? The 
experiments in this direction had been conducted but a short time, 
but go to show that the mean annual temperature is lower in the 
woods than in the open country, and that the difference is least in 
winter and greatest in summer. In 1868 the mean temperature of 
the forest was lower than that of the open fields, by 4°.35 in the 
morning, and 9°.33 at night, in July; which difference fell in 
December to 0°.48 in the morning, and 0°.94 at night. Again, the 
average variation in temperature was much greater in the open 
country than under the cover of the forest between day and night. 
It ranged from 0°.05 to 8°.57 in the open air, but only from 0°.04 to 
1°.22 in the forest. 


_ THE PLANES. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S 
TIE.—THE CAUCASIAN PLANE (PLATANUS DIGITATA—GORDON). 
Tuts very distinct Plane is a native of the Taurian Caucasus, 
where, in the mountain valleys, it forms a stately tree fifty feet 
high, with a straight stem four feet in diameter; while on 


Leaf of the Caucasian Plane.—Natural size, 6 inches long, including fcotstalk, 
and 6 inches broad. 


Mount Caucasus and other high elevations it is never much 
larger or higher than a large bush or tree-like shrub. 

The leayes are comparatively small, seldom exceeding six 
inches in length and the same in breadth; they are thick in 
texture, digitate, widest towards the base, slightly tapering 
at the footstalk, deeply divided into five open wedge-shaped, 
somewhat rounded lobes, which are more or less wavy and 
furnished with a pair of small side lobelets on the outer 
three, and a few large blunt serratures along the margins, 
terminated by small hard points; otherwise the edges are 
quite entire. The divisions between the principal lobes are 
yery open, deep, and rounded at the bottom, and the adult 
leaves, with the exception of being slightly woolly in the 
axils of the principal veins on the under sides, are quite 
smooth and bright green; while the young ones are densely 
coated, particularly on the under side and margins, with a 
short white tomentum, which gives to them a frosted appear- 
ance when very young. 


May 18, 1872. 


THE GARDEN. 


573 


The balls, or seed heads, are very small, seldom exceeding 
half an inch in diameter; they are thickly furnished with 
bristly points, downy, and crowded together on the peduncles, 
generally in threes, but sometimes as many as six are produced 
on one footstalk. The stem of the tree is long and straight, 
with the principal branches rather rigid, more or less tortuose, 
and somewhat distantly placed, the lower ones being spreading, 
the upper ones ascending, and the shoots slender. 

This Plane was first introduced by the late Messrs. Loddiges, 
of Hackney, about thirty years ago; and the largest trees of 


Twig of the Caucasian Plane. 


it in the neighbourhood of London, or perhaps in England, 
are those in the Victoria Park, which are now irom twenty- 
five to thirty feet in height, although by no means in a 
favourable situation. 


HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S. 


MISSOURI SILVER LEAF, OR BUFFALO BERRY (SHEPHERDIA ARGENTEA). 


Tus forms a striking and very elegant silvery-looking 
compact shrub of slow growth, but which, under favourable 
circumstances, will attain a height of from six to eight 
feet. It isa native of North America, particularly along the 
banks of the Mississippiand Missouri rivers and their tributary 
streams; is easily increased by the underground suckers, 
and grows well in any good garden soil that is not too dry. 
It was first introduced into this country in 1818. 

The leaves are alternate or opposite, ovate or ovate-oblong, 
rounded at the ends, glabrous on both surfaces, greyish-green 
above, but quite silvery and dotted all over with rusty brown 
scales beneath ; they are from one and a half to two inches long, 
and from one to one anda half inch broad,and are produced early 


in the season. The shoots and lesser branches are of a deep 
rusty brown colour, and furnished at the base of each of the 
lower leaves with flower buds. The flowers, which are pro- 
duced in April, are small, yellow, axillary, aggregate, and 
unisexual, or each sex upon a distinct plant. The female 
flowers are bell-shaped, equal, flat, and smaller than 
those of the males, and produced on short peduncles in 
racemes at the end of the branchlets, while the male ones are 
lateral, aggregate, and in groups that resemble a catkin. The 
berries, which ripen in September, are scarlet, transparent, 
acid, and about the size of the red currant, but richer in taste; 
they are much relished in America, where they form one con- 
tinued cluster on every branch and twig of the plant, and are 
called Buffalo Berries and Rabbit Berries, and (by the American 
Indians) Beef Suet. 

The Shepherdia argentea is well adapted for small gardens 
or the front of the shrubbery, but as the sexes are produced on 
different plants, it requires to have a plant of each sex placed 
near each other, or, what is better, so close as to form but one 
bush, or no fruit will be the result. 


THE DOUBLE FLOWERING CHINESE CHERRY (CERASUS SERRULATA). 


Tus cherry forms a very ornamental deciduous somewhat 
erect tree-like shrub from six to eight feet high, with stout 
branches sparsely furnished with laterals, which in April are 
thickly clothed with numerous clusters of large double 
flowers, that remain long in perfection; on account of 
this and its dwarf tree-like appearance, it is the most desirable 
of all the double flowered cherries for a small garden. It isa 
native of the north of China, where it is called ‘ Young-To.” 
It grows freely in any good garden soil, and is increased either 
by budding or grafting on the common cherry stock. It was 
first introduced into this country in 1822. 

The leaves are oboyate-pointed, quite smooth, bristly ser- 
rated on the edges, alternate on the young shoots, but more or 
less crowded together on the other parts, and very like those 
of the Bigarreau cherry, both in size and shape. ‘The flowers 
are double, white at first, but afterwards, when fully expanded, 
tinged with red and produced in clusters on the previous 
year’s growth. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 


es ’ 
Sciadopitys verticillata.—Can anyone inform me if this is quite 
if not, to what extent? Also, what is the largest known speci 
country ?—DENDROPHILTATOS. 


The Big Trees of Australia.—I see that it has been frequently stated in 
your journal that specimens of Eucalyptus have been discovered in Australia 
which exceed in height the Sequoia gigantea. In what part of Australia have 
they been seen, and what is their specific name? where can I find full parti- 
culars respecting them ?>—DENDROPHILTATOS. 

Euonymus japonicus as a Seaside Shrub.—This glossy and handsome 
evergreen thrives remarkably well at the seaside forming large bushes. Sucha 
locality, however, is by no means necessary for its perfect health, as it also 
thrives in dry and cold inland localities. Of allthe many evergreens planted 
about Paris it seems to thrive the best. Thevariegated varieties seem to thrive 
almost as well as the normal dark-green form. 

Cydonia japonica.—This, as weall know, is a brilliant wall plant. It is to 
its greater merits as an untrained shrub, isolated on the turf or grouped with 
any other low ornamental shrubs, that I wish to call attention. I know nothing 
loyelier on a sunny slope or sheltered glade when the spring sun sets all its 
branches on fire with glowing blossoms. After being once properly planted, it is 
better afterwards left alone, uncut, untortured.—W. R. 

Remarkable Yew Tree.—The largest yew that I ever saw is in a farmyard 
of a village (named, I think, Whitburn) near Frome. I cannot, however, give 
its dimensions, and it may possibly be the same tree as that alluded to by Mr. 
Berry, of Longleat. If Mr. Berry would furnish an account of Lord Bath’s 
great beech tree, I think it would be interesting. I cannot describe the exact 
locality, but it occupies an unfenced triangle formed by the junction of three 
lanes, and is outside the park. As well as I can remember, it has not the enor- 
mous spread that many specimens have, but the large, tall stem must contain 
an amount of timber, I should say, beyond that of any beech in the kingdom. 
In such an unprotected situation it is a wonder the tree escaped destruction 
in its infancy.—S. X. 

Conifers in Boggy Soils.—I believe it is not generally known that many of 
the best conifers are quite at home in a well-drained bog, some growing with a 
Inxuriance that cannot be met with in any other soil. I have many times felt 
surprised that they are not recommended when ‘“‘Can you advise me what to 
plant in boggy soil?” is asked. Such land should be thoroughly drained, and 
then there are few plants or trees that will not thrive well init. I have planted 
scores, from three to four tons in weight down to seedlings, and all are growing 
with freedom ; but the Cedrus Deodara and Wellingtonia do not do so well as 
many others. Cupressus macrocarpa, Lambertiana, Goveniana, Lawsoniana ; 
Retinospora obtusa, pisifera, squarrosa; Cephalotaxus drupacea and Fortunei ; 
Thujopsis borealis and dolabrata; Thuja gigantea and occidentalis ; Juniperus 
thurifera, virginiana, pendula, hibernica, chinensis, &c., and, lastly, the mnch- 
abused Cryptomeria seem quite at home in bog; and the last named will grow, 
do what you will to it.—J. T, 


rdy, and 
in this 


574: 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


Tee PROPAGATOK: 


ON PURE HYBRIDIZATION, OR CROSSING DISTINCT 
SPECIES OF PLANTS. 
BY ISAAC ANDERSON-HENRY, ESQ., F.L.S. 
(Concluded from p. 507.) 
II. CROSSING WITH LONG STAMENS. 


I HAVE made fewer experiments with the long stamens, but I have 
one before me now na less remarkable, perhaps, for its far-reaching 
result than any I have alluded to as done with the short stamens. It 
is a cross which I effected on the tall Rhododendron formosum, 
fertilized with a scarlet-flowered Indian Azalea, on the 11th June last. 
The seed-pod is finely developed, but I have taken care iu this 
instance to avoid pulling it too early. And I may here notice, once 
for all, that to obtain the seeds of a cross—especially if it be extreme 
—sufficiently ripe, you must allow a longer time for it than for 
the ripening of the normal seeds on the same plant. 

In all the foregoing crosses I had, perhaps, less an eye to accomplish 
a purely scientific experiment than to effect a beneficial result ; for, 
after all, it is the quid sit wtile which those for whom this paper is 
mainly intended will have most in view; and, in my estimation, 
science is best promoted when she is made to minister to some 
useful end. 

The following experiment among the species of Clematis illustrates 
my view of sympathy as well as of antipathy, and I would add, of 
unnatural selection: Having many years ago (long before the 
Messrs. Jackman, who have accomplished such wonderful results) 
been myself working on the members of this genus, I thought of 
making another experiment on it, with a view to infuse a richer 
colour into a new and larger-flowering progeny; and, as I have 
observed already, I managed successfully to cross with pollen, kept 
for eleven months, the beautiful four-petalled Clematis Jackmanni 
on a thirteen-petalled flower of the fine C. candida. But itis of a 
cross on Messrs. Jackman’s smaller, but no less beautiful, C. rubro- 
violacea I am now to speak. Though, like its congener C. Jackmani, 
it sometimes comes with five or even six petals, it is in its general 
typea four-petalled flower. With a view to improve it in this feature, 
I crossed it also with pollen of the large-flowered Clematis candida, 
taken from a bloom having seventeen petals, though this clematis— 
a French hybrid, I believe, from C. lanuginosa—is in its normal 
state a sixjor eight-petalled flower. Though I crossed two flowers, 
after careful emasculation, I only gathered three seeds, but these 
all of unusually large dimensions. After the cross had taken, I left 
the normal blooms on the crossed plant to their fate; and though 
visited by insects innumerable, and though the native pollen was 
abundant, not one native seed, or any except the three produced by 
the cross, were ever formed on the plant; and the singular thing 
was that, with its own native pollen, abortive on itself, I successfully 
crossed the fine double white-flowered Chinese C. Fortunei; and a 
cross more prolific in the seeds it yielded I have not seen in the tribe 
before. I know not the parentage from whence this C. rubro-yiolacea 
was derived, though I believe it to be a mongrel with none of the 
Fortunei blood in it ; yet mark how kindly the latter took with it— 
another instance of remarkable sympathy ; although I have no 
record of it, I think I failed to get C. rubro-violacea to reciprocate 
this cross. 

Tm all these instances of sympathy and antipathy, and especially 
jn this section of the natural order Ranunculacez, there is some- 
thing apparently so inexplicable that I can only concur with what 
Darwin has observed in his paper on the existence of two forms in 
the genus Linum, where in summing up the good gained by the 
inevitable crossing of the dimorphic flowers, and numerous other 
analogous facts, he says, that these all lead to the conclusion that 
some “unknown law of nature is here dimly indicated to us.” And 
this law, when discovered, may disclose more mysteries, tending’, 
perhaps, to the wider divergence of species, with constitutions and 
habits better fitted for the climates and localities in which they may 
be cast, as well as for subserving the purposes they are intended to 
fulfil in the economy of nature. In looking at Ranunculaces, with 
their innumerable male and female organs (and the same thing 
occurs in the Myrtacez, most of the Rosacez, some of the Hyperi- 
caces, and in many other families and tribes), the idea was long 

ago suggested to me, that each separate row, from the outer to the 
inner circle of the stamens, might have some separate function, just 
as I believe that the jong and short stamens have their separate 
functions; and with the view of testing the matter, I had last 
summer begun experiments with these outer and inner stamens; 
but other aims and objects interfering, I gave up the experiment 
after I had begun it on these Clematises. 

Bnt to make success certain, it is my custom, as J have already 


stated, in crossing any of these polyandrous flowers, to take the 
entire bloom of one kind, and lightly to brush over, with all its 
anthers, the stigmas of the flower to be crossed, and leave nature to 
make her own selection. In referring to the Rubus tribe and its 
species, [am reminded of an intention I expressed in my former 
paper of perhaps returning to them afterwards. I again experi- 
mented upon them last summer. But though I tried various crosses 
among them, and reciprocated the cross, I had no success in any, 
except between the R. biflorus and the R. Idzeus, and that only 
where I made the latter the seed-bearer. And to make sure of 
either eyent—success or failure—I had the R. Idzeus early potted 
and put under glass, emasculating every bloom I meant to cross; 
and for more security I stripped off all other flowers—nay, more, 
I put the emasculated flowers under fine ganze bags, to ward off the 
invasion of insects. When ripe for crossing I remoyed the bag, and, 
on effecting the cross, I replaced it. In this way I succeeded in 
ripening three berries of the cross R. Idzeus by R. biflorus, of which 
I sowed the seed between the 5th and 16th July, though as yet none 
haye vegetated. But R. biflorus stubbornly rejected a reciprocal 
cross. Again I tried both of these on R. rupestris, and the latter 
on them; and though R. rupestris showed some sympathy with 
R. biflorus, in a slight tendency to form seeds, these came to nothing. 
Tn all these attempts I applied, as I have said, all the anthers of the 
male flower. 

I cannot quit this part of the subject without offering some 
additional suggestions to those of you who wish to act on any hints I 
have it in my power to give :— 

1st. If your desire be to hasten the flowering condition of plants— 
Irecommend you to cross violently—i.e., where the allies are not 
too near akin, and above all, in the case of mongrels; for nature, ere 
she gives up, ever makes a violent effort to reproduce. 

2nd. If you wish to make your hybrid flower more freely, as well 
as early, adopt the same advice. 

3rd. By following it, you will find that you have attained a further 
advantage. Your plant will remain longer in bloom, because most 
mongrels, especially those among herbaceous or soft-wooded plants, 
to which these suggestions apply, are impotent to produce seed, or 
nearly so, and in such cases the blooms remain long upon the plant. 


I have another idea, not sufficiently tested, however, in reference to * 


the first point among hard-wooded as well as soft-wooded plants, 
that all such as ripen their seeds more quickly than others (some 
among the rhododendron tribe ripen seed in half the time that others 
take) will reach more quickly their flowering state. 

Lastly, as to fruits, on which, however, I have only partially 
tried my hand, I entertain the belief that we are on the eve of a 
revolution, and that by judicious and persevering crossing we may 
not only transfer the delicious aroma of one to another, and com- 
municate hardier and more abundant bearing habits to the hybrid 
progeny, but further, especially in stone fruits, such as peaches, 
plums, apricots, &c., we may, in addition to these advantages, in- 
crease the size of the fruits and diminish the size of the stones; and 


- among vines, get rid of, or greatly diminish, the number of the 


seeds. And all this I hold to arise from that law of nature by which 
she not merely strains her efforts to reproduce (to which, however, 
she has assigned limit), but extends it when these have failed, to 
make provision for her creatures’ want. These views gather strengtn 
from what has been already done; and I may especially allude to 
what Mr. Standish of Ascot has achieved among grapes, of whose 
extraordinary results an interesting account is given at p. 135 of the 
Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society for July 1866. 

In conclusion, permit me to observe that, while my aim has been, 
in all the experiments I have brought before you, rather to achieve 
something useful and practical than to test the theories which 
Mr. Darwin and others—especially the Continental savans—have 
been so much engrossed with, I cannot refrain from making some 
remark on the results and the conclusions which some of them haye 
come to while prosecuting a series of crossing operations, namely, 
that such crosses do and must eyentuate in sterility. M. Nandin 
seems, like Wichura, as already observed, to have limited his experi- 
ments chiefly to herbaceous or soft-wooded plants ; and among such, 
especially among calceolarias, I too have often found myself bronght 
to the terminus of bitter and hopeless sterility. I remember one 
instance where I had reached a perfect monster for size in that tribe, 
but except in that particular it had no other desirable property. 
Determined, however, to improve it by crossing, I found on trial 
I could make nothing of it, and on examination I found its stigma 
was a hollow tube, and that its anthers were hard masses, and con- 
tained not one particle of pollen. Man may run into such mistakes, 
but he cannot thence conclude that unyiolated nature does so. 
Speaking from a general recollection, which does not admit of my 
specifying instances, I have often found among hybrid seedlings 
some of a vigour which, in that respect, were in advance of either 


ee os 5 


> 


Mar 18, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


575 


parent. May not such often occur in nature? and, as a naturally 
selected parent becomes the progenitor of a hardier and more 
vigorous race (which having in it, according to Darwin’s views, a 
tendency to diverge), may it not culminate in the long lapse of time 
into a distinct species, and even annihilate the weaker one which 
gave it being? So that, in nature’s crossing, may not fertility and 
vigour take the place of sterility and weakness, into which she so 
generally dwindles when modified by man’s device ? 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
' (Continued from page 467.) 

Sme-Grartine with A Sorte Brancu.—This process is 
valuable for the restoration of defective trees, in sup- 
plying branches where they are wanting, and for grafting 
anew variety on aged subjects. It is equally of use in pro- 
pagating plants. The woody scion will answer better for in- 
sertion under old bark, than the bud of the shield-graft com- 
monly used. The scion in this case is a small branch, or a part 

of a branch, from four to eight inches long, haying 
the lower part cut with a long splice-cut, the sur- 
face of which should be perfectly smooth, and 
eut thin to the bark at the point zB. If it is 
desired to have a branch forming a wide angle 
with the stem of the stock, a bent or curved scion 
is selected; the convex part is cut and placed 
against the stock, while the top turned outwards 
will give the required inclination to the limb. 
With a perfectly straight scion one can contrive 
to have shoots on the side opposite the cutting, 
on the face which is united to the stock; this 
shoot, when developed, will form a branch almost 
perpendicular to the stem. In propagating certain 
trees, such as the beech, branched scions, two or 
three years old, are used, cut as we have described, 
with a splice cutting, rather thin towards the point. 


stock two incisions forming a T through the bark, not pene- 
trating the alburnum (c). The bark is then raised with the 
spatula, and the scion slipped under it, so that the top of the 
splice-cut may be on a level with the transverse incision in the 
stock. It is then bandaged, and the air excluded from the 
cuttings by the application of grafting-clay or wax. Instead 
of a T incision, we might employ a plain bull’s-eye opening, 
into which the scion is slipped, or it would be equally easy to 
insert the scion under the bark by a sort of vencering. 
Grartine wit A Basep Brancu.—We have recourse to this 
method for the propagation of some plants, more especially 


Grafting with a Based Branch. 


the variegated maple. The proper season for this is in August 
or September, with a dormant bud. A short branch (x) is 
selected for the scion. Anticipative branches are also service- 
able. The little branch is detached with the grafting-knife 
from the branch on which it grows, but so as to preserve a 
strip of bark (v) above and below the insertion of the little 


The scion having been prepared, we make on the 


branch; the manner in which this is done has been already 
described. The woody fibres under the strip of bark (v) should 
not be removed; it would be dangerous to do so, and the sur- 
face should be merely smoothed down with the grafting-knife. 
On the stock (y) a T-shaped incision (z) is made, which goes 
no deeper than the bark, the lips of this are raised with the 
spatula and the heel (v) of the scion slipped under them. It 
is then bandaged with woollen thread or bast matting, like an 
ordinary shield bud or a short branch graft. It will be unne- 
cessary to apply grafting-wax. In the restoration of fruit 
trees we haye sometimes employed, under the name of scions, 
branches twenty inches long, with a heel four inches in length. 
By cutting off their leaves a week beforehand, and while they 
are still on the parent-tree, they are prepared for the separa- 
tion. Covering them with grafting-clay as soon as they are 
grafted will prevent their drying up.—C. Bualtet. 
(To be continued.) 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


THE CUCUMBER—ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 
(Continued from page 469.) 
DUNG AND LEAVES. 

Wuen good beech, oak, or other leaves, can be procured, 
they may be advantageously mixed with the dung. ‘They will 
be found to moderate its temperature quickly, and sweeten it 
in about half the time that would be required to sweeten 
dung alone. There is also the advantage that leaves, though 
less violent in their fermenting qualities, are more continuous 
—that is, they heat less violently, but continue to give the 
heat for a longer time; consequently, a mixture of dung and 
leaves is preferable to dung alone. When used together, the 
mixing must be as complete as possible, and the mass just in 
the same state as to dryness as if dung alone were used. 
When hotbeds are made of leaves, it is advisable that they be 
gathered together in a dry state, be packed in an open shed to 
ferment a little, or be made into a stack, and be covered over 
with mats or some other material to keep them dry. In this 
way a gentle fermentation will soon set in, and then the leaves 
are in a fit state to make into a bed for plant growing. One 
advantage of leaves is, they do not attain a rank heat—neither, 
if used alone, do they give off injurious exhalations; conse- 
quently, for the purpose of forming a seed-bed, they are pre- 
ferable to dung alone, and much less troublesome. 

FORMING THE DUNG-BED. 

Tn forming a hot bed it is always desirable to excavate the 
site, according to the nature of the subsoil, a foot or eighteen 
inches deep, to place in the bottom a layer of faggots or wood 
to form a dry bottom for the dung to rest upon. ‘The depth 
must be guided by the nature of the situation—if dry it may 
go two feet deep with advantage, but if wet one foot will be 
sufficient. The length and breadth must always be nine inches 
to a foot wider than the frame to be placed upon the bed when 
it is formed. In making the bed begin by shaking up the 
prepared dung, and place it in layers six inches thick, beating 
each layer firm with the fork as the work proceeds, and when 
we say firm we mean as compact as it is possible to make it. 
Some people tread the bed with the feet as the work proceeds, 
but that is not a good plan. A man with a fork, and not 
sparing of his labour, can make a bed as firm as it need 
be. Proceed in this mamner until the bed is of sufficient, 
height and for early forcing, say to begin in January, it 
should not be when completed less than 4} feet at the back 
and 33 feet in the front. For later work a foot less may be 
sufficient, but there is no economy in making a slight bed, 
as the heat quickly goes out of it. These remarks of course 
apply to beds whether they be formed of dung or leaves alone. 
The latter, however, are rather difficult to manage, that is, to 
get them to hold together, and hence it will be found necessary 
to form the sides with dung, just using as much as may be 
considered necessary to hold the leaves nicely together. When 
the bed is formed, place the frame upon it at once, put on the 
sashes, and shut it close down. Ina few days it will begin to 
heat; but if it does not, cover the frame down with mats to 
induce fermentation, When it gets hot fork the bed over 


576 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


daily until the steam evolved gets quite sweet, which will be 
when the face can be applied to the fresh opened sash without 
the olfactory neryes becoming disagreeably affected. In a 
word, the bed requires to become what is technically termed 
sweet, and free from ammoniacal exhalations. The sense of 
smell is scarcely to be trusted in such a matter, and therefore, 
before trusting plants in such an atmosphere, put ina cucumber 
plant or even a scarlet geranium for a night, and if it remains 
uninjured, that is if it is neither killed nor turned brown 
around the edges of the leaves, the bed is in a fit state to 
receive the plants. It may, however, so happen that the bed 
though quite sweet is in the centre part too hot to receive the 
soil without burning it. If such should be the case, then 
procure for the centre of each light a grass turf two feet square 
and two inches thick; around this six inches apart make holes 
in a slanting direction with a broom handle, and from a foot to 
eighteen inches deep. This will allow the extra heat to escape 
with freedom, so that the plants may be ridged out with the 
greatest possible safety. 

Though we have formed the bed and prepared it ready to 
receive the soil and plants, it must be remarked this will not 
be sufficient to carry them through the season, and hence a 
stock of dung must always be kept in preparation, so as to 
apply linings directly the necessary heat in the bed begins to 
subside. Much, however, may be done to assist the bed by 
timely protection. Nothing tends so much to drive the heat 
out of a bed as cold piercing winds, and, therefore, for the 
purpose of protection thatched frames or hurdles should be 
in readiness to place on the windward side of the bed. Still, 
with all this, fresh linings will be required, and these must be 
placed back, front, or end, as the trial stick imside the frame 
may show where additional heat is most wanted. In adding 
a lining it is necessary that the dung be properly prepared, 
and care must be taken not to carry it above the woodwork 
of the frame, or injurious gases may get in and injure the 
plants. To keep them in proper order linings require to be 
turned, and partly renewed every fortnight, taking away the 
spent dung and adding fresh, but take care to keep them as 
sweet as possible. To protect it from cold winds and heavy 
rain a lining should be covered with straight straw and, that 
both back and front may be kept in place, by a framework, 
which will also act as a step to stand upon when regulating 
the plants. This frame may be made of deal or other scantling 
three inches square, the uprights being placed four feet, and 
the cross pieces to form the steps eighteen inches, apart. Two 
steps will be sufficient. The uprights and steps may be what 
carpenters call “halyed” together. A. 

(Zo be continwed.) 


IMPROVED CUCUMBER BED. 

I Aw surprised that “ A.,” speaking of dung frames for Cucumbers 
(see p. 469), should recommend solidly built up beds, when hollow 
bottomed ones are so far superior to them in every way, besides 
being capable of being put to other uses, so as to keep them at work 
the whole year round. The plan which we adopt is to build up 
corner piers of bricks to the required height, say about eighteen 
inches in front, and twenty-four inches at back, and to lay strong 
hearers lengthways on these piers and stout planks crossways on the 
bearers to form a floor, leaving sufficient apertures for the heat to 
pass through. We then set the frame on and put into it about three 
inches of leaf mould to keep down the steam; a load of strong fresh 
dung is now put under the frame and enclosed with a lining of any 
sort of litter or garden refuse that maybe at hand. In this way the 
heat will be up and the bed fit for planting in less than a week, thus 
effecting a great saving of time; andthe heat may be regulated to a 
degree. 

Rete set up in this way are useful all the year round for forcing 
asparagus, early potatoes, propagating bedding plants, for cucum- 
bers and melons, and for growing young stock of stove plants in 
during the summer, &c. 

Having a good quantity of houses and pits heated by hot water, 
we, of course, get our earliest supply of cucumbers from that source. 
But for amateurs or gardeners with a small amount of glass these 
simple structures are invaluable. Any one giving them a trial will 
never go to the trouble of preparing manure for beds, as it is labour 
worse than lost, and in even the largest gardens it is not one of the 

gardener’s troubles to find sufficient employment for all hands. 

Henham, Suffolk. JAMES GROOM. 


HORSERADISH. 

THE culture of Horseradish has of late been a good deal discussed 
in your columns; I have often thought I would relate my experience 
with regard to ib; for as long as Hnglishmen can get a piece of roast 
beef for dinner they will always be pleased to have Horseradish along 
with it. Some fifty or sixty years ago Horseradish was generally to 
be found in old gardens ; but it was not cultivated in the proper sense 
of the term; it was stuck in some out-of-the-way corner, among 
weeds and rubbish, and there left for generations. People were 
afraid to introduce it inside their gardens, on account of its rambling 
propensities ; they thought, too, that if once introduced they would 
never get rid of it. To this must be attributed the fact of its being 
disdainfully placed in rough, out-of-the-way, useless kinds of spots, 
and looked at as an enemy, till roast beef-day came round, when 
it was sought after. Then the garden boy, whose place it was to 
serve the kitchen with vegetables, would grub or muddle out a piece 
of Horseradish, the trimmings and broken roots of which, left in the 
ground, served as a succession or future crop. Such was the plan on 
which Horseradish culture was in general conducted in those days— 
yes, and it is a fashion not yet quite extinct; of this I have had 
ocular demonstration, in places in which one would expect to find 
better order. 

Market gardeners, it is true, even in those days, cultivated Horse- 
radish to a large extent about Fulham, Battersea, Chelsea, Deptford, 
Rotherhithe, Bow, Bromley, and other places, on deep, rich, loose, 
open land, always trenching ont the crop that had sometimes only 
been planted one year, and sometimes two years, when it was large 
and crisp, and replanting the ground again as the trenching pro- 
ceeded. 

For the latter purpose, such crowns as were crooked and short, and 
such as were not marketable, were used, putting them into the 
bottom of the trench, two feet or two feet six inches apart in rows, 
and one foot asunder in the row. Manure, compost, coal-ashes, or 
other refuse, was often tumbled in, first on, and then abont, the roots 
and crowns, as they laid in a slanting position at the bottom of the 
last made ridged trench, for all the trenches were cast into ridges— 
thus the crowns were just between each ridge, and not deeply buried 
at first. Harly in spring, after the roots had fairly started into growth, 
all was levelled down lightly, and a crop of radishes was sown on the 
surface; the latter being off by May, and when the Horseradish 
appeared in full row it was cleared off, and all kept hoed and clean 
until it could take care of itself, by covering the ground, and not 
allowing more intrusion on its part. Turnip radishes were the 
general surface crop. 

What brought Horseradish into greatest notoriety was, however, the 
following circumstance. ; 

Between fifty and sixty years ago in Gray’s Inn Lane was a vast 
mountain, of years and years’ accumulated London cinder-dust, filth, 
and garbage—yes, a real mountain of it; and amongst its vast and 
various accumulations were immense plants of Horseradish growing 
right up through the whole, the produce probably of crowns cast 
from sculleries to the dustbin. Here it found a favourable site ; and 
as the mountain increased in size and height so did the Horseradish, 
with its great strength and spear-headed crown, continue to thrust 
itself through it. Enough at least did so to create astonishment in 
those days, and to bring the Horseradish into prominent notice; 
for when this mountain of refuse was removed, the immense 
length and size of the Horseradish roots were discovered. We 
had no horticultural journals in those days, but the Times and the 
few papers we had prominently adverted to this wonderful Horse- 
radish, and related how, and where it grew. It was indeed a real 
phenomenon, the leaves being as large and thick as those of a banana, 
while its roots were as large and long as scaffold poles. How many 
hundredweight a root of it weighed it would be difficult to guess— 
yet one root, as large as a farmyard gatepost, was dug out, and 
exhibited. The publicity thus given to the matter, and the extra- 
ordinary perfection the roots attained in so rich a pasture, proved 
how simply Horseradish can be grown, and induced everybody to 
cultivate it in earnest. Nothing would do after this but coal-ashes ; 
and at coal-consuming places all over the country old accumulations 
of ashes were routed out and turned to account, while fresh ashes 
were saved for the future production of fine sized, well coloured, and 
crisp Horseradish. The modes of culture and the general treatment 
of this useful plant were various. Those who had a hoard of old 
cinder ashes planted Horseradish on the heap; others filled trenches | 
with them, others mixed them with the soil in trenching; and another 
class made a deep hole in the ground with a crowbar and let down to 
the bottom of it a crown of Horseradish, filling up to the brim, as a. 
matter of course, with coal-ashes. Indeed nothing was thought of 
then but coal-ashes for the future production of crisp, white, fine 
flavoured Horseradish, of a year or two’s growth, instead of the 
yellow, tough, burning-hot whip-thongs they had always been 


Mar 18, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


577 


—————————————————— Orr S500—00OOOOOwna ao «00 a> 


accustomed to; the produce. however, was as various as the soils on 
which it grew and the means by which it was brought forward. In 
short, success did not always attend this mode of culture; but to it 
must be attributed the first improvement in Horseradish-growing. 
One drawback in country-made coal-ashes was the deficiency of bones 
and other decomposed matters, in which London accumulations were 
rich. Bones, indeed, were then only looked upon as a nuisance, and 
gréat accumulations of them were either burnt or buried, only to be 
dug up again in after years, when their value had become known. I 
well remember the first bone collector I ever saw ; people thought he 
Was not quite right in his mind to take in hand such a detestable 
calling. At first he collected them witha basket and sack only; then 
he started a donkey and cart, afterwards a horse and cart; then he 
took premises, and, by persevering industry, started an immense bone- 
collecting business, ultimately amassing a large fortune. 
JAMES BARNES. 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 

Indoor Plant Department.—Conservatories are now gay with 
Calceolarias and Cinerarias, the blooming of which has been kept 
back until now. Roses, especially Maréchal Niel and Gloire de 
Dijon, are also in most places beautifully in flower; than these 
few kinds are better adapted for covering pillars or similar supports, 
particularly if planted out in borders. Many varieties of Heaths 
and several sorts of New Zealand plants are likewise now in per- 
fection, and are kept in the coolest part of the house. Evergreen 
plants out of flower, and others making growth, are liberally syringed 
early in the afternoons, thus allowing time for their leaves to get dry 
before shutting up time. Clianthuses, now out of bloom, are daily 
syringed, and, in cases where required, have their shoots thinned out a 
little. Passion-flowers, Hibbertias, Hardenbergias, Habrothamnuses, 
and similar plants, now at their best, are allowed to hang down grace- 
fully, a position in which the foliage to some little extent protects 
the bloom from the fierce rays of the sun. In stoves, Caladiums, 
growing into good specimens, receive the support of afew stakes. 
Early Gloxinias, now going out of bloom, are being succeeded by 
fresh plants, which, when growing, like plenty of water at the root, 
but not any overhead, a remark which also applies to Achimenes. 
Draceenas, Crotons, Marantas, &c., are now liberally watered over- 
head and at the root. Amongst Orchids various kinds of Aérides 
are now in bloom; also many Oncidiums, Odontoglossums, and 
Cattleyas, all of which are kept in a drier atmosphere than that in 
which they have been growing. 


Pits and Frames.—Cinerarias areturned out of their pots, and 
planted in shady places, where they soon produce a number of 
suckers. A portion of these suckers is being potted singly into 
small pots, and placed in cold frames. Seedlings, as they require 
it, are also potted; as are likewise Primulas, three or four small 
pegs being put in around the crown to keep it upright and in its 
place. Half-hardy annuals are potted on as they advance in growth. 
Balsams, Cockscombs, Amarantuses, &c., are benefited by a little 
bottom heat, at the same time giving them air. Dahlia cuttings 
are still being put in, and young plants in pots are being gradually 
hardened off. Bedding plants in frames are now being exposed 
as much as possible to the weather; the sashes being replaced in 
the event of heavy rains or cold cutting winds. Pelargoniums 
beginning to flower in frames, are neatly staked and taken into 
the conservatory. 

Flower Garden and Shrubbery.— May, both common and 
pink, Ghent Azaleas, Spirzas, Guelder Roses, and other shrubs, are 
now beautifully in flower; as are also double Ponies, Iberises, 
Lithospermums, &c. Delphiniums, Lupinuses, Dianthuses, Campanulas, 
&e., will also soon be in full beauty. Phloxes and Asters, throwing 
up too many shoots, have the weakest ones removed. A few 
remaining Hollyhocks are being planted; by making two or three 
plantings of these a longer succession of bloom is obtained. 
Bulbous plants, as soon as their leayes become withered, are taken 
up, and the offsets separated from the parent bulb, which is planted 
afresh. Narcissi, Jonquils, Tulips, and Hyacinths are being removed 
to make room for summer bedding plants. Perennials are being 
increased by means of cuttings of the young shoots inserted in 
warm borders, covered with hand-lights, and shaded from strong 
sunshine. 

Indoor Fruit Department.—tIn late vineries there is every 
appearance of a good crop. The vines are stopped a joint or so above 
each bunch, and the production of good, healthy foliage is encouraged. 
Vine borders are being mulched over with stable litter. Figs are 


liberally watered at the roots and overhead, except in the case of 
those ripening, which are kept somewhat drier. Some early Melons 
are now ripening, and care is taken to prevent their experiencing 
sudden changes of temperature ; the atmosphere is also kept a little 
drier than in the case of growing crops. Cucumbers are strictly 
attended to as regards thinning and stopping, but abundance of healthy 
foliage is always left. Fruiting plants are supplied with good soakings 
of weak manure water. Gourds are placed in cold frames, prepara- 
tory to their being planted out. Mushroom-houses are kept at as 
equable a temperature as possible. 


Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department.—Stone 
fruits seem to have suffered considerably from the severity of the 
weather last month, but of Apples and Pears, especially late kinds, 
there will be no scarcity. Bush fruits are mostly set, and give pro- 
mise of good crops. Thinning both shoots and fruits on walls is 
being performed. Fruit trees on walls are frequently syringed, and 
all curled or diseased leaves are picked off them. The surface of 
Asparagus beds is stirred occasionally, adding a sprinkling of salt. 
In the case of Artichokes a little soil is drawn to their roots. Nas- 
turtiums, for salading and pickling, are being sown near fences, or 
treated in the same way as Peas; those sown earlier are being trans- 
planted. Onions for salading are being sown, and also Lettuces for 
successional crops. Some late sorts of Broccoli are still being sown, 
and the earliest sown ones planted out. When it is necessary to 
hasten the “ hearting” of Cabbages they are tied up as Lettuces usually 
are. All growing crops have the soil about them frequently stirred, 
and a little soil drawn to their roots. Trenches are being taken out 
for Celery, and are well enriched with decomposed cow dung and 
rotten stable manure. 


NURSERIES. 


Now that the propagation of bedding plants is nearly over, more 
time and attention are given to other matters. Old roots of Dahlias 
are, however, still subjected to strong heat, and all shoots continue to 
be taken off as they appear, and are inserted in sand. These will 
hereafter be potted singly, and as they get a little established they 
will be planted outin light, rich sandy soil, where they will make fine 
tubers for next year’s work. ‘The finer varieties of Cineraria maritima, 
such as compacta, &c., many kinds of Coleuses, and other soft-wooded 
plants, are being rapidly increased. Hard-wooded plants, such as 
Heaths, Epacrises, and others, are being struck, the points of young 
drawn shoots being selected for the purpose, and inserted in bottom 
heat under bell-glassesin small frames. Various kinds of succulents, 
such as Echeverias, and others, are being propagated by means of 
leaves, inserted in light sandy soil, or pure sand; long-leaved sorts 
are kept upright by means of small stakes, which also serve to keep 
them firmly in their places. The shorter leaves have merely their 
ends covered, and are permitted to lie almost flat on the surface of 
the pot. Plants of Primula japonica raised from seed in cold frames 
are being pricked off into pans, and the strongest simply into thumb 
pots. 


MARKET GARDENS. 


THE cold, wet weather which we have lately experienced, has 
obstructed the regular course of routine work under this head. 
Early plantations of Spinach are now nearly exhausted, and the 
ground occupied by them is being dug over, either to be planted 
with Lettuce or some of the Cabbage tribe, or else thrown into 
ridges for Celery. Early plantations of Cabbages are also now 
nearly all used up, and the ground is being treated similarly to 
that on which Spinach has been grown. Stumps for seed bearing, 
previously distinguished from the others by special marks, are now 
being lifted, in order to clear the ground, and are planted along the 
foot of walls or fences, or in any open place to spare, where they 
will be allowed to remain to perfect their seed. The weeding of 
the Onion crop sown broadcast is for the present discontinued until 
the weather settles a little, for 10 sooner do the narrow hoes perform 
their work, than the rains replant the uprooted weeds. Heavy 
dressings of manure are being carted on to vacant ground, which is 
being dug and held in readiness for other crops. Some weeks since, 
we observed that a line of Potatoes was planted, by means of a 
dibber, between rows of early Cabbages. The latter are now cut 
for market, the stumps removed, and the soil between the rows of 
Potatoes, which are now appearing above ground, is deeply loosened 
by means of long toothed hacks. Where it is practicable to protect 
French Beans, or at least a portion of them, from cold winds and 
rains, it is done, in order to promote earliness. This is done by 
placing mats in an upright position, fastened to strong stakes, on 
their windward side. Cucumbers and Vegetable Marrows are well 
protected with litter. 


578 


THE GARDEN. 


May 18, 1872.] 


HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER ROUND LONDON. 
(From May 81H to 15TH, INCLUSIVE.) 


Acer 
pennsylvani- 
cum yar. 
Achillea 
Aizoon 
moschata 
umbellata 
Aconitum 
Napellus 
#sculus 
flaya 
Hthionema 
gracile 
Saxatile 
Alchemilla 
alpina 
fissa 
pubescens 
vulgaris and 
vars. 
Allium 
fistulosum 
sibiricum 
Stellerianum 
triquetrum 
Alyssum 
incanum 
Amelanchier 
florida yar. 
Anchusa 
italica 
Androsace 
carnea 
lactea 
villosa 
Anemone 
alpina 
sulphurea 
Anthericum 
Liliago 
Liliastrum 
Anthriscus 
sylvestris 
Antirrhinum 
Asarinum 
Aquilegia 
canadensis 
fragrans 
olympica 
Skinneri vars. 
Arenaria 
czspitosa 
graminifolia 
montana 
rigida 
verna 
Armeria 
fasciculata 
longiaristata 
plantaginea 
pubescens 
Aster 
alpinus 
elongatus 
pendulus 
Astragalus 
monspessu- 
lanus 
Barbarea 
yulgaris 
vars. 
Bellis 
sylvestris 
Berberis 
buxifolius 
Darvwinii 
empetrifolius 
ibericus 
sinensis 
vulgaris 
Biscutella 
levigata 
Braya 
pinnatifida 
Buxus 
balearica 
Campanula 
glomerata 
Cardamine 
latifolia 
Ceanothus 
azureus 
Cerastium 
aryense 
pilosum 
pumilum 
repens 
tenuifolium 
Cerasus 
Mahaleb 
Cercis 
canadensis 
Chelidonium 
majus 
laciniatus 


and 


Chrysanthemum 
speciosum 
Claytonia 
sibirica 
Clematis 
Standishii 
Cochlearia 
alpina 
macrocarpa 
Collinsia 
grandiflora 
verna, 
Coronilla 
minima 
Cortusa 
Matthioli 
Cotoneaster 
bacillaris 
Crateegus 
Aronia 
coccinea 
Crus-galli 
heterophylla 
orientalis 
ovalifolia 
punctata 
Cynoglossum 
officinale 
Cytisus 
preecox 
Daphne 
hybtrida 
Deutzia 
gracilis 
Dianthus 
arenarius 
Dodecatheon 
Jeffreyii 
Meadia 
vars. 
Doronicum 
plantagineum 
Draba 
aurea 
Gmelini 
Eleagnus 
parvifolia 
umbellata 
Erigeron 
philadelphicum 
Erodium 
gruinum 
Reichardi 
Fragaria 
calycina 
elatior 
inamcena 
Geranium 
divaricatum 
lancastriense 
sanguineum 
subcaulescens 
Viassoyianum 
Geum 
rubifolium 
splendens 
sylvaticum 
Gladiolus 
sSegetum 
Gnaphalium 
Leontopodium 
Helianthemum 
fulgidum 
polifolium 
yulgare and 
vars. 
Heracleum 
eminens 
Hesperis 
matronalis and 
vars. 
tristis 
Hutchinsia 
alpina 
Hyacinthus 
romanus 
Ionopsidium 
acaule 
Tris 
stenogyna 
tingitana 
Isatis 
tinctoria and 
vars. 
Jasminum 
fruticans 
reyolutum 
Lactuca 
sonchifolia 
Laurus 
nobilis 
Ledum 
thymifolium 
Lepidium 
repens 


and 


Leucanthemum 
arcticum 
Leucojum 
eestiyum 
Linaria 
hepaticzfolia 
pilosa 
Linum 
narbonnense 
perenne 
tauricum 
Lonicera_ 
Brownii 
Caprifolium 
diversifolia 
florida 
nigra 
Lupinus 
hirsutus 
Melandrium 
Priestii 
Menziesia 
cerulea 
globosa 
polifolia 
Mespilus 
grandiflora 
Meum 
athamanticum 
Meehringia 
muscosa 
Moricandia 
arvensis 
Muscari 
Heldreichii 
Myosotis 
alpestris 
Myrrhis 
odorata 
Narcissus 
gracilis 
Nothoscordum 
striatum 
Onosma 
taurica 
Ophrys 
anthropophora 
Orchis 
Morio 
Ornithogalum 
comosum 
Orobus 
aurantius 
Othonna 
cheirifolia 
Oxalis 
floribunda 
Oxyria 
reniforme 
Peonia 
albiflora 
anomala 
decora 
mollis 
peregrina 
Papayer 
nudicaule 
Pavia 
rubra var. 
Pentstemon 
confertus 
Pernettya 
speciosa 
Phlox 
Nuttallii 
procumbens 
prostrata 
Setacea 
Phillyrea 
angustifolia 
Platanus 
orientalis 
Polygala 
Chambuxus 
Polygonatum 
vulgare 
Polygonum 
alpinum 
capitatum 
Potentilla 
aurea 
gracilis 
iberica 
moultifida 
opaca 
rupestris 
stolonifera 
thuringiaca, 
trifurca 
Primula 
farinosa 
japonica 
muretina 
Ptilomeris 
aristata 


Pyrus 
Aucuparia 
Quercus 
Cerris 
coccinea 
Tlex 
rubra 
Ramondia 
pyrenaica 
Ranunenlus 
Flammula 
Stevenii 
Reseda 
complicata 
truncata 
viminea 
Rhodiola 
rosea 
Salvia 
clandestina 
Verbenaca 
Santolina 
alpina 
Saxifraga 
affinis 
aizoides 
Bucklandii 
cochlearis 
crustata 
cuneifolia 
elongata 
Geum 
vars. 
granulata plena 
hieracifolia 
incrustata 
intermedia 
longifolia 
media 
moschata 
rosularis 
Sibthorpii 
Tazetta 
tenella 
Sedum 
elongatum 
Sempervivum 
montanum 
Senecio 
Doronicum 
Seseli 
montanum 
tenuifolium 
Silene 
compacta 
Silybum 
eburneum 
Sisymbrium 
austriacum 
Staphylea 
pinnata 
Stellaria 
Holostea 
Symphytum 
asperrunum 
bobemicum 
orientale 
patens 
Thalictrum 
aquilegifolium 
Thapsium 
barbinode 
Trientalis 
europea 
Trifolium 
pratense 
Triteleia 
aurea 
Trollius 
americanus 
Tulipa 
persica 
yiridiflora 
Valeriana 
officinalis 
Phu 
Veronica 
alpestris 
elegans 
pulchella 
satureifolia 
saxatilis 
serpyllifolia 
Vesicaria 
erecta 
sinuata 
Viburnum 
pubescens 
Viola 
canadensis 
eucullata 
delphinifolia 
obliqua striata 
pedata, 


and 


HHE GARDEN IN Fees wouUsE 


FORMS OF VASES FOR CERTAIN FLOWERS. 


In compliance with the wish of your correspondent “D. T. F.” 
(see p. 523), I will endeavour to lay down a few rules for the 
guidance of those (and they are unfortunately very numerous) 
who, as he remarks, have “ very much overlooked this point in 
floral arrangements.” Let me assume that the flowers to be 
grouped are to be seen by persons sitting round the table 
upon which the vases are placed. Let me further assume, for 
the moment, that all vases may be divided into three groups, 
(1) those with the receptacle for the flowers below the level of 


_the eyes, (2) those with the receptacle wpon a level with the 


eyes, and (3) those with the receptacle above the level of the 
eyes. Now take any flower you hke into your hand for exami- 
nation, and you will observe that you naturally hold it in that 
position in which you can best see and admire its beauty. If 
it be a Rose or a Camellia, you hold it below your eyes, that 
you may look down upon it andinto it. If it be a Fuchsia or 
an Abutilon, you hold it up, you raise it as high as the brim 
of your hat at least, before you can fully appreciate its lovely 
form and colours. And so, I believe, that with every flower 
and every leaf there is some particular elevation and position 
at which you may derive the maximum of pleasure from 
looking at it. I need scarcely add, that haying found this 
out, you have only to place it in a vase accordingly. 

I do not mean to assert that there is only one eleyation and 
position at which you can enjoy a view of any flower; on the 
contrary, many kinds which are at their best when much 
below, or much above, the level of the eyes, are also capable of 
affording much pleasure when placed about the eye-leyel; but 
I hold it as an invariable rule that the greater the departure 
from the position of maximum enjoyment, the less is the 
amount of ocular gratification. iWe 


HARMONIES AND CONTRASTS IN FLOWER VASES. 


PropLe are too apt in arranging flowers to think only of 
what “ will go well together,” and to forget that pleasing effects 
may often be obtained by striking contrasts. There may 
be harmonies in form and harmonies in colour, there may 
be contrasts in form and contrasts in colour, and there 
may be harmonies of one and contrasts of the other; and 
I have never yet been able to make up my mind which of 
these combinations pleases me best. In a white trumpet- 
shaped vase before me are a tall piece of Solomon’s Seal 
curving over to the left, a long branch of an Oncidium (I 
forget which) curving similarly to the right, a handsome 
spike, not quite straight, of Lupinus polyphyllus between the 
two, their bases being screened by a few fronds of ferns, from 
amongst which peeps out a flame-red bloom of an erect 
Gloxinia. Over the edge hangs a piece of Ivy, which twines 
round the stem of the vase. et us examine the forms first. 
There is a harmony in the curye of the inflorescence of the 
Oncidium and the Polygonatum ; but in all other comparisons, 
the forms are in contrast, especially in that of the blooms of 
the different flowers. Im the colours, however, the harmonies 
and contrasts are more evenly divided. The yellow-coloured 
Oncidium contrasts with the blue Lupin and the crimson 
Gloxinia, and harmonizes with the light green foliage of the 
Polygonatum. The Gloxinia harmonizes with reddish-purple ~ 
tints in some parts of the Lupin flowers, and contrasts both 
with the light green of Polygonatum and the dark green of 
the Ivy. On the whole, however, the contrasts are more 
numerous than the harmonies; and it is probably owing to 
this that the grouping exhibits a style and character which 
might not please every one, but which is at the same time 
bold, free, and unconventional. I wonder whether this arrange- 
ment would please “ D. 'T. F.,” who is so displeased with the 
magpie mixtures of the present day, that he rushes off into 
the other extreme of “utmost simplicity,” and puts only one 
kind of flower into each vase. ‘This style is undoubtedly 
pretty, and very safe for beginners ; but the effect of a dinner- 
table thus arranged will not bear comparison with that 
resulting from a judicious distribution of harmonies and 
contrasts in form and colour. Weeds 


Mar 18, 1872.) 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—May 17th. 


Flowers.—Bouquets have invariably some white flowers in their 
centres, sometimes a light coloured Tea Rose, at other times a Gardenia, 
or a cluster of Stephanotis blooms ; around the centre are arranged sprays 
of Orchids, Lily of the Valley, White Azaleas, Bouvardias, Heliotropes, 
Pinks, Pelargoniums, &c., the whole interspersed with Ferns. The pre- 
yailing colour in bouquets is generally white, and none of them contain 
more than some half dozen different kinds of flowers. In some of them 
the dark blue flowers of Centaurea montana are very striking, and con- 
trast admirably with the white. In addition to these we noticed cut 
blooms of Cacti, Philesia buxifolia, white and red Daturas, Cyclamens, 
still in fine condition, Sparaxis, Honeysuckle, Carnations, Ranunculuses, 
Rhododendron Dalhonsianium, with its large trumpet-shaped, cream- 
coloured blooms, grand examples of Anthurium Scherzerianum, and others. 
Besides these there is no lack of plants in pots, such as Heaths, Hydran- 
geas, Petunias, Variegated Grasses, suitable for the decoration of baskets, 
‘Amaryllis, Fuchsias, Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, &c., and hosts of spring 
flowering and bedding plants. 


PRICES OF FRUIT, 


s. d. 8d. s.d. 
6 0 | Lemons .. ye ee CO 
5 0 | Oranges .. 60 12 0 
15 0 Pine Apples ib 8 0 12 0 
1 0 | Strawberries. Kon: YORU V8 
1 0 Walnuts -bushel 10 0 25 0 
0 tol2 0- GittO ....sccceeee per 100 1 0 20 
PRICES OF VEGETABLES. 
Artichokes ...... per doz. 4 0to 6 0 | Lettuce(Paris cos)each. 0 4to0 8 
ASPATAZUS «0.00005 per 100 4 0 10 O | Mushrooms ........ pottle 2 0 3 0 
Beans, Kidney ...per 100 1 6 2 6 | Mustard&Cress, punnet 0 2 00 
Beet, Red. doz. 10 3 O | Onions ...........0+ bushel 2 0 4 0 
Broccoli ... bundle 0 9 1 6 pickling......... quart 0 6 O 0 
Cabbage ....doz. 1 0 1 6 | Parsley, ...doz. bunches 3 0 40 
Carrots bunch 0 6 O O | Parsnips ............... doz. 0 9 130 
Cauliflower (hand-glass) Peas, Continental,quart 3 0 5 0 
doz. 8 0 12 O | Potatoes ............ bushel 4 0 6 0 
16 2 0 Kidney .. do. 4 0 6 0 
1 6 2 0 | Radishes doz. bunches 0 6 1 6 
2 0 4 O | Rhubarb -bundle 0 6 10 
0 6 1 6 | Salsafy 10 r6 
7 2 0 0 0 | Savoys rea! tae x0 
03 0 0 | Scorzone: 09 13 
te 3 0 | Seakale 10 20 
08 0 0 | Shallots Om 0 6 
0 3 0 O | Spinach 3.0 4 6 
3.0 4 O | Tomatoes 3.0 0 0 
0 2 O 6 | Turnips 03 #o9 


SOCIETIES, EXHIBITIONS, &c. 


ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(May 15ru anp 16TH.) 


ys exhibition was held under a large tent on terraced grassy banks. 
It was principally conspicuous for its Roses, which were finer than those 
exhibited at-any previous meeting this season. They were individually 
large in size, and were thickly studded with blooms of the finest quality, 
of which, the fully expanded ones on each plant would average over four 
dozen. One plant in particular, Souvenir d’un Ami, was furnished with 
at least six dozen expanded blooms. These collections of Roses were 
supported by large Bay trees, bushes of Box, Palms, Draczenas, Yuccas, 
and similar plants at the back. Amongst hybrid perpetuals was Camille 
Bernard, a very double dark red; Victor Verdier, an immense plant with 
splendid large rose-coloured flowers ; Beauty of Waltham, in lovely con- 
dition ; Vicomte Vigier, a rich dark coloured sort. Associated with these 
were also Edouard Morren, with immense reddish-pink flowers ; Madame 
Victor Verdier, a brilliant deep red; Horace Vernet, a fine dark velvety 
flowered kind; Pierre Notting, one of the best dark-coloured kinds, and 
very double; Charles Lefebvre, also a yariety of great excellence; and 
Marquise de Castellane, with very large rose-coloured blooms. In addi- 
tion to these we noticed La France, a grand rose, with finely formed pink 
blooms; also Charles Lawson, which we have seldom seen so fine ; Princess 
Mary of Cambridge, in the form of a great pyramid of pink Roses ; Mdlle. 
Therese Levet, a particularly fine pmk, and Marie Beauman, a brilliant 
yed. Madame Villermoz was a complete mass of light-coloured blooms, 
and Catherine Mermet, also a Tea Rose, promises to take a prominent 
place among light pink flowers; of Celine Forestier there was a grand 
specimen, covered with splendid very double yellow flowers. Cut blooms 
filled eleven large boxes; the varieties in which were arranged in threes 
of each sort, and were very effective. 
Of Succulents several first-rate collections were exhibited in competition 
for the prizes offered by Mr. Peacock ; and that gentleman sent. from his 
own garden at Hammersmith no fewer than fifty distinct species, including 
. Agaves, Mammillarias, Melocactus, Echinocactus, and a few plants of 
Opuntias and Cereuses. Of these, several, from the manner in which 
they were grafted, appeared quite novel. Tall-growing Cereuses seemed 
to be the stocks most generally employed, and plants of these a foot 
high or so and from one to two inches in thickness, surmounted by a 
round head from four to six inches in diameter, had a truly singular 
appearance. Opuntias and others have been so successfully operated on in 
this way by Mr. Croucher, that he finds some of them do better than when 


allowed to grow on their own roots. i I 
of Echinopsis that had never before produced flowers in this country. 


three inches across. 


THE GARDEN. 


Amongst them were three plants 


These were HE. Duvallii, on which were three open blooms of a lovely 
pink colour, each flower being about eight inches in length and nearly 
In addition to this there was EH. Wilkinsii, with 
flowers of a pretty rose colour, one being open and two approaching 
that stage; and B. Rollandii, with blooms of a delicate violet rose; this 
was more spiny than the others 

The collections of Agaves staged for exhibition were of great interest, 
and comprised many new kinds. Bonapartias, Yuccas, &c., were also 
contributed. A dozen plants of Pilocereus senilis, or “the Old Man 
Cactus,” as it is commonly called, from Mr. J. Verschaffelt, attracted 
considerable attention. They were small, and densely covered with white 
hair several inches in length. Azaleas were not exhibited in the shape of 
large specimens, but a good collection of small plants came from Mr. 
Turner, These were associated with such plants as Pandanus, Palms, 
Dracenas, Yuccas, Ficus, &c., tastefully arranged amongst them. A 
nice collection of Rhododendrons in small pots also added to the 
attractions of this show. 

Amongst miscellaneous exhibitions were some valuable plants ; in that 
from Mr. B. S. Williams, was a grand specimen of the variegated New 
Zealand Flax. We also noticed some fine Pelargoniums; various 
Mimuluses, beautifully coloured ; Carnations and Picotees of fine quality ; 
Herbaceous Calceolarias, stocky in growth and well varied as to colour ; 
and one or two collections of hardy plants. Orchids were not plentiful. 
Amongst them were several fine varieties of Cattleya Mossi; a beautiful 
specimen of Oncidium altissimum with twenty spikes of bloom; anda 
plant of Anderson’s variety of Vanda teres, richly flowered; as was also 
Lelia majalis. his last came from Mr. Denning, who had, it was 
reported, kept it in a cool airy house during the summer, and in an 
intermediate one in winter. The same collection likewise contained the 
Odontoglossum coronarium, with pretty brown flowers, the lower lip of 
which is tipped with yellow, the whole having a polished appearance as 
if varnished. On one spike of a dried specimen of this plant, no fewer 
than seventy flowers have been counted. In addition to the above, there 
were also two plants of Masdevallia in bloom, one cf which was new and 
unnamed. This is of a deep crimson colour, shaded with violet, and 
promises to be more than equal in point of beauty to any of this fine 
genus we as yet have in cultivation. 

Fruit and Vegetables were but sparingly exhibited. There were, 
however, six Melons, all of one kind, named Little Heath, which were 
remarkably well flavoured. Their united weights were forty-three pounds 
one ounce. There were likewise some well-ripened examples of Black 
Hamburgh and Buckland Sweetwater Grapes, and also some splendid 
Early Grosse Mignonne Peaches. Two fine examples of Cucumbers were 
likewise shown, named Maher’s Prolific, but owing to its nearness to 
the kind called “Blue Grown,” the committee did not award it a 
certificate. Besides these there were also some good new Peas grown 
indoors. They consisted of Carter’s First Crop and Little Gem. 

First-class certificates were awarded to the following, viz.:—To Azalea 
grandis, from Mr. Turner; to Odontoglossum coronartum, and to Mas- 
devallia species, from Mr. Denning; to Agave Hystrix compacta, A. 
Leopoldi, A. robusta, and A. Kellischii, from Mr. J. Verschaffelt, Brussels ; 
to Pelargonium Naomi and P. Chancellor, from E. Foster, Esq.; to 
Gloxinia Cecilia, from Mr. D. S. Thomson; to Carnations, Empress of 
Germany, Princess Christian, and Marchioness of Westminster, from 
Mr. C. Turner, Slough ; and to Melon, Little Heath, from Mr. J. Munro. 

The exhibitions of Table Decorations opened up a field for a fine 
display of taste, and on this, as on former occasions, the designs simplest 
in construction and the least costly were the most successful. Some of 
the sweetest and loveliest flowers which our glass houses can produce, 
through bad arrangement im clumsy designs, were wholly ineffective 
compared with materials of even the most common-place description 
neatly arranged. Differences, indeed, as tegards arrangement were more 
than usually apparent at this show, some of the exhibitors even going so 
far as to decorate their centre vases with the flags of all nations. 
Decorations in the tent set apart for tables for twenty persons were 
much more costly than those in the tent for decorations for twelve 
persons. The first prize table for twenty persons had one centre-piece, 
between which and the ends were flat vases, in which were two recumbent 
figures, and plants of Pteris tremula in pots let into the table; at one 
extreme end of the table was a dish about four inches high, on which 
was set a Pine Apple, and at the other end a similar dish with a Melon. 
The middle centre-piece had three tiers, one consisting of tin filled 
with sand, being on a level with the table ; another, in theform of a small 
vase about half-way up, the top consisting of a long narrow vase. The 
groundwork of the base consisted of Selaginellas, several pieces of 
‘Adiantum farleyense, and Pteris serrulata being inserted in the sand and 
allowed to hang over on the cloth. Intermixed with these leaves were 
flowers of Philocactus, a few blooms of Rhodanthe Manglesii,a flower or two 
of Gloxinia, a spray of Spirea japonica, one or two pieces of variegated 
Cyperus, and a few grasses. ‘The middle tier of this vase was saucer- 
shaped ; in this was also damp sand, in which were inserted a few pieces 
of Adiantum, sprays of Lily of the Valley, Rhodanthes, and grasses. The 
top vase was filled with water, in which were placed the sprays of Spirea 
japonica and one or twoother flowers, ferns, and grasses. The vases contain- 
ing the recumbent small figures were flat, and decorated with Selaginella 
and fern fronds. The finger glasses consisted of saucers in which a little 
water was placed, and in the bottom three single leaves of tricolor Pelar- 
goniums with a single double red flower laid on each leaf. In the centres 
of these stood the narrow finger glasses, properly so called, tastefully 
filled with a few sprays of fern, Spirea japonica, Stephanotis, &e. 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 18, 1872. 


Where the base of the finger-glasses contained light flowers the top 
was composed of dark ones, and vice versa. 

The fruits were merely placed on a vine leaf in suitable dishes, with 
perhaps a tiny frond of Adiantum run round the handle. The other 
prize tables were also very tastefully set off with elegant designs, and the 
floral display on that belonging to Mr. Webber exhibited much har- 
mony and beauty of colour. The tables for twelve persons were equally 
tastefully got up. That to which the first prize was awarded was in 
reality the simplest of the whole, and was decorated wholly with hardy 
flowers with the exception of a few blooms of Pelargoniums and a spray 
or two of fern. The hardy flowers used in this class consisted of Myosotis, 
Pinks, Spireeas, Ferulas, Thalictrums, grasses, &e. 


CRYSTAL PALACE HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION. 
(May 1111.) 


ALTHOUGH compared with former years, this was a select rather than 
an extensive exhibition, yet it yielded to none of its predecessors in point 
of excellence. Azaleas, the chief feature of spring shows, were success- 
fully contributed both by nurserymen and amateurs, and some of the speci- 
mens were of great size, and so closely set were some of them with 
flowers that the foliage was almost wholly concealed. One brilliant 
crimson-bloomed plant of A. Duc de Nassau was particularly noticeable 
on account of its abundance of bloom; it was, however, equalled quite 
in beauty by a grand plant of A. magnificent, whose profusion of pure 
white blooms completely covered a surface some six feet high and 
ten or twelve feet in circumference. Besides these huge plants there 
were also good collections of smaller ones, among which, some of the 
newer sorts could be distinguished. 

Among Roses in pots were some wonderful specimens well furnished 
with finely-formed large blooms. Indeed, this department was unusually 
well represented both by nurserymenand amateurs. In addition to plants 
shown in pots there were also several stands of cut Roses of different 
kinds, than which we do not remember ever having seen finer dowers. 

Cape Heaths were wonderfully fine, consisting chiefly of plants of 
great size, some of them being as much as four feet in diameter. They 
were also well bloomed, although in some few instances the flower-buds 
had not yet expanded. In shape they varied from that of the compact 
Erica depressa to that of the erect, robust-growing H. Cavendishii. In 
these two kinds we have flowers of the purest yellow; in candidissima 
delicate white; in coccinea minor rose; and in ventricosa, superba, and 
others, flowers of deeper red. Two collections of Pelargoniums were 
admirable examples of high culture, their wonderful size exciting the 
admiration of everybody. Near the Pelargoniums was a collection of 
Herbaceous Calceolarias, excellent both in form and marking. 

Orchids were perhaps not so abundant as might have been expected ; 
but any defect visible in point of quantity, was more than counter- 
balanced in the way of quality. Amongst Oncidiums were fine plants of 
ampliatum majus, with bright yellow flowers; bifolium was also ex- 
cellent; but the most remarkable, perhaps, of all, was a grand specimen 
of O. sarcodes, with which everybody was delighted. Dendrobiums, which 
were also good, consisted of large examples of D. densiflorum, nobile, which 
has been in flower ever since February, and several others equally 
striking. It is among Odontoglossums, however, that fine Orchids must 
be looked for; and anyone attempting to form a collection, however 
small, must not overlook the different members of this fine genus. There 
were likewise many others of great interest, such as Phalanopsis grandi- 
flora, Cypripediums, &c. 

Specimen plants owing to their immense size and abundance of bloom, 
were objects of considerable attraction. Most noticeable amongst them 
were Mr. Baines’s two magnificent examples of Sarracenias, to which we 
alluded a fortnight ago. There was likewise a plant of Gleichenia 
Spelunce some four feet in diameter; and a huge specimen of Gymno- 
gramma chrysophylla. Statice profusa was also remarkable, one plant 
measuring nearly four and a half feet through. In addition to these 
there were Theophrasta imperialis, with as fine foliage as we ever 
remember to have seen on a plant of the kind; Allamandas, variegated 
Pine-apples, &c.; likewise grand specimens of Epacris, Tremandras, 
Dracophyllum gracile, with pretty white flowers, and some plants of 
Txora coccinea with immense flower heads of brilliant red. Collections 
of new and rare plants were furnished by most of the leading nurserymen; 
bunt although they composed many of the novelties of the day, few occur 
among them that have not previously been noticed by us in reports of 
the different spring meetings ; among them were the finer kinds of Ferns, 
Dracenas, Marantas, &e. A striking collection of hardy ‘‘ foliage plants ”’ 
which was shown was greatly admired. From the attention which these 
excited, it is evident that plants of this description must soon become 
favourites for outdoor decoration. Pansies were presens in the form of 
cut blooms, and seldom do we remember having seen so fine a display ; 
there were also good collections of Tulips, Ranunculuses, Pyrethrums, 
and similar subjects. 


EXHIBITIONS FOR THE CURRENT WeEEK.— Royal Botanic Society, 
Regent’s Park, Summer Exhibition, 22nd and 28rd instant ; First Great 
Flower Show, Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society, 17th to 
24th instant; and Royal National Tulip Society Grand Horticultural 
Exhibition, Manchester, 25th; Sefton Park Great Horticultural Exhi- 
bition, Liverpool, 21st to 23rd. 


Exhibition of Horticultural, Buildings, &c., at Bir- 
mingham.—The following memorandum has just been issued by 
the Birmingham local committee :—“ Prizes not haying hitherto been 
offered in this division, the plan now submitted is, necessarily, to 
some extent experimental; but the sub-committee have very care- 
fully considered the subject, and with respect to horticultural 
buildings, as they were not prepared to lay down, in the first instance, 
any special rnles of classification, that will be deferred until the 
entries are completed. At that time the sub-committee will confer 
with gentlemen possessing scientific and practical knowledge of 
buildings, &c., who will be selected to act as judges, and who will 
then group this part of the collection in as complete a manner as 
possible before proceeding to make their awards. In addition to the 
medals mentioned in the first issue of this circular, the judges will 
have two extra gold medals placed at their disposal, one or both of 
which, at their discretion, may be awarded for horticultural buildings, 
as well as that first offered.’’ We remind our readers that the last 
day for making entries is Saturday next, the 25th inst. Applications 
for entry forms should be made to Mr. B. A. Hallam, Midland 
Counties Herald Office, Birmingham. 


Vitality of Roots.—Much has been said concerning the vitality 
which exists in seeds and bulbs, and we have many times 
given instances of it. Is the vital force which exists in stems and 
stalks, even herbaceous, of certain plants, known? I doubt it; and 
to show how much there is, I give the following instance. The 
10th of last November I had a portion of the floor of my library 
raised to place a mantel-piece. The portion which was taken up 
was at a distance of three métres from the exterior walls, a part 
of which, facing the west, was constructed of a soft stone of Tour- 
aine, called bourré. I lifted, with surprise, long herbaceous 
filaments (threads), totally white, covered at the nodes with 
rudiments of microscopic leaves and slender hairs. Their length was 
considerably, more than two yards. I recognised—but not without 
some difficulty—this plant to be the stalk of the field bindweed 
(Convolvulus arvensis). The wall outside had not been covered by 
the plant, and no root was to be found in the vicinity, which isa 
gravelly soil; nevertheless, the wall had been passed through, with 
all its thickness, by the stalks, of a similar whiteness, which came 
to find light in the warm part of the apartment, and climbed up 
behind my library. Others had run under the flooring, and there 
had vegetated, but the first which I gathered had its roots in the 
room. I questioned the mason. He told me that the flooring had 
been put down twelve years previously, and had never been disturbed 
since. Before that period the room had had a brick floor (or tiles) 
for more than a century. Thus, then, here are fragments of roots, 
buried there for more than twelve years at the least, and perhaps 
many more, in complete obscurity, without air, which now shoot up 
long and white every year, two or three métres in each direction, 
without appearing in the least exhausted. Others have had sufficient 
strength to pass between the joints of the stones, heedless of the 
mortar, and come to find heat and warmth in the room.—Hd. André, 
in “ L?Tlustration Horticole.” 


ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, 


A. D. (1. Adiantum concinnum latum; 2. A. macrophyllum; 3. A. tra- 
peziforme).—R. SaunpERs (Guano water, if not applied in too strong 
doses, is of great advantage to cucumbers in pots).—S. 8. (The* grub to 
which you refer is uncommon; instances are on record of its attacking 
rose trees during the night, and eating off their shoots. Search for it 
during the day in the earth, in which it buries itself. Can you send us 
a specimen of it?).—C. J. 8. (The plants of Marechal Niel towhich you 
refer are planted out ina bed inside the house; some are budded on briars, 
others are on their own roots). 


THE GARDEN can be had in neatly covered monthly parts.—On sale 
at Messrs. Smith 5: Son’s bookstalls, and may be had through 
all booksellers. Part V., for April, now ready, price 1s. 5d. 
Publishing Office, 37, Southampton Street, Covent Garden, 
London, W.C. 


All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed 
to Witt1am Rosinson, ‘ THE GARDEN ” OrricE, 37, Southampton 
Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. All letters referring to 
Subscriptions, Advertisements, and other business matters, should 
be addressed to THE PUBLISHER, at the same Address. 


Readers who may find it difficult to procure THE GARDEN regularly 
through the newsagents, may have the numbers sent direct from 
the office, at 19s. 6d. per annum 9s, 9d. for six months, or 5s. for a 
ouarter, payable in advance. All the back numbers may be obtained 
through all newsagents at the railway book-stalls, and from the 
office. 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


579 


“This is an art 


Which does mend nature: change it rather: but 
Tue Arr ITsELF Is NaturE.”’—Shakespeare. 


SCIENCE, THEORY, AND PRACTICE. 


Mr. Newmay’s allusion to “ practical men,’ in a recent 
number of Tur GarpeEn, touches upon a subject of the greatest 
importance to horticulture and to many other branches of 
human knowledge. Yet so far as we know it has not been dis- 
cussed in any periodical devoted to horticulture. We allude to 
the misuse of the above terms in our literature and in our eyery- 
day talk. As Mr. Newman remarks, the gardener does not 
regard the entomologist as “a practicalman.” But how do the 
entomologist and the botanist look upon the gardener? Why, 
they may, or may not, call him a “ practical man,’ but they 
will certainly say he is “not a scientific” one. Let one of 
our most intelligent gardeners, or amateurs, or nurserymen, 
write a book embodying the results of twenty years’ experi- 
ence and observation, and the probabilities are that he will, as 
a matter of course, find it alluded to as “not a scientific book,” 
while perhaps it is highly praised for the original and useful 
knowledge it embodies. The reviewer is probably a gentle- 
man who has mastered the technicalities of botanical language, 
and perhaps applied them to some local flora or elementary 
class book of botany. Upon the strength of these accomplish- 
ments, comparatively trivial as they are known to be, he 
presumes to place himself in a group supposed to be entirely 
distinct from the gardener, nurseryman, and amateur, and 
calls himself a “ scientific man.” The object of this article is 
to point out how much we lose by the wrongful use of 
words, and how greatly we impede progress, both in horti- 
culture and botany, by using false distinctions as to knowledge 
and the means of adding to it. 

It should be clearly understood by all men that all 
knowledge is the same in kind; that there is no real difference 
between “science’’ and practice, and that what is sound 
in theory must be sound also in practice, and vice versd. 
There is no real difference. The old meaning of the word 
science is knowledge; the modern meaning is the same. It 
has been shown over and over again by eminent men that 
the methods of investigation applied to the most difficult 
problems that have yet engaged the attention of man, differ 
in no essential respect from those used by the humblest 
observant gardener. What is true scientifically, must be true 
also in practice. Such an expression as, “It is right enough 
in theory, but wrong in practice,” is simply nonsense. 
Nothing can be “right in theory and wrong in practice.” 
“Tt is mere theory,’ is often the silly comment on some 
simple statement, the truth of which could be thoroughly 
tested by direct experiment in the garden. To say that the 
author of a proposition “is not a practical man,” or not a 
scientific ” one, instead of investigating it, is an easy-but 
ungenerous and unworthy way of saving ourselves the 
trouble of trying whether he is right or wrong. 

Who is to blame for this state of things? Chiefly the class 
of botanists and “scientific” men who do not rise higher 
in the study of the vegetable kingdom than the stage of mere 
technicalities arid their application. We might suppose that 
the Royal Horticultural Society would not propagate errors 
of this kind. But this is precisely what it does, and at the 
great Birmingham meeting there is to be a scientific anda 
practical congress. Addresses are also to be given on separate 
days on “ recent progress in scientific,”.and “ recent progress in 
practical.” horticulture, as if these terms‘did not mean one and 
the same thing. Thus a society for the encouragement of 
gardening says, in effect, to gardeners:—Your labours and 


observations have nothing to do with science (knowledge), and 
we will take care that there is no mingling of such different 
classes. Your practical notions are of some slight account ; 
we will devote a day to them as soon as we have completed 
our scientific labours. And thus the most miserable of class 
distinctions is maintained by the very body whose true work 
it should be to counteract the effects of a use of language false 
in itself and really hurtful in its effects on horticulture. 

One of the first things done by our greatest thinkers, in 
clearing the ground for the study of the highest philosophical 
problems, is to prove the identity in kind of the ordinary and 
the “ scientific” methods of observation, and the ONENESS, sO 
to speak, of theory and practice. It may be urged by the 
botanist that his knowledge is capable of more accurate demon- 
stration than the gardener’s ; but this is not the case, except as 
regards descriptions of plants. Such a book, for example, as 
Lindley’s “ Theory of Horticulture ” would be called a scientific 
book, while one of Loudon’s might not be considered worthy of 
that distinction. Yet it has been demonstrated that“ The Theory 
of Horticulture” embodies many erroneous propositions, and 
more important errors than will probably ever find their way 
into a gardening book. The object of this article is not in any 
sense to attempt to undervalue the labours of the botanist or of 
any other worker in the cause of knowledge, but simply to plead 
for a better understanding than now exists between classes of 
men that are really working in the same cause and with the 
same tools. 

Let, then, no lover of gardening or of knowledge concern 
himself whether things are described as scientific or practical. 
Our business is, in whatever statements concern horticulture, 
to ascertain whether they are true or false. Let us describe 
books or articles relating to our art as profound or elementary, 
lucid or obscure, learned or the reverse, right or wrong—there 
are plenty of true and understandable words and distinctions; 
but do not let us despoil our fair garden ground by bolstering 
up in it such obstructive and unnatural barriers as_ those 
above pointed out. W. R. 


NOTES OF THE WEEK. 


—— Tur wintry weather we have experienced throughout May 
has considerably retarded the Rhododendrons, but they are now 
opening in great beauty in the London parks. 

—— IN consequence of the severity of the weather there is as yet 
scarcely any of the summer occupants of the flower beds planted out 
in the London parks. The great lines of beds along Park Lane aro 
yet brown and naked. 

Mr. J. Orcuarp HALLIWELL, having, says the Architect, 
purchased the entire area supposed to be occupied by Shakspeare’s 
garden, Stratford-on-Avon, intends to present it to the town. All 
houses built on it will be removed. 

Ir may be laid down as arule, says the Scientific American, 
that a larger proportion of white flowers are fragrant than those of 
any other colour; yellow comes next, then red, and lastly blue, after 
which, and in the same order, may be reckoned violet, green, orange, 
brown and black. 

THE yintage on three of the vineyards on the Barrabool 
Hills, says the Australasian, has commenced, but owing to the oidium 
which has this year affected the vines, the yield is not expected to be 
more than half that of last year. The Black Prince variety has more 
particularly suffered from this cause. 


On the 13th instant an Act received the Royal assent to 
amend the Public Parks (Ireland) Act, 1869. Doubts have arisen as 
to whether the parks, which the governing bodies of towns were 
authorised to establish and maintain, must be situate within the 
boundaries of the towns. Parks may now be maintained within or 
without the boundaries of the towns. Power is given to sell super- 
fluous land. 

—— Srvcx onr last issue the weather has been most unfortunate 
for plants. In the Midlands, in some low-lying districts, the effect of 
the frost of Saturday night the 18th, was most disastrous. The 
hardiest plants and trees suffered severely. The young shoots of the 
Norway spruce were everyone killed. Hardy British ferns, the 
budding leaves of the hardiest forest trees, and roses are among the 
things scorched almost to the quick; even the golden flowers of our 
British Globe-flower were blackened. A fine mass of the Prostrate 
Gromwell (Lithospermum prostratum) in Mr. Vertegan’s nursery, at 


580 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


eee 


Birmingham, on the 18th a sheet of gentian-like blue, had, on the 
19th, every flower drooping and dead. It would require a long list to 
enumerate all the disasters. 


THE near ends of the Row and Drive in Hyde Park are just 
now quite fragrant with the breath of Stocks and Mignonette, 
arising from masses of these plants. The planting of these is a 
step in the right direction. Apart from the intrinsic merit of the 
plants as used here, they fill a great blank between the early and 
the summer flowers. 


Aut interested in spring bedding plants who haye an oppor- 
tunity of seeing the display in the Lower Grounds, Aston, near 
Birmingham, should not failto do so. Anything more brilliant could 
not be seen, even in the summer flower garden; the weather has 
somewhat retarded the display, so that it will remain in good condition 
for a considerable time tocome. Nearly 16,000 persons visited these 
grounds on Whit-Monday. 


THE dingy old shed in which the flower department of Covent 
Garden Market has been carried on for some years has been pulled 
down, together with three houses in Wellington Street. Several 
thousand tons of earth have been excavated, massive groined arches 
have been constructed, and an iron and glass floral hall reared on the 
top of them. It is fifty-four feet high in the centre , and when 
finished will cover an area of 16,000 superficial feet. 


Rap progress is being made with the preparation of the 
show ground of the Royal Horticultural Society at the Lower Grounds, 
Birmingham. The large tent is complete all but the covering, and 
seems suitably designed, but appeared to us too small, and its scheme 
of walks too complicated for the large numbers of persons that may 
be expected to visitthe show. ‘The plants in the main tent will be 
arranged on turfed steps, somewhat like those at the International 
Exhibition of 1862 at South Kensington, but lower. 


Az a late meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works a 
resolution was passed (rescinding a previous resolution) by which 
seme acres of land near Southwark and Finsbury parks are to be 
thrown into those parks. The public are indebted for this concession 
to the renewed interest taken in questions of metropolitan admini- 
stration. Hampstead Heath and the lands round Victoria Park, 
have also been saved from the builder; and there can be no doubt that 
a little vigilance will save Epping Forest. 


THE usual “flower sermon” was preached, according to custom 
for these last twenty years, on Whit-Tuesday evening, at the church 
of St. Katherine Cree, Leadenhall Street, by the Rey. Dr. Whittemore. 
Hach young person brought a bouquet, and the fine old church bright- 
ened wonderfully under the influence of beaming faces and gay flowers. 
Service commenced at seven o’clock, but long before that hour the 
church was full. Dr. Whittemore preached from the text, “ Awake, 
oh, north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that 
the spices thereof may flow out.” 


Dr. Hooker has issued his report on the Royal Gardens at 
Kew for last year. The number of visitors has not been quite equal 
to either of the two preceding years. Sunday visitors embody more 
than two-thirds of the total number on all the other days of the 
week; Monday, the ‘‘artisans’ day,” showing considerably the 
largest numbers of any of the week days, and Dr. Hooker speaks of 
the almost uniformly orderly conduct of the visitors on that day. 


In the Gardens themselyes, no change of importance has been intro- 
duced. 


We would remind intending exhibitors at Birmingham, that 
to-day is the last for making entries of implements, horticultural 
buildings, &c.; and that Tuesday next, the 28th instant, is the latest 
time for making entries to show table decorations. On reference to 
our advertising columns it will be seen that a final edition of the 
schedule will be ready for issue in a few days; but we are authorised 
to state that in no important particular does it differ from the 
schedule already in the hands of our readers. Intending exhibitors 
will, however, do well to get a copy of the new edition—it may be 


interesting to know that 5,500 copies of the first edition have been 
distributed. 


Serron Park was formally opened by H.R.H. Prince Arthur 
on Monday last. It is situated about three miles from the Exchange, 
and will be a great boon to Liverpool. It contains 382 acres, 115 
of which are to be let off in building leases. It is to contain a 
cricket and review ground. It has a large lake, with a depth of 
about four feet, and is thus safe for skaters. This is fed by several 
little streams, which twist and turn about, and are prettily laid out, 
two of them springing from rock grottoes or cascades; little water- 
falls are constructed all along their courses. A year at least must 
yet elapse ere the whole of the departments in this park are com- 
pleted. The roads and footpaths are wide and well laid down, and 
the drainage arrangements perfect. 


| 


Tux broccoli growers in West Cornwall are greatly agerieved 
by a contemplated attempt on the part of the owners of the small 
tithe of the lands, to increase the rent-charge on the extensive broc- 
coli-growing lands. A large and influential meeting has resolyed 
to use every effort to resist the increase, if necessary, by an appeal 
to the Legislature to alter the 22nd clause of the Tithe Commutation 
Act, which sanctions a higher charge on gardens than on agricultural 
land, the appellants contending that the clause was intended for a 
limited time only, and that broccoli-growing cannot be fairly included 
in market-gardening. 


Tax Harl of Shrewsbury again offers the British public a 
privilege and a warning. The grounds around Alton Towers will be 
thrown open to them as usual, but, as we infer, solely during their 
good behayiour. Last year, it may be remembered, towards the close 
of the season, his lordship expressed his dissatisfaction at the €XGeSSeS 
sometimes committed by excursionists, and as he traced thei origin 
to drinking habits, he announced, as his own solution of the licensing 
problem, that “unless people ate they should not drink.” Some such 
plan is to be adopted during the present season, for the Narl states 
that the refreshment-rooms are to be open “ only at meal times.” 


TE Sunday promenade in the Zoological Gardens, like most 
other al fresco entertainments, may generally be said to commence 
for the summer season about Whitsuntide. The fine weather, 
so entirely unexpected by all but the profoundly weather-wise, 
allured no fewer than 45,000 visitors into these gardens on Whit 
Monday. These gardens just now are very beautiful. Notwith- 
standing the bleak cold weather we have had lately, the vivid young 
green of the trees is profusely decked with the bloom of chesnuts 
and crimson hawthorn, laburnums, rhododendrons, lilac, and so forth. 
To lovers of nature, animate and inanimate, these gardens afford 
real pleasure. 


Grare culture has become so extensive in California that 
some growers are at a loss to know how to profitably work up the 
surplus product, and the manufacture of saccharine substances fron. 
ripe grapes is now exciting attention. It is found that not only can 
a sweet viscid substance be obtained simply by boiling the juice, but 
that crystallised sugar can be easily manufactured therefrom. Mor this 
purpose the sweetest grapes are allowed to hang until they begin to 
shrivel. They are then picked, rapidly pressed, and the juice boiled 
to a thick syrup before any chemical change can take place. The 
Syrup is placed in tight casks, and allowed to stand for four or five 
months, at the end of which time about two-thirds of the mass are 
found converted into sugar. 


Says the Times notice of the flowers at the Crystal Palace :— 

The specimens of sarracenia drummondialia, of the imantophyllum minia- 
tum, of the cyanophyllum magnificum, of the sarracenia drummondifluya, and 
of the spherogyne latifolia call for distinct notice. 

And they shall not call in vain, and the distinct notice Punch gives 
them is that they are sesquipedalian kusses. We shall have the 
really lovely flowers, the Fairies of the Old Creation, crying ont for new 
titles next. Who remembers, or rather, who forgets, Barry Corn- 
wall’s Weavers’ song, ‘’Tis better to Sing than Grieve”? P— 

Come, show us the rose with its hundred dyes, 
The lily without a blot, 
The violet, deep as your true-love’s eyes, 
And the little forget-me-not. 
Are we to have this re-written in the following fashion ?— 
The Rosa deschenhaultiana, come, show us; 
The Lilinn sepalisalbis, white. 
With the Viola ranwneulifolia endow us, 
And the wee Myosotis palustris hight. 


—Punch. 


FLOWERS, says Hampers Weekly, exert’a wonderfully refining, 
influence upon character. There are few who are not susceptible to 
it, under favourable circumstances. The model farmer of olden 
times, who begrudged his wife or daughter a bit of land to beantify, 
who denounced all blossoms which resulted in no marketable fruit as 
useless, and ploughed up the bright pinks and marigolds with ruthless 
hand, has passed away, we trust, or at most but a few of the species 
remain. It is becoming more and more the pleasant fashion, not 
only in towns and villages, but in secluded rural homes where the 
plain farmer’s family toil hard, for the children to have little plots 
of ground where they may raise flowers to charm theeye. If parents 
only realised the educating power of plants, and how keenly most 
children enjoy watching the growth and development of vegetable 
lite, they would foster the desire they so often express ‘‘to haye a 
garden of their own.’ Now, in the spring-time, let at least a few 
seeds and roots be obtained; let a bit of ground, or, if this is not 
possible, some flower-pots, be devoted to the amusement and instruction 
of the little folks. It will not merely keep them ont of mischief to 
have some pleasant occupation in the open air, it will be health-giving 
and mind and heart improying. Don’t forget the flower seeds! 


/ 


May 25, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


581] 


a 


GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 


BRACKETS FOR PLANTS. 


Some plants look so well against the wall of a greenhouse 
or conservatory that it is a wonder brackets are not in more 
general use than they are. It is not necessary that they 
should be so elaborate as that which supports the fine-leaved 
Begonia in the accompanying engraving; this is of course a 
matter to be determined according to individual taste and 
means. For growing plants in, the least ornamental form is 
just as good as any other. The simplest kind of bracket 
which I ever saw was a flower-pot with one side flattened, 
and having a hole near the top of the flat side, so that it 
might hang upon a nail in the wall. Some years ago I 
remember seeing a collection of Ferns grow against the wall 
of a greenhouse in these flat-sided pots, which were hanging 
thickly all over the wall; and the effect of the drooping fronds, 
which in many instances quite hid the pots, was exceedingly 
pretty. I see no reason why Mesembryanthemums should 
not be grown in such pots, by which means the wall of a 
conservatory might be covered 
with their blooms; and those 


detrimental influence on worked plants with limited root accommo- 
dation, through developing latent suckers, hurtful to the plants and 
deceitful, by their treacherous simulation, to inexperienced and 
unwary cultivators. 

The routine of treatment to be laid down for window Roses is 
tolerably simple. Repot them every year in rich fresh soil; whether 
in November or February is of little moment, provided they are kept 
“ closish,” warm, and shaded for afew days, after which they may be 
pruned into shape. See that they are sufficiently supplied with 
water, but not kept too moist, and occasionally administer an invi- 
gorating tonic in the form of liquid manure. Let this be clear, and 
of Peruvian guano, two ounces to the gallon. The foliage is to be 
kept scrupulously clean and free from dust. Seize every oppor- 
tunity of exposing the plants to genial rains, in the absence of which 
subject them to an evening sprinkle with the syringe, particularly 
in the summer time, in any convenient spot, restoring them to their 
proper locality when somewhat drained. Occasionally sponging the 
leaves with soap and water will be a beneficial practice ; but beware 
the suds do not soak into the soil, converting thereby pots of earth 
into pots of paste, to the utter discomfiture of the roots therein. 
Study the future contour of the plants in cutting blooms. 

Let us now proceed to the paramount consideration—that of the 
choice of sorts. Four Roses are by 
far the most generally useful and 


who would like to see ribbon 
beds executed upon a wall, 
might be able with this genus 
alone to produce some curious 
effects. Wall gardening, in 
short, is a subject to which as 
yet little attention has been 
paid ; but if well carried out 
it would doubtless be produc- 
tive of the very best results. 

A aad 


WINDOW ROSES. 


NorwirHstaNDING all that has 
been said and written respecting 
Roses, there appears to be room 
for further discourse on the sub- 
ject, and this will always be the 
case so long as new crosses give 
rise to new uses and new experi- 
ments. Roses for the window is 
a branch of culture hitherto little 
touched upon, although through 
its means many may enjoy posses- 
sion of this flower of flowers to 
whom, in any other form, it is em- 
phatically denied. Some yearsago 
I was induced to turn my attention 
to this subject, in consequence of 
a small collection of certain kinds 
in pots coming under my control. 
The drawing-room window of a 
suburban dwelling was the only 
field for experiment at command ; 


reliable for the task we have in 
hand: Souvenir de la Malmaison, 
Mrs. Bosanquet, and the old white 
China, and the blush, frequently 
termed the ‘‘ monthly rose.’’ The 
two first-named flowers are greatly 
the best, yet the latter are pretty, 
and constantly in bloom, a point 
of much importance. There is a 
new white China, named ‘‘ Ducher,’’ 
highly promising for windows or 
| for beds. We have next the Teas 
Safranot, Madame Ialcot, Vicom- 
tesse de Cazes, and the brilliant- 
| coloured Fabvier and Cramoisie 
Superieur, to give life and con- 
trast. Some may feel disposed to 
add many undeniable fine pot Roses 
to the list, but pot Roses and win- 
dow Roses are different things. In 
the latter, only those producing 
constantly new shoots, and upon 
every shoot a bloom, are really 
fitted for the purpose of growth in 
rooms. As soon, however, as the 
experimentalist feels master of his 
art, there is nothing to prevent 
him from endeavouring to extend 
his collection. Beginners should 
confine themselves to the first- 
| named five, but the more skilled 
and confident may launch ont ‘at 
discretion ’’ in the kinds which fol- 
low, always keeping in mind that 
the plants must be upon their 
own roots: Admiral Nelson, Anna 


but the air of the locality was 
pure, the aspect favourable, and 
the varieties, as trial proved, eminently propitious. In due time 
Roses came, and the possibility was proved of having charming 
flowers without a glass house and without a garden. Indeed, the 
produce of the window differed but little from that of the same 
varieties under glass in a special Rose house. The master-key of the 
position was the selection of varieties. It is not pretended, as a 
matter of course, that any Rose stuck in a pot will necessarily thrive 
under the special and peculiar conditions of window culture. But, 
given the requisite attention, and, as said before, the proper sorts, 
failure need hardly be apprehended. There are, however, certain 
essentials of procedure to be mastered by the window-cultivator of 
Roses. First he must have the following sorts: the plants on their 
own roots, and well-established as to size. Nothing in less than 
thirty-two sized pots is permissible ; twenty-fours are better; but the 
dimensions, on the other hand, must not be too large, because many 
inconyeniences, needless to particularise, would result from bulk. 
The plants themselves should be compact and bushy, well furnished 
with shoots from the very collar. Any kind of worked Rose must be 
avoided, because stocks of all sorts require far too much root-room 
for effective growth in pots. Liquid manure also, which forms an 
important element in the pot-culture of Roses, is apt to exercise a 


= Alexietf, Docteur Andry, Elie Morel, 
John Hopper, Monsieur Noman, 
Marquise de Castellane, Marquise de Mortemart, Princess Christian, 
Pauline Lansezeur, Charles Lefebyre, Baron Gonella, Catherine 
Guillot, Bourbon Queen, La Quintine, George Peabody; the Teas— 
Devoniensis, Madame Bravy, Madame Halphen, Pauline Labonte, 
Souvenir d’un Ami, Melanie, Willermoz, Niphetos, Triomphe de 
Luxembourg, Odorata (old); the Noisettes Narcisse and Céline 
Forestier. Many of these will succeed, but must be adopted rather 
as probabilities than certainties, because, after all, in rose-growing, 
as in other things, something must be risked. 

No window plant should stand permanently in a saucer, which is 
merely a device to save dirt and slop after watering, which should 
be done rather by total immersion than by sprinkling, which is only 
useful administered overhead. Plantsshould never stand in draughts, 
or be exposed to the beams of the scorching midday sun. When 
window Roses haye done blooming, they should be set out of doors 
in any convenient place, until again beginning to grow. Removing 
the upper surface of the soil and replacing it with fresh is a valuable 
point of culture, and will be found of great assistance towards 
healthy growth. Dead leaves and bygone blooms should be quickly 
removed, the latter always cut off just above a plump, well deve- 
loped eye. Rose trees kept close have always a tendency to be 


582 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


attacked by red spider. Watch carefully for the first inroads of 
this pest, and wash the backs of the leaves with soft soap and 
water. 

It may be added that some of those glass-cases termed Belgian 
window gardens are well adapted for the growth of Roses, 
where a sunny aspect exists, with facilities for affording plenty of 
light and air. A few fine Roses such as have been named in this 
paper will conyey a charm, a finish, and an interest to apartments 
that few other objects can give.—W. D. Prior, in “ Gardeners’ 
Magazine.” 


THACHINGS IN TABLE DECORATION. 

I rHoucHr I knew something about decorating a dinner-table, 
but I wanted to know more, so I went to the great show of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, at South Kensington, the other day, 
and there I learnt a great many lessons. I learnt that as fine 
feathers do not always make fine birds, so good fruit and good 
flowers will not ensure good table decoration, unless properly 
arranged ; that fine fruit and choice flowers may be very beautifully 
arranged in dishes and vases, and yet be so placed on a dining-table 
as to be an inconvenience, instead of a pleasure, to the invited 
guests, and an annoyance to the host and hostess, whose friends 
might just as well be dining in another room or another house if 
they cannot see them and each other. 

I learnt that there are two classes of table decorators—those 
who crowd on as much as they can, and those who put on as little 
as possible; that in each class there are people with good taste, 
people with bad taste, and people without any taste; that in each 
class there are those who run into extremes, and consequently into 
absurdities, in carrying out their particular views; that each style 
has its admirers; and that, amongst the ladies, it is an easy matter 
to see from the style of their costume to which style of table 
decoration they will give a preference. I learnt that it is possible 
to decorate with good taste in the heavy style, as well as in the 
light style, although there was not a good example of the heavy 
style to be seen there; that heavy fruits are only admissible on a 
table dressed in the heavy style, and are quite out of place in any 
arrangements of alight character; that highly odoriferous fruits, 
like pines and strawberries, ought not to be placed upon a dinner- 
table at all, but should be handed round at the proper time at a 
diner & la Russe; and that at such dinners it would be better, 
in my opinion, if no fruits were used as a decoration when flowers 
sufficient for ornamenting the table can be commanded. 

T also learnt that a few flowers, well selected for size, form, and 
colour, and well arranged, will produce a more pleasing effect than 
a larger supply of what may be finer and choicer flowers, however 
well put together ; that there should be a proper proportion between 
the size of the table and the sizes of the vases used upon it; that 
not only should vases be chosen to suit the size of the table, but 
that, in like manner, flowers should be chosen to suit the sizes of the 
vases ; that large flowers should be used in the lowest dish of a vase, 
medium-sized flowers in the middle dish, and small flowers at the 
top; that dark colours should be used at the base, paler colours in the 
middle, and light colours or white at the highest part; that flowers 
of too fragrant a description should be avoided, or used very sparingly, 
lest they prevent some possessors of susceptible noses from enjoying 
their dinner; that large vases should not be placed near the edge or 
at the corners of a table; that the largest vases should be as far‘as 
possible from the edge of the table; that if there is room for other 
vases between them and the edge, these other vases should be 
decidedly smaller, and that their size should be smaller and smaller, 
in proportion to their proximity to the wine glasses of the diners. 

I further learnt that the same rules which goyern the sizes and 
the colours of flowers vertically, that is, from the base of a vase to 
its summit, should also be observed from the centre to the edges of 
the table in all decorations that are flat upon the table. 

All this, and much more, I learnt on the 15th instant, and yet I was 
not satisfied, sol went again on the next day, when I learnt some- 
thing more. I learnt that if I want to give dinner-parties for two or 
even three days running, I can, by careful selection of proper flowers, 
make the same decorations answer again and again, provided that I 
arrange them in water, or in moss that is in water; that shallow 
dishes filled with sand are very inferior to deeper dishes filled with 
moss and water; and that wiring flowers is all very well for sup- 
porting flowers whose heads are too heavy for their stalks, but it 
will not keep up their pristine freshness, unless their stems are in 
water. 

I looked over the names and addresses of the competitors, and I 
found glass and china merchants, whose object appeared to be to try 
how many different forms of receptacles for fruit and flowers they 
could put upon the table; I found Covent Garden Market represented 
with the main idea of showing both quantity and quality in the 


flowers and fruit, in which their success was indisputable; and, lastly, 
I found amateurs, who, unbiassed by such views, or rather influenced 
by very opposite views, had endeavoured to produce a good table 
without stripping their houses or spending a fortune upon the deco- 
rations for one dinner; and I saw that four out of the five prizes 
awarded were taken by amateurs. 

It must not be supposed that I am going to name the tables from 
which-I learnt these various lessens ; indeed those who arranged them 
would not be flattered if I were to do so, and for the following 
reason: more of my lessons were learnt from errors in judgment and 
taste on the part of the decorators, than from illustrations of their 
ability in the art. Yet those who saw them could not fail to be 
impressed with the amount of labour involved in getting together 
and arranging such a grand display of fruits and flowers, and it is 
very doubtful if anyone there passed a more enjoyable morning 
amongst the dinner tables than did— Aw IMPROVER. 


GARDENIAS FOR CUTTING. 


Wao has not been charmed with Cape jasmines P—almost a name, 
I fear, for anything unusually sweet and spotlessly white. No 
kind of flowers, not even orange blossoms, are more charming for 
wedding and other bouquets. Six or eight blooms of Gardenia 
Fortunei around a white rose or camellia, with padding and fringing, 
would make a bridal bouquet fit for an empress. Gardenia citriodora, 
again, produces single white flowers that are better than orange 
blossoms, while the different varieties of G. radicans are charming 
for cutting either for vases or bouquets. The Gardenias are also 
well adapted for the decoration of rooms, as most of them flower 
freely in a small state, and have a neat habit. Of course only those 
who enjoy living in an elysium of sweetness could live with them ; 
but there is one considerable advantage—that of introducing plants 
rather than cutting the flowers. And this brings me to note one 
frailty of the Gardenia. Soon after being cut it loses its white 
colour, and in the course of a day or two it dies, a dirty orange 
or yellow. Of course the flowers on the plant last longer. Some 
might select bridal bouquets chiefly formed of these flowers to send 
to a distance for a wedding three days hence. Don’t doit. Wor the 
same day or the next they are safe, not later. Almost all the 
varieties are suitable for bouquet-work but G. Stanieyana, which is 
of quite a different character from the rest—in fact, a trumpet- 
flowering plant with white margin and purple throat, eight inches 
deep and five broad. It is sweet like the others, and is am effective 
flower for standing up in or hanging over avase. The garden variety 
of G. florida, G. Fortunei, radicans, and radicans major are the most 
useful. 

Sometimes Gardenias are called greenhouse plants, but no one can 
cultivate or flower them in perfection treated as such. They 
luxuriate in a high temperature and a genial bottom heat from 
fermenting materials when flowering and making their wood. For 
the rest, they should never be under 50° eyen when dormant. 
They do well in a mixture of peat and loam, half and half, coloured 
with sharp silver sand, and darkened and enriched by, say, a sixth of 
well-rotted cow-dung. 

The best season for potting is when they are in full growth after 
flowering. A moist temperature of 70° to 75° suits them well until 
the growth is finished, when they can be removed to a cooler house 
until within six weeks of the time the flowers are wanted. Mealy 
bug is very partial to them. Rapid growth in an atmosphere 
charged with ammonia from decomposing manure is the best 
preventive. A drachm of pure alcohol, applied through a showerer, 
is a certain exterminator. 


Rhapis humilis —This is an exceedingly pretty ‘“‘dwarf-fan palm,” and 
one from its stature peculiarly suited for room decoration. It does not, like most 
of the small palms seen in our hothouses, send all the leaves from the root, but 
has a distinct woody stem not much thicker than the finger, and the most 
graceful little pillar of leaves that can be conceived. There is a very pretty 
specimen of it in Mr. Vertegan’s nursery, at Edgbaston. 


Triteleia uniflora as a Pot Plant.—! can endorseall that ‘‘R. D.” (p. 484) says 
about the usefulness of this plant for pots or borders. Itis sweet as a primrose 
if uncut or unbruised ; but touch it not, unless you can revel in the smell of onions 
intensified a hundredfold. How ‘‘R. D.’’ could write that the cut flowers can be 
mingled with others, without the unpleasant smell which unfortunately belongs 
to them being discernible, is beyond my comprehension, They are simply and 
wholly intolerable in a house,—T, 


Bramble Leaves in Winter.—In one of the February numbers of a respected 
contemporary of yours, the leading article of which is devoted to not very 
dignified abuse of poor William Cobbett, Charles Dickens, and other distin- 
guished men, who did not happen to know quite as much about gardening as 
the writer, there appeared a recommendation from Mr. Wynn, of Holbrook, 
Suffolk, in fayour of the leaves of the common bramble for garnishing the 
dessert. To the note the following editorial remark is appended :—‘‘ But bramble 
leaves are not to be had during the winter.—Kds.”’ Now in my part of the 
country, bramble leaves are not only to be had during the winter, but on this 
®th day of May I could gather cartloads of leaves of the past year.—J, M. 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


583 


THE INDOOR GARDEN. 


THE INDIAN AZALEA. 


Ts1s must always be a favourite, not only on account of the 
beauty of its flowers, but also on account of its free and cleanly 
growth, and dressy appearance even when out of bloom. It is like- 
wise one of the best of plants for yielding cut flowers for bouquets 
of all kinds with which I am acquainted, and therefore merits our 
best attention. 

SOIL. 

This must be sandy peat—a good peat with a fourth part or 
nearly so of sharp sand. Some peats have a good deal of sand in 
their composition, and of course in such a case a smaller quantity 
need be added. But decidedly sandy the soil shonld be, no 
matter how that is brought about. As a rule, people do not use 
enough of good sand in their Azalea soil. There are some soils that 
go by the name of peat, but which, being made up of a sour and 
marshy kind of dark loam, have very little in common with good 
peat, and should therefore be avoided. Nothing is more common in 
garden books and papers than to find it laid down that the soil 
should be used ‘in as rough a state as possible.” That is not 
necessary; it is not good management. If a pot is well and 
thoroughly drained, as it should be, with a couple of inches of 
potsherds, and over that a very thin layer of clean moss, the soil 
may be fine and thoroughly mixed up, and the plants will prove all 
the better for it. It should be passed through a coarse sieye—rubbed 
through it if necessary—the old fibres, roots of brake, and similar 
material generally abundant in peat, being removed. 


POTTING. 

If there is any one thing to be more particularly insisted on than 
another it is the ‘‘ firming” down of the fresh soil that is placed round 
the ball of a plant that is getting a shift. Many employ the right 
kind of soil and sand, but leave the fresh compost in a much softer 
and looser condition than the old ball; a mistake that often proves 
fatal to many plants. Even some gardeners pot a plant so loosely 
that the slightest pressure of the hand sends down the new soil an 
inch or two. What is the result ? Why, the ball being full of 
feeding roots loses its moisture quickly, and then, in consequence of 
the earth that surrounds it being much softer than the consolidated 
ball, the water that is poured on slips down through the fresh soil 
at the sides, in which there is as yet no roots, and thus affords no 
moisture to the mass of roots in the ball. After a little while the 
ball becomes quite dry, and then death ensues. Many Azaleas 
perish annually from this cause, or the nearly similar one of the pot 
being wet at the top and not thoroughly soaked through; but that 
is easily guarded against by giving thorough waterings. In potting 
Azaleas, the soil should be rammed quite firmly with a short blunt 
stick, and in several stages as the soil is put in, if the pot and 
specimen are large. Ina word, the soil placed. round the old ball 
in potting should be made as firm as the ball itself, and then the 
water will sink through all parts equally, free and vigorous growth 
will ensue, and accidents will be avoided. Should the cultivator 
discover a plant perishing from either of these causes, the remedy 
is to plunge it into a tub of water deep enough to cover the rim of the 
pot, and there let it soak for an hour or two, till it is thoroughly 
saturated and refreshed. Azaleas are free feeders, and therefore 
should be well watered at all times. No plant better enjoys a 
thorough soaking ; and in the case of large pots or tubs it should be 
given twice or thrice. 

i TRAINING. 

Many Azaleas have a dense thicket of cross shoots immediately 
over the pot; so much so that the hand can scarcely be got in to lay 
hold of the stem, and potting becomes an awkward operation. It 
was at one time thought that this was necessary to ensure a bushy 
plant. Instead of that, however, some of the handsomest-shaped 
and finest plants ever seen at our exhibitions have stems clear 
eighteen inches from the pot. The Azalea is so tractable, and yields 
so readily to the will of the trainer, that the shoots may be tied 
down and the specimen made to look as well as if you let the stem 
break forth close to the soil. Better, in fact, because by haying 
some length of clear stem the operations of potting and training are 
much facilitated ; and, after all is over, the branches droop down 
gracefully over the edge of the pot. Exhibitors of the Azalea 
generally train it so as to form a rigidly pyramidal outline, and it 
is the best way, with the exception of the rigidity. It is not 
nice to see beautiful plants trained as precisely as a sugar-loaf. 
Naturally, the Azalea assumes an agreeable outline; and there is no 
reason why, in some instances, it should not be allowed to take any 
shape it likes. In order to form a pyramid a central stake is 


necessary ; but it should not rise above the top of the plant. The 
leading or strongest shoots should be attached to this, and then the 
training should begin by gently tying down the lowermost branches 
first to the position desired, and following with the others. This 
shape may not seem pleasing at first, but soon the plant will have 
made a fresh growth, and will look much improved. The aim should 
be to make the specimen equally well furnished on every side, and 
not, as in some specimens now and then shown, good on one side and 
a bunch of bare stakes and shoots on the other. 


TREATMENT AFTER FLOWERING. 

When Azaleas have done flowering they should be pnt into a mode- 
rate and genial moist heat, to make their growth; that is, if it is 
convenient to do so. But if not, never mind; as they will flourish 
in a well-managed greenhouse or conservatory all the year round. 
If, however, it can be done, give a gentle close heat when they are 
growing. At that season they should be freely syringed, both in 
the morning and afternoon, and immediately after the afternoon 
syringing the house should be shut up, so as to retain a moist and 
genial heat. Many have but one house in which to grow their 
Azaleas, and that one it may not be quite convenient to shut up; 
but they need not despair of growing a good Azalea. It is a very 
tractable, accommodating plant. We are merely giving the treat- 
ment pursued by those who grow it best. A slight shade must be 
given when the sun is powerful in summer; but it must be slight, 
and only applied during the heat of summer and when the plants 
are ina soft and growing state. When growth is finished, and the 
plant approaching the ‘ripened’ stage, shade is not desirable. 
They should not be shifted into large pots until they have quite 
filled with roots those they are already in. See that the ball is 
thoroughly moist before repotting it. 

Pinching off the strong shoots should be attended to during the 
growing season, particularly in the case of young and freely-growing 
specimens; tying down strong shoots is also desirable. Pinching 
should not be done late in the season. Thrips is the chief and most 
destructive insect pest with which the Azalea is afflicted. The best 
way to get rid of it is to fumigate the house with tobacco or tobacco 
paper. It should be done in the evening, and, if convenient, during 
a still evening. Some fnmigate two eyenings in succession; it isa 
better plan to do so three or four times in succession, an interval of 
four days being allowed to elapse between each smoking. Fumi- 
gation destroys the insect, but leaves the eggs safe ; the successive 
smokings recommended, however, catch the young fry as they 
come out, and finally exhaust the stock of vermin. If a collection 
of Azaleas is clean, care should be taken to examine additions that are 
made to it, as vermin are often introduced in that way. Fumigation 
should not be carried on when the leaves of the plants are wet or 
very moist. 

It is a common practice with Azalea-growers to place the 
plants in the open air in summer. This is by no means necessary, 
as some of the largest and finest Azaleas we have ever seen were 
kept in a conservatory the whole year round. However, in country 
places, where the glass houses do not get regular and skilful 
attention, it is safest to put them out after they have made their 
growth, as by so doing they get well cleansed by the summer 
rains. 

As it is of some importance to know the best kinds, I append a 
list of the most beantifully coloured and freest growers: Beauty of 
Reigate, Coronata, Criterion, General Williams, Iveryana, Eulalie 
Van Geert, Chelsoni, Perryana, Cedo Nulli, Broughtoni, Rosalie, 
Admiration, Louise Margottin, Murrayana, Lateritia, Gem, Extranii, 
Magnet, Queen of Whites, Reine Blanche, Juliana, Halfordiana, 
Rubens, Iveryana Improved, and Modéle. A. 


Plant Remedies for Insect Pests.—With the approach of 
summer weather this subject has a practical interest for medical men 
and their patients. Linnzus informs us that the seeds of the Absin- 
thium maritimum are deadly to the flea; and we have likewise heard 
that the odour of the alder is equally obnoxious to other insects. It is 
said by the devotees of botany that on a hot summer’s day the cattle 
may be seen to cluster round the alder for protection against the sting 
of flies. We have thought sometimes, in our summer rambles, that the 
verdict of the wise was unproven. We entertain a strong belief that 
the perfume of the chamomile is destructive of the Acarus scabiei; and 
we use it accordingly in our pomades for the treatment of scabies. 
Bazin was wont to recommend, for the same purpose, an unguentum 
anthemidis ; and our Italian contemporary, the Giornale Italiano delle 
Malattie della Pelle, reminds us that an infusion of chamomile flowers 
has been recommended as a wash to the skin, for the purpose of pro- 
tection against gnats. Gnats are said to shun the traitorous perfume; 
and, if such be the case, it would he easy to convert the essential oil of 
the anthemis into an agreeable lotion, like that of lavendar water or eau 
de Cologne.—British Medical Jowrnal. 


584 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


THE. FLOWER GARDEN. 


GOURDS FOR ORNAMENT. 


As the season for planting out these singular plants is now 
at hand, a few words on their treatment may not be out of 
place. The Gourd tribe is capable, if properly used, of adding 
much remarkable beauty and character to the garden. They 
are as a rule, however, rarely seen in variety and beauty. 
There is no natural order more wonderful in the diversity and 
beauty of its fruit than that to which the melon, cucumber, and 
vegetable marrow belong. From the writhmg Snake- 
cucumber, which hangs down four or five feet long from its 
stem, to the round enormous giant pumpkin or gourd, the 
grotesque variation, both in colour and shape and:size, is 
marvellous. There are some pretty little gourds which do not 
weigh more than half an ounce when ripe; while, on the other 
hand, there are kinds with fruit as large as a goodly-sized 
barrel. Hees, bottles, gooseberries, clubs, caskets, balls, vases, 
urns, small balloons—all have their likenesses in the gourd 
family. Those who have seen a good collection of them will 
be able to understand Nathaniel Hawthorne’s enthusiasm 
about these quaint and graceful vegetable forms when he says, 
«“ A hundred gourds in my garden were worthy, in my eyes at 
least, of being rendered indestructible 
in marble. If ever Providence (but 
I know it neyer will) should assign 
me a superfluity of gold, part of it 
shall be expended for a service of plate, 
or most delicate porcelain, to be 
wrought into the shape of gourds 
gathered from vines which I will 
plant with my own hands. As dishes 
for contaiming vegetables they would 
be peculiarly appropriate. Gazing at 
them, I felt that by my agency some- 
thing worth living for had been done. 
A new substance was born into the 
world. They were real and tangible 
existences, which the mind could 
seize hold of and rejoice in.” Of 
course the climate of America is 
much better suited for fully develop- 
ing the gourd tribe than ours, but it 
is satisfactory to know that they may 
be, readily, and beautifully grown in 
this country. 

There are many positions in gardens in which they might be 
planted with advantage—as, for imstance, on low trellises, de- 
pending from the edges of raised beds, the smaller and medium- 
sized kinds trained over arches or arched trellis-work, covering 
banks, or on the ordinary level earth of the garden. Isolated, 
too, some kinds would lookvery effective, particularly if tramed 
over an old stump or branched stake. In fact, there is hardly 
any limit to the uses to which they might be applied. A very 
curiously covered tent might be made of them by using a few 
rough branches of trees as a framework, and the gourds planted 
round the sides in rich earth. 


Gourds. 


OUTDOOR CULTIVATION OF THE CAMELLIA. 

Ir was affirmed, not lone since, that the Camellia is unfitted 
to be an outdoor flowering shrub, because of the damage that 
unfavourable spring weather inflicts on its flowers. That 
such damage may result under the most unfavourable con- 
ditions I admit; but no one would plant any choice flowering 
shrub where it could be swept by all the winds that blow, or 
where it lacked all ordinary shelter and protection. That 
Camellias have proyed themselves to be at once amongst the 
hardiest of evergreens and, at the same time, in moderately 
sheltered situations, the most beautiful of flowering shrubs, 
plenty of proofs exist; and probably in no place will better 
examples of these statements be found than at Glen Hyre, 
Basset, near Southampton, the residence of Mrs. Hyre Crabbe. 
In that locality, however, the earliest examples of outdoor- 
grown Camellias are to be found on the kitchen-garden walls 
at North Stoneham Rectory, which stands in a low-lying 
situation in the Itchen Valley. There are some splendid 


specimens, each covering a space of wall twenty feet by nine 
feet, and having stems at the base from seven to eight 
inches in diameter. These trees are one mass of close laid 
wood and foliage, and in the early months of the year are 
literally covered with blossom. Hither from a fear of 
mischief from early frosts, or to enforce a precociousness of 
bloom, these Camellias are each protected by a broad coping 
of boards, from which, during severe weather, mats are 
suspended, and thus a certain amount of protection is given. 
Bushels of flowers are annually cut from them; and of course 
their cultivation is regarded as being a perfect success. Glen 
Hyre is situated on the high lands that overlook South- 
ampton Water, the Victoria Hospital, and much of the 
charming surroundings of that picturesque locality. The 
gardens occupy the head and sides of a pretty dell looking 
due east, and upon the north are considerably sheltered by 
groves of Fir trees. The soil naturally is poor, being a 
combination of black bog earth, gravel, and clay, all now 
pretty well mixed by human labour; and in it, in all sorts 
of situations, and especially upon the sides of long grassy 
declivities, many of our best ornamental coniferze thrive most 


Camellia growing out of doors at Glen Eyre. 


luxuriantly, whilst Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and indeed all 
kinds of ornamental shrubs, grow in rich profusion. The 
working out of the original design of these pretty gardens 
during the twelve years that have elapsed since the first sod 
was turned upon the once barren heath, has necessitated a 
large amount of well-directed thought and labour; but Mrs. 
Crabbe has, in her able gardener Mr. Stewart, a worthy 
supporter; and their combined efforts have resulted in the 
production of one of the most charming gardens of which 
the south of England can boast. 

Camellia culture in the open air was first attempted here 
by planting against the stable walls such kinds as Double 
White, Imbricata, old Double Striped, Monarch, and others; 
and these, without any other protection than the building 
affords, have thriven and grown in the most satisfactory 
manner. The next step was the planting out as a single 
specimen a rough plant of the old Double Striped, and which 
had been growing for several years in a tub in the house. Its 
position, though sheltered by buildings north and east, admits 
of its being frequently swept by south-east winds; and, as it 
stands midway between the conservatory anda block of shrubs, 
the current of air to which it is exposed is occasionally very 
severe. Inspite, however, of this disadvantage, and also that it 
gets no dressing, but is entirely growing upon a surface of 


May 25, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


585 


ae 


grayel, the plant has thriven amazingly, and carries yearly 
hundreds of blooms, scarcely one of which when fully expanded 
but would vie in quality with flowers of the same kind grown 
under glass. It is now abont eight feet in height and the 
same number of feet through, and is, as the sketch on the 
preceding page will show, a luxuriant specimen. If there were 
no other Camellia growing unprotected in the open ground than 
this one, it would sufficiently prove that the plant is not 
only an outdoor flowering shrub, but also one of the most 
beautiful and most effective. In this garden, however, there is 
no such limitation, for in all directions—in beds, in borders, and 


in secluded spots—Camellias crop up, growing well, and in the 
most robust health. On the sides of a grassy slope looking to the | 
north-east, are two beds of Camellias that have been planted | 
there several years, and are now developed into perfect masses | 
of wood and foliage. I look upon these beds as presenting | 
the most favourable example of the capacity of the Camellia to 
withstand severe weather and complete exposure; and the 
blooming is of the most abundant kind. During the past few 
years large numbers of young Camellias have been turned 
out, and among them, in 
addition to those already 
named, may be mentioned = 
Lady Hume’s Blush, Tri- mae ie 
color, Florida, Chandleri, S 
Anemonzflora, Juliana, 
Mathottiana, Valtevardo, 
Adrien le Brun, Duchess 
of Northumberland, and 
Eclipse. No special pre- 
paration is given to the 
soil, but when young plants 
are turned out, a little good 
compost is added, which 
greatly facilitates rooting. 
Mr. Stewart gives it as 
his experience that, should 
no great amount of growth 
result for the first year or | 
two, no discouragement 
should be felt; but when 
the plant is fairly estab- 
lished, then a permanent 
and continuous growth is 
certain. As arule he thinks 
the Camellia to be very 
accommodating with re- I 
spect to soil, provided it 
is sweet and well drained. 
Unlike the laurel, its sum- 
mer shoots are never made 
until all danger of spring 
frost is past; but both 
wood and foliage are of the 
hardiest kind. Mrs. Crabbe, 


i} Caladium esculentum. 


drained, light, rich, warm soil. In times of great heat, it should 
be plentifully watered, and occasionally with liquid manure. The 
latter end of May is the best time for planting; and if groups 
are formed, the plants should have a space of 2 feet or 2} feet 
between them. The foliage generally arrives at its full beauty and 
development in August and September. At the approach of cold 
frosty weather, all the leaves, or all but the central one, should be 
cut down to within an inch or two from the crown, and a few days 
afterwards the tubers should be taken up and left on the ground 
for a few hours to dry; they should then be stored on the shelves 
of a greenhouse, or in a cellar, or other place where they will be 
sheltered from frost and moisture. By placing the tubers in a 
hotbed in March, plants may be obtained with well-grown leaves for 
planting out in the open air about the end of May or the beginning 
of June. 


ORANGE TREES. 


Tun time has now arrived when these may be placed in the 
open air with much advantage. No plant, perhaps, has had 
more attention bestowed on it, and with a poorer result, than 

the orange in this country. 

In old times it was very 
popular, but not of late, 
people being frequently 
deterred from cultivating 

it by the scraggy appear- 

ances generally presented 

by the trees in most in- 
stances. The whole gist of 
successful orange-tree cul- 

ture in England consists in 
letting them make all their 
growth in the open air, and 

\ keeping them in a rather 
dark cold place all the 

| winter. The more at rest 
they are kept during that 
season, the more perfect 
will their development 
prove in the following 
summer. The best of all 
structures is an outhouse 
with side light—the walls, 
&c., thick enough to prevent 
frost entering, and only 
as much light from windows 
or side sashes as will keep 
the plants from being quite 
in the dark. In fact, such 
a light as prevails in an 
ordinary  dwelling-house 
will suit them to a nicety. 
Wherever they are allowed 
to make their growth under 
glass in spring, and then 


(After Vilmorin.) { 


who has had long expe- 
rience of outdoor Camellia 
planting, affords no covering of any kind. Glen Eyre is at 
all times worthy of a visit, but especially is it so when its 
Camellias are in full bloom, and when the charming spring 
flower garden that exists there is in the height of its beauty. 
ADS 


CALADIUM ESCULENTUM. 


Tis species has, for flower-garden purposes, proved the best of 
a large genus with very fine foliage. It is only in the midland and 
southern counties of Great Britain that it can be advantageously 
grown, so far as I have observed; but its grand outline and aspect 
when well developed make it worthy of much attention, and of a 
prominent position wherever the climate is warm enough for its 
growth. It may be used with great effect in association with many 
fine foliage plants; but Ferdinanda, Ricinus, and Wigandia usually 
grow too strong for it, and, if planted too close, injure it. This 
may have been noticed, particularly in cases where it was used as 
a bordering to masses of the strong-growing kinds above named. 
For all kirds of stonework, vases, &c., it is peculiarly effective and 
beautiful. This plant requires, aboye all others, a thoroughly- 


of eG reel BS 


put out, failure always 
results. The trees should 
remain in such a house till the month of May, getting 
abundance of air and being kept cool to prevent them 
starting a bud before placing-out time comes. They may 
be put out at any time in the month the cultivator's 
judgment may select, say from the 12th to the 2oth, or 
even the end of the month, if it prove unusually cold or 
severe. At first they might with advantage be put in some 
sheltered place for a week or two, and then placed on the 
terrace, or in some other sunny and favoured position. The 
growth will soon commence, and ‘prove equal to any change of 
temperature or vicissitude that may assail it. Give plenty of 
water, and if the roots have well filled the pots, a little top 
dressing of about an inch of rotten manure, to be coyered for 
appearance sake with a dust of fine mould. The waterings 
required during the summer months will wash this down to 
the roots and do much good; but it should be observed that it 
is only necessary in cases where the pots are well filled with 
roots, which require more food than the soil can well afford. 
Take the trees in in October, say about the end of the month. 
Good turfy loam, with a little sand and some well-rotted 


586 


vegetable manure, will be found the best soil, while abundant 
drainage is indispensable. 

The first time I ever saw orange trees in England grown 
well as I describe, was at Arundel Castle, where they are 
placed along the walks in summer, and stored in a half 
darkened house or shed in the pleasure grounds during 
winter. 

Lately, at Holland House, I have seen magnificent trees 
treated in exactly the same way; the famous Hanoverian 
specimens are grown in like manner. At Holland House they 
are stored in a structure which was once a high arched stable, 
and which has now an opaque roof, having, however, lean-to 
glass houses thrown against its sides, which furnish side light 
to the orange trees. So they flourish almost without aid from 
artificial heat. It need hardly be said that if the object in 
growing oranges be the production of fruit and flowers, and 
not good specimens for open-air ornament, a very different 
system must be pursued. Plants treated in the way I 
recommend, are of course of great value as ornaments 
in the cool conservatory, or even in cool halls, during winter. 


EEFECTIVE FLOWER BEDS. 

Durine a careful examination of a great many beds in the 
neighbourhood of London last year, the following combinations 
were selected as the most effective, and we now produce them 
as a guide to those who contemplate bedding out such plants. 
The weather has, however, hitherto been so cold, that even at 
Battersea Park no progress has yet been made in the way of 
bedding-out sub-tropical plants. In some places afew edgings 
have been planted; but that is all. These consist of Semper- 
Vivum californicum and tectorum, Hcheveria secunda glauca, 
Cineraria maritima, variegated Funkias, Gazanias, and golden 
Feyerfew. 


Round bed.—Centre planted with Aralia papyrifera and a dark-leaved 
Canna interspersed; outside these a rimg of Wigandia macrophylla, 
ue 4 dark-flowered Calceolaria here and there, and edged with blue 

obelia. 

Round bed of Hrythrina Crista-galli, with small plants of Aralia 
papyr era at the edge. 

Small oval bed—Centre, nice plants of Acacia lophantha two and a 
half feet to three and a half feet high. Outside the Acacia small plants 
of Grevillea robusta. Groundwork of variegated vine and Japanese 
honeysuckle, edged with Alternanthera paronychiodes major and a 
silvery saxifrage (S. incrustata), the latter outside. 

Small round bed with a Draczena ferrea in centre, dotted with Chame- 
peuce diacantha and medium-sized plants of Hcheveria metallica; car- 
peted with purple Oxalis; edged with Chamzpeuce Cassabonz, and 
outside Hcheveria secunda glauca. 

Oblong-oval bed with centre of Acacia lophantha, outside this a row of 
green-leayed Canna and a broad margin of the common vine. 

Small round bed.—Centre, Draczna ferrea, with a groundwork of 
young plants of Amicia zygomeris; outside the Draczena a ring of small 
plants of Abutilon Thompsonz, and edged with Ncheveria secunda 
glauca. 

Green-leayed Canna dotted over a bed of Dahlias. 

Small bed of Cineraria maritima mixed with the old Verbena venosa. 

Mass of Acer Negundo variegatum edged with Coleus Verschaffeltii in 
an isolated small glade in a high wood. 

Round bed of Aralia papyrifera, with groundwork of Plumbago cap- 
ensis, and edged with Pelargonium tomentosum. 

Small round bed.—Bronze-leaved Pelargonium and WNierembergia 
gracilis, intermixed with a belt of a silver variegated Pelargonium, and 
edged with Mesembryanthemum productum. 

Gladioli thinly planted in Rhododendron beds. 

Wigandia macrophylla edged with Chilian beet. 

_Edgings of variegated Dactylis and Viola lutea, plant for plant, backed 
with common blue Lobelia; good in all cases, particularly so in the case 
of a bed consisting of young Dracinas. 

Panicum palmifolium, and Solanum marginatum, dotted over a carpet 
of Alternanthera, Mesembryanthemum, and Iresines Lindeni and 
Herbstii. 

Small bed with vase in centre, next Aralia papyrifera, and edged with 
Geranium anemonfolinum. 

Acacia lophantha excellent in any kind of bed. 

Small beds of mixed Puchsias edged with green Saxifrage. 

Fede Donax versicolor mixed with Sonchus laciniatus and a flowering 
edging. 

Mass of green-leaved Cannas surrounded with a belt of Chilian beet, 
and edged with Centaurea gymnocarpa. 

;eaeipam palmifolinm, very good as an edging to medium-sized foliage 
plants. 

Round hed of Castor-oil plants, with a belt of Chilian beet and 
edging of variegated Coltsfoot. 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 


Achillea aurea.—This is one of the showiest, if not the showiest, dwarf 
member of its large family, and is admirably suited for the rock- garden, for 
choice borders, for bedding out, or foredgings. It grows twelve inches or more 
high, has finely cut leaves and bright golden yellow flowers, abundantly pro- 
duced, and appearing for a long time in succession on young plants recently 
transplanted into rich ground.—J. C. Niven, Botanic Gardens, Hull. 

The Silvery Saxifrages on Walls.—One day when visiting the garden of the 
celebrated botanist, M. Boissier, in Switzerland, I was not a little pleased and 
surprised to see a fine rosette of the noble Saxifraga longifolia growing out of 
the face of the vwall, likeasilyer star. The wall wasaretaining one, but much 
exposed to the sun, and the garden was in a warm lowland part of Switzerland, 
where such plants would find greater difficulties than withus. There can be no 
doubt that these charming alpine plants may be readily grown on old walls in 
this country. To establish them itis better to sow the seed in the chinks, &¢.— 
W.R. 


Iris nudicaulis.—Do lovers of hardy plants sufficiently know and esteem 
s? Ithink not. It has the vigour of the German Iris, which thrives so 
well on all soils in town and country, and the dwarfness of the old Crimean 
Tris. It is, however, much sturdier than this, and is, in a word, second to no 
hardy plant introduced of late years. It is suited for the front ranks of the 
herbaceous border, and also well deserves a position among the more vigorous 
plants in the rock-garden, being so dwarf. It should be in every garden where 
early summer flowers are valued. I first saw it in the Paris gardens in 1867, 
and brought home some plants, which haye since multiplied, so that the plant is 
now easily obtained.—W. 

Gentiana acaulis as an Edging.—At Priory Hill, St. Neots, this lovely 
little alpine is extensively used for edgings. They vary from nine to eighteen 
inches in breadth, and when in flower are extremely beautiful. Mr. W 
Ratchetons, who has been gardener at Priory Hill for upwards of a quarter 
of a century, had at first only a small plant of it, but he has gone on increasing 
it till he has accumulated nearly 150 yards of it. To see its thousands of 
bright blue flowers nestling thickly and closely to the evergreen foliage is a 
sight worth seeing. As an edging plant this Gentian ought to stand in the 
foremost rank, aS it far surpasses many of our more tender plants now 
cultivated for that purpose.—R. 


THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


THINNING FRUIT. 


TwoucH trees in a state of nature may produce fine crops 
of fruit, it is only on rare occasions, when the greater part 
of the blossom gets destroyed, that they produce a crop of 
fine fruit. Go into Covent Garden with a poor sample of fruit, 
and you will be fortunate if you recompense yourself the 
cost of plucking and carriage to market; take, on the 
contrary, a sample of fruit nicely packed, and you sell at once 
at the top market price. Now, the difference between poor 
fruit and fine fruit is just the numerical quantity produced. 
For example, a tree in good health may have sufficient vigour 
to bring, say five hundred fruits to great perfection ; if you 
leave upon it one thousand fruits, they will only be half the 
size, and perhaps not that. Hvery tree has its fruit-bearing 
capability, and beyond that it cannot go; but if we want fine 
fruit it is always wise to reduce the limit of production. This 
reduction may be made either by thinning the fruit as soon as 
it is set, or by reducing the number of bearing branches, or by 
both. The first thing, however, should be to apportion the 
branches to the size of the tree. No two branches should be 
allowed to cross each other, nor should they be so thick or 
close together that the sun’s rays cannot in the height of the 
season penetrate to every part of the tree. Thus you will get 


‘fine, clean, well coloured, richly flavoured fruit—fruit that you 


may be proud of; but if you allow the branches to remain 
thick, so that a part of the fruit is shaded, then an inferior 
sample and alow price ab market must be the result. Ifa 
humble, but at the same time earnest illustration of the 
doctrine we wish to inculcate is desired, look to Gooseberry- 
growers; they know they cannot have size and quantity at the 
same time, and therefore they reduce the crop of their prize 
kinds to a few fruits upon each plant. If we do the same with 
our Apple and Pear trees, we shall see less in our markets of 
what the salesmen call seconds and thirds. But there is yet 
another aspect in which this subject may be approached. 
Fruit-growing north of the Midlands is too frequently con- 
sidered a lottery in which the winners do not gain much. 
Well, it must be confessed the chances of success decrease with 
the neglect of cultivation. If trees are left to the sole care of 
Dame Nature, and go untrained and unpruned, we must not be 
surprised if in the struggle for existence they produce inferior 
wood and that that wood is badly ripened. Therefore the 
further north we go the greater the necessity for good culti- 
vation and careful training and pruning. There is scarcely a 
neglected fruit tree in existence which would not pay for haying 


May 25, 1872.1 


THE GARDEN. 


587 


half of the worst wood cut clean away, while in many cases 
it would be wise to cut all away and begin again. This may 
be done either with the same kind or by grafting with a superior 
one. And really what is the use of growing inferior fruit 
where good fruit may be had for the same trouble? Who 
wouid plant the Keswick Codlin when Lord Suffield may be 
had at the same price? Or what is the use of the scores of 
inferior Apples when Blenheim Orange, Normanton Wonder,and 
other good kinds may be purchased at nearly the same price ? 
It would not be wise to confine ourselves to a very limited 
number, as some bloom early and others late, so as to give 
several chances of a crop; but if we take a dozen varieties of 
kitchen apples and the same of dessert fruit the chances are 
that we shall not leave many other varieties to covet ; and the 
same may be said of Pears and Plums, but in a more limited 
degree. Those who have been growing inferior varieties would 
do well to avail themselves of the power of improvement 
which grafting affords, and an old tree may be grafted all over ; 
in this way they are soon brought into profit, and with 
superior kinds that profit will increase every year. We cannot 
too strongly urge this fact upon the attention of our country 
friends. Many of them have large orchards of inferior fruit, 
good enough for making cider, but not good enough to bring 
a profitable result from market. Toallso situated we would 
say, cut over and graft, and in three years you will thank us 
forthe advice. Evenatashilling per peck Apples are nota bad 
speculation, and bring home in the course of a season a con- 
siderable amount of money. Vis dee oaks 


THE GRAPE VINE IN THE OPEN AIR. 

Some will call in question the propriety of considering the Vine 
hardy at all. Our first care will therefore be to establish the fact of 
its being hardy. True, its culture out of doors has gone greatly out 
of fashion of late years, and various reasons have been assigned for 
it: such, for instance, as the extraordinary increase of hothouse 
grapes, the improved tastes of the population, the larger importation 
of foreign fruits and wines, and the deterioration of the climate. 
The two first are perhaps the strongest reasons for the decline of 
grape culture outof doors. Unless in exceptional circumstances, it must 
be admitted that out-of-door grapes are not equal to those grown 
under glass. And yet, throughout the greater part of England south 
of the Thames, grapes may be ripened in the open air, equal and often 
superior to the usual run of those grown in cool vineries; and as to 
taste, I know it is a favourite argument that as our very remote 
progenitors feasted on crabs and sloes, so our more immediate fore- 
fathers enjoyed grapes filled with verjuice. Unfortunately for this 
hypothesis many of us have eaten out-of-door grapes of excellent 
quality. True, we have more fruit now, both home and foreign. 
But we have likewise more mouths to eat it; and I question if more 
or better comes to the share of all than in the olden time, when our 
fathers, secular and holy, were busy planting vineyards on the sunny 
sides of their hills, and eating the fruit, or drinking the wine thereof. 
The climate’s deterioration theory won’t hold water for a moment. 
On the contrary, the climate is improving every year. It is far 


drier and warmer than it was in those olden times when vine-- 


yards were thick as blackberries throughout the country. Every 
forest cleared, swamp, mere, or wet field drained has ameliorated our 
climate, and made it better for the growth of the Grape Vine. Neither 
is the Vine, by any means, a tender plant. In a thoroughly ripened 
dormant state it is well nigh as hardy as the oak. It is frost- 
proof within a few degrees of zero, which we seldom reach in 
England. We are not left to speculation to establish the hardiness 
of the Grape Vine in England. The experience of many centuries 
has established its hardiness beyond all controversy. As far north 
as the Thames, and indeed in favourable localities far beyond it, 
the Vine will ripen its fruit in the open air in England in average 
seasons, when properly managed. 

We have no proof that the Grape was assisted by artificial heat 
in England till towards the close of the seventeenth or beginning of 
the eighteenth century, and yet as early as the third century it 
seems that Britain was included among the Roman provinces 
permitted to plant vineyards. Vine culture had spread throughout 
the Roman Empire to such an extent as to produce a scarcity of 
bread and an excess of wine, resulting in famine and drunkenness ; 
and hence many vineyards were destroyed, and no new ones 
permitted to be formed without imperial license. With the rise 
of the monasteries, Vine-growing assumed national importance. The 
monks had capital taste: in the choice of pleasant sites for their 
homes and the sunniest spots for their vineyards no landscape 


artist or horticulturist has excelled them. Wherever they built an 
abbey or a monastery, there they also planted a vineyard and 
formed a garden of herbs and of flowers. Many of the vineyards 
formed by them bear their ancient names to this day. 

At Chilwell, where Mr. Pearson rears new and grows old grapes 
so successfully, it seems there used to be a famous vineyard. For 
Miller tells how, ‘‘in an ancient house, called Chilwell, near Notting- 
ham,there yet remaineth as an ancient monument, in a great window 
of glass, the whole order of planting, pruning, stamping, and press- 
ing of Vines. Besides, there is yet also growing an old Vine that 
yields grapes in sufficient quantities to make right good wine, as 
was lately proved by a gentlewoman in the said house. And,” adds 
Miller, ‘there hath moreoyer good experience of late years been 
made by two nobles and honourable barons of this realm, the Lord 
Chobham and the Lord Williams of Tame, who have had growing 
about their honses as good vines as are in many places in France.” 
This is as true of many Vines in the England of to-day as it was in 
Miller’s time. 

In 1325 the Bishop of Rochester sent presents of grapes and wine 
to his sovereign King Edward II. from his vineyard at Halling, in 
Kent. Sixty years later the president of Trinity College, Oxford, Dr. 
Bathurst, is reported to have made as good claret as one could wish to 
drink ; and Sir Henry Lyttleton, at Over-Arley, such as was not to be 
distinguished from the best French wines. The Duke of Norfolk 
had such a noble vineyard at Arundel Castle, that, about a century 
ago, in 1763, he had in his cellars sixty pipes of excellent Burgundy, 
much exceeding in quality quantities of Burgundy which were 
annually imported into England, and most of what is usually drank 
in France. We read of most excellent grapes being grown on the 
walls of the Botanic Garden, Oxford, in 1702. About a thousand 
years before, the Venerable Bede wrote that the vine was raised 
in certain parts. Somers states, that in 1285 the Priory of 
Canterbury was plentifully fwnished with vineyards. Domesday 
Book—that grand repository of old world facts—takes note of the 
extent and produce of several vineyards. 

The Monks of Ely not only made wine and vinegar, but sold 
both. Martin, Abbot of Peterborough, planted a large vineyard in 
Saxon times. The king had a vine-dresser at Rockingham who 
was furnished with livery and necessaries for the Royal Vineyard 
by the Sheriffs of Northampton and Nottingham. Wines were 
well known to the Ancient Britons; and the wine-press—the Anglo 
Saxon “win vin yingar’’—is engraved on ancient records. The Vine- 
yard at Bury St. Edmund’s was called the “‘ Vine,” and contained six 
acres of land, as appears from an abstract from the title deed of 
the monastery ; and besides this there was the Palace Garden con- 
taining one acre, two little gardens near the Chamberer’s Office, the 
garden called the Lecture Yard, several other gardens, and the 
Walnut-tree Yard containing three acres, showing that the monks 
did not forget to grow nuts to crack with their wine. The Vineyard 
was formed by Robert de Gravill, the Sacrist to the Benedictine 
Monks, in the twelth century, “for the solace of his friends.” 

CHASSELAS. 


NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON THE FRUIT GARDEN. 


Strawberry Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury.—This strawberry is pro- 
nounced, and proved to be on the whole, the best and most generally now grown. 
It is also considered the best variety for general cultivation in the neighbour- 
hood of Paris, where strawberries are grown toa great extent. Itis good both 
for forcing and growingin the openair. Can any of your readers tell me who 
raised it? 

Vine Border.—Will you or any of your readers kindly say what sort of vine 
border I am to make where the subsoil is a free gravelly one, and the soil a 
good deep sandy loam? The situation is in Kent.—Mania F.——[ You are for- 
tunate in having your garden on one of nature’s ready-made vine or fruit 
**borders,’’ and we should say you have little to do beyond planting suitable 
kinds. Perhaps, however, some of our yine-growing readers may have some. 
thing to say in the matter. ] 

Fruit Trees on Walls.—I have moved about a little in what are called good 
gardens this spring, and it has been to me quite painful to see how fruit trees 
suffer from want of a little coping, temporary or otherwise. The little 
projection of permanent coping that usually crests a garden wall, is of no use 
except perhaps to harbour a few insects. We could have regular crops of fruit 
on our walls if the glass coping recently figured in THE GarpEN ‘were generally 
adopted, or even if a common light temporary wooden coping, eighteen inches 
wide or so, were put up for a few mouths every spring.—V1aTor. 

A New View of Root-Pruning.—Popularly this is supposed to be quite a 
triumph for British fruit culture; while really it is only useful in special 
instances carefully performed, and a source of endless danger and expense to 
many hapless amateurs who drag their little trees out of the ground year after 
year. If people will persist in seeing any merit in very minute trees, root- 
pruning must be resorted to to keep them down; but for moderately-sized fertile 
trees it is to be avoided if possible. It should, however, only be appealed to asa 
last resource, after all other modes of checking yigour and inducing fertility 
have failed. Root-pruning tends too much to weaken the whole system of the 
tree, to take away the powers of the plant which are required for the support of 
what fruit there may be produced. It is not exactly a weakening of the entire 
system of the tree which is required, but a retention of all its powers, and a 
direction of those forces towards the production of fruit instead of that of 
shoots.—Field. 


588 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


THE ARBOREmU mM: 


THE PLANES. 
BY GEORGE GORDON, A.L.S. 


IV.—THE MAPLE-LEAVED PLANE (PLATANUS ACERIFOLIA— 
WILLDENOW). 


Tuts bears considerable resemblance to the Occidental Plane, 
especially in its broad, angular-lobed leaves and large seed- 
heads, but none whatever to the Oriental Plane, although 
considered by most writers as only a variety of that species, 
which is a great mistake. 

The Maple-leaved, or, more properly, the Sycamore-leaved 
Plane, is a native of the Levant, Persia, and Western India. 
Tt was first introduced in 1724. Dr. Royle found it growing 
plentifully, along with Platanus orientalis, inthe great Valley of 
Cashmere, forming a stately tree from fifty to sixty feet high, 
with a straight and lengthened stem, somewhat thickly 
furnished on the upper part with twiggy branches. The stems of 
the young trees are smooth and ofa dark greenish-brown colour, 
while the stems of adult ones are never so smooth as those of 
the Occidental Plane, as the bark adheres longer on them, and 
scales off in comparatively much smaller and thinner pieces. 
The principal branches are tolerably straight, not very stout, 
and more or less uniform in size, with the lower ones somewhat 
horizontal, or slightly declining ; the middle ones ascending or 
curved upwards at the ends; and the upper ones more or less 
erect, and all amply furnished with slender sprays or twigs, 
which give the tree, when in full leaf, a rather thick and close 
appearance. This is a hardy vigorous kind, which commences 
growing later in the season than any of the other planes, and 


Leaf of the Maple-leayed Plane.—Natural size, 8} inches long, including 
footstalk, and 8 inches broad. 


in consequence of which it seldom suffers from the late spring 
frosts, which proye so injurious to all the other kinds. 

The leaves of Platanus acerifolia are large, rather thin in 
texture, broadly and acutely five-lobed or angled, with a few 
remote coarse serratures along the margins, and nearly 
straight at the bases, or but slightly tapering to the footstalk, 
which is long and rather slender. ‘he balls or seed-heads are 
about the size of those of the Occidental Plane, but more 
bristly, and generally produced in threes, but frequently in 
twos and fours, at regular distances and wide apart on the 
peduncles. 


It is sometimes called Platanus intermedia, and the largest 
tree of it near London is at Elmshurst, Finchley, where in 1840 
it was fifty-six feet high, with a stem three feet in diameter. 

There are the two following very distinct varieties of the 
Sycamore-leayed Plane :— 


1.—The Spanish Plane (Platanus acerifolia hispanica— 
Loudon). 

Why this kind has been called the Spanish Plane is not very 
clear, and no doubt originated in some mistake, for no kind of 
Plane in a wild state has ever been found so far to the west- 
ward as Spain. The leaves of this kind are very large, some- 


Leaf of the Spanish Plane.—Natural size, 83 inches long, including footstalk, 
and 8} inches broad. 


what fan-shaped, with five, shallow, broad, angular-pointed 
lobes, furnished on the edges with several large, wide serra- 
tures, and strictly heart-shaped at the base, tapering a little 
to the footstalk, which in some cases is two inches in length. 

There are trees of this kind in the Victoria Park, twenty 
feet or more high, with ample roundish heads. 

It has the following synonymous names :—Platanus mac- 
rophylla, grandifolia, flabellata, and hispanica. 


2—The Spreading-Branched or Canopy Plane (Platanus 

acerifolia umbellata—knight). 

This singular variety, when grafted standard high, forms a 
flat spreading head or canopy, full of rather long slender 
brown horizontal branches and semi-pendulous shoots, the 
principal ones of which have a tendency to curve upwards at 
the ends. The leaves of this kind are also generally larger 
than those of the species, with the lobes longer and more 
entire in the margin. 

This variety of the Sycamore-leayed Plane is said to have 
originated in Lombardy, about thirty years ago, and was first 
introduced by the late Mr. Joseph Knight, of the Exotic 
Nursery, Chelsea. 


The Deodar.—Will any of your readers kindly tell me if Deodars struck 
from cuttings make as fine trees as those from seed? Also, how the Deodar 
does grafted? I happen to live in a part of the country where this noble tree 
does beautifully, and even in the largest specimens never shows a tendency to 
debility or disease, and am anxious on the aboye points before planting a good 
many trees.—CEDRUS. 


A Fine Tulip Tree.—Being on a visit at Coughton House, near Ross, I was 
astonished and delighted to see a very fine specimen of the Tulip tree (Lirio- 
dendron Tulipifera) m full bloom. I have often read in the Field notices of fine 
trees, and. believe this Tulip tree is unrivalled in England. It measures 
fourteen feet six inches at the base, and is over seventy feet high, and at this 
present time is one mass of green leaves and beautiful orange blossoms. To 
anyone who has not seen this tree in its native soil (North America) a visit 
would amply repay.—Chas. Dundas Lverett, in ‘* Dield.” 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


589 


PUBLIC GARDENS. 


THE GARDENS OF THE PINCIO, ROME. 


~ 

N the brow of the Pincian Hill are the 
public gardens, with their carriage drives 
. and shady promenades, which form a very 
favourite resort of the inhabitants of 
modern Rome. These pleasant walks and 
drives are due to the taste and energy of 
the French during their occupation of 
Rome in the time of the first 
Republic, about the year 1790. Previously 
to that epoch, the present Piazza del Popolo, 
which still preserves in its name its republican 
origin, was an irregular and comparatively waste 
piece of ground; while the Pincian Hill, which 
rises on its eastern side, was utterly bare, with the 
exception of a few somewhat squalid tenements, which 
were swept away at the time that these unpromising sites 


~ 


French - 


resort of the Roman population, but is also much frequented 
by foreign visitors, on account of its being so near to the great 
hotels of the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza de Spagna. It 
is indeed very often the first point a visitor rushes to, five 
minutes after his arrival, because, from the level of the upper 
terrace, a magnificent view of St. Peter’s is obtained, as repre- 
sented in the annexed engraving. 

The first glimpse of the vast fabric of the great Roman cathe- 
dralhas long been deemed one of the chief sensations of European 
travel. Madame de Staél described with enthusiasm the shouts 
raised by her postillions at the point of the road from Florence, 
where the form of the great dome is first seen looming, vast 
and dim, on the blue horizon. But far more impressive is its 
aspect, especially at time of sunset, from the Pincian Hill, 
whence it is seen rising against the sky in the golden haze of 
those cloudless Italian evenings, which so rapidly pass through 
their brief twilight into darkness. St. Peter’s never seen 
to greater advantage than from the Pincio at that hour, the 
fountains and foliage of the garden promenades making a 
noble foreground to the more distant part of the picture. 


is 


View from the Pincian Hill Gardens, Rome. 


were converted into a picturesque garden and ahandsome public 
square. The approach to the summit of the Pincio is made 
easy to carriages by means of inclined terraces, which form 
a very successful example of the manner in which a precipitous 
hill may be turned to account, and rendered easily accessible 
either for a public garden or for any other purpose. The hard 
lines of the architectural walls of this series of rising roads are 
agreeably broken by rose-flowered Robinias, at short distances; 
which are kept closely cropped to a certain height, in order to 
preserve their harmony with the architectural features with 
which they are associated. 

This charming promenade-garden is not only a favourite 


From other points of the Pincio, far more extensive views 
of the city are obtained, and few visitors fail to remark, 
as a salient feature, the ancient column of the Antonines, one 
of the most marvellous monuments of Roman sculpture, which 
towers above the modern houses, as the glance of the spectator 
travels along the line of roofs formed by the palaces of the 
Corso. Another object, and one of no less interest, is visible 
from the opposite side of the Pincian Hill, one that lovers 
of art linger long to look upon—it is the casino of Raphael, 
the dwelling in which many of his finest easel pictures 
were painted. 

Though the merit of planning and planting this noble public 


590 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


promenade has little to do, in a horticultural pomt of view, 
with the surrounding associations, it must yet be conceded to 
the planners of it, and to all other successful planners of public 
parks and gardens, that the selection of a site is one of the chief 
points to be considered in the creation of a public promenade 
of this kind, Jt is not always, however, that a desirable site can 
be obtained, and in such cases a bad one is better than none, 
for the healthgiving and civilising effects of public gardens are 
so valuable and so important, that, where interesting spots are 
not available, one without adventitious interest must be 
accepted: for a garden—yes, a beautiful garden, may be 
made almost anywhere, with the requisite amount of taste 
and skill. It happened fortunately for the French planners 
of the Pincian Gardens that a spot combining natural 
beauty with historic imterest lay vacant and ready to their 
Fae and they had the good taste to avail themselves 
of it. 

The trees of the Pincian plantations have thriyen wonder- 
fully, and, with their stalwart growth during three quarters of 
a century, have formed such umbrageous bowers and such 
deeply shaded walks, as in the sunny South are beyond price. 
The available space on the northern level of the hill on which 
the gardens were devised was of very limited extent, and conse- 
quently the laying-outwasnecessarily of the simplest kind—afew 
rectangular alleys, a carriage-drive round the external boundary, 
and a few open spaces for flowers, fountains, and the display of 
gardenesque statuary beingall that it was possible to accomplish. 
That which was possible was nevertheless exceedingly well 
done, and few great cities can boast a more agreeable garden- 
park, on a small scale, than that of the Monte Pincio at Rome. 


H.N. H. 


THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 


THE CUCUMBER.—ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 
(Continued from p. 576.) 
ANOTHER KIND OF HOT BED. 


Onn of the most successful growers of frame Cucumbers, 
the late Mr, Barnes, of the Camden Nursery, Camberwell, used 
to prepare his beds in a rather singular manner, and always 
attained the best results. Instead of forming a bed of solid 
dung, as before advised, he used to build up a foundation three 
to four feet high of refuse timber, branches, and faggots, in 
fact anything that came to hand, packed closely together, and 
of sufficient size for the frame to be used. On the top of this 
foundation a foot or so of prepared dung was placed, and then 
the whole was surrounded by a dung lining which, thatched 
with clean straw and protected by the framework before 
referred to, had not only a very neat appearance, but retained 
the heat for along time, The advantage of this arrangement 
is not only that it prevents over heating at the centre, as is 
sometimes the case with the dung bed, but it also offers the 
certainty of increasing the heat at any time throughout the 
frame by renewing the lings. The success attending this 
form of bed, as exhibited by Mr. Barnes’s practice, was as 
complete as could be desired, so much so that we consider the 
plan decidedly preferable to the bed of solid dung. A frame- 
work of this kind once formed may stand for years, and merely 
requires the lining to be applied when fresh heat is required. 


THE CUCUMBER IN BRICK PITS. 

These are of various constructions, that of M‘Phail being 
perhaps as good as any. Jt is formed in the following 
manner :—The foundation being put in of suitable size—say 
six feet wide, and of any desired length—single or four-and-a- 
half inch brickwork built in cement is carried up in what is 
called chequered or pigeon-hole work to the height of three 
feet all round, and then the walls are finished solidly to the 
height which it may be considered necessary to carry them— 
say five feet sixinches at the back and four feet at the front, 
so as to give a goodslope to the sun. Then inside, four inches 
from the outer wall and parallel with it, a solid wall of brick on 
edge must be constructed, carrying it to within one foot of the 
top of the outer walls,and then coyering it with thin flooring 
tiles, soas to make the flue quite steam-tight. Sometimescross 


flues, six inches wide and two feet high, are constructed under 
each rafter, these too being built brick on edge. This is not a 
bad plan, as it facilitates the admission of heat to the centre of 
the pit. The advantage of this arrangement is, that beyond 
the small quantity of prepared dung necessary to fill the inside 
to the soil level, the other may be used fresh from the stable ; 
indeed, where brick pits and dung beds are also used, the linings 
of the former may be considered as the preparatory state of the 
material for dung beds, and hence there is no useless waste of 
labour. Where good sweet leaves can be had, the pit may be 
filled with them, a lining applied outside, and in a few days the 


_pit is fit for work. Pits of this kind are always the best sunk 


two or three feet below the level of the surrounding soil, the 
lining space being walled round two to two feet six inches 
wide. Take also the precaution to have at the lowest point of 
the lining space a small tank to receive the draining of the 
dung, as that will be found useful either to return to the lining 
when it requires to be remoistened, or to enrich the garden 
ground. A tank of this kind may be readily extemporised by 
sinking a large oil cask outside the pit. Other materials as 
wellas dung and leayes may be used for heat inside the pit, 
and for that purpose there is nothing better than spent hops, 
such as may be procured from the brewers. These retain a 
mild wholesome heat for along time, and when decayed, are 
not objected to by the roots of the plants. Another material 
extensively used where it can be procured for bottom heat is 
bobbin chips, that is the small chips obtained from bobbins 
made for winding cotton and for otheruses. These, however, it 
is necessary should be made of soft home-grown wood, such as 
lime, sycamore, horse-chestnut, &c., and for the purpose of 
generating heat it is necessary the chips should be ina state of 
slow decomposition, and chips containing resin and tannic acid 
—those from foreign timber and oak—do not ferment except 
in very large quantities. Bobbin chips of the right kind must 
not be used fresh from the lathe; it is necessary that they 
should be moistened, placed in a heap, and frequently turned 
until fermentation sets in.. Then they may be moistened and 
put in the pit, anda layer two feet thick will give a fine growing 
temperature for several months, and then if a little fresh 
material is added, and the whole watered and mixed together, 
fermentation will again go on for a long time—in fact bobbin 
chips where they can be procured cheaply are the best 
material that can be used for bottom heat. We cannot close 
these remarks without mentioning tan asa cheap method of 
producing bottom heat. Where it can be procured without the 
cost of carting it from a distance it is a certain method of 
producing heat, but it has the objection of beg valueless as a 
manure, and very liable to generate worms, which are a great 
nuisance among the roots of plants, and especially injurious to 
those of the Cucumber. 


THE FRENCH SYSTEM OF MAKING HOT BEDS. 

Before concluding our remarks upon hot beds it may not be 
out of place to mention that our French friends in horticulture 
make their hot beds upon a plan entirely different from that 
practised here. They do not make up a bed for a single frame 
or a range of frames, but the commercial gardeners collect a 
large quantity of material—manure, leaves, garden refuse, 
weeds, &c., and having mixed and left it to ferment for a time, 
as soon as it is in a fit state, they form ib into one large bed, 
twenty to fifty feet square, and then cover it with frames, just 
leaving sufficient room between each range of frames to get 
between them to perform the necessary work of cultivation. 
The beds are made of the depth necessary to give the desired 
temperature, three to four feet, and they present the following 
advantages: TFirst,a large mass of fermenting materiai in a 
state of slow decomposition ; second, a very small space 
exposed to the cooling effects of atmospheric changes, merely 
the pathway between the frames; and, thirdly, economy of 
material, inasmuch as the dung necessary for a two-light 
frame with us, would be sufficient for a three-light one on the 
French plan. The drawback is that of inability to replenish 
the heat when the first supply becomes exhausted, and no 
linings can be applied. Still, asa means of growing a summer 
crop the plan is worth following, especially for market pur- 
poses. A bed twelve feet wide might be made facing east and 
west; upon this two ranges of frames might he fixed back to 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


591 


back and close together, and upon such a bed it is fair to infer 
erops of either Cucumbers or Melons, or in fact any other crop 
requiring bottom heat, might be grown with a aay of 


success. 
(To be continued.) 


THINNING THE SHOOTS OF POTATOES. 


Tue late frosts have in many places cut down early potatoes to the 
ground. Where this has happened a complete thicket of shoots is now 
springing up, and if all of them are allowed to remain, the crop may 
be heavy, but the tubers will certainly be small. The best plan is to 
go over them at once, and thin out the shoots by pulling them up 
with the hand; leaving one, or at the most only two stems to each 
root, retaining, of course, the strongest ones. This will not only 
conduce to the excellence of the tubers, but, what is, perhaps, of 
equal importance, will render them fit for digging at least a week 
earlier than they otherwise would be. Many good cultivators before 
planting their potatoes, reduce the number of eyes by cutting them 
out, leaving the strongest one on the crown of the potato. The 
advantages claimed are, a more eyen-sized crop and earlier maturity. 
By reducing the number of shoots, sun and air will be admitted more 
freely among such as are left; the growth will be sturdier, and 
they will be better able to resist disease. I have observed for years, 
when potato digging has been going on, that whenever the digger 
came toa root with only one stem, the produce was invariably finer 
and more even in size than where there were many shoots. ‘Time is 
found to thin mangolds and turnips, then why not potatoes? The 
two cases, it is true, may not be exactly analagous, but the principle 
of concentrating the producing power is similar. At all events, I 
am convinced that anyone giving the plana trial will be satisfied 
with the result. E. Hospay. 


TOMATOES. 


Tae Solanum family generally is not a very edible one, indeed 
often markedly poisonous ; but we manage to get some very good 
things out of it notwithstanding. There are, for instance, the 
potato, the egg-apple, the many kinds of capsicum, the tobacco, the 
Solanum anthropophagorum, or cannibal’s tomato, which the natives 
of the Fiji Islands use with their cold missionary ; and, finally, we 
have the tomato, which is, in our opinion, the one of the family— 
bearing in mind our opportunities of cultivating it—which is not 
sufficiently known or appreciated amongst us. Of course, it is largely 
used and grown in many places in this country, and yet but toa 
limited degree, considering its merits. There are very few houses or 
gardens where bare spaces along the lower parts of fruit walls, &c., 
may not be found to grow a good crop. In the south of England it 
may be grown well away from walls on sunny borders, &c.; and in 
the colder parts of the north the frames, pits, &c., that are emptied 
of bedding plants in the summer months will grow it to the greatest 
perfection; while everywhere the plant may be grown with the 
greatest ease in pots. Some of the new varieties would seem to be 
well worthy of pot culture, from their pretty and distinct character, 
and even in places where the plant may be grown with ease in the 
open air. To tomatoes, then,’and knowledge of the best way to 
employ them, we wish wide popularity. Many of the under-men- 
tioned varieties are curious and distinct; they come chiefly from 
America, where the tomato is enjoyed to a degree unknown in this 
or any European country. The following is Mr. Barron’s description 
of the varieties :— 

The earliest variety is the Red Cherry (syn. Cherry-formed), the 
fruits of which are round, red, about the size of cherries, and borne 
in clusters of from six to ten fruits in great abundance. It forms 
a very handsome plant. The Yellow Cherry (syn. Small Yellow) 
is the same as the Red Cherry, except that the fruits are yellow. 

The Pear-formed (syn. Pear-shaped) has the fruits from 1} inch 
to 2 inches in length, red, of the form of a small pear, and borne in 
clusters, in great abundance. It is very handsome. 

The Yellow Plum (syn. Plum-formed) has the fruits small, yellow, 
oval in shape like a damson, and very handsome. 

The Round Red (syn. Extra Early Red, and Sim’s Mammoth) is a 
few days later than jthe foregoing; the fruits are red, roundish, 
ovate, and smooth, about the size of a Washington plum. It is very 
prolific. 

The Large Red Italian (syn. Orangefield) is the earliest of the 
large-fruited sorts; it is very dwarf and prolific, bearing fine fruit 
within six inches of the ground. The fraits are very large, red, 
corrugated or ribbed. It is an excellent variety, and one of the best 
in the collection. 

Kaye’s Early Prolific is a tall-growing variety, with the leaves 


much more entire, and of a lighter colour, than in any of the other 
sorts. The fruit is medium-sized, pale red, corrugated, somewhat 
later than the Orangefield, and very productive. It is altogether a 
first-class variety. 

The Grosse Rouge Hitive of Vilmorin is later than the Large Red 
Italian, and a stronger grower, but a fine and true variety. 

The Filden (syn. Red Valencia Cluster, New Giant) is a strong- 
growing variety, much praised in America. The leaves are deep 
green. It is late, and not so prolific as the others. 

The Large yellow is the same as the Common Large Red, except 
that it has yellow fruits. 

The Tomato de Laye (syn. Grenier, Upright or Tree Tomato) is of 
a stiff erect habit of growth, and will stand without stakes. Tho 
leaves are deep green, and the fruits are large and slightly corru- 
gated; but it is very late, and not suited for cultivation in this 
country, excepting in exceptionally warm seasons. 

The Great Mammoth of Barr & Sugden, or Large Red of Thor- 
burn, has smaller and more finely-cut leaves, with the fruits very 
similar to those of Grosse Rouge Hitive. The Large Red of Veitch, 
is synonymous with Powell’s Prolific. The fruits are medium-sized, 
roundish, and slightly corrugated, and the plants very prolific. The 
Filden of Thornburn, or Red Valencia Cluster, is a strong-growing 
variety, which appears to be very highly esteemed in America. The 
fruits are large, full, roundish, slightly corrugated near to the stalk 
only, of adeep red colour, and the leaves are deep green; it is rather 
late, and not so prolific as others, but very excellent. The Fiji 
Island, or Lester’s Perfected of Thorburn, is very similar in all its 
characters to the Filden, excepting that its fruits are of a decided 
crimson, quite a distinct colour among tomatoes. The fruits are 
large and very fine, both of this and of the preceding variety. 

The finest variety raised for a long time, and one that is generally 
allowed to be a great improvement, is Trophy, an American 
variety. 


LIME A CURE FOR THE POTATO DISEASE. 

Some years ago—I think it was in 1857—I saw several experi- 
ments tried, both for the prevention and cure of the potato disease. 
In a field of potatoes several rows were planted in the ordinary 
manner, and left to themselves without anything else being done 
beyond earthing up; the same number of rows had lime pnt over 
the tubers or sets at the time of planting, and a similar number 
were planted in the ordinary manner, and soon after coming through 
the ground had slaked lime dusted over their tops, and again repeated 
when they were earthed up. I was present when they were lifted, 
and the following are the results :—The first lot were half diseased, 
the second not much better, whilst in the third there was not a 
diseased tuber to be found. I believe the potato disease is caused 
by sudden changes of the atmosphere, and. generally appears after 
a heavy thunderstorm, when the earth is suddenly changed from a 
warm and genial temperature to a damp and cold one; that is the 
time, in my opinion, when the disease attacks the haulm and 
works its way down the stem into the tubers. The next year I 
tried the liming process in my own garden ona small scale. Where 
I was living, in Suffolk, there were two cottages, the gardens of 
which were divided by a line of box about afoot high. I planted 
three parts of my garden with early Shaws and a few of the newer 
sorts. My neighbour did the same. At the time of my second 
operation of “liming” he had a good hearty laugh at me, and well 
he might, for I was as white as a miller’s man; but at taking up 
time it was my turn to laugh, for my potatoes were all good, and 
his three parts bad. 

Liming or dusting with lime is easily performed ; choose a dewy 
morning, and putting on an old coat and apron, carry a box of lime 
in one hand, and scatter it with the other.—R. H. Barn, Wellington 
Nursery, St. Johi’s Wood. 


_ Tomato Culture.—The great secret is in pinching off the head continually 
just above the bunch of fruit. This pinching is continued throughout the 
season. On the above management they may be grown against ridges in this way, 
or even staked up if the situation is warm. My principal object is to encourage 
the cottager to grow this plant for his own consumption. Now. before I found 
out the simple way of making the plant bear a heavy crop, I dared not have 
recommended the cottager to waste his time about it, for this plant, if allowed 
to grow anyhow, is the most barren of any plant I know of; and when fruit 
is produced half of it never ripens at all. 

Fertilizing Melons and Cucumbers,—The artificial fertilisation of the 
female flowers of Cucumbers and Melons constitutes a most important article of 
faith among practical horticulturists. The ‘‘ setting’ of the crop by hand is in- 
sisted on in all garden calendars; if it is not necessary, the immense amount of 
time consumed thereby is wasted. In the thousands of gardens where hand- 
some and well-flayoured fruit is everything, and seed of no consequence at all, 
we believe the operation to be altogether unnecessary. At all events, we have 
range to secure for our own use for many years past cucumbers and melons 
in sufficient plenty, without putting ourselves to the trouble of applying the 
pollen, and have long since been satisfied that, except for the production of seed 
it is labour wasted.—Gardeners’ Maguzine. 


592 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872, 


GARDEN DESTROYERS. 
AN APPLE WORM TRAP 


Tue Americans, long pestered with this hateful ‘‘ worm,” haye 
paid it much attention, and have devised some sagacious schemes for 
its destruction. To one of the best of these we now desire to call 
attention. It is thus described by Mr. Riley in the American 
Agriculturist :-— 

Mr. Thomas Wier, of Lacon, Illinois, has hit upon a simple device 
for alluring apple-worms, which is destined to play an important part 
in counterworking their injuries. In conjunction with his cousin, 
he has patented his trap, and though I do not think that the patenting 
of such simple devices is quite in accordance with a progressive 
horticultural spirit, or that the patentees will find it a very profitable 
undertaking, they have a perfect right to think otherwise. It was 
too late in the season when the trap was brought to my notice to 
give it a thorough trial, but I was at once favourably impressed with 
its usefulness ; and what little I have seen of its work has not altered 
that impression. 

The trap (see figure—A closed, B open) consists of two, three, or 
more thin pieces of board, twelve to twenty inches in length, and 
two to four inches wide, with a screw (a) through their centre. The 
screw must be long enough to be firmly driven into the trunk of the 
tree, so as to hold the boards in position. The boards are cut out on 
each side of the screw, as at c, to facilitate their separation when 
fastened together by the silken threads of the worms, and to better 
expose the latter when the trap is opened. 

The advantages of this trap so far outbalance the disadvantages, 
that it may be considered the best we yet have. These advantages 


Apple Worm Trap. 


may be stated as follows :—It is cheap, accessible to all, easily placed 
on the tree and removed again ; wood forms, perhaps, the most natural 
covert for the worms ; the traps may be collected with little trouble, 
by the barrowful, submitted to a killing heat, in one way or another, 
and replaced avain ; they may be used on the ground as well as on 
the tree. Its disadvantages are few. One it has, in common with 
all other snares or traps for this insect, 1amely, that it can never 
exterminate the Codling moth, for many reasons that will sugeest 
themselves to all who have any acquaintance with theinsect. Another 
is, that where one trap only is used it can be attached to but one 
side of the tree, and inthis single respect, notwithstanding all the 
theories of my friend Wier, it must always be inferior to any 
trap that encircles the tree. 

The worms will spin their cocoons between the inner shingle ani 
the tree as freely as between the shingles themselves, and I suspect 
that it will be found less tedious and cheaper to detach the traps 
and kill the worms by wholesale, than to open them on the tree. 
Concerning the latter method, Mr. Wier says: ‘‘The quickest and 
best way is to have a large tin pan bent in on one side, so as to 
fit closely to the trunk of the tree. When you reach the tree, drop 
upon your knees, place the depression in the pan against the trunk of 
the tree, hold it there by pressing your body against it, and you 
have both hands free to open the trap. When opening it, many of 
the pupz or chrysalids will fall into the pan, and some of the worms. 
Kill the rest or scrape them into the pan. ‘The trap must be turned 
clear around, as many will be found between it and the bark. A 
person will open and kill the worms in from four hundred to eight 


hundred traps in a day.”’ Ihave known one of these traps to be so 
thoroughly torn to pieees by the Downy Woodpecker, that if they 
are to be preserved from year to year, it would be dangerous to leave 
them on the tree during winter. The inyentor informed me that he 
believes his trap is more apt to come into general use by being 
patented, than if offered without price to the public. The danger is, 
that patentees are sure to claim too much for their pet creations. 
This fact is well exemplified in the present instance, for the lable 
pasted on such of the traps as have been so far sent out, commences 
as follows:—‘‘Thomas Wier’s apple-worm and curculio trap, which 
catches apple-worms, curculio, and every species of insects infesting 
fruit.” 

The love of gain obscures the light of truth; and this wonderful 
power of a pair of shingles to catch ‘‘ every species of insect inyest- 
ing fruit” is altogether too much like Mr. Quackenbosh’s patent 
universal, never-failing elixir, which cures all diseases that possess 
mankind. Other eyils will likewise result from the sale of this trap 
under such spurious claims, and without some explanation of the 
insects’ habits. One of them may be illustrated by the following 
dialogue, which is not altogether imaginary, but is founded on an 
actualoccurrence. Agent Gaingreed—his desire to sell rights being 
stronger than his love of accuracy—meets farmer Glauball, and 
straightway expatiates upon the merits of the patent trap. He 
shows how the worms gnaw their way in between the shingles, and how 
easily they may be destroyed. ‘‘ Ach!” cries the credulous German, 
“and is it true das de worm rader eat de schindel dan de apfel?” 
“Oh, yes!’ says Gaingreed, “‘screw one of the traps on to this tree, 
and ina week I will come back, and we will examine it.”” At the 
expiration of the week the trap is opened, and upon viewing with 
wonder the worms that have secreted in it, Glauball rapturously 
exclaims, ‘‘Ist es méglich? das is de best ting I yet see,” and 
purchases the right to use much quicker than he would if he knew 
that the worms had already been in his apples. 

I have thus indicated the mischief that may be done by over- 
estimating the value of this trap, in order that the patentees may 
strip it of all appearance of sham, and present it to the fruit-srower 
for what it is—a useful and important deyice—and not extol it as 
a sure Codling-moth exterminator. 


THE GARDENS OF ENGLAND. 


THE THRRACH GARDEN AT POSSINGWORTH. 


PossIn@woRTH, in Sussex, the seat of Mr. Louis Huth, as 
recently laid out by Mr. Marnock, promises to be a noble 
place when its many plantations have attained to a riper age, 
and when the finishing touch of Time has been given to the 
margin of its fine expanse of artificial water and its many other 
fine features. ‘lo some of these we may again adyert, and 
now merely say afew words to introduce the terrace garden 
and immediate surroundings of the house to our readers. 

The terrace garden at Possingworth differs from most of its 
kind in the absence of the numerous geometrical figures and 
beds usually considered indispensable to the style. When at 
Possingworth in the autumn we were struck with the good 
effect of the few but rather large masses of flowers in front 
of the house and the great pleasant spread of green to the left. 


RYTON HOUSE, RYTON-ON-DUNSMORE. 

Eureka! A small old-fashioned garden, the like of which I began 
to fear was extinct. Something like it has been described by 
Mr. Henry Kingsley in “‘ Hornby Mills.” So bare were the large 
gardens in Warwickshire, that I began to feel I was no longer in a 
land of spring flowers. Here is a little oasis of them. A lawn green 
as tufts of the mossy saxifrage on the 1st of November spreads 
from the back of the house to a belt of surrounding trees. The 
abominable orthodox little terrace-garden of the ordinary landscape 
gardener does not violate the carpet of verdure that rolls to the 
steps of the verandah; nothing disturbs the repose of the sweet 
foreground, and the eye rests in peace on the deodars and other 
pines with which the lawn is adorned. So far nothing remarkable 
by way of improvement, except the abolition of formal spaces of bare 
earth. To the right and left, a little inthe distance, a gay little crop 
of varied blooms is seen peeping over the emerald grass. These are 
the May bloomers of a very interesting collection of hardy flowers 
arranged in mixed borders. The earth here is not, as usual with 
much of our garden beds and borders nowadays, less interesting than 
the adjoining meadow, for here is the fair little St. Bruno’s Lily, 
which just now is opening its pale green-tipped trumpets on many a 


593 


May 25, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. 


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PLAN OF THE TERRACE GARDEN AT POSSINGWORTH. 


594 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


wide waving sea of meadow grass just below the receding snow in the 
valleys of Piedmont; here, too, are some of our own rarer wildlings, like 
the Creeping Gromwell (Lithospermum purpureo-czeruleum), which is 
quite wild and full of deep purple bloom on the little rockery ; here 
the Dog’s-tooth Violet, the Snowy Crowfoot, the Alpine Hrinus ; 
little shrubs eighteen inches high of the tree Linum (Li. arborenm), 
flakes of the alpine Phloxes of the Rocky Mountains ; healthy planta- 
tions of the old ‘double primroses, now become so scarce; stately 
tufts of Globe flowers, and blue dots of Gentian; wide edgings of 
Mountain Cat’s-foot, bestrewn with its dull crimson little “everlasting” 
flowers ; summer Snow Flakes, beginning to open in May hail showers ; 
tufts of Adonis, with its last great yellow stars; rich golden Welsh 
Poppies, as well established as they are by the roadways near Win- 
dermere; sheets of the wood Forget-me-Not, and of the Mountain 
Avens, running over the rocks with its crowds of white, yellow- 
stamened bloom, with many of their faircompanions passing out of 
and coming into bloom. 

Let us pass away from the garden, and into a small wood partly 
surrounding the place. It is a rather dense grassy plantation with 
a little green walk winding through the trees and by the margin of 
a small lake. Through the weeds and long grass bold Lilies are 
pushing up nearly ready to flower. Tufts of the Poet’s Narcissus 
are already in bloom in this pleasant wilderness. The large-flowered 
Hverlasting Pea is tangled through the low bushes all carelessly and 
wild like the rest ; but here, in an open spot, is a tuft of Acanthus, 
evidently recently and carefully planted; and the pleasant fact is 
seen that the plants here are no chance outcasts from the garden, but 
carefully planted by loving hands. It is, in fact, a wild garden we 
are wandering through, and in which, quite at home, exotic Irises 
and Daffodils flourish in the domain of the Solomon’s Seal and the 
Periwinkles. Such is a glimpse of this charming garden, as far as 
I can feebly express its beauty. But as,— 

““When spring herself is here, in vain we look 
To find her likeness pictured in a book,” 
so is it exceedingly difficult to describe on paper the early 
summer loyeliness of such a garden. 

It is impossible to avoid drawing comparisons between this garden 
and others, and the comparisons are wholly in its favour as compared 
with the ordinary type of villa garden. That it enjoys a long season 
of beauty before people begin to think of covering the brown earth 
with their bedding plants, is proof enough of this, and that season is 
the most delightful of the year. But let no one suppose that such a 
garden offers us the only alternative with the bedding system. There 
are many other waysin which we may vary and beautify our gardens 
as well. Besides, the bedding system itself must ever be, when 
properly arranged, one of the most beautiful ways of growing plants. 
There is no reason whatever why what are called bedding plants 
should not be arranged in as true and beautiful a way as any others. 
Nevertheless, I was charmed to see what was the result here of 
depending on hardy flowers alone. There was not, so far as I could 
see, a single bed in the place destined to receive bedding plants ; yet 
the garden was full of beauty and interest, and evidently had been 
so for the past three months. Be it observed, however, that much of 
the good effect would have been spoiled if the foreground of the 
picture—the untortured little lawn, with its trees—had been broken 
up by geometrical patterns. 

This garden is the property of Miss Freeman, whom I had not the 
good fortune to find at home, or perhaps I might have discovered 
more beauties than I had the pleasure of seeing. For kindly 
guidance to it, as well as to many of the gardens of Warwickshire, 
Tam indebted to Mr. William Miller, of Combe Abbey. 


THE COVENTRY CEMETERY. 


Ir was a good idea that of making our cemeteries suburban 
gardens, which was carried into effect in this country, and more 
extensively in America, when burying closely in towns was dis- 
continued. Rarely, however, does one meet with such a happy 
illustration of the result as is now given by the Coventry Cemetery. 
This is an ornamental garden ina very high sense. It is not only 
with our dreary old town cemeteries that such an oasis contrasts in 
beauty. The country graveyards, many of which offer the most 
inviting positions for hardy plants, and all of which could be easily 
converted into beautiful gardens with very little trouble or expense, 
are, for the most part, as deyoid of any grace as a barrack-yard. 
There is no need why this should be so; only a Vandal would 
recommend that these hallowed spots should be embellished in any 
sense like what is called a ‘‘ modern flower garden.’ It were better 
they should lie fallow for ever, than that any such blight should 
fall upon them. But much might be done to make them more 
beautiful, without in any sense violating their character or the fitness 
of things. They invariably offer sites for a few beautiful trees ; and 


never was country so rich'!in weeping and other highly-suitable 
trees as ours is now. Yet you may go for days through villages 
without seeing an attempt at planting. Then the walls! What a 
difference between an old church draped with ivy, clematis, and 
Virginian creeper, and the like, and one as bare as a new factory 
wall! It is with churches as with cottages; they are generally 
pleasing in proportion to the degree in which their walls are covered 
with vegetation. Here, again, we have no end of almost unused 
wealth ; some of which, like the ivies and the new Japan creeper 
(Ampelopsis tricuspidata), do not even require training over the 
walls, but hold on with their own rootlet-fingers. The ivies, in 
their now numerous and beautiful varieties, give us all we want for 
the embellishment of our churches and churchyard walls, which 
are often bare of all life except seams of moss sown by the wind. 

The Coventry Cemetery is very agreeably and boldly diversified. 
It abounds with stately and beautiful tree-life, much of it evergreen. 
The planting is quite superior to that usually seen in what are con- 
sidered the best gardens. Near the entrance stands a tall and not 
ungraceful monument to the designer of the cemetery, and for years 
member for the city, the late Sir Joseph Paxton. Most fitting is it 
that the city of the dead should be embellished with such life as here 
springs from the turf. If we make our cemeteries combinations of a 
graceful garden and arboretum, such as this is, we throw a charm round 
the brink of the grave itself. The total absence of bare earth here 
gives the place a refreshing look, toorarein gardens. The well-broken 
easy margins of the plantations also deprive the place of the dis- 
agreeable air imparted by formal margins. Fortunately, almost 
every one of our fine evergreens thrives in perfection here, from the 
hemlock to the Wellingtonia. The hemlock is a peculiarly graceful 
cemetery tree ; the red cedar should be more employed for cemetery 
planting, especially where other tapering trees do not succeed owing 
to the cold. 

The place is in admirable order, and reflects much credit on the 
superintendent, Mr. Dawson, and on the town. One important 
improvement might, however, be made by embellishing the place 
liberally with spring and early summer flowers. This could be done 
without any formal or expensive gardening in beds, by merely 
dotting the plants or seeds about in the margins of the extensive 
shrubberies, &e. It may be objected that these would be destroyed 
by the visitors to such places, but the objection is a groundless one. 
As instances of the spring flowers which may be naturalised in such 
a place, and which would add to it many charms in spring, I may 
mention the Apennine anemone, the Geneva bugle, the Japan and 
snowdrop anemone (A. sylvestris), snowdrops and crocuses, the 
winter aconite, the snake’s head, hepaticas, snowflakes, lilies, 
honesty, grape hyacinths, forget-me-nots, daffodils, Omphalodes 
verna, bluebells, and violets. 

There is one great eyesore here which interferes sadly with the 
beauty of the scene. It results from the mutilation of a great 
number of weeping limes. These were planted in abundance all over 
the cemetery ; in one place they border a winding avenue. Some 
years ago these trees (they are all strong and vigorous specimens), 
were pollarded! Yes, all the limbs and branchlets, which constitute 
the charm of every weeping tree, were lopped off close to the main 
lower branches. It would not be easy to find a sadder sight among 
trees, than these presented on the 9th of May. What their summer 
aspect may be, I know not, but it is most umwise to disfigure a fair 
scene like this by such monstrosities, evenif they were only seen fora 
week in the year. Want of room is said to have been the reason for 
mutilating them. Surely, it would have been better to remove all for 
which there was no room, than make tree-scarecrows of them. I 
neyer saw anything uglier than the avenue of these weeping limes 
in this cemetery in their winter dress. If this were altered, |] know 
of nothing of the kind, which, for its size equals in picturesque 
beauty and in the richness of its tree flora the Coventry Cemetery. 


Maidstone Public Garden.—The work of laying out the 
public garden tobe presented to the town of Maidstone by Mr. Julius 
Brenchley, nearly approaches completion. About five acres of an 
old apple orchard adjoining the private garden at Chillington House 
have been converted into a picturesque garden, in the centre of 
the town, from all parts of which it will be easily accessible. 


The Garden.—A garden is a beautiful book, writ by the finger of 
God: every flower and every leaf is a letter. You have only to learn 
them—and he is a poor dunce that cannot, if he will, do that—to learn 
them and join them, and then to go on reading and reading. And you 
will find yourself carried away from the earth by the beautiful story 
you are going through. You do not know what beautiful thoughts grow 
out of the ground, and seem to talk toa man. And then there are some 
flowers that seem to me like overdutiful children: tend them but ever so 
little, and they come up and flourish, and show, as I may say, their 
bright and happy faces to you.u—Douglas Jerrold. 


THE GARDEN. 


595 


May 25, 1872.) 


te PROPA CARO rR. 
SOFT-WOODED PLANTS IN SAND AND WATER. 


Mr. Wat. GArpENER’s mode of striking cuttings of soft-wooded 
plants (see p. 481) is quite right with the exception of two 
things, first; after inserting the cuttings, he says, “fill up with 
water;’’ secondly, he recommends the same pans of sand to be 
refilled with fresh cuttings. Now, in the first case, if the sand 
is too wet, the cuttings, especially Verbenas, will curl up, and 
the base of the cutting will come out on the top of the sand. 
Fresh sand should always be used, as I find that the second batch in 
the same sand never strikes so readily. I thank Mr. Gardener for 
bringing forward the subject, for though I have practised a similar 
mode of striking soft-wooded things for fifteen years, I have never 
seen anything respecting it in print before. My mode of proceeding 
is this: first, I make my cuttings, keeping account how many I have 
gotas I go on. Next, I fill pans with sand level with the top, and 
sprinkle them with water through a fine rose to consolidate the sand. 
Then if I have, say a hundred cuttings, I proceed to insert them 
with the end of a small quill, than which nothing is better, say 
fifty in a twenty-four sized pan, more or less according to circum- 
stances; another sprinkling of water through a rose settles the sand 
firmly down about them, and the work is finished. The sand should 
never be allowed to get dry, nor should it ever be made the least 
sloppy. A nice brisk dung bed and frame is the best place in which 
the pans can be set. I use a small-one light frame for the purpose, 
with a two-light frame to receive them when potted off. The old 
sand when dry is employed for general bench purposes, but in no 
case do I use the same pans or sand again, unless well washed. 

Guildersjield, Streatham Common. Wa. WILLE. 


THE ART OF GRAFTING. 
(Continued from page 575. 


TREATMENT AFTER SipE-GRAFTING UNDER THE Bark.—In 
grafting with a dormant eye, with a view to propagation, 
the particular treatment will consist in heading down the stock, 
after winter, to four inches above the graft, and immediately 
tying up quite erect the top of the woody scion, in order to 
avoid a knee or bend at the graft. The first process (with a 
simple branch) when employed for purposes of restoration, 
does not require the amputation of the stock; but in order to 
hasten the development of the graft, a notch is cut in the 
stock, about a quarter of an inch above the graft, in spring. 
The notch, in form of a crescent, about half an inch broad, is 
made with two cuts of the pruning-knife in the bark. An ex- 
ample of a similar operation has already been given. At the 
same time the branches above the graft are pruned short. A 
thin stake is indispensable for fastening up the young graft. 
When the grafting is made with a shooting bud, at the flow of 
the sap, the scion should be covered with grafting-clay, to pre- 
serve it from the sun and the scorching winds. If, notwith- 
standing its speedy vegetation, it exhibits a tendency to remain 
puny, its growth may be accelerated by making small longitu- 
dinal incisions. By cutting the bark the sap is induced to 

, flow more freely under the dilated 
surface, and causes the branch to 
increase in thickness. 

Sme-GRAFTING IN THE ALBURNUM. 
Geyerat Drrections.—This method 
is more specially adapted for ever- 
greens; therefore it is more 
frequently adopted for grafting 
under glass, the season for which 
is in February and in August. If 
the same kinds are to be grafted in 
the open air, it should be done in 
April and in August. For ever- 
green scions, a branch of medium 
size, and furnished with a terminal 
bud, is to be preferred. Itis to be 
cut from the tree at the moment of using it; none of the 
leaves are to be removed, except those at the base ; and to keep 
it fresh it should be placed in the shade with the end in a 
vessel of water or in sand. The stock is not headed down, 
and the leaves on the part destined to receive the scion, are 
cut off at the stalk orin the middle. In order to insert the 
scion into the alburnum of the stock, the bark and outside 
layers of alburnum are removed, directing the blade of the 


knife from above downwards, taking care not to penetrate to 
the pith. The scion is cut thin on both sides, if it is to be in- 
serted at the top of the cleft, or cut in a wedge-shape if inserted in 
the side of the incision. Hence arise the following two sub- 
divisions :— 

SmDE-GRAFTING WitH A VerticaAL Cur.—The camellia scion 
(A) is cut for the half of its length on both sides («), leaving 
on each side a strip of bark of equal width, and tapering 
gradually to the point. The stock (B) is cut as at (b) 
with one stroke of the gratting-knife, allowing the blade to 
penetrate as far as the alburnum. The scion (A) is intro- 
duced by its base (a), and then bandaged, as shown at C, 
Should the grafting be done in the open air, grafting-wax 


should be applied on both sides of the cleft, so as to fill any 
vacancies that may occur. With the camellia, and other 
hard-wooded shrubs, the stock is maintained entire at the time 
of grafting; but the Aucuba, the tissues of which are less 
dense, is cut down to within four to eight inches above the 
graft at the time of the operation. 

SIDE-GRAFTING WiTH AN Ontique Crert.—The scion E is the 
the top of a branch of holly. The lower part of it is repre- 
sented at B with a sloping cut 
(C) on both sides, and with the 
back of the slant much longer 
on the outside. An oblique 
incision (D) is made in the 
stock (A) by cutting through 
the bark and alburnum in a 
slanting direction with refer- 
ence to the axis of the stock. 
The scion will thus be inclined 
at an angle, and its leaves will 
not be embarrassed by the 
stock. It may also be placed 
in an upright position by 
giving an oblique direction 
to the sloping cut. It should 
be bandaged with some elastic 
material. A certain number 
of conifers are best grafted 
with the oblique incision ; the wound does not enlarge so much 
as in the case of the vertical incision, and a slender scion is more 
securely fixed in it. To the group of side-grafting we might 


096 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


add the method termed gimlet-grafting, in which a gimlet or 
drill is used to pierce an oblique hole from above downwards 
through the bark and alburnum without reaching the pith. 
The mouth of the hole is smoothed, and the end of the graft 
is cut round and pointed so as to fit it properly. This method 
is seldom used; it should only be employed on old stocks, 
which do not exude gum, and when it is required to supply a 
branch to a very bare stem. 

TREATMENT AFTER SIDE-GRAFTING IN THE ALBURNUM.—If the 
grafting has taken place in the month of April, the head of 
the stock should be gradually cut away, as soon as the 
cohesion of the parts seems to be assured, continuing.the 
operation in proportion to the development of the graft. But 
if the grafting has occurred in autumn, the stock is cut, after 
winter, to within four to six inches of the graft, preserving on 
the heel the principal leaves and small branches, which will 
be removed afterwards when the graft has developed its shoots. 
The heel, which serves at first as a prop for the young shoot, 
is to be cut off level with the graft, as soon as the young 
shoot shall have acquired sufficient strength to maintain 
itself —C. Baltet. 

(To be continued.) 


PAE HOUS EbOLpr 


ORANGE-MILK MUSHROOM. 
(LACTARIUS DELICIOSUS.) 

Tere is no possibility of mistaking this fungus. It is the 
only one which has orange-red milk, and which turns green 
when bruised. These properties distinguish it at once from 
Lactarius torminosus or “necator,” the only fungus which in 
any wayresembles it. This acridfungus (Lactarius tormimosus) 
is somewhat similar in shape and size, and is also zoned. But 
the inyolute edges of the pileus are bearded with close hairs. 
Tt is of a much paler colour, and with gills of a dirty white. 
The milk, also, is white, acrid, and unchangeable in colour. 
The orange-milk agaric chiefly affects the Scotch fir-tree, and 
is generally to be found beneath the drip of the branches 
around the tree. It is also found in hedgerows occasionally, 
but is most abundant in plantations of Scotch fir or larch. 


Orange-milk Mushroom (Lactarius deliciosus). Under fir trees, in autumn; 
colour, brown-orange; milk at first orange, then green; diameter, three to 
ten inches. 


Pilenus smooth, fleshy, umbilicate, of a dull rufous orange, 
turning pallid from exposure to light and air, but zoned with 
concentric circles of a brighter hue; margin smooth, at first 
inyolute, and then becoming expanded; from three to five 
inches across. Flesh firm, full of orange-red milk, which turns 
green on exposure to the air, as does any part of the plant 
when bruised. Gills decurrent, narrow, each dividing into 
two, three several times from the stem to the edge of the 


pileus; of a dull yellow by reflected light, but being trans- 
lucent, the red milk shines brightly through them. Stem 
from one to three inches high, slightly bent and tapering 
downwards ; solid, becoming more or less hollow with age; 
short hairs at the base; sometimes pitted (scrobiculate). 


Oprxtons ON THE Merits oF LAcTARIUS DELICIOsSUS AS AN 
Eprste Funets.—* This is one of the best agarics with which 
IT am acquainted, fully deserving both its name and the esti- 
mation in which it is held abroad. It reminds me of tender 
lambs’ kidneys.’”—Dr. Bapuam. 

“Very luscious eating, full of rich gravy, with a little of the 
flavour of mussels.” —SowERsy. 

“Cook them well, and you will have something better than 
kidneys, which they much resemble both in flavour and con- 
sistence.”—Mrs. Hussey. 

Mopss oF Cooxine Lactarius DELICIosus.— The rich gravy 
it produces is its chief characteristic, and hence it commends 
itself to make a rich gravy sauce, or as an ingredient in soups. 
It requires delicate cooking, for, though fleshy, it becomes 
tough if kept on the fire till the juice is exuded. Baking 
is perhaps the best process for this agaric to pass through 
It should be dressed when fresh and pulpy.”—Epwi* 
Legs. 

Stewrep Detictosus.—‘ The tourtiére (or pie-dish) method 
of cooking suits Lactarius deliciosus best, as it is firm and 
crisp in substance. Be careful to use only sound specimens. 
Reduce them, by cutting across, to one uniform bulk. Place 
the pieces in a pie-dish, with a little pepper and salt, anda 
small piece of butter on each side of every slice. Tie a paper 
over the dish, and bake gently for three-quarters of an hour. 
Serve them up in the same hot dish.’”"—Mrs. Hvssry. 


Dexicrosus Pre.—Pepper and salt slices of the agaric, and 
place them in layers with thin slices of fresh bacon, until a 
small pie-dish is full; cover with a crust of pastry or mashed 
potatoes, and bake gently for three-quarters of an hour. If 
with potato crust, brown nicely before a quick fire. 

Deticiosus Pupprve.—Cut the agaric into small pieces; add 
similar pieces of bacon, pepper, and salt, and a little garlic 
or spice; surround with crust, and boil three-quarters of an 
hour. , 


Frirep Deticiosus.—Fry im slices, properly seasoned with 
butter, or bacon and gravy; and serve up hot with sippets of 
toast. A steak in addition is a great improvement. 


How to Make the Most of Coffee.—According to M. Schadler 
only half the quantity of finely ground coffee is needed, in order to pro- 
duce the same strength of beverage obtained by the ordimary coarse- 
ground article. If, after Oriental fashion, the ground coffee is crushed 
fine in a mortar, only two-fifths of the coarse is needed. Infusion, boil- 
ing, or filtering through a bag, all have the same result as regards 
strength, except that by filtering the aroma of the coffee is better pre- 
served. 


Preserved Orange Peel.—Clean carefully; cut in thin strips; 
stew in water until the bitterness is extracted; drain off the water, and 
stew again for half an hour in a syrup of sugar and water, allowing half 
pint of water and pound of sugar to each pound of peel. Put it aside 
in jars, and keep it in a cool place. If desired, a little cmnamon and 
ginger may be stewed with the peel, but it is more delicate cooked simply 
with sugar. Lemon peel may be prepared in the same manner, either 
alone or mixed with orange peel. These form pleasant “ relishes” eaten 
with cake or bread, or if chopped finely when prepared they form excel- 
lent flavouring for puddings and pies. 


Potatoes Boiled or Steamed.—It is stated at p. 383 that potatoes 
become watery from being covered with a weight of water, and that, 
moreover, the particles are not able to expand and burstintoflour. I yen- 
ture to challenge that assertion. Potato flour is not so easily campressed 
as all that. I should like to see the pot of water big enough to prevent 
the potato flour from bursting during the process of boiling. Very little 
water indeed can enter the potato during the process of cooking; and as 
for its weight it is virtually inoperative. Potatoes boiled are almost as 
floury as potatoes steamed, if the boiling has been properly done, and 
they are better flavoured. This is my argument for boiling—the potatoes 
are sweeter. Does anyone doubt it? then let him try a draught of potato 
water, and doubt no more. Where does the water pick up that loathsome 
flavour? Assuredly from the potatoes, in the process of boiling. And the 
potatoes must needs be the better for the loss; and they are. I thought 
otherwise at one time, but I am now fully convinced that the best mode 
of cooking potatoes is boiling them. The mode of boiling given at p. 383 
is good. But one water—a liberal supply—with a handful of salt, will 
finish them in style, without the trouble of several changes.—D. T. 
Fish. 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


597 


eee 


PROGRESSIVE GARDENING. 
BY THOMAS JERROLD. 

‘lo the Romans we no doubt owe the elements of the art of 
gardening. In the time of Pliny, they seem to have carried 
it to such perfection, that he speaks of a single head of 
asparagus weighing three pounds, and cabbages so “ pam- 
pered ” that the poor man’s table was not large enough to hold 
them. Whatever progress we may have made towards artistic 
beauty, I do not think that our kitchen gardening of the 
present day very greatly surpasses that of our forefathers. 
Jineyards planted in the third century existed in the eighth 
and in the twelfth. William of Malmesbury speaks highly of 
the vineyards then existing in Gloucestershire. In 1512 the 
Earl of Northumberland kept one gardener; yet, in Scotland 
gardening seems even then to have progressed more rapidly 
than in England. 

During the early part of the sixteenth century, after the 
fierce Wars of the Roses, gardening began to occupy attention, 
as we may infer from the great progress which had been made 
in this art during the reign of Henry VIII., when the magni- 
ficent grounds of Nonsuch were laid out. These contained 
groves ornamented with trellis work, cabinets of verdure, and 
walks embowered by trees. In these gardens, in which wealth 
and invention seem to have been lavished, a concealed fountain 
is mentioned, which spurted upon all who came within its 
reach; and this vulgar taste still seems to have prevailed in 
the reign of Elizabeth, when the gardens of Holland House 
and Hatfield were laid out in mazes and labyrinths, and 
with concealed pipes, which deluged in a moment unwary 
visitors. During the succeeding reign, if we may judge 
from the description of Theobalds, a slightly better taste pre- 
vailed. A large square had its walls covered with Phillyreas, 
and a beautiful jet d’eaw occupied its centre; the parterre had 
many pleasant walks, part of which were planted on the sides 
with espaliers, and others were arched all over. At the end, 
a small mount, called the Mount of Venus, was placed in the 
midst of a labyrinth. 

During the reign of Charles the Second, the gardens at 
Hampton Court, Chatsworth, and many others, were laid out. 
But with the accession of William and Mary to the throne, 
the peryerted taste of the Dutch school of ornamentation came 
into fashion, and our gardens were disfigured by trees, ever- 
greens, and shrubs clipped into vile forms. In this country 
gardening has always been a favourite art; it was pursued 
by the monks with a knowledge anda taste perhaps not excelled 
in our own day, more particularly in regard to the products 
of the kitchen garden and the orchard; but it received a great 
check in England by the dissolution of the monasteries. 
Bacon, uuring the reign of James the First, had spoken with 
contempt of the images cut out of Juniper and other ever- 
geeens; and after the rage for the Dutch style began to die 
out, English gardens appear to have begun to have a character 
peculiarly their own. While the French were clipping trees 
into fantastic shapes, like the Dutch, until their groves ap- 
peared like so many “ green trees set upon poles”; and while 
Maréchal de Biron flanked his garden walks with nine thousand 
pots of Asters, we strove to dress Nature with a freer anda 
wilder grace. Bishop Hatchet described his ideal garden as 
“a large, beautiful lawn, edged with even rows of trees, a 
flowery meadow, with a stream running by it, a beautiful 
garden, a belvedere, with rare figures of composures,” &c. 
Dryden, speaking of gardens, says: “The plan must be great, 
entire, and every portion—even the least—must havearefereuce 
to the whole.” But Cvradock, according to Southey, goes 
further than Dryden, and says: “ Gardening, in its highest 
stage of improvement, is of the nature of an epic poem.” 
Cradock reters rather to the garden Milton describes as the 
home of our first parents, and to the scene of Acrisea’s 
bower of bliss, than to the Saardon Gardens, where tables 
and punch bowls were cut out of evergreens, and where an 
evergreen stag with leafy antlers guarded the walks. Con- 
cerning this kind of gardening, Addison has written :—‘ Our 
gardens are not so entertaining as those in France and Italy, 
where we see large tracts of ground covered with an agreeable 
mixture of garden and forest, which everywhere represents an 
artificial rudeness much more charming than that neatness 
and elegance we meet with in those of our own country. Our 


British gardeners, on the contrary, instead of humouring 
nature, loye to deviate from her as much as possible. Our 
trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids; we see the marks of 
the scissors upon every plant and bush. For my own part, I 
would rather look upon atree in allits luxuriance and diffusion 
of boughs and branches than when it is thus cut and trimmed 
into a mathematical figure; and cannot but fancy that an 
orchard in flower looks infinitely more delightful than all the 
little labyrinths of the most finished parterre.” Pliny 
thought gardening could not be carried farther than it was 
in his time; but no year has passed for many a cycle in 
which something new has not been added to our gardens. 
Our nosegays, indeed now gathered in British parterres, 
consist of contributions from every part of the habitable 
world. 

In the culinary department I fear that gardening has not 
been carried out with a progress so rapid and so marked as 
that which distinguishes the art in the park, landscape, and 
pleasure ground. We have many grand kitchen gardens it 
is true; but few to excel those laid out and tended by those 
early gardeners, the monks. Cobbett speaks enthusiasticall 
of the kitchen garden at Waverley Abbey, founded by Giffard, 
and inhabited by the first colony of Cistercian monks who 
came to this country. He tells us it was the finest situation 
for a kitchen garden he ever saw, and thus describes it :— 
“Tt lay full to the south; of course, it hada high hill to the 
back of it, and that hill covered with pretty lofty trees. The 
wall on the north side of the garden was from twelve to 
fourteen feet high, built partly of flints and partly of the 
sandstone which is found in abundance in the neighbourhood, 
and it was about three feet through eyen at the top. The 
ground of which the garden consisted had been the sloping 
foot of a hill, taking in a part of the meadow that came after 
the hill, and lay between it and the river . A flat of 
about twenty feet wide had been made on the side of the hill, 
and at the back of this flat the wall was erected. After the 
flat, towards the south, began the slope, which grew more and 
more moist as it approached the river. At the foot of the 
garden there ran a rivulet, coming froma fish pond, and at a 
little distance from that emptying itself into the river. The 
hill itself was a bed of sand; therefore, the flat—at the back 
of which the north wall stood, that is to say, the wall on the 
north side of the garden—must have been made ground. 
The slope must have been partly made, otherwise it would 
have been too sandy.” 

New flowers, new trees, we hear of constantly, but a novelty 
in kitchen-garden produce is seldom introduced. This may 
be owing as much to want of purchasers as to the want of 
enterprise; when a new esculent appears, only such epicures 
as Fin-Bec become purchasers; the housewife of the middle 
class is afraid of innovations, she contents herself with that 
to which she has been accustomed; and the same annual 
routine of vegetables, cooked in the same old manner, makes 
its appearance on the dinner-table. 

The French, who, to some extent, excel us in the cultivation 
of fruits and vegetables, have certainly not surpassed us in 
laying out grounds, or as it is more popularly termed, “ land- 
scape gardening.” May not this same natural style of gardening 
which we now possess have had its origin in the simple taste 
first evinced in early English gardens, which are described 
in the ‘ Harleian Miscellany,” as usually walks of sand made 
perfectly level by rolling them, and between the walks are 
smooth grass plots covered with the greenest turf, without 
any other ornament? How easy the transition from turf to 
a few trees; then to a group; and, lastly, to flowering shrubs 
and plants in the foreground ! 

In our progress from the Dutch or formal school of 
gardening to the graceful freedom of Kent's style, no doubt 
many old gardens were sacrificed needlessly to the rage for 
improvement ; and many monuments of the talent, taste, and 
industry of our forefathers may have thus been lost to us, 
which might otherwise have stood for years as landmarks in 
the history of the art. 

Sir Walter Scott, who, in gardening matters at least, was 
conservative, and who had a poet’s love and enthusiasm for 
the rugged beauty and grandeaur of antiquity, speaks in 
bitter terms of the wholesale destruction of fine old gardens, 


598 


THE GARDEN. 


{May 25, 1872. . 


and referring more particularly to the then existing rage for 
changing every garden into a natural one, says :—‘ Nothing is 
more completely the child of art than a garden; who then 
would clothe such a child in the gipsy garb, howeyer pic- 
turesque it may be ? ” 

All styles in unsuitable places, or carried to extremes, have 
faults, and too enthusiastic innovators sometimes do great 
harm ; yet looking around on our magnificent and picturesque 
domains, we must confess the obligations we owe to landscape 
gardeners ; among whom, in our own day, we reckon as not 
least the late Sir Joseph Paxton, who has laid it down asa 
rule, “that the garden surrounding the house, whether an 
architectural terrace or bedded lJawn, must, of necessity, 
possess uniformity; that the shrubbery immediately adjoining 
must partake of the same character somewhat modified ; 
while the more distant portions and the park are willingly 
abandoned to the landscape gardener.” 

Not only in the grounds of the rich do we see improved 
taste displayed in gardening; true progress has even begun 
to be made in the ornamentation of the few square yards of 
ground allotted to suburban villas and cottages. Where our eyes 
were offended by the sight of a miniature geometric garden, 
bordered by scanty box and divided by paths half a foot wide, we 
now see a more elegant, because a simpler and more appropriate, 
taste displayed. 

~ Without, therefore, being as sanguine as a writer in Once a 

Week, who some years ago looked forward to the time when 
every householder in London should have a flourishing garden 
on the roof of his house, we may still anticipate continued 
progression in the art of gardening; and hope soon to 
see as true a taste for, and appreciation of, the beauties 
of nature evinced in the humble plot of the cottager, as 
may now be seen in the more extensive grounds of the 
wealthy. 


SOWING THE DESERT. 


ONE interesting fact mentioned in Major Ross’s paper, on his 
‘* Visit to Kej,’’ read before the Royal Geographical Society, carries 
the thoughts back in weleome manner, to the incidents of past ages. 
In describing the Valley of Kej, the traveller notes the distribution 
of the date palm, which occurs in a scattered manner, but generally 
in lines, over the country. The inhabitants have a tradition which 
explains their growth by the circumstance of the soldiers of Alex- 
ander the Great’s army having cast away the seeds of the dates 
they ate from day to day, during their memorable march. What 
a link between the present and the past! The date palm, most 
graceful and welcome of nature’s boons to the inhabitants of arid 
regions—does not every artist who has dipped his pencil in the rich 
golden sunshine of Orient lands attest the fact in his work ?—the 
palm, recognition of which from a distance is at once indicative of 
the oasis and the living spring, a link of connection between the age 
of ‘“* Macedonia’s madman,”’ and the nineteenth century! There is 
sentiment—nay, eyen poetry, in the thought; and we will cherish 
the legend, even though what logicians call proof, be wanting. And 
why shonld it not be so? <A late Australian traveller—Mr. Allan Cun- 
ningham (not, of course, the poet and sculptor of that name, but the 
explorer, in the early part of this century, of the Darling and Bris- 
bane rivers, and of the numerous affiuents belonging to the extensive 
basin of the former) was in the practice of carrying with him a bag 
of peach stones, on his journeys into the wilderness of the interior, 
and of burying a few in the ground wherever he found a suitable 
spot, under the hope that their produce might at some future period 
afford welcome relief to the wayfarer. The soldiers of Alexander’s 
army threw away their date stones, and they took root spontaneously ; 
the modern explorer of the Australian “bush” deposited his peach 
stones in a spot where he had previously scratched away an inch or 
two of soil. 


How to Destroy Moss and other Weeds on Walks.—What 
is the best and cheapest remedy to prevent the growth of weeds and moss 
in gravel paths ? Those in the kitchen garden are edged with tiles, those 
in other parts are edged with turf. I have used refuse salt, but that 
destroys the turf.—T. N.m[We can recommend you nothing betterthan 
salt—eare being taken to preventits spreading so as toinjure the turf. A 
good plan to prevent its being washed to the sides of the walk is to place 
a small ridge of sand along either side, about six inches from the edging, 
for a few days, until the danger is past. The salt may be applied in a dry 
state, or with boiling water, which is the quickest. Whatever you apply to 
kill the weeds is liable to be washed by rain to the sides, and so may 
destroy the turf. Hand-picking is, therefore safest. | 


HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER ROUND LONDON. 
(From May 161 To 22ND, INCLUSIVE.) 
BY OUR OWN REPORTERS. 


Abelia Conyolyulus | Kalmia Saxifraga 
triflora Cneorum | angustifolia pyramidalis 
Achillea Corydalis | Lathyrus ei 
Clayenne aurea | _ pisiformis tenella 
tomentosa Cotoneaster | Lilium yaldensis ~ 
Adonis acuminata immaculatum Schivereckia 
eestivalis buxifolia inum podolica 
Allium microphylla campanulatum | Schizanthus 
narcissiflorum rotundifolia perenne roseum pinnatus 
Schenoprasum | _ thymifolia | Myosotis Scilla 
triquettum | Crambe azorica Cupaniana 
Anchusa. tatarica Onobrychis Sedum 
hispanica Delphinium | _ petraea asiaticum 
Anemone formosum Ornithogalum stenopetalum 
alpina Dianthus | _ umbellatum Sempervivum 
palmata |  corsicus Ornus ciliatom 
Anthyllis | neglectus | _ europa Silene 
yulneraria yar. | squarrosus Orobus caucasica 
Aquilegia | _ Tymphrestus erectus maritima 
atrata Dictamnus hirsutus mollis 
atropurpurea Fraxinella variegatus quadridentata 
cerulea Erica | Papaver Smilacina 
elata hibernica | armeniacum racemosa 
Ottonis Erodium bracteatum Sophora 
Arenaria petreum Pentstemon flayescens 
hispida Fraxinella glaber | Spergula 
Artemisia americana | Jeffreyanus rubra yar. 
frigida excelsior | ovatus Spirrea 
stelleriana pannosa | _ Scouleri betulzefolia 
Asperula viridis | Plantago Thermopsis 
azurea setosa Galega maxima fabacea 
taurina officinalis Polemonium Thymus 
Asphodelus orientalis humile pannonicus 
ramosus Geranium Potentilla vulgaris 
Aster eriostemon Russelliana Tradescantia 
alpinus gymnocaule Primula virginica and 
Astragalus Gnaphalium auriculata vars. 
tristis arenarium | _ luteola Tragopogon 
yimineus Gunnera Pyrethrum porrifolius 
Astrantia scabra roseum Trifolium 
major Hemerocallis | fragiferum 
Berberis flava | _ spuria incarnatum 
dulcis Heuchera Quercus pratense 
Calendula americana coccinea Trillium 
officinalis ribifolia Ranunculus pictum 
Campanula Hydrophyllam glacialis Tulipa 
agsregata yirginicum Rosa precox - 
alpina Tberidella Sabini Vaccinum 
nobilis alba rotundifolia sericea stamineum 
Cardamine Theris | Roses venusium 
latifolia gibraltarica garden vars. Valeriana sp 
macrophylla linifolia Rubus Veronica 
rotundifolia Tris biflorus caucasica 
Carex graminea deliciosus fruticulosa 
pendula | tlurida spectabilis peduncularis 
Castanea }  nepalensis | Salvia ruthenica 
vesca pallida arctica Teucrium 
Celtis Pseudacorus | pratensis yar. Vicia 
occidentalis sSambucina | Sambucus Sepium 
Clematis sibirica | laciniata Viola 
azurea Swertii nigra canadensis 
Colletia tenuifolia Saxifraga elatior 
horrida | _ triflora ceratophylla - persicifolia 
Collnsia | Juglans crustata Waldste:nia 
bicolor nigra lantoxana geoides. 


GARDENING ROUND LONDON. 
(DURING THE PRESENT WEEK.) 
BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER. 


PRIVATE GARDENS. 

Indoor Plant Department.—Allamandas, Statices, and other 
specimen plants brought into flower in stoves are now transferred to 
conservatories, where they occupy the warmest places. The coolest 
parts of these structures are furnished with New Zealand plants, 
Heaths, &c. Pelargoniums and Calceolarias, as they advance in 
growth, are neatly staked, and a little weak manure water is given 
to them occasionally, as well as to most other quick-growing soft- 
wooded plants. Climbers on pillars,as well as those trained on 
rafters, are judiciously thinned and tied, permitting the shoots to 
hang in graceful festoons. Passion-flowers, such as hybrida flori- 
bunda, princeps, and regalis; Hardenbergia monophylla, Kennedya 
rubicunda, Tropzeolums, and Fuchsias, contribute to the decoration 
of cool houses; and in stoves, Stephanotis, Hoya carnosa, Cleroden- 
dron Balfourii and splendens; Allamandas, Ipomza Horsfallie, 
Bongainyilleas, Jasminums, Cissus, Bignonias, &c. Camellias, Oranges, 
and Azaleas are frequently syringed, kept well shaded, and rather close; 
sometimes a little clear manure water is given to them. These are 
also pruned into shape, even those that have already been cut back 
are now being gone over a second time in order to induce stocky 
growth. Bu!bous plants are placed on shelves, and are being gradually 
dried off. Orchids enjoy a uniformly moist temperature, and those 


May 25, 1872.) 


THE GARDEN. 


599 


in flower are removed to the coolest end of the house or to an inter- 
mediate house, where they receive additional shade, and by being 
also kept cooler their blooming season is considerably prolonged. 
Suspended baskets and blecks on which plants are growing are 
occasionally taken down and steeped in chilled water to ensure 
thorough saturation. Fire-heat is greatly economised by shutting 
up early, and air is given with caution. Ferns receive plenty of 
moisture and shade, and where it is desirable to promote the growth 
of specimen plants of Blechnums, Lomarias, Dicksonias, &c., they are 
being shifted a second time. 


Pits and Frames.—These are now nearly emptied of bedding 
plants, which are placed in sheltered positions out of doors. Where 
large specimen Fuchsias are required they are again shifted into rich 
rather rough material. Petuniasare shifted as they advance, pinched 
so as to induce stubby plants, and their flowers are also picked off 
until the plants attain a good size; their growth is encouraged by 
weak applications of manure water. Some, however, prefer growing 
them without stimulants until after they have set their bloom. 
Carnations are top-dressed and staked, and the most forward removed 
to the conservatory. Where the production of really good blooms is 
aimed at, only a few are retained on each plant. Annuals sown in 
pots for conservatory decoration are kept near the glass, and have 
plenty of air. Chrysanthemums are shifted as they require it, some 
removing all shoots coming directly from the root except one, that is 
in cases in which the plants are required for exhibition. They are 
kept in cold frames, well aired, trained, and stopped, they are also 
placed on beds of ashes in open sheltered places, frequently syringed 
and well attended to in the way of water. The finer kinds of 
Polyanthus are being divided and potted into a compost of good loam, 
enriched with leaf-mould or well decayed cow manure ; they are then 
put in frames, well shaded for a time, and as soon as they get 
properly established, will be placed outside in sheltered positions, 
from both cold winds and sun. Antirrhinums for indoor blooming 
are shifted as required ; those thought unworthy of being kept are 
planted outside. Young plants of Phloxes are potted singly as soon 
as properly rooted. Auriculas are kept in frames, from which the 
lights are removed when practicable ; they are protected from heavy 
rains. Heartsease in pots are kept in frames facing the north ; they 
are increased by means of cuttings. 


Flower Garden and Shrubbery.—Most kinds of ornamental 
trees and shrubs are now beautifully in bloom. Hedges of Privet, 
Elder, or Hornbeam, rapidly making growth, are gone over and 
pruned with the knife. Borders in front of shrubberies are neatly 
trimmed, and in addition to the herbaceous and dwarf-growing 
plants which they contain, all empty spaces are being made up. with 
Gladioli, turned out of pots, dwarf Dahlias, and any plants that can 
be spared from the stock of bedding material. Ranunculuses and 
Trises, especially in damp ground, constitute a conspicuous feature in 
these borders. The unfavourable weather of the past few weeks has 
rendered it advisable to delay, for a time, the planting out of tender 
plants ; which, where turned out, have made no progress, except 
in well-sheltered places. This week, however, has been more 
encouraging; and furnishing beds with summer plants has more 
earnestly engaged attention, the hardier plants only being used first. 
Edgings are made to beds of one or two lines of Sempervivums or 
Echeverias, Cerastiums turned out of pots, Cineraria maritima, 
Centaureas, Saponarias, Violas, &c. The hardier Pelargoniums are 
also being planted out, but such things as Heliotropes and Perillas 
are withheld for a time. Unless in warm and sheltered situations 
Dahlias have not yet been consigned to the open ground. In sub- 
tropical gardens but little has yet been done further than having the 
edgings made up, the beds prepared and held in readiness to be 
filled when convenient. Hardy edgings, such as Euonymnses, 
Santolinas, Ivies, &c., are being pruned. Aralia Sieboldii has stood 
the winter ont of doors near London unscathed, and is now putting 
forth young shoots. Green-leayed Yuccas in pots are being plunged 
in the lawns where they are required to form isolated specimens. 
Hollyhocks pushing many shoots have them all removed to three or 
so, according to the strength of the crowns; and, where not in 
prominent positions, a mulching of rotten manure is placed around 
their roots. Phloxes and Pentstemons are top dressed with well- 
decayed manure, slightly forked in. Hardy annuals sown last 
month are being transplanted ; those from September sowings are in 
full bloom, Sowings of Mignonette, Saponaria, Nemophila, Collinsias, 
&e., for late flowering, are still being made in shady borders, from 
which they may be transplanted. Lophospermums, Cobzeas, Tropzo- 
lums, Sweet Peas, Scarlet Runners, and other climbing subjects are 
planted where they can receive a little support. Roses are being 
mulched, and syringed occasionally ; sometimes with tobacco-water. 
Choice Rhododendrons, and other shrubs, are also being mulched, 
either with decayed leaves or litter. 


Indoor Fruit Department.—Pines, the fruit of which is 
colouring, are kept drier at the root, and also as regards the atmo- 
sphere, than others; those swelling fruits are assisted by moderate 
applications of manure water, a bottom heat of 85°, and an atmo- 
spheric one of from 70° to 80°. Succession plants are encouraged, and 
the most forward of them shifted ; these will be required for antumn 
fruiting. Suckers, as they can be procured, are twisted off and potted. 
Vines approaching maturity are kept at a steady temperature, and 
a decrease of atmospheric moisture is allowed with a more liberal 
supply of air. In order to promote well-coloured fruit, as well as 
firm, thoroughly ripened wood, the supply of front air is limited; 
but a little top air is left on day and night, according to circumstances, 
and the temperature maintained by fire heat. Grapes generally are 
being thinned and the shoots pinched and tied; later houses are 
allowed a little fire heat to assist the setting of the fruit. Peaches 
and Nectarines beginning to ripen, have a drier atmosphere and 
more air than hitherto. In order to prevent the ravages of red 
spider, now that syringing has been discontinued, the hot-water 
pipes are smeared with sulphur. Advancing crops are liberally 
syringed and the young wood thinned, only leaving that necessary 
for next year’s crop. Cherries bearing fruit, are allowed plenty of 
air, and as the fruit begins to colour, they are sparingly watered. 
Such trees as have borne fruit are removed to temporary protections 
for a time, where they are freely supplied with water at the root 
and overhead; they are afterwards plunged in the open’ ground. 
Figs are frequently stopped, and if shoots are not produced vigorously, 
weak applications of manure water are given. Melons ripening, 
receive little water, as it would spoil their flavour; those in beds 
are placed on tiles, slates, or pieces of wood; and such as are on 
trellises are supported by pieces of net, or by a piece of board 
placed under each fruit and attached to the wires. Thinning the 
wood, removing male flowers, fertilizing female ones, and giving 
water both at the root and overhead are operations necessary in the 
case of advancing crops. Cucumbers also receive plenty of water, 
and as their roots make their appearance above the surface of the 
bed, they are top-dressed with manure; and to those in a bearing 
state manure water is given. A few of the strongest Tomatoes, and 
best hardened off, are being planted along the foot of south walls. 
Of Strawberries, another succession is introduced to the forcing 
house. 


Hardy Fruit and Kitchen Garden Department.—Fruit 
trees on walls are being carefully disbudded. Over-luxuriant shoots 
are stopped, in order that the sap may be more equally distributed. 
Frequent syringings from the garden engine are given, and where 
Aphides are present tobacco-water is used. The operation of training 
and nailing the youngshoots is being attendedto. Apricots and Peaches 
are being thinned, diseased leaves picked off, and all suckers removed. 
In the kitchen garden Brussels Sprouts, Savoys, and Cauliflowers are 
being transplanted into deeply-worked, well-manured soil. Another 
plantation of white Paris Cos Lettuce is being made. The ground 
intended for the main crop of winter Greens and Broccoli is being 
prepared by well manuring and deeply digging it. These crops 
generally succeed Celery, autumn-sown Onions, Parsnips, or early 
Cabbages, as may be most convenient. New Zealand Spinach is 
being planted out, as is also Basil in rich warm soil. A sowing of 
Scarlet Runners for a succession is now made, also of French Beans, 
and a few of the Broad Windsor. Some dwarf Marrow Peas are now 
sown, and early ones topped; Spinach for succession is being sown, 
also a few seeds of Scorzonera and Salsafy. A few Lettuces and 
Turnips, if required, are sown in cool shady places ; sowings of 
Rampion and Corn Salad are also being made. Root-crops, such as 
Beet, Carrots, Parsnips, and Turnips are thinned as they advance 
in growth. Potatoes are being hoed, and in some cases the soil 
between the rows is loosened with a steel fork; a little earth is 
drawn to the most forward of them. Ridges for Cucumbers are 
being prepared, and the ground is also being got ready for 
celery. 

NURSERIES. 

Sorr-woopEp plants are being increased for next season’s sales. 
Many of the finer kinds of tricolor Pelargoniums are being retained, 
and placed in heat to yield cuttings move abundantly. Cinerarias 
from rooted slips are being potted singly and kept in cold frames, 
those from seed are being pricked off, and the furthest advanced 
potted into sixty-sized pots. Hard-wooded greenhouse plants, such as 
Epacrises, Boronias, &c., are now being propagated from cuttings of 
the young wood, inserted in pots filled to within half an inch of the 
brim with light peaty soil, a surfacing being added of pure sand. 
Cuttings of such plants are taken off an inch or so in length, stripped 
of a few of their lower leaves with a pair of shears, and inserted in 
the pots, on which bell-glasses are placed ; the pots are then plunged 
in gentle heat, and kept well shaded. Rooted cuttings of these are 
potted singly into thumb pots, using a compost of peat and sand, 


600 


THE GARDEN. 


[May 25, 1872. 


Ceropegias, Allamandas, and Bignonias are also similarly propagated, 
only larger cuttings are used. Indigofera decora, in addition to being 
grafted, is also increased by means of cuttings of the young wood, 
about six inches in length. Stephanotis is increased from cuttings, 
haying two joints, one of which, divested of the leaves, is placed in 
the soil, whilst the other, on which all leaves are left, remains above 
the surface. The cutting pots are plunged, in gentle heat, under 
hand-lights. Rooted cuttings of Roella ciliata are being potted off 
singly into small pots. Mandeyillas and Maurandias from seed are 
being potted singly, and placed on the shelves of an intermediate 
house well shaded. Anthurium Scherzerianum from seed is pricked 
off into a mixture of chopped sphagnum, peat, and silver sand, kept 
rather close and well shaded. Allocasia Jenningsii is increased by 
means of the eyes that are produced on its roots. Fernspores are still 
sown, covering the surface of the pots with pieces of glass, and placing 
them ina shady part ofa pit; those requiring potting are attended to. 
Crowns of Isolepis gracilis are being divided into small pieces, potted 
singly, and placed in gentle heat. Delphinium nudicaule is sown 
in pans of sandy loam, in yery gentle heat. Seedling Rhododendrons 
are now being pricked off into pans of sandy peat, and kept well 
shaded; rooted cuttings are potted singly. Seedlings of R. ponticum 
for grafting purposes are re-potted into six-inch pots, and placed on 
the north side of walls or hedges; these will be operated on next 
Spring. Thujas are being grafted in close frames inside the pro- 
pagating house, and well shaded. Azaleas, Oranges, Acacias, and 
other plants of that kind making growth, are being gone over a 
second time, and the young wood pinched in, so as to encourage 
another growth, and make stubby plants. If rightly treated, they 
will mature such wood before the end of the season. Young Vines 
are potted into eight-inch pots, and arranged, some along front 
stages, and others on centre stages, of houses in which there is a 
little heat. 


Outdoor Department.—Suckers on grafted and budded fruit 
or other trees, are removed as soon as they appear. The same care 
is also exercised in the case of Roses. The branches of Wistaria 
sinensis are being layered by sharply bending the branches into the 
earth, where they are fixed by means of wooden pegs; the shoots 
are also sometimes cut half through to facilitate the rooting process. 
Shrubs, such as Berberis, Cotoneaster, Spirzea, Ghent Azalea, &e., 
are being pruned, an operation which prevents them from getting 
unshapely. Shoots infesting the base of young fruit trees and bushes 
are removed, none being left below the required head ; on seedlings 
that have set fruit, all are picked off, except two or three on each, 
which are merely left for determining their value. Robinias, and a 
few such out-door plants that have been grafted on the tops of tall 
stocks, which have been bent down so that the grafts might be 
covered with mould, have, in some cases, made good progress; and 
where sure signs of union is manifest, they are allowed to get up. 
Eyergreen bushes are pruned into shape, and standards firmly staked. 
Young Aucubas are transplanted into lines twelve inches apart, by 
six inches plant from plant. Seedling‘ Deodars are also set in rows 
twelve inches by three inches. Herbaceous and alpine plants in 
pots are placed outside on beds of ashes; those requiring it are top- 
dressed. Phloxes in pots are planted out into beds. 


MARKET GARDENS. 

FRUIT TREEs, especially Pears, also bushfruit, present encouraging 
sions of afair crop. Ground crops, notwithstanding the backward 
weather we have lately experienced, are looking well, though less 
forward than in more favourable seasons. Harly Cauliflowers are being 
obtained from plants reared under hand-lights, in clumps of three 
or four together; the next in succession are those planted out in 
lines, which, although few of them are as yet headed, promise an 
excellent crop ; other plantings are coming on in time to succeed 
these. Cos Lettuces, grown between the lines of early planted 
Cauliflowers, are fit for market; and in succession to these are those 
planted between the second crop of the same; these are now being 
tied round with strings of matting, to cause them to blanch. The 
crop of early Cabbages is nearly consumed. Leeks and Carrots from 
last year’s sowing, also young Carrots raised in frames, are plentiful. 
Abundance of Parsley and herbs are obtained from spaces under 
fruit trees. Neither Peas nor Beans are much grown in market 
gardens, with the exception of early ones; these are now in flower, 
and podsare beginning to beformed. Spinach is plentifully obtained 
from early broadcast sowings, made on pieces of ground planted 
with Cabbages or Cauliflowers ; now that the Spinach is being cut 
for market, the other crop has more room for development. Asparagus 
has not been so good this season as usual, owing doubtless to the cold, 
ungenial weather; now that a favourable change however has set in, 
better produce is anticipated. Turnips from March sowings are of 
fair size and good quality. Many of the Mushroom beds are exhausted, 
but afew of them yet continue to produce fair crops. Cucumbers 


in frames are obtained in abundance. Pine-apples in astonishing 
numbers are produced in some of these establishments, and the 
quantities of Grapes and Strawberries they are now sending to market 
are wonderful. 

Cucumbers in frames are regularly pinched and thinned ; fruits 
inclined to be crooked are placed in tubular glasses, about 24 inches 
in diameter, by a foot in length. Vegetable Marrows under hand- 
lights are slowly advancing; those under baskets, and haying the 
assistance of a little bottom heat, have also done pretty well, but 
where they have had no bottom heat, and only baskets for a protec- 
tion, they have succumbed to the cold weather ; such blanks are now, 
however, made good from the reserve stock. Tomatoes have been 
mostly grown, two in a six-inch pot ; the furthest advanced and best 
hardened off are planted [ont about three feet apart, leaving the two 
together at the base on both sides of spent Mushroom ridges, and also 
at the foot of fences and walls. Lettuces are being tied with pieces 
of matting, and young plantations are made from those sown between 
beds of early Carrots. French Beans sown on the tops of Asparagus 
ridges have suffered considerably from cold, those in sheltered places 
are doing well; and the earliest ones sown in frames are haying their 
protection removed. Another main sowing is being made in lines with 
a row of Lettuces between them. Young Onions from early spring 
sowings in frames, haye the frames removed, and the crop is now in 
a fine condition to succeed the autumn-sown ones for salading. 
Radishes are being sown in six feet wide beds. Young Celery plants 
are transplanted in the open ground in beds, in rows six inches apart, 
and two or three inches plant from plant, with eighteen-inch alleys 
between the beds; in some cases they are only in lines, not in beds, 
but here the lines are eight or nine inches apart; a line of them is 
also planted between rows of Cabbages. Young Cabbages for Cole- 
worts are being planted between lines of Moss Roses under fruit 
trees ; Stocks, for producing cut flowers, are also planted in a similar 
situation. Cabbages are also planted in spaces emptied by the 
removal of early ones for market. Bush fruits that have been layered 
have some earth laid over their shoots. Loosening the soil among 
growing crops is assiduously persevered in. 


MY WINDOW IVY. 
Over my window the Ivy climbs, 
Its roots are in homely jars ; 
But all the day it looks at the sun, 
And at night looks out at the stars. 


The dust of the room may dim its green, 
But I call to the breezy air; 
“Come in, come in, good friend of mine! 
And make my window fair.” 


So the Ivy thrives from day to day, 
Its leaves all turned to the light ; 

And it gladdens my soul with its tender green, 
And teaches me, day and night. 


—Hearth and Home. 


The Gardener and the Owls.—Our highly esteemed correspon- 
dent Mr. J. Barnes is, as is well known, an enthusiastic student of natural 
history. The following is one of his adventures when on this usually 
peaceful pursuit, when head gardener at Bicton:—“ One barn owl’s nest 
that I knew was in the hollow of an immensely large ivy-clad elm tree 
that stood on the lawn at no great distance from the mansion. I neyer 
can, and J believe I never shall, forget, how terribly I was once taken 
aback, on a visit to this nest, one evening in the month of September. I 
was crossing the lawn, when there arose a heavy thunderstorm. I ran 
under the leeward side of this tree for shelter. Hearing, while standing 
there, the young owls hissing and snapping their beaks, at once suggested 
to me to run up and have a look at them. The entrance to their den was 
about eighteen or twenty feet from the ground, and the tree, as stated, 
was clothed with large strong ivy. Up I clambered, and no sooner had I 
arrived, and was about having a peep, when, in an instant, I was furiously, 
and desperately, attacked by both owls. Oh, what a battering with their 
wings—pecks with their beaks—scratches and pinches with their claws— 
I did receive from those two desperate beauties! I was in no small 
danger of losing my eyes, or of getting battered down from the tree. I 
slunk down the best way I could, keeping my face as well sheltered and 
as near the tree as possible; unfortunately my cap was torn or battered 
off, and fell to the ground in the early part of the battle, and my poor 
head received a terrible combing, battering, scratching, and pecking. 
When I arrived on the ground, I was still the object of an unmerciful 
attack. JI ran with all speed to a large Portugal laurel tree, hard by. 
Mine enemies were still whirling round, and watching me. I took out 
my kmife and cut off a branch, trimming off the side branches and leaving 
the leavesonthesummit. I then sallied forth, with pretty good assurance, 
in defence, followed by mine enemies at a considerable distance: The 
branch I kept whirling about, and kept them at bay, till they were tired 
of my company. I assure you I was very glad to get quit of such 
society.” 


May 25, 1872.] 


THE GARDEN. : 


COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—May 24th. 


Flowers.—Those in pots chie‘ly consist of Calceolarias with well 
formed flowers beautifully marked. Pelargoniums of all kinds, some of 
the show varieties bearing very large trusses of bloom. There are also 
good examples of the Golden-rayed Lily; sweetly scented, double-flowered 
Gardenias ; well bloomed, gracefully grown plants of single and double 
Fuchsias ; Petunias, both single and double, and of various colours ; fine 
collections of Heaths, a few small plants of Azaleas, Roses, Rhododen- 
drons, Hydrangeas with immense flower heads, and many other note- 
worthy plants. In addition to those in flower, we noticed several fine- 
foliaged plants, such as Caladiums, Begonias, Dracwnas, small Palms, 
and a great variety of Club Mosses and Ferns; the last included the 
more graceful forms of Adiantum and Pteris, some of the more easily 
grown Polypodiums, a few Aspleniums, and white and yellow-powdered 
Gymnogrammas. In addition to these, hardy shrubs in pots are supp